Klipsch R-4B Soundbar & Subwoofer Review

This is a simple but effective soundbar and subwoofer set that even the least techie person in the world will be able to easily set up.  Both the soundbar and the subwoofer come with a power cable that needs to be plugged into a power source and then you just need to run one or two wires, depending if you have a optical digital output, to the soundbar.  The sound quality is quite good and the amount of volume will be more than enough for most people.

As television get bigger and thinner the speakers inside the sets have gotten worse and worse.  While most people will run external speakers with a dedicated receiver there are a lot of people, like my parents, who don’t want to deal with running wires for speakers and want a nice, easy solution to get better sound without doing a lot of work.  That is really where this set shines as it is super easy to set it up and get it running.

You can connect your television to the soundbar by running an optical cable or a pair of RCA cables.  There is a Bluetooth input as well which can be used if you have a television that supports that.  I do not know of any that do.

I did a majority of my tests with the included optical cable and was very pleased with the sound and performance of the set.  The soundbar is small enough that it can be placed easily on most stands in front of the television and it is also easy to mount on a wall if you choose to go that route.

The set puts out a nice amount of volume and the specs Klipsch provides are accurate saying 106 decibels maximum.  I did a quick test playing loud rock music and the device put out 108 decibels at the soundbar.  The same volume registered 99.8 decibels about 10 feet away where my couch is.  While this may not be enough volume to recreate a theater experience, it is still pretty loud and with the subwoofer placed near the couch it produced bass I could feel.

The face that the subwoofer uses Bluetooth to communicate with the soundbar means you can place the subwoofer anywhere in the room with a maximum distance of about 30 feet.  Mine was about 15 feet from the soundbar and it worked perfectly without any dropouts.

The soundbar itself is nice and clear with a strong mid-range and high-end.  There is also a EQ mode provided that will boost the frequencies that most speaking occurs to help clear up dialog for those who need it.  Without that particular EQ setting on I found everything to be balanced nicely and speech easy to hear.

The subwoofer is fairly tame but does a nice job accenting the mid-range and high-end of the soundbar with enough low-end to make soundtracks and music sound full.

The set comes with a very basic remote control that is quite small and takes a watch battery to run.  The manual provides the codes needed in order to use many television remotes in place of the included remote so that is a plus.

I did some limited testing with the Bluetooth connection and found music sounded great but things like Netflix suffered from audio/video sync issues while I was using my phone or tablet.  Since this set is made for television I cannot knock it on that factor as it seems the Bluetooth connectivity is mainly for playing music from your phone or device and for that it works well.

Overall this is a nice soundbar for people looking for nice, stereo sound from their television and do not want to deal with running a lot of wires or a complex set-up.  Recommended.

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