Klipsch - Vegas Music City Bluetooth Party Speaker - Black

My wife just voluntold to become the new social events coordinator for her work. Now these are both mandatory fun events as well as public relations functions to represent her group. The previous coordinator had their own speaker and mic combo to use at these events and took that with them so my wife told me to be on the lookout for an easy to use, light, and loud speaker that also had a mic or at least a mic input. The Klipsch Vegas Music City Party Speaker hit ALL of her requirements and I'm a rockstar now! Since I'M the guy who is going to be using this for her at these events, I appreciate that it has full physical controls as well as app controls. I'll use the physical controls if I'm right there but have the option to step away and still respond to her requests. Too many of these systems have offloaded controls to their apps and this can sometimes be a pain (kinda like car makers getting rid of physical knobs and buttons). This is also fortunate, because while you CAN use the Klipsch app, it is probably the weakest element out of the whole package. That's not to say that it's bad, it just isn't as fleshed out as some of the apps for speakers that DO require their usage. So it's a give and take. I'd MUCH rather have the physical controls so Klipsch is the best in my opinion if you need a great speaker with lots of options to make it fun. So what are the things I like and don't like? Let's start with the likes: 1. Sound: First off and most importantly, a speaker like this had better sound good and get LOUD. The Vegas does both. It sounds great at both lower and higher volumes without distortion and it can get dangerously loud. Oh, and I've read some other reviews saying this thing doesn't have bass, but they either have a defective unit or they have lost the lower register of their hearing! This thing can pump out teeth rattling bass. If you can situate it in an ideal location like a corner and boost the reflection, you can really make people feel it. For a speaker of its size, it does great. 2. Lights: Now I don't care about this feature at all, but my wife did. I appreciate that the lighting setup is not absolutely silly, AND the fact that I can change it VERY easily. To me, it's as 'understated' as party lights can be on a speaker other than not existing. 3. Portability: I appreciate that even my 110lb, 4'11" wife can cart this around without struggling. I can sling this thing around no problem. The handle makes it easy to carry and is well balanced. The fact that you can orient it any which way without damaging it (due to the multitude of padded feet), makes this incredibly easy to use at home or out and about. 4. Microphone: I COMES WITH ONE! Is it the best? I don't know, but I was able to quickly annoy my wife with stupid lines from movies in no time! The only thing I wish is that the Vegas had either a clip or storage bin to hold on to it when not in use. I'm nitpicking, but maybe for Vegas 2.0! Don't Like: (And none of these are dealbreakers whatsoever.) 1. App: If Klipsch could build out their app a bit more, mostly in showing what was playing rather than just having the pause/play, forward, back functions. Otherwise it is simple enough to not have the controls buried. 2. Hiss: There is quite a bit of hiss coming from the speaker when nothing is actively playing. I'm guessing it is the amp and is a function of a speaker that needs to throw sound out loud. I'm going to play with some of the settings to see if I can minimize it. My wife doesn't even notice it, but as a reformed audiophile it stands out to me. It is completely unnoticeable when playing music, and probably would not be noticed by anyone other than me. Conclusion: If you are looking for a great portable party speaker that is easy to use, is loud, kicks out the bass, has lights but not a silly amount, and can be used with an included mic (or even have a guitar plugged in, natch), the Klipsch Vegas part speaker is a great value for the price. I got serious 'good hubby' points for getting it.

Klipsch has become my new go to brand as their products produce great sound and are priced competitively. I have so many Bluetooth speakers from small to large and this one is the perfect size. The largest one I have is super heavy and awkward to take with me, its great for a large party or for the pool but not great for travel. When I first picked up the Klipsch Vegas it felt so light that it that my mind instantly went to this is cheaply made speaker. However, after spending time with the Vegas speaker, I'm glad Klipsch went with something that is more lightweight as it makes it effortless to bring with you or even just carry. Even though the speaker weight is light, the sound quality, app, and controls are all fantastic! I tried a different variety of music, and everything sound very good. This speaker can push out deep bass or hit high notes even at louder volume setting. We recently had a long weekend, and we used the speaker a lot for background music. I had a couple of friends comment that they were impressed with the sound the speaker produced as it wasn't just loud but was actually producing good quality sound. The look of the speaker is pretty basic and the lights are neat but compared to other brands are lacking. I do like that Klipsch light up their logo on both sides of the speaker, but at the end of the day I do not care about the lights just more about the way it sounds. On the back of the speaker is a microphone input (microphone included!) and a guitar input. I was only able to try out the microphone input, and it worked great and could be used for talking events or for karaoke. The top of the speaker has an indent that is used for your tablet so you can queue up karaoke songs and words. Next to the tablet slot there are controls for the microphone, mic volume, bass, treble, and echo. Very to adjust while singing along with your favorite songs! On the top of the speaker below the microphone controls are easy to use controls for ultra bass, light mode, input, play/pause, bluetooth, speaker link and volume. The light mode and Volume control use the same knob so sometimes when you mean to turn up the volume you are just adjusting the light mode. There is also a battery indicator along with a light power button and speaker power button. Pretty much everything you would need to adjust the speaker is right on top, so the app is only needed for a few adjustments like equalizer or picking your favorite color. The battery seemed to last all day at a medium volume setting (about 8 hours) before having to recharge. Charging from dead did seem to take a pretty long time, so I would just charge overnight. You can use the speaker while plugged in as well. Overall, this is an awesome speaker and has become my go to for using outside cleaning the cars, cleaning the house, hanging out with friends, or just chilling by the firepit.

