Bookshelf Speaker Reviews

On the top is a round rubber navigation ring that operates enough controls to make the cockpit of a Boeing Dreamliner blush. The top and bottom of the ring step through the menus, while the left and right sides step through items in those menus. Menu settings include Volume (with bar indicator), Recall Settings (Music/Movies/Night), EQ Mode (Flat/Punch/Depth), Lowpass (from 40 to 120 hertz or Off), Phase (0 to 180 degrees), Save Settings (Music/Movies/Night), Display Brightness (with bar indicator), Power (Always On/Auto On), Keypad Lock (press one button to activate), and System Info (press one button to display). I did most of my listening in the Flat EQ Mode, which provided the optimum tradeoff between extension and output.

Associated equipment included a Rotel RSX-1550 A/V receiver, OPPO BDP-83SE universal disc player, Rega Planar 25 turntable, Shure M97xE cartridge, and Bellari VP530 tube phono preamp. All material viewed on disc had lossless surround in the form of DTS-HD Master Audio. Let me note—not for the first time—that I have no bias toward DTS or against Dolby’s equally fine TrueHD codec. When I choose source material for a review, I look for variety of content, not one codec or another, although nowadays I do lean toward lossless or uncompressed soundtracks.

Cigarettes and Pipes
Whenever a new season of Mad Men becomes available on disc, I make a weekend of it. The Icon W speakers were just breaking in when I was gorging on season three. I can’t sit through 13 episodes of anything with my head unwaveringly located in the sweet spot, so it’s safe to say I was all over the couch as the folks at Sterling Cooper went through their corporate and personal convulsions. This inevitably forced me to meditate on the XT horn’s dispersion pattern. When I moved off axis, dialogue was still intelligible, but it took on a dull, lifeless quality. On axis, everything was beautifully focused and less bright than any other Klipsch system I’ve ever reviewed.

Despite their gentle voicing, the Icon speakers were more than willing to tell the truth about source material. Sherlock Holmes—the raucous new version with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law—was full of sonically jaw-dropping moments: the sound of a horse-drawn carriage roaring from surround-left to front-center and the epic impacts of a boxing match. The midrange was a little hot, according to my notes, so I ran this selection at a lower master volume setting than my other movie selections.

The Other Man stars Liam Neeson as a man who investigates the wife who has vanished from his life. I was struck by how the plot played against my knowledge of Taken, another movie in which Neeson chases after another disappeared loved one. This movie showed the Icon system at its best. Nestled within the five XT horns, I marveled at the vividness of low-level ambiences, such as the noise in a restaurant. Rainfall—my favorite surround effect in just about any movie—was close and enveloping, a brilliant match of mixing wizardry and transducer chic.

The voiceover by Antonio Banderas was luxuriant and sexy, the sub dovetailing well with the speakers. A cello sorrowing over a gently churning orchestra helped emphasize the story’s tragic overtones and showed off the Icons’ midrange finesse.

Glamour and Screams
Beyond Standard by Hiromi’s Sonicbloom is not the Japanese jazz prodigy’s most recent album, but it is her most recent SACD release. It uses the surround channels more heavily than any previous Hiromi album.

The use of the center channel was also interesting in the way it prioritized instruments: the bandleader’s piano above all, some drums, a little bass, and not much guitar. The less an instrument appeared in the center, the more likely it was to be either distributed over the four corners of the soundfield or—in the case of the guitar—loaded heavily into the surrounds. This created an echoey and chaotic dreamscape that the Klipsches just barely kept under control (although I doubt that another speaker would have done better). Hiromi seems determined to challenge the limits of the surround medium as much as she bewitches her listeners. She is a genius.

Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon’s 1970 solo album, remains as savagely self-revelatory as it was 40 years ago. Lennon was determined to make do with rhythm section and one other instrument, either piano or guitar. He hedged his bets by having coproducer Phil Spector fatten up the sound. Even tube-processed vinyl didn’t soft-pedal the primal screams. If anything, the XT horns made them even more confrontational. The horn-loaded tweeters also teased apart the strands of Lennon’s double-tracked vocals.

An Oehms Classics CD simply called Haydn, by the Delian Quartett, features two works for string quartet and two larger concertos rearranged for smaller forces, adding a pianist and an extra violinist. As I expected, the horn-loaded speakers did a fine job of focusing and spotlighting each member of the chamber ensemble. The unexpected elements were the organic gentleness and measured proportions of the string sound.

It was delicate without being thin. Klipsch’s horn-enhanced titanium tweeters aren’t predisposed to sweetness; they don’t have that fat, golden sound I associate with some tweeters. Still, they made this augmented quartet sound like a mini string orchestra in a good-sounding concert hall.

The Klipsch Icon W line shows what can happen when a manufacturer that follows a long established train of thought goes to the trouble of questioning and refining its old assumptions. The dark veneer finishes of these speakers have a beauty that should make them welcome among high-end décor. And the way they’re voiced is more to my own taste than any previous Klipsches—and I’ve been reviewing this company’s loudspeakers for a long time. Perhaps the best thing about them is that the company’s wide distribution network will bring them into places where rarefied A/V specialty retailers are thin on the ground. When you can walk into a chain store (or browse Amazon) and come away with a great-looking, great-sounding set of speakers, that’s a pretty positive development. Thank you, Klipsch.