Klipsch The Fives Speaker System with HDMI-ARC - Matte Black

As soon as I unpacked The Five’s I was struck by their excellent build quality. The true walnut veneer is beautifully crafted and the whole design is retro cool with a modern twist. The general fit and finish, from the speaker cones to the metal controls are all first rate. The speaker units have that reassuringly dense feel given their modest size and tank like build.However don’t be fooled by their size, they sound absolutely fantastic. A real wide sound stage with great imaging, layered midrange and a solid low end. Vocals are sonorous and palpable, they’re a joy to listen to. The speakers are tuned for enjoyment over absolute accuracy, and I’m thankful Klipsch went this route. With 80 watts per channel they really sing when turned up loud. They like to go loud!I have them around 2.5m apart and 0.2m from the front wall. To get the best out of the bass you need to give them at least 0.5m gap from the wall otherwise the sound is far too boomy. To counter this I have bunged the rear ports at the expense of some low end but there’s still enough presence left for a good sound. When I’m in the mood I bring them forward and un-bung them to unleash the deeper bass.Primarily purchased for enhancing my movie nights, they deliver in spades. Full bodied sounds from action scenes and they provide a vast sound scape thanks to the distance between the 2 channels. Dialogue is loud and clear and they emulate a good centre channel. I usually say if the speakers are good at music they’ll be great for movies, so no surprises here. I went with the optical connection as I didn’t want these to be on with the TV all the time. HDMI with CEC is available if you do.When listening to music I use my phone to connect via Bluetooth 5 and the AptX HD codec which my phone and the speakers fully support. The connection is stable and the quality is great. The included remote is a good size, very light, tactile buttons and easy to operate. Long press the ‘SUB RESET’ button to turn on and off the DYNAMIC bass EQ. My only complaints are I wish the remote had bass adjustment levels +/- and my other gripe is the LED light on the Primary speaker is too bright for dark rooms when watching a movie. I cover the light to remedy this.All in all I was a little hesitant in purchasing The Five’s given the cost. They had to perform not just in sound quality, but they had to look and feel the part if I were to keep them. They did not disappoint, in fact they went above and beyond my expectations. A great purchase with no regrets with a seal of approval even from the Wife!

A great alternative to a Theatre system where you want to also have the added benefit of great connectivity to other devices, blue tooth, phono etc. Lovely looking (if purchased in the Walnut option) and sounding speakers that have the added benefit of being able to drive a subwoofer. The bass they provide is more than enough so I would suggest that an additional subwoofer for a small to medium sized room is not required (I purchased a Klipsch SW120 which had to be turned down to absolute minimum) to stop the wife getting dizzy because of the deep bass. She still hates the size of the thing, by the way. A lovely set of hifi equipment, that looks the part and sounds even better.