I have no complaints, it's been a great joy in my home and just what I was looking for.

Anyone around sports in any way knows how important it is to get teams hyped up before game-time. For my adult league hockey team, and for my daughter's hockey team that I'm a coach on, our music has been playing out of a phone speaker. While better than nothing, that gives a hype level of 2 out of 10. As much time as is spent in a hockey locker room with all the gear that has to be put on, that's not good enough. So when I got a chance to get this Klipsch party speaker, I jumped on it immediately specifically for this reason. While the Vegas model is the smallest in their Music City Speaker series, it's actually perfect for what I want and need it for. Going for one of the bigger models would have been overkill. This Vegas speaker fills a locker room perfectly. It's more than loud enough with perfectly clear vocals while giving plenty of thumping bass needed to get players hyped up. It's obviously not going to be as loud as the bigger speakers, and won't rattle the walls with bass as much as them either, but it also comes in a smaller package that's easier to carry around and at a much lower cost. It's a perfect compromise without really compromising much since the sound actually is quite good. At around 14 pounds and the built-in grab handle, it's easy to move around versus the bigger speakers that are so heavy they need trolley wheels. There's a lot more to it though that I honestly didn't expect. Like the fact that it comes with a mic, making it perfect for parties where people might need to make a speech or announcement. It also has an input for a guitar. Unfortunately I only have an acoustic guitar so I haven't been able to try it, but having this speaker with that ability makes me want to get an electric guitar now too. Another nice feature is that if you do need more sound, it has the ability to link with additional Klipsch speakers. The light modes obviously add to the party aspect, but it's nice that you can turn them off, or just keep the speaker lights on and turn off the side "klipsch" lights. The only negative thing I have is that I wish the speaker had a place to store the power cord. That is a very minor nit-pick though as the speaker is obviously made to be used cordless and the battery lasts for quite a while. In my case, I can easily take it to several hockey games and not need to plug it in. Overall, not only is this Vegas speaker perfect for me, I believe it's perfect for the way most people I know would use it. Unless you're trying to fill a large conference room, there's no need to go bigger. This speaker is the way to go for house parties, locker rooms, back yard bbq's, tailgating, campouts, and so much more.

