Klipsch Synergy B-20 Premium 5.25-Inch Bookshelf Speakers (Pair)

Intriguing driver arrangement; positional flexibility; full-strength, energetic sound...Sub plods as the speakers sprint; tweeters lack refinement...Naming a new range of loudspeakers ‘Synergy’ is a bold move...But if you crave excitement and bombast (vital ingredients in a home cinema, certainly) this Klipsch has them in spades......

The Klipsch Synergy B-20 has a rated sensitivity of 92.5 decibels with 2.83 volts at 1 meter...And buying a more powerful AVR will make a good thing better...For this review, I used the Synergy B-20, a monitor-size or bookshelf speaker ($279 per pair) to anchor the four corners of the soundfield...Experience tells me that timbre matching is a much more complex affair than simply using the same diaphragm material, but my listening confirmed that the timbre matching between the two speakers was in fact pretty good in a subjective sense (see HT Labs Measures for the objective view...

The speaker offers exceptional sensitivity making the most of an amplifier’s capabilities....We’d like to see bass response extend a bit lower...Black ash is the only finish color....While the Klipsch B-20 could be positioned on a wall-mounted shelf, much of the benefit of its rear-firing bass-reflex design would be nullified by such an installation...Though the competition among these speakers is very close, the extremely high efficiency of the Klipsch B-20...