• On mySimon: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
July 29, 2008 5:00 AM PDT

Klipsch's Palladium series: The BMW of speakers

by Holly Jackson
  • Font size
  • Print
  • 5 comments

Have around $20,000 and nothing to spend it on? If you love music, why not drop it on the self-proclaimed "Dom Perignon of floor-standing speakers," also known as Klipsch's Palladium speaker series? Designed with help from BMW Group DesignworksUSA, the speakers are high-end in price and sound quality, according to the company.

Klipsch's Palladium P39-F speakers

Klipsch's high-end Palladium floor speakers, the P39-F, retail for $20,000.

(Credit: Klipsch)

The flagship system of the series is the P39-F, which has 9-inch woofers for bass. Like many Klipsch products, the Palladium speakers use "horn-loaded" technology for the high and mid-frequency drivers, instead of a conventional cone driver.The result, the company says, is an acoustic, less distorted sound in which music is heard the way an artist intended.

The rest of the Palladium series, which was expanded this month, includes three floor-standing speakers, a bookshelf speaker, center channel speaker, surround sound speaker, and a subwoofer.

In addition to sounding good, the speakers are also designed to be easy on the eyes. Each speaker in the series is finished with a wood-grain veneer that comes in three different stains to match furniture. With prices ranging from $4,000 to $20,000, the speakers may be perfect for those who want their home audio system to sound and look as good as a BMW drives.

Recent posts from Crave
Top 15 Black Friday tech deals
Charlie the robot joins rest home staff
Motorola's iDEN i410
Digital City Podcast 59: Black Friday shopping tips, and a PS3 MAG beta invite giveaway
'Good Time Ring' pays tribute to Polaroid
Top 5 tech turkeys
Technology that's totally impossible
Nintendo Black Friday: DSi with $20 in DSiware
Add a Comment (Log in or register) (5 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next
by sinerasis July 29, 2008 6:16 AM PDT
My crave bookmark gets deleted today because ads that get in the way of content. Goodbye cnet.
Reply to this comment
by bleech July 29, 2008 7:48 AM PDT
"Klipsch's Palladium series: The BMW of speakers"
That is not really a good praise for any good, actually.
IŽd rather have the "Mercury", "Buick", or whathever else BUT generic german design. Not for me, thank you very much.

Those two, specially, are trying too hard being so grey and aesthetically correct [to what the usual standards are]. They are like all those metal kitchens, or chairs, or coffee-tables, or...
Reply to this comment
by nerv2010 July 30, 2008 7:24 AM PDT
I'd rather have a pair of Sonus Faber Cremona M at $12.8k
Dom Perignon? More like Mumms. The Sonus Amati's would be even better, let along their flagship Stradivari. Then again the Stradivari at a staggering $45k might not be a "bargain".
Reply to this comment
by mentalretard July 30, 2008 11:00 AM PDT
I think they look great, and more importantly will likely sound amazing. Bleech can keep his rusted out American made automobile and Kirkland brand Costco speakers - Quiet Riot doesn't really require top notch speakers to listen to anyway.
Reply to this comment
by xZero2007x July 30, 2008 12:58 PM PDT
Thinking about speakers like these provoked this random thought: if there are speakers this high in quality and price, would it really be beneficial for what it's advertised for? I mean, I would be wondering if studios themselves use speakers and headphones of this caliber, and if most artists even think about their music being played by these other than in clubs or something. And I'd also imagine that the performance per dollar trend for these speakers would be more skewed towards the dollar amount (the plateaued end of the trend in other words)... But one can dream of speakers like these, right?
Reply to this comment
(5 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next

About Crave

The name says it all. Crave is our blog about gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff. If you would like to contact Crave with a tip or comment, please write to: crave@cnet.com

Add this feed to your online news reader

Crave topics

E-tailers linked to 'scam' blame customers

Priceline, Classmates.com, and Orbitz say customers should read the fine print before complaining about being charged to join loyalty programs they didn't want.

The 411 on early-termination fees

Verizon Wireless has doubled its early-termination fees for smartphones, but what does it mean for the rest of the industry?