Klipsch diluting the Reference brand?

[Steve81]

In doing some TV research at Best Buy, I walked by the speaker section of the store, and naturally had to take a look at what they had around. It appears that Klipsch has a "new" Reference line which appears awfully similar to the old Synergy lineup including IMG woofers (vs cerametallic on the Reference II), and a horn loaded aluminum dome compression driver (vs titanium on the Ref II). The cabinetry is also quite cheap, as the R-28F rang quite hollow on a simple knuckle rap test, which wasn't an issue with my old Klipsch gear. The only thing "Reference" about these that I can see is that they dyed the IMG woofers copper to look like the old cerametallic cones.

Its sad to see Klipsch cheapening the Reference name like this. There might be some short term gain as folks think they're getting an awesome deal on the Reference line, but long term I can only expect such a move to hurt the company.

 

[zieglj01]

That is not cool, whether you prefer them or not - it is another respected
name brand, who seems to be fading away and becoming a shadow.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Most BB shoppers would probably never know the difference in SQ. Most people still love Bose, the official sound of the NFL.

They only see the lower price Klipsch and they love that.

 

[markw]

Klipsch has no respect for any heritage brand of speakers. They are out to destroy what successfully competes with their bread and butter brands and will dilute anything they can get away with.

When they bought out the Canadian group, API, maker of three well respected brands: Energy, Mirage and Athena. They immediately killed Athen, perhaps because they were high value/low cost speakers that had a great reputation and sold through Best Buy, against Klipsch speakers, and tried to replace them with their Icon series of speakers. Heard much about Icon? Is Energy as good as it was? Where's Mirage now?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Mark, I think you're a bit off here.
I don't think Klipsch is to blame here, but their owners - Audiovox.
History repeats itself -
a) Buy good brand -
b) Abuse it by selling crap, destroy the reputation (or just close doors as it happen with Athena).
c) Use the profits to purchase another good brand

Wash, rinse repeat.

 

[markw]

Mark, I think you're a bit off here.
I don't think Klipsch is to blame here, but their owners - Audiovox.

To some extent you might have a point, but Audiovox bought Klipsch in 2011. Klipsch bought API back around 2006 or so. So, the dilution/destruction of the API product lines was well underway by the time Audiovox got involved.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

To some extent you might have a point, but Audiovox bought Klipsch in 2011. Klipsch bought API back around 2006 or so. So, the dilution/destruction of the API product lines was well underway by the time Audiovox got involved.

Ok, So Klipsch is not an innocent bystander here, but I find it hard to believe that it would dilute it's own brand without Audiovox "light persuasion"

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Cost-saving tactics seem to be priority one on most agendas.

That's why most products are made in China.

But "diluted" or not, if it still gives people what they want - efficient loud boom-boom frat party relatively clear sound at a good price, people will buy. Klipsch is catering these speakers to the mass market, not the high-end crowd. They are competing with Bose, not Revel, KEF, or RBH, etc.

And I would take Klipsch over Bose any day.

 

[markw]

Ok, So Klipsch is not an innocent bystander here, but I find it hard to believe that it would dilute it's own brand without Audiovox "light persuasion"

We can meet in the middle. Perhaps Audiovox, now having control of Klipsch, is doing to Klipsch exactly what Klipsch did to the API brands. Turnabout is fair play.

ADTG is right, though. They are catering to the lowest common denominator ,not the discerning listener, and hoping the well established brand name will help sales.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

We can meet in the middle. Perhaps Audiovox, now having control of Klipsch, is doing to Klipsch exactly what Klipsch did to the API brands. Turnabout is fair play.

Agreed. Or As I would rather say - Karma is a b1tch

 

[zieglj01]

I have been doing the door knock test on Klipsch speakers since early 2000, the time
when they wanted to start phasing out the Synergy line - and they wanted to sell their
Reference lines cheaper - the new Reference lines came out, and then they had to start
saving on building cost - which tends to be the cabinet, and cutting back on bracing.

They wanted to phase out their Synergy line - however, they ended up turning to the
Best Buy stores.

I have been inside a lot of different speakers - companies like to give a nice appearance
on the outside - however, once you look inside that tells the story - like the stamp frame
baskets, lack of good bracing - adding more stuffing does not make up for lack of bracing.

It is surprising what I have seen from some popular name brands - The marketing world
seems to be taking over more and more, and mass market is where the money comes from.

It is not just the Klipsch brand - a lot of the big name brands and their owners are riding
on the same merry-go-round.

 

[3db]

Klipsch has no respect for any heritage brand of speakers. They are out to destroy what successfully competes with their bread and butter brands and will dilute anything they can get away with.

When they bought out the Canadian group, API, maker of three well respected brands: Energy, Mirage and Athena. They immediately killed Athen, perhaps because they were high value/low cost speakers that had a great reputation and sold through Best Buy, against Klipsch speakers, and tried to replace them with their Icon series of speakers. Heard much about Icon? Is Energy as good as it was? Where's Mirage now?

Klipsch is a parasite of a company that sucks th elife out of all of the companies it aquires destroying any engineering that out shine their speakers

 

[slipperybidness]

My prof for my Linear IC class told us about meeting Paul Klipsch in Arkansas in the 1970s.

Prof was heading through town on vacation and passed by the sign for the factory. He didn't know anything about Klipsch at the time, but they weren't in a hurry so they stopped in.

Turns out that Paul himself came up front to greet them and spent the day BS-ing and took them to lunch! He said that Paul had a little "BS" button that he wore under his collar. If he detected BS, he would start lifting up the edge of his collar so the BS-er could see it

Another nice little gem of info from the prof: Apparently one time Paul was showing off a new design to a friend and the friend remarked "That's not a speaker, that's a Heresy". Thus, the Heresy name was born for that line of speakers.

What's the point? Dang, it sucks when a once-good company run by an owner that really cares about sound is gutted for profits like that. Heck, gut Bose for profits....oh yeah, Bose is already on that business model.