Any opinions: Klipsch ??

[midlife]

Yes I do know this is the LH Forum, but anyone willing to talk about vintage Klipsch loudspeakers? Khorns, Belle/Lascala, Cornwalls?

[grumpy]

It's been done before, without too much of a mess... what's the question?
(keeping in mind that there -is- an active Klipsch forum)

[midlife]

It's been done before, without too much of a mess... what's the question?
(keeping in mind that there -is- an active Klipsch forum)
I do know about the K forum, thought it might be revealing to raise the topic here.

[Maron Horonzakz]

I bought a Klipschorn back in 1973.. The driver contents were so bad,,I ripped out the speakers and mid horn and replaced them with JBL HF drivers and Smith DSH horns. Then went to a three way electric crossover and six monoblock amps... The improvement was so good,, I never looked back. The only thing today that is better is a JBL Everest II...

[BMWCCA]

The driver contents were so bad,,I ripped out the speakers and mid horn and replaced them with JBL HF drivers and Smith DSH horns.So you have a lovely box that you're pleased with, maybe with PWK's initials on it, with nothing left of the original load? That speaks volumes! :)

[grumpy]

Unless there is a specific question or area of curiosity, I see no point other than to
intentionally instigate drama for personal entertainment purposes. ... sort of like going
to a Chevy-centric forum and asking for opinions on Fords, Mopars, Alfa-Romeos,
...whatever, then sit back and watch the show. :bs:

[midlife]

Unless there is a specific question or area of curiosity, I see no point other than to
intentionally instigate drama for personal entertainment purposes. ... sort of like going
to a Chevy-centric forum and asking for opinions on Fords, Mopars, Alfa-Romeos,
...whatever, then sit back and watch the show. :bs:
Thats not the reason I asked for opinions of Klipsch speakers. Considering the vast amount of knowledge and experience here at LHF I thought perhaps there would be some members with specific experience they may want to relate. I didn't really have specific questions to ask but was more interested in opinions, and not stirring the perverbiale pot. I drive a Chevy sports car and really appreciate my Ford work truck. No harm, no foul?

[grumpy]

Fair enough. I'd just rather not witness another internet mud fight.
Having focused questions would help.

Personal experience?

I have several types and ages of speakers at home, including Klipsch, and those that
have remained have stayed put for various reasons. Khorns and Belle (center) I have
because they are an interesting piece of history, nice to look at, and do some things
well. Cornwall's came and went (shared house time with JBL 150A's, which I still have).
Heresy's I've only heard at a relative's house, playing back Willy Nelson. I'm pretty
sure it was the Heresy's (1990's era) that wore my ears out that day. :)

FWIW, I have a small-block 331cid in a Datsun 240Z, so "horses for courses"
philosophy works with me.

[robertbartsch]

Klips? Yeh, I bought four - large modern towers new in 99. They have small compression drivers loaded in horns and several plastic coned 8" woofers. Also a center and powered sub.

The sound is poor. No dynamic range, low sensativity, poor imaging and poor sound stage.

The powered sub amp blew after a year or two.

All-in-all, the worst purchase I ever made.

[BMWCCA]

I hate Chevys . . . or was it Fords? I can't remember. Does Toyota make speakers? Probably hybrids anyway.

:D

[hjames]

Klips? Yeh, I bought four - large modern towers new in 99. They have small compression drivers loaded in horns and several plastic coned 8" woofers. Also a center and powered sub.

The sound is poor. No dynamic range, low sensativity, poor imaging and poor sound stage.

The powered sub amp blew after a year or two.

All-in-all, the worst purchase I ever made.

What the heck are you talking about man, nearly all speaker manufacturers make crap models as well as the occasional good models.
"... some darned Klipsch thingee is lousy ..."
man thats either ignorant or slander, but its not at all helpful to anyone.
BE SPECIFIC!
Give MODEL NAMES and MODEL NUMBERS -
otherwise its just crap we read on the internet and about as worthless ...
I swear ... general mumbles indeed!

Bought a table last week from a fellow over in Maryland who was moving far away (to CA).
They were beautiful, so I complimented him on them and he apologized that he couldn't play them
for me, but the moving truck was due next morning and all his gear was packed ...
But he was real proud of these classic Klipsch he bought in the 70s ... such a gorgeous cabinet!

