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It can be difficult to judge a speaker just by its cover. To know the quality of a speaker, you almost have to hear it in your own home, which isn't always possible. If you are looking for a high-caliber home theater speaker system with a glittering reputation among audiophiles and average consumers alike, we recommend the Energy Take Classic surround sound system. Klipsch, the widely respected company behind well-known brands such as Energy, Mirage and Jamo, manufactures this speaker system. It receives our TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award for the great price, great sound and great reputation.
These home theater speakers cover all the basics. They have a frequency range of 33 to 20,000 hertz, providing decent coverage of the audible frequency spectrum. You might miss the highest highs (the type most likely to make your ears bleed) and the lowest lows (the type that will get you in trouble with the neighbors), but chances are that you won't miss anything at all.
The speakers boast a sensitivity of 89 decibels, which is decent. That means that you will be getting good volume output without excessive power consumption. The higher a speaker's sensitivity, the smaller a footprint it will leave behind. Here are a few more important performance indicators to consider:
- Power output: 20-100 watts
- Impedance: 8 ohms
- Low-pass crossover: 40-150 Hz
These speakers are minimalistic in design – not fancy or over the top, but still very nice. The high-gloss finish on the cabinets is sleek and classy with a solid black finish to match your TV. The set includes four satellite speakers that produce ambient surround-sound effects, one center-channel speaker that goes under the TV, and a subwoofer.
The center-channel and satellite speakers all sport 3-inch poly-titanium woofers and an aluminum dome tweeter that have been carefully designed to produce great quality audio. Magnetically shielded cabinets protect your television, and the grilles are removable.
Each cabinet resists resonation and distortion with a sturdy construction that maintains high sound fidelity. As part of the special cabinet design, a rear vent is located in the back of the speaker. This helps to improve blending with the lower frequencies produced by the subwoofer.
The subwoofer features an 8-inch cone suspended with a ribbed elliptical ring. This serves to pad the driver and allow room for the cone to flex, which helps reduce distortion.
This home theater speaker system puts out great sound quality. It does an especially good job with music – an area where many surround sound speakers fall painfully short. All the design efforts to reduce distortion and resonance contribute to make the sound quality clear and clean at various volumes.
Furthermore, the subwoofer is well balanced and blended with the satellite speakers. You probably won't notice the bass while the subwoofer is on, but you will certainly feel something missing if somebody turns it off.