Klipsch The Sevens - Review & Measurements by Erin

[julioln]

Hi, I'm Mete Can. This is my first post.
I bought these active speakers recently. I think they have quirks, so I will try to describe them;

•I think the 4 pin connector is a balanced connection. I don't hear any noise which is a good plus. This is a very economical balanced loudspeaker which people might find to their liking. Also, it is very easy to set them up since they are stand alone active speakers.
• These speakers have a pretty good bass response. I think people mention this when reviewing them. The method used to make them sound as neutral as possible is three fold. First, you disable dynamic EQ from the app. Doing so from the remote is also possible, but for people not attune to the Morse code, a single blink is not as easy as seeing it from the app that it is crossed over. Second, you need to select its room setting as placed near a wall. Third, you need to split volume between your pc, my source, and the speakers. There is an absolute volume setting on the Bluetooth settings, so I advise you turn it off. This is because Klipsch advertises that they engage in dynamic eq the lower the volume setting is on the speaker unit. Better be certain by lowering volume on your source and increasing it on the speakers. On the app, it shows -2dB and on the pc I'm at 4% volume and the speakers are filling a 38m² room to my liking.
• These are active speakers, so you might not want them to enter auto-standby while running. You can turn off auto-standby from the app as well, however my speakers shut off after 3-5 hours depending on the load on the bass unit. You can reset the speakers by turning off/on from the remote very easily, but I don't know about the long term consequences of that.
• These speakers sound clearer to me while placed near a wall. They are really efficient and clear that way. The bass isn't muddy at all. People also wondered why there is a decrease in mid. I forgot which forum thread I saw, but they made an interview with one of their first employees and he said the past formulas were wrong and people have a bass to mid and mid to treble dip in perceived loudness. I think they are sticking to their own science.

The 4 pin connector is just 2 pairs of speaker connections, 2 pins for the woofer and 2 pins for the tweeter since they are individually powered. The active parts – DSP, DAC, amps, etc – are in only one of the speakers, the other only has connections to the woofer and tweeter.

 

[kemmler3D]

These look better than I expected, but the rising on-axis with dark looking PIR makes me a bit confused. And the quick jump up in directivity at the crossover makes me want to say they crossed it too low, which is something I've never said, so I'm wondering if I'm missing something.

Most of the time you can look at a speaker and see what the design goal/ philosophy was, and see how well they succeeded against that goal. In this case I'm just not sure.

 

[mtcn77]

These look better than I expected, but the rising on-axis with dark looking PIR makes me a bit confused. And the quick jump up in directivity at the crossover makes me want to say they crossed it too low, which is something I've never said, so I'm wondering if I'm missing something.

Most of the time you can look at a speaker and see what the design goal/ philosophy was, and see how well they succeeded against that goal. In this case I'm just not sure.

I tried to post a youtube video, but it seems it is not possible.
One of the earliest employees had a recent interview talking about perceived hearing levels. I think all parts of this speaker is part of the same scientific journey: the tractix tweeter horn and the back horn enabling lower frequencies, the narrow dispersion goal in order to control sibillance. These are the pointers I could gather from their principal engineer's recent interview. You can find it online.

 

[Arindal]

the rising on-axis with dark looking PIR makes me a bit confused.

An explanation might be that these speakers are delivering a more balanced FR rather at 25 or 30deg horizontally than on-axis because they are meant to be positioned in parallel to the wall.

And the quick jump up in directivity at the crossover makes me want to say they crossed it too low,

I agree that this step up in directivity is not ideal and might contribute to midrange-heavy reverb. Nevertheless my guess would be this was implemented intentionally. Only the horn can provide such a narrow dispersion angle, not the cone, and by shifting the directivity step to a lower freq, keeping it more less constant above 1K, you at least get a compromise which is not messing with the relative perception of the 1-2K band compared to 3-5K. Having the step at 2.5K would be much more disadvantageous in terms of imaging and ambience, particularly in a reverberant room.

With such a small 2-way concept, you can either have more or less constant or continuous directivity, or higher directivity index in the tweeter band, not both. Seemingly they have opted for the latter, sacrificing balanced reverb for more clarity under reverberant conditions.

 

[mtcn77]

These look better than I expected, but the rising on-axis with dark looking PIR makes me a bit confused. And the quick jump up in directivity at the crossover makes me want to say they crossed it too low, which is something I've never said, so I'm wondering if I'm missing something.

