Creating a balanced sweet spot takes a bit of doing, in part because the speakers are quite precise. I found that the satellites have a discernable cone of coverage, so having any one of them askew or misdirected will throw off the balanced 4-channel effect. Unlike some of the Cambridge/Creative labs 4.1 speaker sets, these do not come with speaker stands for the rear pair, so you will need desk and bookshelf space in just the right positions. A U-shaped workstation is optimal, unless you happen to have access to one of George Jetson's circular desks.

This becomes more of an issue when you start fiddling with the surround sound effects in the system, which can throw off the balance among the 4 speakers. This problem was most obvious in the SB Live 4-speaker Wave sound check. The output was noticeably uneven among the 4 speakers, with a consistent weakness in the front right channel. The manual addresses this only fleetingly, suggesting that you must adjust the surround dial until you find the right balance as well as keep your sound card at half volume, letting the speakers do the most of the amplification. While generally, this was true, I found this the most persistently irritating part of the Klipsch units, as the effect varies according to speaker and card volume settings and sound source. Admittedly, it was most noticeable in the 4-channel voice test, which one doesn't use much, and it didn't seem to effect games was unnoticeable in music tracks. But there were moments when the left front and right rear speaks seemed to be driving harder than their counterparts, and it seemed unclear to me whether the surround sound dial was meant to balance the 4-channel speaker output or provide the surround effect. Are the two functions inseparable?

These nits, which are irritating only in passing and after months of knowing these speakers intimately, cannot detract from the overall sound quality of the speakers.