Customer Reviews

Klipsch LightSpeaker System 5.2.2 Wireless Sound and Efficient LED Lighting

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The first thing that struck me about this product is the quality of it's manufacture. These speakers were solid and well made. Below I will address the various information that is important to know.

PACKAGING AND INSTRUCTIONS:
As with any product what we first see is the packaging it comes in. This speaker system was no exception.
An expensive product, should be well packed and these speakers were in separate boxes within the main box, well cushioned. The various components were also well packed and obvious to find. The overall box when you open it, the first thing you see is the setup information. This card was the full length of the box and succinctly told you the steps you needed to complete installation. I thought this was all well done. Under that was the user's manual that if you had issues you could refer to.

INSTALLATION:
First of all you need to be sure you have the right spot to install these. They go into 5 or 6" recessed lighting tubes. The manufacturers provided two size flanges that could go on the end of the speaker/lights that would work with either of these sizes. One thing we found while installing these, is you could actually not get them properly seated in the light socket(not deep enough) and they would not work. It was the user's manual that alerted me to this and we resolved the issue. Another thing I found was, we could not use the metal arms spread out to stabilize the speaker in the recessed outlet, as the spread was too far. We had to keep them pulled in.

I liked the fact that the instructions warned me upfront that most recessed lighting fixtures had adjustable depths. I didn't know that. In telling me that I knew enough to adjust them and that is what took to get the speakers installed deep enough. You have to finesse this a bit and get the proper mix of deep enough while holding the flange flush to the ceiling and properly engaged to work. It took us about an hour to get both speakers properly installed. It was somewhat fatiguing as these speaker/lights have some heft to them. But, not a major problem.

Once installed properly the main unit quickly detected the speakers and they worked well. You can control the volume of the speakers and the brightness of the lights. You also have the abililty to choose two inputs. There is also a remote provided and this mimicked the controls on the base unit. Handy if you are not easily able to reach the base unit.

USAGE:
Once we had them up and synched to the base unit, everything worked fine. We are now planning on having these hook both to the radio as well as an ipod and you can do this as there are two inputs as well as the appropriate cables. I was pleased with the sound quality, but I'm no audiophile. Since the speakers were small and not only behind the lights but the light lens a more discerning listener might have concerns. I did not.

RANGE:
I have noticed that these speakers do not have much in the way of bass, so your music can sound a bit tinny. Not surprising due to their size.

OTHER POINTS:
Since we used these units in our kitchen on recessed lights over the countertop, which has 4 lights, in order to work you need to have that circuit on. This means the two lights that don't have the speakers in them need to be on all the time, that we use the speakers. The lights in the speakers can be turned off independently. At this time, I don't think that is a problem, as I kept the ones over the primary work area as non-speakered lights.

The speakers have convex covers on the LED light inside. This makes the light they shine down a bit different than the lights in the recesses. I find this light is more diffuse. Another reason why I did not put these lights over the primary work area. I would have to make it very bright to be the the most useful. The LED lights can get bright enough, but it seemed almost too bright in order to get the proper coverage. Too bad there was not a concave lens option for these speaker/lights to address this.

SUMMARY:
All in all we are pleased with this system. I will write more as we use it more.

I thought these would just screw in to a light bulb socket. There was a bit more to it than that. In fact the directions looked a bit daunting but turned out to be fairly simple once we got into it. Pairing the speaker with the base unit was a snap once I found the button (tiny black button on the back near the power switch). The remote works flawlessly from the distance I require. I have one speaker installed in my kitchen. It is SO COOL to not have to crank up the sound on the TV in the family room to be able to hear it while I'm cooking. We plan to create some sort of speaker box to use the second speaker out on our deck so my husband can hear when he is BBQing. I do not plan to use these speakers for music. I am by no means an audiophile, but even to me music sounds crappy over these. For my purposes though, they completely met my needs.

Note: It's designed so you can turn the light on and off with the remote too, if you just wanted the sound but not light. This doesn't do me any good since my installed location has numerous can lights all on one wall switch which has to be ON for the sound to work. But I'm rarely cooking in the dark so that shortcoming doesn't effect my use either!

*****UPDATE 11/28/2011***** We just upgraded our TV and were horrified to find that new TV's no longer come with the analog audio out ports (red & white RCA jacks) that are needed to connect the base unit of this speaker. I was able to solve the problem with FiiO D3 Digital to Analog Audio Converter which converted the optical audio out port on the TV to an analog audio out. After more than a year of ownership I've upped my rating to 5 stars because I just LOVE having this speaker in my kitchen!

I love these speakers! We put them in our house because we didn't want to do the wiring for in-ceiling speakers. The sound is fantastic! I was surprised by how bright the LEDs were when we first turned them on and by how heavy the speakers themselves are. We didn't read the instructions and they installed easily. I've not used them with anything but my iPod, but they handled the music, including the bass, wonderfully. Every person who has visited our house since we installed them has left wanting to buy a set of their own. I would definitely recommend these to anyone wanting a fairly inexpensive option for in-ceiling speakers.

I got my Lightspeakers in the mail a few days ago and I LOVE them!! I don't have Can lighting, so I put them into stand up lamps and they work perfectly! I hooked them up to my entire entertainment system in about 5 minutes. On top of the fact that they are the only lights I need to use in my living room now, I am using them for everything from watching movies (The lighting itself adjusts to create the perfect mood for any type of movie) to listening to Vinyl. I listen to all different types of music, and the quality is equally great. The sound is AMAZING!! My boyfriend loves them, too. Playing video games just got 100 times better (and better for me to watch!!) What a fantastic product!! Simply genius! I would recommend these to Anybody!

