Klipsch G-17 Air Soundbar Speaker High Gloss (Black)

This purchase was one of the very best I made this year. After several failed attempts at finding a good bluetooth/wireless speaker that fit my needs, had great sound, good design, and flexible functionality. While the G-17 is by no means perfect (more below), I gave it 5 stars because, compared to everything else I tried, it was as close as I could get!1.) The Sound First things first, it doesn't matter what the features are or how pretty the thing is if the sound isn't there for you. This is the classic Klipsch sound. While I am by no means an audiophile, the overall sound quality of Klipsch speakers has always been favorable to my ear when compared with its competitors. The three I've been able to extensively compare with are Polk and Bose, and the newer Sonos Systems by Pure. Klipsch has a great low end, something I found lacking in my last speaker, the Bose SoundDock II. I found the SoundDock II to be heavily focused on the upper registers, which could at just the right moment, say a breakout horn line at the peak of a song, elevate the material it was reproducing. At other times, however, it would become distracting, especially when it seemed it was taking away from the already lackluster low end, an area I have found typically lacking in most Bose products. Search the web and you will find legions of Bose detractors, and I want to clearly state that I am not one of them (more on that below). However, to my ears, I just have to give the sound nod to Klipsch, which handles the whole spectrum with fidelity and ease, bringing forth the music as i believe it was intended to sound, consistently, and beautifully.2.) Design To me, Klipsch takes the cake hands down here. This speaker is beautiful, with or without the included grill. The package comes with white gloves, an inclusion that may or may have been somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but when opening this package, you clearly get the idea that you have purchased something high end. While this may not be important to you, to me, someone who thrifts his way around eBay and often settles for second hand goods, doing my best to convince myself that presentation is not important, and looks can't determine quality, it is nice to receive a package without the corners cut and a product that was designed with both functionality and beauty in mind. The speaker comes with a quality stand, and can also be wall mounted. One thing I haven't been able to find out is if there is still any place to buy "custom grilles" with your own photos, a unique feature offered by Klipsch when the speaker first came out. I think this option has likely been terminated, but would love to hear if it hasn't! Also of note, this speaker is a High Gloss Black and while beautiful, is a dust and fingerprint magnet, so get yourself a good microfiber or electronic cleaning cloth and keep it close!3.) Wireless Functionality This is the make or break it point for many shoppers I believe, and I know it was for me. For me, I had a couple priorities when shopping for a speaker. One was that the speaker be wireless, not just Bluetooth. While Bluetooth is obviously the easiest, and most widely utilized connection method, I wanted the enhanced sound quality without the loss of fidelity that Bluetooth inevitably causes, as well as the control over a much larger range that connecting via a WiFi network provides. Further, I am heavily invested in the Apple Ecosystem, so for me, Airplay was a huge plus. There are still, I believe, at the time of this writing, few affordable quality Airplay speakers. Airplay, Apple's proprietary wireless connection method, has worked great for me. Now here is where a few notes are necessary, as the few negative reviews I have seen around seem to center around issues of connectivity. a.) FirmwareGet the latest firmware. Doing so, while not the most intuitive of processes, seems to fix most issues. It also adds support for many of the G-17's hidden features. It supposedly supports DLNA for those with PC's or HDTV's with this technology, and now supports WiFi direct, a lossless connection solution that allows the G-17 to create it's own private wireless environment, which would be great somewhere there isn't already a wireless connection readily available, and also helps to ease set up woes. I have not tried either, and cannot vouch for there usability, but I am happy to know I have the option should I decide to leave the Apple Ecosystem. One gripe a buyer might have here is the lack of documentation or support for any method that is not Airplay, or any features added since its release. At this time, I would say, it seems like you are very much on your own for most other methods. The functionality is there, but I was hard pressed to find clear instructions on any of it. A great resource here is the Klipsch support forum, where it seems there are still members of the Kilpsch support community actively answering queries and giving support. Don't be discouraged as I was when you can't find the G-17 on the website, it appears to have been discontinued recently, at least from direct sale by Klipsch, but is still very much supported from what I can tell on the forums. The fact that the firmware update added so much functionality at all clearly shows the professionalism of the company and their ability to stand behind their products, as it does not appear that they did so to use for marketing, but simply at the behest of customer requests, a huge + in my book. b.) Networking Notes Here, as with any wireless speaker, is where many people get frustrated. Often coming in with little networking know how, maybe from a Bluetooth setup, it can be mystifying if a steady connection is not made right away, or it does not seem to work out of box. In my experience, even with the old firmware it shipped with, the connection was almost perfect out of box. The few problems I did have were either solved by the Firmware upgrade, a 10 minute process, or were not really Klipsch's fault to begin with. Here is where it can get complicated.First let me say, that by comparison, the Klipsch wireless setup was light years ahead of the struggle I had trying to get a steady reliable connection to the newer Sonos speakers offered by Pure. Those speakers, I believe, had some firmware work that needed to be done, as nothing I tried would guarantee a continuous steady connection, and even when a connection was made, it took forever