There can be some hardness in the upper midrange level that can be bothersome to some people with vocals. It depends on the amplifier. If you go ahead with warmer sources and amplifiers, the issue will not come up, and you will think they are unbelievable. Pros and Cons Pros It's one of the 'Marmite' products that you are either going to love... or not. Superficially, it's a bouncy, zesty sort of performer that definitely causes you to sit up on the sofa and pay attention to the music. At the same time, it's a little uneven sounding. There's a bump that makes the upper bass sound a tad more gutsy than perhaps it should given the size of the loudspeaker, and the tweeter is typically lively and, on occasions, even hard-sounding. I found the RP-600M easy enough to position, although you don't want it too close to a boundary wall, for it needs at least 50cm of breathing space for optimum bass performance. A slight toe-in helped sharpen-up the stereo imaging too. Otherwise it's equally unfussy about the partnering amplifier. I used a beefy Cambridge Audio Edge W but discovered it was just as happy on the end of Icon Audio's Stereo 40 valve amp [ HFN May '19]. In both cases, a Chord Hugo 2 DAC [ HFN Aug '18] was employed as my main source. STRONG, FLEXIBLE, REMOVABLE GRILLE - Attaches magnetically for an elegant transition from powerful showstopper to discrete performance piece.

RP-600M II Bookshelf Speakers | Klipsch RP-600M II Bookshelf Speakers | Klipsch

Paul W. Klipsch founds Klipsch and Associates, and patents his design for the famous Klipschorn corner loudspeaker. This original design, along with Peter Walker's original Quad electrostatic loudspeaker (1957), marked the beginnings of high-fidelity home audio as we know it today. The illustrious Quad ESL was discontinued in 1985. At the Klipsch factory in Hope, Arkansas, the legendary Klipschorn is still being manufactured, 73 years after its launch. Horn loading accomplishes two things. First, a horn's restricted throat mechanically loads the dome (or cone). This restrictive loading creates a region of high pressure that a horn whose flare is of a certain length and rate of expansion can effectively convert to a large, pulsing wavefront at normal atmospheric pressure. This elegant form of tuned acoustic impedance matching not only makes a horn speaker more sensitive to voltage, it reduces the amount of diaphragm excursion required to produce a given sound-pressure level (SPL), thereby linearizing the system and reducing distortion. Within their designated passbands, horns can be incredibly linear and low-distortion—especially at very low and very high SPLs, where conventional direct-radiating speakers compress and distort. Footnote 1: Mix Staff, " 1925: Chester Rice & Edward Kellogg, General Electric Co. Modern Dynamic Loudspeaker." Mix, September 1, 2007. The RP-600M efficiency is rated at 96db, which is pretty high. One can easily drive them with a lesser-powered amp or a receiver and even then have the room around you filled with huge sound. Performance I had a slight preference for the sound of the RP-600Ms with their magnetically attached grilles in place, but my review observations were made without grilles.

🍪 Privacy & Transparency

Because on and off-axis response is similar, we get the same shape graph as our spinorama on-axis with a bit of tilt down which we can all appreciate.

Klipsch Reference Premiere RP-600M loudspeaker Klipsch Reference Premiere RP-600M loudspeaker

Klipsch Cerametallic™ cones are matted to a dual-layer, copper-wound voice coil for exceptional conductivity. Titanium dome tweeters have been out of fashion for a while now. Yet the Klipsch’s 25mm unit is aided and abetted by Tractrix horn loading, and proves a game changer. It’s a Klipsch trademark and here it confers greater sensitivity upon the tweeter and helps sound propagate out into the room better. At 1.5kHz it crosses over to the mid/bass unit, which looks very colourful with its 165mm spun copper Cerametallic cone. This is claimed to be stiffer and less prone to break up than conventional cones. Seems like the tweeter starts roll-off well before the crossover frequency. Maybe they need to crossover this low because the woofer is horrible. Can't think of any other good reasons.Directivity (on and off-axis similarity) looks very good though. In theory then, that dip would be one we can fill in with equalization. Since I have to score the speaker as designed, it gets my worst rating of "stay away." If you have ability to EQ, and you better do if you are hanging around this forum, then you have a good offering. NEW AND IMPROVED INPUT PANEL - Featuring audiophile-grade wire and easily accessible aluminum binding posts. Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room. Fun but flawed is a good way to describe Klipsch’s RP-600M – with the caveat, of course, being that every speaker is the latter, but not all are the former. Rather like an American muscle car, it has a delightfully simple, unselfconscious love of life – it’s there to enjoy things, whatever. Many will like this little loudspeaker, but it isn’t as universally appealing as some of its more mainstream price rivals, so it’s important you try before you buy. DP

Klipsch RP-600M Speaker Review - Audio Science Review (ASR) Forum Klipsch RP-600M Speaker Review - Audio Science Review (ASR) Forum

Enter the LXminis. INSTANT sweetness! Without having to break anything in…or out. Even SWMBO fell in love with them. Of course, the downside of that is now I've got to share listening time. :( You can just set them down for great sound quality, but it is even better when you set them up. Once you spend some time with these beauties, you will understand why they are getting so much attention and appreciation from the internet folks! Final Verdict I'm not a fan of these speakers, as I find them too recessed in the mids and too hot on top. However, that being said, ASR's measurements show a big 5db dip between 1 and 3khz, while John's show a much smaller 2db dip between 1 and 2 khz. Who do you trust, a rich guy who bought a Klippel system and now thinks he's the world's premier loudspeaker expert (who's only been measuring speakers since 2020), or John, who's been doing this for decades? I know my answer.A vented tweeter design reduces standing waves behind the tweeter diaphragm for a smoother high frequency reproduction. The woofers used with the RP-600M are Cerametallic woofers that measure six and a half inches. They are stiff and rigid, being an excellent material of choice considering low distortion as a requirement. Klipsch makes use of the pillar-controlled directivity in the design of the tweeter. Why does this matter? At the price that this speaker is available at, the Klipsch RP-600M can be an overachiever with the help of the right electronic gadgets. If you connect these speakers to a good tube amplifier, a beautiful match is made in electronics heaven. At least the vertical directivity is consistent with the horizontal directivity. And we can say at least we won't be afraid of treble reflections. I presume spinorama already takes those into account when generating the in-room frequency response.