I picked these up to replace a pair of SF-1 tower speakers from Klipsch. I live in an apartment and didn't want to mess with a subwoofer because of neighbors. However, I felt like these towers might be a good balance.
I was partially right. During music listening, the bass is very well balanced and not boomy. As a required disclosure, I am running these with the Yamaha htr-6140 and have turned the Yamaha LFE signal all the way up. This allows me to keep the towers at flat (all the way down). WIth music , if I do turn the subs up, it gets a bit boomy. That may be due to me having the speakers only 6" from the back wall. Either way, you get the best of both worlds; great Klipsch mids and nice, balanced bass.
For Home theater, these are perfect. I cannot stress that enough. I am completely confused as to why there are reviews that say the HT suffers. The subs are capable of the low tones and I always keep them at flat for HT, as I get plenty of bass. It honestly feels like I am in a theater. Having a separate subwoofer always provided more bass than theaters, and sometimes it would be distracting (you shouldn't be hearing bass when somebody on screen is walking or opening a door). These are perfect. I encourage everyone to spend some time dialing them in (I have the reciever signal turned all the way up, and the reciever crossover set at 90hz for LFE). Also, there are plenty of used deals to be had, as I paid $250 for a mint pair.

What more can I say there Klipsh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Outstanding SOUND !!!!!!!! From music to surround sound awesome Bass from the powered sub woofers
will have your neighbors screaming, Over all the Best Speakers I've ever owned !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Will never give them up !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Huge power reserves in the sub amps, good sensitivity means you don't need a monster receiver, slim unobtrusive cabinets, the perfect size full-range HT speaker for most medium-small rooms.

Cheap plastic feet that must be replaced by some sort of spikes for best results.

I won these neat little speakers recently in a contest on klipsch.com. Funny thing is, the story I wrote that won the contest was about my venerable Forte IIs (read my review over on the Forte page) - the very speakers that these SP-1s are replacing in my Home Theater! Well, never fear - the mighty Fortes are still rocking in another room. And now I have true 5.1 capability in my HT rig for the first time EVER. Pretty exciting let me tell you... The old Fortes made great home theater mains but I could never get my hands on a matching center (the discontinued and ultra-rare Academy) and Klipsch never made surrounds to match that model line anyways. Since I had already invested in some low-budget Synergy series center and surround speakers, I figured why not just get some Synergys for the mains? When I received notification of my prize (a pair of Heresy IIs), I asked to substitute a pair of SP-1s since the MSRPs of the two models are virtually identical. Klipsch gladly complied and sent me my SP-1s a few months later. Turns out my pair were the last ones off the assembly line before the model was discontinued last month. I've heard rumors that the entire Synergy line-up is going away soon... That's too bad because these are some of the best affordable HT speakers out there. My Bose-owning friends hear my all-Synergy HT system (powered by an Onkyo TX-DS696) and invariably shake their heads in disbelief. Better speakers CAN cost less! So let's pretend I actually DID shell out $1.1k for these powered towers. Would I be happy with my investment? Most definitely. The subs alone are worth the price of admission. Keep in mind I was going from two 12"s and two 15" passive radiators in the Forte IIs to two relatively tiny 8" woofers in the SP-1s. This is a much smaller radiating surface for the low bass frequencies that are so essential for home theater. But, believe it or not, the SP-1s actually seem to have MORE bass than the Fortes and seem to go lower too! The secret is in the amplifiers that power these modest 8" subs. It's like they are nuclear powered or something because they just go and go and go. I haven't heard them run out of steam yet (and I usually play DVDs at "realistic playback levels" that top out above 100dB.) And the fact that there's two of them in cabinets six or eight feet apart means they fill a room more evenly than a single 10" or 12" sub in a corner. I hate stand-alone subs (powered or not) simply because they always sound "lumpy" to me. Sit in the wrong chair and the sub is either nearly inaudible or is so dominating that it distracts you from the movie. No such problems with the SP-1s. How about the rest of the sound these babies put out? Well, they may have the Bass O' The Gods but they simply can't touch my Fortes (or any other Klipsch three-ways) in the midrange. Why? Because, even though there are three drivers per side, the "top half" of the SP-1 is just a two-way speaker. That little 5.25" woofer right below the horn tweeter is a mid-bass driver. It runs from 2300Hz down to 120Hz just like the "woofer" in a mini-monitor. Oh, don't get me wrong. The mids are there. They just don't magically "pop out" at you like they do in the Fortes with their dedicated horn midrange driver covering the entire midrange from 7000Hz down to 650Hz. So music sounds totally different going from the Fortes to the SP-1s. The vocals, keyboards, and guitars seem to come from way further back in the stage on the SP-1s. There's less overall "presence." But that's OK, because these guys are meant to be used with a competent center channel that will be handling crucial midrange sounds like on-screen dialogue and center stage musicians. With 2ch sources, I still prefer the old Fortes because of that holographic 3D midrange. But when I have a DD or DTS source with all of those other channels for support, the SP-1s win. I think I'll keep them!

