Klipsch R-15m Review w/Measurements.

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yepimonfire

Audioholic Samurai
Klipsch replaced their Reference II series and Icon series sometime beginning in 2014 with two new tiers of speakers, the Monitor/Reference series, which includes the R-15m, R-14m, R-25C, and the R-24/26/28f. The Premier series, which is the real Reference II upgrade, includes an incarnation of all the previous II series with improvements, including a new hybrid Tractrix horn, with a circular throat opening up into the horn. Klipsch seems to love horn loading things, and have decided to replace their ports with their new tractrix horn ports in the RP series.

Specs:

MSRP: $249

5.25" copper spun IMG woofer

Rear flared port

Single set of binding posts in the back

1" aluminum compression tweeter loaded into a 90x90 Tractrix horn

Crossover frequency: 1.8khz

Sensitivity: 94dB 1w/1m

Height 12.5"

Depth 8.11"

Width 7"

Weight 5lbs ea

Claimed low frequency response: 64hz -3dB

A note about Klipsch sensitivity, Klipsch claims their sensitivity ratings are derived in a reverberant sound field, i.e. similar to typical in room reflections rather than anechoic, many people have noted that their outdoor or anechoic sensitivity ratings are a bit lower. I will state however, they do play significantly louder with less volume than comparable speakers. I'm using a set of polk audio speakers rated at 89dB 1w1m as rear surrounds and at an equal distance, the klipsch measure about 6.5dB louder, in fact, the klipsch are significantly louder than every pair of speakers I've owned or currently own, including a set of floor standers rated at 91dB. At some point in time when I have the proper equipment, I intend to measure the sensitivity, until then, I'm satisfied by simply observing their efficiency in comparison to others.

Fit, Finish, and Build Quality


**Actual Photos coming soon**











The cabinets are built using 3/4" MDF and easily pass the knock test with flying colors. I have not attempted to disassemble the speaker to look at the internals no do I plan to due to the complications involved with the front plate, but looking inside the port and by removing the binding post plate, there appears to be seem decent bracing as well as acoustic stuffing. The cabinet sounds pretty inert during playback. The construction is solid and looks professionally finished. Instead of the ugly (in my opinion) woodgrain black vinyl, they are finished with a brushed metal look. They come with optional rubber feet in the package that adhere to the bottom of the speaker, which I strongly suggest using, as the finish looks like it could easily be scratched from shuffling around and is pretty slippery in comparison to the woodgrain texture.

Aren't these just copper colored Icons with a reference badge?

Short answer, no. For the long answer, keep reading.

The tweeter appears to be the same tweeter used in the KB-15 Icon series bookshelves, though their was never anything wrong with the tweeters in (aside from obvious brightness) the Icon's, it was the woofers that were the issue. There has been a lot of speculation that these are the old Icon series with copper colored drivers. Objectively speaking, that's simply not true. While the box design and tweeters appear to be more or less the same, the woofer is not. Just from observation, the dust cap is flush with the cone on the Reference whereas it protrudes on the Icon's, the slope and depth of the cone is slightly different as well, the Reference series are slightly deeper and more uniform, whereas the Icon's were somewhat shallower. A tap test reveals the Reference series to be much less resonant and have considerably less flex than the Icon's.

So what does copper spun mean and how are the drivers different from the old Icon series? According to a conversation I had with Klipsch over the phone, similarly to the cerametallic woofers, the woofers are sandwiched with aluminum that has been anodized to a copper color. The Reference II series and RP series utilize a proprietary woofer made of ceramic composite layered between aluminum, hence the word "cerametallic", the difference between the new Reference series and the RP and RII series is the Reference series utilizes injection molded graphite instead of the ceramic composite. I was told the design of the woofers was changed significantly to give a much tighter, more accurate response. The differences between the two is proprietary information, but rest assured, these are not Icons that have been colored orange and rebadged.

The real proof is in the measurements. Measurements don't lie, and the Icon's measure and sound significantly worse.

