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Klipsch The Three Review (Powered Speaker)

YSC

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My kitchen currently boasts a pair of JBL 305 mk2 and a Topping bluetooth DAC. Curiously the overall cost is pretty much lineball with this speaker. I don't have WiFi capability, but Bluetooth works fine and I tend to just stream from my phone. The speakers are more than capable of filling the space with sound and I can bop along to The Stranglers whilst cooking dinner.

OK, I don't get the retro looks and it is a bit more cumbersome, but seriously, what the heck are Klipsch doing to justify this junk?
it's definitely for guys who prefer look before sound, much like geeks buy some soild huge and bulky PC for gaming and others buy a slim and pretty looking laptop which cost the same with 1/5 performance
 

DSJR

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Over here it was the bassy toned Bose Wave Radio which sold as I suspect this does, as a large retro table-top radio or record player did in the 50's and 60's. I think the 'Pure' brand here (with DAB radio) has maybe taken over in trendy kitchens.
 

AudioSceptic

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Nah. The Sonos Roam($129), and Google Nest Audio($99) -- are both much cheaper and significantly 'smarter' than this speaker and they measured way better than this. Presumably with less SPL output because they are smaller, but nonetheless they got the basics of frequency response and directivity right mostly right.

Sonos Roam(60% volume):
View attachment 133054

Google Nest Audio(62% volume):
View attachment 133055

They both have built in limiters that will significantly reduce the bass at higher SPLs but it's obvious that Google and Sonos were at least, you know, trying. SPL and bass limitations are going to largely be a function of the speaker's size, but there's no excuse to not try to optimize FR and directivity. And Klipsch clearly knows how to make a good waveguide as shown in Erin's measurements of the fives. But this just doesn't look like much effort was put into it
I have to say, having found a pic of the Roam, that it's incredible that it can produce bass down to 70-80 Hz, and apart from the peaking above 7k, the rest looks good too. All the same, I can see the appeal of the Klipsch on looks alone. Most people buying this sort of product will think that it *looks* like a lot for the money and won't be critical about the SQ as long as it's not awful.
 

mohragk

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mohragk

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it's definitely for guys who prefer look before sound, much like geeks buy some soild huge and bulky PC for gaming and others buy a slim and pretty looking laptop which cost the same with 1/5 performance

Slim, lightweight laptops are used in entirely different scenarios. My girlfriend has both for instance; a thin laptop to use when going to university and a full size desktop to use at home.

This device is used in similar scenarios. So there isn't a argument to be made to buy the Klipsch, other than looks. Personally I would get a Teenage Engineering OD-11 if that was my primary concern, but that's about taste.
 

AudioSceptic

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Aux is an input, not output. There is no way to measure the DAC, the amp or anything else. Wish there was as that is what I thought I would do instead of measuring it as a speaker.
I see that the RCA-in is switchable between line level and phono. That seems a really odd addition. Who's likely to use it with a TT?
 

mohragk

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I wonder how the Teenage Engineering OD-11 holds up. Clearly a device made to look good, but I'm doubtful of it's performance.
 

AudioSceptic

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Are there any good sounding boomboxes out there ? Is there still a big market for such products ? I used to love my radio cassette boombox as a teenager. My teenager is content with phone and airpods. I have this little practice guitar amp, boombox sized, the Yamaha THR https://images.app.goo.gl/xWsnJ4zMHQJ5JmKE6
it doubles a music system for when working out, or eating outside, etc. I play music from a notebook via the USB port (it doesn't accept my phone, I can't figure out why). It sounds really nice and can go quite loud, I can't find fault with it for that kind of use. The internal DAC must be decent. They have new models with bluetooth capability, that aren't cheap, but if you were a guitar player, you would get an additional very capable guitar amp for about the same price as the Klipsch.
Just wondering, but if your phone is Android, do you need a OTG connector, or if an iPhone, a Camera Connector?
 

hardisj

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Again, you were changing the presentation format, not solving the aliasing problem. Go and listen to Christian. He tells you that you need to give the reference point to the scanner so that it can optimize the points it selects. To the extent the sound field is fully captured, then changing orientation 90 degrees or offsetting is fine. But if you had undersampled, the change in axis would change the same wrong data. It would not magically create new data points that it needs to describe the sound field.

gotcha. I misunderstood your original problem.

In that case, I think this calls for a rescan or simply taking the data down. It doesn’t seem right to publish data when it is admittedly incorrect. Even if it is of benefit to the speaker. Your detractors eat this kind of stuff up. The last thing I’d want to give them is more fuel. Keep in mind, I’m “on your side”. Just providing some perspective from the other side. ;)
 
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AudioSceptic

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Over here it was the bassy toned Bose Wave Radio which sold as I suspect this does, as a large retro table-top radio or record player did in the 50's and 60's. I think the 'Pure' brand here (with DAB radio) has maybe taken over in trendy kitchens.
You can still get the Bose Wave, and it's not cheap <https://www.bose.co.uk/en_gb/produc...usic-system.html#v=wms_4_espresso_black_gb_ie>, although it can do a lot more. The Klipsch hasn't got any sources built-in, has it?
 

