Klipsch KMC 3 Wireless Bluetooth Audio System Overview

Whom are you surprised by Hi-End audio systems with all sorts of THX, DTS and ultra-rich-deep-sound-quality features? But one has only to go to the wireless Bluetooth / AirPlay-plane, how does the question arise, and what should you look at?

In July 2013, the well-known forge Hi-End stereo components named Paul W. Klipsch presented to the public a premium Bluetooth 2.1 KMC 3 system, and I, being a high opinion of the company's products, decided to buy this beast. According to the results of the weekly trials and comparisons with a competitor from the AirPlay r3s camp, and I am ready to answer the questions, was the system worth $ 399 spent on it, and is there anything to boast to the competitors? ..


Starting to repair the kitchen from scratch, I realized that it would be unfair to deprive the room of high-quality sound. The task is to find a compromise between the dimensions of the audio system and sound quality. The decision to “put a wireless system on one of the cabinets” seemed very logical: you have high-quality sound (against desktop tweeters with cracks) and no problems with the placement of massive audio systems. It remains only to determine the device.

Selection

Being an apologist for virtual shopping, I immediately went to Amazon, armed with the search query Bluetooth speaker system . Among the variety of small tweeters from Sonya, Kreativ and Chinese nounames, the device from the company Klipsch known to me, whose in-ear S4 series headphones are considered by many to be leaders in the price category up to $ 100, stood apart. The farm already had the AirPlay system Sony RDP700 ( my review ), which now costs similar money on Amazon, so I choked a toad with a familiar gesture and bought Klipsch KMC 3.
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If you delve into the Internet for competing models, you can select the following devices:

• Unreasonably expensive B & W Zeppelin Air (AirPlay, $ 699) and more reasonable A5 , Z2 models;
  
• A worthy and surprisingly inexpensive representative of the compact AirPlay Klipsch G-17 Air systems (AirPlay, $ 170);
  
• Altec Lansing inAir 5000 (AirPlay, $ 449);
  
• Cambridge Audio Minx Air 200 (AirPlay + Bluetooth, $ 599);
  
• Bose SoundLink Bluetooth Mobile Speaker II (Bluetooth, $ 299).
  

As you can see, the prices of systems that are larger than the glasses case start from hundreds of dollars or even two. And they no longer seem like cosmic $ 399, which I gave for KMC 3, if you wipe at the two-protocol Cambridge Audio.

Delivery

It is not surprising that prices for such a niche product are often charged with us: for example, for 28,000 rubles. now in Russia you can find the Klipsch G-17, which on Amazon has already fallen in price to $ 165 . Campaign option Jawbone Jambox, we start from 10 tr. After waiting a week, you can bring it from Amazon for $ 200 .

From what you can listen to before buying in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and then order in the US, you can highlight Bose Soundlink , Klipsch G-17 Air , Sony SRS-BTX500 , and small on-the-go speakers, like the Jawbone Jambox .
Unfortunately, there is no possibility to listen to Klipsch KMC 3 in Russia now, and it is unlikely that it will appear in the near future, so I took the cat in a bag, following the positive reviews on Amazon and ratings on Hi-Fi forums.

The matter was the choice of mail forwarder. Having tested almost all the mail-forwarding companies, I decided on another experiment: I heard that Shopotam (ex-ebaytoday) opened an express delivery service based on the SPSR service, and I ventured to test it with the very first installment.

In addition to the desire to expand the range of their reviews of intermediaries, I was lured by a permanent 10% discount on the migration program , so the cost of delivery became even more profitable. The captain of paranoia will immediately scream that, they say, why these villains need a login and password from my service for sending goods? As explained to me, the operator logs in to the service and checks that you are not on photoshop or your stats, after which he approves your application and sets a permanent discount. Access to your personal account, of course, no one takes away from you. I don’t think that you sent warheads to Syria through the past forwarder, so to calm you, change the password to a temporary one, delete the shipping addresses, only the necessary information about the number of packages sent to the shopkeeper remains.

But before taking my word for it, I armed myself with the calculators of the well-known forwarders of the Banderolk , Shopfans , Polar Express, and I summarized their results in a table . Google and the code mf-habrahabr-2013 , which is still in service (and most likely will be active indefinitely), helped to get away from all the commissions in the shop assistant.

Like the other forwarders with the support of the CPCR, at the whispers I needed to sign an agreement with a brokerage company, as well as download a scan of the passport. The documents were checked quickly and just as quickly I received the ordered photos to make sure that the column came in the color I wanted.

After that, it remains to wait for receiving the parcel. An unexpected and pleasant feature turned out to be SMS-notifications, reporting on the progress of delivery:


Having got used to the speed of SPSR-Express, I was not very surprised that 4 days after sending the parcel from the warehouse I was contacted by a representative of the logistics company and agreed on the delivery time - I could receive the parcel in my hands already on August 28, but put it off for more convenient for me 30 number.


Thus, the former ebaytoday in this particular case worked perfectly, delivering the package in a comfortable 5 days at a price lower than the competition.

Appearance and ergonomics

Since the Americans have labeled premium on their system, then we will look down on it.


A solid weight (3.5 kg without batteries), touch control and a persistent smell of matte plastic are the first things you notice when you unpack the device.



On the back side modestly placed 3.5mm audio in input, USB for charging the gadget and a connector for connecting the power supply. By the way, the power supply, despite the ominous designation “110V” on the mail box, is quite a multivoltage one; therefore, everything that is needed for
turning on the device is a 50p cable with the correct plug.