Measurments, Sound Quality, and Comparison to the Icon KB-15 and Reference II series

Subjective sound quality:

Unlike the previous Reference II series, these sound significantly less shrill and bright than the classic klipsch sound, in fact, these are much more musical to listen to. Nothing sticks out as overwhelming and they sound pretty neutral and transparent. I really like testing the transient response and clarity of speakers with using Heavy Metal, despite the fact this is my preferred genre of music, there is usually so much going on and at such a fast pace that poor speakers end up mashing the genre into smeared, blurry, non-distinct noise, while accurate speakers with quick decay times tend to sound lively and dynamic, discretely rendering each note and instrument. For the test, I played Entombed's Left Hand Path Album. The record label in question has released a "Full Dynamic Range" edition of this album with no DRC applied, making this the perfect test of dynamics, transient response, and detail resolution. Other albums used for testing include Mussorgsky's Picture at an exhibition, both the Organ adaoatation by Guillou, and the regular Orchestra version performed by the Marinsky Orchestra, along with countless others. Movies used include Interstellar, and probably a dozen others I've watched over the past 6 months. Unlike most reviews, this is a long 6 month audition of these speakers playing a wide variety of content, I'm not one to just give it a quick test with a couple of different materials and come to a conclusion, I have spent a considerable amount of time with these speakers.










The first thing I noticed was that they resolve an incredible amount of detail and depth. The R-15m's extract every tiny nuance from a recording, from the sound of fingers sliding across the fret board of an acoustic guitar, the breath and air of a vocalist, to the sound of an actors clothes rustling in films, nothing can hide from these speakers. There are two types of "detail extraction" you can get from a speaker in my experience. "Fake" detail that comes from a speaker being bright, or what I call true detail extraction that comes from a speaker being very "fast" and responsive to transients. These fit into the latter category.

During my initial listening session, I noticed very fine detail and nuances I hadn't noticed before. The separation of instruments and their individual notes and harmonics is jaw dropping, even with heavily congested soundtracks such as heavy metal albums. They never smeared or squashed the sound, every instrument and note is heard clearly and discretely in the mix, even in poorly mixed tracks, which is common in lower budget Black Metal recordings I frequently listen to. With highly dynamic music such as Classical or the infamous Pipe Organ, they handle dynamics with ease, even with peaks of 100dB. Orchestras sound live and their instruments tonally natural. Thanks to the efficiency and the horns, the sound is huge and authoritative even at high volumes, performing as well as most large floor standing speakers. Imaging is decent, with a fairly wide sweet spot, however they do require a good amount of toe-in to properly portray a phantom center. While it is generally recommended that the L/R speakers are the same distance apart as the distance to the listening position, these sound better a bit closer in. At a distance of 9ft, I find placing them about 7ft apart gives the best imaging and sound. Nevertheless, the soundstage is still very wide and three dimensional, even outside of the sweet spot where the phantom center is lost.

For most music, the bass performance is adequate without the use of a subwoofer. As you will see in the measurement section, the speakers actually have a -3dB response (outside of a corner and 3 ft from any room boundaries, measured at 1m) of 50hz, with a useful extension to around 40hz at -9dB.

They perform exceptionally well in movies. The imaging is huge and they handle dynamics such as explosions and gunshots effortlessly, watching Interstellar set to reference level and utilizing a crossover point of 60hz, even with measured peaks in excess of 100dB they never sound compressed or strained. Loud peaks sounded loud and authoritative, and soft sounds sound quiet yet detailed. In 2ch mode, dialog is clear and voices sound realistic, there is no chestiness or sibiliance. Port noise is non existent above 60hz at any volume, however, at and below 60hz it becomes obvious and annoying above 90dB, getting substantially worse below 40hz. I would recommend crossing them over at 60-80hz despite them extending to 50hz, the reasoning for which will be explained in the following segment.

