Finally, a home theater soundbar replacement for music lovers. A review of the The Fives powered Bluetooth speaker system from Klipsch by Andrew Robinson.

The Best Soundbar Alternative - Klipsch The Fives Review

There are a lot of choices on the market when it comes to powered speakers that use Bluetooth to stream music. There are endless soundbar options for customers are looking for a home theater experience. But up and to now there hasn’t been an option for those who want both. For those who prioritize proper two channel music playback while also wanting modern HDMI connectivity to their smart TVs, streaming music and watching Netflix with a bluetooth speaker just got easier! Enter the Klipsch The Fives powered bookshelf speakers. Check out our latest video (above), The Best Soundbar Alternative Klipsch The Fives Review.

The Fives trade on Klipsch’s own Heritage line of products, that is to say they look “vintage” in comparison to many modern powered speakers, which is a good thing. Having more in common with our reference Klipsch Heresy IV speakers, The Fives are clad in a real wood walnut veneer complete with a heather grey magnetic grille. Matte black is also an option for those who may want a more understated look -or are thinking of putting The Fives in a darkened home theater type environment.

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While The Fives are not a “smart” speaker per se, in that they lack Google Home and Amazon Alexa support, they still have the latest Bluetooth tech inside. This will allow streaming music to The Fives via Spotify, TIDAL or Apple Music. With the inclusion of HDMI however, one can “unlock” missing features like Google Home or Alexa by simply using their smart TV’s Apps -something the designers at Klipsch were quick to point out. This is what we did in our testing of The Fives and it worked well!

The Best Soundbar Alternative Klipsch The Fives Review. Featured on Solidsteel speaker stands HERE

KLIPSCH FIVES HDMI CONNECTION

Connecting our 75 inch LG 8K Nanocell TV to The Fives via a single HDMI connection was a breeze. Doing so enabled us to watch movies via Netflix and Vudu, stream music via our Google Home products and even enjoy voice control through our TV. The Fives will work with any modern HDMI enabled TV provided that the TV has an HDMI input with ARC (Audio Return Channel). One quick note, some smart TVs’ HDMI ARC settings default to an “auto” setting, which may or may not be compatible with The Fives. Make sure to set your smart TV audio output option to PCM for maximum compatibility.

Aside from their HDMI capability, The Fives excel at two-channel music playback. We even connected them to our U-Turn Audio turntables with great success. The Fives’ internal phono stage is a great match for a number of budget and mid-fi moving magnet turntables on the market today. You can even pair Bluetooth enabled turntables to them via their Bluetooth input option for a more wireless solution, which does work with The Fives, but doesn’t sound as good as a hard wired connection in our tests.

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HOW DO THE KLIPSCH FIVES SOUND?

Sound wise The Fives are not what I would call a neutral or “accurate” speaker. They’re a lot of fun, that’s for sure, but accurate they are not. First, the amount of bass these tiny bookshelf speakers are able to reproduce is amazing. Those of you who may be tight on space will likely be very happy with The Fives’ bass response as in smaller rooms, no subwoofer may be required -even when watching movies. Now, you can totally add a subwoofer and turn The Fives into a full-range loudspeaker with tower speaker like performance, but if you’re in an apartment or condo this may not be necessary.

The Fives midrange is a bit weighty, smooth around the edges and completely pleasing, which is a good thing considering how many people will likely use them to listen to compressed music. A mildly smooth midrange will help to mask certain compression issues that may arise when listening to lower quality music streams.

What won’t mask poor compression however is a tweeter that is too bright or “shouty”. Thankfully The Fives’ tweeter along with its horn-loaded waveguide is pretty smooth. If you turn the music (or movie) up too much the tweeter can get a little rough around the edges and exhibit a bit of grain, but on a whole, for a sub $1,000 speaker, it’s pretty good.

On a whole, the sound of The Fives is punchy, robust and a lot of fun. Like I said, it’s not an altogether accurate loudspeaker, but it’s not just some “party” speaker either; it’s somewhere in the middle. What it is, is equally good and enjoyable for both music and movies, which is what this is all about at the end of the day.

Watch Netlfix with The Fives instead of a soundbar and get awesome sound for music too.
*Shown with* *Solidsteel speaker stands*, *BDI media cabinet* *and* *U-Turn record player*

YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH BASs

In terms of downsides, The Fives have a few. Some will say you can never have too much base, however for some rooms, it may be overwhelming. There are ways to curb this, but even with some EQ or tuning, some may simply think it’s too much. Additionally, the included speaker cable used to connect one speaker to the other may not be long enough for some applications or living situations. Ours was about 9 feet in total, which was barely long enough to span the distance behind our BDI Octave media cabinet. Klipsch is releasing a longer cable as an optional extra soon. Lastly, the speaker grilles, while stylish, may show wrinkles over time as ours did almost straight out of the box. Thankfully, Klipsch’s warranty and customer service is top-notch, so I have to think that if this happens to you, you’d be taken care of and sent new grilles straight-away.

HOW WE TESTED THE FIVES (PRODUCTS USED)

COMPARING THE FIVES TO OTHER POWERED SPEAKERS

In comparing The Fives to other powered speakers, The Fives are far more stylish than say SVS’ Prime Wireless loudspeakers or even Kanto’s own TUK and YU line of speakers. The SVS Prime Wireless speakers are less expensive and have a little less personality when compared to The Fives, but I have to think that a customer shopping or considering The Fives is going to put a premium on aesthetics and as such will likely side with the Klipsch. Also, none of the other speakers feature an HDMI input so using them for home theater purposes becomes a little more “difficult” in comparison.

I love the Kanto YU line of speakers (and the TUK), but The Fives just have a soul to them that it’s hard to live without once you hear it. The TUKs are the better overall speaker for those who put a premium on accuracy and maybe neutrality, but they’re simply not as engaging (to me) when compared to The Fives. While the YU speakers are cheaper, they simply cannot hold a candle to the Klipsch speakers here.

In conclusion, The Fives are a stylish alternative to soundbars and give music lovers a true taste of what’s possible with a proper, two-channel high-end speaker system. I see them not as a replacement for a dedicated stereo system, but rather as the gateway to a lifelong love affair with Hifi.

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