AudioSceptic

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We do if it costs 400 dollars! For that price you can get a set of Adam Audio T5V's AND a decent DAC (in Europe). Or, if you want portable, get some iLoud Micro Monitors.
For sheer performance, you are right, but I doubt that there is *any* overlap between the markets for these alternative "systems".
 

Spkrdctr

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You guys all have to remember the target audience. People who don't care about sound and don't even know equipment reviews exist. But it is way over priced for what you get. Klipsch went full Bose quite a few years ago. This was a conscious business decision made by management to do what Bose was doing at the time. So they have moved into making everything. Lots of lifestyle products. Now Bose doesn't make as much and Klipsch makes it all. When they decided to do this I figured it would be bad. It hasn't turned out as bad as I thought it would. Most of their products are ok to good. Some is pure crap. At the time I thought it would all turn to crap. This is another story where I was on the fringe of the Klipsch circle and knew it was coming years ago. I wanted them to really start making relatively flat high quality speakers for the masses. I guess they wanted PC speakers, ear buds and other very modern junk, well, junk at that time. It was a money making decision on their part to stay in business. Oh well......
 

Aperiodic

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Given the bad review here and the mention of Amazon availability' I decided to see how it fared in customer reviews there (screenshot below).


Not sure what this says about people's judgment but there you have it... 83% give it five stars. I think Spkrdctr is on to something about the target audience for Klipsch. It's aimed at people who remember the company and buy because it's 'a good name'. I guess they couldn't take their K-horns to the retirement community, so Klipsch went into the 'lifestyle appliance' business. Unfortunately all that is left of most of the big names of the 'classic audio' era is the name- Klipsch, AR, Fisher, Marantz.

Another good example is Marshall, who also has gone into this category of product. Now fewer people are taking up real musical instruments because they require time and effort to learn. Guitar Center has filed bankruptcy as a result, which means fewer potential customers for Marshall, Fender etc, so into Lifestyle Land go brands like Klipsch, Fisher and a dozen others in an attempt to stay in business.
 

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Thomas_A

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I wonder how the Teenage Engineering OD-11 holds up. Clearly a device made to look good, but I'm doubtful of it's performance.

The OD-11 cannot be measured by the Klippel in a meaningful way.
 

YSC

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Slim, lightweight laptops are used in entirely different scenarios. My girlfriend has both for instance; a thin laptop to use when going to university and a full size desktop to use at home.

This device is used in similar scenarios. So there isn't a argument to be made to buy the Klipsch, other than looks. Personally I would get a Teenage Engineering OD-11 if that was my primary concern, but that's about taste.
Well or put it this way, some cute and pretty notebook and some similarly slim gaming laptops at similar cost but different performance..

For anyone buying audio products absolute sound quality is only required to the level where they felt satisfied and then remaining factors like brand, YouTube reviews, look, ease of use to their case kick in. So as long as it doesn’t sound very broken at short demo sections I believe there’s the market for all those retro look/other stuffs they packaged in. Not that I agree that’s a correct product for me (it’s not, I don’t even ever own a klipsch product since the s4i I bought to upgrade my iPhone buds back like 8 years ago).
Us audiophiles will rank sound quality above all so this will be ignored by us but the market says it’s a money making product so someone will produce them
 

AudioSceptic

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For the grand price of £18.99 I bought this some time ago-

https://tech-reviews.co.uk/reviews/sond-audio-bluetooth-ntc-wooden-speaker-review/

Same 3 driver setup, each driver fed by its own amplifier.
With the Aux in fed by a pi zero w with phat dac it actually sounds really good, so good my friends/family sought out 2nd hand ones on ebay.
Less than £50 in total.
You couldn't make it yourself for that money, and even at "normal" price it's ridiculous VFM.
 

AudioSceptic

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Given the bad review here and the mention of Amazon availability' I decided to see how it fared in customer reviews there (screenshot below).


Not sure what this says about people's judgment but there you have it... 83% give it five stars. I think Spkrdctr is on to something about the target audience for Klipsch. It's aimed at people who remember the company and buy because it's 'a good name'. I guess they couldn't take their K-horns to the retirement community, so Klipsch went into the 'lifestyle appliance' business. Unfortunately all that is left of most of the big names of the 'classic audio' era is the name- Klipsch, AR, Fisher, Marantz.

Another good example is Marshall, who also has gone into this category of product. Now fewer people are taking up real musical instruments because they require time and effort to learn. Guitar Center has filed bankruptcy as a result, which means fewer potential customers for Marshall, Fender etc, so into Lifestyle Land go brands like Klipsch, Fisher and a dozen others in an attempt to stay in business.
The Klipsch The Three seems to have got rave reviews just about everywhere, including the Audiophile Style one I linked to earlier.
 
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