Klipsch RB-51 Bookshelf Speakers Video Review

[admin]

Around late Spring, Audioholics did a tower speaker face-off which included the Klipsch RF-62s. Participants in the speaker shootout seemed to rank the Klipsch very well, enjoying its clarity and high frequency definition as well as its deep bass response. Recently we were personally introduced to its "little brother", as it were, the RB-51 Bookshelf speakers. This speaker shares the same 3.5" x 2.5" Tractrix Horn and have a "deep throat" from which the high frequency, natural sound emanates and spreads into the listening area. Behind this horn lies a 1-inch titanium tweeter with a powerful neodymium motor structure that keeps it cool, and thus efficient, delivering excellent dynamics and highs that don't suffer from compression or lack of definition - even at loud volumes.

Discuss "Klipsch RB-51 Bookshelf Speakers Video Review" here. Read the article.

 

[sholling]

Nicely done but a speaker "review" without listening tests is more of a video preview.

Seriously though I think it would be interesting to read an in depth review of the front ported RB-61.

 

[gene]

The page title is wrong, its supposed to say Preview.

 

[dkane360]

Previewing an old model eh? lol

I'd like to see a comparison between those and the newer version II's to see how much of a difference there is.

 

[zieglj01]

The page title is wrong, its supposed to say Preview.

Previews are nice - however, sure would like to see more
reviews. Starting to miss them.

 

[Marshall_Guthrie]

What about this product warrants "Gotta have it" status? It's not clear from the preview what differentiates the Klipsch from the rest of the market.

 

[tom67]

Efficient.....great for HT....only drive modest receiver to -35 for loud level and sound better than competition at low volume levels.....in middle of pack for music but good value as available at 40% off retail if you look...

 

[Bismarck]

I agree with eugovector, there is nothing too special about this product compared to any other Klipsch product. It certainly does not deserve to "gotta have it!" status. IMHO, Audioholics needs to be careful to stay true to their unbiased roots now that they not only review Klipsch, but also sell them.

 

[tom67]

well, you must admit that the company has a more impressive pedigree than almost any other speaker company you can conjure up....and Audioholics did preface their report by indicating that they have a common sound with the towers that were recently winners in their sound competition...so, in a sense, they were tested....

 

[dkane360]

I agree with eugovector, there is nothing too special about this product compared to any other Klipsch product. It certainly does not deserve to "gotta have it!" status. IMHO, Audioholics needs to be careful to stay true to their unbiased roots now that they not only review Klipsch, but also sell them.

Why would they sell products that they dont think are good and that they can recommend? If they started selling magic cryo cables along with reviews saying they are the best thing since sliced bread, then i would be worried about them being biased.

 

[Marshall_Guthrie]

reviews saying they are the best thing since sliced bread, then i would be worried about them being biased.

And "Got to have it" without a review seems like it's bordering on just that.

Now, I know that these ratings are just fun, and that Audioholics are usually good about admitting when they haven't actually laid hands on a product, but I'm just not seeing what's worth getting excited about here. By their own admission, the larger brother to the speaker did well in a shootout, but didn't blow everyone away.

Here's the unbroken link, BTW: http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/floorstanding/2010-1k-faceoff

"Overall the Klipsch scored the highest overall rating by a small margin"...in blind testing. When sighted:

"In this round of testing, the EMP E55ti's appeared to come out on top while the Klipsch RF-62's and Axiom M60v2's ratings dropped most dramatically. I believe the most significant reason for preference changes in the sighted testing had to do with restoring the tonal balance of all of the speakers once the lossy grille cover was removed. Aesthetics may have also played a factor though nobody commented on the appearance of any of the speakers in the comparison since they were sitting so far away and focused more on what they were hearing while note taking."

It seems that the market is has plenty of high-sensitivity bookshelves in the same price range with similar performance as evidenced by Audioholics own shootouts. A "Me Too" product, no matter how good the company it keeps, is one of many. "Got to have it", to me, is a product leaving it's peers behind which the Klipsch, by Audiohlolics own testing, is not.

I get excited about AudioEngine A2s, fantastic performance, fantastic price, fantastic size. That's a "Got to have it" differentiation.

How about the absurd performance vs. price of the Behringer 2030p? On a budget? Got to have it!

Elemental Designs are Made in America. Made in America, and a great product/value besides? Even that is a differentiation worth noting.

