Klipsch Synergy Quintet III Home Theater Speaker System
Overall Rating (price considered 95/100)
Pros: Great sound for the dollar, especially for home theater
applications, very affordable, plenty of punch for small and medium sized
rooms.
Cons: Not the most refined in appearance, could sound better for
dedicated music listening, needs more output in large rooms.
For the impatient among you, I'll come right out and skip ahead to the
finish. If you're looking for a small, reasonably priced home theater
speaker system, the Klipsch Synergy Quintet III definitely deserves a
place on your short list.
Klipsch is one of the grand, old names in American audio, having been
around longer than most of their current customers have been alive and
listening. Their claim to fame is the horn loaded driver, originally seen in
their mammoth, corner horn speakers of about 50 years ago. Horn
loaded drivers allow tremendous efficiency, output and dynamics, great
for the 20 watt tube amps back in the day, and just what you need for a
modestly powered receiver now. Suffice it to say, they know a thing or
two about making great speakers.
Home theaters can be one of the most demanding environments for a
speaker system, demanding bone rattling output, along with some very
subtle elements to capture all the realism and emotion in modern motion
picture sound tracks. Realism is paramount, because we all know what a
speaking voice should sound like, and a good theater speaker needs to
not only do it justice, but ensure you can hear every word of dialog
without having to turn it up to 11. No easy task that, especially in a
speaker system that costs but $599 for the quintet.
Dialog is delivered so that you can hear everything a natural tone,
although I did occasionally detect a bit of harshness when things got a
bit on the louder side. Sound effects, such as rain falling, motor vehicles
driving by, restaurant patrons talking, and office noises are the staples
of movie sound tracks and need to be reproduced accurately so that the
director can paint the scene effectively for the audience. Most of the
time, they all sounded pretty darn real through these speakers.
You'll be happy to know that, when paired with a good subwoofer, the
Klipsch set up delivers about all you could ask for even in a medium
priced theater speaker package, and very nicely, too.
I used my 6 year old Triad Silver, which, at $1,250 is probably a bit more
sub than they would ordinarily see duty with. Even so, the little Klipsch's
kept right up with the big sub, and weren't embarrassed in the slightest.
In fact, using what one might think would be too much subwoofer only
added to their sound, making the little guys even more impressive.
The sound stage was wide and convincingly deep, plenty to support the
46” Sharp LCD to which I typically watch, and probably representative of
what they'll see duty with on most occasions. My projector review facility
is currently sans projector, although I am pretty confident they could
tackle that larger space with most of the aplomb that they exhibited in the
family room.
These speakers do leave a bit to be desired for dedicated music
listening, but the reality is that few people today have the time for
actually sitting down and dedicating an hour or two to enjoying music.
Sadly, when it comes to music, most people today are satisfied with an
iPOD, a 128k MP3 file, and some tiny ear buds.
Although these speakers are a pretty reasonable buy at their MSRP of
$599, you'll probably not have to pay anywhere near that much for them,
as they can be obtained at any number of places on the Internet for
much less. That makes them a true surround sound speaker bargain.
They are available at several online retailers, including Amazon.com.
Amazon has many customer reviews you can look through.
Check them out here:
Klipsch Synergy Quintet III Specifications:
- 0.75-inch aluminum diaphragm tweeter (neodymium magnet
compression driver) coupled to an exclusive MicroTractrix Horn
- 3.5-inch long-throw woofers
- Satellite: 8.3" (21.1cm) H x 5" (12.7cm) W x 6.3" (16cm) D
Center: 5" (12.7cm) H x 12" (30.5cm) W x 6" (15.2cm) D
Power Handling:
Satellite: 50 watts (200 watts peak)
Center: 75 watts (300 watts peak)
Overall Rating (price considered 95/100)
Pros: Great sound for the dollar, especially for home theater
applications, very affordable, plenty of punch for small and medium sized
rooms.
Cons: Not the most refined in appearance, could sound better for
dedicated music listening, needs more output in large rooms.
For the impatient among you, I'll come right out and skip ahead to the
finish. If you're looking for a small, reasonably priced home theater
speaker system, the Klipsch Synergy Quintet III definitely deserves a
place on your short list.
Klipsch is one of the grand, old names in American audio, having been
around longer than most of their current customers have been alive and
listening. Their claim to fame is the horn loaded driver, originally seen in
their mammoth, corner horn speakers of about 50 years ago. Horn
loaded drivers allow tremendous efficiency, output and dynamics, great
for the 20 watt tube amps back in the day, and just what you need for a
modestly powered receiver now. Suffice it to say, they know a thing or
two about making great speakers.
Home theaters can be one of the most demanding environments for a
speaker system, demanding bone rattling output, along with some very
subtle elements to capture all the realism and emotion in modern motion
picture sound tracks. Realism is paramount, because we all know what a
speaking voice should sound like, and a good theater speaker needs to
not only do it justice, but ensure you can hear every word of dialog
without having to turn it up to 11. No easy task that, especially in a
speaker system that costs but $599 for the quintet.
Dialog is delivered so that you can hear everything a natural tone,
although I did occasionally detect a bit of harshness when things got a
bit on the louder side. Sound effects, such as rain falling, motor vehicles
driving by, restaurant patrons talking, and office noises are the staples
of movie sound tracks and need to be reproduced accurately so that the
director can paint the scene effectively for the audience. Most of the
time, they all sounded pretty darn real through these speakers.
You'll be happy to know that, when paired with a good subwoofer, the
Klipsch set up delivers about all you could ask for even in a medium
priced theater speaker package, and very nicely, too.
I used my 6 year old Triad Silver, which, at $1,250 is probably a bit more
sub than they would ordinarily see duty with. Even so, the little Klipsch's
kept right up with the big sub, and weren't embarrassed in the slightest.
In fact, using what one might think would be too much subwoofer only
added to their sound, making the little guys even more impressive.
The sound stage was wide and convincingly deep, plenty to support the
46” Sharp LCD to which I typically watch, and probably representative of
what they'll see duty with on most occasions. My projector review facility
is currently sans projector, although I am pretty confident they could
tackle that larger space with most of the aplomb that they exhibited in the
family room.
These speakers do leave a bit to be desired for dedicated music
listening, but the reality is that few people today have the time for
actually sitting down and dedicating an hour or two to enjoying music.
Sadly, when it comes to music, most people today are satisfied with an
iPOD, a 128k MP3 file, and some tiny ear buds.
Although these speakers are a pretty reasonable buy at their MSRP of
$599, you'll probably not have to pay anywhere near that much for them,
as they can be obtained at any number of places on the Internet for
much less. That makes them a true surround sound speaker bargain.
They are available at several online retailers, including Amazon.com.
Amazon has many customer reviews you can look through.
Check them out here:
Klipsch Synergy Quintet III Specifications:
- 0.75-inch aluminum diaphragm tweeter (neodymium magnet
compression driver) coupled to an exclusive MicroTractrix Horn
- 3.5-inch long-throw woofers
- Satellite: 8.3" (21.1cm) H x 5" (12.7cm) W x 6.3" (16cm) D
Center: 5" (12.7cm) H x 12" (30.5cm) W x 6" (15.2cm) D
Power Handling:
Satellite: 50 watts (200 watts peak)
Center: 75 watts (300 watts peak)
Klipsch Synergy Quintet III
Home Theater Speaker System
Home Theater Speaker System
