KLH AV5001 Floorstanding Speakers

KLH AV5001 Floorstanding Speakers 

DESCRIPTION

Tower Loudspeakers

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-10 of 25  
[Oct 18, 2015]
gtsdabe
AudioPhile

Picked up sister model AV55, wood vinyl vs back, for 5 dollars each. Drivers are in great shape. Cabinet has some damage which I pan to veneer over. Cross overs are really cheap and glued to speaker post houskng. But I was impressed with the sound. Best 10 dollar pair of speakers purchased. If I do nothing, I can easily sell for 50. Just need to decide where to put them. I have Bose 901's and Pioneer HPM 1500's. The sound absorbing in material is just a 2 foot length of fiber fill not even secured in place. These are very cheaply made speakers, but pretty good for BGM (back ground music)

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 02, 2008]
Arande2
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

The sound actually can be quite decent and it can do it at a pretty high volume with proper power.

Weakness:

They're what you might expect from this price range.

When I was twelve, I was at a garage sale one day when I noticed these speakers along with some Bose Model 100s. A few days later, they were in my house.

Let me tell you a bit about this in case you happen to run into some at a garage sale.

The plastic plate on the tweeter resonates at 186hz on one of them. The internal wiring is high gauge, the motor structure of the woofers is quite weak, less than some tweeters. 350 watts? An amplifier that powerful certainly will not hurt anything. If you have good amplification, 5 watts will do with these.

I started out with a Yamaha HTR-5740 receiver. There was no bass and no good "sound picture." There wasn't much of anything below 50hz. Movies were boring. Music was not moving. At the highest volumes, you could barely hear it outside. There was no real detail.

I bought a subwoofer for $800, which made it sound a huge amount better. The problem was it did not have enough output. I blew it soon after I bought it and back it went.

Instead, I bought a Pioneer Elite Vsx-91txh Receiver. I was SHOCKED by the huge improvement it made in the sound quality of these things!!!! Suddenly there was bass down to 30hz and everything came to life. The highs weren't harsh anymore, they were quite good. The sound really draws you in now and is quite realistic. The receiver has phase control and delivers around 150w RMS to each of these in the bass range. When turned up close to maximum limits, you can barely hear it outside. The same was true for the subwoofer I had. There's something weird with that...

A VERY IMPORTANT lesson is that what you use for amplification and processing matters a whole lot! If your amplification isn't up to snuff, you might want to look into better amplification before you snag some speakers unless they're dirt cheap.

Similar Products Used:

JBL 4311 Control Monitors

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
5
[Sep 01, 2003]
Brad Lewis
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Price. Great starter speakers. For the person without a lot of money.

Weakness:

Power handling is off the mark. Probley handles 200 watts max.

Good quality speakers. Decent power handling. Good all around speakers.

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[May 22, 2003]
GnatGoSplat
Casual Listener

Strength:

Cheap price, contemporary good looks, very tall tower speakers look more expensive than they are.

Weakness:

Weak bass, super cheap drivers, overall cheap speaker, you get what you pay for.

I have never really considered myself to be a discerning audiophile, so after reading all the glowing reviews on these speakers, I decided to buy them. My primary motivating factor in this purchase was that they're good looking and black - they fit my decor perfectly. They replaced a very beat-up looking set of vintage Altec-Lansing Model Sevens that my dad gave me long ago when I was a kid. Honestly, my first impression was not very good. Maybe I'm being too picky, because I always loved the way the old Altecs sounded and these sound very, very different. The mids aren't nearly as smooth as the Altecs and seemed almost overpowering. The bass, although tight and fairly clean sounding, was barely audible over the mids. I expected a lot better bass response from a 12" woofer and 12" passive radiator. I mean, the speaker just looks like it was made for bass! The very low frequencies were barely audible at my normal listening volume, I had to crank up the BASS control on the receiver. In contrast, the old Altecs had 10" woofers in a large ported box, yet the woofers were very efficient and the low frequencies came through loud and clear. I don't even think the bass output is as good as a pair of vintage EPI 100V's (8" woofers in a sealed box) that I have in the other room. Who knows, it could be that I've gotten too used to the sound of vintage speakers or somehow the woofers on my 5001's got wired out of phase in the factory. I even took one of the woofers out to see if they put any polyfill in the box (they did, but not much). When I took the woofer out, I noticed that they look fairly wimpy - tiny voice coil (not much over 1"), tiny magnet, and very lightweight, probably doesn't weigh over 1lb. The crossover looked pretty cheap as well, a couple coils and a capacitor. Overall, they're okay, but if I had to do it over again on the same budget, I probably would have just had some custom cabinets made by a woodworking relative and I'd pick out my own drivers and crossovers.

Similar Products Used:

Altec-Lansing Model Seven, EPI 100V

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
4
[Jan 26, 2003]
jmoberley
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Great sound, great value, good looks (could use a little accenting, they are completely black)

Weakness:

Cabinets are 1/2" particle board and factory woofer screws only bite 5/16" so they strip out easy.