I did not have the type of fixture that allows for easy installation, but a $15 trip to Home Depot solved the problem.
Sound is better than expected, no hissing or anything like that.
2 things that keep this from being perfect
1. You have to use the remote included, you can't integrate it into your universal remote
2. If you buy just 2 for a living room with say 4 lights, 2 of the lights have to be on for the sound to work.

I have already moved these several times, outdoors to listen to the football game while on the back porch grilling!

I was looking for a good audio product for my new house that would be easily installed, out of the way and wireless. I had no desire to snake cables through walls for example.

When a friend gave me the heads up on this product I got very excited. My first though was "why didn't I think of that?!"... My second thought was this has real potential to solve my problems.

Truth be told I actually let my neighbor take the plunge on this before I pulled the trigger as I couldn't find a showroom that had them. After a relatively painless install I stopped by and had a listen. I wasn't expecting "audiophile" quality and that is not what it produces. I did expect average quality for casual listening and that is exactly what I got.

I'm happy to report I've been the owner of this product for going on 6 months now and they are working perfectly. I have a pair behind my bar in the lower level and have since added a 3rd speaker upstairs to make two listening zones. The install is a piece of cake (mine are in standard "can" lights) as the documentation does a very good job explaning the installation. Later I plan to add the audio rock for outdoor listening. I have listened to both music from an ipod and audio from the TV without any issues.

This is a fantastic product for causual listening and for those that don't want to deal with the hassel of running cables and installing your own speakers.

Great job Klipsch!

Bought the Klipsch lightspeakers just before Christmas with instant rebate and they came Christmas eve. Installed without a hitch in minutes into two 6 inch cans about 6 feet apart in my 13 foot high ceiling and the pairing was simple once the tiny button on the back of the base was found. Sound was terrific with my Josh Groban CD. TV sound is perfect as it is with an iTouch. Bass is ok. No hissing or crackling noted. Wife hates wires and is really happy with this setup. Light is bright enough replacement and the remote can turn off and dim the light easily. Makes my living room a true music room. Am truly amazed by this product. Update: one year later and the speakers work flawlessly with new 55 inch LG TV. Had a 46 inch Sony with analog output and had to buy Gefen tv digital audio decoder which converts audio encoded in Dolby Digital down to 2 channel L/R for the new LG LED for about $100. People ask me where the speakers are and when informed of their ceiling location, they can't believe what they see and hear and want to know how to purchase a pair. I am so used to them that I forget where the sound is coming from! Can't imagine living without them!

I've had the Klipsch LightSpeaker System for about 3 months now. It's a strange, eccentric product that is hard to recommend, and doesn't work well.

I was very disappointed with the physical design of the speakers. The speaker/light units may install easily in some light sockets, but they didn't install properly in mine. My ceiling fixtures contained an angle bracket that made it impossible to mount without a socket extender (I bought this one: Leviton 2005 Medium-Medium Base, One-Piece, Adapters/Extensions, Incandescent, Glazed Porcelain Lampholder, White). With the socket extender, I was able to mount the units, but they extended 3/4" below the ceiling. Klipsch should consider slimming down these light/speaker units, and providing adapters to adjust the height.

I was also disappointed by the need for two boxes (the base unit and remote). Most users of this system are going to use it with an iPod, iPhone, or the equivalent. It seem silly to require three different devices to play music remotely; why not just include one device that connects directly to the audio input? Or why not just add bluetooth to the speakers? Or alternately, why not add an iPod connector directly to the base station? Wireless speakers just aren't that useful if you have to connect your music source to a wired device. You'll get better sound if you just hook speakers right up to the music device, at a much lower cost.

After I got the system set up, the devices worked as well as you'd expect. I learned that ceiling cavities can have strange acoustic properties. In my ceiling, the speakers produce somewhat mid-bass intense music. Klipsch doesn't provide an elegant way to tune the sound, so it can be difficult to get good sound quality. The light feature is nice, but LED lights aren't that bright. Compared to a 60 watt bulb, you'll find that the LEDs are noticeably dimmer. In a room with other light sources, this is probably OK, but it's not perfect. Additionally, one of the light fixtures stopped working for us after a month of use.

So, in short, I can't recommend this product. It's an interesting concept, but the execution is lousy. It's obvious that this is a first generation, experimental product. But the basic idea just doesn't make enough sense. If you really want LED light bulbs, you can but them for much less than $250 a piece. You can also buy a really good speaker system to go with a portable music device for less money.

[Revised 11/7/2010. After two months of use, both LED bulbs stopped working. So, in addition to being expensive and poorly designed, it turns out these speakers are poorly constructed. I do not recommend purchasing this product at this time; if the concept really appeals to you, wait until Klipsch (or someone else) makes a better quality product.]

This was so easy to install and I was excited to put away my bulky stereo system. I wouldn't pay this kind of money for 15 year lights, but do love the convenience of great speakers that are incorporated into lights. The sound is very good and the system takes up virtually no space at all. What an innovative product! I have not had any of the static problems that one or two other people had. Maybe it has to do with other issues like wiring or music source???
Bottom line this product works great for me; awesome sound without space-hogging speakers. It's worth every penny!

2/15/11 Edit: Well, I've had this system for going on a year now and still love it. Changing speaker locations is as easy as switching out bulbs! They work in recessed sockets, but I usually have them in lamps. I have decided to sell my old space hogging system!

I received my LightSpeaker system today, and had it installed and working in ten minutes. The sound is great, offering decent tone and range with surprising volume. The wireless range is impressive. I have the receiver connected to a pc in the office delivering sound all the way across the house in the kitchen. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen around here and having a quality sound system there has definitely made it more enjoyable. The lights are completely adjustable and very bright. I plan to purchase an expansion set of LightSpeakers to create a second zone of music in the den. I can't wait to see the look on my guest's faces while they try to figure out where I"ve hidden a sound system. I definitely recommend them!