klipsch speakers,be honest

I am no audiophile expert - but i do care immeasurably for music and strive to present it in its most natural form within my dancespace. I am considering purchasing a pair of Khorns for use in a 10m square room - concrete floor and walls - the space is a dance space and high volume is essential...clarity taking precedence over bass extension.

I would be very grateful to anyone who could confirm that these are the same model Klipsch that David Mancuso & Alex Rosner used at the legendary 'Loft' in NYC during the 70s/80s.

I would also be very grateful to anyone willing to give me advice in terms of amplification: I am considering restoring a couple of giant Manley Monoblocs (i need to purchase the valves)

many thanks - Dominic (London)

Trippin:
I wrote to you in your other thread. I own La Scalas and Heresies and have been a Klipsch owner for 25 years. The best amplification is actually an amp that can move the big 15 inch folded horn woofer. So in despite the incredible SPLs you can get because of the powerful midrange horns with low power amps and I have heard them sound decent with 2A3 SETs, you really get your best sound if you give a wit about controling the bass, with fairly powerful SS amps. There have been several threads on this topic. Believe it or not Mac amps synergize well with these speakers ask Big Joe. I have used Mac and ARC SS amps with good results. Tubes would be fine but the impedance curve of those woofers with the old crossovers are tough on the tubes. (you can get modded x-overs which supposedly make it much easier to drive the woofer properly). Try it for yourself you'll see what I mean. In either case they are capable of being truly Loud Speakers.

Hi Bigjoe, I owned the Heresy's in the eighties, and while I liked the dynamic range and the bass, I never much cottoned to the midrange response or the timbre of the instruments or voice. I ran them with a CJ PV-5 tubed preamp and a carver amp at the time, and even after endlessly playing with placement and room treatment, they never "did it" for me.

Trippin,

After years with JBL's I now have Klipschors, Belles, Heresys and an Academy. I have been on the Klipsch forum for about 4 years now and have modded my system and K Horns. They are great speakers but you, as you know, need to have a good source and amplification, as well as crossovers.

I started with a Scott LK-48 tube amp. This worked very well. I added ALK's that I built myself. I also built "false corners" for the K Horns because "perfect corners" are hard to come by. I also switch back and forth between an AH! upsampled Tubed CD player (with Amperex PQ's) and a Toshiba 3950 transport and Benchmark DAC1.

I now use a Juicy Music Peach Preamp (with Amperex pinched waist tube) and have the K Horns Tri-amped with a Yamaha D2040 divider network and a QSC 1202 power amp for woofer and two Teac L700P's for the mids and tweeters. This budget amplification mates very well with the horns, especially with the tube preamp. No harshness, tons of detail and great imaging. I love when people come over and I put on some Neil Young accoustic and ask where the speaker is. They respond "behind the TV." The speakers really do dissappear.

The drivers in Klipsch are budget and I am seling the K Horns because mine are very rare (less than 6 pairs in tigerwood were made) and I don't want to hack them up. I am switching to factory built Speakerlab bass bins and woofers, JBL 2470 compression midrange drivers with Altec 511b horns, and JBL 2404 "baby cheek" tweeters with the same divider network and amps. This should be my "ultimate setup." I got a ton of help from the folks over at the Klipsch forum.

For you, I would suggest contacting Bob Crites and having a set of Type AA crossovers built. They are relatively cheap (under $300) and have tweeter protection. The ALK's are more expensive and complex, but present a constant load to the amp. Check out ALKENG.com. Dean G also makes some nice crossovers. In my experience, for the price of the more exotic crossovers, an active crossover and tri-amplification was the ticket. I have steep crossover slopes (24 db), time alignment (remember, the woofer horn is 16 feet long and the mid is two feet)and serious tuning capabilities (parametric EQ, digital and analog attenuation).

As far as amps, the Klipsch engineering staff uses QSC PLX amps in their labs. These are Class AB amps and are very affordable. The PLX 1202 can be had for $600 new and has 200 wpc from 20 to 20K at low THD (vs a 1khz test tone). This thing is just plain clean power that mates very well with horns. I used it with my ALK's and it just worked so well. For years everyone on the Klipsch Forum recommended tube amps, then after a few of us took the plunge on the QSC's, it is now divided between SS and Tubes, but everyone seems to recommend tube preamps, especialy Juicy Music products.

Crown has a K1 (I think) that is similar to the QSC's but has no colling fan if fan noise is an issue. In your case, I don't think fan noise is a problem. I replaced the fan with a low flow unit.

I'm not sure what your budget is, but Juicy Music makes some great preamps that mate well. They use no feedback and have great detail and clarity. The Merlin can be had for about $600 new. This is an unbelieveable deal. The Peach and Blueberry are both between $1,000 and $2,000 and are both great deals for the money.

I suggest going to the Klipsch Forum to learn more about these speakers and upgrades. If you want very loud and clarity, the K Horns will definately do it for you. The nice thing about them is that because teh drivers are short throw and compression drivers, they really do not wear out. The only parts that need to be replaced are the caps in the crossovers.

Where are you getting your k horns from? Like I said, mine are for sale and are very rare and beautiful with Tigerwood finish.

Chris

Klipsch speakers can sound magical, but you need to achieve synergy of all components in the audio chain. With the wrong electronics, it can be a disaster. Trying out is the message, whether solid state or tube amps.