After listening to many speakers at REX, I made a definite conclusion that I needed a pair of these. Problem was, REX didn't have any in stock in the entire state, so I ended up purchasing the display models for a much reduced price, which is a good thing because they needed a little work. The woofer mounting screws were stripped on one cabinet and the cabinets rattled something aweful at high volume. Some new screws, a little duct tape to tie down the internal wires (which, by the way, are VERY small and will be replaced when I get the time), and some weatherstrip around the drivers, and some feet made these things sound miracles better. I have had no problems with them at high volumes since cleaning them up. I am very satisfied with my purchase. These sound nearly as good as a friends Klipsch speakers, I don't remember the model, but he paid $950 each for them, so value wise, these are about as good as it gets, and certainly good eneough for me.

Similar Products Used:

KLH model 6, Klipsh floor speakers (2 10" drivers with horn in between)

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Nov 18, 2002]
pete mocarsky
AudioPhile

Strength:

very clear and the bass responce is great dont bounce across the floor(kinda heavy) and the stuff on top dosnt fall off

Weakness:

none

very nice sound. being i listen to everything from rap to bluegrass and big band music. i havent found anything to really distort them. very good for the price. just want onother set but rex doent carry them anymore

Similar Products Used:

jensen pioneer

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
[Aug 28, 2002]
Will
AudioPhile

Strength:

Everything

Weakness:

Too loud!

The KLH AV5001B's are great! with a tweeter and mid and two 12's in each ( 1 active and 1 passive). I have them hooked to my Sony STR-DE625 Reciever. Nice sound and very crisp. NO problems with them at all. Along with KLH's 15" 200 watt sub sounds really good. Shakes this brick house on all 3 floors when the system is in the basement. No problems with them at all. I have compaired this to other speakers by pioneer and Cerwin Vega. There is no difference between these and cerwin vega except the name on the speaker.

Similar Products Used:

Pinoneer Floors, CV's , Sony 12" sub, Bose

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Aug 22, 2002]
jumpmn
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

affordable...cheap...inexpensive...not pricey...easy on the wallet...bang for the buck! =)

Weakness:

kinda large...maybe too much deep bass for some...but then you can just turn down the bass knob on the reciever!

these were my very first speakers and being that i was a senior in high school at the time...i was craving big bass and loud music...which is exactly what these speakers gave me for the price i paid...i was more than happy...the build quality might be lacking a bit...they are not high audiophile materials...but they do get the job done...i used them purely for 2 channel music and they played great with my teac reciever...they play loud...they played deep...they played clear...they played!....i have now bought smaller speakers(infinity) to play music/movie combos

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
[Jun 22, 2002]
shopdood
AudioPhile

Strength:

appearence, build quality, awsome bass,price

Weakness:

haven found one yet

these speakers are one of the best i have ever had the pleasure of listening to they replaced a pair of sansui da750u's (which i bought 20 years ago)when i connected them to my onkyo tx595 reciever i was totally impressed the highs are clear at any volume the bass is deep and rich i have tried to find a situation in which they wouldnt play well still havent found it i would reccomend these speakers to anyone in the market for a high end speaker with a budget price

Similar Products Used:

sansui,bose,pioneer,onkyo

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[May 18, 2002]
Mike
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Very large speakers, I suppose they look pretty cool,

Weakness:

cannot even come close to handling the power it says it can, distorted sound at higher volumes, not clear or crisp highs

the speakers i bought are av5001b. i purchased these based a lot on price (pretty cheap for a speaker of that size)and for the primary function to be loud and rock the house (300+ watts should be able to bump pretty good) plus my friends have used klh products in the past and have been fairly satisfied. when i got them and hooked them up to my receiver it did not satisfy my desire to shake the house, so i added a basscube 15 from cambridge soundworks (great sub by the way) and i already had a set of cerwin vega re-25''s that i bought used. the cv''s have a 10" woofer in them and can handle 150 watts. the klh speakers have 2 12" woofers (one passive one active) and claim they can handle like 325 watts. with my receiver turned up little more than half i would repeatedly get the message overload for some safety function that stopped the speakers from blowing or something. the problem went away if i just had the cv''s hooked up, - i could turn it all the way up if i wanted. figuring i bought a piece of junk receiver (jvc 100x5) i went and purchased a yamaha htr 5450 receiver, and i did not even get the volume turned up to 1/3 of the way and the yamaha receiver shut down too. it is my assumption that these speakers can not handle any sort of power whatsoever. i am by no means an audio expert, and I do not get paid to review equipment, but if i were going to give advice it would be to not buy these speakers. i now have it set up so the cv''s are my main speakers and it sounds much better than with the klh''s, the highs and mids are much crisper and cleaner and i can crank it up as loud as i want and the cv''s will take the beating without a problem. i guess what i''m trying to say is save your money up a little longer and buy a better quality speaker that will actually perform. or you can buy mine that are now up for sale.

Similar Products Used:

fisher, pioneer

OVERALL
RATING
2
VALUE
RATING
2
Showing 1-10 of 25  

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