Costco's Home Theater Deal Looks Good, But There's A Smarter Option

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If you know where to look, there are some great deals to be had online for home audio and home theater equipment, both at specialist retailers and more general home electronics and appliance vendors. If you're willing to comparison shop and especially consider alternate forms of discounts like open box and refurbished equipment, then those deals get even better. There are also various retailers that are known for delivering consistent good deals, one of the best-known of which is Costco, the venerable wholesale warehouse discount club chain. Like other large chains, Costco sometimes has bundles and/or specific models that are exclusive to its stores, and in the audio realm, there's one that piques a lot of interest online: The $1,799.99 online-exclusive Klipsch Reference Dolby Atmos 5.0.2 Surround System.

As a Costco deal, you might assume at first glance that this is a killer bundle deal that, at a minimum, will save you lots of money over building the system elsewhere. Determining if that's the case is easier said than done, though, as the floorstanding speakers that the package is built around are exclusive to this Costco bundle. 

In this case, you also might not even like Klipsch speakers, despite their reputation for high quality, they have a reputation for building speakers with a distinct "bright" sound that emphasizes high frequencies, not a "flat" frequency response. With all of that in mind, let's look at what's in the Costco bundle, if it offers a significant discount, and what alternatives are available.

According to the Costco item description, which is backed up by the Klipsch website, the R-806FA bundle includes five pieces containing seven passive speakers intended for a 5.0.2 channel configuration at its $1,799.99 price tag. Those speakers are a single R-50C center speaker, a pair of R-40M bookshelf speakers to be used as surrounds, and a pair of R-806FA floorstanding speakers that serve as both the front left/right channels and the front height left/right channels. The grills are removable, and it even includes speaker wire, but if you're starting fresh, the package is missing the required AV receiver and, unusually for bundles, a subwoofer.

If you're reading closely, you might've noticed something curious: The front speakers have the same model number as the bundle. As best as we can tell, that's because the floorstanding speakers in question are exclusive to this bundle, and not sold separately like the other three speakers are. That makes it harder to try to judge exactly what kind of value the bundle brings. 

The bookshelf surrounds retail for $249 per pair and the center speaker at $329, so determining if these are a good deal involves figuring out if, potential discounts aside, the floorstanders are worth $1,200-plus per pair. The best lead we could find, from a /r/hometheater user on Reddit in August 2023, pegs it as an improved version of the R-605FA, which retails for $1,538 per pair, but can be found for $800 or less.

There are no professional reviews for the bundle-exclusive speakers, but from comparing them to the closest comparable model we could find, $1,799.99 isn't a significant discount over building out your own Klipsch Reference surround speaker set yourself. Speaking broadly, home audio gear is the kind of product where comparison shopping really pays off, so while the lack of direct comparisons hurts, we can still do our best to try to find better ways to build a comparable or better system for a comparable or better price. (Especially since this is a price range with very significant competition.)

Also, there's another factor to consider: You might not like Klipsch speakers. Klipsch is a reputable, high quality brand, but one with a reputation for speakers with a tweaked, "bright" sound that particularly emphasizes higher frequencies. When you're spending thousands on speakers, it's best to find somewhere to demo them or only order from vendors with ironclad return policies. 

A lot of this is location-dependent, but there are alternative ways to get a feel for a speaker system, like Crutchfield's online SpeakerCompare software. It aims to give a feel for the defining characteristics of a given speaker to a potential customer listening to the music of their choice over headphones. From a deal perspective, the lack of direct comparisons thanks to the Costco-exclusive floorstanders makes it harder to figure out how to attack. Still, let's see what we can find that might be better deals.

One outlet with a decades-long reputation for fact-based reviews of home audio equipment is England's What Hi-Fi, and as of this writing, its "Best Surround Sound Systems" list includes the Wharfdale Diamond 12.1 Home Theater Pack as its best "affordable" pick. (The best overall pick costs multiples of the Wharfdale set, which What Hi-Fi reviewed at a roughly $1,227 price point.) The site's review of the 12.1 HCP is positively glowing, and even says that there are zero negatives to be found at the price point it was selling for when tested. However, it's a 5.1 kit with a subwoofer and the front speakers are bookshelf speakers, so it's not necessarily a one to one comparison with the Costco deal.

Another site highly respected for its testing methodology is The Wirecutter, where the staff's upgrade pick for the best bookshelf speakers is the $500 per pair Triangle Borea BR03. Throw in the suggested matching speakers, the roughly $249 BRC1 center speaker and the $479 per pair BRA1-3D up-firing height speakers, and you've got, like with the Costco set, a 5.0.2 bundle. And on top of that, the price ends up slightly lower than the Costco Klipsch bundle for a set that's more proven as far as professional reviews go. The front speakers aren't floorstanding, so you might need some standard, but overall, this looks like a better use of your money than the Costco-exclusive Klipsch 5.0.2 bundle likely is.

Something else worth considering is that home audio equipment is an area where it's easier to find fantastic deals if you're willing to go beyond what's strictly brand new in sealed boxes. Since there aren't that many places to demo expensive audio equipment before your purchase, there end up being plenty of customer returns that get inspected and then funneled back into retail channels under labels like "open box" and "refurbished," often with warranties from the manufacturer. There are plenty of places where you can find deals like this: The manufacturer might have its own outlet web store for refurbished products, plus lots of established home audio and home theater vendors like Music Direct and Crutchfield have wide selections of open box discounts.

There are even entire companies that specialize in selling refurbished gear with warranties as an authorized reseller, with Accessories4Less arguably being the best-known. And not only do they have a lot of interesting refurbished deals, but it also has some attractive "new old stock" deals. Like being the only place that still stocks new, sealed inventory of the legendary bang-for-your buck surround speaker set that was the Energy Take Classic.

It's a lot easier to blind buy a TV, for example, knowing you'll probably like it based on reviews discussing objective measurements and quality-defining TV features like local dimming. An objectively good speaker might not be tuned to your taste, though, leading to returns and eventually someone else's bargain.