Klipsch Cinema 10 Home Theater Speaker System

Photos by Tony Cordoza Up against the wall! That's the marching order being given to speaker designers by companies that want to offer systems to complement flat-screen TVs. With cabinets barely exceeding the 3- to 4-inch average depth of most plasma or LCD sets, some new speakers incorporate this directive literally. Others, like the quintet of satellites in Klipsch's Cinema 10 system, strike more of a balance between high performance and interior design-friendliness. They may not be up against the wall, but they do make an effort to integrate with it.

The $1,545 Cinema 10 consists of four Klipsch Reference series RSX-5 left/right satellites, the RCX-4 center speaker, and the RW-10 subwoofer. The look of the L/R satellites and center could best be described as amorphous - there's not a single hard edge or line in their molded ABS plastic cabinets. This rounded, tapering design helps make them inconspicuous, especially when they're wall-mounted. The speakers come in black or silver and have cast-aluminum front baffles and matching black or silvery cloth grilles. Of course, they also feature Klipsch's patented horn-loaded tweeter - a new circular design that's meant to provide wide dispersion no matter where the speaker is installed.

HIGH POINTS Space-saving design. Flexible mounting options. Affordable price.

LOW POINT Subwoofer lacks impact.

Although I didn't wall-mount the satellites, that's the type of installation they were designed for. A supplied template helps you drill the holes to screw the base plates to the wall. (The same plates serve as stands, as in our photo, if you don't wall-mount the speakers.) The template even has a bubble level attached to ensure that the plates line up right! A ball-joint socket between speaker and stand lets you swivel the speaker in any direction you want - once you've aimed it toward the listening area, you simply tighten the screws around the socket to lock it in place. Klipsch suggests that this type of wall-mounting gives the best of both worlds: speakers that are conveniently located on the wall, but with cabinets that aren't attached to it, which can degrade performance. klipsch cinema 10 - back Standing next to the rest of the system, the RW-10 subwoofer looks like the odd man out. A traditional black box with a faux-woodgrain finish, it bears no resemblance to the other speakers outside of the Klipsch logo. The ported sub has a 10-inch driver powered by a 200-watt amp. It has both speaker- and line-level inputs and a separate RCA-jack LFE (low-frequency-effects) input that lets you bypass the sub's internal low-pass filter when using the crossover in your receiver. Other controls include auto-power on, variable phase and low-pass filtering, and a handy-dandy volume control located on the side where it can be quickly adjusted.
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