Bottom line–the Klipsch Vegas sounds simply phenomenal, especially for a party speaker that doesn’t look like it was unpacked by a roadie for a rock concert. Add in some impressive flexibility for source playback and there’s very little reason NOT to pick one up if you’re in the market for a mid-sized party speaker. The unit itself isn’t what I would call “enormous,” especially given that some party speakers I’ve seen in Best Buy stand taller than a typical 5 year-old, but it’s not exactly “desktop-friendly” either. If you plan to use the Vegas in very cramped quarters, like an office cubicle or dorm room, you might be a little strained for real estate. But for relatively large open spaces, like a backyard or the back of a car or mini-van for a tailgating party, the Klipsch Vegas really hits home. You can run it off AC or use the hefty internal battery for playback…go without the LED lighting (which, TBH, is no big loss in this case), and you can expect at least 8-12 hours of runtime. The unit itself tips the scales at less than 14 pounds; heavy enough that it’s gonna stay in place on one of its set of 4 rubberized bumper feet even if someone bumps up against it. The beefy built-in carrying handle makes trucking the speaker around a breeze. There’s also a standard pole-mount on the bottom for those of you who take your party speaker mounting very seriously. The speaker is IPX4-rated so it’s protected from splashes making poolside use a no-brainer, but it sadly makes no guarantees about dust or sand so I’d think twice about bringing it to the beach. Playback options are surprisingly robust. There’s standard BlueTooth of course, thin “trough” that runs just behind the carrying handle so you can stand up a phone or tablet right on the device while you manage your playlists. Behind the rubberized rear cover is a 3.5mm stereo input (and a 3.5mm output for good measure) and a ¼” microphone input for those of you brave enough to want to hear your own amplified voice via the included microphone for Karaoke or DJ duties. There’s also a USB input that doubles for both firmware updates and media playback (MP3 and WAV). But Klipsch goes one better by also including a ¼” guitar input (and I suppose any other musical instrument that uses a similarly spec’d ¼” hookup) for anyone who shows up to your party really packin’ and ready to entertain. Somewhat strangely though, the volume and gain controls for the ¼” guitar and mic inputs are ALSO hidden in the back behind the rear cover. I suppose that design choice makes sense given that the ¼” inputs are there as well, but all the other playback controls are living big and bright on the top of the unit. Speaking of the controls, they are clearly marked (for the most part) and the silver knurled knobs are easy to turn and the rubberized buttons are responsive and easy to press. ALL control labels assume you are standing directly in front of the speaker grille, which I suppose makes sense for volume or LED lighting program, but someone who is serious about DJ’ing a party using the Vegas would likely be situated behind the speaker thereby rendering all microphone adjustment info (mic volume, bass, treble, and echo) as well as the three built-in DJ effects (airhorn, record scratch, and applause) upside down. A large silver-grey button in the middle of the control console injects some “Ultra Bass” into the mix while all other buttons for playback control, input switching, BlueTooth, and stereo-pairing another party speaker, and the power and lighting buttons, feature white labeling on black rubberized buttons. In another somewhat odd (at least to me) design choice, the large knurled knobs that control volume and light program selection are infinitely spinning with no stops for maximum or minimum settings. This makes it a little hard to know how much volume headroom you might have left, and really doesn’t make sense for the lighting selector. There are only 5 built-in light effects for the Vegas speaker–none of which are particularly exciting because the LED surrounds for the rectangular horn and round woofer only display one color at a time–there are no chasing or rainbow effects here and no point-source LEDs for a quick flash of bright, white light. But to the point, having a large and infinitely scrolling wheel for only 5 effects selections seems like a waste of a pretty big section of the control panel’s real estate; and the label simply reads + or - so there’s no way of knowing what the final light mode you selected actually is without standing there for a bit and waiting to see what happens. I suppose you technically have 10 light modes to pick from because the separate light key sitting next to the light mode dial also cycles between illuminating front LEDs only, front LEDs + the two side light-up Klipsch logos, and no LEDs. This odd control scheme makes something as simple as lighting mode selection more complicated than it needs to be–and, again, given the limited lighting options anyway, I’m not sure any of them really add much to the “party vibe” anyway. The other issue I took with the Vegas–that could have probably been addressed by eliminating that pointlessly huge light mode dial–is the lack of onboard EQ adjustments. You can adjust the bass and treble of the mic input only using the onboard dials. If you want to change EQ settings or tweak frequency response for different sources, you have to download and use the Klipsch Connect Plus companion app. Assuming your phone is BT connected, you can use the app as a virtual remote for playback controls (play/pause, track skip, etc.), light mode selection, and most importantly, EQ selection and adjustment. The selections include supposedly “professionally tuned audio presets” as well as a 3-band EQ for manual adjustments of bass, mids, and treble. Given that a party speaker might be host to a number of different sources or genres during the course of a single session, it would have been REALLY nice to at least have an EQ-select or toggle button the speaker itself so you don’t have to go spelunking into a companion app to make any fine-tuning adjustments to better suit your listening environment. Those minor gripes aside, the most important aspect of any party speaker is how well it functions in its main capacity as a SPEAKER. In that sense, the Vegas Party Speaker really is quite phenomenal. Even without another speaker paired up for true stereo sound, the sound quality is rich, full-bodied, and the Vegas drives it all LOUD. But, it’s not just volume for volume’s sake–the Vegas pushes the volume to max levels without any ugly distortion or harsh effects in the upper registers or vocal ranges. It also does so without becoming muddy or irritatingly boomy in the bass region–something those of you with neighbors who are sensitive to excessive, window-rattling bass might appreciate. I used this one relatively modest-sized speaker for a pool party a week ago and I could easily hear it well at the back of our yard. But more to the point, it sounded GREAT at the back of our yard, not just loud, but actually enjoyable. Klipsch definitely scored a big win here by giving you really sweet-sounding audio performance in a relatively compact package that still has the horsepower to deliver the goods on a large scale. If you care about the quality of your party sound and not just how loud it can go, the Klipsch Vegas should DEFINITELY be on your short list to consider.