Klipsch The Fives aim to take on Soundbars
Those who don’t want to be surrounded by loudspeakers in their TV room often opt for the soundbar compromise. But since few soundbars produce convincing surround sound, why not just go for high-quality stereo speakers?
That seems to be the reasoning behind The Fives, new powered monitors from US loudspeaker firm Klipsch. We can’t argue with that logic. Good stereo speakers are always going to beat a soundbar for quality.
Given their focus, it’s no surprise that the Klipsch The Fives are fitted with a HDMI connection that supports ARC – the Audio Return Channel. That allows a connected TV to feed its sound back to the speakers via the HDMI cable. For those with older TVs which don’t support ARC, an optical digital audio input is also provided.
But The Fives aren’t limited to working with a TV. That optical input could equally be used with the optical output on a CD player or some other source. There’s also a phono input (switchable between phono and line-level), a regular 3.5mm analogue input and a connection for computers to use The Fives act an audio output device for both Windows and Mac computers. High-resolution audio up to 24 bits and 192kHz sampling is supported. And of course, you can connect your phone using Bluetooth.
Klipsch has a reputation for quality and a very long heritage in high-efficiency loudspeakers. The Fives each incorporate a 25mm titanium dome tweeter, loaded with a large Tractrix horn, and a 114mm high excursion woofer. The horn increases system efficiency so that the speakers can deliver more sound from less power. Not that that’s in short supply, with 60 watts available for each woofer and 20 watts for each tweeter.
Retro styling has long been a hallmark of some Klipsch loudspeakers, with some models in what is now known as the Heritage Series having been continuously on the market since the late 1940s. The Fives hark back to that with their tweedy grills and real wood veneers. One of the speakers is active – you choose between left and right – while the other is passive. A four-metre cable is provided to connect them. Volume and input selection controls are on the top of the active speaker.
The Klipsch The Fives will be available from early July 2020 through authorised Klipsch retailers, priced at $799 per pair.
For more information visit Klipsch
Marc Rushton
StereoNET’s Founder and Publisher was born in England and raised on British Hi-Fi before moving to Australia. He developed an early love of music and playing bass guitar before discovering the studio and the other side of the mixing desk. After writing for print magazines, Marc saw the future in digital publishing and founded the first version of StereoNET in 1999.
Posted in: Lifestyle
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