Company & Product Overview

With over 75 years of audio history, Klipsch has once again raised the bar with the third generation of their award-winning Reference Premiere speaker series, the Reference Premiere II. This latest edition seeks to deliver better sound for home theater or stereo listening with less distortion through several key audio advancements, evolved engineering, and dramatic cosmetic details. There are eleven new models in the Reference Premiere II line featuring four towers, two bookshelves, three center channels, and two surround models.

Almost 75 years ago a tiny company was formed in Hope Arkansas that would go on to become a true American success story. Paul Klipsch, with his electrical engineering background and holder of 10 US Patents at the time, set out to create a speaker system capable of bringing the power and energy of a live performance into the home. Little did he know when he started flying around the country with his first Klipschorn speaker that he would start a legacy so strong that hundreds of Klipsch fans from around the world would make an annual pilgrimage to the original factory to hang out for a weekend talking about the speakers they all love.

Paul Klipsch came up with four design principles when he created the Klipschorn and those same four principles guide the design of every single product they make. Those principles are High Efficiency, Low Distortion, Controlled Directivity, and Flat Frequency Response. If you go visit the Klipsch headquarters, these are the first things you see when you walk into the building.

Design & Build Quality

The new Reference Premiere II models share a similar design philosophy to the models they are replacing and feature premium materials with a beautiful design. Klipsch kept the popular cabinet size for each of the models, however, they did improve their overall performance. Each model is available in two furniture-grade wood finishes — ebony and walnut. 

The updated sleek, modern tower cabinet designs include enhanced cabinet bracing with aluminum binding posts, cast aluminum feet, and discrete Dolby Atmos connections that allow for easy and refined elevation speaker integration. 

True to historic Klipsch fashion, all models feature signature Klipsch copper trim rings, which accentuate the tweeter and woofer.  In addition to its copper beauty, a new horn size delivers more efficient high frequency. As a nice touch, each speaker also has a magnetic removable black grill. A lot of speakers in this category go naked, so it’s convenient to be able to cover up the drivers for a more discreet look. However, being audio geeks, we kind of like the look with the grill off. The big Tractrix horn and woofer give these speakers the unique Klipsch look.

We have to say, build quality is really great on the new Reference Premiere line. Sure, you don’t get the hand-rubbed matched wood veneers of the Heritage series, but the RP II line costs about 25% of what the mid-level Heritage models sell for.

Features & Technology

Numerous acoustic and aesthetic upgrades are featured in the new RP II line and it is full of technology based on the four pillars of Klipsch sound. At Audio Advice, we love companies who push the state of the art but also make more affordable products. Pushing the limits allows you to learn, which in a great company, results in a trickle-down effect where the tech learned when you are making the best you can make, gets into your more affordable products. This is the case with the RP II speakers and all of the goodies inside that have caused so many people to fall in love with Reference Premiere.

Klipsch takes full advantage of one pillar, controlled directivity, in their tweeter design on all RPII models. You might wonder why this is even important? Well, if you listened to speakers outside with no walls and on a 10’ tall stand where there was no way for the sound to bounce around before reaching your ears, it would not be important. In the real world of a normal room, sound bounces all over the place. Some reaches your ears directly from the speaker, while those exact same frequencies that came straight to your ears, bounced off 1 or more walls before arriving at your listening spot. Not only does the bouncing alter the sonic character, but it also delays it, meaning if you hear the same note directly and indirectly, it does not come off very clear. With horn technology, you can control the dispersion pattern of the high frequencies but it is a delicate balance. If you make it too directional, you have to put your head in just one spot to hear all of the highs, but if you make it too wide, you get the time arrival delays and their smearing of the sound.

The 1” Titanium diaphragm tweeter has a special acoustic lens mounted in front of it. It is then recessed in the Klipsch Tractrix horn, which is larger in the RP II series, helping to control dispersion. With the aid of computer design, the shape of the horn is tailored to make the output of the tweeter extremely linear, another Klipsch hallmark-flat frequency response.

The tweeter housing and magnet structure use venting technology to reduce any standing waves behind the tweeter. The Titanium diaphragm is housed in a way that forces it to have a pistonic motion, which Klipsch first started using in their more expensive speakers called their Linear Travel Suspension. With Titanium being super light and able to move like a piston, distortion is much lower than many tweeters, checking off another one of the four pillars, low distortion. 

The Cerametallic™ woofers used are rigid and stiff, an ideal woofer material for low distortion. Klipsch has patented this technology and you’ll find it in several models. Their material uses multiple layers of metal on the cone which not only makes it very stiff to avoid breakup, the combination of materials pushes the natural breakup point of the driver far beyond the frequency range it operates in. This allows the woofer to play much louder with less breakup. Metallic woofers aren’t new for Klipsch RP II speakers, but they have made significant advancements to the motor & technology behind the cones.

