TK-5C Measurements and Analysis
Impedance / Phase Measurements of the TK-5C
Rating these speakers 8 ohms is a bit conservative in my opinion as they look more like a 10 ohm speaker than 8 ohms as at their lowest impedance dip around 200Hz or so, they are still hovering above 8.5 ohms. They easily maintain +-30deg phase within the entire audio band making them a very easy load for virtually any amplifier to drive.
In Room ½ Meter Frequency Response of the TK-5C (1/12th octave smoothed)
I did a quick and dirty in room response measurement of the TK-5Cs at ½ meter. What I found was that the -3dB point as confirmed by the frequency response and saddle point on the impedance graph is around 60Hz just as the manufacturer claims. They maintain a linear response of +-3dB throughout the entire audio range but do tend to favor the lower midrange in the 1kHz to 3kHz region just like my listening tests confirmed. Many manufacturers at this price point tend to taper off the midrange response to hide a speaker systems weaknesses since this is a critical region in human hearing that is unforgiving to bad sound. In tradition with all RBH speakers I’ve reviewed in the past, they don’t hide anything. Instead, their speakers bring forth the midrange, which can at times sound a bit analytical, but on good recordings you will be rewarded with great dynamics and realism in the vocals and percussion.
Recent Forum Posts:
silversurfer;368922No, he means you can't always hear the coloration.
Depending on source material? It either colorizes the signal or it doesn't.
Josuah;368602
I have a hard time reconciling a 4.5 performance rating with the individual scores which never exceed 4....
Something with no weaknesses is darn good to have.
The overall scores aren't mathematically derived, they're subjective, but even if mathematically derived it wouldn't have to work by simple averaging. If you did something like percentile rank within a price range for all the sub-scores, then converted to a star score, 4.5 is probably about dead on (90th percentile).
A bit of lower midrange coloration present depending on source material
Depending on source material? It either colorizes the signal or it doesn't.
Was that a typo in the review or just a mistake in pricing? I'm curious to know if that would effect the ratings considering that the costs were off by 25% ....
It was an error on RBH's part as I was originally told they were $400/pair. I was on the fence about giving them a 4.25 for value but since we only rate in 1/2 point scales now, I rounded down to 4 stars. The price adder would drop them to 3.75 but in that case I round up to 4 so it stays around the same.
While I believe you can find speakers at $500/pair that blow these away in aesthetics, I am still confident they perform up to par with some of the best speakers in their price class.
