Solid build, top notch drivers, titanium diaphragm and well designed horn to boot. Loud and Clear as a dinner bell. Efficient and power hungry just the same. Georgeous copper colored 10's. Real nice laminate, grille studs are weak so leave em off. Great party speaker just dont let anyone try and jump off em.

They dont go to the fridge for me and they wont clean my house!!!!!! Whats up with that?!?!?!

Warning: These speakers may cause permanent hearing damage! What could I possibly add to all these great reviews? Huh!!! First off, folks seem to complain about how cheaply the feet are made and how heavy these transducers are. Come on people! Your suppose to dance with the ladies not the speakers... Unless your moving every year once these RF's are in place thats were they stay and they are tall and thin. Better up than out! Right? Just ask a Chinese structural engineer, he'll tell ya. Onto the sound: I ran an Audio Research LS3 preamp(no tone knobs) cause a preamp should be a wire with a volume control. Let the amp, speakers, and final recording tell the tale. One McIntosh MC402(uranium cored) 10ga. bi-wire and a Sony ES changer. Plenty of juice! They say more power is better, but when you melt the crossovers that saying is out the window bacwards. Warranty dept. ask no questions and mailed me new crossovers ASAP. Really, really great sounding speaker doesnt need too much power. I think 200 250 WPC is just right for these. Remember they are rated for 1200 watts max. peak. @ first they may sound a little harsh a carpeted room might help? I dont think compression driven horns break-in it was more of a getting used too. Great upper bass, low mids,and highs. Very two way, sometimes heavy coloration when blasted @350 to 400 watts. Nevertheless, Bold, Loud, and Clear! "The Copper Queens" as I call them. A transducer I really love and will never part with even after hearing $$$$15 and 20 thousand dollar speakers!!! I work at a beer distributor and live in the real world. I sold a kidney and 4 weeks pay for the McIntosh I dont need to the same for transducers. Just buy em' cause they smoke the RF83's anyway. Thanks for reading

Customer Service

Second to none!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Similar Products Used:

79'Infinity RS-2.5 / Bose 901 V / Mackies / JBL 4430 / Infinity Kappa 8's(weak) Klipsch RF-83

Clarity! Great Dialect! Need I say more?

None!

I own two pair of these monsters along with a pair of rf-82 for my rear, rc-64 for my center, rsw-12, and rsw-15 for my subs for my 7.2 theatre package. these babies are awsome! Crisp clean sound with no his or hum that you get with some speakers. You hear every little noise you would hear as if you were in the movie yourself, including the floor creeking when waling down a hallway! not to mention that you hear every instrument in live concerts.
I have spent alot of money buying different speaker set ups to find the perfect sound quality I wanted for my enjoyment. Brands from JBL northridge e100's up to Paradigm titan monitors and still was not satisfied until now. The only other speakers thet matched in quality were the B&W 802's they were awsome but i just could not see paying 10,000.00 dollars for 1 pair when i bought my whole system less than that, And I'm pleased to say I made a great choice. My friends now come to my house to watch movies instead of going to the theatre. We wait until the movie comes out on blu-ray to watch them now.

Similar Products Used:

Jbl Northridge e100, Paradigm monitor 11's.

Build quality and clarity of sound.

Grill tabs break easy. Feet are in the way.

I purchased a complete reference 7 Klipsch set in 2006. I had the front RF-7's and RC-7 crossovers modified by DeanG. I am very satisfied with the overall sound these speakers make. I use a KRELL SHOWCASE 7 amplifier with an ANTHEM AVM 30 pre-amp. The front speakers are bi-amped for a total of channels. I mainly listen to SACD 5.1 sound and movies.
The RF-7 speakers are very well made and the sound is very detailed.

Customer Service

Very Good.

Similar Products Used:

Bose 901 series VI (real junk) I am glad I dumped them.

Very crisp and detailed -- sometimes to a fault. Nice mids and bass.

Need to be paired with warmer sounding speakers.

