Customer Reviews

Klipsch Synergy Quintet III Home Theater Speaker System (Set of Five, Black)

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently upgraded my system with a new receiver and needed some new speakers to complement them. I wanted the Bose Acoustimass speakers forever but couldn't bear dropping a G on them. I also wanted to stay in the "bookshelf" size speaker as it suited my set up better. So I decided to try these for less than half the price of the Bose. I figured I could return them if they didn't thrill me. Short story....they did.

I was floored by the fullness of the sound. They hit the highs, mids, and lows like a champ. I like to use the action bits on Terminator 3 to test out new recievers and speakers and these really impressed me with a huge wall of sound. I knew they were good when I got excited while watching a movie I'd seen so many times before. It was almost like listening to it for the first time. I also popped in some cd's and I swear I heard things in some of my music that I've never heard before.

I'd heard those Bose speakers a dozen times at Comp USA and Best Buy and really do feel these are better for a full sound. The Bose do the highs an mids really well but not the lows. These are designed to be the total package with their horn/tweeter design and they certainly perform as such. They can actually be used without a subwoofer, which is good for people who don't like the booming and rumbling that subs provide. Klipsch suggest their own subs(of course) but I felt the price was a little rich for my blood, so I use a $100 Sony powered sub and it works just fine.

They look and feel like they're made from good quality materials. In fact, I accidently dropped one from 2 1/2 feet onto a wooden floor (oops) and it was completely intact without any marks and still works perfectly. The posts on the back of the speakers make speaker wire attachment a snap. You just unscrew the cap, the wire goes through the middle of the post, then you tighten the cap back down. No problemo. A great feature. They also make placement and mounting easy as you can sit them on a shelf, like in the picture, or flip the stand part back to mount on a wall. They also pivot to point in most any angle you'd want. The center speaker doesn't though.

There are only a couple of slight negatives here. The center speaker sounds a little boxey. It could use some more treble as it leans a little more towards the mid range. Since the majority of dialog comes from the center speaker, I wanted a little more sharpness. This is minor though and doesn't hinder the experience at all. The other is the balancing. Pairing them with my new reciever to find the best sound was a bit tricky. Again, these are very slight negatives and shouldn't deter you from looking into these fabulous speakers. I'm just trying to be as honest as I can here. I never once thought of returning them though.

Klipsch has a great reputation in the audio world and touts these as their best selling compact speaker system. These are a great deal for the price as they sound huge and like they should cost alot more. If you're starting to get serious about your audio for your home theater, there's nothing else out there that's gonna top these at their size and price. Believe me, I looked.

Recently was over a friend's house and noticed that he had a Bose system and was impressed with the sound. I had a Sony HTIB set up that I was not too crazy about but had to compromise because my wife is particular on how things look and will compromise perfomance. I decided to upgrade my system, but I wanted to do this without spending Bose money. I went with a Yamaha RX-V663 receiver and paired it with the Klipsch speakers. The results were beyond my expectations. The clarity of the sound was outstanding. The lows really come thru these speakers well. My wife's jaw dropped when she heard the results. I recommend people to do the research and check out these speakers. Most people see the name "Bose" and buy into the name because of there exposure on TV and magazine adds. I believe I have better sound than a bose system for a fraction of the cost.

I bought this from Ebay brand new for only about 359.00 dollars. What's nice is that even at a low volume you can hear a full range of sound. High end sound for a low end price. I'm sure if you have a very large living room you can stick all four speakers in the rear for 7.1 and buy a pair of large floor Klipsch speakers for the Front Right and Left. Perhaps a larger center channel if you're more than 10-15 feet from your screen. For my apartment living room these are perfect though. As I run on I should also mention that the built wall mounts are awesome! You can tilt the rear speakers inward if your couch is against the wall.

First off, if you want big sound, you need big speakers. Ever been to a rock concert powered by some small cube speakers?

That being said, and if you're married, you cannot have rock concert size speakers in your wife's living room. Men consider these fine pieces of furniture, women consider them ugly. This leads to compromises, and this review, incidentally...

These speakers are heavy and have a build quality and heft that makes them feel as if they were made out of "metal and brawn" to borrow a quote from Anchorman. This can sometimes mean that the magnets used to drive the cones are substantial and capable of more excursion and hence, volume. Or it means they could have put lead weights in them. I'll go with better quality magnets, though that alone does not guarantee great sound quality.

