Klipsch Premier R-820F

telemike

telemike

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Any opinions on these new Klipsch towers? Best Buy has them on sale for $225 each from $450 normal. I wonder if they would be any improvement over my KG 3.2's? The towers would work better for my main living room system which does music and video 2 channel. I'd move KG's to my office system.

any thoughts?

https://www.klipsch.com/products/r-820f-floorstanding-speaker

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I took advantage of this price to buy a set over Thanksgiving. Great prices on great speakers. They sound phenomenal. We love them deeply after only a few weeks. I did a write up on AK about it . Deal of the century IMHO.
 
I can't believe they are that inexpensive. I pulled a woofer to look inside already. Lots of bracing, thick MDF, meaty drivers, good fiberfill, everything was perfect inside. Plus they sound absolutely incredible. Chest pounding bass, and dynamics for days. Klipsch has got to be either losing or just breaking even at this price.
IDK where you will find a better speaker at a better price brand new with a warranty.
 
telemike said:
I was wondering they were too good to be true for $225 each on sale.
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if it makes you feel better you can wait and when they cost more they might sound better. I would expect these should blow your KG right out of your living room. Why not get up and go listen to a pair? At least one member here loves his.
 
I bought these speakers too directly from Klipsch during their sale. They sound great, but I had to switch from my sony str n1090 to my yamaha 5790 receiver to drive them. They drew too much power for the Sony to handle. I added a pair of the Klipsch 51m's too when they went on sale. They sound about as good as the towers, if you can believe that. I would like a bit more base, should have taken advantage of the subwoofer at that time. But these speakers are nice and tight.
 
I purchased a pair 8/2020 when my KEF 103.2 crossover died. The Klipsch were on sale, $100 off a pair...now they are $250 off a pair...ouch. Overall impressive for the money...great sound stage (very wide and semi-deep), great tonal balance with exceptional base. But...they are acoustically colorful and almost too resonant. There is a significant lack of refinement and tightness when listening to each instrument in the sound stage. The more instruments, the more blurry the "edges" of each. Orchestral pieces are too "busy" and cluttered" sounding. They shine, however, as home theater front speakers. Unfortunately, they don't cut it from an audiophile two speaker setup. Can't wait to get my KEF's back in front (thanks LeeSonic!!!)
 
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StuK said:
I purchased a pair 8/2020 when my KEF 103.2 crossover died. The Klipsch were on sale, $100 off a pair...now they are $250 off a pair...ouch. Overall impressive for the money...great sound stage (very wide and semi-deep), great tonal balance with exceptional base. But...they are acoustically colorful and almost too resonant. There is a significant lack of refinement and tightness when listening to each instrument in the sound stage. The more instruments, the more blurry the "edges" of each. Orchestral pieces are too "busy" and cluttered" sounding. They shine, however, as home theater front speakers. Unfortunately, they don't cut it from an audiophile two speaker setup. Can't wait to get my KEF's back in front (thanks LeeSonic!!!)
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The R-120sw sub is on sale today at half off again at 249. I feel that is the only place the 820's lack is the booming base if you are listening to rock or dance music, for jazz and easy listening, they are just fine as they are. I like to play loud and proud though, the Hollie's intro to "Long Cool Woman" or Elvis Costello's "Peace Love and Understanding" among many others just blow the room away when kicking it up a notch.... or two.

 
I just bought the little brother, R610-F - a two pack for $299 for my bedroom. It was an absolute impulse buy. Coming Friday; wondering if they'll supplant the A/D/S.
 
GuyNoir said:
Coming Friday; wondering if they'll supplant the A/D/S.
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Man, I really wanted to like these, but they are appallingly bad. The tweeters are nice; more than ample tight bass, but midrange is virtually non-existent. Maybe they need to "break in"? Adorama has a return policy; if I wanted to move further up the Klipsch food chain, is there a model that would excel at midrange?
 
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GuyNoir said:
Man, I really wanted to like these, but they are appallingly bad. The tweeters are nice; more than ample tight bass, but midrange is virtually non-existent. Maybe they need to "break in"?
Adorama has a return policy; if I wanted to move further up the Klipsch food chain, is there a model that would excel at midrange?
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For me there was no break in. I like them, but, i like my 40 year old radian research 12-3 better for most rock and roll, country and contemporary pop. The klipsch are great for jazz, instrumentals and classical
The klipsch are 2 way speakers, my radians are 3 way. I have read a lot of articles arguing for both types, but personally I always seem to like good 3 way speakers over good 2 way. Plus the 12 inch woofer brings the base home. I think you would be climbing way up the food chain to klipsch classic line of speakers for 3 or 4 times the price to get that sound.
 
I've only tried them with a 20 wpc tube amp - I'll break out the SS Luxman tonight and see how they sound. I noticed that they did seem to open up considerably at volume, but it would be too loud at that rate for condo living. I'm guessing efficiency is more like mid to upper eighty dB, and not 94 db as as advertised.
 
Ahhh!, So I have a 1990's sony 120, wpc, 2000's yamaha 110 wpc, 1970's Nikko 9090 65wpc that I have tried with my R820's. The nikko drove the 820's the best, although I use the yamaha currently to drive them. The sony, would heat up and go into protection mode when trying to drive them. Klipsch recommends driving them with a an amp/receiver that can put out over 120 wpc, when I called to speak to an advisor there. So their performance is definitely reliant on what you are driving it with. I listen to music fairly loud and like to drive those speakers as they sound better when you pump up the volume. But my highest wpc receiver did not due the trick. That 1970's Nikko sounded awesome,plus it has a separate base, mid and treble dials to kick the mid range up a notch, which leads me to believe when folks compare those vintage 2 channel stereo receivers to the modern multi-channel theater type, a lot favor the vintage.
 
My Rp-280f were listed as “8 ohm compatible”, I found they performed best, by a large margin, on the 4ohm taps from my amp.
 
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