Shinall loudspeakers

[Lawrence HF]

Has anyone heard of this company, or listened to their KKS-1, a K-horn copy. Looks nice on their web site. $3500/pair ready to play, $2500 cabs only no speakers. Near Houston Tex.

["Duke" Spinner]

the old feller makes what he feels like ..

it may take a while, they do everthing in house

nice wood work .. everything is a Klipsch knock=off

[Alan Fletcher]

Anyone have a link to the Shinall site? When I google it all I come up with are Klipsch sites... Has Shinall become synonymous with Klipsch?

-A

[Steve Schell]

Shinall was recently discussed on the Audio Asylum high efficiency speakers board. Here's the link:

http://www.shinallandcompany.com/

[Alan Fletcher]

Thanks, Steve :applaud:

I cannot find any info on the drivers they implement, which was my major curiousity. Do they use Klipsch, JBL, TAD, EV, or some ungodly combination of all four?

I'm fascinated by this, and today is just the first time I have heard of this company. On the outset, it seems like the sort of thing that could dampen my incessant JBL fascination :dont-know

[Mr. Widget]

I cannot find any info on the drivers they implement...

They sure aren't using JBL or TAD... they only charge $1000 a pair for the drivers... that will get you a single used TAD mid driver, or a pair of JBLs, but no woofers tweeters horns or networks...

The cabinets do look nice, they must be using some off, off brand goodies in there...


Widget

[Cyclotronguy]

The only pair I ever heard were the "Belle" knock-offs. They used the Klipsch woofer and an Eminance tweeter. Discussed having three bare cabinets made... had the new house supported such a plan, I would have followed through. The cabinet work was excellent.


Cyclotronguy

[Alan Fletcher]

Ahhh... Eminence is one manufacturer I had not considered. Perhaps they are using custom Eminence?? I'd love to hear a set, especially their mock K-Horns. If they are anything even close to the original Klipsch designs I heard years and years ago, they must be stunning... but the prices seem too cheap to be real...

-A

[Steve Schell]

Alan, the Shinall prices look attractive if the cabinet work is as high a quality as it appears to be. I always regard the practice of copying old designs by others as a questionable practice, though. There is so much fresh ground yet to be turned in horn system design; why regurgitate the past?

Paul Klipsch was fond of pointing out that Klipschorn copycats often copied flaws in their earlier designs, being unaware of improvements that had been made since.

The general trend of traditional Klipsch products was to use cheaper and poorer drivers and horns as time went on. The profound advantages of fully front horn loaded design permitted this I suppose, as even the more recent ones with cheapo woofers and paging drivers sound pretty good.

My general bias is toward DIY horn efforts. With the budget that would buy a good commercial product, one can afford superior drivers and other materials. Plus, one is free of the constraints (size, Spouse Acceptance Factor) that others have chosen for their commercial efforts. The greatest limitation on horn system performance has always been the desire to keep things small, and to fit everything in a box.

[Mike P]

I own a pair of Shinall BFS-2 speakers (Klipsch Belle clones). The cabinetry is grade A. The drivers are a Selenium tweeter, a P Audio mid range and a Pyle Prof woofer. I have them stacked on top of a pair of VMPS larger subs. I use a NAD 218thx amp on the Shinalls and a pair of Adcom 555's in mono on the subs. I use an Ashley crossover and a Morrison ELAD preamp. The sound is what I have been trying to achieve for 40+ years. Live performers in the room (22 ft wide x 36 feet long, sloping ceiling starting at 9 ft and no close neighbors).
Gary Shinall is a class guy - it's worth the time to investigate.

[bbrown]

I wrote to Gary Shinall about a year ago and asked him about components. THis was what I got back from him:

I use several brands of speaker components in my speakers. I use the university T-35 tweeter,a university/EV mid range, and an Eminence woofer in my corner horns.The models AFS-1 and BFS-2 use the following drivers:
Selenium ST-300 tweeter, Pro Systems mid range driver and a Pyle woofer.I build my own cross-over networks and the speaker cabinets.The cabinets are constructed from the finest quality plywood, they are built as strong and as sturdy as I know how to make them, I don't use any partical board like some other speaker builders I won't mention. I use wood screws, glue and wood cleats at the joints. The big KKS-1 corner horns, the AFS-2 and the BFS-2 have high frequency cabinets which detach from the bass sections. I use 1/4" machine bolts, nuts and lock washers to fasten these cabinet sections together. ========

If you ever visit the Klipsch forums, you find many who work to put better drivers in the cabinets, or use upgraded crossovers. PWK liked to get great sound without the most expensive components. A lot of the guys switch to JBL parts when they can. Some of the newer Klipsch drivers are really pretty good. Some they make in house (some of the drivers for their theater/commercial cabinets). Most woofers are OEM'd from Eminence.

They just released updated versions of thier Heritage models: Khorn, LaScala and Heresy.

Bruce

[Steve Schell]

Hi Mike P,

I really enjoyed your post. Congratulations on the success of your system- it is what we are all trying to achieve. I'm especially jealous of your room. It is possible to create a believable representation of a full symphony orchestra with a good horn rig in a room that size. The timbre of the instruments and dynamics can be reproduced in a smaller, tragic room like mine, but not the sense of scale. Enjoy!