to link and would be forgotten the second the music stopped. Bare in mind, those speakers were not airplay, but simply wireless, and required that all music be played through the Sonos app or via a web interface on a laptop, a huge misstep in my opinion, although I believe that this was being addressed by Pure in a much needed firmware push coming around Christmas. For me, I wasn't willing to wait 2 months for a usable speaker.Now for problems with the G 17. One slightly frustrating issue was that my Macbook Pro, with the latest 10.9 Mavericks OS, seemed at times unable to connect to the speaker. A simple "option" click on the speaker icon in the top right corner would show it as an external output option, but clicking it would do nothing. Note, that to play through iTunes this was not necessary, as I could still hit the Airplay button; but in order to use the speaker as a complete sound output, for say streaming a movie or using Spotify, I was having issues. Turns out the problem came from some glitch with the Maverick OS and how it handled returning from "sleep" after a period of non use. A simple, but annoying fix has been to go to the application Activity Monitor in Utilities when this happens. Find the "coreaudiod" daemon (a non user started process of the core operating system) and simply force quit it. This just restarts it, giving it the "kick" it needs to both see and connect to the G 17. If you are more of a power user on Macs and are experiencing this problem, I have seen some useful scripts for "Automator" and terminal commands that seem to simplify this process, but I have not tired them and therefore cannot vouch for their use. I also don't know how widespread it is, or if any correlating problems exist for other devices. I have had no problems whatsoever with my iPhone 5 running the latest iOS, even if the Klipsch's synopsis does not explicitly state that it is supported. Another thing that may be an issue for you is there seems to be a slight delay in responsiveness. Pushing the volume up or down buttons on my Macbook Pro results in about a 1 to 2 second delay, noticeable by the audible response to the button push. I believe this is common with Airplay products of all kinds, correct me if I'm wrong. For me this has only been noticeable in said scenario. The Apple TV compensates for this automatically, and works perfectly, no mismatched video and sound, and I can even pause and play Netflix, etc from the Klipsch remote, and I don't believe I have noticed any mismatched video and sound using any other programs or hardware. As for other network problems, I will just say that if you are experiencing drop outs every couple seconds or other issues, don't be quick to place the blame. Wireless networking is complex, much more so than Bluetooth, as I have found out the hard way before. Troubleshooting everything from your ISP to the physical cable running into your house, to your router/modem setup, computer hardware/setup, G 17 firmware, the relation of the G 17 to the other pieces of your network, the Network channel you reside on and how crowded it is in your neighborhood, whether you connect via a personal or corporate VPN, your firewall settings, and any networking issues the device you are trying to connect may be experiencing, is a daunting task. It can be complicated and intimidating for someone who runs into trouble, and often genuinely beyond the ability of any singular customer service rep from any one place to resolve, although they will likely try! I have found the most help is available in forums such as the Klipsch forum, SmallNetworkBuilders forum, and for my personal setup, the Apple and MacRumors forums. What I found to be an issue for me, in the past, was after upgrading to Mavericks OS on a Macbook Pro, I was getting intermittent dropouts every 5 seconds or so, not just on G 17, but I came to find out in general my connection was "dropping packets" every couple seconds, or in other words, losing data. This has turned out to be an Operating System problem, not one that could have been solved by Klipsch, my ISP, or the manufacturer of either my Modem or Router. To properly stream music from my computer via wireless through Airplay or any other method, I had to fix the OS. Others have reported problems with various Airport products, so check and make sure that there aren't compatibility issues, and even if you see one, keep looking, as most that I saw while doing my own research seemed to have been resolved.If this sounds scary, don't worry, you are unlikely to face any serious problems with the setup and once its all figured out, at least for me, it is has been pretty flawless, working across the board to play music from my laptop, phone, serve as a speaker for my apple tv, which in turn serves as another vector for my iTunes server, etc etc. I am pretty much all linked up, with almost too MANY options to get whatever I want going through the G 17! 3.) Settings One other factor that may be of consideration, is that the G 17 has no native equalizer. Changing the audio settings is to be done with whatever you are using as an input device, such as your native sound settings on your computer, phone, etc. If you are lacking these settings in your input device, you won't have the option to change them. Honestly, I don't think I've really changed mine at all on any devices.4.) Customer Service I have not yet dealt with customer service. I can only speak of one of its competitors, and as I said earlier I am no Bose hater, and was amazed by there above and beyond customer service after an incident I had with my SoundDock II, so Klipsch has some pretty big shoes to fill! I initially felt a little put off after I checked there site for some help and found no mention of the G 17 after some clicking around, and realized that it had likely been discontinued. However it seems it is still well supported, and I believe Klipsch is also known for backing up there products in a big way. The continued firmware updates also showed me that my purchase wasn't dated before I even received it. Time will tell, but I don't see this area being a problem!Hope this helped clear up some questions some of you might have had, without having to do as much research as I did. I for one am very happy with my purchase, and would recommend this speaker strongly to anyone, especially at the prices that are being offered, which is the one thing I didn't touch on much in my review, as I believe it speaks for itself!

