Review on Klipsch R 15M Bookshelf Speaker Pair by Ashley Belehar

I've been working hard to buy a pair of speakers. I mean I spent hours researching over several days. I'm new to the world of vinyl and have put more into this hobby than I care to admit. I bought a Fluance rt-81 turntable paired with a Sony receiver (I'll be upgrading to a Tube Cube 7 tube amp soon). I didn't want to exhaust myself with speakers using my path as I'll have to move on to really good stuff once I see where this hobby is going. So $300 was my limit for speakers. I split them between the Fluance Signature Series, Edifier, Polk, and a few other brands. Klipsch has been in the spotlight because so many great reviews appear on so many sites. And they have a pretty good reputation and pedigree. An American company also scores them, although I'm not stupid enough to think they don't outsource labor to China these days either. What I feared most was that many reviews called Klipsch speakers bright and punchy. In short . You seem to be. I won't lie and say I'm not entirely disappointed with their heavy sound. But at this price I don't know other brands would be different. I got a fantastic price during the Black Friday sale in April. I paid about $120 for a new pair. I would try Fluance if the full price of Klipsch was $170 or $200. Klipsch has a big horn on top. It's more like a speaker you see in a stadium, designed to move a lot of air and deliver a loud sound. Even at 1/4 volume, they bounce off the walls in my fairly large living room. The room is full of sound, and unfortunately not in the best way. If you don't have an amp to play high and low frequencies on, you may have a hard time listening. Over time, we expect a lot of bass when listening to music. In Beats headphones and theater sets with subwoofers, the average music listener hears songs that are very different from what the artist likely intended. If you listen to a '60s album like The Beatles versus modern day remasters, you'll find that literally everything made in the last 20 years is filled with booming bass. The original albums were less bass-heavy and most people listened to them through built-in turntable speakers prior to the hi-fi movement of the 1970s. So back to Klipsch. Hardness is real. I almost packed them up and returned when I first heard them out of the box. Terrible things. I gave them a break from listening to albums for about 24 hours of music before they relaxed a bit. They never got rid of that loud noise face to face. I can listen to music all day long on my computer system with mini subwoofer. After 2-3 albums on Klipsch I'm ready to take a break. A subwoofer might help, but that means I'll have to forego a tube amp as I don't have a subwoofer connection. In fairness, no matter how bright and sharp they may be. the tone is even. Vocals and jazz music are clear. As soon as you start listening to music with bass or complex instrumental parts, you can run into problems. Bass (bass) can get a little muddy at high volumes. (A sub-$300 receiver could also be to blame.) But every time the volume goes past 1/2 turn of the dial, I'm like a whistling dog. I can't stand the sound. even if it's Hendrix, The Doors or The Stones. Difficult. Bright. Yuck. So summarized. Buyer beware. If I were to do it again, I would roll the dice for a different brand. Klipsch speakers are good for some music, but they completely ruin other music (any complex one). Motörhead is ruined for me forever. To be honest I can't understand them coming close to 5 star ratings. I think it's true that you love them or hate them. I'm somewhere in the middle. I tolerate them. But I won't be upset at all if I upgrade to a better speaker. Most likely it won't be Klipsch. Not a bad speaker, but not for me.