Klipsch Black Reference Theater Pack 5.1 Surround Sound System

I've got probably the weirdest use-case scenario for these. For about 7 years now I've been using the Logitech Z906 5.1 speaker system for my PC and love the surround sound cues in FPS games, but it's always bugged me that there are no tweeters, just 3" drivers. I recently upgraded the downstairs and upstairs audio setups in the house with SVS Ultra speakers, and when going between those systems and my PC it became painfully obvious that something was missing. I also recently installed a WiiM Amp in my bedroom but couldn't find a set of speakers that had good bass without also totally dominating the top of the bureau where they sat. I decided I needed a wireless subwoofer but didn't really want to pay the $900 for an SVS Micro 3000. A year or two ago I stumbled across this Klipsch 5.1 speaker system on Amazon and bookmarked it. At first the price tag bugged me but it finally dawned on me that it would solve several problems all at once, for much cheaper than other solutions. So now I've replaced the 3 front PC speakers (Left, Center, Right) with units from this package, and connected the remaining two speakers and the sub to the WiiM Amp. It made a noticeable and immediate improvement to the sound on my PC: voices on YouTube clips sound much more realistic and present - not just because of improved high end due to the tweeters, but they also seem to handle lower notes more convincingly as well (I've got these crossed at 80Hz like before but you can actually hear more bass directionally now, which means it's coming from the speaker, not the sub). In-game sound is also massively improved. And music sounds so much better and has a more holographic soundstage. The original Logitech speakers are doing just fine as the rear surrounds, since they don't get a whole lot of use. Upstairs, the WiiM amp setup now sounds exactly like what I was looking for, and the speakers are a much better fit for the available space. I think the WiiM Amp is much happier driving smaller speakers, too. It's probably overkill for a bedroom stereo but I'm thrilled with it. I've seen a few reviews here saying the sub was defective, one guy even went so far as to call it a fake because something big was rattling around inside (I suspect the amp or part of it got dislodged by being dropped in shipping or something). Mine worked immediately and the wireless connection is perfect for my needs. I don't see this system on the Klipsch site so I am assuming it must be discontinued. Regardless, it's a great value and I'm sooooooo glad I finally pulled the trigger on these. Edited to add: I was finally able to find these on the Klipsch site (by googling "Klipsch Black Reference Theater Pack 5.1" and following the link, I couldn't locate them through the site itself) . It does look like maybe they've been discontinued but it's hard to tell. More interestingly, it says that the original price was around $1300, which really explains a whole whole lot about why these sound so good. Discontinued or not, I'm really glad to get ahold of them for $399 instead. Love 'em to bits!

These replaced a set of speakers that were getting a little old. They were packaged well and they sound great. They seem more efficient as well because they still sound great at a lower volume setting. The price was good too.

The box everything came in was not too heavy. The average person wouldn't have a problem with it. Separately, each speaker has a nice heft to them, they feel high quality. The subwoofer is pretty light but puts out some really good, deep bass for its size.

I'm going to admit, I'm somewhat a novice when it comes to home theatre. With that said, I'm aware of how much of a difference it truly makes with ones interpretation of what they're watching. I had recently upgraded to a new OLED with an eARC feature and came to realise, my soundbar I bought 5 years ago wasn't doing me justice anymore, even though some sound great! My goal was to get something that sounded phenomenal, didn't break the bank, and looked clean as well. Found quite a few options online that I thought would work best, went to a local Magnolia store, and started to narrow down what features would work the best for my preferences as well as a ton of reviews on a lot of these systems. Took the gamble, and gave Klipsch my money. Received a neat home theatre in a box not long after and got to work with how I was going to place these. I think they'd go best being mounted especially the back speakers, but given space and size of the sidepiece my TV is on figured they'd work better just placed, given their very convenient size. I went with buying some telescoping speaker stands so they could still be placed above my couch/ear level. I placed the sub aside the sidepiece on a speaker riser, mainly to be on good terms with the neighbors below and supposedly makes the bass punch a tad more as it downfires. Had to hone in on my wiring skills a bit but to be honest if you have a decent stripping to it's straight forward, and I'd highly recommend purchasing the Amazon basic 16 gauge 100ft with this as it'll require 18 or larger. A few hours later, a few cuts from my clueless utility knife skills, and some extra wire to play with, the speakers were all hooked up and lead to a Yamaha TSR-7850 receiver(I'm sure there's better out there, but with eARC compatibility if you have it and flexibility to go 7.1 for less than $500, it was a definite for me). Took some time to get through options of setup on my TV as I truly have no clue what I'm doing with this, but when I did. WOW. Great clarity, full sound, and the bass blends so well. Not a tremendous amount, which for me was perfect as I just need it to fill in the areas and thus subwoofer does just that. The speakers look awesome with or without the covers and the quality is as great as the sound. To conclude, if you're relatively new to the home theatre/ surround sound/ external audio aspect for your TV/gaming/ movie viewing, highly consider this package. If you get it when it's on sale, it's worth every penny and if you buy at it's regular retail, I still guarantee you won't be disappointed. Cheers!

