I've heard many modern KLH speakers that honestly weren't bad. Typically they are pleasing to listen to (for background music) and a good value. Then I came upon these monsters....

Dear God, these have to be one of the worst sounding speakers to bless the market! The drivers are very poor in quality and performance. The 15" woofer is housed in a thin MDF cabinet (the baffle is only 5/8" thick) and have NO damping material in them. The result is hollow 1-note bass... and a serious lack of bass extension.

The midrange is pure "honk", producing vocals that scream at you - nothing good to say here. I wonder to myself how much more cost would have been involved by using a larger midrange driver with a lower resonance, which would have least resulting in the illusion of a "fuller" midband and better vocals.

Treble is okay, but at this level of speaker - it's hard to ruin the manufacturing budget with a pair of the cheapest imaginable dome tweeters. 2 sizes of metal dome tweeter are used, which at least provides a pair of resonances.

One thing these will do is play LOUD. They are very efficient, and can rattle the house with a typical "100 watt" low-end receiver. They are rated at 300 watts, yeah, right.

With most of the recent KLH speakers, they are tweakable and can be made to sound respectable with some damping material and crossover adjustments. With these, improvement could be made by bracing the cabinet, adding damping material, and installing basic crossover components, but they would still be outperformed by a modest bookshelf speaker - like the Bose 301. Seriously.

Cheap, good looking, and if you can believe it they even sound great too. Decent mids and highs that help support the huge bass from their 15"s. The 4-way design of these speakers really brought out the sound where the other 12" 3-ways by KLH had failed.
Put the rock & roll to them or even rap and let the bi-standards know what you have purchased. Yet they are broad enough to impress the jazz or even classical listener too.
If I was looking to reproduce some tunes for a modest price the KLH 9915 pair would be something I would look for. Not so much any other KLH speakers. Their 8' 3-way bookshelf speakers were pretty nice sounding. Maybe a 10" or bigger subwoofer, but the plate amplifiers are usually crap.
I quickly sold my KLH system after my mother gave me a pair of her old speakers out of storage. A fairly nice pair of Pioneer HPM-60's that need a little work. After repairing just one of them and hooking it up to my system I realized what sound was.

My System Of Yesteryear:
JVC RX-817VTN Receiver
Pioneer M-90 Elite Amplifier
Pioneer CLD-M90 5-Disc CD/Laser Disc
KLH AV5001 Front Speakers
KLH 9915 Front Speakers
KLH L853B Rear Speakers
(2) KLH ? 8" Subwoofers

First I have to say that Bose is a terrible speaker in my and almost every other true (NOT AN AMATEUR) AudioPhile's opinion. I have heard other KLH speakers and they sound mildlydecent. Some KLH speakers have a very low build quality in terms of the cabinet, the magnets, and low quality wiring. First the 9915s are not 4 way, the super tweeter and the tweeter connect together into one wire when they should be individual wires getting different frequencies. The speaker's wire is sadly 22 gauge when it should be at least 14 or 12 gauge cosidering the massive 15" woofer. The cabinet should be solid oak or some other wood not partical board with vinyl covering like the 9915 considering the air pressure and rattling from the bass. The 9915s only have one peice of sponge or some type of dampening material its not even supported to the walls of the enclosure. I myself have a Home Theatre composed of JBL, Yamaha, Infinity, Optimus, B&W, Totem, and Paradigm. These speakers are very good for a teen's first sound system.

Cabinet

I bought my KLH-9915 after I purchase my Yamaha AX-592 and my EQ-550. I discovered that the speakers I owned just did not give me the sound quality I was looking for I had a Pair of Bose 301, and having the AX-592 Plus the EQ I knew I needed a speaker that would deliever without costing me $2,000. As soon as hooked up the 9915 I was sold on the KLH line. You could actually feel the bass sounds on the floor the sound is excellent.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Technics, Bose

Great Highs and mids, adequate bass at higher volumes, durability of the drivers(yet to blow anything, and ive had these loud!)

Cheap wiring, small magnet, doesnt get the bass at low volumes.

