Kudos: High output, immersive audio; sub is a real performer; Dirac integration
Concerns: Depth of Core 300 when wall-mounting; volume levels of surrounds low
There have been a lot of company consolidations in our industry where once giant, individual brands are now joined under the single umbrella of a larger company. One example is the recent acquisition of Massimo/Sound United by Harman International (which is in turn owned by Samsung). Another perfect example of this is the Gentex Corporation, which recently acquired Voxx International, which was the parent company of the Premium Audio Company, which owned such stalwart brands as Onkyo and Klipsch.
Why does this matter? When you have the same companies owned by the same company, why wouldn’t you leverage this combined knowledge and have the companies use their individual areas of expertise to help each other create great products? Say you wanted to make a great soundbar, for instance. If you’re Klipsch, why would you waste engineering time and resources designing amplifiers and electronics if there was a sister company that was already great at it? And if you’re Onkyo, why would you bother designing speaker drivers and cabinet materials when you’ve got ready access to that?
And that is what we have with the new Klipsch Flexus Series, which is the first partnership between Klipsch’s American audio prowess and Onkyo’s precision Japanese engineering. While these jointly developed products are Klipsch-branded, they are also adding a “Powered by Onkyo” tagline, which is responsible for all active components in the system, including amplification, and these jointly developed products benefit from Onkyo’s years of expertise and extensive testing protocols, subject to more than 1000 tests to verify performance and reliability.
The Flexus line-up currently includes three bars, starting with the entry Flexus Core 100 2.1-channel system ($350), the step-up Flexus Core 200 3.1.2 system ($575), and the flagship 5.1.2-channel Flexus Core 300 ($1199) reviewed here. Klipsch has followed the Sony and Sonos model of going with an á la carte approach to the Flexus line, meaning if you just want a bar, just buy the bar. However, all the bars can benefit from adding Flexus wireless rear speakers, either the Surround 100 or 200, which add upfiring drivers, wireless Flexus subwoofers, Sub 100 or 200, and/or a wired subwoofer. Yep, you can connect any wired subwoofer to this to increase performance as you need.
While the Core 100 and 200 bars were demonstrated at CES 2024, it wasn’t until CEDIA 2024 that the Core 300 was introduced, and it didn’t go on sale until 2025. However, I was so impressed with the CEDIA demo that I kept reaching out to Klipsch, trying to get a review sample. Besides the intense volume output and impressive immersive experience, the Flexus Core 300 has the distinction of being the world’s first soundbar to include Dirac Live room correction. Since most bars — other than Sonos’ Arc Ultra — treat room correction as an afterthought (if at all!), I was curious to see how Dirac would be implemented into the Core 300 and what kind of impact it would have on performance.
To get the full 7.1.4 experience, Klipsch sent the Core 300 bar, two Surround 200 rears, and a Sub 200.
First Impressions
When you’ve unboxed as many different soundbars as I have, you get a near pre-cog feel for what you’re going to get, and even before opening the box, I could tell the Core 300 was prodigious in size.
Out of the box, it didn’t disappoint, and the Core 300 is one of the larger soundbars on the market. At 54 inches wide, the bar just barely fits inside the width of a 65-inch TV. If wall-mounted, it will definitely look like it belongs with 65-inch-and-larger displays. And at just under 19 pounds, it is also one of the heaviest bars I’ve installed in some time. My first impression was that the Core 300 was packing a lot inside and certainly felt like a quality bit of kit. Compared to the Arc Ultra, which is just over 46 inches wide and 13 pounds in weight, the Core 300 is far more imposing.
Visually, the bar is classic-looking, especially in the black ash wood finish. (All of the Flexus Series bars are also available in a walnut finish; the only bars to my knowledge that are. This would be a nice look with a Samsung Frame TV outfitted with a white bezel.) The top of the bar has black metal grilles covering the upfiring drivers and woofers, with four top-mounted touch controls for power, volume +/–, and input. Thick, black textured fabric wraps around the front, sides, and rear of the bar; the wood choice — either black or walnut vinyl — covers the top of the unit. (The walnut trim features a complementary silver grille and silver-gray fabric.)
