hold up a minute is it possible that klipsch already designed and
built the ultimate sound bar but no one noticed
while klipsch has been pushing their new line of powered cinema sound bars for the past
two years the heritage theater bar has been a part of their product portfolio for nearly as long and
yet no one really talks about it the heritage theatre bar is a passive sound bar meaning it's
essentially a left center and right loudspeaker in a single chassis that requires you to use either a
separate multi-channel amplifier or av receiver for power while this may seem counter-intuitive
it's actually somewhat inspired especially for those of you who complain that sound bars become
outdated with time now clips didn't invent the passive sound bar lots of companies make them
but this one is unique in that it's built right alongside klipsch's heritage products like the
mighty la scala the theater bar speakers each have a three-quarter inch titanium tweeter
resting inside a track trick's horn not to mention dual 4-inch woofers which combine to give the bar
a reported frequency response of 95 hertz to 20 kilohertz meaning that a subwoofer is
most definitely required for full range playback sensitivity is rated at 92 db with an impedance
of 8 ohms making the bar fairly amplifier and receiver friendly it's clearly intended
to be wall mounted as it has a fairly hefty mounting cleat pre-installed from the factory
and can sit completely flush with your wall the binding posts are actually located inside the
speaker itself and are accessible by removing the magnetic grille they are a modern push pin design
that can accept bare wire though 12 gauge wire may prove more tricky than say 14 or 16 gauge cable
now for those of you who prefer not to mount the sound bar the clips also works placed atop
a cabinet we used our tried and true washing machine pucks to cut down on unwanted vibrations
before realizing that the bar came with its own sticky feet so be sure to install those first
once in place the setup is very straightforward you connect it to your amp or receiver the same
way you would any traditional left center and right speaker we used two different receivers
the onkyo rz50 as well as the onkyo 7100 both of which proved to be great matches especially after
running dirac for the rest of our setup i opted to go with a more simplistic 3.1 setup opposed
to a full 5.1 or 5.1.2 atmos rig of course you can expand the theater bar to be part of a full
surround sound setup by adding two or four rp-400m bookshelf speakers or you could go with clips
in-walls or in-ceiling speakers for both surrounds and at most channels you'll want to budget for
a subwoofer though in order to round out the theater bar's performance we used the klipsch
spl 100 which made it very well the sound bar itself is large large enough that it doesn't look
out of place below even an 85 inch tv like our sony x95j now once everything was connected i ran
the theater bar through a full dirac calibration inside both of our onkyo receivers dirac elevates
the performance of the theater bar considerably as i'm sure odyssey why pal or the like would do as
well i just didn't have those options available to me during this review without direct the theater
bar sounds very much how you would expect a trio of clips bookshelf speakers resting in rather
close proximity to each other to sound dynamic engaging lively but not all together spacious nor
full range the bar with no correction applied or virtualization turned on doesn't sound bad it
just doesn't sound as cinematic or spacious poster at calibration watching movies like ghostbusters
afterlife or shows like peacemaker on hbo max this bar starts to sing a much different tune
let's start with the bars strengths first the sheer scale here is epic while i won't
go so far as to say the theater bar sounds exactly like klipsch's other heritage speakers
when watching movies at least it's surprisingly close to our fortes and heresies that
i would be fine living with it over potentially spending more for other
heritage speakers now music listening is a little bit different it's good absolutely
fine for casual or background listening but for critical listening of a stereo signal
the same separation in spaciousness isn't always present and you no doubt will get better results
again when listening in stereo by going with more traditional clips speakers if you're not
a two-channel purist putting your receiver into dolby surround or better yet dolby atmos will
open up the bar when listening to stereo tracks getting you closer to a more traditional stereo
sound but getting back to movies the theater bar's sound is absolutely captivating dynamics and scale
are not an issue as it routinely transformed the whole of our front wall into one giant soundscape
now that isn't to say that the eclipse is just a sledgehammer just throwing sound around at
you with reckless abandon the nuance and detail throughout is just impressive and sounds do begin
to wrap around you when using dolby virtualization dialog intelligibility is also very good dialogue
does not sound the least bit constrained either in terms of scale or presence and the klipsch
has ample articulation on its own without the need for adding dialog enhancements or settings
the mid-range performance on the whole isn't warm or lush but rather neutral to perhaps
just a hair lean with that mild rise as you near the crossover point with the tweeter
this means you don't have to worry about missing a note or a phrase with the clips though if you like
