09 Jul
Blog

Klipsch The Fives Review: The Soundbar Killer

klipsch the fives review active speaker 6

"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




02 Mar
Blog

Samsung Galaxy Buds+ Review: Slick, Simple, Killer Battery

"With improved audio and a continuing commitment to convenience and ease of use, Samsung has done a lot more to improve the quality of its real wireless buds."

  • 11 hours of battery life

  • Comfortable, light design

  • Additional accessories for an ideal fit

  • Stellar customization app

  • The charging case contains only one charge

Sequels don't always have to be worse than the original. The Terminator 2 was the blockbuster of its predecessor in every way, and Red Dead Redemption 2 was a masterpiece. Now it seems Samsung's new real wireless earbuds could be one of the success stories of the second edition.

Samsung's Galaxy Buds + were unveiled at the company's Galaxy Unpacked event on February 11 and were available for sale on the Samsung website for $ 150 three days later. Judging by the modest price increase of the original Galaxy Buds ($ 129) and the look and functionality of the new buds, it's clear that Samsung knew the wheel didn't need to be reinvented. The company just needed to make some improvements and keep prices low enough to be a serious competitor to Apple AirPods.

The verdict on the G-Buds + is: The latest products from Samsung are just right.

Let's go

As has become the standard for brands like Samsung and Apple, packaging, accessories and the actual Galaxy Buds + adhere to a less-is-more-aesthetic. Opening the compact white box reveals an even more compact, pill-shaped charging case with the buds embedded in it. Also included are a USB charging cable, two additional pairs of earplugs and sports fins, and a quick start guide to guide you through the setup.

The setup is pretty painless by the way. Most major brands have finally made this a simple science, and Samsung is no exception. However, those who are not yet familiar with Samsung wearables have to go through some digital frames.

Riley Young / Digital Trends

First, you want to download the Galaxy Wearable app and give the app access to your phone. Next, download the Galaxy Buds + plug-in, allow a few more permissions for the buds themselves, and the buds will automatically connect to your device when you open the charging case.

From there, the next step pulls the buds out of the case and fits them in your ear.

The buds were a bit small for me with their initial earplugs because the seal didn't feel safe in my ears. After swapping larger tips, I found them to be as comfortable as their predecessors, with an extremely lightweight construction that would almost make you forget that they were there, if not the sound emanating from their double drivers.

That's a lot of battery

One of the biggest improvements that Samsung touted for its new buds was the improved battery, which it claims has a playtime of 11 hours between charges. With the original Galaxy Buds, it's 6 hours and miles away from the company's first pair of buds, the Gear IconX.

In fact, we still have to try a pair with a longer battery life per charge. They offer more than twice the playing time of Apple's more expensive AirPods (including the second-generation pair and AirPods Pro for $ 250). Unlike the AirPods, the Galaxy Buds + only offers a single charge in the case. However, since it is 11 hours per recording, playback is almost a full day and just under Apple's 24 hours.

The lifespan of these buds is as excellent as stated, but there is an interesting quirk.

In terms of this battery life requirement, the life of these buds is as excellent as stated, but there is an interesting quirk. The app offers you charging status for each bud as well as the charging case itself. I noticed that my right bud ran out of juice faster than the left one. It was a little difference, usually no more than two or three percent at a time. It's a puzzling feature, though not entirely surprising – we've noticed the same thing with older Samsung earbuds, including the Galaxy IconX 2018.

Custom grade

The Galaxy Buds + have standard programmed gestures for the touchpads of each bud. Touch once to play or pause music, tap twice to go to the next track, answer / end calls, and tap three times to go backward.

We feel obliged to point out that all these gestures failed on this first pass with these buds. However, after disconnecting and reconnecting, each gesture worked smoothly and has continued since then. We should also mention that a colleague had another pair of Galaxy Buds + in the office and had no problems with the controls.

Some other touch controls are also available. You can use the app to determine which earbuds control functions such as voice commands, switch ambient sounds on and off, switch playlists in Spotify and increase or decrease the volume. In our tests, each of these controls worked perfectly.

Riley Young / Digital Trends

In terms of Spotify, the integration here is both compelling and just makes us ask for a little more. With a long press on the Galaxy Buds + touchpad, Spotify continues to play the most recently played playlist. Another long press and the buds will go to the next playlist in your collection, although there doesn't seem to be a way to determine what that will be. This could be a playlist you created, a “Daily Mix” playlist curated by Spotify based on your listening habits, or a recently listened to playlist. It definitely kept us musically busy, and frankly that's not a bad thing, but more direction when switching between playlists wouldn't be bad either.

Sound and call quality

With two dynamic drivers – a woofer and a tweeter – as well as a new speaker and microphone system from the Samsung subsidiary AKG, the company has described its new buds as being able to produce studio-quality sound.

We wouldn't go that far and we wouldn't expect that at $ 150 either. Frankly, studio quality is a buzzword that shouldn't be used for any kind of wireless earphones.

The Galaxy Buds + immediately sounded clearer to our ears than the AirPods.

However, what we would say for the money is that the Galaxy Buds + present a very appealing sound stage with decent bass and a clear upper register. The app offers several equalizer presets that allow you to customize the sound to your liking.

For most tracks, from Blues Traveler & # 39; s Hook to Maroon 5 & # 39; s Girls Like You, the "dynamic" equalizer setting produced the best overall sound, avoiding the sometimes flat-sounding "normal" setting and less Brightness was offered as a "height boost". For us, this dynamic environment was the sweet spot. A few choices sounded a bit unnatural (I can think of a few classic rock songs), but for the most part, this setting best combined vocal clarity and unmixed instrumental music.

The Galaxy Buds + immediately sounded clearer to our ears than the AirPods, although they weren't as detailed or defined as the beautiful AirPods Pro. The latter has active noise cancellation, a feature that Samsung's wireless offerings have missed. At the price, however, it makes sense that the Galaxy Buds + left out the technology. The only earphones under $ 200 that have noise protection features are the Amazon Echo Buds, and even these only offer active noise reduction instead of full cancellation.

Riley Young / Digital Trends

For what it's worth, the Samsung Galaxy Buds + make a commendable contribution to suppressing outside noise.

With regard to the call quality, we are happy to report after a few test runs that the calls are received clearly and without great distortion from the outside environment. Voices on the other end sounded somewhat distant in some places, but it was minimal.

warranty information

Samsung's 12-month warranty covers defects in materials and workmanship.

Our opinion

If the Galaxy Buds + kept the same as the original Galaxy Buds and simply doubled the battery life, it would still be an improvement that is worth the cost. With improved audio and a continuous commitment to comfort and ease of use, Samsung has done a lot more to improve the quality of its real wireless buds.

Is there a better alternative?

While the Galaxy Buds + certainly offers more than enough features to hold its own against more expensive competitors, the $ 200 1More Wireless ANC and the $ 200 Jabra Elite 75t would be solid alternatives without breaking the bank completely. The Air Pods from Apple and the Echo Buds from Amazon also fit in the same category as the Galaxy Buds +. Depending on the ecosystem you are already invested in, both may be preferable.

Still, it's hard to find earphones that can do everything the Samsung Galaxy Buds + can do at this price.

How long it will take?

Samsung's products are generally a long-lived breed, and these Galaxy Buds + shouldn't be an exception. With replaceable earplugs and fins, they seem to be well equipped for the long haul.

Should you buy it

Yes. Samsung's successor to the original Galaxy Bud introduces groundbreaking battery life into the landscape of real wireless earphones, optimizes already solid audio performance and maintains an attractive price. This is a formula for success in our book.

Editor's recommendations