If you’re against badging, then you probably won’t love the Klipsch tag offset to the right on the front of the bar. This would certainly be more discreet if it were on top; however, at roughly the size of a quarter, it certainly doesn’t call too much attention to itself.
The Core 300 is described as a 5.1.2-channel bar and features a total of 13 drivers powered by 285 watts. The driver makeup is four 2.25-inch front-firing drivers, with two dedicated to center channel duties, a single 0.75-inch horn-loaded tweeter for the center, two 2.25-inch side-firing drivers, four 4-inch high-output woofers on top of the bar, and two 2.25-inch upfiring drivers. Other than the horn-loaded tweeter, all the drivers are paper cones tuned by Klipsch engineers. The bar is rated to play down to 43 Hz, and Klipsch claims “best-in-class bass – no subwoofer required,” which may or may not be true depending on what your clients are expecting.
All the connections are tucked into a recessed panel on the rear of the bar, and there are enough here to satisfy most users. Besides the now-requisite HDMI eARC connection, there’s an additional HDMI 2.1 input capable of passing 4K/120 and 8K signals, a Toslink optical digital connection for legacy displays, and a USB-C connection. While most people will likely go Wi-Fi, I love that Klipsch included an Ethernet connection as an option. There is also a mini-jack input for connecting the included microphone for Dirac measurements, a USB connection for the “Flexus Transport 100,” along with a pairing button (more on those in a bit), an RCA subwoofer output connection, and a detachable power cable.
If you want to wall-mount the bar, you’ll need to purchase a separate mount. There’s a QR code in the included owner’s manual that takes you to a page on Klipsch’s website to purchase Pro Wall Mount for $100. Honestly, I don’t hate this Sonos approach to separately selling a wall mount. Ideally, it keeps the bar price down without charging for something that a percentage of buyers won’t need/use. However, it does create another item you’ll need to stock in inventory.
Since the bar itself is five inches deep, I worry it might stick out a bit far for some people’s liking if wall-mounted. Also, accessing the rear-panel connections would definitely be tricky if it were on the wall.
The bar includes a pre-paired Bluetooth remote for “no point” control. It isn’t backlit, but this likely isn’t much of an issue since people will likely use the TV’s remote to adjust volume or opt to use the Klipsch Connect Plus app. The remote does have direct access buttons to all the settings you would need daily; however, this doesn’t include any Dirac functions.
All of the Flexus Core soundbars can pair wirelessly with either the Sub 100 or 200. In fact, you can use two wireless subs for improved bass response. While Klipsch recommends using two of the same models, this isn’t required. And if you don’t want to use one of the Klipsch wireless subs, with the bar’s RCA subwoofer output, you’re free to connect whichever sub you prefer, letting you really tailor the bass performance to your client’s needs. Don’t think that two subs will be enough? You can use two wireless subs and the wired sub output, with Dirac able to measure and calibrate these separately, and giving you volume trim control over both wired and wireless independently! That’s a ton of flexibility.
Similar to the bar, the Sub 200 is a serious piece of gear. Unlike the subwoofers included with many soundbar systems, the 15.25-inch MDF cube Sub 200 weighs in at 36 pounds and feels like a real subwoofer. It is covered in an ebony vinyl finish that matches the top of the Core 300. The 12-inch long-throw woofer is powered by a 200-watt Class D amplifier; however, it doesn’t come with a grille cover, so the sub driver is always on display. There is also a small Klipsch logo on top that is lit by default, but the LED can be turned off by pressing the rear panel pairing button on the sub. Should you prefer not to connect the bar and sub wirelessly for any reason, the sub does feature an RCA LFE input.
For a true surround experience, you can pair either the Surround 100 or 200 speakers; however, only the 200s offer upfiring drivers for a more complete and immersive Dolby Atmos experience, so that should be the go-to speaker choice.