**Planned measurements not yet included: THD at 85dB and 105dB (average and peak cinema reference volumes)**

All measurements taken at 75dB as measured by pink noise on an external SPL meter set to C weighting at the distance from the measurement microphone. Method of audio interface is 24 bit 192khz LPCM over HDMI in Direct mode to bypass all DSP processing in the AVR, all enhancements have been disabled in windows and the volume control was set to max. Unfortunately REW kept crashing because it doesn't like play nicely with HDMI output and I got tired of re-calibrating the SPL, so I just took pink noise measurements using the built in SPL meter prior to each measurement and have included the reference point. Input is 16bit 48khz. All measurements below 20hz are simply the noise floor of the sound device in question, unfortunately I haven't figured out how to use 24bit mode in REW to increase the SNR. These are in room measurements, in a room with average liveliness.

I have taken 4 separate measurements. On axis at 1m, on axis as 2m, off axis horizontally at 3m, and off axis vertically (four feet below the speaker) at 3m. I chose 2m because at 3m I've entered what I like to call the "bass vacuum" (where the reflected sound at the room modes and direct sound meet). Smoothing applied is psychoacoustic smoothing, which takes into account the ears sensitivity to spl differences across different octaves (i.e. we're not going to perceive a 6dB difference between 8khz and 10khz, whereas a 6dB difference between 60hz and 70hz would be perceptible). Due to the nature of the dispersion of horns, Klipsch speakers sound much brighter close up and they don't measure as accurately, therefore I have included both 1m and 2m measurements.



A rough estimate of the cabinet volume comes out to 0.33 cubic feet. The port is 2" in diameter and 5" in length giving us a port tuning frequency of ~63hz.

1m on axis (68.8dB reference)



At one meter, the -3dB point is ~53hz



2m on axis (68.8dB reference)





At 2m, the -3dB point is ~47hz. It's worth noting I got the same -3dB measurement in two different rooms in my house, both of different sizes.





45 degrees off axis horizontally at 3m (74dB reference)




45 degrees off axis vertically at 3m



Not too bad for a $250 pair of speakers. Horizontally off axis, these don't look too bad. As expected, vertical off axis response isn't very good, the mids definitely get sucked out. At 1m there is a 3dB spike at 13.5khz, this is much less pronounced at 2m. While my measurements actually show a total deviation of +3dB and -7dB, this is likely just the room factoring into the response, since multiple measurements at different areas of the room vary the response. The only deviation that remains regardless of mic placement is the bump at 13.5khz.

Let's take a look at THD measured at 75dB. I've centered the cursor at the port tuning frequency.


At 63hz, THD is 2.08% Above 63hz, at the -3dB point of 47hz, THD measures at 4.33% The largest THD measurement is 10% at 107hz, with an average THD across the spectrum from 63hz to 16khz being 2.05%. As expected, below the port tuning frewquency, THD rapidly climbs to a peak of 72.3% at 31hz, with appropriate bass management, this is irrelevant though.

I'm no expert at what good THD measurements are, but I do know that most experts will claim that THD below 10% is usually inaudible. As previously stated, 85dB and 105dB THD measurements are planned.

I do have waterfall graphs, but quite frankly I have no idea how to interpret them objectively, if someone would like to take a look at them and PM me their input, I would be happy to include it into this post. I will say the waterfall graph shows substantially longer decay times for the Icon vs the R-15m.

Summing up and conclusion
For $250, you will be hard pressed to find a speaker capable of the resolution, dynamics, and accuracy of the Klipsch R-15m. I was so impressed by this series that as soon as I heard them at a local Best Buy I brought them home and used them as my L/R speakers, upon listening for a few days, I went ahead and replaced my entire setup with the new Reference Series. It has been about 6 months now and I am still extremely satisfied with my decision. The R-15m's are breathtakingly detailed, fast, accurate, and dynamic at any SPL level. They can hold their own without a sub for music, and can fill a medium to large room with rich, dynamic sound in both movies and music. While sweet spot is slightly narrower due to the dispersion pattern of horns, the soundstage is massive and three dimensional even outside of the sweet spot.

If you are looking for a budget bookshelf speaker that can match the dynamics and power of a floorstanding speaker, look no further than the R-15m's. To fill a 20'x14' room with an undistorted 105dB SPL is a task that even some floorstanding speakers will fail at.