I own two pairs of these speakers and originally both pairs were part of a 5.3 system. My center was the Klipsch RC-7. I initially found the RF-7s to be very harsh and "shrilly." I could make them sound half-way decent by turning the treble on my Sunfire Ultimate Receiver II to -6 or more and boosting the bass. They did sound better, oddly enough when I set the speaker size for these huge speakers to small. I was using these in an audio-only system and a couple weeks into playing the RF-7s it occurred to me that these speakers were not just for audio but also for video/movies. I concluded that the "shrilly" aspect was intended to make movie dialogue sound better, or more understandable.

Well, I decided to reconfigure my audio system, keeping one pair of the RF-7s as rear surrounds, and adding two Cornwalls for mains, two Klipsch KG 5-5 as front satellites, and two Sunfire Cinema Ribbon 3s as rear satellites. With the RC-7 still serving as the center this brought me to a 9.3 system that sounds incredible, especially for jazz, club music, rock, reggae, blues -- you name it.

Now married to the warmer sounding Cornwalls and KG 5.5s the RF-7s sing with no audio adjustments needed. It is the perfect marriage.

For me the RF-7s are the perfect compliment to the other speakers in my setup. By themselves, or paired with another set of RF-7s the harshness is a little overwhelming. With warmer speakers -- speakers that were made just for music and not for music and video -- they really work great.

The RF-7 are the best of the Klipsch line since the 70's. That includes the new RF-83's that are made of some different materials but still have the custom high price. The build quality is great, the materials used are all top shelf. The design is classic tower. These speakers have enough weight to make them safe with young kids.(100 lbs ea.) They come with spikes for carpet or rubber feet for tile or wood. The veneers are high quality and wax up nicely. The speaker lugs accomodate any type of wire connection. They are bi-wired speakers, so that adds to their versatility.

The grill posts are made out of cheese!!! I remove my grill every 3 weeks to clean the speakers and the first time I removed the grills, one of the mounting posts broke off. I was horrified. Then 3 weeks later, the same thing happened. I called Klipsch and they sent replacements. The exact same posts broke again. This time I left them and did not get replacements. No more have broken off. The two at the top and one on the left side.

I bought these speakers as part of the complete RF-7 line with exception to the rsw-18; I have the rsw-12 instead..a better match in my opinion. These speakers were hard fought since I literally had a budget of 9000.00 for a complete speaker system. I listened to a huge variety of brands and models before narrowing down my choice to either the Klipsch, Sonnus Faber or Definitive Technology. Once I ruled out having to find an electrical outlet for each of the Def. Tech speakers not to mention a voltage stabilizer, the other speakers were very close on home theater alone. Since my gear was going to do double duty, I brought my techno and metal cd's. Although the Sonnus were fantastic at reproducing the human voice as well as symphonic sounds, they could not keep up with the Klipsch with my kind of music. The Sonnus sounded as cheap as a pair of JBL's when techno or metal was played on them. The Klipsch just yawned and stretched their legs a bit more once the volume was increased. Volume was not the Sonnus' forte with music.(at least not my kind of music) These auditions were in the store, in a seperate audition room with only the store manager, myself and my brother, no one else. I was using the Denon 5802 as a head unit and switching between the Pioneer elite 49tx. For the speakers I was auditioning, these two head units were the best suited. For my kind of music, the Klipsch were fantastic. No harshness from the horn tweeter at all. I enjoy very crisp highs and awesome earth shaking lows. These speakers have a mild mid range, which doesn't get muddied up with volume or material with a wide frequency range. Very clear, concise and extremely powerful. With the db per ft at 102 the Klipsch make light work of low power amplifiers. Every 3db increase in sensitivity means 1/2 the power required to make the same amount of sound pressure. Awesome. I use a Harman Kardon AVR 7200 as my home theater rig and have been nothing but "wowed" with every setion. I chose to try the Sonnus and the Klipsch on a home theater run with Gone in Sixty Seconds as my video choice. Pioneer Elite 49tx head unit and matching subs for each pair of speakers. Everything set on reference levels. With those parameters, the Sonnus were very impressive, as long as the sub was powered on. Once I removed the sub, the Sonnus were still powerful but lacked a real "impact" feeling. I put the Klipsch on and was blown away. The amount of sound coming from those speakers was so loud, I couldn't hear myself scream. Loud, but not deafening. I could make out every detail of the movie. I let it play for about 10 min. and much to my surprise my ears were not fatigued! No headache, nothing. Truely impressive. Then we found out that the sub was NOT turned on!!!! All that bass from just the two RF-7's. That sold me right at that moment. We grabbed a bite to eat then returned about 2 hours later and did everything over again. This time we turned the sub on with the Klipsch and I am here to tell you, no movie theater I have ever been inside sounded as good. Please keep in mind that I auditioned about 20 of the most trusted brands before ending up with the Klipsch. Every speaker is great to someone, and the Klipsch are great to me. If you are into techno or heavy metal music, these are the best out there. If you need speakers to do double duty, I would recommend these highly. There are better Home Theater Only speaker sets, but none will work as well at playing music too.

