As the official headphone and portable audio partner of McLaren Formula 1, Klipsch has announced a special edition of its The Fives powered speakers featuring design touches inspired by the team's iconic orange livery.
The Fives are some of Klipsch's most versatile active speakers, with HDMI ARC and optical inputs, making them a viable soundbar alternative. They also include an integrated phono pre-amp for your turntable, a USB input, Bluetooth 5 and a subwoofer output.
The McLaren Edition of The Fives boasts a hand-painted matte black finish with accents, including the control panel and braided cables, in McLaren's signature papaya colour as well as the team speed-mark logo and a 'Klipsch-McLaren' paddock garage sign.
Also finished in matching papaya are the 25mm titanium vented tweeters with Klipsch's classic tractrix horns. The racing theme even extends down to the stability pad for each speaker, with a rubber material inspired by Formula 1's intermediate racing tyre tread – an interesting choice considering McLaren's Lando Norris dramatically skidded out of first place at last years Russian GP after insisting on sticking to slicks in heavy rain while the rest of the field avoided his fate by pitting for intermediates.
Each cabinet also houses an 11cm long-throw woofer made from high-excursion carbon fibre and a tractrix port at the rear to enhance the bass further. These powered speakers feature ultra-low noise amplifiers capable of high-resolution audio (192kHz/24-bit decoding) and are compatible with the Klipsch Connect app, giving users access to custom tone and volume settings.
The special McLaren Edition of The Fives are available now for £1349 (around $1823 / AU$2499), while the standard model, in Klipsch's mid-century modern heritage style, is priced at £829 ($799, AU$1599 – $1699 from March 1).
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