This is a review and detailed measurements of the Klipsch RP-600M Speaker Review. I purchased them from Amazon a couple of weeks ago. The current cost on Amazon is US $629 including Prime shipping. I however found a refurbished one for $450 I think. It looks brand new in the box though. "RP" stands for Reference Premier so it better do well!
As I have said in my previous reviews of Klipsch speakers, they are a genius in marketing department and that is reflected in the super nice look of RP-600M:
Beauty can be surprisingly skin deep though as one looks at the back and notices thin metal bridging the somewhat crude terminals:
Wish they had put in just one set of better quality binding posts. It does the job though.
The RP-600M is super popular with tons of bloggers giving it praise mixed with other wording that one cannot make sense out of. Stereophile also reviewed it and Herb Reichert had this to say about their sound:
View attachment 55041
Vibrantly present? We will see about that.
JA had this to say about the measurements:
View attachment 55042
Interesting that these aspects would translate into what Herb had to say.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the
Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise.
Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
All measurements are reference to tweeter axis with the grill removed. Frequency resolution is 2.7 Hz. Over 1000 measurement points were used to assure high precision in higher frequencies.
Spinorama Audio Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker can be used. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
View attachment 55043
Good grief. Look at how the two drivers are crossed with that giant dip. It seems to me this is on-purpose as all they had to do was to set the crossover frequencies a bit different and the hole would not be this deep. They must think what sells is bass and treble, and damn everything else in the middle.
Directivity (on and off-axis similarity) looks very good though. In theory then, that dip would be one we can fill in with equalization.
This would not be a Klipsch speaker without some terrible peaking although the amount is rather mild here compared to what they could do. Likewise, they publish fantasy stories about sensitivity. As I note, in bass frequencies where you need sensitivity, you still need tons of power. But maybe the highs bother you so much you won't want to turn it up that much!
Predicted in-room response tells us what we already (for good and bad);
View attachment 55044
Because on and off-axis response is similar, we get the same shape graph as our spinorama on-axis with a bit of tilt down which we can all appreciate.
Early reflections all have the same dip as noted repeatedly:
View attachment 55045
On many speakers, on-axis is flat in this region and it is off-axis that causes the dip. Here all axis have the same hole.
Impedance predictably dips a lot lower than Klipsch lets on:
View attachment 55047
Distortion shows that the woofer is starting to suffer before it is retired by the tweeter:
View attachment 55048
So maybe that is the reason for not pulling its response up higher? Nah. They wanted this kind of response.
I let you hunt around for resonances in the waterfall:
View attachment 55050
Story is already told on directivity but here are the pretty graphs anyway:
View attachment 55051
View attachment 55053
Speaker Listening Test
For those of you bothered by these remarks, please skip to the conclusions. Don't want you to suffer needlessly....
I powered the Klipsch RP-600M using my main system (amplification 1000+ watts). I was expecting bad sound but man, this is really, really bad sound. No detail. Muddy bass and somewhat but not extremely bright. I dial in my room mode bass correction and that helps a tiny bit but suffering continues as I go to track after track.
Testing the theory that the crossover dip can be repaired with EQ, I dialed that in using Roon parametric EQ. And while I was at it, I pulled down the extreme highs as well. This is the end result:
View attachment 55055
The yellow filter above fixing the hole was stunning! It transformed the speaker into a completely different device. Back was the detail, and beautiful vocals. Our hearing is the most sensitive in 2 to 5 kHz so you don't want a speaker pull down that area or you lose detail. There was a trade off in making the sound a bit bright if you push the Gain higher. Still, it sounded good up to 5+ dB of boost.
The roll off was mostly good but too crude.
Normally I don't suggest letting automated room EQ fix the speaker but in this case, I would let it beat it into shape.
My quick fixes were good enough for me to sit there and want to enjoy some tracks of music! I pity on people who buy this speaker with no means of EQ.
Conclusions
Out of the box, the Klipsch RP-600M throws out the rule book, thinking that if you just sold boosted lows and highs and leaving mids behind is a good idea. It is not. Objective and subjective testing shows this to be a horrible choice ranking the speaker as one of the worst I have tested. Dial in some simple EQ though and the speaker transforms into a beauty. The "horn" is actually not a horn but a waveguide that is doing its job to provide uniform off-axis response allowing one to EQ the mid-range dip.
Since I have to score the speaker as designed, it gets my worst rating of "stay away." If you have ability to EQ, and you better do if you are hanging around this forum, then you have a good offering.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Cabin fever is getting to me despite glorious sunshine outside. Itching to go out but of course cannot. So I am thinking if my bank balance goes up I will be happier. So please
donate using
: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