I purchased this unit mainly for the airplay feature, but the performance is to miserable for me to used use.The setup is slick with an iPhone app or self-served web page from the unit.The indusial design is modern and attractive, and sound quality is good and up to par with what we come to expect with traditional Klipsch products.The fly in the ointment is the Air Play feature is unusable.I have tried to use the speaker with an iPhone 4s and a iPad first gen.The connection would repeatedly drop out after a few minutes, and fall off the apple products list of output devices.After a few days of trying different set ups, network setting, and different access points I have given up.I not sure if there problem with the Apple software or the Klipsch software, but I am anxiously waiting for an updateNote: I have read online the unit will not work with a 802.11 N only access point.

This thing has had its moments, but it's been a disappointment all in all. The sound isn't bad...when it isn't losing the signal. However, the problem is that it loses the signal frequently (as in, just about every time that I use it). Of course, when you're in the middle of a great song, and enjoying it, and then the sound disappears for quite a bit (minutes sometimes), it's pretty freaking annoying. I'm listening through a MacBook Pro for what it's worth.Also watching movies can be annoying, too, as there's always a lag between the audio and the scene. I mean, even on its best days, it's never perfectly synched - there's a lag of a few seconds. You get used to it, but it's not optimal. The bigger problem is obviously having the dead air when you're trying to unwind and enjoy some music. Again, the lag is a lesser issue, but annoying all the same.Finally (and I took pictures), the box was delivered to me battered and beaten. I don't think that this is the reason why it's not working, because it seemed protected, but the box was clearly mistreated (and probably not only in transit), and for a new, high-end product, this is not what you want to see. I'm considering exchange/refund options because this just isn't doing it for me. I want my music to be available at all times, and not be at the mercy of my G-17.But yeah, a final disclaimer - the sound is pretty good, and it fills the room, when it works. For a small device, there's indeed a depth of sound. But when you're listening to a 3-4 minute song, and you lose half of it, it's just not worth it. Frustrating.(And I'm following their guidelines of use. I can put the computer right next to the device, and it still doesn't work sometimes.)

I tried to arrive at my rating by being relative to what I would expect given this thing's size and cost (around 200 bucks at this time, cost me 180 from Amazon).Pros:-- Amazing sound from such a compact box, the bass is especially impressive.-- Sounds best when turned up to medium to high volume.-- Bass is serious (you will feel it in your gut) and tight. How they got this kind of bass in this size unit, with only small drivers, I have no idea. I have a 20 year old Boston Acoustics satellite/subwoofer system, which was fairly high end at the time. The floor-sitting sub alone is probably about 4 times the spacial volume of the entire Klipsch G-17, yet produces an equivalent amount and quality of bass. I might even rate it a little ahead. You will swear there’s a subwoofer attached. Truly astounding engineering.-- Highs are extremely clean and sparkling without being harsh or sibilant.-- Mids are probably the weakest part of this speaker, yet I still rate them as good, vocals are clean and will stand forward from the rest of the mix, which is often not the case with small speakers.-- Small size and weight. Would have been nice if there was a handle to make it more portable, but it is easily movable (as long as you’re careful about fingerprints). Using Airplay means you of course only need to worry about power.— Fairly easy setup, at least with Mac/iOS-based system, using the Klipsch iPhone app. I understand it is more complicated if you need to set up from a non-Mac system. However, you generally only need to do the setup once unless you change your network gear or configuration.— High quality sounds transmission (this is more due to Airplay rather than the Klipsch, but it’s very clean and there is absolutely no buzzing/humming when the speaker is on but idle.— Power supply is separate from the unit and has a separate cord to the plug. This means no big ugly “wall wart” blocking your power outlets, and if the power supply should happen to die, you could probably get it replaced without replacing the whole unit. But be aware there will be a power block between the speaker and the wall outlet (maybe about the size of 2 decks of cards).— Nice design, elegant looking in almost any setting, and not imposing. You can put it almost anywhere, although you probably want to keep it somewhat close to a wall or corner so the bass doesn’t fall off. Good build quality. I like the look of it “bare”, but it comes with a nice cloth grille that covers all the drivers if you like that.