Klipsch Reference R-26FA Floorstanding Speaker, Black, Pair

Many years ago, I had large Infinity front speakers, but they eventually failed and since then my replacement speakers have always been small due to the small places I lived in. I eventually moved into a small house, but with a big open living room. For reasons that escape me, I never upgraded my speakers. The system sounded fine, but after my front speakers blew, I replaced them with Klipsch R-41M bookshelf speakers. Quite an improvement, and made me a Klipsch fan. Then my 20-year-old HK receiver died and I replaced it with a Yamaha 7850. That brought the sound quality that much higher. (The HK was great but 20 years of technology really makes a difference.) With those two upgrades, it made me think: I have the room now so why not get full size speakers up front? I can use the 41Ms to replace the aging rear speakers and get floor standing up front. Also, this new receiver was Dolby ATMOS compatible, and wanted to utilize it as I love the home theater experience. I searched for Klipsch (I like to match speaker brands for esthetic and sound quality reasons) floor standing speakers and quickly found these Klipsch R-26FA on Amazon. I was unaware you could get these with built in ATMOS so that was a nice surprise. The R-26FA are the same as the R-26Fs but with the addition of the ATMOS top mounted speakers, also called Front Presence. They are angled so to bounce sound off the ceiling and provide ambient sound all over the listening area. (ATMOS= Atmosphere) You can also buy the ATMOS speakers separately, if you wish to add them to an existing system. The 2 speakers are about 100 lbs. so getting them on Prime was nice as I am sure shipping would be pricey. Set up is easy for one person, but with two it would be easier due to the weight. There are 3 binding post pairs for hook up. 1 for the ATMOS speaker and 2 more for the standard front firing speakers (One tweeter and two woofers). The lower 2 are bridged so you can hook them up to the receiver the same as a ‘normal’ front speaker. The two binding posts are there so you can bi-amp them (Power with 2 amps) if desired. You can also bi-wire them (Wire both post sets to the same terminals on the receiver), but I don’t see much use in that. I am currently using the included bridge and it sounds fine to me. Some have said to remove the bridge and use wires to bridge them, but I have yet to test that. Speaker covers are included and give the speaker a nice stealthy look. If you leave them off, the gold woofers and tweeter with signature Klipsch horn look great. You can decide which look is better. Once hooked up, I had to do some balancing to get the sound the way I wanted it, but in the end it sounds amazing. Klipsch smartly put the tweeters on top so they are ear level when sitting down. The woofers provide plenty of bass, but my subwoofer handles that nicely with or without help. The ATMOS speakers work as well, but it is not something that you will always notice. As I have a vaulted ceiling, I bumped the ATMOS sound up a bit to increase the affect. They produce sound most of the time, mainly channeling echo and background noise. Some games and movies are specifically made for ATMOS and do sound amazing. Its with those sources that you will hear sounds go directly to the top speakers, like a helicopter flying ‘over’ your living room. I use my XBOX as my main source and it works fine, but I did have to install a Dolby app to utilize ATMOS. Over all I am VERY happy with the new speakers and its so nice to have full sound in my living room again. I use my system a lot more now, and not just for movies. I love listening to music while I clean or study. Though there is a newer version of this speaker available from Klipsch, the R-26FAs were exactly what I needed and significantly lower in price than the current model. I highly recommend these for purchase.

These things are impressive! So, I'm not an audiophile, so maybe I'm just easily impressed. I'm not going through the trouble of ceiling speakers for Atmos, as the home I'm in is nooot my forever home, but the price was great and wanted to see how the Atmos stuff works. Paired with a Denon AVR S-760H. I set aside money from my tax return to upgrade from a 10+ year old Panasonic HTIB. Now I know the dimensions and weight are very well detailed in the speaker description, but when the were delivered, I felt like they were massive (in a great way). The old HTIB has plasticy, thin, light, "towers". And I've seen similar sized speakers by Klipsch at big box electronic stores. I dunno, seeing them in my house though, I just kept telling my son, "These are absolute UNITS!" LOL. Sturdy. Solid. Despite the men who wear brown who handled the delivery and the boxes a bit dinged, they were in perfect shape. Klipsch packaged them securely. They sound great. I thought the Monoprice 5.1.2 speaker system I initially bought, was a huge improvement over the old Pannys. These Klipsches were levels above that. Queued up some Rush to play (RIP Neil Peart) and heard things I never heard before. Found some Atmos encoded nature stuff on Netflix. While the built in Atmos top firing speakers will be poo-pooed by die hards, they make a difference. Sitting with son and daughter on the couch, a bird very clearly flew noticably over our heads from front left speaker to right rear. We looked at each other, "Did you hear that? It was above us." Very cool, very cool. Very nice, very nice. (Bonus points if ya get the Letterkenny reference). Yes, these are a generation behind the current Klipsch Atmos enabled offerings, but yeah, I didn't wanna spend that money, especially when I doubt I'd notice a difference. Adorama seems to be the only ones left with these in stock. I'd say they are a great deal. I suspect when they are gone, they'll be gone for good. Easy five stars for me for quality of build, quality of sound, and price. I'm glad my AVR doesn't support 5.1.4, or I'd go totally obnoxious and buy a set for the rears. For me, this is a can't miss buy if you are upgrading to a "real" audio system for the first time and don't wanna spend tons of money. Hope this review helps with your new speaker purchase decision making. Take care. :)

