Fundamentily extremely linear low distortion

Crossover

I purchased these new unfinished in 1974 I had driven them
with some solid state amps that I built and a cleaned up
marantz preamp for years. Recently I have been listening to
a pair of KLF20s that have better detail probably as a result
of improved phase coherence. I had time aligned the tweeters
and the mids a number of years ago, this improved the detail signifigantly. however the klfs had better mid range detail but without the accurate bass. So I began reinvestigating the
phase issue and decided to look at the crossover situation. I built the ALK crossovers discussed on the klipsch web site and it is a improvemnet over the AA series crossover originaly in my horns. I began investigation of electronic crossovers and amps and picked up a Rane 3 way phase coherent
crossover which I upgraded the op amps in. This is by far the best upgrade that I have found for these speakers and perhaps my system in general. The midrange became crystal clear in comparison to the AA crossovers or the ALK crossovers. Triamping gets around inherint disadvantages of passive crossovers and the padding of the midrange is accomplished just by turning down the mid output. The only disadvantage of this configuration is if you have marginal recordings it is now quite noticeable. For the power amps I have been using some parasound amps currently the 855 for the mid and tweet and 1205 for the bass horns. the 1205 seems to handle the bass driver better. but it may be a unresolved cableing issue.
I Normaly use these in a stereo configuration but I also
have the klfc7 ksf6? surrounds for the surround sound processor.
For those that follow the klipsch boards I have not tried
dynamat on the mid horn yet maybe later in the year.
If anyone is interested I have the alk xovers in parts available

The current collection of boxes
Parasound 1205a
parasound 855a
Parasound 850 modified
Parasound 2500u surround processor
SOTA modified turntable/Sumiko blupoint special
Magnavox 462? cd
misc dvd,ld players
Rane AC23 crossover at 400hz and 7khz
audio quest crystal speaker wires
home built twisted pair teflon interconnects

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Herresys, Cornwalls, ForteII, KLF20

Dynamics, BIG sound

Imaging, mid bass

I lived with these speakers for about a year. When I was auditioning them, they sounded awesome in the store but I had extreme difficulty making them sound good at home. When I'd go back to the store and listen, I noticed all of the deficiencies that I'd found at home, just less obvious. First of all, there is no placement flexibility - you have to have a room with a couple of corners. About the only way to taylor the sound is with an equalizer or different associated equipment. I tried both.

On the positive side, they sound huge. Some types of music sound best that way. Pink Floyd has never sounded better. Recordings that should be life sized on the other hand are overblown. Voices seem to come from above. Subtleties are mostly missing as well. The sweet spot is more like a pin prick. Move an inch in either direction and everything sounds like it's coming from one side or the other.

I will say that if you have a large room with ceilings 12 feet or higher, these speakers sound quite good if not nearly as detailed as other speakers even half their price. If what you're looking for is rock concert volume levels or huge sound, and have a large enough room to do them justice, go for it. If you have a wide range of musical tastes and a normal room you'll be frustrated by these speakers.

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M&K, Infinity

Wow! Could these be the best speakers in the world?

Must have quality electronics, source material, and room acoustics. They will reveal flaws in upstream components with no mercy.

If you feed these babies with quality input (amp, preamp, source), and have them properly setup, these things will sound like you are listening to live music. If you do all these thing corectly, no other speaker made, at any price, can compare with these wonderful things. This is the reason there have been no design changes to these speakers since they were introduced decades ago! Every other speaker manufacturer out there comes out with "new, improved" models every few years or so. Doesn't that tell you something about the models that are being replaced? The Klipschorn has been in production for over 50 years! It still sound RIGHT!

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Not much out there that can compare at any price.

Dynamics! Clarity! Musicality!

Gotta have quality equipment upstream!

In my honest opinion, these are the greatest speakers ever made. I have listened to most of the highly regarded speakers out there, most of the ones that are "Class A" recommended by Stereophile, and none of them do for me what these speakers do. NONE OF THEM! Sure, there are some speakers that do SOME things better, but when you consider the overall sound package, these are the best sounding speakers I have ever heard. No other speaker allows me to enjoy listening to music as much as the "Mighty Klipschorn"! The only thing better is a live performance.