a bit of added body or warmth to your mid-range this may not be the bar for you with respect
to the highs performance is very much going to be content dependent the tweeters on their own
can extend all the way up to the limit of human hearing without distortion or without sounding
aggressive or overly forward that said when presented with a poor signal or when faced with
heavy compression the tweeters are not i repeat not the most forgiving so if there is a flaw
you're going to hear it well-recorded tracks and film mixes sound absolutely sublime but compressed
signals like youtube videos and some tv broadcasts can result in highs that are sibilant and even
grainy i found turning the treble down a notch or two on my receiver pretty much solved this issue
now the reason i haven't talked about bass is because the theater bar doesn't really
have any while it's not difficult to cross this bar over with a sub a sub is absolutely
necessary as the bar has no appreciable base below about 70 hertz or so so when listening
without a sub you would be forgiven if you felt the theater bar was lean sounding because
it is but unlike other sound bars for example the recently reviewed lg eclair the heritage bar
has enough low mid bass on its own that deeper voices like mine don't also come out of the sub
when set up correctly which is a plus but if you're curious how the bar fares without a sub
or whether or not you should consider using the bar without one don't because its base is largely
non-existent and this lack of bass really is the biggest downside now whether or not you like its
overall sound or tone it's going to come down to personal taste i loved watching movies through
this setup and while the clips bar may not be powered or full of whiz-bang features the sound
once dialed in was insanely enjoyable and made watching movies a very fun experience
now as for comparisons the question i most wanted answered was would this be a better
solution and potentially a greater value compared to the sennheiser ambio i am split right down the
middle on this one no the klipsch is not a greater value as it costs more on its own than the ambio
never mind the fact that the ambio is an all-inclusive unit complete with atmos and
dtsx support as well as a built-in subwoofer that said should a new format be on atmos or
dts x come to market it's not likely the ambio would support it whereas the clips could in this
respect the clips makes more sense long term it's really no different from buying discreet passive
speakers but soundbar versus soundbar the ambio is more impressive all by itself and has far more
balanced sound on its own compared to the clips so would i buy the ambio in 2022 over the clips
yes i would but with an asterisk sennheiser hasn't exactly been forthright with respect to their
future plans as it relates to the ambio platform since the company's sale last year while they have
stated that there are no plans to abandon the ambio the fact that it hasn't received any real
updates in the past 12 months leaves me wondering if plans have changed what about klipsch's own
cinema 1200 system for me i would buy the theater bar over any of klipsch's newer cinema bars save
for maybe the 600. the cinema 600 still rocks and its value is just it's hard to beat the 600 aside
though the heritage bar sounds far better than the 1200 plus its reliance on an av receiver
of your choosing means you're bound to have greater control adjustability and customization
over its sound than what klipsch allows through their still very quirky app you're going to spend
more with the heritage bar that's no secret but long term i feel it may be the better overall
investment over the 1200. and as for other bars it really comes down to whether or not you're
okay with a passive solution or something all inclusive if you're looking for simplicity and
fewer components go with a more traditional sound bar the clip cinema 600 if you're on a budget the
sonos beam gen 2 for a one bar fits all solution for under a grand and of course the samsung q950
for those who want a full theater experience but made easy but if you're piecing together
a traditional home theater and want to save space the heritage theatre bar is totally worth a look
i have to admit i am surprised more people have not talked about this product because it's pretty
damn great yes it's expensive and big and requires both a sub and a receiver with room correction to
sound its level best but once you take all of that into account it's a pretty great speaker
package for changing one's living space into a theater without too much fuss or clutter it's
not perfect but definitely worth a look especially if you are trying to get that true theater sound
in your home so that's it that is now my review of the klipsch heritage theater bar but now it's
time to find out if christy liked it oh i was very impressed with the sound bar yeah to me it sounds
really really close to having a more traditional two or three channels set up okay i think it looks
fantastic yeah i mean it's clip heritage products you know they're not just on another level
um but i hate to do this to you again oh no but i think yeah i know i know it's it'll be okay okay
just barely forget we we differ just slightly in our feelings about the bar okay but like the
sonos beam ultimately we we do agree in the end so what do we disagree on no i i mean i think
it's look just listen all right okay so i know that you weren't all that impressed with the
sound right out of the box and i actually thought it sounded pretty good i mean it was way better
