Originally Posted by
Steve Schell
I would also encourge you to pick the brains over on the Klipsch forum. Here's the little I know...
Paul Klipsch was working on his corner horn concept during WWII, and began marketing them around 1947. The earliest ones were two way, and the midrange / high frequency horn sat out in the open on top of the bass bin. BTW, this "sealed" cabinet is a fairly ambitious front loaded bass horn with sealed rear chamber; the loading provided by the room corner is fully exploited in this design. The natural quality of the bass these produce is possibly better than anything you have ever heard and can be utterly shocking upon first listen. In the early 1950s he began selling a three way furniture cabinet version with an EV tweeter atop the midrange horn. These cabinets looked like the one in your pictures, though usually had a "PWK" metal logo (with the P backwards) attached somewhere on the front. Klipschorns have been copied almost from the beginning. If it is a real one it will have some sort of label that says "Klipsch and Associates, Hope Arkansas" and other stuff somewhere on the rear.
AFAIK, Klipsch never used Altec drivers. He did use Stephens Tru-sonic and Electro-voice in the early days, and a variety of *ahem* inexpensive Atlas, CTS etc. drivers in later years. The copycats of course stuffed their creations with everything under the sun, including Altec and JBL.
If the seller isn't asking more than a few hundred bucks I would advise swooping on it. At the very least it will provide an audio adventure which may provide an education and raise your expectations further down the line.
Edit: I'll bet it is a knockoff; those filled nail holes don't look like Klipsch, as Paul always insisted on impeccable cabinet work. That is not to say that it isn't a good speaker. If it is a close copy it may be very good indeed.