can the BA4800 match the awesome bass of the Klipsch?

[UCBPride]

^

 

[arod]

not in terms of bass, i have the v2.400's and they rock hard.

 

[MichaelD]

Well, that's not really an easily answerable question. I have the PM 4.1's but I know darn well that the BA's are really good speakers (for computer use!) "Awesome Bass" What exactly does that imply? You have booming bass, bottom bass, punchy bass, smooth bass, pumping bass, and all those mean different things to different people.

Here's my take.

There's quality and there's quantity. You have to try to be objective about it. The Boston's sound very good, but if it's sheer volume you want, there's nothing else below $500 that comes close to the Klipsch.

And that's not to say the the PM don't have quality sound. They do. IMO, the horn tweeter does a lot to smooth out the sound. They sound awesome w/music. Forget imaging and soundstage....this isn't an audiophile-quality speaker review. Do the voices/drums/guitar/etc sound natural? That's what I was looking for.

I mostly game on my pc. If I want to listen to tunes, I have a pretty decent stero in the living room. But sometimes, I'll pop in a CD for background music while doing emails or spreadsheets.

I listened to both the BAs and the PMs. One thing that really sold me on the PMs is that the speakers have separate tweeters. One speaker cannot effectively reproduce as wide a dynamic range as two speakers, with each speaker dedicated to producing a specific range of frequencies. That's the whole reason why we have subwoofers, midbass, midrange, tweeters in the first place. Also, Klipsch actually gives wattage ratings, whereas Boston does not. You can hook up test equipment to find out, but hey, if you want me to spend my hard-earned bucks, you'd better tell me everything I want to know about your product and then some. Just by "seat of the pants" testing, I'd say that the BAs' put out about 2/3 the volume as the PMs. Ergo, 2/3 the wattage most probably.

The only way to tell which one is right for you is to "test drive" them yourself. There are some other very nice 4.1 setups out (theres' an Altec-Lansing...can't remember the model#) that's nice, but in the under $500 range, it's either BA's or PM/s. That's my $.02.

 

[Shooters]

From what I've been told they won't thump as hard as the Klipsch, but they produce a cleaner, tighter sound. Plus, do you really need the power of the Klipsch? I have a friend who has the Promedia 4.1s and he doesn't even turn the bass past about 11:00. It's overkill if you ask me. I have the 2.1 Boston Acoustics BA790 digital speakers and they get loud enough and provide more than enough bass for my needs. I'll probably get the BA4800s next condsidering they're less than half the price of the Klipsch.

 

[MichaelD]

Ah, indeed. They are overkill! I'm a bit of an extremist; bigger, harder, faster, better, louder, more. One listen and I was hooked. 75% of the time, I honestly don't have them up past 1/3. They are darn loud at that point too. The most important benefit of having a powerful amp, whether it be in you PC speakers, car amp, or HT receiver is headroom. The more headroom you have, the louder you can go w/o distortion. The BAs were plenty loud for me...but the PMs just blew my pants clean off. The shoppers in BestBuy weren't happy....

 

[crazyjoekuta]

to all you people that have 4.1's and think they are too loud, give them to me and i'll give you my speakers...

 

[Shooters]

<< The shoppers in BestBuy weren't happy.... >>



So you're the guy that always makes me jump when I'm looking at the video cards with my back to the speakers display.

 

[GTaudiophile]

The BA4800s don't pack the same punch, thankfully! The BA4800s are tighter, cleaner, and softer than the Klipsch 4.1s. I've listened to them side-by-side, and I don't think that the 4.1s are that much better to justify the $180 price difference.

 

[skace]

Pfft, I maxed out the volume on my Klipsch in college. They become incredibly distorted at the higher levels. I now have the Sirocco Crossfires and they handle high volume a lot better

 

[MichaelD]

Skace, Those are nice speakers! How much did those bad boys set you back?