Customer Service

Fantastic, super efficient service. No questions asked. When you buy the best you get treated as such.

Similar Products Used:

Nothing compares to these. I bought the best. The only other speakers I would consider are the Totem Rainmakers.

Extremely effecient speakers. Basically any amp will power them fine, but with that said, it is true that the RF-7's will expose cheap gear! I'm using a Denon 3805, and they match well!

Size if anything. Aside from that, there isn't anything worth mentioning. Grilles could be better designed without using cheap plastic prongs.

I have owned my RF-7's for nearly two years. I have them as part of my 7.1 channel set up in my home theatre.
They over time have just sounded better and better! Even with new heavily bass encoded DVD's that have come out lately, they can handle just about anything thrown their way.
It is true that the horn loaded tweeters do soften over time.
They are fantastic speakers for the money! I also have the whole family of Reference 7 speakers, including the RC-7, RS-7's and a pair of RB-35's for my rear channel.
I have a SVS PB12-plus2 to handle anything under 40Hz, so I'm not missing anything audible.

Customer Service

The Klipsch family has a nice group of people working for them. They take very good care of their customers! As does Starpower where i bought them.

Similar Products Used:

Every speaker brand you can possibly think of!

See above.

Hard to fine tune. Randomly, you get an harsh sound. But if you've got the time and nerves to listen carefully and tune - then those are one of the best speakers that you'll listen to, if not the best. Period.

Everything that has been said about those speakers is true. The following review summarizes most of the experience of mine and others with those amazing speakres. Read more carefully than usual ;)
Sorry manfucaturing has stopped due to industrial considerations (and not sound!).
Huge sound, highly sensitive. _very_ spoiled in the sense that they require good components to sound right.

Many regard those speakers as "bright", I'm not sure about the right term, but this is true. They are in-your-face speakers and there's nothing wrong with it. Being perfectly balanced, laid back and adequate as with popular british speakers isn't always enjoying. I'd use the analogous between an original scotish wishkey and Jack Daniel's, which the latter is prefered by me due to its irregular sweetness but isn't consensous by others. So it's a matter of taste and not performance.

Now, about "harshness", this is something you would want to make sure you dont run into, as with any horn loaded speakers. To avoid this, you have to take into considerations a lot of parameters, such as quality of amplification, source, acoustics and time to burn in the tweeters, which takes many many hours with those, but in the end - it's rewarding. Out of the box you get harshness, but over the time with the right positioning, room acoustics and source and amplification you get the sweet jack daniel's feeling. Once you get it, you'll know. Sorry for the many who find those speakers harsh/too-bright when they auditioned them at stores, it's simply unfair to the speakers.

Visit forums.klipsch.com to read many many reivews on those, mainly are over enthusaistic at my opinion, because there is a small core of Klipsch fans there that overtake the forums pretty much. For example, DeanG is a known figure there which has a nice crossover upgrade solution for those speakers, that replaces the stock crossover with once that has top notch capicators for some hundreds of bucks.

