Hands On With the New Klipsch Flexus 200 Soundbar

There's really nothing better than a full surround sound system, regardless of the size of your room. Hearing theater-quality bass and directional sound is one of the joys of watching movies at home, and the Klipsch Flexus 200 makes it an easy-to-achieve reality.

Adding the subwoofer and satellite speakers is a cinch, provided that you didn't misplace the pairing dongle as I did. Getting the three separate speakers paired is just a matter of pressing the pairing button on the plugged-in speaker you want to pair and the dongle-inserted into the soundbar, and boom, you're ready to experience surround sound. No messy wires from your soundbar to your satellite speakers, no worrying about whether you have room for the cube-like subwoofer. Just place them in the same room, plug them in, and you're ready to go.

And oh, what a sound. Klipsch teamed up with Onkyo on this one, and—even without the extra speakers—the Flexus 200 sounds incredibly good. The audio is crisp, clear, and easy to configure via the Klipsch app. The remote lets you turn the sound bar on and the volume up and down, as you'd expect, but also includes buttons to increase the Dialog frequencies (low, med, high) that let you hear the actors talking even when there's a ton of surround sound, explosions, and music in an action scene. Or when they whisper, which, c'mon, stop talking so quietly!

Specs and Tech

The Flexus Core 200 forms the basis of this surround sound system, including 3.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos technology. The soundbar alone has two 2.25-inch elevation drivers, four front-firing 2.25-inch aluminum drivers and dual 4-inch subwoofers built right. in. It's also got a dedicated center channel speaker for that clear dialog.

The soundbar itself measures 44 inches long, 3 inches tall, and 5 inches deep. It looks great at the bottom of my big 65-inch TV and fits right between the support legs.

Controlling the Core 200

The remote also gives you buttons to change the sound mode from movie to music to Bluetooth, increase the surround sound mode, add more bass, or even switch to Night mode, which lowers the volume of big boomy sounds so you don't disturb your neighbors. You can also switch the input from the TV (HDMI eARC) to Digital (optical cable) with the remote.

Klipsch Connect is an app that powers your soundbar from your phone, too, giving you access to pre-set or custom EQ settings, the above-mentioned Dialog, Night, and Input settings, and more. There are tons of options in here, like the ability to raise the level of individual channels, like turning up the surrounds to hear them better. The app is also where you'll get firmware updates as they go.

I had a bit of a tough time with the first soundbar Klipsch sent; the audio would stutter from time to time when connected to my LG TV. Once the second unit arrived, that was a non-issue. It works via the HDMI or the optical cable just fine, and when connected to the eARC port, the soundbar comes on when I turn on the TV or PlayStation 5 I use for gaming and Media.

The other issue I ran into was the remote control sort of de-pairing, if that's a word. When I got the second soundbar for testing, the remote didn't control the Flexus 200 out of the box; I had to pair it manually, after which it worked fine—until the next day when it stopped working. I re-paired it again, and it worked, but I'm assuming this is another remote-specific issue since the initial remote control worked flawlessly.

Is the Klipsch Flexus 200 Worth It?

This is not a cheap system. The Core 200 soundbar retails for $499, while the subwoofer and surround speakers cost $299 and $249, respectively. There is a Core 100 soundbar that also works with these peripheral sound devices, which comes in at $349 (it has a 2.1 Dolby surround system instead of the 3.1.2 of the Core 200).

That's expensive, for sure, but this is a fantastic, world-class home theater system that can compete with anything else in its class. The soundbar is an impressive piece of audio technology on its own, and the ability to add a subwoofer and surround speakers later is pretty great, too.

Ultimately, if you're looking for an amazing-sounding home theater system with all the bells and whistles, the Klipsch Flexus Core 200 should definitely be on your list.