Ive owned these speakers for over a year now, and i am yet to have a problem with them. I have a Pioneer reciever, powering 100W/channel, and ive had this thing turned nearly all the way up, and havent heard distortion or loss in quality with these speakers. I will agree with others...the case is terrible, and inside wiring is crap, and the magnet size is small. However, these speakers still have a very clean crossover, and hit all the right notes. Ive worked with JBL professional speakers, the Caberet series and the SR series. These obviously do not beat these speakers in quality but at over $1000 apiece, would you really expect them to? Im amazed at the people who come here and review these speakers, comparing them to $1400 or more home theatre speakers, and expect them to be better. These are a tenth of the price and, until you start getting up into the $2000 dollar per speaker range, about 9/10s the quality. Thats pretty damn good. Now if they are idiots spending that much money on speakers, and just dont know how to set up their reciever, then their reviews make more sense. At low volumes, their is not enough bass...which is why i went out and bought a $100 sub to support them...which by the way turns your sound into 5-way...4 crossover frequency points=5-way. When i first got these home, i was very disappointed. Then i started adjusting settings on my reciever..turned the treble up, set the cone size of the speakers, turned on the sub, and set the distance i would normally be listening to them from. Along with this, add the digital sound i get since i use my DVD player as my CD player also, which uses optical output to send data to my reciever, and these speakers were great. Once again ill say it...if you are going to spend $1400 bucks on speakers, at least set up your damn reciever when you are testing out these before posting your reviews. If you dont like doing advanced features, dont by a reciever...just hook your speakers straight up to a car amp or something k? :) Anyways these speakers hit the highs very well...scaring the hell outta my dog and cat when watching something with nature noises...always really fun to do :). I think those of you who have had problems blowing drivers either are idiots who dont know how to setup sound, or are hooking them up to 4 ohm recievers, or you just got a bad unit. I havent blown anything and ive had these so i could close up my house completely, go across the street and still be able to make out the words to the song..(and these speakers are in the back of my house).

Similar Products Used:

JBL, JBL professional, bose, sony, Jensen, Klipsch

everything

nothing i have found

simply incredible, need i say more

Shiznizzles all is good!!

Week Cabinet

These speakers are awsome as hell, all you faggets you diss KLH suck my balls bia's. They are so much louder and clearer then your lil gay pansy ''Bose'' HAHA pEaCeS.

Similar Products Used:

Model 9912

Good bass for a small magnet, good highs and mids(supertweeter helps)

the cabinet could be stronger

Holy crap! People can't be dissing this speaker. A 15" woofer and a fourway setup, for 200 bucks???!!! The only flaw I see in this speaker is the strength of the cabinet (it could be a little thicker/stronger). I'm a DJ on a budget, and these speakers are a life saver. Especially since i would rather invest in amps, turntables, mixers, and music.

Similar Products Used:

I've been in the djing business for a while, so I've been privlaged enough to use Peavey, Polk(not good for djing), JBL, Punker Audio (the best I've heard), Accoustic Design, Technics, and Yamaha

Good sound, inexpensive, will take whatever you give em.

Cheap casing.

These speakers are incredible for the price. I don't like to spend a ton of money on audio equipment because I have other hobbies, and new, better stuff is always coming out. ( It's like owning a computer ) Anyway, these sound very good at normal and high listening levels. All the mids and highs are clear, and the bass could supplement a sub except at high levels. Because of the shoddy casing you will get a rattle because of the powerful subs. Or at least I do, but I do have the bass turned up. ( subwoofer is in the mail. :) ) Anyway if you want something that sounds better be prepared to spend over $500's. I gave a 4 on overall because of the casing.

Similar Products Used:

Jensen Powerstations. Older AR's and KLH's. Custom built JBL's.

All you people that rip on them and say oh just go for the higher buck. Well alot of people ain't got the luxury of a grand or two lying around the house. My friend and I have competitions with our stereos I have the 9915 and the 9912 klhs and an 8 inch polk subwoofer. he's got top of the line speakers. He prefers the expensive bose. Yet my system beats his in everyway except when on low volume his has better sound quality but once you turn them up his start distorting if he doesn't turn everything down bass treble etc... my klhs handle it like nothing i'm giving them 150 watts per channel they can handle about half way on my receiver. my friends bose can't even handle 1/3rd before they start to distort. I'd take KLH over those expensive speakers.