These Klipsch, lacking differentiation worth noting, are a "Sounds Good" at best, anything more is suspect. Maybe a future review will prove them worthy, but not now.

 

[Marshall_Guthrie]

well, you must admit that the company has a more impressive pedigree than almost any other speaker company you can conjure up....and Audioholics did preface their report by indicating that they have a common sound with the towers that were recently winners in their sound competition...so, in a sense, they were tested....

Winners? I'd re-read that shootout (I posted a corrected link, Audioholics link is currently broken). I'd say the results, while initially impressive for Klipsch, were mixed at best after the sighted listening.

As far as an impressive pedigree, how about JBL/HK (one of my favs and current usage)? Yamaha, Martin Logan, DefTech, Paradigm? Even Bose started with the truly venerable 901, but I wouldn't buy their products today. Pedigree is what you get by on when all you have is your name (not saying that Klipsch is in that position).

 

[gene]

I agree with eugovector, there is nothing too special about this product compared to any other Klipsch product. It certainly does not deserve to "gotta have it!" status. IMHO, Audioholics needs to be careful to stay true to their unbiased roots now that they not only review Klipsch, but also sell them.

Reading the comments in this thread almost feels like I'm on AVS. You guys seriously need to lighten up. The guy (Andrew Dash) that did the video preview for us liked them. I personally don't care for the Klipsch sound and wouldn't recommend them to people seeking a more tonally neutral sound. But for those liking a lot of boom and sizzle that can play very loud, these are a great choice. Hence why that is a subjective rating. I honestly agree a "pretty cool" rating would be more appropriate since they aren't a brand new model anyways. I updated that rating accordingly.

How about enjoying the fact we are now shooting HD video previews at a very professional level that no other A/V website is doing right now.

As for "us" selling the product, we don't sell anything! I licensed the Audioholics name to the E-store to use it as a service to our readers wanting a one stop place to research and purchase from. I could honestly care less if people purchase from the E-store and I don't recommend purchasing from there if you feel there is an implicit bias as a result.

 

[yepimonfire]

Reading the comments in this thread almost feels like I'm on AVS. You guys seriously need to lighten up. The guy (Andrew Dash) that did the video preview for us liked them. I personally don't care for the Klipsch sound and wouldn't recommend them to people seeking a more tonally neutral sound. But for those liking a lot of boom and sizzle that can play very loud, these are a great choice. Hence why that is a subjective rating. I honestly agree a "pretty cool" rating would be more appropriate since they aren't a brand new model anyways. I updated that rating accordingly.

How about enjoying the fact we are now shooting HD video previews at a very professional level that no other A/V website is doing right now.

As for "us" selling the product, we don't sell anything! I licensed the Audioholics name to the E-store to use it as a service to our readers wanting a one stop place to research and purchase from. I could honestly care less if people purchase from the E-store and I don't recommend purchasing from there if you feel there is an implicit bias as a result.

tonally neutral, as far as highs go, no. they are ridiculously bright, but due to the horn technology used in them they sound HUGE, larger then life and full of realism. instruments sound "right there" with klipsch speakers. klipsch is the only speaker ive heard that produces a "giant" soundscape in a modest bookshelf. they are also impressively dynamic.

 

[jinjuku]

I agree with eugovector, there is nothing too special about this product compared to any other Klipsch product. It certainly does not deserve to "gotta have it!" status. IMHO, Audioholics needs to be careful to stay true to their unbiased roots now that they not only review Klipsch, but also sell them.

Check out the Yamaha Savo 1 review

Even though it is sold at the AH store it garnered a middle of the scale value rating.

The budget bookshelf review gave top billing to a speaker not even sold at the AH store: Behringer 2030p

The thing about being an arm chair critic is everyone thinks it's easy until it's pointed out that they went off un-educated and zero self research was involved.

 

[Marshall_Guthrie]

I honestly agree a "pretty cool" rating would be more appropriate since they aren't a brand new model anyways. I updated that rating accordingly.

How about enjoying the fact we are now shooting HD video previews at a very professional level that no other A/V website is doing right now.

Editorial checks and balances, I like it.

