KLH 970A Main / Stereo Speaker
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- Speakers Function: Main / Stereo
- Construction: 3-Way
- Nominal Power: 5 Watt RMS
- Peak Power Handling: 40 Watt
Similar in Home Theater Speakers and Subwoofers
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KLH 970s - A solid choice for rear speakers
Pros
Good sound, super durable, paintable, inexpensive
Cons
Utilitarian, no full-range adjustment
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
These workhorse speakers are great for indoor/outdoor use and provide surprisingly good sound. Recommended for rear speaker use.
Every Dolby Digital 5.1 surround system needs a good pair of rear speakers. Finding good ones that mount to the wall and are flexible enough to get the proper alignment can be a challenge. I've been using the very inexpensive KLH 970s for years in my system and just got to mounting them inside the wall.
Out of the box, the speakers are fairly unassuming black rectangular boxes with 2 speakers, a mid-range cone and tweeter. There's even a small 4" woofer for trying to spit out low frequency sounds. Also in the box are rubber feet for sticking to the bottom and mounting hardware to attach the speakers to a wall.
The frequency response is listed as 90 Hz - 20,000 Hz. This of course is a theoretical number that changes depending on the volume of the sound. But knowing this is a good baseline for the expectations of the speaker. With a low of only 90Hz, the speaker does not produce true deep bass, nor would I expect it to. The lows get fairly deep, but never come close to rumbling like a subwoofer would do. I have this coming out of a 100 watt stereo system and I've not taxed the limits of the speakers, even though they are rated at 40 watts.
The midrange and highs sound clean and sharp with no distortion at higher volumes. The sound blends nicely with my front floor standing speakers and there is never the telltale reduction of sonic quality as the sound goes into the back. While not particularly warm, the sound quality is excellent in our living room given the reduced emphasis that surround speakers naturally have. I've used these speakers with all manner of media, from VHS to DVD to Xbox to Xbox 360. They've always sounded crystal clear with no noise or distortion.
Since these speakers have a metal case with a metal front grate, they are an excellent choice for outdoor speakers. I've dropped them, bumped them, and generally abused them and they have withstanded this abuse quite well. As well, the outside cabinet is paintable and what were black speakers when I bought them are now off-white to match my walls.
It should be noted that these speakers are not very attractive. They are far more utilitarian tgaugehan my wife would have liked. Hence the paint job and mounting inside the wall. I was able to mount them inside the wall without using the mounting hardware. This is easy to do because on the back of the speaker cabinet, there is a nail hanger to suspend the speaker from a large nail. Inside the wall, I drove a nail into the wood behind the wall and hung the speaker. Worked great and I get no rattling or odd noises.
While I currently have them recessed into the walls, I had them hung onto the walls for years using the supplied mounting hardware. These large black brackets are not exactly unassuming and seem little heavy duty for the size of the speakers, but they did work well and mounted the speakers quite solidly. The only complaint with them is that they allow only one direction of adjusting the speaker. So if you want to adjust the speaker to point down and a little to the right, you'll have to mount the speaker at a cock-eyed angle to do so. There is no free motion range of adjustment.
Another small gripe is that the speaker wire clamps are rather small, so using a very thick gauge wire will be a challenge unless it's twisted very tightly.
•
•
Conclusion
•
•
These workhorse speakers are great for indoor/outdoor use and provide surprisingly good sound. Recommended for rear speaker use.
Out of the box, the speakers are fairly unassuming black rectangular boxes with 2 speakers, a mid-range cone and tweeter. There's even a small 4" woofer for trying to spit out low frequency sounds. Also in the box are rubber feet for sticking to the bottom and mounting hardware to attach the speakers to a wall.
The frequency response is listed as 90 Hz - 20,000 Hz. This of course is a theoretical number that changes depending on the volume of the sound. But knowing this is a good baseline for the expectations of the speaker. With a low of only 90Hz, the speaker does not produce true deep bass, nor would I expect it to. The lows get fairly deep, but never come close to rumbling like a subwoofer would do. I have this coming out of a 100 watt stereo system and I've not taxed the limits of the speakers, even though they are rated at 40 watts.
The midrange and highs sound clean and sharp with no distortion at higher volumes. The sound blends nicely with my front floor standing speakers and there is never the telltale reduction of sonic quality as the sound goes into the back. While not particularly warm, the sound quality is excellent in our living room given the reduced emphasis that surround speakers naturally have. I've used these speakers with all manner of media, from VHS to DVD to Xbox to Xbox 360. They've always sounded crystal clear with no noise or distortion.
Since these speakers have a metal case with a metal front grate, they are an excellent choice for outdoor speakers. I've dropped them, bumped them, and generally abused them and they have withstanded this abuse quite well. As well, the outside cabinet is paintable and what were black speakers when I bought them are now off-white to match my walls.
It should be noted that these speakers are not very attractive. They are far more utilitarian tgaugehan my wife would have liked. Hence the paint job and mounting inside the wall. I was able to mount them inside the wall without using the mounting hardware. This is easy to do because on the back of the speaker cabinet, there is a nail hanger to suspend the speaker from a large nail. Inside the wall, I drove a nail into the wood behind the wall and hung the speaker. Worked great and I get no rattling or odd noises.
While I currently have them recessed into the walls, I had them hung onto the walls for years using the supplied mounting hardware. These large black brackets are not exactly unassuming and seem little heavy duty for the size of the speakers, but they did work well and mounted the speakers quite solidly. The only complaint with them is that they allow only one direction of adjusting the speaker. So if you want to adjust the speaker to point down and a little to the right, you'll have to mount the speaker at a cock-eyed angle to do so. There is no free motion range of adjustment.
Another small gripe is that the speaker wire clamps are rather small, so using a very thick gauge wire will be a challenge unless it's twisted very tightly.
•
•
Conclusion
•
•
These workhorse speakers are great for indoor/outdoor use and provide surprisingly good sound. Recommended for rear speaker use.
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