Everyman Audio

Need some vinyl every once in a while.

The big guys got some play time tonight.

The Lintons are singing.

The Forte III playing some live jazz this morning.

Really quite amazing what these little monitors can do on a desk. Salk WOW1. And wow, what a finish.

Salk Audio WOW1 monitors in quilted maple currently occupying the desk.

Klipsch RF-7II

These are big. Really big. At 48.5 x 11.6 x 16.3, you're not sneaking them past your spouse. On the back there are ports the size of your head, so they need distance away from a wall. Be prepared to dedicate some space to these monoliths. Set them up properly, and you've got yourself a powerhouse system.

Many speaker manufacturers have gone the way of multiple smaller drivers, but Klipsch has chosen to stay with the tried and true "there's no replacement for displacement." Little woofers need not apply here. Each RF-7II sports dual 10-inch copper head-smashers. This is bass you can feel. I'm not talking bazooka tube in a Civic. I'm talking real bass. Bass that's tight, without overhang. It has discernible notes and tones. You can hear the different notes of an upright bass, the texture of a kick drum. They won't dig as deep as their specs may suggest, but they do have some serious punch and accuracy.

Klipsch can make some good horns. This is one of them. No h***y sounds, no cupped-mouth feeling. What they didn't do, however, is turn the damn thing down. Horns make drivers very efficient and the tweeter is quite capable of overpowering the head-smashers. To combat this, I've turned the treble down 2db. It's absolutely glorious when tamed, but if those highs are not controlled, you may run for the hills. (C'mon Klipsch, give me another resistor or better caps. Tone this thing down. I know you know how to do it.) This is not your smoothed-over soft dome sound. Instruments will have bite, they will have texture.

Turn the treble down a bit, and you allow the midrange to flourish. It sounds live and in your face. Instruments have the correct amount of weight and body. They certainly won't be the warmest speaker you've ever heard, but the neutrality is addicting.

Make no mistake, these towers have power...but they also have a softer side. No matter the level, the speakers remain neutral and balanced. At low levels, there is still bass and weight that makes music interesting. Although they will sound great loud with no detectable distortion, they sound just as good at late-night levels.

The RF-7IIs make discovering new music exciting again. They have the power and detail to bring you in. But, please, turn that treble down.

Review soon...

Klipsch RF-7II

My reference system.

Everyone needs a baseline from which all comparisons come. Ideally, unamplified live music would be the target. Let’s be serious though; you can’t possibly compare every song you hear to the original. My system gets me as close to the ideal as I’ve heard.

The system: Altec 19 speakers, HSU ULS Mk II subwoofer, Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum II tube integrated, and a Maverick Audio D1 Tube DAC. The 19s were originally billed as studio monitors, and as such, have a rather flat frequency response - the theoretical “goal” of speaker design.

To quote Paul W. Klipsch on sound, “The midrange is where we live.” This is what Altec was always known for, and it would be impossible for me to articulate just how true to life the midrange is. There is no speaker that does it better. The highs can’t reach into the stratosphere, but it doesn’t matter. What you get is a presentation that brings you to the venue. That orchestra you’ve always wanted to hear? There they are. Want to experience Billy Joel live? Go shake his hand.

Plain and simple, music sounds like music on this system. It sounds real. If we ignore all the audiophile crap about "transparency" and "resolution," music should sound right to the listener.

This system does just that: A flute sounds small, a drum set sounds big. Voices don’t take over the whole room - they are people-sized. The texture of a tom-tom or bass drum is there - you can’t smell the skin, but damn if it doesn’t sound like a drum. Sounds extend past the confines of the speakers. A center image is in the center. You can’t throw a dart and hit Diana Krall in the nose, but her voice is in the middle. Think about the last concert you were at…could you close your eyes and tweak the guitarist’s left ni**le? No, but you knew it was on the left. Pinpoint accuracy is not required.

Emotion reaches out of the system and smacks you across the face. The impact of a symphony will physically move you. The twang of a guitar, the thwack of a drumstick, and the thrum of a bass drum will assault your senses. All the reasons we listen to music - the power, the connection - are present.

This system is my reference, the basis from which I will judge all equipment.