I highly recommend these speakers to both klipsch fans and to those who have previously steered clear of klipsch due to their shriller highs, these are truly a step towards perfection of the klipsch sound, with many of the previous flaws solved and the strengths improved upon. I strongly suggest anyone who is looking for a new set of speakers take some time and head out to their local Best Buy and audition the new Reference series, the budget series, or the Premier series, you might just find yourself coming home with an entire set.
 
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shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Very nice and thorough review! I have a few comments.

Regarding one statement you made, 10% THD can be a huge amount or it can be nothing to worry about; it depends on what frequency and loudness level. In bass regions, that isn't a big deal, but if you measured 10% THD in a mid range frequency like 1 kHz, that would be atrocious, so context is a major factor in evaluating distortion. One thing about Harmonic Distortion is that since pressure vessel gain in room disproportionately boosts low frequencies, that can dramatically lower the THD that you are measuring compared to what the speaker is actually producing. It does so by raising the fundamental without raising the harmonics as much. In other words, a lot of what you are measuring is the room as much as it is the speakers.

Are you windowing out room reflections, and, if so, what time length are you using? 2 m in room doesn't allow you much IR time.

I think what would be interesting is to do incremental measurements of the tractrix horn's dispersion. This would not be that difficult to do. What you can do is place a 'lazy susan' type spinning platter on your speaker stand. Than, with the mic maybe a meter away, do measurements on to off axis in maybe 5 or 10 degree increments out to maybe 75 degrees off axis. What you would see is how sound diffracts in the tractrix horn. Could be very interesting.

Anyway, very good review, and I am looking forward to seeing further measurements.
 
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yepimonfire

Audioholic Samurai
Very nice and thorough review! I have a few comments.

Regarding one statement you made, 10% THD can be a huge amount or it can be nothing to worry about; it depends on what frequency and loudness level. In bass regions, that isn't a big deal, but if you measured 10% THD in a mid range frequency like 1 kHz, that would be atrocious, so context is a major factor in evaluating distortion. One thing about Harmonic Distortion is that since pressure vessel gain in room disproportionately boosts low frequencies, that can dramatically lower the THD that you are measuring compared to what the speaker is actually producing. It does so by raising the fundamental without raising the harmonics as much. In other words, a lot of what you are measuring is the room as much as it is the speakers.

Are you windowing out room reflections, and, if so, what time length are you using? 2 m in room doesn't allow you much IR time.

I think what would be interesting is to do incremental measurements of the tractrix horn's dispersion. This would not be that difficult to do. What you can do is place a 'lazy susan' type spinning platter on your speaker stand. Than, with the mic maybe a meter away, do measurements on to off axis in maybe 5 or 10 degree increments out to maybe 75 degrees off axis. What you would see is how sound diffracts in the tractrix horn. Could be very interesting.

Anyway, very good review, and I am looking forward to seeing further measurements.
I haven't used anything like that, just straight measurements. I felt it was important to take measurements slightly farther from the speaker because of the way the horn disperses sound. It's apparent from both measurements and just listening by ear the frequency response across the top end becomes excessively bright if you're too close to the speaker, at about 5 ft it smooths out considerably, I'm fairly certain this isn't related to room interaction either, because I've had brighter sounding speakers that sounded shrill no matter where I was in the room, and a lively room only made the problem worse.

I'm no expert physicist, so I don't know exactly how the horn is dispersing sound and how it would change with distance, but I am assuming close up you're getting more direct sound from the tweeter itself rather than the sound after it's shaped by the horn.

In the real world, someone sitting off axis would not be right next to the speaker, they would be sitting on a couch/chair backed up against a side wall, which is why I did it how I did it, vertically off axis was about 3' above the speaker, simulating a person standing, as would be the case if someone were casually listening to music while doing something else.

I know the way the response changes in the measurements is pretty much exactly what I hear sitting or standing off axis. I've gotten pretty good at determining which frequencies are problem frequencies by ear from a lot of recording/mixing experience. For example, I have a pair of Polk OWM satellite speakers, just listening to them I predicted they rolled off at about 120hz, had a subdued midrange from about 500hz on, and were hot at about 12khz. After measuring them I found this was almost exactly what was going on.