— Gets plenty loud, easily fills a small room (12’x12’) and I would say would even be adequate for a medium sized room up to maybe 20’x20’— Sounds decent off-axis from the front, up to about 45 degrees, where the high end starts to get a bit muffled. That said, you’ll want to place it pointing towards the general listening direction.— Generally good Airplay wireless connection. I have used it with an iPhone 4S, iPad 3rd generation, iPad Air, MacBook Air, and iMac. The 4S probably has the most issues (not surprising as it has the smallest antennas), but I would still describe those as “rare”.— From a Mac, using iTunes, you can send signal to multiple G-17s simultaneously if you have them. I think up to 4 although I’m not sure.— Will keep audio in perfect sync when watching Netflix from an iPad. This was something I was worried about not working, having some annoying delay or getting out of sync over time, but to my surprise, it works great. I have not tested this playing from a web browser, but I assume it would also work there.— Decent connectivity options with Airplay using your network, Direct WiFi (which I haven’t tested), the old 1/8” stereo plug, or USB (Which will also charge your device).— Can be used on the provided stand, off the stand, or wall mounted.— Doesn’t get hot when used.Cons:— Very soft white noise when speaker is on but idle, but it is not objectionable and not noticeable outside of about 1 foot away in a quiet room. Would not be a problem unless perhaps you’re in a small recording studio.— Spurious connection issues. Sometimes you need to select this speaker a couple times from the Airplay selector on your computer/device before it sticks. Rarely, you will get the sound cutting out which takes a few seconds to reconnect and rebuffer. Microwave ovens that are close to either the Klipsch or your Wifi base station will cause a lot of interference, sometimes completely blocking the signal while they are on. This really depends on your environment and you might be able to reduce it by playing with alternate Wifi channels on your base station. This is something you need to test for a while to see how it works in your particular environment (day/night, weekdays/weekends, when different possible interference sources are operating, etc.). Of anything negative about this box, this is probably the most serious one. If you have really bad constant interference, it may be of little use wirelessly.— Sometimes the G-17 will not let a new device send audio until you first remove the connection from the previous device. For example, if you use a laptop, then want to switch to playing from a phone, sometimes it will tell you it is “in use” (even though nothing is playing) and it won’t let you use it until you clear front he old device first.— Requires the use of older 802.11G network protocol. If you have an all 802.11N network, as I did, you will have to downgrade your whole network to G mode, or to some mixed mode that includes G, such as B/G/N. Not a deal-killer for me, but a bummer.— Very little stereo separation, not really surprising considering how small it is. You get some if you’re listening fairly close (inside 6 feet) but that’s probably not normal.— Less impressive with the volume turned down low, the sound gets flat. This is fairly typical and you can correct for it with EQ for that situation. But this speaker shines at medium to loud volumes.— I generally keep it on all the time, but if you want to turn it on and off, there’s a fairly lengthy startup time (about 25 seconds) before you can use it for Airplay.— Fingerprint and dust magnet.— Vertical angle of speaker not adjustable when attached to stand, it looks like it’s fixed at about 10-15 degrees up (I’m just guessing).— I would say reasonably priced for what it gives you but it’s not cheap. Certainly there are many other, less expensive options (Bluetooth and/or Airplay) in this range. But most of them won’t give you this quality of sound either. If you don’t care about sound quality that much, there are better options.— If playing movies from iTunes, you can not send the audio only to the Klipsch, the option is gone. This is really weird since iTunes sends music, and in Safari or other apps, you can send audio to the Klipsch while video plays. I have to think this is some kind of bizarre and annoying contractual thing between Apple and the movie studios.— The remote is cheap, but I don’t know why you’d use it. Most people opting for this speaker will be playing through some other device, just adjust the volume from there. I have not even touched either the onboard volume buttons, or the remote. There's also no indicator lights on either the remote or the speaker so you can't tell if your button presses are working, and you can't tell visually what input you're switched onto.— No optical audio input.To summarize, the Klipsch G-17 is a high end speaker in a compact package. It’s probably not going to replace a full speaker system with dedicated amplifier/receiver, unless you are really limited for space. But it’s very noticeably higher quality sound than you will get from most bargain Bluetooth or Airplay speakers, or any built in tv speakers. It’s a compromise, but one that is brilliantly engineered. If I saw this on sale, I would probably pick up another one to place in a different room.