Regarding amplification, it's a myth with those speakers. Since they are rated ultra sensitive; 102db, which means that you do very well with a few watts. This is due the horn that helps with the high frequencies by directing them better than a regular dome tweeter dispersion. However, impendance tests that were taken in 2002 by Sound & Vision show that the speaker has an impendance dips to about 3 ohms which means that the amplifier must be good in tracking those. So going for a cheap SS amplifier isn't recommended here, unless it's a T-AMP which is a diferent category. Check for damping-factors, and current bursts.

Positioning those speakers is critical as well due the horn. Some prefer straightahead, some toeing in 45 degress some less. Note that all Klipsch speakers take advantage of the corners and those much be places near corners in order to get the bass extended. Once they are - it extends very good, and you get full range. Last issue is with the foam positioning when out of box (due to shipping artifacts) - you have to push it forward otherwise it blocks the rear ports thereby reducing bass extensions.

See above.

Hard to fine tune. Randomly, you get an harsh sound. But if you've got the time and nerves to listen carefully and tune - then those are one of the best speakers that you'll listen to, if not the best. Period.

Everything that has been said about those speakers is true. The following review summarizes most of the experience of mine and others with those amazing speakres. Read more carefully than usual ;)
Sorry manfucaturing has stopped due to industrial considerations (and not sound!).
Huge sound, highly sensitive. _very_ spoiled in the sense that they require good components to sound right.

Many regard those speakers as "bright", I'm not sure about the right term, but this is true. They are in-your-face speakers and there's nothing wrong with it. Being perfectly balanced, laid back and adequate as with popular british speakers isn't always enjoying. I'd use the analogous between an original scotish wishkey and Jack Daniel's, which the latter is prefered by me due to its irregular sweetness but isn't consensous by others. So it's a matter of taste and not performance.

Now, about "harshness", this is something you would want to make sure you dont run into, as with any horn loaded speakers. To avoid this, you have to take into considerations a lot of parameters, such as quality of amplification, source, acoustics and time to burn in the tweeters, which takes many many hours with those, but in the end - it's rewarding. Out of the box you get harshness, but over the time with the right positioning, room acoustics and source and amplification you get the sweet jack daniel's feeling. Once you get it, you'll know. Sorry for the many who find those speakers harsh/too-bright when they auditioned them at stores, it's simply unfair to the speakers.

Visit forums.klipsch.com to read many many reivews on those, mainly are over enthusaistic at my opinion, because there is a small core of Klipsch fans there that overtake the forums pretty much. For example, DeanG is a known figure there which has a nice crossover upgrade solution for those speakers, that replaces the stock crossover with once that has top notch capicators for some hundreds of bucks.

Regarding amplification, it's a myth with those speakers. Since they are rated ultra sensitive; 102db, which means that you do very well with a few watts. This is due the horn that helps with the high frequencies by directing them better than a regular dome tweeter dispersion. However, impendance tests that were taken in 2002 by Sound & Vision show that the speaker has an impendance dips to about 3 ohms which means that the amplifier must be good in tracking those. So going for a cheap SS amplifier isn't recommended here, unless it's a T-AMP which is a diferent category. Check for damping-factors, and current bursts.

Positioning those speakers is critical as well due the horn. Some prefer straightahead, some toeing in 45 degress some less. Note that all Klipsch speakers take advantage of the corners and those much be places near corners in order to get the bass extended. Once they are - it extends very good, and you get full range. Last issue is with the foam positioning when out of box (due to shipping artifacts) - you have to push it forward otherwise it blocks the rear ports thereby reducing bass extensions.

Everything

Big if your a wimp

Just incredible. Buy them, and you won't regret it. If your ears suck and you don't like them, the resale value is great. I have the dean g upgrade and have nothing negative to speak of.

Similar Products Used:

klipsch, jensen

Powerful bass, astonishing detail, excellent soundstage , exceptional sensivity rating of 102 db /1w/m , good price.

cheap grill !

RF 7 ! they are just great sounding speakers, take your time for broken the horns after the fun begins.

Similar Products Used:

klipsch rf 5 , boston acoustic t 1030