Customer Reviews

KLH AUDIO L853B Bookshelf Speaker System ( Pair ) - Black

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought these speakers from Best Buy almost a year ago for $20 a pair. I use them as fronts for my Pioneer VSXD411 receiver,and have the KLH AV1001Bs as surrounds. Just so you know, home theater has just recently become a passion of mine, so I wouldn't call myself an audiophile. But I do know what sounds good to me. These are great as main speakers, although they appear to have a little distortion with high frequencies. This is only noticeable occasionally, since I mostly use them for movie sound. The bass is more than ample. Movies like the Matrix and Lord of the Rings sound rich & full, even when not using a sub!
I've been in those sound rooms with all the BIG names in home audio, with some snotty sales geek telling me how much better a set of thousand dollar speakers will make my system sound. I can say that I honestly can't hear a huge difference between theirs & mine. At least not enough to mortgage my house for.
I may upgrade someday, if I can find better speakers for a reasonable amount of money. At regular price, these may not be better than comparably priced Sonys or Pioneers. But if you can get 'em at ten, or even twenty bucks a pop, jump on it. You will be satisfied. Here is a list of what my budget system is composed of:
Pioneer VSXD411 Dolby/DTS 5.1 reciever -$130 from Circuit City
KLH L853B bookshelf speakers - $20 on sale at Best Buy
KLH 943PL center channel speaker - $30 on sale at Best Buy
KLH AV1001B speakers - $20 on sale at Best Buy
Jensen 100 watt 8 inch sub - $89 from Rex
Complete system - Around $300, about the price of an entry level home theater in a box, but much better quality sound.
I hope I helped out all of you who cherish saving a little cash, and still getting great sound!

So I bought these for $20 from Best Buy a couple of years ago. I figured at $10 a piece, you can't really go wrong, and I guess in that sense I was correct.

I had them hooked up to an old tv for a couple of years because the tv's speakers were failing me. While they were hooked up to the TV, they sounded fine; nothing to make me feel appalled at how bad they sound.

However, I recently moved to a new house and since i'm still unpacking my Bose surround sound and am a little lazy to install it all right now, I hooked these up to a receiver just to listen to some music and wow, this time I was APPALLED. I mean, over the years, I have gradually become more and more picky but these were almost unbearable. I started wearing my Sony MDR-V6's around the house (which was a GREAT buy) instead.

Sound Quality:
These bookshelf speakers have (I think) a 6" cone, a 2" cone and a 1" tweeter which made me think that they should be pretty good, at least in clarity. I don't expect much bass from them since you can't really expect much from a 6" woofer. However, after listening to these speakers, all I could think of are complaints. The lows are muddy and extremely unclear. The lows blend in with the mids in a lot of the songs and the highs produced by the tweeter are very tinny. The balance is horrible and overall, made my 320kbps songs sound the same as my 128kbps songs. At slightly louder volumes, and I'm not talking very loud volumes at all, there is distortion, both on the low and high ends. The low end distortion is the worst. I know a lot of the distortion has to do with the receiver, but my receiver does have a filter and is not sending anything lower than around 150hz to these speakers. It almost sounded like someone is trying to sing but is running out of breath.

The reviewer that said he uses these as his LR speakers in his $300 surround sound system should really consider upgrading. The guy who told you to get the more expensive speakers is most definitely right. For 300$, i recommend you look into a soundbar for your surround sound needs. I promise the sound will be a lot cleaner and much much more accurate.

Overall, if you can land these for $20 and have a use to watch some casual TV, these are a great deal for that purpose. But if you're interested in using these for a HT system, I would look elsewhere. Polk creates great speakers for a great price.

This is a low end product that will sound good when hooked up to an entry level system. The woofer isn't really reactive enough, and though they claim to have a low end Frequency Response at 50hz, I'd find that hard to believe, it sounds closer to 120hz.

I'd recommend them if you're on a budget, and you want something better than HTIB speakers, but you will be missing audio that you'd be able to hear in a speaker $10-20 more a piece.

These speakers are great. I find it laughable that anyone could or would complain that these speakers are anything short of amazing for such a small investment. Years ago KLH made very good audio products but have fallen off in recent times. You wouldn't know it hearing these speakers. The 3 way design offers a full sound stage of clean highs and deep punchy bass. Excellent imaging that could only be had if you are willing to invest much more money. The biggest problem is finding them, since they are discontinued. If you look long enough you can still find them new on line as NOS items from time to time. If you do and the price is right buy them without hesitation. I bought a pair for my office HT and love them. I found another pair (new) and bought them for my wife's bedroom. They're a little bigger than you will normally find in bookshelf speakers. They have 8" woofers so you know the cabinet has to be fairly large. At $65.00 for the speakers with shipping included you will not find better. Period.