Customer Reviews

Klipsch RW-12D 12" Subwoofer (Each)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off, I appreciate the lengths that the first reviewer went to in creating thee most thorough and informative review I've ever read. While I'm sure the author was being serious during all of that, in the end I couldn't help but giggle thinking of a scene from "Good Morning Vietnam"

"Excuse me sir. Seeing as how the VP is such a VIP, shouldn't we keep the PC on
the QT, because if it leaks to the VC, you could end up an MIA, and then we'd
all be put on KP." -Robin Willams as Adrian Cronauer

Average Joe Citizen, you are not alone my friend. My review will contain nothing more than my humble opinion written in plain english. Reading it will not require an instruction manual to understand what I am saying.

So here's my review of the Klipsch RW-12d:

I spent at least six months shopping around, reading reviews, pondering, listening to different products, and this is the one that spoke to me. Yeah, the price was more than I wanted to spend, but it was well worth it. I wanted something that was smooth and clean, but powerful enough to punch me right in the chest, and that's exactly what I got!

I'm going skip all the little intimate details as far as quoting specs, Hz, etc., and get straight to what you really wanna know:

Music: I kid you not when I say I am discovering a whole new dimension to the music I've been listening to all my life. I listen to everything from Mozart to Marilyn Manson, and it all sounded (and felt) awesome... even pipe organs sounded perfect. It doesn't overload the room with big boomy bass all the time. The sound is subtle and smooth... and when its time to hit hard, its solid, powerful, and clean.

Movies/Games: The smooth, subtle, yet powerful cleanliness I mentioned above is also the case with movies and games. I played a little Call of Duty on my Playstation. Forget the vibrating controller! Who needs it! I found myself running for cover as if grenades were actually exploding in my living room. Just to test the thing out, I put in Transformers 2 and cranked it up. Explosions are AWESOME. My entire house shakes. I'm not talking just a rumble in my seat. I mean the floor moves up and down, and things like pictures and knick-knacks fall. I turned it all the way up and went outside just to make sure I was pissing off the neighbors, and my mailbox out at the road was vibrating. THAT was EXACTLY what I was looking for in a subwoofer!

Controls: The controls on the unit are simple to use and almost completely self explanatory. I'm not going to tell you what levels of what sounds best. It's all about what YOU, the listener prefers. Play around with it until it sounds good! I am no rocket scientist, and it only took me about 2 minutes to figure it all out.

Clarity overall was what I wanted the most, and the RW-12d has it. I am a very picky guy who will waste as much time as it takes searching for exactly what I want, and I absolutely do not stop until I get it. Forget all the crap you find at all the big box stores. This is the one. This sub may be a bit on the pricey side for the average Joe, but trust me... as soon as you feed your head with the ear candy this baby produces, you'll forget all about what you paid for it.

On a side note about subwoofer cables... I refused to pay upwards of $100 for the 35 feet of cable I needed. Do yourself a favor, look into regular shielded coax. After examining all options, I decided to go with Monoprice.com and buy the 35 ft. shielded coax for 9 bucks. Yes, I said NINE DOLLARS! I figured, what the hell.. it's worth trying for $9, right? Totally worth it. But coax? I know, I didn't believe it at first either. Despite not being "THX Certified" or some other gold-plated gimmick, magnetically shielded in pure bullcrap, my 9 dollar cable worked just fine. I ran the cable up through the attic amongst a mess of other various wires. There is no humming noise or signal loss. I do have a shorter top-of-the-line cable that I tried, and the sound was identical. I guess if coax is good enough for an HDTV signal to make the 18 mile trip from the cable company, I'm sure its more than capable of carrying a subwoofer signal across my living room.

Anyway, Great subwoofer! I am definitely impressed and I'm sure you will be too. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

-Ryan

First off, I puchased this LFE from NFM and this is one of their top-tier Subwoofers. I was foremost interested in a sealed sub, and is what I asked for. Their sales people are not really that knowledgable, I did most of the talking via phone after as many returns as I had.

When purchasing a LFE the important thing to look for is ported/sealed, Frequency response, and RMS. Ported or sealed is a user preference. For Frequency response anything below 16 is not nessasary, and 16hz up to 25hz the sound is felt not heard. High RMS wattage will sound louder and reproduce the sound cleaner, if the Subwoofer is rated at a lower if not equal RMS.

Definitions:

1. LFE= Low Frequency Emmitter (HF is High Frequency)
2. Enclosure= Box the subwoffer is set in.
3. Subwoofer= LFE speaker
4. RMS= Root Means Square, constant wattage a speaker will receive at any time
5. Peak= Maximum wattage a speaker will receive, simply a burst of wattage at a given moment
6. SVC= Single Voice Coil
7. SPL= Sound Pressure Level, yes sound does have pressure and as descibels increase so will pressure.
8. Equilizer= a digital or analog device that incorperates crossovers to filter and adjust sound at the given amplifier.