Supposedly the smallest change in spl humans can detect it 3dB, which is why +-3dB speakers are considered accurate. There's a website called sound check that has all kinds of audio tests and blind tests, I was able to reliably detect a difference of 1dB. I used to be able to hear all the way from 15hz up to 21khz. I can still hear 15hz about as easily as 20hz but hearing above 18khz requires a significant boost in volume nowadays. I don't believe in the golden ear nonsense, I just have a well trained ear and am still young with good hearing :)

If you've got suggestions on how to do it better I'm all ears. Might try spinning the speaker the way you suggested, and look into how to apply a window in REW.

The THD measurements were taken at about 2' from the speaker, looking at the graph you can see it isn't capturing much of the room on the low end, you can see where the woofer begins to drop off and where the port takes over, rather than the smooth graph you see at a distance.

The room these were measured in has an open back with a split level stair case going downstairs and one going upstairs, effectively cancelling out a good portion of standing waves from the rear of the room. While this makes my sub have to work a little harder, it also gives me an unsmoothed +-5dB response across the room with no room correction on the low end. The speakers are also a good 4' from any room boundaries.
Regarding one statement you made, 10% THD can be a huge amount or it can be nothing to worry about; it depends on what frequency and loudness level. In bass regions, that isn't a big deal, but if you measured 10% THD in a mid range frequency like 1 kHz, that would be atrocious, so context is a major factor in evaluating distortion.
I might post some more numbers, but past the bass region THD is impressively low. Above 1.8khz where the tweeter and horn takes over thd remains below 1% a majority of the time and often stays below 0.5%. The decay time across the upper midrange and treble is extremely short, I would assume this is one of the reasons this speaker sounds so detailed. As previously mentioned there's two ways you can get a detailed sounding speaker, brightness, which is nothing more than fake detail, or an extremely fast response that allows nuances to come through without getting smeared into the mix.

Sent from my SM-G360T1 using Tapatalk
 
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shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
One thing you can be sure of is that the behavior of the sound within the horn is not perfectly uniform. There may be all kinds of interference patterns from the way the sound bounces off the sides off of the throat and mouth of the horn. If the horn geometry is well conceived, than those patterns are under good control and do not hurt the resulting end sound very much. While those patterns might be difficult to hear, they may still be easy to see in a dispersion graph, if the measurements have enough resolution. I think it would be interesting to see how well the tractrix horn handles reflections in the horn. Klipsch has been developing this type of horn for a long time now and they probably have a pretty good handle on it.

Supposedly the smallest change in spl humans can detect it 3dB, which is why +-3dB speakers are considered accurate. There's a website called sound check that has all kinds of audio tests and blind tests, I was able to reliably detect a difference of 1dB. I used to be able to hear all the way from 15hz up to 21khz. I can still hear 15hz about as easily as 20hz but hearing above 18khz requires a significant boost in volume nowadays. I don't believe in the golden ear nonsense, I just have a well trained ear and am still young with good hearing
The 'just noticeable differences' of changes in sound pressure level depends on circumstances. For example, at mid range frequencies where are hearing is most sensitive, we can detect a much finer change in SPL than 1 dB. At higher pressure levels we can sense finer changes than at lower levels. There has been a lot of research into this, because people lose 'dynamic range' in hearing loss, and hearing aids is a very big industry that dumps a lot of money into research. So many people have been reckless with their hearing for so long that this is a boom industry, since the baby boomers' hearing is now going really bad.
 
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LulaNord

Audiophyte
Hi...i am a new user here. As per my knowledge if you measured 10% THD in a mid range frequency like 1 kHz, that would be atrocious, so context is a major factor in evaluating distortion. One thing about Harmonic Distortion is that since pressure vessel gain in room disproportionately boosts low frequencies, that can dramatically lower the THD that you are measuring compared to what the speaker is actually producing.
 
