Amazon.com: Klipsch R-41PM Powered Bookshelf Speaker,Black : Electronics

Although I am still in the honeymoon phase, I am truly enjoying these speakers. I bought them for 2 reasons, to add some decent quality sound to the bedroom and run the TV audio signal through them. For some reason, the audio signal is really suppressed through the cable box and we have a hard time hearing the TV. These speakers enable us to hear the TV. The TV audio signal does not crank up very loudly, but that is not why I got the speakers. That is not due to the speakers; that is due to the audio signal coming through the cable box.The sound quality is superb. Whenever I am listening to new speakers, I give them a test drive with certain songs and artists that are recorded in a particularly high quality fashion. These speakers sound just great. I have not listened to them at a high volume over much extended time, but they sound great at low volume and high volume. Very small and compact, which is an attribute in my book.The only feature missing is a power on/off switch. The remote control works well, but it is small and light and probably has a limited lifespan. You turn them on manually by depressing the same big button that you use to select your music source. It is not clear how they are turned off. I looked through the Amazon questions and saw a response from Klipsch indicating that if you let them sit there for 15 minutes or so with no input, they will automatically turn off. I will have to test this soon. It seems that a simple on/off toggle switch would do the trick and would allay my concerns about the day the remote becomes broken or lost. I did a brief Internet search, and the best I could see was a universal TV remote replacement to replace the tiny remote that was sent with the speakers. Since there is a built-in amplifier, I believe it is important to turn these off when not in use.Speakers are all about sound, and these definitely have them. They pack a very solid punch in a very small and aesthetically pleasing package. No disappointments at all, and very happy with this purchase.

There is an edit to this several months down the line at the bottom of the original review, mostly related to USB playback.Pros:-easy to set up-lots of different input options (rca line or phono, 3.5mm, optical, usb or Bluetooth)-aesthetically plain and non intrusive-solid sound quality, more on that below-remote functions are simple and intuitiveCons:-speaker wire will need to be cut depending on the distance you place your speakers-Bluetooth input doesn’t auto connect to your last device when you turn it back on-has a very high volume floor (doesn’t get super quiet)-bass preferring listeners will want a subwooferSo as far as build quality and general material quality goes these are super nice, everything looks and feels well put together, the connectors and ports on the back are of good quality and nothing looked or felt out of place or alignment.Their sound quality is slightly bass oriented? And I mean very slightly, in that I compared them to a set of reference tuned IEMs (I know, very different type of listening), and there’s a small bass bump. But in general these aren’t bass heavy speakers, they don’t go super low. They have a good range and soundstage for their configuration amongst other standard 2 channel speakers like these, you’re getting good audio quality for the relatively low cost here.The connectivity is an important part of why these speakers are a good choice over some other types of speakers. If you already have an amplified receiver or just a dedicated speaker amplifier you don’t need these, and shouldn’t get these, as there are better options for the price that are just passive speakers. The benefit of powered speakers like these are less complex setups, in my case with my attached picture it’s just to play cassettes from a single component. It has line level output only so I either needed a receiver/amp and passive speakers or active speakers, I went the route of having one less component and got the added benefit of Bluetooth and aux in to play other media while working.That’s where their use case lies, if you just want to plug these into a laptop, a television, a console, etc and go. Or in this case a single audio component. And they do a good job in that requirement for the money.If you like bass (I really like bass), you’ll want a subwoofer. This has a dedicated subwoofer connection and as far as I’m aware as I don’t own a sub for this, it’s plug and play and the speakers themselves handle the bass eq automatically. The remote the speakers come with even has buttons for subwoofer control already. A subwoofer isn’t s necessity, and I would advise against it for closer setups like on a computer desk, as up close the bass is plenty. In my case I’m playing across a small room and I want the subwoofer to go with this for that extra bass.Overall I’m very pleased with these, easy to set up and they sound good. Just one last note on that line about the speaker wire. The wire included is intensely long, concerningly long, and will actually cause signal degradation if you keep it at its factory length. They give you excess so you can trim it to your needs. If you use the full length coiled up on a smaller spread the left channel will be slightly quieter. Near unnoticeable but if you get up close you can hear it a little bit. I cut the speaker wire included down to a comfortable length and that difference went away entirely.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Editing as of October 2023, i started playing around with USB and bluetooth with these a lot more. Previously i was mostly using 3.5mm to RCA input for other devices, or RCA directly between things like a CD player shown above.But i wanted to migrate these speakers over to my desk and plug them into my computer, and at first i just used 3.5mm on both ends, an aux cable. And that works fine, though there is a little power hiss that is related to my computers audio output, this is resolved using a Fiio KA3 usb-c dac/amp, but i use that on this pc to power a set of IEMs, i dont want to plug the speakers into that.So i thought switching over to using USB input would help, but no, that has its own unique problem. It has a delay whenever a sound plays when doing it over USB. I do not know why, but the best way i can describe it is where i first noticed it, listening to We Have Explosive by The Future Sound of London (wipeout 2097 soundtrack) and the first low note does not play.Switch devices, first note plays.Back to USB with the R41's, first note doesnt play.Plug the R41's in with 3.5mm instead, first note plays.3.5mm to RCA, first note plays.Fiio KA3 4.4mm to RCA, first note plays.Back to just USB input, first note doesnt play.I dug around in the settings for the audio device, it plays 48khz 24 bit at maximum which was weird, but at this price point i dont expect many people are shoving 192khz flacs into a pair of fairly cheap speakers over USB. But this issue where audio starts on a delay would not go away.Tried different formats and applications, games were a nightmare where depending on how their sound works, some sounds ingame had the same issue which is awful to listen to. For example the gunshots in CS2 have a delay, it clips out the first 1/4 second of audio or something.If you intend to use these over USB, dont, its awful. I cannot figure out a fix or workaround, different applications, media and cables did nothing to resolve that. I even ran them through Linux and had the same issue so i can only imagine its related to the USB audio on the speaker side, not the computer.Beyond that, ive got a little more of an accurate view on the bass these can put out, that being, very little. I added some more unique bass heavy albums to my music collection and comparing them to Thieaudio Monarch MKII's, some very high end reference signature IEMs, the R41's sound very good in every regard except deep bass. Very, very low frequencies are out of the question entirely, my only example of that is the introduction to Twisted Transistor by Korn where the intro is barely audible. You dont hear anything until about 7 seconds in without the volume at a level where its just kinda making noise at that low of a frequency.