Price

Overall sound. For the money you could get 2 b&w 303's.

This is the first time this site has let me down. I have learned a valuable lesson however, never purchase speakers at any price, unless you have heard them. I currently own the entire Klipsch synergy series and use them in my main theater. I was in the market for 2 decent floor standing speakers for my bedroom, and when I saw these on Ubid for 79 a pop I couldn't resist. 120 dollars in shipping later, these guys showed up. At first glance, I thought... I just stole these. They were heavy, good looking, and appeared to be very solid... and GOLD BANNANA CONNECTORS! Wow, I thought... these are great. I hooked them up to my modest yamaha vsx 596 recever and popped in a disk. Was I hearing things? A horrid tinnie sound and bass that was clearly way to bouncy. I took the same disk downstairs and listened with my synergy... (granted these are hooked up to a 1500 dollar pioneer eliete reciever) but what a difference. I unplugged the sub, the center and just listened to my synergy fronts... much, much better. Overall, I am horrified at this purchase. B&W makes a new 303 that goes for 150 at any retail store, and 2 of those would blow these speakers away. I guess I shouldn't factor shipping into the cost, and at 80 each, these are not a total waste. These speakers were manufactured in 1994. Technology has come a long way since, and it's audible. I can only hope you all listen and stay away. Klipsch makes great products. And in 1994 these may have been a fantastic budget speaker, but in 2001 when almost every speaker maker makes a sub 350 pair you can find MUCH better at the same total cost.

Similar Products Used:

Klipcsh synergy and reference speakers. B&W bookshelfs.

Mids

I just bought from uBid for $89/piece. I have hooked them up to my Kenwood VR7070 reciever with 16awg gold plated wires...when i turned them on, i was amazed at their clairty and soundstage. Even though i was only using the two of them, they are incredible. However, the mids seems sufffocated. I don't know why others are saying they need an extra bass unit, because the bass coming out of those 8's are incredible...and sometimes overpowering. However, perhaps, my reciever is attributed to that. I bought the KG3.5s based on the reviews i read on this board and because they were extremely cheap. I don't know if they need time to break in...if anyone else has experienced the suffocated mids and have resolved it, please let me know. I give this product a five stars on value and overall rating of four, because of the mids.

Similar Products Used:

Bose Acoustimass HT & 10 Series II, JBL

Life-like highs, excellent clarity, price paid, punchy bass, throws many sounds out into the room that I have not noticed before... If afforded the opportunity, do not pass up these speakers for this low of a price!

Absolutely none. Be weary of U-Bid, though.

I recently purchased these speakers off of U-Bid for my college dorm. They are not used at all for Home Theater. I have them hooked up through my 70 watts per channel Marantz receiver, and I have been nothing less than awe-struck by their seemingly unparalleled music reprocuction. I am sure you could find a better pair of speakers, but you would have to spend a lot of money; and that was something I could not do. It really is, at times, as if you are listening with headphones on; the slightest percussive embellishment and slide of a finger down a guitar string are made delightfully apparent. The horn tweeter is not at all "harsh" to my ears; the only thing I have noticed is that my music is now being played with more definition, accuracy, and feel.

SIDENOTE:I was told that I would be receiving these speakers in condition "New" from U-Bid. Well, when I received them, one was certainly untampered with, but the other was apparently sent previously to another person, opened, and also had a few very noticeable nicks and dents. I have tried to resolve this problem multiple times with U-Bid, yet they have failed to respond to my concerns. Although I plan on keeping these speakers, because they sound so great, I do not believe that U-Bid is a very honest company, and I am not sure I will ever do businees with them again...

Similar Products Used:

JBL

Very accurate reproducers of sound for the $.

They might be considered a bit "forward" or bright to some listeners.

I have had these speakers for about a week and they are very good speakers. They can be a bit bright if one is used to the more laid back sound of Mirages but I feel they are still interesting speakers . They produce prodigious, tight bass if ,like my setup, they are in the corners of a room above a crawl space. Paired with a Mirage 150bpi sub they are even better. I have checked them out with several types of music and found them to be very good with the likes of acoustic guitar ( Eric Clapton Unplugged), jazz( Grover Washington,Jr's Winelight), etc., etc. I don't think they are quite the equals of the Mirage OM 12s but they come much closer than I would have at first assumed and they cost about 1/2 as much as the Mirages. A very good quality entry level hi- fi speaker.

Similar Products Used:

I have a pair of Mirage M-7 sis, Mirage Om12s and Mirage 190i bookshelf speakers.

CLARITY COUPLED WITH DYNAMIC RANGE AND ULTRA SMOOTH BASS RESPONSE AS WELL AS EXCELLENT CONSTRUCTION. GREAT FOR HT APPLICATIONS DUE TO 96db SENSITIVITY (AND BY THE WAY IT IS AN 8" WOOFER NOT A 6.5"! SPEAKERS ARE MEASURED FROM THE CENTER TO THE OUTSIDE EDGE OF THE FLANGE THEN MULTIPLIED BY TWO. NOT BY THE SIZE OF THE CONE INSIDE THE FLANGE!)