Jaw dropping musical clarity. So smooth you are spoiled for anything else

They can make a poorly recorded cd sound like crap. when fed the right signal...there is no speaker better

The boys in Hope made my Khorns to order, satin black and quality through out. I cannot stress how wonderful these speakers are. The number of people to step into the room and walk out saying they have never heard music as clear and dynamic is growing everyday. I don't have a tube amp driving them...I can only imagine. I use a ATI 1505. What a waste of watts, the amp does not even get warm after hours of playing hard. You simply cannot get a better sound at this price point or any.
If you love live music, get the Eagles Hell Freezes over DVD in DTS, it will blow you away. They are simply as good as it gets. You must hear them with quality sources, as cd player, amp, preamp. And above all, it must be a well mastered recording since the K's will show any defect in levels and mix.

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All Klipsch in theater/listening room. C6, S7, SW15

Sound is near perfection. Limited only by the amp and source data. Stuning craftsmenship, design, style, materials,

Large size, Cost.

These are the best speakers for your dollar on the planet. They are large and are quite commanding to be around - even when they are off. When you turn them on you have to be stund (if you have any appreciation for good sound and or good music. I know many people who have the cash for these but I stear them away because they lack the proper appreciation. Also there are some people who lack the respect for them in the long haul. It breaks my heart to see these things unloved. Iv'e seen them used by bands who drug them around and beat them to death. People put them outside in the rain, Spill paint on them, put drinks on them. These speakers are works of art. As great or greater then many scupltures throughout time. and thats just how they look. When you try them out: Take your most dearly loved music and pick a solid track that you think you know and grab a seat, hit play and turn it up a bit. If you picked somthing like Dave Mathews Band, Oingo Boingo, Boston Pops, Metalica or anything else that was well done and accusticly complex you will discover things about it you never knew. You will fall in love, if you have know what love is.

You may have a significant other that balks at the purchuse. Ignore them or leave them. I have yet to meet someone that I would choose over my K-horns if they were to force me to pick one or the other.

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10 years in A/V. Live Theater, Bands, and home installs. Everything

These are the most efficient, revealing, and truthful speakers on the market. They have been basically unchanged
for 50 years for this reason.

They require Class "A" equipment (amplifier, cd player, etc.), a large rectangular shaped room, and a center speaker (Lascala or Belle).

Klipschorns are the best speakers on the market... at any price. They are extremely efficient, realistic, and truthful. ALL detail generated by a source and developed by an amplifier WILL be revealed by klipschorn speakers. Reviewers may say that these speakers sound harsh, but this is due to the influence of sub par equipment. Remember, I said that these speakers are truthful. Using Class "A" equipment with klipschorns will produce a sound only heard at live events. Therefore, only invest in Klipschorn speakers if you are willing to support them with Class "A" equipment. Otherwise, you will regrete it. Not only do these speakers have to be placed in the corner of the room, but the listener must be directly in front of both speakers. This means that the speakers MUST be 90 degrees apart. This gap produces quite a hole in the center. Therefore, a speaker of equal sound quality must be placed in the center. This is why the Belle speaker was developed.
A mono channel signal must be used by the Belle. This condition can easily be set up using a plan developed by Klipsch. Call Klipsch for details. In summary, Klipschorn speakers are the best sounding speakers on the market if you are willing to suppert them with class "A" equipment, place them in the corners of a rectangular shaped room which is twice as wide as deep, and use a Belle center speaker with a mono signal. Enjoy.

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Lascala, or Belle speakers

Incredible efficiency, honest fundamental bass, clearity. They reproduce EVERYTHING that is fed to them.

Not their fault, but if you don't understand anything else about these speakers, you MUST realize that they will not be kind to bad sounding (amps, cd players, recordings) Pick One.