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yepimonfire

Audioholic Samurai
Hi...i am a new user here. As per my knowledge if you measured 10% THD in a mid range frequency like 1 kHz, that would be atrocious, so context is a major factor in evaluating distortion. One thing about Harmonic Distortion is that since pressure vessel gain in room disproportionately boosts low frequencies, that can dramatically lower the THD that you are measuring compared to what the speaker is actually producing.
At some point I am going to take a measurement outdoors or do a quasianechoic measurement with close micing.

Sent from my 5065N using Tapatalk
 
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smoothmoose

Audiophyte
Thanks good review. I just picked up the RM-15 and 10" wireless subwoofer for 50% off during the black Friday. Definitely a steal!

I assume the lower freq -3db roll-off is due to room lift. But I wanted to confirm the -3dB frequency doesn't deviate from spec much, so I can best set the low-pass on my sub.

Also - what stand are using the RM-15s? I got the VIVO metal stands that do have spikes on both the floor and speaker interfaces. But I do notice the speakers still move around due to the vibrations even with low-moderate volume.
 
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yepimonfire

Audioholic Samurai
Thanks good review. I just picked up the RM-15 and 10" wireless subwoofer for 50% off during the black Friday. Definitely a steal!

I assume the lower freq -3db roll-off is due to room lift. But I wanted to confirm the -3dB frequency doesn't deviate from spec much, so I can best set the low-pass on my sub.

Also - what stand are using the RM-15s? I got the VIVO metal stands that do have spikes on both the floor and speaker interfaces. But I do notice the speakers still move around due to the vibrations even with low-moderate volume.
All things being equal, it shouldn’t deviate. Honestly i don’t understand how they are moving due to vibration, I’ve never had that issue, and I don’t do low-moderate with the volume

I use video secu stands. I like the the can be adjusted up/down as much as 47”, tilted backwards and forwards, and the speakers attach via side clamps.

The package should have come with stick on rubber feet, that should keep them from sliding. If you’re using an avr, use the lfe in and set the crossover on the receiver. I’d start between 60-80hz.
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
It's a very interesting and well done review.

It would also have been good to see the impedance and phase angle curves of that bookshelf marvel taking into account the MRSP. Did you measure them at some point in your testing?

It's obvious that it can also make an excellent affordable surround speaker in many HT systems.

Cheers,
 
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Winkleswizard

Audioholic
It's a very interesting and well done review.

It would also have been good to see the impedance and phase angle curves of that bookshelf marvel taking into account the MRSP. Did you measure them at some point in your testing?

It's obvious that it can also make an excellent affordable surround speaker in many HT systems.

Cheers,
Just brought a pair home to try on my home theater...

Since you asked, here are the impedance and phase measurements:

klipsch r-15m impedance and phase.jpg
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
Pretty nice indeed! Those are good curves and we don't find some as good on several expensive products. Klipsch have the know how!
Those speakers are rather easy on an amplifier.
 
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Winkleswizard

Audioholic
Actually realized it looked even better than when I measured! Was zooming to make nice fit and did not watch those scales....

klipsch r-15m impedance and phase - rescaled.jpg


Still not bad, but this is more comparable to typical measurement postings...

Ww
 
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Winkleswizard

Audioholic
It would be interesting to eventually have your listening impressions on them as surround speakers on your HT system.
Will do.

My wife (Winkle is her nickname) came down with stomach flu this morning and asked that I shut down the listening tests.

So I gave me a chance to do the impedance measure and take them apart a bit. The cabinet is not bad with thicker MDF than is typical at this price point, but bracing is limited to some cleats. Crossover is about what you expect for an inexpensive speaker (5 components - 2 coils, 2 NPE caps, one resistor),but does have an iron-core inductor on the LP side...

9DE52ADA-AFD4-4814-B5D8-976A85282969.jpeg


If I keep, will do some more research and see whether can improve...

Ww
 
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Winkleswizard

Audioholic
Got in a round of listening last night before getting hit with stomach flu too...

Liked what I heard with pop/rock. Not as sure about classical. Since this is not my main listening system, need to do a room calibration and try with movies. May be weekend before I can get to that.