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Klipsch Forte II, Synergy surrounds and center. L/C/R and 32" WEGA at short end of 12'x21'x8' listening room. Surrounds above and directly to left and right of listening position.

I have been very impressed with these speakers. The clarity is spectacular and the bass is very nice with built in subwoofers. I have the Klipsch Quintets in the rear and a BIC center channel. My home theater sound out does any movie theater I have been to. Makes it dissappointing to go to the theater now. Just need to get that 60" plasma TV and I will be done with the movie theaters. I would highly recommend the SP1 speakers to any audiofile. If you need thunderous bass for a large room, you might consider adding an additional subwoofer to make this ensemble complete.

Clear sound low or high volume nice base too(Adjustable).I love the design too.

Nothing so far

Woww, I have to say with these speakers like someone took the blanket of the speakers.Incredible clear sound low or high volume no distortion.Under $1000 you can't go wrong with these speakers, for music or home theatre use sound just great. Thanks KLIPSCH

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Polk

Rock, R&B, Rap, Techno, movie special effects sound great. You're neighbors will be banging on the wall in no time.

Jazz, classical, and speech sounds boxy and unnatural. Rating these guys a three overall to grab the attention of those who prefer this type of audio.

I auditioned these speakers at Tweeter listening to rock, techno and clips of The Matrix. The SP-1's shook the room. I was sold. Upon taking them home, my intent was to watch TV through these guys as well. However, I noticed that speech and dialogue sounded very unnatural. I soon developed a love/hate relationship with the SP-1's. Loved the loud music and sound effects, hated listening to TV and movies with a lot of dialog. I even tried using my TV speakers as a center channel to warm the mids. That did not work. So I eventually traded them in.

cabinet design helps bass output, thru-put for additional subs. Of course the Horn

Grille is a little hokey.

Hands down one of the best home theater speakers for the money. I have a very small room and the bass is very clean and non directional. I am paired wit a Yamaha RXV-1000 100wpc reciever and the bass adj is about 1/16 of the way up. When set up properlly thse will out perform most seperate speaker/subwoofer setups. These have worked flawlessly for over 2 years now, matched with the sc-1 and 3 klipsch monitors for surrounds, it is a very nice little system.

Similar Products Used:

B&W DM602, Polk, other Klipsch

The amount of bass ,design .

The grille.

I just bought a pair of used (demo) SP-1 `s about 2 days ago, and so far, I am very happy with them.I own a powered M&K subwoofer,that really rocks the house,but I have to say that these new additions are performing beyond my expectations! The combination of the M&K subwoofer and the SP-1`s as the main speakers ,is truly awesome.I would recommend these speakers to anybody who wants to buy a set of speakers with a built-in powered subwoofers.

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JBL L-16 .

great sound, great looks and nice bass

The grill on the front is weak

when I bought these speakers they were the fourth pair I had tried out in a 1 month period.(different brands) I was very impressed at how great they sounded.They blew away the others I had listened to in the weeks prior to my purchase.(energy, yamaha, quest,polk) After a few weeks with these speakers I went back and bought the center channel because I was so happy. After 4 months, Im still impressed when I fire them up.

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nothin! these rock

Deep base, built-in powered sub.

has room for improvement on mids, grille is too delicate

Overall, this speaker is a steal. If you use this as your main for HT, you may not need a subwoofer depending on your taste for sound. (I use a Velodyne CT100 for sub). If you already have a sub, suggest you turn the speaker's volume (found on the back) to about a quarter turn. I already have the matching SC-1 (center channel) and SS-1 (surrounds) before I bought this. I used a Dahlquist as my mains. The salespeople at the audio stores keeps telling me that for me to experience a true surround, I need to have my speakers "voice-matched" in order to attain "tonal balance". What that means is that I should buy the 5.1 speaker system from the same manufacturer, and I should follow the manufacturer's recommended matching speakers. I always thought it was pure B.S. Well, after I hooked up my SP-1 to my HT, I was finally convinced that what the sales people were telling me was true. Awesome sound!!! Compared to my Dahlquist, I think the Dahlquist was better in the mids. But the Dahlquist was missing the bass that the SP1 is rich of. Buy this one if you're looking for a main speaker for Home Theater.

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dahlquist