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KLIPSCH Rebellion review: Full of surprises — Transcript · YTtoTranscript

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KLIPSCH Rebellion review: Full of surprises

Steve Guttenberg Audiophiliac · 2,782 words · 14 min read · EN

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Below is the complete, readable transcript of KLIPSCH Rebellion review: Full of surprises by Steve Guttenberg Audiophiliac on YouTube. Read the full text, copy any part you need, or generate a transcript for any video with our free tool.

I'm going to get right to it. The Clips Rebellion is the latest addition to their heritage line. The lineup that goes all the way back to 1946. That's 80 years ago when Paul Clips, the founder, brought out the Clips horn. Now, legend has it that Paul designed a standout speaker or as they used to call

them, bookshelf speaker in 1958. He called it the H8 and he made a few prototypes and even a few production small production run, but for whatever reason, and I honestly don't know why, it didn't stick. But now all of these years later in 2026, there is finally a heritage bookshelf stand mount speaker

and it's the rebellion. And I'm pretty excited about it. Now, in fact, let me tell you, the very first piece of music I played over the rebellion was Led Zeppelin 2. And I played it really loud just to let's say break it in the right way. And I had a big fat smile on my

face as I listened to this album. Since the rebellion is part of the Heritage line, and I'm going show you the complete lineup right now. Uh, all of these speakers, all of these Heritage speakers are designed and manufactured in Hope, Arkansas, same as it ever was. And in this review, I'm going to compare

the Rebellion against one of my favorite small clips, the RP600M, and also a new speaker from Bukart in Denmark. It's called the S400 Mark III. And that those comparisons take place later in this review. And also, yes, a viewer system of the day plus the Aopiliac album of the day later on. Did

I did I did I mention, by the way, I have an audioc speaker review playlist with over 200 speaker reviews that I've done over the past nine years. I I did. That's true. And I will provide a link to that playlist in the description below this video. So, right now, I'm going to run down some of the details of

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the design, starting with the 1.75 in compression driver. It's feeding a Tractric horn. That might look familiar. Those parts might seem familiar if you're a fan of the Clips Forte 4 because they are the exact same parts except on the Forte they're used as a mid-range. Back to the Rebellion. It has an 8 in

mid woofer. Now, you can look at those beautiful parts or you can cover them with the included woven grill that's attached to the speaker with magnets. Very, very powerful magnets. The Rebellion comes with a 10-year warranty. Most passive speakers come with 5year warranties. This one, 10 years of coverage. Uh, on the bottom of the speaker are

these rubber bumpers. So, if you use the speaker on a bookshelf, you know, or a piece of cadenza or something, you would keep those bumpers in place. If you put this speaker on a stand, you should take the bumpers off. The Rebellion is offered in a few finishes. My samples came in American walnut, really

beautiful real wood veneer, walnut, or you can get it in black. The price for those two finishes is $2,600 a pair. Now, there's also a special version of the speaker, the 80th anniversary speaker, which uses a different I think it's called Tiger Wood Finish. I don't have it here. I can't describe it in detail, but that version

sells for $3,200 a pair. Hey, let's look at the back of the speaker, and you'll see it is a ported design. And though it looks like a typical base port, in fact, it this port system, this port tube conforms to tracks geometry. This speaker comes fitted with bywire connectors and those really nice all metal uh binding post

nuts. I'm going to run down some of the Rebellion's most important specifications, starting with its size. I didn't I don't think I mentioned that before. It is 19 in tall. So, it's not a small stand mount speaker. It's not a really big one. I've done plenty of plenty of stand mounts that are a lot

bigger than this, but it is on the large side. It's also very solidly constructed. It weighs 32 lbs each one. This speaker sensitivity is much higher than average. It's 95 dB. impedance is rated at 8 ohms but does drop down to 3.3 ohms. Oh, and the one the spec actually that jumped out for me uh and

what caused me some concern was that Clips rates this speaker's minus 3dB point, meaning its lowest bass frequency as 60 hertz. Now, it doesn't drop off a cliff at 60 Hz. It's its minus3 dB point, but you'd expect a speaker of this size with an 8 in woofer to basically have a minus3 dB at maybe 50

hertz. And this one only goes to 60. Now, in actual listening sessions, uh I didn't feel that this speaker was bass challenged or anything. It just doesn't do really deep bass. It's not a very full sounding speaker, but it's not lean. Not at all. But I'll tell you one advantage of having a speaker like this

