Tag Archives: Fives

"The Fives prove that the left and right channels beat most sound bars and look great at the same time."

• Powerful, balanced, real stereo sound

• Excellent multimedia audio experience

• Stellar Phantom Center Canal

• Beautiful design

• Multiple connection options

• May not fit in every home theater setup

The soundbar was designed as a simple plug-and-play solution to provide good audio quality in a simple device that didn't ask you to do a degree in audio design at the local community college. Since then, sound bars have dominated home theater audio and displaced loudspeakers in most households.

But Klipsch disagrees that the sound bar is the best and only option here. It is believed that a soundbar cannot deliver high quality stereo sound because it is limited by a single speaker in the middle. Instead of doing what was popular, Klipsch decided to create The Fives, a $ 799 response to the soundbar craze.

Are you clapping back successfully? Let's go into that.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

Stylish and attractive

Sound bars have a consistent problem. They are not the most attractive devices. With rare exceptions like the Bose Soundbar 700, they are generally huge blocks of black plastic. Even in the case of the Bose, which looks pretty good, soundbars rarely work alongside the living room decor. Black is not the dominant color in my particular home setup and can conflict with the white and wood accents in my living room.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

Although you can get The Fives in black, I was delighted to see that walnut is also a color option. It's just that my media stand has a walnut veneer and The Fives looks great on it. They fit in so well that they go into my media setup unless you try to notice the speakers.

Overall, the Fives kill it with their aesthetics.

For most active bookshelf style speakers, the device with all controls and cable inputs must be a specific speaker, either the left or the right speaker (in my experience, it is usually the right speaker). While I've set it up with the main speaker as the right speaker, the fives have a switch on the back of the main speaker that allows you to switch between left and right. Where the main controls and cables lead is entirely up to you and your setup.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

There are two dials on top of the main speaker, one for tactile volume control (if you wish) and the other for switching connection options. None of these dials are required because all of these functions can be accessed via the infrared remote control. Still, it's nice to have them as an option and they feel good. They have a wide design, a serrated handle and a slightly notched feel, which makes them remarkably satisfactory.

Overall, the Fives kill it with their aesthetics. In my opinion, they look better than any soundbar I've come across.

The five: Connected

The Fives offer easy connectivity to your TV as they are the first stereo bookshelf speakers to offer HDMI ARC compatibility. Setting up is as easy as connecting a soundbar.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

In addition to HDMI ARC, The Fives also support optics, Bluetooth, phono, USB and aux via a mini jack. There is also an output socket for an optional subwoofer. Thanks to the numerous options, you can connect your audio-specific device like a turntable. Switching between these devices is very easy using the above-mentioned setting wheel or the remote control.

It is clear that Klipsch is an audio company that is used to catering to the needs of music fans and that the connection options will definitely come through.

Two are better than one

Sound bars do a decent job with stereo sound, but even if they have the left and right surround speakers that come with some devices, your primary audio will come from a middle-weighted source. Single soundbar solutions like the Bose Soundbar 700 and Sonos Arc do their best to deceive your ears that there is a large gap between the soundbar drivers if this is not the case. However, digital tricks can only go so far.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

Klipsch intends to use The Fives as a soundbar alternative for people who enjoy the simple plug-and-play nature of soundbars but crave better stereo sound. Because The Fives divides their left and right channels into physically separate speakers, you have complete freedom to distribute The Fives to the sides of your TV, regardless of their size, and enjoy the benefits of this true separation.

Where sound bars try to restore sound from the left and right, The Fives have to recreate the sound of a center. This "phantom center channel" is reproduced extremely well in my tests. I was on both sides of my 65-inch Sony TV and felt covered in sound. Even though there is no actual center channel, my ears believe that they are listening to audio directly from me, like from the center of my TV.

The Fives do something that only a few sound bars can successfully achieve – they deliver fantastic home theater sound.

The result is an audio experience that delivers great studio sound without loss. The Fives offer fantastic home theater sound, engaging and impressive video game audio and great music. If you use your home entertainment center as a real multimedia hub, The Fives can meet this demand.

Avengers: Endgame felt like a theater experience when the rumble of Thanos' army crashed into the Avengers, leaving me almost breathless with the clarity and depth of the bass.

Playing The Last of Us: Part II was a comprehensive experience. Every step, every whistle, every dog ​​bark and every infected click radiated from a certain direction on the screen and allowed me to get lost in the gameplay.

The survival of Jimmy Eat World, the dark necessities of the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Lady Gaga's stupid love were all beautifully reproduced. I will go into the details in the next section on how best to set up The Fives. However, once you select them, you will be rewarded with an exceptionally balanced sound.

