Klipsch SF-3 speakers -- "Out of Production" and "Outdated" are NOT the same as "Worthless"
What I'm about to write could probably be filed under the "happy camper" category, with a sub-heading of "preaching to the choir"... but since this forum is primarily made up of Klipsch-lovers -- new and old -- I thought it couldn't hurt to pass along my most recent "horny" love story.
For some contextual background perspective, you should know that I'm not a high-end, nit-picky, state-of-the-state-of-the-art, price-is-no-object, replace-my-entire-home-theater-setup-every-year audio engineer. I'm just an average ex-middle-income retired guy, with a life-long love of music and film, and a commensurately strong desire to have the most accurate sound-production equipment available for purchase, by someone on a relatively limited budget.
Twelve years ago, I combined a 5.1 set of Klipsch Synergy speakers (SF-2 fronts, SC-1 center, SS-1 surrounds, and KSW-12 subwoofer) with a new Yamaha receiver (can't recall which one), and a 36" Toshiba CRT TV.
Coming from a 19" CRT and some lower-middle-end Infinity speakers, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.
Four years later, I upgraded to a 100-watt/channel Yamaha RX-V750, which made things even better.
During all of those years, I was living in a fairly small apartment, and this system was far more than adequate. So when Klipsch came out with the SF-3's -- which were only produced from 2003 to 2004 -- I felt that my living space did not warrant speakers that large, and chose not to upgrade to them... even though I realized that because their woofers were constructed with the same material that was used in my other Synergys' woofers, along with an improvement in sound quality, they would be an acoustically seamless match with the rest of my set.
Having retired four years ago, however, owning my own, much larger home has caused me to occasionally search for a "like-new" used pair of the SF-3's. But I never found any that suited my requirements. And quite honestly -- considering how well I've cared for the Synergys I already have (and love) -- I really didn't want a used set, anyway. So it was purely on a whim that I happened to search eBay last week, and discovered an ad for a pair of new ones, in their original, unopened boxes!
Needless to say, I was skeptical about their "newness". It just seemed so incredibly unlikely that any dealer, anywhere, would have a brand-new, never-sold pair of nine-year-old SF-3's sitting around, still in their never-opened boxes. I honestly halfway expected them to end up being "refurbished"... even though the ad clearly stated that they were "new". What convinced me to make the purchase -- at the risk of having to pay $100 to ship them back -- was the dealer's 99.6% positive eBay rating, with almost 8,200 sales. I simply felt this was an opportunity I could not afford to pass up.
And... I cannot begin to express how happy I am that I didn't!
I consider myself to be a major film-buff (in 2009, I upgraded to a 58" non-3D Samsung B860 HD plasma), so the need for a seriously-good surround system is very important to me.
But "purity" of music reproduction is even more important. And even though I do listen to a fair amount of contemporary "popular" music, my primary musical leanings are classical and jazz... so being able to distinguish the subtleties of individual instrumental intonation is critical. Also, when I listen to music... I do nothing else. At the ripe old age of eight, I was trained to sit still, with closed eyes, and allow the music I was hearing to sweep me away. As such, that's almost the only way I can listen to it. And... I'm an old-fashioned "purist". I only listen to music or watch films from "shiny discs". No MP3 files or Internet streaming whatsoever... and I never watch films on TV.
So from that perspective, even though I have been very content and pleased with the audio performance of my aging Synergy speaker system -- and the SF-2's in particular -- I've always felt that there was some room for improvement. Two months ago, I added a Yamaha RX-A2010 AVR and an Oppo BDP-103 Blu-ray player to the mix -- which definitely upped the performance ante -- but the Klipsch SF-3's are the ingredient that has completely fulfilled that notion.
The day before yesterday, I spent several hours listening to a very wide variety of my favorite jazz and classical pieces. At first, I was concentrating on trying to detect the "differences" in the way the SF-3's sounded to me, compared to the SF-2's. But finally, at one point, I realized that for nearly an hour, I had been listening to nothing but the music, and the instruments themselves. I had completely forgotten that I was listening to the music through speakers!
My conclusion?....
Even though I had had them for less than one day (and yes, by the way, they actually are never-before-opened, brand new!), I could honestly say that for the first time in my life, I have speakers that -- for me, at least -- completely "disappear".
It simply does not get any better than that.
And that, I guess, is the whole point to this seemingly interminable ramble. I fully realize that there are a huge number of speakers out there -- Klipsch and others -- that are "better" and more accurate than these "outdated" Synergys. Obviously, I could spend hundreds (or thousands) on upgrading to Klipsch (or other) "Reference"-level speakers.
But at the end of the day, for those of us who are living on real-world, average incomes, what it comes down to, is whether or not these realistically-affordable, "non-ultimate" sound- and video-systems can effectively take us to those realms of imagination that are the province of music and film, without also interventionally and distractingly imposing their own physical identities on our perceptions.
Amazingly... I've discovered that they can.