To make the most of this system you need to do several things, and I think the sound achieved with respect to the footprint they take up to be a great value, especially under 3 bills. First, they don't come with any speaker wire. I would not feed them with anything LESS than 14 gauge, oxygen free, pure copper speaker wire. It can be had cheap, and no, monster is not worth the money. Second, you need a subwoofer. It doesn't really matter which one, just get one and then spend some time setting the low pass frequency to a level that suits your ears. If you listen to music, set it to your favorite song that has a wide range of frequencies, preferably those in the lower range. If you listen to mainly movies and TV, slap in transformers and adjust until the explosions are good and thundery, but not so much that Optimus Prime's voice only comes from the sub. This had less to do with these Klipsch speakers than it does your subwoofer and amplifier/receiver. Oh, and those that say the best place to put a sub is to put the subwoofer in your recliner, play a soundtrack and walk around the room until you find the best spot for bass, then move the subwoofer to that spot - you must be single. My sub is as out of sight as can be, but that shouldn't stop anyone from getting it setup to their liking. Once you have the sub to your liking, take the time to get the speakers in phase and sized according to your receiver. Most receivers have active feedback mics now, but if you don't, try to keep your matched speakers (front and rear channel) with the same length and ga. speaker wire, and experiment with adjusting the angle of the speakers with respect to your listening area. You'd be amazed at how sounds bounce off stuff, and how that affects your perceived quality of speakers.

You should now have a fantastic sounding, small footprint, weighty and stylish surround sound setup for a great price. But there are a couple gripes I have. A lot of people mention the wall mount pedestals slip and the speakers droop over time. Poor choice on Klipsch's part to use a smooth, shiny, articulated ball to mount the pedestal with. It is very fixable, though. There are 3 allen screws that locate the articulated ball to the speaker. So tighten them, but keep in mind the surround is plastic, and not metal, so don't go crazy. This fixed my sagging issue in about 10 seconds and they even include the allen key. If that still doesn't work, you could remove the mount and scuff up the metal ball with some rough grit sandpaper, reassemble and that should lock them in place rock solid. The one thing that bugs me the most is the complete lack of any speaker wire pass through provision on the mount. You cannot have a completely "clean" wall mount since you must pass the speaker wire around the wall mount and you will have about 2" of visible speaker wire leading to the binding post on the rear of the speaker. Yes, I could drill a hole in the base metal and plastic, but I shouldn't have to, and if I ever decide to move them and use the wall mount as a base stand, the hole will be visible if I drill through it. Keep in mind the center channel does not have a wall mount! I have enough room under my TV to simply lay the center ch speaker on my entertainment center, but it should come with a provision to wall or high mount it for those that must put their center channel above their TV. The center channel speaker appears to have a threaded female fitting for those that want to get creative if needs be, though I do not know the thread pitch or diameter since I didn't mess with it.

And the last thing, if you are wall mounting them, remove the four phillips screws and the insert under the base, and use it as a template to mount all your screw holes. You only have to remove it from one speaker to drill all your holes, then put it back on and you are guaranteed to be able to slide your wall mounts on without any issues. I hope this lengthy review has helped.

I got the Quintet's last week and hooked them up with my old Sony STR-DE925. Honestly, I was not all that impressed with how they sounded. I decided, however, that the problem was probably not the speakers given all the great reviews they got. Since my Sony receiver was a bit old in the tooth, I decided to buy a new surround sound receiver to bring out the best in the Quintet's. I promptly purchased the Onkyo HT-RC160 7.2 channel receiver for $340 on Amazon since it fit my budget and had all of the latest and greatest connectivity. Once I hooked these bad boys up along with my Velodyne 10" sub and ran the speaker calibration program that comes with the receiver, I immediately found out why these speakers were rated so well.

These speakers have absolutely great sound quality for their size. My family room now sounds like a movie theater when you are listening to a 5.1 channel soundtrack! The clarity is great at all listening levels. I put a Pearl Jam CD in to see how loud they would go, and lets just say that I did not get to the max volume on the receiver before I feared for my eardrums well being! Even at a ridiculously loud volume, these speakers still sounded incredibly clear.

They also look as good as they sound. They fit right in with my 52" Samsung LCD which makes my wife a happy camper. I know the newer model of these speakers comes with a gloss black finish, but I think these look great with the matte black/gray finish. I can't see paying twice the price right now for a glossy finish.

If you are even considering buying these speakers, I would do it now if you don't want to pay more for the newer model. At these prices ($250), they won't last long!

I have had these for about a year now. I love them. To me they are the best "compact" speakers in this price range for BOTH music and movies. However, that being said, NOTHING will sound as big as a tower speaker. With speakers, bigger IS better. But these are a great compromise between size and sound.

[...]