Pros: Excellent audio engineering and fine-looking aesthetics, many inputs.Cons: Airplay mostly but not always stable, re-booting helps. Like most "tabletop" speakers, can't maintain a high degree of clarity when the music becomes dense (e.g. full orchestra crescendo). Nonetheless, the best example of a "tabletop" system I have heard.Be Advised: Sensitive to speaker placement, no Bluetooth (unless you add an adapter from a 3rd party).I'm proud to own this unit from Klipsch. "G-17" means its 17 inches wide, as other "G-" speakers by Klipsch have different width designations (and most are "passive" needing external amplification and inputs, e.g. a receiver). This is its reason-for-being (place on tabletop or mount on wall) and its limitation: when Left and Right channels are this close to one another, the sound can become congested compared to separated speakers of equal quality.Placement: On its stand, the G-17 seems to tilt its sonic sweet spot just a touch upward, as if expecting you to place it on a coffee table while you lounge on the couch. Indeed it will sound great that way. In contrast, its form is not really optimal for placing in front of your computer monitor (too tall) nor placed above your monitor on its stand (because of the upward tilt). So for "near field" listening, you'd want to use the wall mounting holes in such a way that it tilts down at your ears (if you're fussy like me). On my tabletop in a room corner, the sound was better balanced with the G-17 forward on the table, not back against the wall where the bass boom tended to overwhelm the mid-range (but "bass heads" might disagree). Point is, a few inches made a difference so experiment if you can. Nonetheless, If your parents danced in the kitchen to a tabletop radio atop the refrigerator, as mine did, they'd be in heaven with the sound of this Klipsch.SOUND: Satisfying bass, especially for the size; "Klipsch sound" for the treble. With a smaller speaker system, the first point of order is how it handles bass, since it is the bigger challenge sonically. I turned to McCartney's electric bass on "Come Together" and then Ray Brown's acoustic bass on a Telarc recording. Both very satisfying although the sheer size of the unit is not going to allow it to penetrate your rib cage the way a subwoofer can (and there's no "output" to add a subwoofer). But the sideways-pointing port provides authority in the bass without making male vocals sound "chesty" and muddy (unless your placement is sub-optimal). This is a major achievement. As for treble, Klipsch has long had their "horn tweeter" approach. Off-axis, it sounds like most tweeters, but in the sweet spot area, there's a vigorous crispness to the treble: you're not going to lose the harp in the orchestral mix; brass will be hot; the hi hat cymbal will sizzle. Now, I actually do NOT prefer this sound for full time listening or "critical" listening (I'll go for the "folded" Heil tweeters from Adam Audio, Emotiva or Martin-Logan instead) but... when its time to dance and people are chattering as they should when the joint's jumping, the Klipsch sizzle is welcome and fun. And when you want quiet background music, it sustains a sense of clarity at low volume. So the Klipsch sound signature strikes me as just right for a tabletop system.INPUTS: the other "just right" aspect of this tabletop is the variety of inputs: the 3.5 mm ("mini jack" like on a smartphone headphone jack) allows one to "pipe in" just about anything with the proper cable (not included but easily found). Plus, the USB-A input worked well and with a beautiful sound from my iPhone 5s. Then there's the Airplay: when working, the sound is equally wonderful and it is what I'm using most. Being wi-fi based, no device's Airplay connection will work flawlessly. But my unit underperforms somewhat compared to piping sound via my Apple Airport Express. If the Express "drops out" once an hour, the Klipsch drops out three times an hour. Not a deal killer but when the timing of the drop-put is bad it can "crash" one's mood. Also, connection reliability was far worse when I first enabled it; re-enabling it with the setup app on my iPad seemed to get it to "take" far more effectively. I may ultimately choose to run a wire from my Express to the Klipsch 3.5 mm input jack, we'll see. BTW, for fun I attached a 3rd party Bluetooth receiver, admittedly a cheap one, to the input just to see. The Airplay sound was undeniably, hugely superior. And Bluetooth will drop out, too.Value: When new, this unit was gong for over five hundred USD. I acquired mine for far less, so the Value is, for me, very high. Hope this review was helpful o you.