In contrast to the bar and sub, the Surround 200 speakers weigh a scant 2.5 pounds each and feel a bit thin and plastic. They are smaller and lighter than both the Sonos Era 300 and the Sony SA-RS5’s rear speakers. The speakers are identified with an R and an L on the bottom to let you know where to place them. Instead of the more typical keyhole for wall mounting, the Surround 200s include a threaded insert for using a third-party wall mount. I would have preferred they just have a standard keyhole slot for mounting — which also holds the speaker tighter to the wall — but they don’t. These speakers have the same ebony vinyl and black metal grille finish as the Core 300 and include two 3-inch paper-cone front and upfiring speakers powered by 50 watts of power. Because they are powered, both speakers require connection to power.
Setup
The first page of the owner’s manual instructs you to download the Klipsch Connect Plus App, which locates and connects to the bar, then walks you through connecting to the Wi-Fi network and performing firmware updates. Without the app, the bar will certainly work; however, you’ll need it to get the most out of it.
The app provides quick access to all the 300’s inputs and audio adjustments (dialog mode, night mode, sound mode, equalizer, channel levels, and Dirac Live). It also shows the current input selected and the audio format being received, as well as a volume slider that offers nice granular control with haptic feedback. If you try to slide the volume bar above 34 (out of 50), it produces a “That’s pretty loud. Are you sure?” prompt that you have to acknowledge “Yes/No” before it will do it. The app also gives access to features like LED brightness, auto power/standby/update settings, function sounds, and lip sync adjustment from 0–350 ms. You can also turn on advanced logging and send diagnostic info to Klipsch support if needed.
Once connected and powered on, the first thing I noticed was the large and bright front-panel LED display on the Core 300. Fortunately, this is off until you press a button on the remote or app, and it has a low and high brightness setting. On high brightness in a dark room, it is a bit jarring; however, I daresay the characters are large enough that they should be legible by practically everyone.
One feature about the display I learned from Klipsch is that if you press/hold the brightness adjust button on the remote, the display will scroll the audio format being received. I love this, as it is a quick way to confirm you’re actually getting Dolby Atmos (or DTS:X) without needing to open the app.
Pressing the surround button on the remote gives you options to raise/lower the front height, side left, and side right speakers in ±6 dB steps. When you add the rear speakers, you also get access to back left, right, and height levels. A bass button gives you ±6 adjustment for bass levels that are independent of the wired/wireless subwoofer settings. There is access to all of these adjustments in the app. When a subwoofer is connected, the bar automatically retunes its internal woofer output settings.
Both the sub and surround speakers connect wirelessly to the bar using Klipsch Transport technology. To use this, you need the Flexus Transport 100 USB stick that is included with both the surround and subwoofer. (Only one Transport USB is required for all wireless devices.) Once the USB is connected to the Core 300 and the speakers/sub are powered on, you press a pairing button on the speaker, followed by the pairing button on the bar, and they “find” each other. Once paired, they appear in the app showing their connection status. I never had any issues with dropouts or unpairing.
The soundbar supports Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast, and Bluetooth. The bar can only be a Bluetooth receiver and not a transmitter, meaning it is unable to broadcast audio to a pair of headphones.
The bar only offers two listening modes: Movie and Music. The difference between these two modes is subtle; however, I felt that Music offered a bit more width and spaciousness. Unless content is streamed in DTS, the bar uses the Dolby upmixer. There is currently no way to defeat the upmixer, meaning there is no way to listen to the bar in “pure” stereo for music. Klipsch said there have been requests for an all-channel stereo mode for using the surround speakers for both movie and music playback, and this is a feature that could be available in the future via a firmware update.
A minor irritation is that the bar doesn’t hold the Movie/Music mode setting between inputs. If it’s in one mode, it will stay in that mode until you manually change it. It would be nice if it automatically defaulted to Music when streaming music and then switched to Movie when going to the HDMI or TV (eARC) input, but it doesn’t.
The Core 300 is compatible with leading control systems, including Control4 and RTI, allowing integration into smart home systems.
