Now, nearly four months later the G-17 is finally hitting retail (albeit with a $20 price increase), aimed only a notch below $600 options like B&W’s Zeppelin Air , but well above others including iHome’s $300 iW1 . We’ve been testing a model G-17 Air for a number of days now, so join us past break to determine whether its beauty is deeper than its insanely glossy black shell.
Hardware
To be frank, our G-17 Air unboxing have been among the more interesting ones to this point. Upon opening it up, the primary things we noticed were a couple of white Mickey Mouse gloves and a sheer black, scroll-like cloth — it is a speaker, right? For sure, jumbled together were the same old manuals, a dinky remote, an influence adapter and a metal-and-tinted-glass base with four screws. Finally, we reached the G-17, which was lovingly wrapped in a scratch-free cloth bag. Pulling the material back, we we’re nearly blinded by the unit’s glossy reflection, which also reveled the impetus to Klipsch including those gloves — it is a fingerprint magnet.
Although the 7.5-pound G-17 is also wall-mounted, the glass stand was greater than adequate for our needs — plus, it makes it look style of like an immense Kinect. Gloves still on, we lined up the base’s bracket with the speaker’s back and after some uneven attempts, attached both with the included screws, which then remain hidden by a rubber insert. While we want it was a little easier to bolt together, the bottom stays in place with an organization grip and intensely secure overall fit. From there it was a question of finding a listening area to set it down on, plug it in to the wall and to seize a glance at it fully assembled while up AirPlay. We managed the complete process and not using a single smudge to the unit, so suffice it to claim, we’re fans of the Mickey’s. And that cloth? Seems that it is a speaker grill (doh), which magnetically attaches to the back top and bottom of the speaker with a cosy fit if you’d prefer a less complicated look.
We have seen our share of 3 oh-so fancy 3 AirPlay speakers, however the G-17 Air raises the bar on beauty. The build is rock-solid across all of its angles, and it not just looks, but additionally feels worth its weight as high-end piece of audio equipment. Our geeky side loves how fierce the unit looks grill-off as a watch-catching gadget, and we also respect how the grill quickly subdues it enough to blend right into a room. Better yet, it’s no different in appearance than the remainder of the Gallery lineup, meaning individuals who may need other G-series home theater speakers of their abodes can keep the theme going.
We have seen our share of oh-so fancy AirPlay speakers, however the G-17 Air raises the bar on beauty.
So far as tweak-ability and extras go, the G-17 is completely leaving things to its from-the-factory sound performance and visuals, opting clear of an intensive feature set and notably without an onboard EQ. At the right side of the bar, you will discover a column of black buttons with translucent markers for the ability, volume up and down, input source and wireless. All the buttons depress smoothly with a reassuring click, but oddly, only the facility and WiFi / AirPlay button (which also haphazardly indicates volume) remove darkness from. At best it is a minor quibble, but if controlling the unit without iTunes or an iDevice, it’s essentially impossible to imagine if the amount is at, say, 6 or 11. While we’re on its controls, it’s worth noting that the included remote replicate all of the 17′s functions and adds in Fwd / Rwd and Play / Pause button, but it’s sadly missing those for shuffle, repeat and mute. It seems like the dime-a-dozen type that ship with many an AM / FM radio, but alternatively, you’ll likely be controlling things out of your iDevice or iTunes directly, anyway.
0 Moving to the back, along the left and right are a duo of mounting brackets, and within the center is a deeply set connections panel with a reset button, power input, USB port (for audio and iDevice charging) and three.5mm line-in jack in case your WiFi should ever go at the fritz. Considering these connections are in tow, we’re disappointed that a measly audio cord and 30-pin to USB cable weren’t included for the value. Notably, the deep positioning lets wires easily drop down from the G-17 if wall-mounted, nevertheless it did lead them to somewhat tricky to plug into — inspite of our long and slender fingers. Lastly, on left side you will discover an outsized bass port, while at the front-center there’s an IR receiver planted between its woofers. At the one hand, you will not discover a kind of standard connections like others in G-series, but it’s completely acceptable — in spite of everything, its main purpose is being a wireless system.
1 Just like the iW1 we recently reviewed, the G-17 Air takes an oddly long period of time (as much as 40 seconds) in addition-up and fix to WiFi. It’s evidently a trend with these AirPlay speakers, and laughable, for the reason that our massive 750-watt bass guitar amplifier, MacBooks and iDevices startup quicker. Klipsch has informed us that this can be a limitation of the currently available 4 Airplay chip 4 , and that advancements to shorten the startup delay might be issued via a firmware update once they become available. What’s impressive, however, is how cool the speaker (and its power brick) remains even if left on for days — at worst it gets slightly warm to touch, in spite of moderate volume. So, folks picking out anchoring it to the wall likely shouldn’t worry about heat causing cracking or discoloration to their paint.
AirPlay and setup
2 So far as wireless connectivity is bothered, as much as four G-17 Airs will work over 802.11b/g WiFi networks, and setup may be done using Klipsch’s Air iOS app (an iPad-optimized version is slated for next year) or a working laptop or computer. Using our iPhone we loaded the Klipsch Air app, and were greeted by a little by little process with clear instructions and visuals on what to do. It worked within our first try, allowing us to quickly rename the unit and hook it as much as our secure network. Better yet, it’s done over ad-hoc WiFi, meaning we didn’t must plug our iPhone into the G-17 as we’ve experienced with other units. Notably, the app also features tips about using AirPlay and follows Klipsch’s various social feeds.