I've been a vintage guy for many years but the last few months I've noticed that my 70's era equipment just isn't able to handle the level of usage I expect from my system. So I've leapt into modern equipment. These are replacements for a set of Allisons (not able to handle the use and blew a recently refoamed speaker), Cerwin Vegas (started sounding tinny a few weeks into use) and some Advent book shelfs (nice sound but meant for a much lower powered system). When I ordered these I really didnt catch that whole Atmos feature. I'm not doing home theater with this as I drive them with a (also modern) Yamaha AS701SL integrated 2.1 amp. When I first got them I hooked up just the top firing speakers. Sounded great. Shortly afterwards my 1978 Onkyo TX 4500 MKII receiver dropped a channel (hence the new amp). While I was waiting for the new amp to arrive I dug a little deeper into these speakers. I was going to bi-wire it but then realized I only had 2 channels to work with. When the new amp arrived i wired the A channel to the front firing channel and the B to the Atmos top firing channel....WOW! what a difference. Where I had been utilizing the Advent bookshelf speakers to get a little height in my sound these speakers provided it all in one package. And the sound is absolutely awesome. Klipsch has an excellent reputation for a reason. This is the first pair I've ever had and it was worth the wait. I have a large open floor plan and this setup really fills the space with music. The only drawback was the (IMO) mediocre bass response. So I got a Klipsch K100SW to add in and now the music can be felt as well as heard. I have a Panasonic DB-UB820 blu-ray with analog sound output connected and the CD sound is very clean and precise. When I watch a concert video the sound which fills the room via the reflective top firing channel makes it seem almost like being there. This clarity carries over to my vintage tuner, turntable and the modern Echo Link I use for streaming. I can't really say enough good about this speaker. Unfortunately its now discontinued, Klipsch has a newer similar model so I expect the sound to be just as good as these. These are good solid pieces of equipment weighing in at around 46 lbs each. TIP: open the box at the bottom and turn it over, these are too heavy to lift the speaker, just slide the box off. They look as awesome as they sound with a narrow face, the profile is a bit deeper in order to accommodate the Atmos speakers in the top. The only real con I can say is the top firing Atmos speakers are only rated for 75 WPC while the front channel is 100WPC. But since I seldom if ever turn the amp beyond 5.5 volume (more than loud enough to piss off the neighbors if the windows are open) I don't think it will be much of an issue. In short, I highly recommend these speakers though Klipsch's reputation far exceeds my meager opinion. And if you watch, you may find them for a really good price like I did.

My first pair of “big boy” speakers and I am more than satisfied. Setting the speakers up was so easy and the sound quality is unmatched. Pairing them with my 12in Sub is a dream come true. I am currently running 100 watts per channel and they are performing great. I will get a stronger amp at some point but for the room size it’s more than enough. The speakers have a bit of weight to them but I think it gives them that quality feel. The design is so sleek, the highs are high, beautiful mid scoop and nice low bass paired with the sub. Don’t hesitate to to pull the trigger on these bad boys because they are worth every penny for the quality sound you get. End of discussion!

This is a an incredible set of speakers. They're definitely from the Klipsch stable with crisp/tight highs and well-balance mids/lows. They really don't need a subwoofer to back them, but having one simply rounds out the sound. The Dolby ATMOS drivers built into the top of the cabinet is a great design consolidation and they sound great ON THEIR OWN. If this speaker wasn't out of production, I'd suggest Klipsh upgrade the ATMOS drivers to handle 100W instead of 75W (just to match the power handling of the other drivers in the cabinet). One note for buyers of this speaker ... the main cabinet has an impedance of 8 ohms, as does the ATMOS package. If you're going to drive them both with the same amplifier channel in parallel, you need to be sure your amplifier is stable down to 4 ohms (unless you connect ATMOS in series with to the main cabinet which will show the amplifier 16 ohms). One last note ... I give Klipsch a 5-star rating just for how well they packaged these speakers. Yes, there's styrofoam to dispose of but the speakers are very well protected from shipping damage. The each box appears to be large enough to fit both speakers; there's plenty of buffer space. Good on you Klipsch!

I love the speakers. The sound is awesome!