To start:
This Enclosure is ported (This one is done right!) and atractive, and is very deceptive due to it's design. The port fires at a 60-45 degree angle downward in the direction of the Subwoofer, and was also tuned to the enclosure (and speaker). Unlike many brand x designs that fill the port with a generic plastic tube this one actually works as intended. I feel this is a good woofer for a medium to large room. (mine is 24'x 14'x 8') I think for a Small room I'd go with the 10".

Like the previous rater/reviewer I went through a few LFE that I purchased within days of each other. Follows a "Goldylocks and the 3 bears" search for a LFE, for the sake of time and simplicity I'll leave it at that.

To the quality and function, first I own a Onkyo tx-sr706 receiver and I enable a HF cutoff @ 90hz for the LFE channel. For older receivers without a LFE pre-out or HF cut-off, the unit has a digital crossover that will do this if enabled. The Enclosure is almost 2 feet tall (this LFE is almost a coffee table) the unit is about 2 feet in lenght and roughly 16 inches wide. The controls for the sub are simple to use and are backlit for use in a dark room, and located on top. I have kids, the 2 year old especially, notices the light momentarily come on when it receives a LFE signal and wakes from standby. The 2 yearold wants to investigate this light and thinks it's a toy, oooh lights! This is one of those minute things that I would design differently, maybe a cover/lid. The back of the unit has a 4 post out (2r 2b), stereo coaxial in, and an IR receptor for universal remotes.

I have cracked this "egg" open and the internal bracing is very acceptible, the wiring is a thick guauge wire, 12-14 guage with spade connectors at the speaker. The amp uses 340watt RMS (850w peak) BASH Amp which is an amp design that Klipsch uses, as they hand make it. This internal amp is more than enough power to drive the SVC 12 inch subwoofer.

Klipsch has excellent customer service and is a very reliable company and product(built in the USA by experts that have been doing this for many years)

For those that are designing a home theater do your self a favor, do not use this on a hard floor and/or in an empty room and expect it to sound awesome. The ideal room is rectangular and carpeted. Any negitive reviews would lead me to believe that reviewer is inept, and should just stick to a HTIB and nothing else. Putting the this in a Highly reflective(hard surfaces) enviroment or room increases the amount of Standing/canceling waves. Leaving the listener fatigued or worn out because as musical moments are canceled by negating soundwaves that leave the listener with Sound pressure for the listener's ears. LFE's are suppose to be warm and richen music and movie soundtracks.

For starters, I do not recommend turning the LFE's amp volume up past -5 to increase the bass response(mine is -8, still shakes the 1600sqft house). The sub is producing a sound that is in-audible and it won't get any louder by turning it up. Second Flatten the LFE's built in Amp, using the receiver's pre-amp settings to adjust the sound, by going into the equillizer menu add volume to the 25hz, 40hz, and 60hz range till the sound is warm(+2,+1,+1,0,-1 works for my room). Move the Enclosure around in the room until it sound's right to you, lastly LFE's produce a soundwave that is omni-directional so placement is not a set in stone. There are people that say that up against a wall increases the sound, but that is based off of Bass-reflex (ported enclosure) principle, and isn't as applicable to this unit because the port fires at an angle to the ground. This enclosure is by design and function on a different level than most low-end crap and higher reference LFE's I have owned.

Bottom line, I feel that the price is high, but "that keeps the riff-raff from owning it." No really, truth is you are paying for someones expertise and handwork, not just the name like _ _ _ _. It is a awesome LFE when setup the right way, the average to enthusiast listener would be happy or impressed with the sound. This LFE complements my 5 speaker HT setup: Yamaha NS-777 3-Way Bass Reflex Tower Speaker(Bi-amped),Yamaha NS-333 2-Way Bass Reflex Bookshelf Speaker (Pair), and Yamaha NS-C444 2-Way Center Channel Speaker. A complete Klipsch setup is not necessary, However, they are designed to work seemlessly together. The different speakers need to be tuned to match crossover points and the room, as would be true with all speakers to include Klipsch's. There are other LFE's that come to mind but this one shines in most HT settings without spending more money than necesary. If purchasing this by Amazon the packaging appeared to be more than adaquate so rest assured, it should be delivered without damage. It is cumbersome and slightly heavy. Yet I have never had a hind-sight moment with this LFE.

Thanks for reading I know it is kind of exhaustive as well. I hope it was informinative as well. Enjoy which ever LFE you choose! By the way THX is just a standard and there are cables that exceed thx certification and and sound the same as ones that don't meet those certifications. I have a set of Belkin PureAV AV50500-25 25-Foot Subwoofer Audio Cable with zero interference issues that I compaired to a Monster M-series 850 Sub cable and there is no difference.

edit 10:00pm 11-13-10 added links and paragraph continuity fixed.

