Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 2.0 PC Speaker System

Rating:
Summary: Rich, Full Sound @ Awesome Price
Review: I have to admit I'm pretty amazed at these Klipsch Ultra 2.0s. I thought they MIGHT sound pretty good, but Wow! They are every bit as good as the first reviewer says, with full, rich sound that fills an entire room and then some. I was also looking at the Bose iPod thing, but for $200 less(!), the sound from these Klipschs was every bit as good as the Bose Pod Dock. No remote, but I can deal with that.

Note the sound is rich and full at all volume levels, not just cranked up. And cranked up -- whoa -- keep the windows closed! Bass adjustment is nice, too. Only adjustment I made was changing equalizer settings on certain iTunes albums, which is something I needed to do anyway. Klipsch has been making speakers since I believe the '40s, and their attention to HIGH-quality sound at an affordable price is evident here. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: First rate powered speakers with fabulous sound ...
Review: Over the past 20 years I've tried lots of external computer speakers. In the early days quality wasn't much a consideration; PCs only sounded a few beeps and buzzes. However, ever since 1997 when I started ripping all my CDs and playing music from my computer, speakers became really important ... expecially when in 2002 I replaced my home stereo with a laptop and powered speakers. Quality sound is now a very high priority but for my situation so too were two other criteria: 1) I needed a two-speaker solution, nothing with a subwoofer would work and 2) I didn't want to spend over $100.

Well, my standard answer to the above has been Bose Companion 2 speakres. I have two pair, one pair in each of my offices (home and work). While I absolutely love those speakers I just didn't feel they were right for a living room setting. They're too "plasticy".

After a relatively extensive search I stumbled across the Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 2.0 speakers (quite a mouth full, eh?). They're new so it was hard to come across reviews or opinions but the few I found sounded positive. Normally I'd order through Amazon but these were unproven speakers and I wanted the option of returning them so I bought a pair at the local Apple store and set them up.

The cabling is pretty straight forward. Power and audio source plug into the back of the controlling speaker; also on the back is an RCA plug to connect the other speaker via cable. On the front of the controlling speaker are (from left to right) bass control, secondary audio input, headphone jack, and volume control. A green LED sits below the two front plugs of the controlling speaker to indicate the unit is ON. As I say, pretty simple to set up.

Firing them up was a bit disappointing. I played some of my daughter's music and it sounded flat ... then I realized she had ripped the music at 24kbps so of course it sounded bad! Once I played some 128kbps music my heart soared. Beautiful! I hear great range, I feel sufficient base, I can sense much detail. Yes, I'm very pleased with these speakers and if you can live with black, then I'd highly recommend them. At 15W per channel they can crank.

I paid $99 but I'm sure you'll get a better deal here on Amazon.

Will I be returning them? Not a chance!!! :-)