The Official Energy Speakers Thread

[PaulWog]

Originally Posted by callas01

does he like the sound of Klipsch speakers? Most people either love or hate them. To me they are way to bright.

The other thing he could do is just get a CC-10 center and some CR-10s for the rears and the have an all Connoisuer series downstairs and then get another pair of RC-minis for the bedroom to use as fronts.

Ah, so I guess we'll have to demo it.

I'll present that second option to him (though I'm not a fan of the CR-10's so much as the other connoisseur speakers). It'd have to be a 6.1 or 7.1 setup, so I was thinking CB-20's or CF-30's as l/r surrounds, and then a single CF-30 or CB-20 as a rear (since we have room to put in CF-30's, and on sale here they're only $50 over the price of a single CB-20).

Thanks for the advice. I'm actually sort-of hoping he chooses to go with Klipsch, as I like the sound, and I am in the theater room a fair bit (plus I'd be able to filter in two CF-50's into my setup and filter out the RC-Minis I have, so side-benefit right there). I am not great with comparing though, so I do have to ask for advice between each thing (I just can't demo speakers for a few minutes and figure things out... I have to be around a speaker for a good couple weeks before I decide on its quality). However I am not sure if he has demoed Klipsch speakers, which will be the ultimate deciding factor.

[PaulWog]

Alright a bit of an important question here: Should we return this speaker. I took a closer look at my Dad's CF-50, and it appears that it is not properly constructed.

This is a picture of the midrange driver below the tweeter. Everything sounds good when we play the speakers, however I'm wondering if it's a good idea to return it for a different one anyway. Take a look at the picture please, as I have no idea if it is just cosmetic.

This is pretty time-sensitive now, since we're almost past the return date.

(look at the top right of the woofer in the picture)
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/4884/photo0191i.jpg

[HAMP]

Hey PaulWog, I was just looking thru the threads and I would say take it back for an exchange.

Honestly it may not make a difference in audio quality or may not make a difference you on how it looks, but at resale time, it will.

Someone may see that and decide to try and bargain alot less then you want to sell for.

[callas01]

Yea id say to exchange it

Thank Klipsch for moving production to china. There are other companies that have production in china also, like Monitor Audio.... but they have a tighter QC standard it appears

[BigAl87]

Big time I would return this unit for a new on I mean even over time it may affect the driver performance, that would really get me

If I had baught at Future shop I would be not even a mile from my home and I would have returned it right after unpacking.

[PaulWog]

Thanks for the replies . We'll be returning the speaker tomorrow.

I ended up returning my ESW-C8 subwoofer as well, and I got a Klipsch RPW-10 instead (which is turning out to be a lot better, though there was some sort of quality to the ESW-C8 that I did enjoy). The problem with my ESW-C8 was the dust cap was loose and began to rattle at higher sounds, and I just didn't want to have to reglue it or exchange and risk getting another poorly built sub.

The guy who had the CF-70's emailed me back and said his other deal fell through. But I turned those down. I'm going to get CF-50's after Christmas most likely (new), rather than getting used CF-70's... I'm hoping I'm making the best decision there. I just hope the CF-70's and CF-50's aren't immensely different. Anyway, my receiver will handle the CF-50's better (with that lower power requirement).

My dad ended up deciding not to get Klipsch. We demoed them today, and I must have remembered wrong... they sounded good, but not impressive enough to be worth their price-tag. Their big woofers didn't provide a ton of bass (I'd say the bass was somewhat lacking from the RF82's), and their highs were off. You either got shrilling highs, or you'd get decent highs that were all over the places. Comparing the giant Klipsch speakers to even the CF-30's, I heard just about the same sound quality, and the CF-30's even provided a better consistency in its dynamic range (let alone the CF-50's which Futuershop had on display). The polk equivalent sounded like absolute crap (it was a $500 or so tower speaker). The Veritas, of course, was absolutely amazing (and absolutely expensive!). And I didn't get to demo their Mortan Logan, but I've heard good things. The two demo pieces we listened to were Hotel California (non-live), and some more recent pop/rock/rap song with a decent amount of bass.

Anyways, the end decision is to stick with Connoisseur speakers in the television/theater room, and Connoisseur speakers as well in my room. The RC-Mini system will be set up in my parents' bedroom, and we'll be looking at the most ideal subwoofer for the tv room (most likely the same Klipsch one I got, since it's down to $300).

[callas01]

Originally Posted by PaulWog

Thanks for the replies . We'll be returning the speaker tomorrow.

I ended up returning my ESW-C8 subwoofer as well, and I got a Klipsch RPW-10 instead (which is turning out to be a lot better, though there was some sort of quality to the ESW-C8 that I did enjoy). The problem with my ESW-C8 was the dust cap was loose and began to rattle at higher sounds, and I just didn't want to have to reglue it or exchange and risk getting another poorly built sub.