1. That 200 watt spec is PEAK wattage rating. RMS is only 50, 75 for the center. I have the Pioneer 1018 (110 rms per channel) and the Quint's hold up just fine.

2. I had to laugh with that "High-output woofers deliver room-filling bass" feature. !?! These will deliver anything but. The frequency response of the 3.5" woofer is as low as 120hz. Tower speakers with 6-8" cones will produce lows around 50-60 hz, and a sub around 28-40 hz. (roughly) I use the Bic Acoustech H-100.

3. They do sell extra speakers. Around 7/2008 Klipsch said they were $84 each shipped by calling their parts department at 800-554-7724 x1048 8am-5pm Mon-Fri EDT. They have recently started selling Quints in pairs through their website. $200 pair. [...]

4. The Sanus Systems EF-SATB are good stands but you have to put spacers in the stand so that the speakers sit upright. The brackets that r included with the stand are not for this model of Quintets and will cause the speaker to sit back and likely shoot sound over your head. My Center is mounted on the wall with a simple plastic speaker mount and has held just fine. [...]

5. [UPDATE 3-25-10]
I have upgraded to the Reference series Klipsch speakers. Rf-62 fronts with RC-62 center. I kept all of my Quintet surrounds to form the 7.1. Still going strong.

I have a 10 year old pair of Klipsch floorstandings for my living room and I love them. Thus, when I was ready to complete the sound system for my new projector based home theater, I was looking for an affordable way to set up a surround sound system. The price was right but my biggest concern was the possible lack of lowend punch due to their size. Based on my audiophile friend's recommendation I paired the speakers with a good quality 10 inch HSU sub. Using my Denon reciever with the sub crossover set at 110 hz, I dont feel that I am missing anything either for movies or music purposes. My audiophile buddy (who has a $5,000+ speaker set-up)was even really impressed. Sure there are better speakers, but based on the price, you would need to spend substantially more to begin to realize any significant sound advatages.

I have owned a top end JBL system and the Quintet III. While they do not really compare in terms of sound quality or depth, the Klipsch system is a far better value, especially if you buy at Amazon. $248 for 5 Klipsch speakers is like stealing!

I sold my JBL's due to space restraints but kept the sub woofer. The Quintet system mated to a good subwoofer is all you need to enjoy cable broadcast or movies. The voices and surround effects are very good, and the sub fills in the punch you need to really enjoy the listening experience. An audiophile would turn up his/her nose at this set up, but it is more than most of us need for everyday TV enjoyment. I have never looked back . . .

Just got my quintets. Always wanted them since I heard the version 2's a few years ago. After reading many reviews with everyone saying they love them I decided to pull the trigger.

Pros: Nice small foot print, built in sattelite mounting plates already built in/on, crisp clean highs, excellent sound.

Cons: It's not really a con, but more an FYI. It doesn't get mentioned much. But you need a SUB with these. They are meant to delivery quality sound not blow the windows out. So if you crank them to get a punch, don't, get a sub for the bottom end punch.

Well, at the risk of sounding from pre-dinosaur age, I must tell you that I have never owned a Home Theater System before. So I did research all options - the standard HTiB from Sony/Samsung etc, the all famous BOSE and few other niche players like Polk and Infinity. I must say it was quite an experience.

I liked the looks of HTiBs but they were not holding up on sound quality and moreover I already had HD - Cable box and Sony PS3. No more DVD players for me!! I was hell bent on buying Bose because of all their marketing campaigns that I have been seeing for last 15 years. In the end as usual I was ready to give up my search for Home Theater as the ones from Bose were starting at $2000.

Then one day I came across a review of Bose system and realized that there are better players in the market like Klipsch, Polk etc etc. At the first impression, I felt that they will be equally or more expensive than Bose - given the fact that they claim better sound quality and all.

But then I found Quintet III - especially from Amazon !!! Costed me $229 and the sound quality just blew me away. I was sick of taking demos at Best Buy so I just ordered them hoping the best. I found other pieces of the puzzle (A/V receives and Subwoofer) on Amazon and could assemble an excellent Home Theater in less than $600.

The day I set it up: I was jumping like a baby (ask my wife). The small Quintet III speakers fit neatly in my 20 X 18 living room and the fact that it has 18' ceiling didn't matter at all. The first movie I saw on it was Death Race and I can say it was the best movie experience I could ask for. The clarity of sound from the little speakers even at high volumes was amazing. Infact, I used this system for setting up a Home DJ for New Years Eve party and it was a huge success.

I would highly recommend this system to people trying to setup individual pieces of Home theater. Hope the review was helpful.