But, the Fives aren’t perfect: Compared to other high-end speakers I’ve tried in the last year—some of which made me fear my Sheetrock would splinter—the Fives don’t generate as powerful a sound. The high notes at the end of the song “Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti” by Rosalía sounded a bit thin as well; when I played the same song on the Focal Mu-so Hekla speaker, the sound seemed to split air molecules.
I wasn’t disappointed with the sound quality for music, but the comparisons were helpful nonetheless. For the price and size, I still loved The Fives II for music.
It Won’t Shake Your Home Theater, but It’s Strong for the Price
For movies and shows, the new HDMI 2.1 eARC port more than justifies the higher price tag. (The original the Fives did not support Atmos and cost $800 a pair.)
In the movie War Machine on Netflix, I noticed the explosions didn’t exactly shake the room, but they did sound distinct enough. Even with two-channel audio, the Dolby Atmos support made battle scenes in the movie Unbroken on Netflix sound convincing, especially when a plane whooshed from left to right. I streamed the original Alien movie using the HBO Max app on my phone and, since that film originally used two-channel audio and not surround, I noticed the dialog was clear and perfectly centered between the two speakers.
During the movie Greenland 2: Migration on YouTube TV, a dinner scene in France had background music that sounded like it was coming from another room, improving the immersion. One minor glitch was that, during the movie We Bury The Dead on the Fandango at Home app, background dialog that likely plays on side or rear speakers in a surround-sound setup was a bit hard to hear.
For video game testing, I connected to a TCL NXTVISION art television. The game Pragmata has some early scenes where you shoot robots, and the lasers sounded convincing enough. During an early section of the game Resident Evil Requiem, the eerie atmospheric sounds didn’t sound as convincing as a full surround sound setup would. My main takeaway is that games place different sounds around the room, and the Fives II were not as convincing at upfiring those sounds using multiple audio drivers as the Focal Mu-so Hekla soundbar .
In the end, comparing these speakers to a soundbar for movie theater sound, I’d say Klipsch’s the Fives II have a ways to go. But for music playback, you can’t go wrong at this price point. The speakers fit nicely on a bookshelf, they don’t overwhelm the room, and music playback was organic, pristine, and loud. I ended up liking The Fives II for music more than recent bookshelf speakers from companies like Sony, KEF, and Edifier.
Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that’s too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.