Klipsch review TL;DR this is a very very decent system, but you may have to fix the sub or go with a separate sub if you’re really wanting a “wireless sub”. I was in the market for a 3.1 system for my desktop rig. So I could listen to music or watch movies and have a decent sound experience without a headset causing what I call “squeeze fatigue.” I wasn’t looking to spend a whole lot, but didn’t want complete garbage either. So in my search on Amazon I found these. They were 5.1, but less than $300. If anything I would get 2 extra speakers than I needed, and Klipsch has a reputation for being quality. Of course I was skeptical of these being only $289 shipped to my front door, while they are listed on Klipsch’s site for $1264.00. What this told me is they are clearing out inventory or they are defective. Reading the negative reviews, the problem was mostly the Subwoofer, but everyone else said it was decent. So I rolled the dice, assuming everyone was using the optional wireless setup, I thought worst case I would just never use the wireless link and be okay. I got them, unpacked them, and was happy to see those copper spun cones Klipsch loves to boast about. I hooked them up using bare 16 AWG copper wire for the main speakers, since the terminals are spring loaded gold plated terminals, and are too small for banana plugs, I just rolled with it. The other ends are banana plugged into an old Sony surround I got almost a decade ago, but still works well for a smaller setup. I decided “I don’t need no stinkin wireless” and opted to use a shielded RCA cable for the Sub. Then I hooked the system up to the TV Using HDMI, which has the best support for DTS in my opinion, and fired up a movie. The center channel and satellite speakers sounded clear. But the Sub just wasn’t doing it for me. I changed settings on the surround receiver, went through all the options on the TV for sending audio. Didn’t help. I tried the wireless setup to see if it was my RCA cable. Didn’t help. I even switched to optical and tried all of those settings. Didn’t help, then randomly it started working… Okayish. My lizard brain was telling me to think it must’ve just needed to be warmed up as a coping mechanism. I was in full cope mode. So I tried the system out for a week, with mixed results. The sound came out great from the speakers. But the sub would be “meh” at best, and have random pops and/or distortion at worst. The sub was the main pain point, just as most of the negative reviews indicated. Most people would’ve tried to return them at this point. But not me. Manufacturers dream of customers like me. Instead of crying about it like others would, I started investigating the problem. I listened to music that had distortion come through the sub, but it wasn’t consistent, it was hit and miss. When I’d play with the knobs and switches on the back, I’d get mixed results, thinking I’d fixed the issue when it would just come back moments later. Refusing to be defeated, I kept tinkering. I wasn’t about to go through the hassle of returning a $1200 system because one component didn’t work. I would buy an amp off the shelf and hook it up to the driver if all else failed. Then as I was tinkering with the cables I pulled the RCA and distortion was still coming through the sub!!!! I had a pocket of time for which the problem was presenting itself without even being hooked up to the surround system. Which told me the amp was receiving low frequency signals from one of the internal components. WARNING: Do not try the following this at home!!!! I took the risk of causing damage to the electronic components and voiding my warranty (not that I trust any company to stand by their products these days… most companies would rather offload poorly designed products at cheap prices and let the chips fall where they may. After all, if you’re buying a surround system at $300 you’re probably not the demographic Klipsch thinks is their market anyway). So anyway… As you can see in the pics, I took the sub apart. (And one of the cables were tight, hardly any slack. It turned out to be the front led cable.) I unhooked it and looked at the board. Since this is an amp that was powered recently, I carefully discharged the caps and started unplugging wires from the wireless board (I marked the wires with blue tape after testing with a multimeter so I knew what they were doing), and then plugged it back in using just the RCA and was floored by the smooth bass that was coming out of the driver! No distortion. No pops. Full sound! Not subdued and crappy like it was before! So I took out the wireless board… Completely. It was glued on, so it was a little tough to remove without risking breaking it. Not that I cared, it didn’t work anyway. I removed the front LED wire, just in case they were also carrying unintended signals into the board. I filled all the holes on the plate with hot glue, and put it all back together, tightening the plate screws from center out to ensure a good even seal. I hooked it back up and enjoy the hell out it now. Music sounds great. Movies sound great. No random pops and distortion from some wandering low frequency signal being blasted from “who knows where”, just some smooth hardwired bass as the electronic gods intended. All in all, I would only recommend this system if you’re willing to ditch the sub as is. I’m more adventurous than most, and willing to do a little tinkering to fix the flaws of the sub. I was willing to chance it because the system was developed with $1200 price point in mind, it just fell short because wireless technology is often quirky and can be unpredictable, and electrical engineering isn’t a perfect science, it is literally the art of refining rocks to try to create predictable resonance fields. In audio electronics, the goal is to reproduce the original air resonance waves of the source event. Which is mind boggling that we can do that. So I give Klipsch a pass on this. It was a swing and a miss, but I thank them for the flaw that was easy for me to fix and save me a nice bundle that I can spend on some other toys. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