I am very satisfied with this purchase. The speaker system sounds great after proper installation and Audyssey Multeq XT32 room calibration. Seemingly well made speakers in a kit for a great price! I bought this kit because the Klipsch R-26FA has a front-firing reflex port instead of rear reflex ports. I can place the back of these speakers right against the wall if I need more space. I've upgraded from Klipsch RSX-4/RCX-4 bookshelf type speakers with a venerable Klipsch RSW-15 sub. I've retired the RSX/RCX speakers and now use the RSW-15 with the R-12SW in this kit. The R-14M (in this kit as surround speakers) didn't get the best reviews but do well as surround speakers with Such easy midrange compensation turned on (turned off for the other speakers). I position them above head height and so the sound is off-axis (one very detailed review indicated that was how they sound best). They sound good to me. Note: Audyssey room calibration is necessary for great sound. I'm still learning to use Audyssey but I'm already enjoying these speakers. I use Audyssey set to "Flat" because I don't like the effect of the "Reference" setting. The high frequencies don't sound at all harsh in my room. The Dolby Atmos speakers are a plus that I'll explore - although I understand that Dolby Atmos really needs 4 speakers to work properly. I look fwd to many years of delightful sound from music & movies! Update Sept. 2024: The system still sounds great. I used the Audyssey phone app to: - remove the "midrange correction" for all speakers except the R-14Ms, which needed it, based on info online, and - select the reference curve with the later high frequency roll-off, just in case I need to use the "Reference" Audyssey setting instead of "Flat". I now use "Reference" on my my phono input. I'm really enjoying all music (stereo) & home theatre sound (surround)! Update Sept. 2025: The speakers seem to have burned in so I now use the "L&R Bypass" setting in Audyssey. After carefully fine tuning the subwoofer volume dials the speakers sound really good. Subwoofers upper freq. limits set to 80Hz. Centre, Surround, & Atmos speakers lower limits now set to 100 Hz, 90Hz, & 100 Hz respectively. Front speakers point straight ahead (0°), not toed in. This results in a wider sound stage and eliminates any tendency towards harshness from the tweeters. Update: Mar 2026: 2 years and sounding good! - Moved subwoofers another inch away from the front wall for clearer bass. - After moving the subs I had to re-run Audyssey Multeq XT32 room calibration, again using the Android app for finer control. - Back to using "Reference" & "-10 Ref. Level Offset" for "Dynamic EQ." speaker settings after Audyssey MultEq XT32 room calibration. - Speaker low freq. crossovers now set to 80 Hz front, 90 Hz centre, 80 Hz surrounds, 90 Hz front dolby. Home theatre sound locations are well defined & clean. Stereo sound is balanced & clean with a wide sound stage. Very happy. 🥳 - Spotify Lossless provides an audible improvement in sound detail thru these speakers via Spotify Connect in my receiver & initiated by the Spotify Android app w/ "Lossless" media quality on my phone. - Added low capacitance phono cables & an external and phono pre-amp (capacitance set to 100 pF) for improved phono sound quality so back to Audyssey "Reference" setting for my phono input. I occasionally tweak the subwoofer levels .5dB up or down. I think I've done the best I can with these speakers & receiver in my room environment. They sound great now!!!

Given all the immediate and future uncertainties of the economy, I was laboring over the ridiculous expenditure of a home theater sound system. I think I bought an OK Denon receiver (Denon AVR-S960H), though I am tempted to upgrade (it's only MORE money). >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 6/22/22 The amp cuts out from time to time. I can't tell if it is doing so from being worked too hard or if there is an issue with the electronics. Disabling the "eco" setting immediately improved the sound quality. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> After the first evening's listening, these speakers are probably among the best purchases I have made for audio. I love the way that they sound. The Atmos (bounce sound off the ceiling) speakers built into the cabinets adds an unmistakable dimensionality to the sound. At the risk of my wife murdering me, over the next two months I plan on purchasing Klipsch rear speakers (+ stands) and a center channel. The reason I went with this pair was directly due to reviews for these speakers in this section: thank you all who praised them and their value! The boxes arrived pretty beat up. There were a couple of holes/rips in the cardboard walls and one of the tops was ripped almost open. I don't think that was Adorama's (seller) fault as much as UPS handlers. The other thing was that there isn't an easy way to grab these heavy speakers to move them into place. I used a luggage trolley to get them from my truck to the living room. It was easiest to cut open both ends of the box, stand the speaker on its base (first folding the flaps back), and then lift the box slowly off the speaker. From there I used the plastic bag to rock the speaker off of its styrofoam protective base and onto the floor. Getting get each speaker close to the final position required a modified "bear hug" around the top: there are no handholds and you do not want to grab a speaker diaphragm when moving! Building out my home theater started when the pandemic set in with a 65" tv purchase. Finally putting the audio portion in was way overdue. Home theater systems are not going to help move my AMC stock where I would like it to go. But between laziness, mass shootings, monkeypox, and mutating viruses, I would rather trade profit for comfort and increased safety. I haven't done the exact math. But at approximately $50 for a night at the movies (gasoline, parking, tickets, snacks), sixty date nights with my wife and I will sort of hit the break-even point for my investment. Thanks, AMAZON for allowing actual customers to write reviews. And thank you everyone for sharing your experiences.