The Fives really showed their skills with the volume. At the lower volumes, the sound output between the channels was much less pronounced and possibly somewhat cloudy. When I used them at these low volumes, the Fives felt like driving a Lamborghini at the speed limit in a school zone. Sure, it can go slowly, but that's not really the point.

The Fives also want to be pushed and driven to top speed. Turn up the fives a little and you will be blessed with the best they can offer. Not only do they get loud (although yes, they get incredibly loud), they become a better listening experience as the volume increases.

Balance the bass

Since The Fives are a speaker pair, their placement is important. Most people don't leave much space between a wall and a media console to save space in the room or to hide cables. In most cases, the fives will not shine to the fullest.

These are ported speakers, which means that the lion's share of the bass comes from behind and is reflected by the wall. A certain distance is required to bring the low frequencies into phase (time alignment) with the mids and highs. To maximize their effectiveness, you should give these speakers about a foot and a half to work. When pressed closer, the perceived strength of the bass will overwhelm the mids, making it sound like these mids are below average.

When you have this kind of space, you can pump The Fives bass to the max and get serious power out of them. It won't be the mere rumble factor of a dedicated submarine, but it will effectively round off music and cinema.

If you don't have enough space, you can still enjoy high quality bass. You must use Klipsch's Bass Boost feature, which is enabled by default on The Fives. Bass Boost is a function that increases the performance of the bass. Between switching on and off, I strongly recommend leaving it switched on.

Since the bass was set to maximum, but the bass boost was switched off, the fives did not give me enough power in the depths to satisfy me (regardless of their placement distance). But if this option is activated, the speakers only need to have a bass volume of 50% in order to produce a very even, balanced audio at closer distances.

If you crave deeper bass and don't have enough room to give The Fives space to breathe, you can attach an optional sub. The fives recognize when a sub has been connected and automatically send all lows to the sub, with the entire performance of these main drivers dedicated to the mids.

Decorate your ears with excellent sound quality

I tested this with the Klipsch R-100SW subwoofer, a mid-priced 10-inch subwoofer, and the result literally rocked the foundation of my house with rumbling, chest-rattling basses while being blasted with one of the most beautifully balanced sounds I could think of can imagine. Music was a powerful beneficiary that the sub was added to this arrangement. It should be noted that if you choose a sub with The Fives, it needs to be wired.

The difference between using and not using a submarine is obvious, but I'm happy with the performance of The Fives. At least they match a single soundbar solution and in many cases exceed it.

At the start and until later this year, there is no way to optimize The Fives with app support. According to Klipsch, an app is in the works and should be available before the end of 2020.

No Dolby decoding required

The Fives do not support Dolby decoding. So if you're like me and channel all your content through something like the Roku Ultra, you'll need to go into the Roku's audio settings and switch it to PCM instead of the default. If you don't, content sent in Dolby Digital or Dolby Atmos will not deliver audio. Netflix & # 39; Dark and Avengers: Endgame, which is streamed over Vudu, are two examples of this.

You might think at first that this is a disadvantage of The Fives, but au contraire it is not. A Dolby Atmos soundbar with real drivers is nice, but not yet a standard, and we don't hold it against a specific sound system if it doesn't support it. By default, Dolby Digital does not need this signal because it does not require separation of the audio channel information. The fives do not have to decode the subwoofer, the center, the surrounds or the like. You get two-channel digital audio playback with full bandwidth via PCM. This is all The Fives need to decorate your ears with excellent sound quality.

Jaron Schneider | Digital trends

Our opinion

The Fives are the dream of an audiophile in a soundbar killer. Not only will you outperform a single soundbar solution, you will also give soundbar systems with multiple speakers a chance. If you're interested in the quality of your home theater sound, the price of $ 799 is fair. The fives kill in every situation.

Is there a better alternative?

If you are looking for real left and right monitors that can be easily combined with your TV setup via HDMI ARC and without an A / V receiver, The Fives are currently your only option. They are the first and only speaker set to fill this role.

If you're open to soundbars, both the Sonos Arc and Bose Soundbar 700 are good choices. The Sonos Arc is the only sound bar in this price range that supports Dolby Atmos. All three are like The Fives in that they don't come with the included submarine, but still offer excellent sound quality.

How long will they last?

All active Klipsch speakers come with a one-year warranty, but you should expect them to last much longer. Klipsch is a respected brand and The Fives should offer you sound quality for at least a decade, if not more.

Should you buy them

Yes. They are an absolute home run and you will want them.

Editor's recommendations