Stay tuned,

Ww
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
Will do.

My wife (Winkle is her nickname) came down with stomach flu this morning and asked that I shut down the listening tests.

So I gave me a chance to do the impedance measure and take them apart a bit. The cabinet is not bad with thicker MDF than is typical at this price point, but bracing is limited to some cleats. Crossover is about what you expect for an inexpensive speaker (5 components - 2 coils, 2 NPE caps, one resistor),but does have an iron-core inductor on the LP side...

View attachment 24276

If I keep, will do some more research and see whether can improve...

Ww
If you keep them, it would be good to replace the choke with an air core inductor, and the electrolytic caps with good polypropylene ones. IMO, Solen caps are as good as any on the market.
 
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Winkleswizard

Audioholic
While I enjoyed the dynamics of the R-15m, it did not do enough compared to my Zaph ZA-5 MTs, so they have been returned. Did not have time to investigate but I encountered on oddity with it and YPAO. YPAO insisted that the phase of the rest of my speakers was wrong when the R-15Ms were my mains. I have seen occassion where YPAO would have a false positive over the subwoofer phase, but this was worse.

I auditioned the R-15Ms with Star Wars New Hope bluray. I will say they seemed more revealing of subtle sounds, but later found that it was more a matter of their higher sensitivity over my Zaphs.

Overall I was quite impressed with the R-15Ms for my home theater use. They seemed a real bargain. Would have liked to have more time with them, but have a house guest arriving and needed to return while I still could :cool:...

Ww
 
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Winkleswizard

Audioholic
Just thought I would add a follow-up note on my previous post on YPAO and the Klipsches. Was repositioning my speakers recently and encountered the same YPAO error as I did with the R-15Ms. My normal fronts are BG Radia Z-7s. Further research with Yamaha suggests to ignore this error as long as wiring is correct. If this truly is just a false positive, then should not reflect poorly on the R-15Ms. It does leave me wondering what triggers the false positive. May have to break out REW and see if I can determine...

Ww
 
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mojarraman

Audiophyte
Recognizing this isn't "too recent"; I'm not so sure if a little piggyback here might be apt?
Meaning, assuming the basic thread (idea) mostly exhausted ...
This is a "How To" Q?;

IOW is there (assuming one acquires a little pre-amp and calibrated mic) a down-and-dirty WAY to get to these type measurements?
Could put that a little differently; there's (scattered all-over-the-place ... tho I DID encounter a 167 pg thread at DIYaudio I think) plenty info on "speaker measurements" tho in this case (mine) MAKING them --- not so much "towards design" -- just the rudiments (basic elements) of ACQUIRING, i.e., taking measurements? ...
Sure LOOKS like approx $150 for pre-amp & calibrated mic is basic price of admission. And then apparently freeware/shareware.

Naturally all that begs the (perhaps?) more important Q; WHY?

Say for-sake-of-argument one wanted some before-and-after measurements w/r/t re-cap and/or refurbish home stereo speakers ... strangely enough (maybe the mic & pre-amp is a barrier to most? measurements are insubstantial or insignificant? qualitative comparisons are all-is-desired? learning-curve on software? maybe there's umpteen counter-productive or even counter-intuitive arguments against physical measurements? ... honestly I've no earthly idea why settling for subjective [the word I'd use -- Novice to electronics here - yet willing to learn to use a solder station & whatnot] analysis of mods/upgrades/refurbish is PREVALENT.)

Sincere apologies for the segue -- but the [new millennium] Dummies' Guide to [performing] Speaker Measurement(s) I've searched & searched to no avail ... IOW a sketch of the "Intro" and "Chap. 1 and [maybe 2]"
I'd kinda/sorta "hoped to find" a little list like
A) basic required tools/equip
B) basic tutorial -OR- simply "advise choosing free/shareware" [that might suggest the facility or difficulty of]
C) first steps to attaining measurements same/similar those this very
Klipsch R-15m Review w/Measurements thread [does it TAKE more than day-or-two round the bend so-to-speak? ... &tc.]

Thanks Kindly for bearing w/,
Mo
 

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