INCREDIBLE HIGHS, GREAT BASS ALSO

HEAVY, HARD TO GET

JUST PICKED UP THE LAST PAIR OF THESE FROM A SAN DIEGO TWEETER LOCATION FOR $200.00. AT THIS PRICE THESE SPEAKERS ARE AN INCREDIBLE VALUE. IF YOU LIKE DETAILED HIGHS, THE TRACTIX HORN IS UNBEATABLE. YOU NEED TO HAVE GOOD CLEAN POWER TO DRIVE THE SPEAKERS CORRECTLY, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE VERY EFFICIENT.

Similar Products Used:

BIC, INFINITY, JBL

Incredible open, crystal clear highs, tight wall shaking bass

NONE !!!!!!

Everytime I listen to these speakers I get a HUGH smile on my face. The sound that comes out of these towers is truly incredible. I have owned them for about 3 months now and quite honestly I would have paid 4 time the price. I have owned some very nice mid to high end speakers over the last 25 years and these are amazing with everytype of music at every volume level. They are even more amazing with my home theater using these as fronts and Klipsch KG3.5 towers in the rear and a Klipsch SC1 center channel. Quite an experience watching a movie with a dynamic soundtrack. These things will blow you away. I have heard some say these speakers are a bit "bright" really I think the high and midrange that comes from these speakers is so open and clear that I hear things on tracks that I have never heard before. If you can still find these buy them Heck buy two pair you wont be sorry !!!

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch KG 3.5

Simply put...awesome sound for an amazing price.

Still a need for a seperate subwoofer....although that is not really a weakness

I could not believe my eyes when strolling through Tweeter a few months ago. I thougth I was all set on finding and buying a set of new JBLs, when there I saw these for 300 a set. I didn't think twice, I've read the reviews. Picked em up, brought em home, and tried to nicely break em in as fast as I can. They are truely amazing speakers, especially for this price. The imaging is something I've never experienced in my own house, it is awesome to just sit back, close your eyes, and "see" each band member playing. The woofer is very nice and does a good job of handling the mids and some lows, but I see a need for a component sub. It is all preference though. If you can find em cheap, there is no better....and at there regular price, they are still a wise buy for that range.

Excellent bass tight and deeper than you would expect from an 8" Woofer

None for this price

These speakers sound very good I directly compared these to the polk rt55i's and the new Klipsh RF-3's. They sounded better and where 1/2 the price.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity Studio Monitors, RS Series, Cambridge soundworks to name a few

I have had these for a month and am enjoying them!! I bought a set of Klipsch Horns years ago and its good to see that they are still making efficient good sounding speakers. They seem to be a good match for the Pioneer Tx24 I recently purchased. I compared them to the B&W 610s I have had for a long time and although I thought the 610s were a little smoother I do like the 8.5s. They were a good deal at Sound Advice for $300 for the pair. Hmmm, they are now selling the 10.5s for $400 per pair.

I just got a new system for my bedroom and decided to go with these towers for the front. Hooked them up to my new Denon AVR 3300 and Infinity Bu-150 200 watt 15" powered sub, and these guys are great for the front channels. I was a little worried about getting two way speakers, thinking that the midrange would be lacking, but these guys do a great job of covering the midrange. The horns give you more than enough highs and the 8" woofers put out more more bass than I thought possible for drivers of their size. It sounds as if they have built in powered subs! Anyways, I got them for only $300 a pair at tweeter and love them. Good luck trying to find a better sounding pair of speakers for under $500-$600.

Just picked up a pair of KSF 8.5's last night and hooked them up to my Denon AVR-5700. These speakers really mean business whether you're listening to movies or music. They have a very good soundstage and imaging is excellent. They provide superb clarity in the mids and highs even with volume cranked up between -10db to -5db. Normally, I wouldn't play it that high but to my amazement, there was no distortion, harshness or any edginess at all. As for the bass, I was totally suprised. The bass was crisp and tight and was able to hit some lows that I didn't expect. However, I'm still going to add a sub to my setup later on, most likely a Velodyne HGS-10 (Maybe???).
Anyway, I still have some more listening to do. The speakers still need to go through a break-in period as well. So, I'll give a full review the next time around.

Nevertheless, these babies get 5 stars from me... Enjoy!!!

Klipsch has definetley earned the right to bear the moniker "a legend in sound". I have recently purchased a pair of KSF 8.5's and was slightly apprehensive of doing so. Every other horn I have ever heard sounded either harsch, aggressive, overly bright, or shouty. Well this isn't every other horn. Tonaly they do SLIGHTLY (notice I emphasized the word "slightly") lean towards brightness, but not much. On the other hand the imaging is fantasic, bass is powerful and deep, the highs are well defined, and best of all these speakers barely use any power (most of the time my reciever doesn't even feel like its turned on). Not only are they one of the best sounding, most balanced entry-level speakers I have ever heard, they are also very handsome, especially with the lacquer coated horns and the mica injected woofers. At $600 dollars a pair I couldn't fathom finding a better speaker.

just wondering how you guys think these would perform with a Denon AVR97

thanks.

Stratospheric highs, magnificent mids, amazing bass

Discontinued, getting harder to find.

I've never bought a speaker without listening to it first. Until now. The reviews here were so overwhelmingly positive (and the fact that they've been discontinued and I couldn't find any to audition locally) that I took a chance and bid on a pair at an online auction ($254/pair). My hat's off to my fellow audio reviewers - you've never failed me yet and this was no exception.

I orginally intended these as replacement rears for my home theatre system. I was using a pair of 10+ year-old JBL Studio Pro 4410s (which I dearly love) in front (3-ways with 10" woofers) and Optimus Pro LX5s in back. After briefly listening to the 8.5s as rears, I decided to try them out in front just to see what they really sounded like.

After a weekend of very intensive listening to some of my most demanding CDs (the ones I normally use to audition audio equipment), I'm still working on picking my jaw up off the floor. I had to take the grills off several times to reassure myself that I was indeed listening to a 2-way system with "only" an 8" woofer.

From the title track on Enya's "Watermark" with its beautifully recorded piano and those wall-rattling bass hits, to Joe Jackson's direct-to-digital two track "Big World", to a variety of classical, blues, and rock, these speakers handled everything I threw at them and came back for more.

I've listened to quite a few so-called audiophile speakers and never found anything for under $1K a pair that could compare to my old JBL 4410s (a pro model that was originally developed as a recording studio monitor). I guess I never listened to these Klipsch before.

Forewarned and prepared for some excessive brightness until they were broken in, I found absolutely no harshness or abrasiveness from the moment I plugged them in. Male or female vocalists, loud or soft, made no difference. These speakers made me feel like the artist was in my living room.

Highs and mids were crystal clear, well-defined, and wonderfully imaged. Bass was tight and as low as you want to go (short of a few LFE effects on DVD). When Klipsch lists these speakers as going down to 36Hz, they aren't kidding.

Now my wife has decided that we need to get a second pair so the front and rear speakers will match and we can get rid of the big ugly JBLs. Now my biggest challenge will be to find another pair of the 8.5s without spending a fortune.

My system (so far):
Yamaha RX-V795a receiver
Marantz MA-500 monoblock amps (3 - front LCR)
Klipsh KSF 8.5 fronts
JBL 12" powered sub (replaced dead JBL amp and tweaked cabinet to tighten bass)
Optimus CS-1 center
Optimus Pro LX-5 rears
Yamaha CD-505 CD changer
Toshiba SD-3109 DVD
Panasonic 31" direct view TV
Panasonic 4 head HI-FI VCR

Similar Products Used:

JBL Studio Pro 4410, B&O S75