For transmitting devices, a special platform with anti-slip coating is equipped. Engineers assumed that you could put a phone on it and go on a journey through the streets of your ghetto. But if the phone for humans still fits, then something like the Note II is no longer the case.

Reverance Klipschu for the absence of cheap and ultra bright frontal diodes, all elements are located on the top and do not hurt the eyes. The very same sensory control behaves not in the example better than similar in cheap microwaves: a light touch, and the desired action is done.


Dimensions of the device (LxHxB): 43.2 cm x 14 cm x 18.3 cm, while it is supposed to carry it through the streets of the ghetto, holding the recess in the body, which turned out to be a very convenient alternative to the good old pen. True, there are some nuances: you can accidentally turn off the device by trying to take it, the controls are too close.




The remote control for some reason, made in gloss and immediately turns into a place of accumulation of fingerprints. With it, you can pause the playing tracks, perform rewind and break the wireless connection - in general, all that he could be useful for. In addition to the remote, the Americans decided to save on the power supply. Instead of a premium power supply in the color of the case and / or reduced dimensions, you are met by a Chinese unit for a dozen bucks - not good.


Yes, the constant presence in the press release of the mantra portable music center suggests that you can take all the power of the system with you by supplying the lower compartment with eight D-type batteries.


Instead of conveniently attaching the bottom cover to some type of fastening, sharpened for fingers, the engineers decided to teach us to take a screwdriver on a hike (or a 50 kopeck coin), otherwise the lid could not be opened. Eight batteries will allow you to enjoy music for 20 hours at medium volume and up to 8 hours at full maximum, adding another 700 grams to the weight of the device.

As a result, the premium was not quite a premium. The build quality, on the one hand, is very decent, but the lower compartment could be more humane. Matte plastic will not turn the column into a terrible sight, but it is deprived of the remote. Thanks for the anti-slip finish, but the shovel phones look at him with mute reproach.

Sound

Okay, we figured out the look, we turn to the most interesting - the sound. I cannot consider myself to be an audiophile, before each listening, I warm up a cable in a leather sheath of a penis of a whale, therefore I will continue to analyze my own feelings and compare them with reviews on the Internet.

The availability of information about a separate 13cm saba and two five-centimeter mid / hi drivers in dry TTX coupled with 130W RMS promised an interesting acquaintance. I was surprised by the striking difference in sound quality between the handheld bluetooth / dock speakers and large systems I had during the AirPlay review of the Sony RDPX500iP speaker, so I expected even more impressive results from Klipsha and, as it turned out, not in vain.

Everything becomes clear by comparison, and Sony's sound at once was not so beautiful after listening to KMC 3. The detail and lack of porridge in the overall sound picture — those key qualities for which I loved S-i in-ear headphones — are fully inherent in KMC 3.

The subwoofer is definitely not in vain eating its 13 centimeters; everyone who managed to listen to the system at the time of its testing noted the dense and deep bass. At the same time, the low, not so critical, heat the middle and high frequencies, as it happens in relatively cheap models.


If you unscrew the volume on the device to the maximum, then a miracle will not happen and the distortion in the form of hissing will immediately fill your room, as noted by some in their reviews on Amazon . But to call the neighbors, 70% of the volume in the eighteen-meter room was enough for me. At this level, it is already difficult to distinguish a person’s speech two meters from himself. Another acoustic artifacts can be attributed to the acoustic effect arising from phase inverters when playing low frequencies at a volume close to the maximum: an extraneous sound (vibration) arising from the air flow is heard.

A review colleague of the R3S noted the excessive “snatch” of the high, but for me their sound seemed quite adequate. I would even say that on my instrumental tracks, this achieves a distinct audibility of the drum sets. But this, however, already tastes.

There are no questions to the Bluetooth part; immediately after switching on, the column is ready to be mated with any sound source. Such zeal is a balm for the soul after a 30-second launch of AirPlay devices. We could not hear any audible distortion during wireless transmission, no matter how much we connected the system using the supplied 3.5mm audio cable. But at the same time, rare clicks can be heard when there are obstacles in the form of living human flesh and other things on the path of the “blue tooth”. In particular, the sound literally “choked” if you broadcast music from a laptop while sitting with your back to the audio system and leaning over the computer in the typical pose of an employee of a new formation.

Finishing the description of the sound part, we can only agree with Mashable that in its price range the system really stands out among competitors.

So was it worth it?

I often had to answer the question “why is it in the house?” After buying the first AirPlay system. It would seem, indeed, a serious approach requires a shelf / floor acoustics, receiver, gold wires and, in some cases, a bag of money. I will not argue with this, because these devices are not tagged into your living room, but rather in those rooms where you will definitely not place the receiver, but want to listen to music. Kitchens, bathrooms, balconies, summer terraces - in these spaces you can place both AirPlay speakers and a bluetooth system. The ability of the latter to organize p2p connections and the presence of batteries (or built-in batteries) will allow you to take speakers with you for picnics, cottages, and so on.


If you assume that you didn’t have enough money or desire to organize the “right” wireless audio ( Sonos ) system in the whole house, then the bluetooth / AirPlay speakers would be the logical option to sound the “hard-to-reach zones”.

Making a discount on the voiced minor flaws, we agreed that KMC 3 can be safely recommended to acquire demanding sound quality listeners for installation in small rooms and outdoor operation. Yes, the price tag is biting, but, unfortunately, quite a mid-market one, and the analysis of reviews shows that in the <$ 400 range, perhaps, it is better to find no option.