The guy who had the CF-70's emailed me back and said his other deal fell through. But I turned those down. I'm going to get CF-50's after Christmas most likely (new), rather than getting used CF-70's... I'm hoping I'm making the best decision there. I just hope the CF-70's and CF-50's aren't immensely different. Anyway, my receiver will handle the CF-50's better (with that lower power requirement).

My dad ended up deciding not to get Klipsch. We demoed them today, and I must have remembered wrong... they sounded good, but not impressive enough to be worth their price-tag. Their big woofers didn't provide a ton of bass (I'd say the bass was somewhat lacking from the RF82's), and their highs were off. You either got shrilling highs, or you'd get decent highs that were all over the places. Comparing the giant Klipsch speakers to even the CF-30's, I heard just about the same sound quality, and the CF-30's even provided a better consistency in its dynamic range (let alone the CF-50's which Futuershop had on display). The polk equivalent sounded like absolute crap (it was a $500 or so tower speaker). The Veritas, of course, was absolutely amazing (and absolutely expensive!). And I didn't get to demo their Mortan Logan, but I've heard good things. The two demo pieces we listened to were Hotel California (non-live), and some more recent pop/rock/rap song with a decent amount of bass.

Anyways, the end decision is to stick with Connoisseur speakers in the television/theater room, and Connoisseur speakers as well in my room. The RC-Mini system will be set up in my parents' bedroom, and we'll be looking at the most ideal subwoofer for the tv room (most likely the same Klipsch one I got, since it's down to $300).

don't bother with the Klipsch sub, get yourself a SVS PB10 and be happy you have a whole lot better sub for slightly more

That is why I said to listen to the klipsch, its either a love or hate think.... I don't love them......

[PaulWog]

Originally Posted by callas01

don't bother with the Klipsch sub, get yourself a SVS PB10 and be happy you have a whole lot better sub for slightly more

That is why I said to listen to the klipsch, its either a love or hate think.... I don't love them......

I already ended up getting the sub. I'm not bothering with any Klipsch speakers, but the sub is pretty decent compared to the speakers. A tiny bit clumsy I guess, but far better than the ESW-C8.

In Canada, there isn't a ton of options when it comes to speakers. At least here in British Columbia. And so this Klipsch subwoofer was my best bet at $200-$300. It was either that, or the ESW-C8, or a cruddy polk subwoofer. I ended up buying this one anyway, and even though there's a nice return policy at Futureshop, I really don't want to return a second subwoofer a second day in a row, specially since I find this one to work nicely (for the price paid, that is... $300 was really my max... I wanted to stick to $200 that I spent on the ESW-C8, but I stretched $100... otherwise I'd keep on climbing $50 here, $50 there and all of a sudden $800 on a sub lol).

Maybe I'm not the biggest fan of subwoofers. Or maybe I just haven't heard a really expensive one. Either way, this one is pretty decent. In terms of speakers, however, I'm not going to be buying any Klipsch speakers at all (entirely keeping away from that).

[BigAl87]

Originally Posted by callas01

don't bother with the Klipsch sub, get yourself a SVS PB10 and be happy you have a whole lot better sub for slightly more

That is why I said to listen to the klipsch, its either a love or hate think.... I don't love them......

I don't like Klipsch sub either, the quality control of Energy ever since they went to China seems to lack alot. The led in front of my sub was burning out all the time of all the first ones they started assembling in China, mine was made with great pride in Canada before they move the production to China.

That led and or dustcap never ever failed and I must say I have the S10.3 sub which is good, way better than entry level subs from Energy which I never really liked either.

[BigAl87]

Originally Posted by PaulWog

I already ended up getting the sub. I'm not bothering with any Klipsch speakers, but the sub is pretty decent compared to the speakers. A tiny bit clumsy I guess, but far better than the ESW-C8.

In Canada, there isn't a ton of options when it comes to speakers. At least here in British Columbia. And so this Klipsch subwoofer was my best bet at $200-$300. It was either that, or the ESW-C8, or a cruddy polk subwoofer. I ended up buying this one anyway, and even though there's a nice return policy at Futureshop, I really don't want to return a second subwoofer a second day in a row, specially since I find this one to work nicely (for the price paid, that is... $300 was really my max... I wanted to stick to $200 that I spent on the ESW-C8, but I stretched $100... otherwise I'd keep on climbing $50 here, $50 there and all of a sudden $800 on a sub lol).

Maybe I'm not the biggest fan of subwoofers. Or maybe I just haven't heard a really expensive one. Either way, this one is pretty decent. In terms of speakers, however, I'm not going to be buying any Klipsch speakers at all (entirely keeping away from that).

