Klipsch Promedia 2.1, I AM DISAPPOINT - feel free to share your view too.

[Hype S]

I really wish there was a nice stereo shop near here, but it's either ghetto 1000W sub shop or $10,000 home theater shop so nothing for a college student

I was surprised to find out that my car, actually has more clarity and balanced sound output than klipsch OEM satellites (sub off) and wishing I could just replace the pair of drivers and call it a day since klipsch sub is more than I need/want.

 

[thee_prisoner]

Where do you live? Even a high end shop would be willing to work with you. Most of these guys are audio junkies and would help you out.
Kinda sound like you are going to Columbia University. heh

 

[Hype S]

._. you're not supposed to guess that close. USC. South Carolina.

Well, these sats are 35W peak each.. so I guess I'll try to find a used speaker with 50 max or something with nice sensitivity (highly sensitive)

 

[B SD]

First mistake...you severely underestimate their true potential. you have to break them in.. it takes about a week (you can use white noise or just run them at 30% power and leave the sub knob on the indicated dot). second, you have them laying on their sides of course your not even gonna hear them right cause you in properly placed them and caused a serious decrease in sound quality due to the vibration that will now cause the horn and tweeters to be damaged. The sound waves alone are also reduced. ALL speakers need to have a base or a mount, there is a reason for that. Read the owner's manual.
I have owned my pair of Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 for seven years now...before they took away the mini-plug in the back of the sats. They are VERY powerful speakers among the many I have heard. Logitech or Bose don't got a damm thing on them. Other brands mentioned have equally powerful sound, some have better. I would say Klipsch has the best base I have ever heard in the 150-200 price range (in some cases they are better than the 500.00 ones) and about a 7/8 on the clarity scale. It is most def worth the price tag.

 

[ssddx]

@b sd

i dare say i must disagree. i've owned the set and the speakers were vastly overpowered by the included subwoofer even at the lowest setting. as far as overall volume is concerned they were perhaps equal to a set which cost not even half as much.

i ended up buying klipsch home theater system speakers instead which were much better.

 

[Hype S]

So, the speakers should be broken in nicely by now with their original feet attached,,, nope. very small improvement but still doesn't justify price range in 100's.

If these are 7/8 on clarity, Focal KRW165s are 20/8 lol

 

[ruzveh]

Its pretty easy to say the difference btw 128kbps and 320kbps mp3 files. The major difference will be seen in the bass notes. Yes, the bass becomes more soft and the accuracy is maintained in 320kbps.. While yes i agree i really cant say there is any difference in 320kbps vs 320+ kbps flac files. I can bet on this with anyone unless you use extra high end sound system or some hifi speakers. I have tried and tested all formats with my loved library and telling you the same based on what i hear.

My suggestion to Hyper S is you better change your soundcard desperately and i bet on you that you will love your Klipsch speakers. I have grownup with the likes of Creative Platinum 5.1 Live soundcard which is a killer in terms of sound quality but sadly now i use Realtek 892 as the same doesnt work anymore with Win7. I hate creative here.. I hate onboard sound.

Since you can upgrade your internal soundcard i suggest buy an external one which plugs via usb.

dont forget to buy 2.1 soundcard and not 5.1.

If Any confusion then mail me

BEFORE YOU GET MAD AT ME, this is just my opinion and my taste of music isn't really accepted among my peers. so,, yes.

Who am I? just your average college student who doesn't like too much bass for music listening (for party yes it shakes dem boobs, but I'm not partying 24/7)
I hate boomy bass (i.e. typical "1000W" best buy car amp with cheap 2x12" with the rest of the OEM audio of Honda civic lol. Did I mention the amp @ full gain and no crossover setup whatsoever?)
I hate the sub playing bass notes. you're SUB woofer not midwoofer.

I can tell between 128 and 320Kbps MP3. When I was arguing that MP3 needs to be 3MB/minute, My friends called bullshit and bet her pretty Dr. Dre that I won't notice a difference between two songs. Well I did, but I let her keep it in return for a steak dinner. (college student, food>useless pair of red headphones)

I like CRYSTAL CLEAR vocal. I am not an audio expert so I'll just quote my experience. A show-winning audio shop let me hear his bench demo Focal KRX3 with single 12" JL sub from a CD. that clear. That was all I could ask for from a set of speakers. When I have my own house, I'm putting that thing in my computer room.

If Taylor Swift sounds irresistably sexy, it's a crappy speaker lol.. (try your laptop speakers or 26" CRT TV speakers)
If she sounds niceish, then it's a good speaker............... (don't ask)



Last but not least, I went $200 over my budget building my PC with SSD so no room for sound card. I just use Realtek ALC892 built on my motherboard.
System volume fixed@ 80%, I controlled volume only using the knob on the speakers.





ANYWAY.


While looking for a computer speaker for $150, many options crossed my mind.