I’ve bought these speakers about a year ago or so and they have been great. They sound amazing and the bass will make the room shake. No issues so far.

The speakers are great, but the subwoofer sounded horrible! Crappy is about as accurate a description I can think of, but I fixed it! Definitely defective new, so I contacted the dealer and got a $50 partial refund because I really like the speakers and didn't want to send them back (although I had plenty of time left). As an electrician of over three decades and a tinkerer even longer, I decided to open up the box and troubleshoot. First I completely disconnected the wireless board and LED cable as per another reviewer... 'NPC Consoomer'. No dice for me. So I removed the driver and was thinking of trying a different one. Pushing on the cone, I felt it slightly sticking, not moving smoothly. That's when I noticed (to my surprise) the permanent magnet was slightly separated from the metal housing. Poor quality control at the factory I'm guessing? So I took it completely off and examined the coil, measured the resistance (4 ohms), then reattached the magnet with super glue. Plugged in the RCA cable and listened to some incredible sounding bass in my jazz songs! After about an hour or so of relaxing music, I took it apart again and reattached the wireless board, tried that and everything is working as well as it should have from the factory. Overall, this is an incredible system if you get a perfectly working one. Otherwise, get ready to do some troubleshooting or get a refund. I was tempted to send it back when they insulted me by only offering a $20 partial refund! That doesn't even cover the taxes I paid. For a defective major component, even $50 is crap, but since I had another subwoofer that I could substitute and I really didn't want to be bothered returning everything, I accepted it. I'm just glad I was able to fix it. YMMV

What a great 5.1 speaker set. We've partnered them with a Denon AVR-S750H and LG C9. They sound amazing in our room, which is sized 20x20 with 10ft ceilings. Going from no home theater system to this was the perfect upgrade at an entry level price. The subwoofer shakes the whole house and has to be kept below 50% volume at a -6db setting so its more than enough punch to offer some great low frequencies. Atmos, Dolby DTS etc all sound great to our ears after calibration of the AVR using Denon's Audyssey feature. This 5.1 set is more than enough for a small room for users who don't need to blast their ears off with sound. I do have a couple gripes for them, but they aren't big enough gripes to cause a decrease in rating. The speaker wire holes in the back are a bit too small for even 16 gauge wire insertion without a little frustration in getting some of the speaker wire caught on the sides of the holes causing you to have to attempt insertion multiple times before you can get all the wire into the holes. The subwoofer's port will sometimes cause some audible air buffeting sounds but only when the woofer is turned up to a uncomfortable volume anyway which causes the bass to be out of balance with the rest of the system but its worth noting for those who crank their bass up.