Being from Montreal i pretty much get all the options I want just have to look around find you want. Not sure where you live in BC but you could pay a trip down south and go see Steve (Callas) he will hook you up.

____________
Olivier

[callas01]

Originally Posted by BigAl87

Being from Montreal i pretty much get all the options I want just have to look around find you want. Not sure where you live in BC but you could pay a trip down south and go see Steve (Callas) he will hook you up.

____________
Olivier

SVS has a Canadian distributor, so you can order them from them and not have to pay all the duties and stuff.

Or like Oliver said, if you come down to SoCal, I will take you to Hsu Research and you can get a nice new STF-2 or VTF-2 MK3

[PaulWog]

Wow thanks for those replies. I'm learning new things every day here! I'm actually glad you pointed out that Canadian company SVS, I love hearing about companies that are geared toward quality and aren't owned by one massive entity!

Now unfortunately with the subwoofer I am stuck with what I picked. I simply won't return it, since I've already had the luxury of returning the first one. Plus I am happy with it (it's not ideal, it is a little clumsy in some regards, but it's very nice all the same).

Now I do have a question which has been bugging me. I have tried reading up using google, but I don't ever get a full answer. It's about crossovers.

With the RC-Minis, they are suggested by Energy's manual to these settings:
- When set to large, set crossover to 100Hz
- When set to small, set crossover to 120Hz

What I'm confused about is how the crossover works when your speakers are set to large. I thought when speakers are set to large, the crossover doesn't take effect. I thought the crossover only effects speakers which are set to small. If I understand correctly, all frequencies under the crossover are sent to the subwoofer, and are ignored by the small speaker. Now, for a speaker set to "large", how does a crossover apply? I really would like to know.

If I end up turning my setup into two CF-50's, a single CC-10, and two CF-30's as surrounds, there's no suggested crossover setting. So I'm wondering if I should set all the tower speakers to "small", and set the crossover to 50Hz (the next level up is 80Hz; my receiver can only handle one universal crossover, and currently it's 100Hz because RC-Minis are in the setup right now). Or whether I should set all the speakers to "large", and put the subwoofer on "plus" (plus means all low frequencies are sent to the subwoofer, and I select the frequencies it produces through the crossover dial on the back of it). What I'm confused about is the difference between "small" and "large", and how the crossover effects them differently.

[edit]: Comparing when listening, the speakers sound better when set to "large", without having the subwoofer on. They seem to have a better dynamic range (low/mid/high). I'm not sure why that would be (I brought the crossover down to 50Hz and demoed just my CF-30's).

[edit#2]: I've been doing more reading, and I still don't understand . I've read that "large" setting means there's no crossover bass management, but it simply doesn't make sense to me: Why would Energy suggest a crossover setting of 100Hz for their RC-Minis when set to "large" if the crossover does nothing for "large"-setted speakers? There must be something in play here?

Thanks!!!!

[callas01]

Originally Posted by PaulWog

Wow thanks for those replies. I'm learning new things every day here! I'm actually glad you pointed out that Canadian company SVS, I love hearing about companies that are geared toward quality and aren't owned by one massive entity!

Now unfortunately with the subwoofer I am stuck with what I picked. I simply won't return it, since I've already had the luxury of returning the first one. Plus I am happy with it (it's not ideal, it is a little clumsy in some regards, but it's very nice all the same).

Now I do have a question which has been bugging me. I have tried reading up using google, but I don't ever get a full answer. It's about crossovers.

With the RC-Minis, they are suggested by Energy's manual to these settings:
- When set to large, set crossover to 100Hz
- When set to small, set crossover to 120Hz

What I'm confused about is how the crossover works when your speakers are set to large. I thought when speakers are set to large, the crossover doesn't take effect. I thought the crossover only effects speakers which are set to small. If I understand correctly, all frequencies under the crossover are sent to the subwoofer, and are ignored by the small speaker. Now, for a speaker set to "large", how does a crossover apply? I really would like to know.

If I end up turning my setup into two CF-50's, a single CC-10, and two CF-30's as surrounds, there's no suggested crossover setting. So I'm wondering if I should set all the tower speakers to "small", and set the crossover to 50Hz (the next level up is 80Hz; my receiver can only handle one universal crossover, and currently it's 100Hz because RC-Minis are in the setup right now). Or whether I should set all the speakers to "large", and put the subwoofer on "plus" (plus means all low frequencies are sent to the subwoofer, and I select the frequencies it produces through the crossover dial on the back of it). What I'm confused about is the difference between "small" and "large", and how the crossover effects them differently.

