Klipsch R-20b Bluetooth Soundbar With Wireless Subwoofer Review

Klipsch R-20B Review

A great speaker for those that dear bass, peculiarly if yous can find information technology on sale

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Price: $800 List

Pros: Great bass, skillful overall sound, squeamish design

Cons: Expensive if not on sale, Bluetooth connection is sensitive to other nearby wireless networks

Manufacturer: Klipsch

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Our Verdict

The Klipsch R-20B is no longer available every bit of 2018.

If booming bass is what you're afterward, the Klipsch R-20B is the soundbar for you lot. Its external subwoofer produced the deepest, nigh resonant bass nosotros heard in our testing. It also produced proficient treble. Its overall sound wasn't quite as good as the top scoring Sonos Playbar, simply it was close. Combine that with a overnice blueprint and expert user interface, and yous've got an fantabulous soundbar for those that tend to judge sound quality based on the low stop. Then let your bassophile flag fly and become blown abroad by the power of the Klipsch R-20B.

Our Assay and Test Results

The Klipsch R-20B had far and away the all-time bass of any of the models we tested. Its large subwoofer delivers the kind of power and punch you'd expect from a much larger sound system. If you're looking for a soundbar that actually brings the bass, this is the one for you lot.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Functioning Comparison

While the Klipsch R-20B delivered top quality sound in our testing, it barbarous slightly behind in the ease of use and sound customization metrics. This resulted in an overall score that was around average.

The sections below further detail how the Klipsch R-20B performed in all of our individual tests, so yous can decide if those slight shortcomings in ease of use and sound customization are worth the extra bass ability.

Sound Quality

The Klipsch R-20B produced nifty sound in our testing, like to that of the Bose SoundTouch 300 and a scrap less immersive than that of the top scoring Sonos Playbar.

What really sets the Klipsch R-20B autonomously is the bass produced by its external subwoofer. It was far and away the virtually powerful bass we experienced in our testing. Despite that power, the bass always sounded well-baked and well defined. In explosive activeness movie scenes where the bass of other models turned into a muddled mess of low humming, the Klipsch R-20B kept every explosion and crashing motorcar sounding clear sounding and hair-raising. The upper registers weren't quite equally clear, but withal plenty crisp plenty to create an overall rich and full bodied sound. The Klipsch R-20B audio is certainly a fleck bottom heavy. We felt that while the Sonos Playbar lacked some of the R-20B's bass power, it had a bit more clarity and was able to create an overarching sound that had a bit more depth and felt more immersive. Notwithstanding, the Klipsch R-20B's overall sound is still great, and may even sound better to you if you're the type of person who cranks the bass to total bore on every speaker y'all ain.

The R-20B was one of the best performers on our sound quality testing. Its external subwoofer produced especially good bass.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Ease of Utilize

The Klipsch R-20B's overall design is easy to apply, simply nosotros did accept some slight bug with information technology in our testing, which bumped its score down a fleck. You can come across how it performed relative to the other models we tested in the graph below.

The Klipsch R-20B provides a full set of controls on the soundbar itself, something not all soundbars exercise. We like this feature for those times when y'all merely tin can't find the remote. Speaking of the remote, we weren't huge fans of it. Information technology is quite small and easy to lose, making those on bar command all the more important. As well, Klipsch does non provide an app for use in conjunction with the soundbar, so everything must be done via the remote or on bar controls.

Setup of the Klipsch R-20B was adequately easy. Pairing the external subwoofer took a little bit of actress time, and it is the heaviest soundbar nosotros tested, but we however had information technology up and running in about 10 minutes.

We liked that the R-20B had controls right on the front of the soundbar.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

The one matter that really annoyed united states about the Klipsch R-20B was its wireless connectivity. Pairing mobile devices via Bluetooth often took multiple attempts, and that connection tended to go in and out if we had any other Bluetooth devices in the room. If we made sure in that location were no other soundbars turned on in close vicinity the connection remained solid, but information technology made united states of america feel that the Klipsch R-20B would exist more sensitive to other nearby wireless networks. It also took a few attempts to wirelessly pair the subwoofer with the soundbar, and that connection was initially finicky too. Once we establish a slightly closer position that the subwoofer and bar liked that connectedness remained rock solid throughout the residue of our testing.

The R-20B is one of the few models we tested that does not have an HDMI input.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Sound Customization

The Klipsch R-20B was the worst scorer in our sound customization test. Information technology offers very few sound adjustments and largely trusts that you'll like the standard Klipsch audio settings, or that you can suit the sound setting on whatever device you're connecting to the soundbar.

The just existent customization the Klipsch R-20B offers is the level of the subwoofer. Plus, the simply way to control that level is with a knob on the actual subwoofer, and then yous're going to have to get off the burrow if the bass isn't at your desired level. Once more, this isn't a huge deal, equally you lot'll likely exist able to adjust some EQ settings on whatsoever device you're connecting to the Klipsch R-20B, only we would have preferred having some more adaptability within the soundbar itself.

Style/Design

Klipsch has a adequately distinctive style of speakers with black bodies and gold speaker cones. However, it eschewed that manner with its soundbar and opted for an all blackness design, a choice we can definitely get behind. It was one of the highests scoring models in our design/way testing.

Nosotros really liked the make clean lines and monochrome design of the Klipsch R-20B. We likewise felt that choosing slightly transparent speaker cover that allows you to come across the speaker cones added a overnice design flair without existence likewise flashy.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Value

With a list cost of $800 the Klipsch R-20B is the most expensive soundbar we tested. If you actually want the best bass around information technology is worth paying that much, but otherwise we would recommend the slightly cheaper Sonos Playbar in this toll range. Nonetheless, the Klipsch R-20B can often be found at online retailers for up to half off the retail price. If you are able to detect a deal like this you should snatch information technology up, as yous won't be disappointed.

Decision

The Klipsch R-20B is the best soundbar around for bass loving audiophiles. If you lot don't listen sacrificing a little bass the Sonos Playbar provides better overall sound in the same price range.

— Max Mutter and Steven Tata

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Source: https://www.techgearlab.com/reviews/audio/soundbar/klipsch-r-20b

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