3 For sure, in case you don’t live the iOS lifestyle, AirPlay could be setup using a working laptop or computer, although, you’ll still need iTunes if you want to steam. Up beforehand, we’ve been used to failed network setup attempts over ad-hoc WiFi with our MacBooks and other speakers, however the G-17 Air worked like a charm. Upon latching onto the unit’s ad-hoc WiFi signal, we entered its IP address in our browser and gained access to a neighborhood G-17 setup webpage. From there, we were allowed to alter its name, sync it to our WiFi network and get firmware information. This technique does take a considerable number of minutes longer and doesn’t look as pretty, but thankfully, it is not very complicated either.
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As expected, with the G-17 Air established to our network we were ready to give it a whirl using our iPad, iPhone and iTunes on our MacBook Pros. Anytime we selected the G-17 from our devices we were promptly connected within a couple of seconds, and our music frequently came streaming out of its speakers with out a hitch. Be that because it may, AirPlay’s slight lag between various commands still exists here, and there’s the occasional sound cutout. It’s by no means specific to the G-17, but it surely is worth noting in case you are new to AirPlay.
So, “What about other devices, like Android?” you can end up asking. Well, the unit is technically in a position to wireless DLNA streaming, although, currently Klipsch isn’t “announcing the feature,” citing that its “test results showed inconsistencies between devices and DLNA compatible apps.” That said, the corporate did note that many AirPlay-enabling apps are located within Android Market.
Sound
6 For its size, the G-17 Air gets loud.
Alright, welcome to the section about sound — the part where G-17′s speakers do their, er, “speaking” using our tunes! Once we began streaming our albums during the system, we we were blown away by the performance. For its size, the G-17 Air gets loud and stays clear doing it, predictably blowing systems just like the $300 iW1 out of the water. In spite of the quantity maxed out the G-17 didn’t break a sweat, remaining freed from rattles or perceivable distortion. Obviously, being a soundbar it doesn’t give out the widest soundstage, but we were impressed on the detail lets become aware of at even five to 6 feet away. Klipsch notes that the utmost listening distance is ideally under 12 feet away — we found it can easily fill-out a normal living after which some. The unit is bi-amplified, utilizing a duo of two.5-inch Klipsch long-throw IMG woofers (rated for 20 watts each) and two 90 x 90 degree Tractrix-horned .75-inch tweeters (rated for 10-watts each), all wrapped up within its “bass-reflex” enclosure — doing that name itself justice, if we may say so.
7 The system pumps out an immense of amount of natural and thumpy low end, comparable to playing our Fender Jaguar Bass through our 4 x 12 bass cabinet from a gigging life passed. In saying natural, we actually mean it and picture many a bassist will appreciate its level of articulation. Dynamics are amazingly found in the combo, and lets accurately hear and feel the flow and nuances of assorted bass lines from Matt Rubano’s melodic Taking Back Sunday licks to LMFAO’s throbbing Party Rock beats — even dubstep wobble was right at home with this rig. It was hard to believe an external subwoofer wasn’t helping to accomplish the feat, but placing our hand in front of the hurricane of air pressure popping out of the bass port quickly quelled our doubts.
8 Basically, you will get the chills from the clarity of vocals, without shrill inflections stabbing your eardrums.
This brings us to the mid-range, that’s where we’re a little torn. Overall, the system has an extremely thick sound, however the mids have a slight scoop in level a few of the overall mix to our ears. When songs kick in with the total force of a band, certain intricacies of guitar-work appear to almost gasp for some extra air — in the event you like chunky electric guitars mixed-in toward front, it’s something to bear in mind when considering the G-17 Air, because it doesn’t have an onboard EQ. With that out of ways, the rig still handles this area dutifully, with a warm tone that’s right at home across many music genres.
Wrap-up
9 To claim the Klipsch G-17 Air exceeded our usual expectations of an Airplay-enabled speaker would simply be a sarcasm — it’s clear that the oldsters on the company put a lot of work into what was merely an idea at the CES floor nearly eight month’s ago. The speaker itself is built like a (glossy) rock, and the sound that comes through is as solid because the foundation. If we needed to nitpick, the rig may benefit from a quicker bootup time, clearer volume indicators, a far better remote and doubtless an app-enabled EQ (a lá 8 Libratone 8 ) to elevate the mids. AirPlay itself still has some minor quirks as usual, but overall the implementation for setup is a breeze here, and the performance generally pleasing.
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In comparison to lower priced AirPlay speakers like iHome’s $300 2 iW1 2 , the $550 G-17 Air is an unquestionably a big step up, and we would easily choose this puppy over options just like the slightly spendier $600 3 Zeppelin Air 3 . That said, the G-17′s certainly quite pricey for a single unit, but when you are looking for a primo AirPlay hookup for the casa, we cannot say enough good stuff about it. Because it stands, Klipsch’s G-17 Air is the present AirPlay-enabled soundsystem to overcome at its price point. Any takers?
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