[edit]: Comparing when listening, the speakers sound better when set to "large", without having the subwoofer on. They seem to have a better dynamic range (low/mid/high). I'm not sure why that would be (I brought the crossover down to 50Hz and demoed just my CF-30's).

[edit#2]: I've been doing more reading, and I still don't understand . I've read that "large" setting means there's no crossover bass management, but it simply doesn't make sense to me: Why would Energy suggest a crossover setting of 100Hz for their RC-Minis when set to "large" if the crossover does nothing for "large"-setted speakers? There must be something in play here?

Thanks!!!!

large is no crossover setting and the speakers play the full range of sound outputted to the speakers from the source. However many speakers struggle with frequencies that get to low, esp below 50hz.

I suggest that on the CF-30s and CF-50s that you set them to 80 hz and small. same with the center channel.

on the RC-minis set the crossover to 100 hz.

As far as the subs are concerned. SVS is an American company that has a Canadian Distributor.

[PaulWog]

Originally Posted by callas01

large is no crossover setting and the speakers play the full range of sound outputted to the speakers from the source. However many speakers struggle with frequencies that get to low, esp below 50hz.

I suggest that on the CF-30s and CF-50s that you set them to 80 hz and small. same with the center channel.

on the RC-minis set the crossover to 100 hz.

As far as the subs are concerned. SVS is an American company that has a Canadian Distributor.

I'm confused, though. Energy says if the RC-Mini has been set to "large", a crossover setting of 100Hz must be applied. I just can't make sense of that?

[callas01]

Originally Posted by PaulWog

I'm confused, though. Energy says if the RC-Mini has been set to "large", a crossover setting of 100Hz must be applied. I just can't make sense of that?

try it both ways and see what you think.

[BigAl87]

With all this Large/small confusion, let put it this way, some receivers like my older HK AVR-240 did allow to set X-over even on Large Speakers. But what we see nowadays is if speakers are set to large it's basically just full range and no X-over will apply so i would say seriously to set X-over to 100hz on small anyways regardless of what Energy says, they have a frequency response of 80hz at +/-3db.

So small and X-over at 100hz should be the optimize setup for the RC-Mini.

[PaulWog]

Alright, I gotchya. Thanks for the clarification there. I am no longer confused

Now I do have another question: Does anyone know if the CC-10 center speaker can be positioned vertically, rather than horizontally, without any troubles? Gravity won't have an effect over time on any heavy internal parts will it?

The reason is my dad will be replacing his RC-Mini center with a CC-10 to match his CF-50's (since he's decided to stick with Connoisseur).

And a little off-topic: I was looking at the Veritas speakers the other day at Futureshop. All I can say is wow... They look even more amazing than they sound. Taking the grill off the front of the tower speakers to see what's behind it... it just looks more amazing in person than in pictures. Hah. Wish I had enough money to blow on $1700 per floorstanding speaker :O

[BigAl87]

Originally Posted by PaulWog

Alright, I gotchya. Thanks for the clarification there. I am no longer confused

Now I do have another question: Does anyone know if the CC-10 center speaker can be positioned vertically, rather than horizontally, without any troubles? Gravity won't have an effect over time on any heavy internal parts will it?

The reason is my dad will be replacing his RC-Mini center with a CC-10 to match his CF-50's (since he's decided to stick with Connoisseur).

And a little off-topic: I was looking at the Veritas speakers the other day at Futureshop. All I can say is wow... They look even more amazing than they sound. Taking the grill off the front of the tower speakers to see what's behind it... it just looks more amazing in person than in pictures. Hah. Wish I had enough money to blow on $1700 per floorstanding speaker :O

Yes it is actually design to work as LCR, by removing the grill you will realize the Energy logo on the right end side place it so Energy can be read and also that the tweeter is integrated with the right or bottom woofer, you will realize that the tweeter is not perfectly centered also, it's positioned slightly to the right or bottom depending if you put vertical or horizontal, so it's not a problem.

[PaulWog]

Originally Posted by BigAl87

Yes it is actually design to work as LCR, by removing the grill you will realize the Energy logo on the right end side place it so Energy can be read and also that the tweeter is integrated with the right or bottom woofer, you will realize that the tweeter is not perfectly centered also, it's positioned slightly to the right or bottom depending if you put vertical or horizontal, so it's not a problem.

Awesome. Well things are working out wonderfully then!

[BigAl87]

Originally Posted by PaulWog

Awesome. Well things are working out wonderfully then!

Any horizontal ceter will have better horizontal dispersion when placed vertically so regardless of the MTM design center it's technically better vertical.

Energy had the thaught of designing the speaker in way that it would optimize both placement as much as possible but Vertical is prefered over horizontal when you can.