The soundstage is natural, live, colourless and effortless.

The build quality could be improved by using screws in the construction and more insulation should be used.

When I was shopping for speakers to replace my JBL's, Klipsch was not on my shopping list. I was impressed with Definitive Technology's advertisement and called the dealer to audition their BP2002 as my first choice. I was very disappointed with the audition and felt hopeless because my mind was all made up on the 2002. On my way home, I stopped at Sound Advice just to listen to what speakers they had on display. By now, I had lost all interest in buying speakers. I was like a broken hearted lover who had lost out on a love affair.

At Sound Advice, they had B&W, Infinity, Boston Acoustics, KLH, Bose, Klipsch and a few other makes that the sales rep demonstrated for me. When she switched to the Klipsch KLF30, the difference was like night and day. I was more than impressed with what I heard. The sales rep played a variety of cd's from POP, Jazz, Reggae, Classical, R&B and the KLF30 brought out instruments in the music that was not revealed by the other makes. The vocal was natural, colourless and smooth. The bass, mid and high were well balanced and detailed. I spent over three hours at Sound Advice listening to all the make speakers, and decided that the KLF30 was the best one. I was even more depressed now because Klipsch was not on my list and was wondering if I was making the right choice, so I told the sales rep that I would come back another day. I went back on two other occassions and took two audiophile friends, and they were more than impressed with the KLF30. So I bought the KLF30 and had to wait three months for delivery because the KLF series was new on the market and Klipsch had only demos available at their dealers.

When I received the KLF30 and connected them to my McIntosh C31 Preamp and McIntosh MC2205 Amp (200 wpc), it was like I was sitting before the musicians in a live performance.

That love affair lasted from 1997 until earlier this year when I acquired a Jolida Tube Amplifier (65 wpc) and decided that it was time again to shop for another pair of speakers. The Infinity dealer delivered their best model (had 15" woofer) to my house and when I A/B it with the KLF30, it could not compare. So I invited him to come by in the evening to give me his opinion. He was very impressed with the KLF30 and admitted that it sounded much better than the Infinity and he took them back. So the ordeal started again to find another pair of speakers after two and a half year, to hear what is now on the market. Back to the Sound Advice dealer I went to hear what new technology the speaker manufacturers had up their sleeve. After going through the whole process, I ended up buying a second pair of KLF30 and am more than double happy with the sound of music.

My only disappointment with the KLF30 was on the construction. After about a year and a half of using the KLF30, one of the back panel of the box became loose and started vibrating. I got some dry wall screws and tightened up the back panel. I then used insulation and padded the inside of the boxes and it gave me a more solid, tighter and deeper bass which I would recomend to those who would like to improve on their bass.

Overall, I would recommend to all those who are on the market for speakers to audition the KLF30. You will be impressed.

Similar Products Used:

JBL, Cerwin Vega

Good clarity and imageing in the highs. Wide soundstage and quite natural sounding.

Can be somewhat muddy and sloppy sounding in the bass and low mids.

I know speakers are very much a matter of personal taste, but I'm awed by the varying opinions people seem to have about these. It seems that folks either love or hate these speakers (both in the extreme). Reading the reviews here, you'd think that people kept them for one day and then dragged them behind the car back to the dealer or gave up having sex with the wife to sit in front of the stereo. Wow.

I don't claim to be a card carrying "audiophile", nor do I take apart equipment to check the quality of the solder work, but I have spent my fair share on stereo equipment and since my two cents is as good as anyone's... here goes.

A friend of mine had a pair of KLF-30s and I thought they sounded great, much better than the Infinity speakers I was running at the time, so I picked up a pair. I'll readily admit that they didn't sound that good when I got them home, but since I bought them, I figured I'd live with them (at least for awhile). Hey, everybody makes mistakes.

After dragging them around the living room for a couple of hours, I finally found a placement that gave me a good soundstage (this ended up being about twelve feet apart, towed in slightly). I still wasn't happy with the low end, but at least the highs sounded good. Open and crisp. Next, I tried them with and without the spikes and found that using the spikes tightened up the bass considerably. So far so good... Let them cook for awhile. After several weeks I noticed that somewhere along the way they REALLY started to sound better. The bass was cleaner and tighter, the mid-range was cleaner and more open. Even the highs sounded more neutral. In general they had a more natural, live sound. A lot more music in there than I had first thought. Maybe I didn't make such a bad mistake.

A few months ago I got a SimAudio Moon I-5 integrated amp. After a few days spent burning the amp in, things really took a turn for the better. Sounds great to my non-audiophile ear and even my non-audiophile friends are impressed (but then again, the wife says I could use better friends).

Bottom line:
Are they the best speakers money can buy? Of course not.
Do they match speakers costing several times as much? Again, I'd say no, but mine sound better than speakers I've heard (and owned) that do cost MUCH more.
Are they a good $1000 speaker? Absolutely!

Similar Products Used:

Infinity, Bose, Polk Audio, ESS, and Cerwin Vega