as capable as this that you can use it in very small rooms without overloading the room with bass. So if your room is let's say 10 by 13 ft or something like that. Yeah, this speaker will live comfortably in that space. It sounds clear. It's very dynamic. Big dynamics. some of gradations and dynamics come

through very very well because it is a horn speaker. It's part of the thing, right? But it's more than that. It does a great job on voices, pianos, acoustic instruments, rock music. Absolutely. Like Led Zeppelin 2, it does all of these things very well. There are always uh things, there's always a butt in

there, and I'm going to get to those very, very soon. But I just wanted to lay out the basic premise of what this speaker sounds like. And I would quickly add that it does not sound bright or aggressive. It's not that kind of shouty horn from long ago and far away. No, it's a very easy speaker to listen to.

And yes, by the way, you can listen to it at very quiet levels. This is an advantage of this type of speaker. You can listen to it very quietly and not feel that urge. Oh, if I could only play it a little bit louder. No, this one can play at late night levels with grace,

with real ease. Now, regarding imaging, the Rebellions can throw a wide sound stage, but for focus and specificity within that sound stage, it's about average for horn speakers. As for my setup, well, I had the speakers on 24-in tall solid steel stands. That's the name of the company, Solid Steel. And they were 15 in away from the wall, the to

the back of the speaker, 15 in from the wall. Slight tow in. The amplifier that I used the most for this review was the SPL Performer 800. I think it's 175 watts a channel. But I also used a vintage amplifier, my Dinoco Stereo70 all tube amplifier, 35 watts per channel. And that was really a beautiful

combination. And just to see how it would work out, I used my Deckware Zen tri, which is just two watts per channel. Yeah, that that was really interesting. Back to music. I was listening to this Tom Weight's album. It's called Mule Variations. I think probably his best sounding album and one of his best in

terms of the music. And it's very, you know, growly Tom Waits, gorgeous recording, very ambient, very spacious sounding recording. And the the Rebellions did a fantastic job with this music. It just put me in the zone with Tom Weights. So, at this point, I decided to do that comparison between the Rebellion and the Clips RP600M

Mark I. And the interesting thing is how close they sounded to each other. I mean, this is a much less expensive speaker. The RP600M Mark II, I think it's currently selling or was selling for about $500 a pair, but they sounded very similar. But this one, the Rebellion, is clearer, lower in distortion, just a much better version.

It's like a sense of refinement in the sound of the Rebellion that you don't get from the RP600M. But the overall impression is of a very similar sound signature. Next, I play this music from the legendary composer of tango music, Aster Pole. This is moody, dark music with strings and cellos and guitars and just this and uh

squeeze box. I forget what that's called in for for Argentinian music. But anyway, it's wonderful recording of wonderful music. You play this one in the dark and you are there. When you listen to a speaker like this that's giving you all of the subtleties of the dynamics of all of these instruments. That's what makes this speaker the

Rebellion so good in ways that other speakers near its size and price as far as I know cannot match what the Rebellion can do. As I mentioned earlier, the Rebellion is lacking on the bottom. So, I did this comparison between the Rebellion and the Bukart S400 Mark III, which is a slightly smaller speaker, but it is a fuller,

richer sounding speaker than the Rebellion. There's no contest there. Now, the the S400 Mark III isn't as dynamic, isn't as clear, doesn't have that kind of jump factor that you get from the Rebellion. But on its own, the S400 Mark III sounds like a bigger, more roomfilling speaker. And I will be doing

a complete review of the Bukart very, very soon. As this review continued, I did insert the Dinoco stereo70 and the Deckware Zen Triode. These tube amplifiers, which sounded tubier, meaning richer, fuller, more dimensional than the SPL solidstate amplifier. This speaker easily reveals the differences in electronics. I will note that well I mean the Dinoco every time I play the