Dirac Live Room Correction
As mentioned, the Core 300 is the world’s first soundbar with Dirac Live Room Correction. Out of the box, it includes the standard Dirac Limited Bandwidth license, which allows for calibration from 0–500 Hz. The full bandwidth license, which adjusts from 0–20 kHz, is available as a $99 upgrade directly from Dirac. The Core 300 currently doesn’t offer Dirac’s full bass management licensing; however, that is something that may be offered in the future. Currently, if two wireless subwoofers are connected, they play as a single channel and are adjusted together.
Dirac calibration can either be performed in the Klipsch Connect Plus app or via the Dirac Live PC/Mac app. Klipsch recommends using their app for most situations, while referring advanced users to the Dirac app. When using the Dirac app and a computer, you are able to use a separate (i.e., better) microphone if desired, such as the miniDSP UMIK-1 calibration microphone, as well as the ability to take more measurements and then make significant tweaks to the correction and target curve. Klipsch provides a handy support document on suggested settings if using the Dirac app, as well as a target curve that can be uploaded into Dirac. [LINK FOR ONLINE: Flexus 300 – Dirac Calibration (PC) – Klipsch]
Since I had a UMIK-1 and mic tripod on hand, I calibrated the system both ways to compare the differences in the measurement process and performance.
When using the Klipsch app to perform a calibration, you use the included omnidirectional puck microphone and take measurements in three locations, essentially the primary listening position, and then two more measurements left and right of that primary location. The whole process takes about 10 minutes. Then you save the calibration to one of ten memory settings in the app. I love that you can quickly toggle the Dirac calibration on/off so you can instantly compare the differences or jump between different calibration presets.
With the Dirac app on a PC, you start by choosing a measurement “sweet spot” that starts with a pre-determined number of measurement points between Focused (nine), Wide (13), and Expanded (17). You can add additional measurement points if needed, and you don’t need to perform all the measurements. The app shows a nice graphical representation of where each measurement point is, walking you through the process. With the full 7.1.4 system, it takes about 75 seconds per measurement. The full calibration took a little over an hour, which included a couple of remeasures when there was an issue. Most of the time was spent just adjusting the tripod to each position and moving around.
Regarding the Dirac correction, I went back and forth, toggling it on/off multiple times and switching between the Klipsch app and Dirac app results. Between the two, the Dirac app produced better results, most noticeably with dialog, but it was subtle. With either of the Dirac Live corrections enabled, it removed a bit of chestiness in the dialog and tightened the bass, removing some of the bloat. It most improved the off-center performance, giving a more even presentation across my couch, especially at the end seats. However, I felt that it came at the expense of compressing the soundstage a bit, removing some of the width and space that made the presentation feel “bigger.” Ultimately, I preferred Dirac to be off when listening to music, where I felt the correction removed some of the “liveliness” and spaciousness of the recording, and on when watching movies, where the tighter bass was better. Obviously, results and preferences will vary from room to room and individual preference.
Performance
When a soundbar doesn’t ship as a “system” (i.e., purchased as a package in a single box), I always start by reviewing the bar on its own, then adding in the surround speakers, and finally pairing in the subwoofer for the full experience.
With just the bar playing straight out of the box, it produced a big, spacious sound with noticeable bass. I wouldn’t call it “subwoofer-level” low-end, but definitely a tangible bottom end that adds that extra layer to movies and music. The Core 300 can stand on its own without being thin, but I’d say that anyone looking for a theatrical experience, or those with larger rooms, would benefit from adding a sub.
More importantly, I felt that the dialog was clear and detailed, and we rarely struggled to hear what was being said. One exception was The Lost Bus on Apple TV, which had a lot of firefighters speaking with masks on. Using the dialog enhance button, I was able to bump it up and get some improvement.
There’s a limit to how much width you can generally get from a bar alone, but the Core 300 does a nice job expanding the audio soundfield beyond the boundaries of the display. Also, as is my habit, if the option is available, I bumped the front side and height levels of the bar by 3 dB.
