Klipsch WB-14 Icon W Series Furniture-Grade Bookshelf Speakers (Espresso, Pair)
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Legendary Klipsch sound in a compact, elegant high-end furniture-grade bookshelf speaker. Great for main or rear channels in the most serious systems where space, quality and class matters.
Features
- Exclusive XT Horn-tweeter design produces smooth & lifelike sound with legendary low-distortion Klipsch sound.
- Premium titanium tweeter for precise highs & Fiberglass woofer for amazing lows
- Slender, elegant enclosures with Magnetic grille (no visible fasteners)
- Exotic furniture-grade wood veneer finish
- Threaded insert for easy wall mounting (brackets optional)
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 7 x 11 x 7 inches
- Weight: 10 pounds
Beautiful – nice sound – overpriced
I really like these speakers. They’re lovely to look at (especially with the grille removed), and sound quite nice. I have some Monster cable for them, but was unable to get a decent receiver when I first picked them up. So, in a year or two, a higher-end receiver and a subwoofer would really make the WB14s sing.
Good clarity, half-decent bass, and on the rare occasion that distortion occurs, I blame it on my Sony STR-DH100 ($150 stereo receiver)
At the end of the day, I would definitely buy them again. But I would also point out the MSRP is ridiculous. I bought them new online for $320. They were at Best Buy, as well, for far more than that… and a few weeks later were on clearance for $260.
Great little bookshelf speakers for small HT set-up
Like the previous review, I paid $248 for the pair of these fantastic little speakers, which has to be the deal of the century. I have no idea how they priced them at 40% of retail but they did!
Taking advantage of Christmas sale pricing, I decided to hand down my 10 yr old Mitsubishi rear projection TV and treat myself to a more modern looking flat screen TV, the Panasonic VIERA S1 Series TC-P58S1 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV, Black. I am an audiophile and HT buff and have a dedicated HT in my home. This set up is for a family room area and for watching TV almost exclusively, but I still wanted better sound quality than I can get from the Panny alone. I wasn’t wanting to put much cash into the the system, either. I briefly considered the top of the line ZVOX but connectivity on that without digital audio inputs steered me away. I already had a receiver and some big old speakers for fronts and a small JBL center channel and just wanted to replace the two fronts really, to blend with the new look of the flat screen TV. I poured through Amazon.com, Crutchfield, Stereophile, etc. looking for a good, inexpensive pair to do the job. I had initially been interested in the Definitive Technology ProMonitor 800 Bookshelf Speaker (Single, Black) based on the reviews and compact size. Where I live, there is a dearth of audio brick and mortar stores so I drove to the closest Best Buy Magnolia so I could hear these before I bought them. While auditioning them, I also compared the Pro Monitor 1000s and these little Klipsch’s. Listening to music as a demo, these babies certainly sounded wonderful compared to both the DTs. Being horns, they are naturally more sensitive (spl per watt) than the others so I was careful to volume match to make sure I was not just hearing a louder signal rather than really a fuller sound. Nope, these babies just sounded terrific in that environment. There was a huge price difference between the PM800s and the WB-14s, but I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less. BB was asking full retail for their WB-14s so I used my Amazon iPhone app while walking through BB and found them for $248 shipped from Amazon affiliate buy.com (which was fulfilled by 6th Ave Electronics) using Amazon payments. Paying careful attention that the price was for a pair and not a single speaker, I ordered them on the spot.
Now I was left with with a dilemma about whether I should go ahead and buy the matching Klipsch WC24 2-Way Center Channel Loudspeaker (Espresso). Since I saved so much on the 14s, I decided to go ahead (it is always ideal to have matching F,R and C channels). I did find it online elsewhere so I will not review it here.
Now to the review of the speaker. Since I am using them in an A/V set up I can’t give a real review of their musical capabilities. I do not have them set up for critical listening so to do that wouldn’t be fair. But, I can tell you that now that they are broken in, they do deliver a wonderfully engaging sound in my set up. The treble has smoothed out nicely and the midrange is full with a huge soundstage. The bass provides a solid foundation and bellies it’s 5.25″ woofer allotment. Being horns, they do have a lot of output and power handling capabilities for such a small package, which works well with video applications like these.
To my ear, these speakers are so much better than the Definitive Technology, Mirage, and Polk offerings. Even at $600 per pair I wouldn’t be disappointed at all, however I would begin to compare B&W, PSB, KEF and the like if I could find a dealer at that price point. Like the other reveiwer here, my 4 stars is based on that $599 price point but at the $248 I paid, they would deserve 6!
Crisp, Clean and Clear sound.
I bought these speakers on sale here at Amazon for $248.00. For the price, it was a good investment. The sound was clear and crisp. The bass is not so bad if you have a good clean amp. I am limited to a small space and these were a perfect compromise. They are bookshelf speakers so I didn’t expect deep thumping sound as the floor models ones. I know there are better quality speakers( ie.. B&W) out in the market; however, they were expensive. These speakers were priced at what I wanted to spend. Aesthetically, the expresso color encasement was really nice and had that nice quality styling that made these Klipsch speakers look high end. It was well done compared to other speakers I have seen. It had that expensive quality look and feel to it. I am not an audiophile. From my personal state, I know that these speakers sound great(IMHO) compared to the other that I have heard in the same form factor and price point that I paid for them(being the sale price I paid). The sound quality was good for the price I paid for them. I am giving it four stars because of the price of what it would have been if it was not on sale. Great speakers. I am glad I was able to get them for a good price.