Went to bestbuy?

[madmax1]

Went to bestbuy and looked at the jbl line and dint like the way they sounded. Next to them where the Klipsch - synergy series, They sounded alot better! Even the bookshelf ones sb3 sounded better then the jbl's. Are the Klipsch synergy line any good? My room is 20x15, have a 32in tv, Yamaha 1300 receiver. Watch 95% movies and 5% music.

[lbhkilla]

I felt the same thing when I went and heard them there. To me the Athenas were the best sounding speaker for the price at best buy.

[RGA]

Went to bestbuy and looked at the jbl line and dint like the way they sounded. Next to them where the Klipsch - synergy series, They sounded alot better! Even the bookshelf ones sb3 sounded better then the jbl's. Are the Klipsch synergy line any good? My room is 20x15, have a 32in tv, Yamaha 1300 receiver. Watch 95% movies and 5% music.

Horns are a love em or hate em deal - Horns generally have higher sensitivity meaning you can play louder with fewer watts and because of this they also tend to have superior dynamics which is integral to creating realistic sound. Where Klispch falters a bit is that some models don't have a smooth treble - the tweeter's sensitivity is out of step with the woofer so you get a forward presentation - probably to compensate for lesser amplification.

I would take Klipsch over JBL as well. JBL is basically on par with Bose sound quality wise - and that is basically rubbish.

I was not impressed with Athena at Future Shop - but to each his own.

Try and find a deal on the Klipsch Reference line - or better yet look for used models of 5-10 years back - do some research you may get a terrific model relatively cheap.

[Bryan]

What is your budget for a new HT system? Do you need all five plus a sub or are you going to be building over time?

[madmax1]

What is your budget for a new HT system? Do you need all five plus a sub or are you going to be building over time?
over time, first im gonna get the mains,then the center then the rears then sub

[magictooth]

Went to bestbuy and looked at the jbl line and dint like the way they sounded. Next to them where the Klipsch - synergy series, They sounded alot better! Even the bookshelf ones sb3 sounded better then the jbl's. Are the Klipsch synergy line any good? My room is 20x15, have a 32in tv, Yamaha 1300 receiver. Watch 95% movies and 5% music.
A speaker that sounds good in the store may not sound good in your room and vice versa. The only way to find out if the sound is good at your house is to try them out. Best Buy and Future Shop have very liberal return policies. You could buy a couple sets and do some A/B comparisons and return the ones that you don't like.

[Woochifer]

Those noisy Best Buy showrooms are absolutely the worst possible place to try and audition speakers. The speakers are not properly setup, the acoustical environment is lousy, and the sound sources are patched through a control panel that make its own changes to the sound quality. When auditioning Klipsch against any other speaker, keep in mind that the Klipsch's horn design makes those speakers more efficient, so they will play louder at an identical volume position. And the only way to do a valid comparison is to match the levels as closely as possible, because in an A/B comparison, people will tend to prefer whatever sounds louder.


As far as Klipsch's Synergy line goes, those speakers can sound very harsh with a lot of sources. A lot of people like that sound, while others don't. The Klipsch Reference series has a more refined sound, and those are only sold through specialty retailers, not big box uberstores like Best Buy. If you're looking into their tower speakers, do some careful comparisons with the bookshelf models. Their previous tower models had a lot of cabinet resonance when I listened to them.

As someone else mentioned, if you really like those SB3s, go ahead and buy them and see how they sound at home. In a smaller room with less outside noise, you'll have a much better basis for concluding whether or not to go with those. And in that kind of environment, you'll get a much better feel for the highs on the Synergy series.