Most of the time you can look at a speaker and see what the design goal/ philosophy was, and see how well they succeeded against that goal. In this case I'm just not sure.

I had the option to buy smaller speakers. I didn't want the tweeter to sound too forward. They really sound recessed in a pleasant manner.
The tweeter is just how they predict in the video. In the Klipsch engineer's video there was also a segment on the difference between data versus subjective experience. They design them from the ground up to be efficient, neutral and dynamic, but not distorted - in that order. That requires some directivity since the horn doesn't distort the sound while the cone at high excursion might. They just put a higher value on tonal clarity than directivity. They state higher directivity also puts efficiency in a higher status.
I think as a package, as a good "digital" sound source they are well designed. I still cannot get used to the speakers shutting off after a few hours. I think they are very easy to listen speakers.
PS: it is the Tractrix horn, sorry about the misspelling.

 

[SivKiv]

Hi, I'm Mete Can. This is my first post.
I bought these active speakers recently. I think they have quirks, so I will try to describe them;

•I think the 4 pin connector is a balanced connection. I don't hear any noise which is a good plus. This is a very economical balanced loudspeaker which people might find to their liking. Also, it is very easy to set them up since they are stand alone active speakers.
• These speakers have a pretty good bass response. I think people mention this when reviewing them. The method used to make them sound as neutral as possible is three fold. First, you disable dynamic EQ from the app. Doing so from the remote is also possible, but for people not attune to the Morse code, a single blink is not as easy as seeing it from the app that it is crossed over. Second, you need to select its room setting as placed near a wall. Third, you need to split volume between your pc, my source, and the speakers. There is an absolute volume setting on the Bluetooth settings, so I advise you turn it off. This is because Klipsch advertises that they engage in dynamic eq the lower the volume setting is on the speaker unit. Better be certain by lowering volume on your source and increasing it on the speakers. On the app, it shows -2dB and on the pc I'm at 4% volume and the speakers are filling a 38m² room to my liking.
• These are active speakers, so you might not want them to enter auto-standby while running. You can turn off auto-standby from the app as well, however my speakers shut off after 3-5 hours depending on the load on the bass unit. You can reset the speakers by turning off/on from the remote very easily, but I don't know about the long term consequences of that.
• These speakers sound clearer to me while placed near a wall. They are really efficient and clear that way. The bass isn't muddy at all. People also wondered why there is a decrease in mid. I forgot which forum thread I saw, but they made an interview with one of their first employees and he said the past formulas were wrong and people have a bass to mid and mid to treble dip in perceived loudness. I think they are sticking to their own science.

I believe the cleanliness is due to the speakers functionally having the entire wall as a baffle if it's placed really close to it(like, right up against a wall), so the direct sound and reflected sound from the wall right behind the speaker is essentially identical, and hence it weirdly sounds cleaner. In walls should have a similar advantage too(it's speculation on my part, so it'd be good to verify this with others )

 

[mtcn77]

While not sure, I think I solved my speakers shutting down. The usb socket was flimsy, despite new laptop. It lost connection while cleaning under the laptop. I had to disconnect and reconnect the usb cable for the laptop to reconfigure the Sevens.
@SivKiv I can have fairly neutral sound by disabling dynamic eq and enabling night mode, or enter movie mode by disabling night mode and enabling dynamic eq.
PS: nope, still does disconnect. I'm going to try to evade autostandby by frequently switching volume levels in order to trigger activity.

 

[jarablue]

I have the sevens and to be honest, they sound a bit hollow at certain times. Can the eq do anything for that? I have my sevens on speaker stands filled with sand and on isolation pads. Just the hollowness I can't fix.

 

[kyuu]

I have the sevens and to be honest, they sound a bit hollow at certain times. Can the eq do anything for that? I have my sevens on speaker stands filled with sand and on isolation pads. Just the hollowness I can't fix.

Without knowing what exactly the "hollowness" you're hearing is it's difficult to say. Do you have any means of taking an in-room measurement?

The EQ looks like it's just a three-band graphic EQ though. So alternately you could just play around with it a bit and see if boosting/cutting any of those three bands helps or not.

 

[mtcn77]

I have the sevens and to be honest, they sound a bit hollow at certain times. Can the eq do anything for that? I have my sevens on speaker stands filled with sand and on isolation pads. Just the hollowness I can't fix.

Have you tried activating night mode and wall correction? I cannot listen to music any other way. It is really neutral.