Imagine that you’re tailgating at a football game and you want to tell your buddy across the parking lot that the brewskies aren’t getting any colder. Instinctively, you hold your cupped hands up to our mouth to project your voice out and forward, kind of like a megaphone. That’s similar to how a horn speaker works. They’ve been around since the dawn of audio, but back then amplifiers had little power so the speaker used a horn to help produce a realistic volume level. Now there is no shortage of amplifier power, but ultra dynamic movie soundtracks are pushing the actual drivers themselves to the limits of what they can do without a meltdown. While it’s not too tricky to make a woofer that can handle gobs of power, creating a tweeter with super high power handling isn’t so easy. Using a horn helps us get the high output required without having to push the driver so hard.

Like a ribbon tweeter, the horn tweeter in Klipsch’s Synergy Series helps project sound toward the listeners, and not toward room boundaries that can muddy the sound. The difference is that the Klipsch speakers can play loud and dynamic.

Klipsch and horn speakers are practically synonymous, and the Synergy SLX puts a horn-loaded tweeter between a pair of conventional woofers in a tall, slim enclosure that you can wall mount next to a flat-panel screen. While it might seem that a pair of 4.5-inch woofers would be too puny to keep up, the SLX is designed to pass the deep bass duties over to a subwoofer. I paired it up with Klipsch’s self-powered Synergy Sub-10, resulting in a package that could handle just about anything you could throw at it.

Included in the box is a clever snap-in wall-mounting bracket that allows you to rotate the speaker to achieve the best image focus. The speaker can also be turned on its side for center channel duties, and an optional floor stand provides more positioning options. The speaker itself looks a bit busy to my eye when naked, so the slip-on charcoal colored grille cover was a welcome addition. While the plastic front baffle where the drivers are mounted seems to be pretty thick and solid, the SLX’s rounded back makes a distinctively hollow sound when you give it a knock. This potentially resonant nature could be a real problem in a full-range speaker, but in the limited-bass SLX, it becomes less of an issue.

The Synergy SLX speakers use a horn-loaded tweeter to help reproduce realistic volume levels. The horn creates an effect similar to cupping your hands around your mouth to speak to someone that might not otherwise hear you. The speakers can be wall-mounted or can sit on these really groovy stands.

Getting a good blend between the SLX and the SUB-10 proved to be quite tricky in my room, and I ended up using a 100 Hz crossover for the most seamless transition. Once everything was tuned in I found the SLXs to sound dynamic and exciting, and the impressively low distortion encouraged me to crank it up louder than I would normally listen. The horn tweeter projects the sound forward into the room in way that somewhat lessens room reflections, making the sound particularly clear and coherent. Nitpicky audiophiles might criticize the SLX’s slightly lean response and say that the tweeter is just a bit peaky, but this would miss the essence of the speaker’s considerable strengths.

Overall, the SLXs do a terrific job in their primary role as on-wall speakers for video or home theater use, and are highly recommended.

RATING: ELEVATED
Description: Klipsch Synergy SLX LCR speaker; Synergy Sub-10 subwoofer
High Points: Clear dynamic sound; easy to drive; clever mounting arrangement
Low Points: Plastic construction; tricky to blend with sub; a bit lean and peaky sounding
Contact: Klipsch USA, 800.554.7724, www.klipsch.com
Price: Synergy SLX, $350 each; Synergy SUB-10, $400