Dinoco with a suitable speaker it just wins over my heart. It's just such a wonderful sounding design from like 60 plus years ago. So anyway, I love that amp. It made beautiful music with the Rebellion. And I also inserted the Zen Triode with its 2.3 watts per channel. And yes, I played it at quieter levels

and it sounded absolutely joyous. It was really, really beautiful sound, but I wasn't playing it much louder than, let's say, 75 dB peaks. So, if you have a smalish room and you don't play music loud, and you mean it when you say that, yes, low power amplifiers will be great matches with these speakers. Then I went

back to the SPL amplifier and I'm playing this solo piano album by Neil's from. He makes very interesting sounding recordings because he's mking the piano very very closely. You hear all these sounds and creaking sounds and the movement within the mechanism of the piano with his recordings and and I'm playing it over the rebellions, you

know, at more or less realistically loud levels and I am digging it. And then something very special happened that Mrs. Audioiac who almost never comments about the sound of anything I'm working on. She had to say she just couldn't help herself. She said that that speaker does piano really really well. So that

is high high praise from Mrs. Audi. This happens maybe once every couple of years. So the rebellions somehow coax that out of Mrs. Aophiliac. So, I had to mention that in this review. All right, I think I'm ready for So, Steve, come on. What do you really think of this speaker, the Clips Rebellion? Well,

here's a quick answer. It sounds exactly like a Clip Heritage speaker. It's lively. It sounds like live music. It's not laidback, but it's not bright. It's not aggressive. It's not shouty, but it has that live quality. This is happening now. Small dynamic shifts, larger dynamic shifts, brass speakers, horns, instruments sound so they sound like

themselves. That's what I'm trying to say here. But seriously, I I think this speaker is well, I think it's to the warm side of neutral. So, it's pretty gentle sounding speaker. easy to listen to. No listening fatigue whatsoever. Now, I did mention and did point out that this speaker is, let's say, bass

challenge in deep bass. If you want that, you should either buy a bigger speaker than this one or add a subwoofer to the Rebellion. Your your choice. Um, so it's not going to do that, but the bass that's there is actually very quick, very nimble, great pitch definition. bottom end. It's not thick

sounding or warm or mushy at all. Now, this speaker's clarity factor stays consistent through bass, mid-range, and treble. But vocals, now I'm talking about vocals actually right now in the uh album of the day feature, but this speaker's mid-range and the way it treats vocals is really, really special. Yes. So, as for the album of the day,

the album of the day is this one. this live album by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Four-way Street, recorded in 1970. Now, this band did not have a long lifespan because probably know that Neil Young left the band I think sometime in 1970. But while they were together, [laughter] they were magical. I mean to me Crosby,

Stills, Nash, and Young were the equivalent of, let's say, and I'm overstating slightly, the American Beatles. These four super talented musicians, and all of them, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young were phenomenal singers, lead singers. That's a that's a characteristic few bands can match that all of them are that good on their own.

But you put Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young together, especially in a live context, man, they were untouchable. So this album, the contents of this album was recorded at the Fillmore East in New York, but also the Forum in LA and also in Chicago. So it's from as many different concerts all put into

this one album. And I gotta say that the connection, David Crosby's connection to the audience is just goosebump territory. And when Neil does Cowgirl in the Sand, it's just like, man, that guy was peing. Neil Young was just on fire in this period and you just hear it. And that's why he left Crosby Sils and Nash

because he was big on his own. He didn't need a backing group. He just wanted to do his own music. But there's only one Crosby Stills Nash and Young studio album, Deja Vu. So anyway, this album is phenomenal. It sounds fantastic for a 1970s live recording. Those vocals really shined over the Clips Rebellion

speaker. And now speaking of shining, yes, it is now time for the audioiliac viewer system of the day. Wade lives outside Austin, Texas, and this is his DIY music lounge. All of the amplifiers, speakers, subwoofer, and most of the power and RCA cables are DIY. The family cat Charlie has claimed the lounge as his favorite

room in the house. The speakers use Madison Revelator drivers and crossover kit. The streamer is a whim pro DAC denps Enyo subwoofer morell primo preamplifier bottle head more play headphone amp bottle head crack photo preamp bottle head aos power amplifier a kita GT 108 the turntable is a Riga planer Six cartridge Grado Reference 3

headphones Sennheiser HD800 that Pioneer receiver it's a 1976 SX850 is not in use. Thank you, Wade. Okay, we're back. My name is Steve Guttenberg. I am the Aophiliac. Thank you for watching this far into the video. If you dig the channel, please consider joining and maybe not join, just go look at my Patreon site, see

what's up there, see if any of that intrigues you. Um, because there is exclusive content on my Patreon. And that's super interesting, if I do say so myself. And of course, you can join for just a couple of bucks a month up to 50 or 100. at the top two tiers. You and I

will have a one on-one conversation every month at the beginning of the month. So, please consider that. And now I can say my work here is at last complete. Thank you again for watching and I truly hope to see you back here. And I and I truly hope to see you back here again very very soon. Bye-bye.