out of the box in like the sonos beam but i agree that once dirac was a plot applied
yes it did improve i just i just thought on its own like in its stock setting that it was it was
a pretty good solid sound oh it's it's solid i'm not gonna lie it's solid if you want to
know what the theater bar sounds like straight out of the box if you currently already own say
rp 400m bookshelf speakers or or eclipse bookshelf with a four or five inch driver
just put those two speakers about three and a half feet apart and then play your
favorite music or watch a movie that's what the theater bar sounds like without dirac or
odyssey or some type of room correction applied and in stereo if you go into a dolby surround
or a dolby matrix type format or dts whatever your flavor is um and you apply room correction
the sound of the bar just opens up considerably and it very much sounds like you took your two
speakers that were three feet apart and you move them now six seven feet apart so you start to get
real appreciable imaging and that is one of the things that is rather great about the bar
is that it has that capability because of its mass and its relative size is it it does extend
when treated properly i just didn't feel like the the the adjustment was as big as it was like
with the sonos beam you know i thought i thought there were improvements i just didn't think that
out straight out of the box like if somebody were to not run any of the room correction
i don't think they're going to be disappointed no that's just my point but anyway moving on
as for the base without a subwoofer now again i just didn't think it was all that bad and
maybe it's because it has a really ample mid-bass section like you talked about but
i certainly wouldn't have said that it had none so that's somewhere where we disagree
but yes i do i do i will agree with you that adding a sub really does flesh out
everything and makes it sound more balanced so yes ultimately i say add the sub for the best sound
i just disagreed with you when you said that it didn't have any to me the most impressive trait
of the sound bar was its intelligibility yeah so as far as understanding dialogue this has been
in my opinion the best solution i think we've ever had in the house so if you wait i'm sorry
i'm best solution we've had in the house among sound bars are you saying like this is anything
this is the best speaker for intelligibility you think we've had in the house 100 wow wow
yeah so if you struggle like i do to understand dialogue when you're like watching movies or tv
shows or whatever i think this is going to be a really great if not among the best solutions
i did not have the troubles i typically do when we're watching stuff especially like more current
programming where everybody seems to mumble through their whole freaking scene
you know god forbid anybody speak you know and you know articulately or enunciate their words
but i i thought this was really good at combating that issue for me i agree
with you i agree with you i i was pleasantly surprised this is one of the few sound bars where
while the onkyo's have a dialogue enhancement they have the ability to turn dialogue up and
down we didn't need it we didn't need in fact engaging it just for testing purposes actually
made the sound a little bit more unnatural than natural so yeah i'm kind of with you i still think
that for me in an hour space and for my taste i preferred the treble negative one rather than at
ruler flat i just thought that that took a little bit of edge off of compressed
signals um and and elevated the bar for me um i don't think you really noticed too much when i did
that so the intelligibility is still really high even if you take the treble down a notch or two
so that best intelligibility speaker so far yeah i really feel that way you know lastly i think
this is the closest bar we've ever had that comes to besting the ambio
i think in terms of i think in terms of scale and presence i wholeheartedly agree the ambio does do
a better job when watching the exact same content at the exact same volumes does a better job
surrounding you but it should it has upward firing drivers it uses beam steering has dsp it has all
of the tricks that trick your brain into thinking that it's hearing things where no speaker exists
the klipsch manages to almost with dirac and dolby virtualization almost manages to come 180 degrees
up into your listening position which is rather impressive and for not having
height channels it has great vertical dispersion which was really impressive
well also i think it sounds really really close to you know a traditional setup of discrete speakers
so i think that that's going to appeal to your more you know died in the wool audiophile yeah
all right well that is now our review of the klipsch heritage theater bar what did you guys
think let us know down in the comments below and while you're down there my question of the day for
you is this it's pretty simple if you were to go with a sound bar would you prefer a passive bar
or a powered one and why let's get the conversation going if you like this video
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this channel and the work that we do here and we both thank you all very much for doing that um oh
follow me on instagram at recovering audiophile and that is officially it for us today
so remember the only person who has to like the sound of your system is you so
happy listening everybody thank you so much for watching and we'll see on the next video bye