THE BASS COULD HAVE MORE OF A "FEEL" TO IT ON MUSIC

AFTER LISTENING TO MY OLDER BROTHERS HT SYSTEM I KNEW THAT I HAD TO GET ONE OF MY OWN. AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT MY GIRLFRIEND AT THE TIME (NOW MY WIFE) WORKED AT SEARS AND THEY HAD AN EMPLOYEE SALE. SO SHE BOUGHT ME A SONY 725 DOLBY PRO LOGIC RECEIVER AND THEN PROCEEDED TO TAKE ME TO SOUND ADVICE TO LISTEN TO SPEAKERS.
AFTER SITTING THROUGH MANY DIFFERNT SPEAKER COMBOS WE DECIDED ON THE KLIPSCH LINE. WE STARTED WITH THE KV1 CENTER, KG1.5 REARS AND THE KG2.5 FRONTS.
AFTER A FEW MONTHS I HAD TO HAVE A LASERDISC PLAYER AND THAT SIMPLY LED ME TO NEED A GOOD PAIR OF FLOORSTANDING LOUDSPEAKERS. ALL OF MY KLIPSCH SPEAKERS HAD PREFORMED BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS, SO I WENT TO TRADE IN THE 2.5'S FOR A PAIR OF 3.5'S . AFTER FINDING A GOOD DEAL ON A PAIR OF FLOOR MODELS I BROUGHT THEM HOME AND HOOKED THEM UP. IN ONE WORD...WOW! THESE ARE SOME OF THE FINEST SPEAKERS THAT YOU CAN BUY FOR THIS AMOUNT AND KLIPSCH IS BY FAR THE FINEST SPEAKER COMPANY IN THE USA.
WE HAVE NOW HAD THESE SPEAKERS FOR OVER FIVE YEARS AND THEY HAVE BEEN USED ON AVERAGE TEN HOURS A DAY FOR THAT WHOLE TIME. AS THE DVD PLAYERS CAME OUT I PURCHASED A TOSHIBA 5109 AND STILL THE 3.5'S DO NOT DISSAPOINT ME IN THE LEAST!
RECENTLY I TOOK A TRIP TO SOUND ADVICE TO LOOK AT SOME NEWER MODELS FROM KLIPSCH BUT I STILL PREFER MY OLD 3.5'S.
IF YOU FIND A PAIR USED OR ON EBAY GRAB EM QUICK BECAUSE I KNOW YOU WILL HAVE THE SAME GRIN ON YOUR FACE THAT I HAVE EVERY NIGHT I LISTEN TO THEM!

SYSTEM:

SPEAKERS:
CENTER = KLIPSCH KV2
MAIN = KLIPSCH KG3.5
REAR = KLIPSCH KG1.5
SUB = CERWIN VEGA LW-10

COMPONENTS:
RECEIVER = YAMAHA RXV495
DVD = TOSHIBA 5109
LASERDISC = SONY 550D
VCR = SONY 640HF
CD = SONY CDPCE325

Similar Products Used:

PIONEER TOWERS, YAMAHA TOWERS

durable, great sound, versatile

not the best for home theatre system

great bang for your buck. nothing inherently wrong with these speakers plus you get a great name for a reasonable price.

Similar Products Used:

phase tech, yamaha

Crisp, detailed highs. Strong bass and good midrange.

A little bright.

An very good overall speaker that is loud, but has a very good tonal balance.

Dynamic sound and presence. Fantastic value for the money.

I bought these speakers on the recommendation of the audio store that I shop at. The salesman said that they were a discontinued model and a great value at $350/pair. I've dealt with him before and he's always made great recommendations so I bought the Klipsch's and have loved them ever since. I've auditioned alot of speakers and yes I've heard some that had better sound, but most of them have been in the +1000/pair range, and the sound has not been THAT much better. In fact, I've heard many high-end speakers that sounded less lively than my Klipschs. I'm pleased with the sound of the speakers and I feel that they are a great value. I give these speakers a 5 in both categories because I don't think you can buy a better speaker in this price range.

Unbeatable value

Harsh at high volume

I picked these up about 2 years ago on blowout for $300 for the pair (brand new). A friend of mine had bought a pair a year or two earlier from the same store for $450 (which we both agreed at the time was a great price). When I saw these go on sale so cheap, I decided to pick up a pair, despite the fact that I had purchased some Paradigm 9's about 6 months earlier. The Klipschs are hard to compare to the Paradigms, sounding totally different because of the horn tweeter. I'd have to say that I generally prefer the Paradigms, but I paid $750 for them so I better like them better! One thing is for sure, acoustic music (especially guitar) LOVES the Klipschs.

These speakers are by no means the end all and be all of the audio industry, but for $300 they are unbelievable (even for $450 they were great)! They don't do anything PERFECTLY, but they do just about everything well. The bass output is incredible for such a small enclosure, although I have noticed that they are very respondent to room size. The right size room (i.e. bedroom or den) will provide plenty of bass. The only complaint I have (which I feel applies to lots of horn speakers) is that they get somewhat harsh/shrill in the treble area when pushed hard. I auditioned these when my friend purchased them along with many other brands -- Polk, Mission, Boston, etc...the standard step up from brands you might find at Circuit City/Best Buy. I found the Klipschs to be far better than any of the other brands without spending 3 or 4 times as much, and even then the price did not justify the gain in performance.

Since getting these speakers, I have been moving onward into higher end audio, but I have held on to these babies because they still impress me (and did I mention how cheap they were?!?!). If you are looking for a cheap and easy way to improve your budget system, these are the way to go.

Associated Equipment:
CAL Icon CD Player
B&K AVP-1030 Preamp
Parasound HCA-1000A Power-amp (for Paradigms)
Yamaha AX-570 Integrated Amp (for Klipschs)
Velodyne VA1012X Powered Sub
Nordost Black Knight Interconnects
Nordost Super Flatline MkII speaker cables