It proves something of an effects processor in this regard. The result is a sort of ‘boom tizz’ sound that’s quite seventies in style and overlays everything that the Klipsch plays. ![]() The converse of this is that there is a certain warmth to the upper bass that is most welcome giving the performance more body than you might expect. The bass drum work isn’t the tautest around and sounds slightly soft and lacking in attack. It surely is, but some of the blows are misaimed. This makes for a vibrant, visceral sound – giving the sense that the music is alive and kicking. I love the crisp ‘ting’ of hi-hat cymbals and the ‘thunk’ of the snare drums, as it shows a classic British heavy rock band at its best. It’s fast, propulsive and rhythmic with good handling of attack transients and a general air about it of ‘get up and go’. And so it is here, with Saxon’s 747 (Strangers In The Night), which fizzes with energy. My experience with sensitive speakers is they’re fast and agile sounding, as there’s so little electrical energy needed to move the drivers forward and backward. Klipsch claims a sensitivity figure of 96dB, meaning it goes very loud with not much power – thanks in no small part to the horn loading. As for its lower bass, well there isn’t much to speak of… These are centred around a somewhat uncouth treble and gloopy-sounding upper bass. This is a hugely attractive facet to its personality, because its enthusiastic and jolly nature means that you end up excusing its shortcomings. The RP-600M has a speedy and bouncy sound, with an animated nature and a general lust for life. The question for buyers of £625 loudspeakers is whether you can stomach the imperfections. All loudspeakers are compromises – especially at this price. In some ways this is a very capable offering and in others it’s merely mediocre. Still, it stands pretty securely on my Atacama 24in stand, and works best in my room placed 30cm out from the rear wall and toed-in slightly. The stick-on mini feet supplied seem poor, being just one step up the evolutionary scale from Blu Tack. The magnetically attached grille covers are par for the course and are worth keeping off for maximum sound quality. ![]() Around the back there’s a largish bass port and bi-wireable binding posts. The vinyl wrap – which comes in a choice of ebony and walnut finishes – looks as eighties as the tweeter, and this could be an issue in this fashion-conscious sector of the market. Yet still it doesn’t have the sophisticated style of some of its British-designed rivals. The overall effect is of a small loudspeaker that’s notably different to your average budget box. This is claimed to be stiffer and less prone to break up than conventional cones. At 1.5kHz it crosses over to the mid/bass unit, which looks very colourful with its 165mm spun copper Cerametallic cone. It’s a Klipsch trademark and here it confers greater sensitivity upon the tweeter and helps sound propagate out into the room better. ![]() Yet the Klipsch’s 25mm unit is aided and abetted by Tractrix horn loading, and proves a game changer. Titanium dome tweeters have been out of fashion for a while now. ![]() Fronted by a satin-black, sculpted silicon composite front baffle, it is clearly built down to a price despite the presence of those decidedly quirky drive units. The cabinet is fairly standard, however, yet still it doesn’t sound particularly inert when you rap it with your knuckle. The RP-600M sports a horn-loaded metal dome tweeter and a rather interesting metal-sandwich mid/bass cone, which are quite different to the standard-issue components at this price. In design terms it’s something of a walk on the wild side, but what else would you expect from US horn loudspeaker legend Klipsch? Yes, it has a tweeter and a mid/bass driver plus a reflex port – but that’s where the similarity stops, at least to almost everything at or near its price. So it’s nice when models like this come along that stand out from the budget speaker norm. This is down to the fact that most are merely variations on the two-way, ported box theme. Because the world is so full of standmount speakers, it’s easy for interesting new ones to get lost in the crowd.
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