KLIPSCH & MCLAREN
Special editions can make for some classy kit, but there’s always that aphorism regarding ‘lipstick on a pig’ to warn against buying mediocre product that’s been tarted up.
No danger of that here. These Klipsch special editions are based on established and successful products: ‘The Fives’, indeed, are active speakers which we applauded in our #340 review of their conventional version, setting them up for a 2022 Sound+Image Award as our Active Loudspeakers of the Year.
Now they’re back in our system, freshly peppered with papaya highlights and special badging that marks Klipsch’s official headphone and portable audio partnership with McLaren Formula 1. ‘Welcome to the Speed of Sound’ says the exterior of the high-class branded packaging, and when you open the flaps you’re greeted with a cable set rebraided in the ‘papaya’ orange first chosen in 1968 by Bruce McLaren (who was, let’s not forget, Antipodean), and back