It is interesting to read people's comments about Klipschorns sounding shrill or harsh. What people misunderstand is the efficiency and the accuracy. The harsh / shrill is nothing more than bad sound from less than squeeky clean equipment upstream, INCLUDING the recording. For instance, in an otherwise fine recording of a vocalist, one can hear the hiss from a noisy microphone as the recording enigneer opens and closes the mic. These speakers expose hiss and hum that other speakers mask. Yeah, you may want to tweak the trebel setting back a bit if it annoys you.

As for the bass being "spotty" or localized, oh gimme a break. It's called Standing Wave and it is a function of room geometry and not the speakers. Not many speakers can reproduce the extreme bass in the original soundtrack recording of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". It is bass you feel.

Klipshorns are intended for serious listening, so of course you'd want your listening spot to be correct. They're big, heavy, and not for the young and restless on the move. On the other hand when it's party time, you can literally ROCK the whole house: 104 db @ 1 Watt goes a long ways. You can't stay in the room at 100 watts.

I am driving them with a Carver pre-amp feeing a full triode tube amp that I built that delivers 83 clean watts. (Yes, I had to pay lots of attention to design.)

Now for the funny part. My previous speakers were Bose 901's that I purchased new in 1968. These are about as opposite from Klipschorns as one can get: diffused, a tad bass shallow, and a lot power hungry. Over the years, I upgraded power amps several times in quest of perfection. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Bose, but they had to be in the right sized room environment. They get lost in fair sized rooms. But I still have them and they are great for the bedroom.

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None

The Klipschorn is capable of outstanding reproduction, with life and emotion of music being effortlessly communicated. High sensitivity and efficiency.

Originally designed for mono, so eq is wrong for stereo in one room (midbass heavy). Driver quality has gone down steadily since 1940's when designed. Cabinet quality also reduced.

I bought a cherry finish K-horn from a local antique shop. It looks great, but the original driver quality is poor (albeit better than the current set of speaker drivers). I replaced the University HF driver with an RCA alnico unit from the '40's, and also the woofer. It is a wonderful speaker, but the original unit and british versions have far superior sonics to the mass produced American model. Also one has to have a reinforced wall to form the rest of the horn from, it doesn't work well in plaster-walled rooms.

The original lab model used Western Electric and Jensen drivers, which were of extremely high quality, but were far too expensive to produce in numbers. Thus the consumer model leaves much to be desired. The models with EV/University/Stephens drivers are probably the best american version, as later models used oem'd Eminence and other cheap units. It bothers me that a $5000 speaker would use $10 woofers and $15 hf units, but the only other options currently come from TAD, JBL, etc. and are far more costly.

By design, if not always in practice, a wonderful speaker.

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Altec A4 Voice of the Theatres, RCA Ubangis, diy field coil horn system, EV system

The Klipschorn is capable of outstanding reproduction, with life and emotion of music being effortlessly communicated. High sensitivity and efficiency.

Originally designed for mono, so eq is wrong for stereo in one room (midbass heavy). Driver quality has gone down steadily since 1940's when designed. Cabinet quality also reduced.

I bought a cherry finish K-horn from a local antique shop. It looks great, but the original driver quality is poor (albeit better than the current set of speaker drivers). I replaced the University HF driver with an RCA alnico unit from the '40's, and also the woofer. It is a wonderful speaker, but the original unit and british versions have far superior sonics to the mass produced American model. Also one has to have a reinforced wall to form the rest of the horn from, it doesn't work well in plaster-walled rooms.

The original lab model used Western Electric and Jensen drivers, which were of extremely high quality, but were far too expensive to produce in numbers. Thus the consumer model leaves much to be desired. The models with EV/University/Stephens drivers are probably the best american version, as later models used oem'd Eminence and other cheap units. It bothers me that a $5000 speaker would use $10 woofers and $15 hf units, but the only other options currently come from TAD, JBL, etc. and are far more costly.

By design, if not always in practice, a wonderful speaker.

Similar Products Used:

Altec A4 Voice of the Theatres, RCA Ubangis, diy field coil horn system, EV system