To start, I must admit that I can't outdo the previous review. All I can add is that this the best subwoofer I've ever experienced. Since the price has come down, it is truly a bargain. The bass is smooth and refined. It blends with my other speakers and doesn't produce that crude booming sound that I've heard from other subs. From Klipsch Forum advice, I wired it with a single wire coming from the "Sub out" connection on my Harman Kardon AVR 3600. This is real audiophile equipment at a bargain price. In the past, I paid just as much for a low end HSU Sub which doesn't come close to matching the Klipsch sound.

I recently upraged my speakers to klipsch, and then bought this sub, this is actually my 3rd Sub. I first had a 10 inch sub, and then upraged to a 15 inch.Compared to the other subs that i have used, this one is great, clean, powerful bass. I have set this beast to +4 on my onkyo TX-SR706 receiver and -20 on the sub, and this beast shakes the room. You cant go worng with klipsch. Very Satisfied with this subwoofer. J n R customer service was great, Shipping was very fast. Overall great sub. And also, if you planning on getting this, i would recomend that you buy thx certified subwoofer cables to connect this beast.

And again, I would highly recomend this sub to anyone!

First things first I have this sub in a 20x15x8 carpeted finished basement theater
room. This bad boy is being powered by a Pioneer VSX-1120-K 7.1 receiver. This sub
can handle what ever u dare throw at it, from movies to any kind of music your into!!
for months I have had the sub volume turned down on my receiver without my knowledge
and I have adjusted the volume on the sub to my liking for whatever i'm listening
to. That has been plenty good enough to shake the hole house! Now that I have turned
the volume up for the sub on the receiver, I can now shake my house and the
surrounding houses in my area...No joke I've been next door while its been cranked,
its amazing. the three sub adjustment tones on the top of the sub (flat, depth,
punch) let you easily choose your listening pleasure. the sound quality is unmatched
its smooth rich and deep. I love taking new people down to listen to it for the first
time and watching the smile on their faces grow and grow as I turn the volume up and
up, it happens ever time. Bottom line, this is it for home theater and music subs in my opinion, I took my iPod around with me when i was looking for a sub and played the same song on all the ones I tested. I highly recommend doing that if you go looking, and I highly recommend this SUB!!!!!!

When I purchased this item it had some damage, return was painless. I ended up getting locally but you can't beat Amazon pricing, hands down and Super Savings shipping. Ok back to the review, I have always had all Polk Audio and I loved them. I built a new home and was talked into using for smaller subs for the theater (Forget Brand name), 2 eights in the front and 2 sixes in the rear. Bass was good but to tight and didn't compare to my single 10 Polk Audio I had. Since I can't return them I still have them I will use on another project. I did some research and Klipsch has such good reviews I bought the RW-12D. No disrespect to Polk Audio but this sub made my Polk sound like garbage. From sports to movies the sub is perfect. For me the best part is the digital control on the top, you can adjust the bass depending on the movies or whatever you are watching. While I won't change it much, with Polk or most others there is a know in the back that you have to move the sub to change and move it back to go back to original setting not to mention that with a manual dial you never set it the same. I will only own Klipsch subs from now on. And not only buy throgh Amazon but the seller I used was top notch as well.

I recently upgraded my home theater system with an Onkyo receiver and Klipsch speakers I purchased on Black Friday. I originally purchased the set with a 10" Kipsch subwoofer, which I was very happy with. I used it for a few days and then found this subwoofer on Amazon for half price and $150.00 less than I paid for the 10". I had to have it, so I purchased this speaker and returned the 10" subwoofer to Best Buy. I can honestly say that was the best decision I could have made. The sound of the entire system is unbelievable. I can actually feel the base rattling in my chest when watching a movie. I'm a movie and music buff, and when I say, "it's freakin' awesome!", I really mean it. I listen to heavy metal and the base is very deep and just thumps. I had a great sounding system before, but now it's out of this world. Five stars for this baby!

Unbox, don't change any settings, connect. Let your receiver calibrate with one of those special microphones. Sit back and feel the floor shake with the opening car scene of I Am Legend. This model allows you to save settings into three presets called Movie, Night, Music. This is a great feature! I have to stress that the out of the box factory settings is the right config when connecting to a receiver that handles calibration. You may have noticed the word reference in the name... my point exactly... this is why the volume starts at 0db (this is at about the about 75% mark) i.e. it is the starting point. Anyway, don't buy the 10", go for this one. :)

At this time of the year watch pricing. Newegg is selling for $299. I have review this item on many sites and going to buy ASAP (TODAY). Best bang for your buck.

This sub does everything the descriptions says it will do. the bass is deep and hits hard even at low volumes. most of my settings are less than 50% at this time as i'm still in the break in phase, but it's hard to belive it will sound better than it already does. looking forward to being able to crank up the volume. this speaker is replacing a niles sw 300 which i've been having problems with. i also considered htd's level 3 subwoofer which is high quality also, but decided to go with klipsch because i will be making a dedicated theater in my next home and will get the rest of their tower speakers for it.