Compare them to the cheapo looking ones currently being closed out at Woot (woot.com)

[Sootshe]

I have a set of 19's & a set of La Scala 2's & they both do some good things. My heart always seem to be with the 19's as they just have that great big huge sound....very warm & relaxing...yet they can bark when they need to:). The La Scala's are a different experience but they still put a huge smile on my face. I think a lot of opinions are not based on fact (much the same as I like my 19's... just because they are 19's) & the heritage line of Klipsch products are still competitive with the newer offerings from almost any manufacturer.
My experience with people who don't like Klipsch speakers & horn speakers in general is that they are running them with inferior ancilliary equipment. I've heard Altec's, JBL's & Klipsch sound absolutely terrible but to get the magical quality these speakers are capable of you need to give them half a chance. Also not all amps, preamps & cables that suit Altecs & JBL's will suit Klipsch.
Just me 2c worth.

[RIGGED]

I own a pair of Cornwalls circa 1978 and they sound pretty darn good for their age-I don't care for the newer stuff though.




RIGGED

[Maron Horonzakz]

HJAMES,,, Yes the Klipschorn is a beautiful horn cabinet... BUT take out that K33 woofer and tell me what you think Then,,Yugo made a better car than that woofer. The mid driver was a Atlas PA siren driver,,, Klipsch never made drivers,,he made horn cabinets,, Dont get me started on that tweeter,,K77.

[hjames]

HJAMES,,, Yes the Klipschorn is a beautiful horn cabinet... BUT take out that K33 woofer and tell me what you think Then,,Yugo made a better car than that woofer. The mid driver was a Atlas PA siren driver,,, Klipsch never made drivers,,he made horn cabinets,, Dont get me started on that tweeter,,K77.

Told you from the get go I never heard it, the owner had everything packed for a moving truck due 12 hours later.

But I'll make the point, if it sounded like trash he wouldn't have kept it all those years, nor moved it cross country - so there must be SOME magic there, hmm??

spare me the Yugo references, hokay?

[Maron Horonzakz]

Yugo metaphores.. I,m sure if you bought a Corvette and lifted the hood and found a YUGO engine We would hear about. That analagy goes with the Khorn.

[George Roland]

In the 1970s, I bought a pair of Cornwalls. I changed electronics with them (from an old Fisher integrated tube amp to GAS Thalia preamp and Grandson power amp, both solid state components) which was an improvement. I liked the "big sound" they produced but found them fatiguing to listen to for operatic voices in particular, a bit hard and honky. I sold them after about 5 years and bought a used pair of KEF 104aBs that were smoother and less colored on vocals but with less bass and dynamics. These were followed by a pair of PSB Stratus Golds, speakers I loved and kept for quite awhile.
My second experience with Klipsch speakers is much more recent. I decided to give Klipschorns a try partly out of nostalgia, curiosity and my admiration for Paul Klipsch, a true "character" as well as a brilliant engineer. I just didn't want to end my life never having owned a pair. My room is 14 w x 22 l x 7.5 h and the only suitable corners I had were along the 14 foot side. I knew that was less than optimal, and it is almost certainly true that this was not a big enough room for K-horns anyway, though I see photos where people have stuffed them into 8 x 10 bedrooms--I can't imagine it!?
With my K-horns, I went through several years of upgrades of horns, drivers crossovers and electronics, taking many of my cues from folks on the Klipsch forums, a most enjoyable place to talk audio, as I am finding this forum to be as well.
A few years earlier, I had begun playing around with tube electronics and liked them much better than solid state gear, but my Audio Research SP-8 preamp had too much gain for the K-horns, so I bought a Blueberry Xtreme from Juicy Music based on recommendations on the Klipsch forum. They were much more listenable than the ARC preamp with the K-horns. I also eventually bought a pair of Welborne DRD 300B SET amps and, along with the BBX, were the best electronics I had with the K-horns, along with Jolida CD player, which I love and still use every day.
With the K-horns themselves, I had the stock components, of course, then used Bob Crites' new crossovers and tweeter which were an improvement. I also tried a pair of JBL Baby Cheeks tweeters too, but preferred the Crites models. So that's three different tweeters, four different preamps (There was a Dynaco PAS-2 with full Curcio mods in there.) at least two different power amps, but wait! There's more! I also diddled around quite a bit with the midrange. I first swapped out horns using the K-55V driver. I tried both Altec 511Bs and ALK's Trachorns, both of which were improvements over the K-400. I also tried Altec 290-16 drivers and 311-60 horns which were probably the best sounding--lending credence to those who fault the K-55V. I know there were other things I could have tried--JBL mid drivers other items, etc. But, ultimately, after all these "tweaks" and a lot of money and experimentation, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed, I ended up feeling pretty much the same towards the K-horns that I had about the Cornwalls--too honky, constricted sounding and fatiguing to listen to. I ended up selling everything off and continuing to look for "better" sound elsewhere.
Presently I am running a pair of Quad ESL 63s that I love and a newly-acquired pair of Altec Lansing Model 19s, which I also love. The 19s have the "big sound", the dynamics, the ability to play very cleanly and clearly at moderate volume that I enjoyed with the Klipsches and very little of the hard, honkeyness and fatiguing colorations I found so objectionable with them. Rightly or wrongly, I am also convinced that they are far more detailed than the Klipsch speakers I have owned.
So that's one person's experiences with Klipsch speakers. I know lots of people who love them to death, and who would vehemently object to all I have said about them. I am glad Klipsches exist for those people, but they haven't "done it" for me.