To help minimize cabinet resonance, Klipsch uses a technique we see in a lot of more expensive speakers. The front of the cabinet is not wood, but a very dense and inert composite material. The drivers are mounted to this super dead material helping greatly reduce cabinet resonance.

When you spin the speaker around to look at the rear, you’ll see the patented Tractrix port Klipsch continues to develop and improve upon. With each speaker model, they design the port to reduce turbulence and to perfectly match the cabinet’s acoustic characteristics. When you couple the efficient Cerametallic™ woofer with this port and the highly efficient horn tweeter design you check off the last of the four Klipsch pillars, high efficiency.

Live music has huge swings in volume level between the loudest peaks and the softest passages. And when a symphony orchestra or your favorite band swells to a full crescendo, the feeling of power you sense is what makes live music so much fun. It takes a highly efficient speaker to be able to reproduce those wide swings in volume and be able to portray that big crescendo like you are really there.

Now, let’s take a look at each of the models in the new lineup. 

Reference Premiere II Floorstanding Speakers

There are four floorstanding models in the RPII lineup — the RP8060FA II, RP-8000F II, RP-6000F II, and the RP-5000F II. Each of the new models features bi-wiring and bi-amping capabilities, allowing you more flexibility with how you want to set them up.

The Klipsch Reference Premiere II Floorstanding models all have a new scratch-resistant cabinet design, offering a more modern look and providing innovative sound advancements. Additional bracing and a new, divided cabinet help to minimize resonances and vibrations in the speaker. Each model includes a black magnetic grille for a sleek, clean look and cast aluminum feet to reduce the floor to surface contact area for enhanced detail.

Each model includes a discrete set of height-channel output jacks near the top of the cabinet so you can add a set of dedicated height modules without draping speaker wire down the back of the towers themselves. Klipsch has also improved the input panel with audiophile-grade wire and improved the accessibility of the aluminum binding posts. 

Reference Premiere II Bookshelf Models

Using the same cutting-edge technology as their floorstanding counterparts, the Klipsch RP-600M II & RP-500M II bookshelf speakers replace the earlier models and deliver incredible sound for any sized space. Both models feature a new cork pad on the bottom of the speaker that replaces the previous generations' rubber bumpers for increased security on a stand or table.

The RP-600M II is the top bookshelf model in the Reference Premiere II series and is a modestly sized bookshelf speaker in the standard finishes.

If you start searching, you’ll find this speaker's price range is extremely popular. You’ll find enough different models from brands all over the world to make your head spin. What is really interesting about the RP-600M II is not the fact that it has that classic Klipsch sound, but that it is appealing to audiophiles who might have snubbed their nose at some of the Klipsch expressions like “rattle the windows and wake the neighbors.”

Reference Premiere II Center Channels

With the center channel handling the dialogue and center channel effects (think explosions) in a movie scene, it is one of the most critical speakers in a home theater system. The RP-II series includes three centers to choose from — the RP-504C II, RP-500C II, and the RP-404C II.

Reference Premiere II Surrounds

There are two great surround sound speaker options available in the Reference Premiere II line, both available with multiple positioning options. 

The Klipsch RP-502S II Surround Speakers can be utilized as an on-wall elevation or surround speaker using its easy-to-use keyhole mounting system, delivering the perfect angle for enhanced sound effects.

The RP-500SA II can be used as an up-firing immersive speaker for Dolby Atmos, a height speaker, or a rear surround speaker — all with the flip of a switch — allowing sound to come alive from all directions, including overhead. Add to any monitor or tower speaker or use as surround speakers for a hemisphere of rich, detailed sound. They feature a switchable crossover that changes between Dolby Atmos and Dolby Surround modes for optimized performance in any configuration.

Overall Recommendation

The Reference Premiere line incorporates the newly-designed Tractrix horn technology, Linear Travel Suspension titanium tweeter, and Klipsch’s own copper Cerametallic woofers into this premium series. Our stance is that the Reference Premiere line offers substantial sound quality for any application! Whether you’re looking to beef up that surround sound system by integrating a set of RP-8060FA’s with built-in Dolby Atmos height modules, or the best selling RP-600M II for the office or living space, Klipsch’s Reference Premiere line can satisfy your cravings for big, dynamic and LIVE audio experience! This versatile line can serve many roles and no matter what they’re doing, the detailed sound is guaranteed to be delivered!