During the opening episode of HBO’s IT: Welcome to Derry, you travel into a sewer, and there are sounds and voices that expand high and around the room, followed by an SAC bomber flyby that reaches well out to the left side of the room, along with atmospherics that really open up the outdoor space.
The bar also gave a real sense of height presence from things like the school P.A. announcements in Derry. The sound isn’t up overhead from the ceiling as much as it has a significantly raised element compared to the other dialog and sounds. However, with Netflix shows like Squid Games and Physical Asia that utilized frequent announcements to broadcast information, that audio clearly emanated from the ceiling overhead, really creating a more immersive experience.
From there, I added the Surround 200 speakers. At first, I could barely hear anything coming from the speakers, even when I knew there should be sounds. Even after bumping the rear surround and rear height levels by the max of 6 dB each, the surround effect was often subdued unless there was a really hard pan to a specific location. In episode 2 of Invasion on Apple TV, the added rear speakers produced more width to sounds, stretching the soundstage much further out left and right, and produced really nice cohesion between the front and rear.
I discovered that if I used the Tidal Connect playback from my iPhone to the bar, I could stream Tidal content in Dolby Atmos, and having the rear speakers for Atmos music was game-changing. It’s so great to go back and re-experience classic albums that have received an Atmos remix; it was often like hearing albums such as The Police’s Synchronicity, The Talking Heads’ Speaking in Tongues, or WINGS, a new album featuring greatest hits from Wings, for the first time.
Finally, I added the Sub 200 into the mix. The first show we watched was The Lost Bus, and immediately, the additional bass presence was there. With the Sub 200, audio just had a fuller, deeper, richer sound. Now I could not only hear, but feel the roar of flames and fire planes flying overhead, which added more weight to the presence. The sub also added that missing layer of depth and dimension to music, where instruments had more feel, weight, and presence. While the bar delivers some bass on its own, it was clear that the Sub 200 plumbed far lower and louder.
After the full system was in place, I went back and rewatched favorite scenes from Ready Player One, Kong: Skull Island, and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and the Flexus system more than delivered on an immersive and enjoyable theatrical presentation. With the lights out, I never felt like I was “just” listening to a soundbar, but rather I was enjoying a full surround experience.
A full Flexus Core 300 5.1.2 system normally retails for $2300; however, as I write this, the system is on sale for $1960, which makes for a super impressive soundbar surround system for under $2k. To improve performance, you could upgrade to a second subwoofer for just $600 more and still be under the price of many competing systems. Plus, you get the ability to perform a Dirac calibration, making sure you leave the system sounding its best. Bottom line: The Core 300 is legit, and on the shortlist of the best bars you can buy.
800-554-7724 — klipsch.com
Product Specs:
- 1.2-channel Dolby Atmos/DTS:X Soundbar
- World’s first soundbar with Dirac Live room correction
- 13 total drivers, including one 0.75-inch horn-loaded tweeter, eight 2.25-inch drivers, four 4-inch high-output woofers
- 285 total watts capable of 106 dB maximum output
- Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast, and Bluetooth
- Can wirelessly pair with Flexus Core Surround 100/200 rear speakers and Sub 100/200 subwoofer
- Wall-mountable with optional Klipsch Flexus Pro wall bracket (sold separately)
- Inputs: HDMI 2.1/HDCP 2.2 input (8K and 4K/120 capable), mini-jack for included Dirac microphone, Toslink optical digital; USB-C, USB-A (for connection of Klipsch Flexus Transport 100), Ethernet; Outputs: HDMI 2.1/HDCP 2.2 (8K and 4K/120) with eARC; RCA subwoofer; detachable power cord
Dimensions:
- Core 300: 54 x 3.07 x 4.96 inches (WxHxD); Weight: 18.7 pounds
- Sub 200: 15.25 x 15.25 x 15.25 inches (WxHxD); Weight: 36 pounds
- Surround 200: 4.13 x 8.75 x 4.31 inches (WxHxD); Weight: 2.5 pounds