Enjoy your music!

George Roland

[midlife]

Yugo metaphores.. I,m sure if you bought a Corvette and lifted the hood and found a YUGO engine We would hear about. That analagy goes with the Khorn.
Interesting analogy

[Tom Brennan]

I owned two sets of LaScalas, a set of Cornwalls and a set of Heresys.

The LaScala and Heresy are IMO bad speakers that entrap you with their formidable virtues. Both speakers feature excellent clarity and dynamics and can sound very lifelike, that draws you in. But they also suffer from a skewed tonal balance with a serious lack of bass and a midrange like a goddam flamethrower. I ended up hating both speakers. The Heresys would literally give my wife, a violinist, an earache.

The Cornwall is much better because it goes deeper in the bass and has a robust and natural tonal balance that somewhat makes up for the strident upper midrange. Same for the Khorn.

My opinions.

Note the manner in which many Klipsch owners tweak and modify their speakers until in some cases they end up with JBLs and Altecs in Klipsch cabinets. With some people it never ends. Eventually many (like me) ditch the whole shmear and go direct to Altec and JBL.

There is also a small parasitical cottage industry over on the Klipsch forum that makes it's business modifying Klipsch speakers----you "need" this guy's crossover or this guy's Edgar mid horn copy or this guy's tweeter----it's really kind'a weird all this happening on the Klipsch company's own forum.

[Maron Horonzakz]

Like Paul Klipsch sead to me many many years ago.. The Klipschorn is a tweeker dream.

[jcrobso]

I'm using JBL D140F for the bass, JBL LE175 on Beyma horns and Beyma 075 clones for the highs and Beyma crossovers.
My room is 14'x17', yes a little on the small side, the speakers are on the 14' wall.
The Beyma horns are bi-radial heavy compressed plastic similar to what JBL now uses. They do not have the metallic ring that metal horns can have. They have a smother response. I also have a pair of JBL 2345 horns that I use for PA, I tried them with K horns, but went back to the Beyma horns.
I have heard stock Klispch horns and I feel my JBL loaded ones are better.
JBL drivers are better than the ones that Klispch uses in my opinion.

[jcrobso]

I hate Chevys . . . or was it Fords? I can't remember. Does Toyota make speakers? Probably hybrids anyway.

:D

My Toyota Sienna XLE has a JBL speaker system in it.:)

[BMWCCA]

Klipsch never made drivers,,he made horn cabinets,, Dont get me started on that tweeter,,K77.I grew up, literally, with JBL 030s in the house since I was five-years-old or younger. I still have them and until January they were my primary-system speakers. Now no one will ever tell you the D130 is the best speaker they ever heard (okay, maybe Harvey! ;) ) but I loved the D130/075 combination. Over the years growing up in the Midwest I probably heard more Klipsch than anything else as competition for JBL. I never, ever, heard a pair I liked as much as my JBLs. Now maybe that's because since when I was sixteen mine have had plenty of power beginning with a Fisher SA1000 and later a Crown D150.