1. Harman Kardon Soundsticks 3
- These used to be anywhere from 130 to 200 but it seems like some kind of price management has set it solid at $170

2. Klipsch Promedia 2.1
- The tried and true(?! true?) old one.

3. Class T2020 amp + bookshelf speaker + 100W self powered subwoofer mix & match.
- They weren't on sale lately so it was almost $200

4. Logitech whatever 2.1 they have now
- ehh, Logitech, jack of all peripherals, master at none. (It's a compliment. I use their wireless ergo keyboard and all-in-one receiver paired with both mouse and keyboard when I feel like staying in bed, and these are awesome)

5. Swan M10. Can't find these ANYWHERE except austraila.

6. Altec Lansing something. Their website didn't help much so I just didn't consider them seriously.




Reason why I chose Promedia 2.1

I own a pair of Klipsch earphones for my iPhone when I work out. It's called Reference S4i
Link : http/www.klipsch.com/reference-S4i-headphones

The earphones provides tight bass with no EQ needed for my taste. Audible bass but not annoying. Coming from Audio Technica ATH-A500x, Klipsch was (of course) worse in clarity but I put up with it for the mobility.
Actually I lost my ATH on board an airplane and was stuck with a free pair of Bose $100 ones and had a nice eargasm with the Klipsch S4i
SO given that certain brands have their own way of tuning their device,
BOSE : just stupid loud bass and "bose cool" factor
Audio Technica : clear clear crystal clear treble
SONY : boom boom pow

Anyway I thought I would give Klipsch another shot to make me c** because I liked the way their in-ear earphones were.

well.. not promedia.






MAYBE it's too early to tell since I just got them couple hours ago, but these are not worth 4.5/5 review TO ME.

Like : Tight-enough bass, warranty, cheapest of what I've been looking into, LOUD POTENTIAL VOLUME. I haven't gone there yet but I will once I use these for a week.

Dislike : I have to number them.
1. TOO LOUD SUBWOOFER. on a scale of 0-10 on the subwoofer dial, i'm at 0.5 maybe 1.

2. NOT the crisp-ish sound I had from S4i earphones. No eargasm.

3. maybe I'm expecting too much, but I don't get that "live concert" sensation when I listen to Tchaikovsky violin concerto (D major).
Trust me, it doesn't take much to make me feel like I'm at the concert. But these Klipschs can't do it.

4. (first world problem) I thought these would fit under monitors but can't mount properly because I have 3 27" monitors so they just lay on the desk sideways with the metal foot removed.



I keep saying it's just my taste that I don't like loud bass and would rather spend that wattage money on clearer 2 or 3 way drivers, because everyone I know loves big bass.

This Klipsch, sounds similar to my 2007 Acura TL's OEM car stereo minus the road noise (God I need more sound deadener. Honda and their road noise. Just nightmare. My max perf summer tires are to blame too. anyway back on topic). Namely Acura ELS 1st gen. Nothing too fancy but it's probably the best 200W class OEM stereo there ever was. But still nothing too fancy.
x2 1inch tweeter
x2 6.5 inch mid woofer
x2 6x9
x1 8" subwoofer
x1 3.5" (I think) for talking to built-in GPS







To conclude, these weren't anything special like the people on interwebz say. You get what you pay for $140 lol I shouldn't have expected $500+ clarity from these.
Klipsch should suck it up and stop being BOSE and sell these for 99.99 MSRP.
or use better satellite speakers.
I guess they had to BOOM BOOM this thing to make the general public happy. (Not that I'm anything special. I'm different in taste of bass)

I learned a lesson. The general public's positive reviews mean nothing if I have a taste.

I'm going to keep them unless someone can suggest a good set of components under $150 (I looked in to dayton b652, dayton amps, Lepai amps but I don't want to deal with returning and replacing and all that crap)

Please feel free to educate me on how to make these sound better or anything

Thanks for reading.

 

[Hype S]

@ ruzveh

I'm off to local store to get a USB soundcard, or even PCI. I will try that, thanks


PS: but does that mean,, my car's OEM head unit and iSimple is better processing music than onboard sound ?!?!?!

 

[ssddx]

while true that a decent soundcard can improve the quality of sound i dont think it will solve the underlying flaws of the promedia set. remember that even though sound quality may be up you might not hear too much improvement depending on what kind of speakers you are using.

this is mainly the fact that the subwoofer is sized much too large for the speakers and that it completely overpowers them. the only way to get it under control seems to be to turn the bass knob all the way down and then to adjust the eq to compensate further. honestly the satelites dont sound all that bad provided you can hear them over the bass. if you adjust the bass out i think you might be fine.

i've used the set with a higher level onboard soundcard and with a slot soundcard and while there may be some improvment it doesnt fix the flaws of the set. honestly as long as you dont have any issues with your onboard sound like crackling, distortion or low sound quality (note: the bassy sound isnt a result of your sound card its the promedia) then i wouldnt uprade to a card.

yes hype, a slot based or sometimes a decent usb based soundcard is normally much better than a onboard sound card. first off the drivers are normally much better, second they dont crackle, buzz or have static, they have more output options and sometimes come with neat software like virtual surround. however with that said, it is normally not necessary to upgrade unless you have really bad onboard sound, are having issues like buzzing/distortion or if you lack the right ports.

this doesnt relate to your cars oem head unit or isimple. not sure why you even brought them up.