Klipsch Flexus Core 200 review

Klipsch is one of the most historic speaker brands still in the business. It began almost 80 years ago with the creation of the Klipschorn, a three-way, fully horn-loaded loudspeaker model that remains in production to this day. The company has produced a massive selection of speakers over the years and now has a range that includes hi-fi models, subwoofers, wireless products and, of course, soundbars.

At launch, the Flexus Core 200 sat at the top of Klipsch’s soundbar range, though a step-up model has since been announced. It’s off to a solid start, especially from a specification perspective. The Core 200 uses the electronic expertise from sister brand Onkyo to deliver 185 watts of power to its nine drive units and provide Dolby Atmos, all wrapped up in a well-built package.

Price

The Klipsch Flexus Core 200 is priced at £449 / $499 / AU$1445. At this price range, there is some stiff competition. The five-star Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is our 2024 What Hi-Fi? Award-winner and is also priced at £449 / $499 / AU$799. We love the Beam for its insightful sound and fine handling of Dolby Atmos. 

Sony’s HT-2000 is even cheaper at £349 / $500 / AU$595, and we’ve already seen some pretty hefty discounts on that. Another ’bar to rival Klipsch at this level is the formidable Sonos Arc. Although it launched at £799 / $799 / AU$1399, the Arc has seen steady price drops since its release and now you can find it for around £599 / $899 / AU$1499. The Arc is another five-star soundbar, with a convincing Atmos presentation that we called “a bit of a game-changer” when we first reviewed it.

Design

Measuring around 112cm wide, the Core 200 is a good fit for a typical 55-inch TV, though it will also look fine with larger sets. If you don’t want to put it on your TV rack, it comes supplied with two metal wall brackets. It’s worth noting that this ’bar is on the heavier side, clocking in at 8.5kg. This is a fair bit weightier than its rivals, with the lightest models such as the Sonos Beam coming in at just 2.8kg. As with all Atmos soundbars, if you tuck it away on a shelf you won’t get a convincing height effect. 

Most of the soundbar’s front is covered with cloth, while the vinyl-covered enclosure is nicely made. There is a choice of finishes: black or walnut. The top panel has four touch buttons: power on/off, input, and two for volume. They are not very responsive in use, giving a minimum of feedback when pressed. 

A ‘cable cove’ on the back panel houses all of the soundbar’s physical connectivity options, and it’s easy to connect what you need. You will find sockets for power, USB-C, optical and a single HDMI eARC. Unfortunately, there is no additional HDMI input to connect another source, so any additional products will need to be connected to your TV. A Bluetooth input is on the menu too, but there’s no wi-fi, so features such as Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and AirPlay 2 are not supported.

Features

The Core 200 has a 3.1.2-channel configuration. The ’bar includes four forward-facing 57mm aluminium drivers, with one positioned on each end and a pair in the middle on either side of a horn-loaded 19mm tweeter. There are two more 57mm units on each side that fire upwards to produce more convincing height information. The lows are delivered by a pair of 10cm subwoofers. 

While you can use the soundbar on its own, it is now possible to buy a partnering subwoofer and surrounds to deliver an even more convincing cinematic presentation. These are called the Flexus Sub 100 and the Flexus Surround 100 and are priced at £329 / $299 / AU$495 and £279 / $249 / AU$495 respectively.

A physical remote is supplied in the box. It is a simple, rather basic affair, but we suspect most users will end up using the dedicated app. The Klipsch Connect Plus app acts as the hub for all the soundbar controls and is intuitive to use on the whole. However, we do experience some stability issues during testing and have to reboot the app on occasion.

The app offers a wide variety of adjustments and is easy to navigate. You can customise the relative sound level for the height channels and have access to the EQ controls. There are a selection of presets including Flat, Vocal, Treble and Rock. We found Flat to be the best option for general use, as it sounds the most balanced whereas the others over-emphasise particular parts of the frequency range to no good effect.

You get a Night mode, which compresses the dynamics so that louder sounds are softened, meaning you don’t annoy other people in the house if there are sudden changes in volume on the soundtrack – a big explosion, for example. There are also Movie and Music modes. Music produces a tighter, but smaller-scale sound that’s more cohesive in nature, while Movie puts all nine drivers to work delivering a considerably more spacious and airy result.

Sound

We tested the Flexus Core 200 with the 55-inch TCL C855K, and the soundbar certainly provides a big improvement on the TV’s built-in speakers, just as you would expect given the general standard of TV audio.

We start off with Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings in Atmos to get a feel of its sense of space. When two dragons face off in an epic battle scene in Shang-Chi’s ancestral home, the Atmos soundtrack really comes into its own and captures the movement of the bust-up. As one of the dragons breaks out from its cave-prison, you can close your eyes and feel it flying from one side of the screen to another from the sound alone. The sense of sonic height is pleasing and overall the impression of spaciousness is good. 

The Klipsch also succeeds in capturing the power of the booming bass that this action scene relies on. It has pleasingly muscular lows for a solo design, though if you want to feel and hear the deepest notes, we would suggest adding the partnering Flexus Sub 100 into the mix.

As we keep watching, though, the ’bar’s problems start to reveal themselves. The biggest of these is that there is not much nuance to the sound. When Shang-Chi’s father is killed by the soul-sucking dragon, the Core 200 fails to capture the swelling emotion of the orchestra, and the tear-jerking impact of his final words is lost. The bass performance, while impressively powerful for this kind of product, is overstated to a degree that it swamps the rest of the frequency range. We can use the EQ functionality to dial back the level but that doesn’t help to fix the disappointing lack of precision and articulation in this region.

We notice the same issue when watching Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World in Atmos, particularly during the face-off between Scott and Ramona’s first evil ex, Matthew Patel. While you can sense the impact of Patel’s punches, the tension of the scene just isn’t reflected in the dynamics, and the bass seems detached from the rest of the mix. Patel threatens to destroy Scott, but his voice sounds overly recessed and so lacking in projection that you would think he was challenging his rival to a thumb war. We use the vocal EQ to help, and it does to a degree, but not enough to truly satisfy.

The scene containing the iconic power ballad I’m Just Ken from Barbie is one we have used for testing many a time, and we know how well Ryan Gosling’s vocal performance conveys his anguish at being cast aside by the titular character. Tinkling piano keys turn to fast-paced synths and natural-sounding drums, but the Flexus struggles to keep with the song’s rhythm. Instead of blending all the different aspects of the piece to create one cohesive song, the mix neglects the more subtle midrange and blasts the bass.

We test the Klipsch with stereo music and opt for Radiohead’s Everything In Its Right Place. In Music mode, the sound is less expansive as the height channels are out of play, and this certainly makes the vocals clearer and more direct. However, there isn’t the dynamic nuance, organisation or rhythmic drive to truly capture the feel of the song.

We switch to the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) and it’s obviously more detailed and expressive than the Klipsch soundbar. Dynamically, the Beam is able to better balance the nuances of the sound, regardless of whether we’re watching a film or listening to a CD. However, we admit that it doesn’t produce the same level of bass and scale as the Core 200.

Verdict

For those looking for a soundbar to upgrade their TV’s sound system, the Klipsch Flexus Core 200 is worth considering but shouldn’t be at the top of your list.

It creates a wide soundfield and handles Dolby Atmos well, but ultimately it doesn’t get to the heart of the sound in the way its rivals can. If we were buying at this level, our money would be spent on the Sonos Beam for its rich and expressive audio quality.

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Build 4
• Features 3

MORE:

Read our review of the Sonos Beam (Gen 2)

Also consider the Sony HT-2000

Read our Sonos Arc review

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