The HD video is great, but as the Fall Network lineup shows, just because it's in HD, doesn't mean it's worth watching. I come to Audioholics to get real world reviews, no-snake-oil tech explanations, and first looks at cutting edge products from manufacturers we may not have heard of. I'd never heard of EMP before Audioholics introduced me, I've reposted links to your tech articles all over the place, and you system recommendations from the early 2000s were the benchmarks on which I built my own system.

If it's starting to sound like AVS in here (and I'm not entirely sure what characterization of AVS you intended to use as a slag), it's only because we fear Audioholics p/reviews starting to look a little like hometheaterreview (by which I mean promosheet rundowns turned effusively positive non-reviews). I love your site, I love your articles, I love your reviews, I love your previews, I even love your HD video. But, regardless of whether it is an in depth objective/subjective review, or a simple rundown preview, if you apply a rating system and award the highest rating (I'm aware of no rating higher than "Got To Have It"), then there should be something to back it up and you can't blame your loyal readers for demanding justification. I do not love skewed ratings.

Thank you for listening, and running your site. Keep up the good work.


FYI: Your shootout link in this post is still broken.

 

[jinjuku]

Editorial checks and balances, I like it.

The HD video is great, but as the Fall Network lineup shows, just because it's in HD, doesn't mean it's worth watching. I come to Audioholics to get real world reviews, no-snake-oil tech explanations, and first looks at cutting edge products from manufacturers we may not have heard of. I'd never heard of EMP before Audioholics introduced me, I've reposted links to your tech articles all over the place, and you system recommendations from the early 2000s were the benchmarks on which I built my own system.

If it's starting to sound like AVS in here (and I'm not entirely sure what characterization of AVS you intended to use as a slag), it's only because we fear Audioholics p/reviews starting to look a little like hometheaterreview (by which I mean promosheet rundowns turned effusively positive non-reviews). I love your site, I love your articles, I love your reviews, I love your previews, I even love your HD video. But, regardless of whether it is an in depth objective/subjective review, or a simple rundown preview, if you apply a rating system and award the highest rating (I'm aware of no rating higher than "Got To Have It"), then there should be something to back it up and you can't blame your loyal readers for demanding justification. I do not love skewed ratings.

Thank you for listening, and running your site. Keep up the good work.


FYI: Your shootout link in this post is still broken.

I agree with you on the 'got to have it' or 'mildly interesting' stuff. I take the previews for what they are: Simply something above a cursory glance but less than a true review.

I actually just ignore the ratings in the preview and wait for any full review.

 

[gene]

it's only because we fear Audioholics p/reviews starting to look a little like hometheaterreview (by which I mean promosheet rundowns turned effusively positive non-reviews).

Our review process is intensive as you know. I just finished a 5k word review of the new EMP E55Tis. We simply cant churn out a new review every day given how much time and detail we put into our reviews. Thus, we came up with First Look and Preview articles which are on the level of what some websites consider to be "reviews".

Reviewing Home Theater Reviews applies to what most of the A/V sites are doing in my opinion. They are doing this for SEO on the search engines. We are at least more transparent by not labeling them as actual product reviews.

FYI: Your shootout link in this post is still broken.

There is a bug in our Video Format article type that is messing up internal links. We are working on fixing this and thanks for bringing it to our attention.

 

[Audioholics]

FWIW I never looked at those as ratings... just a quick opinion, or a temperature gauge the reviewer or author uses to assign some sense of optimism and enthusiasm to the product. From my listening impressions of it, I think that Klipsch bookshelf is a great product and deserved a high impression. A video review of us sitting on a couch listening to it would make for a boring presentation, don't you think? Conveying our listening tests would be just as boring, hence the focus on features and aesthetics - things which are easier to show visually.

Though you may disagree, and Gene may feel the need do an end-run to appease some of the critics, there is a reason for everything I do - be it agreeable to some of our readers or not. All we can do is our best. I like to fail forward whenever possible, though.

Critiques are welcome. But I find that if it's a sincere and humble desire to better the site, those typically show up as PMs or emails. The public critiques... not so helpful.

Thank you, drive through...

 

[Marshall_Guthrie]

Critiques are welcome. But I find that if it's a sincere and humble desire to better the site, those typically show up as PMs or emails. The public critiques... not so helpful.

I prefer public discourse. It's a good way for the squeaky wheel to bear the judgment of the masses, assuming civility can be maintained. It's the reason Letters to the Editor are voluntarily published rather than filed away under "13".