Sadly the Klipsch I heard never even produced as much clean bass as my LF-deficient D130s but mine were in the large C37 or similar cabinets so they were doing the best they could. But where the Klipsch always seemed to turn me off was the lack of definition and sublety in how individual instruments sounded, even those Klipsch I heard "back East" when I was in my twenties. With the JBLs, the sound of fingers sliding over wound strings on a classical guitar was musical. On the Klipsch the same sound was less distinct, not as "quick", less full, and came across more as an irritating mistake than part of the performance. Ditto for 'cellos. I'm not schooled in hi-fi-speak but music ALWAYS sounded more "real" on my old JBLs (and still does) than anything else I heard at the time—other than the larger, more expensive JBLs.

Of course we all know we get used to what we own and listen to, and fifty-years with the same speakers doesn't make me an expert on them, or on any others. :)

[duaneage]

I owned a pair of Cornwalls in 1987 for about a year. I liked them a lot. I only sold them because they would not fit in the Korean house I rented and I needed more room. They were really big.

I thought they were pretty balanced, I added a little more fiberglass inside the cabs and that improved the mid bass a bit. Very efficient system, great cabinet work, Sometimes I am sorry I sold them. But too big for my house today so it's just as well.

[whizzer]

Hot-rodding K-Horns isn't a new thing. Back in the late '60's when I was in college, one of my roommates became engaged to a girl from Keyser, West Virginia. Her father often invited us all to the family home on football weekends, He had a big stereo system comprising K-horns--four of them--in all the corners of a large room, a Thorens turntable of some sort, and a McIntosh tube pre-amp and two McIntosh tube power amps. I'd heard Klipsch speakers before and had been duly impressed by how loudly they could play, but by little else about them. The first time I was there, I noticed right away these corner horns had a taller top MF-HF cabinet than I'd seen before. Then the music started. It was amazing--the "realest" sound I've heard to this day. It turned out that no part of them other than the cabinets was stock--Altec woofer and MF-horn and driver, and a JBL HF driver-horn combination; the system was bi-amped and also had a custom made passive crossover for the HF. I don't remember any of the parts numbers or names--they meant nothing to me then, and I can't remember them now, but I'll never forget the sound of that system.

[spkrman57]

I find that if you like JBL, Altec, EV or Klipsch that some of the best speaker system models can suffer less than ideal sound reproduction if the amplifier is not compatible with the speakers.:(

Since I am mainly a DIY audiophile and use components from JBL, Altec and EV in my speaker system, I find that different amplifiers(especially tube amplifiers) will deliver a different presentation from each other depending on the speaker system used.:blink:

What I have found is that matching up the right amplifier for each speaker system would be the best way to compare them to each other!;)

So before comparing speaker systems please consider that the same amplifier that works good on one speaker system may not be optimum for the others.:D

Just my 2 cents worth!:blah::blah::blah:

Regards, Ron

[jcrobso]

I owned a pair of Cornwalls in 1987 for about a year. I liked them a lot. I only sold them because they would not fit in the Korean house I rented and I needed more room. They were really big.

I thought they were pretty balanced, I added a little more fiberglass inside the cabs and that improved the mid bass a bit. Very efficient system, great cabinet work, Sometimes I am sorry I sold them. But too big for my house today so it's just as well.

About 20 years ago a good friend of mine and his new wife went shopping for speakers for the new house. I felt for sure they were going to get JBL L200. They have a large living room about twice the size of mine so the L200 would be nice. They ended up getting K Cornwall because the JBL 200 were to big! Oh well! They did sound good, but my friend still missed the JBL sound! A few years latter we replaced all of the K speakers with Beyma drivers. At the time I had contact with a company that was importing Beyma speakers and I was getting dealers cost. After we we finished we played the speakers for his wife and she remarked how much better they sounded. If she had only let her husband get the L200s in the first place!:banghead: