In the same vein as my thread about the Monoprice 10565 (trying to get my post-count up as a newbie), this is a customer review I wrote on 'Tha-Zon' (major online retailer we all know and loathe... err.. love). This is from June '19.
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I've only had this about 2 or 3 weeks, so maybe my views will change over time. First off, I like this thing overall. I didn't get it for the bargain 150 price, it was more like 180... and now I see it's 200 (as I type).
Quick sidetrack for seller feedback: I got an obviously 'used' unit sold as new. It had a 'speaker group' set up in it already, and not some generic name that could maybe be argued is 'the default'. No, it was obviously done by someone at some point deliberately. Not cool. I'd expect to pay for 'open box' if that's what I was being sold. I'll double-check the order and make sure it was being sold 'as new' before I send a rant. Separate feedback for that is upcoming.
Anyway... thus far, I've had no real issues with the WiFi use, as others seem to have encountered. The 1st thing I did was do all the upgrades though, so I'll figure that this resolved any issues. I have a generic android cheap-o phone as well, not some high-end thing that you might think would have a better chance of working well. That said, the extent of my wifi use is sitting at my desk in my office with the phone 2 feet away from the unit... though I have on occasion walked around the house with the phone and I can hear the music still playing in the office.
The unit is connected to Micca RB42s, no sub. Love these Miccas! (hat tip to Z, his review pushed me over the edge). These are great for nearfield/desktop use. The reason I got the Klipsch is b/c the RB42s need some power and I didn't think a less powerful amp would do the job (there are dozens of 25Wpc amps people pimp all the time.. you know the ones). I am happy to report that the speakers get plenty loud with this arrangement. They're sitting about 3' away from my dome, angled right at me, about 4' or so apart.. for reference... tweeters at ear height.
Why not 5 stars?... well, I did have a fair bit of fiddling and trouble to get the update process to work.. it feels like more work than it should be. Further, the klipsch stream app is fairly clunky to use and not 'pleasant'. It needs work. It 'works', but that's about as kind as I can be. So, my dings are really for the spit-n-polish aspects, not 'sound' output and so on.
More likes: the usb works just fine... people ding the dac, but I can't measure it and my use-case isn't critical enough to notice. I don't think I'm going to notice the issues the dac may have on my little Miccas.
It has optical input... always cool. I haven't used it yet, but I have a use planned for it.
The remote is nice, works well.. isn't overly-buttoned.
I like the small'ish form factor of the unit... it doesn't take up a lot of room.
I detect virutaly no 'hiss' from the amp in the speakers. It sounds clean to me.
I don't know when/if the amp will distort b/c it gets loud enough to be painful to my ears while still sounding un-distorted.
The jury is out on the 'sub-out's... it's good that they exist, but I've read it's really just pre-amp outs for full-range sound, not a 'true' sub/LFE out. The unit has no means to control sub x-over etc. I don't (yet) have a sub for it.. though with these RB42s, may not ever get one... I don't need earth shaking bass at my desk... YMMV.
I imagine my next quibble is probably not anything I should expect, but it would be nice if there were at least bass/treble controls. If they're there, I haven't found them. Using the stream app from my phone, there's none in the app I can find.. and the EQ settings in my phone have zero effect (which I figured would be the case, but I tried it anyway).
So, in sum... happy enough, after initial fiddling, that it does what I need and has enough guts to do it as well as I need.
