Review on Klipsch R-15PM Powered Monitor - Black (Pair) with Gate PlayFi Gateway for Wireless MultiRoom Streaming by Wendy Kennedy

For the money I am very happy with the cleanliness and performance of these speakers paired with a Klipsch R-12SW subwoofer in my home office. I've spent most of the last year looking for the perfect headphone/amp/DAC setup and finally came up with a couple of good ones. However, I really missed having decent speakers in the room where I now spend 80% of my life. The R-15PMs were perfect because I didn't want to mess with a receiver and instead could power them directly from my PC via USB. I bought these speakers to connect to a 12" Klipsch subwoofer that I already had when I decided to upgrade my home theater system to a 15" subwoofer. Considering they're small bookshelf speakers, the R-15PMs don't deliver full-range audio, which isn't surprising. But with a subwoofer, they sound fantastic to my ears. Bonus: The R-12SW's finish is the same matte finish as the R-15PM. Others have noted the lack of an onboard R-15PM 24bit/96kHz DAC, but I can't say I did. So far I've listened to some rock and loads of EDM, including tracks I've heard many, many times on different headphones. In a critical listening test, I expect the headphones to have a flatter frequency response and more detail, but on the contrary, they lack the feel and impact that speakers offer. And I don't feel like the sound is lacking, at least not with the source material played so far. I should also note that I haven't tried any of the other inputs - purely via USB from a PC - so I can't comment on how well they work. For $250 I'm very happy with these powered speakers. Oh, two things I'd like to point out: (1) My speakers are Crutchfield, and while they're clearly labeled as Klipsch R-15PM on the back, they don't have a power switch, as shown throughout the R-15PM documentation/literature, that I found. The rear is similar to the newer R-51PM. Not sure why as they are not remanufactured and the reduced price compared to the R-51PM suggests Klipsch no longer makes them. The speakers turn off when I go to sleep or turn off the computer, and the remote also has a power button, so it's not a big deal to me, but maybe to someone else. (2) And if we talk about the remote control, then it is not the same as in the photo. The remote control is fine, except for one glaring omission - there are no controls to skip forward or backward: you can increase and decrease the volume, you can trim the subwoofer output, you can reset the subwoofer level, select other audio sources, Mute and pause/play tracks but cannot move forward or backward. This annoys me a little since these speakers are set up on a table across from my desktop and I was planning to use the remote to skip or play tracks. My solution was to spend another $18 on Revain to get a fake Klipsch remote like the one shown in the photos - it will arrive today and hopefully work as expected.