Review: Klipsch Klipschorn Speaker


Category: Speakers

What can I say about my K-horns? As do many of us, I have spent most of my life searching for "perfect" speakers, moving up the pricing ladder and trying different technologies (planar, ribbon, dynamic) always looking to get the sound "right". Well I came to these Klipschorns by accident. An acquaintance was moving and could not manage to take them with him (they ARE huge!) For only $1,500 I grabbed'em and have never looked back! Way below the budget amount I thought I would have to spend for my "perfect" speakers, and certainly not falling into any of the technology categories I imagined such audio bliss would come from. These "horns", these megaphone-type speakers. How can they produce "right" sound? LOL! Well after a few short days of listening I knew I had found what I had been looking for all along. I thus have come to two conclusions as a result of my experience with the K-horns; 1. That listening tests are the only true way to pick components, forget specs and 2. That price and reviews are not reliable guides. I thought I knew what I was looking for, but that was the problem; looking instead of listening. I won't recommend the K-horns to you, but I will tell you this they give you a unique perspective on music, one that is coming back into vogue (look at the reviews of the Avantgarde speakers), one that is emotionally involving and one that, for me, gives me the most enjoyable window into my music. Let me tell you what the K-horns excel at; they have dynamics like no other speakers, dynamic contrasts virtually explode from them. their level of detail in the mids and highs are something like no other speaker I have heard, clarity, definition, speed. That is the third major strength, speed, they produce and release a note, a sound, faster than almost any other speaker I have heard. The closest "speedy" speaker I have heard were Magnapan units, but they could not produce the dynamics that a K-horn can. Do K-horns go down to 20hz? Forget the specs! No they don't but they produce strong, tight, bass down into the low 40s/upper 30s and that is quite enough for what I listen to. I have never heard a K-horn owner complain about lack of Bass. They probably don't go all the way up to 20mhz either but the cymbal, piano and bell sounds that emanate of them provide me with a level of realism I have never experienced before. Imaging? superb! great, wide soundstage with images well placed. One warning, you need extremely good upstream components with these speakers, since they are ultrasensitive (>100db) they reveal every nuance of the source, the preamplification or the power amps they are mated with. I suggested tubes, tubes, tubes. There is also a healthy tweaking community that can help the audio enthusiast get the last little bit of audio nirvana from their K-horns. Don't worry about getting them set up correctly, you have to place them in the room corners, no choice, they use the walls as the finishing touches on their bass horn enclosures. If you don't have the appropriate space forget these speakers (go for Belles) Do I read the audio magazines and pine after B&W 801s and Revel Studios? Well yes, but after walking into stores to listen I walk out with the realization that my speakers are truely unique and the differences in sound are just that...differences, neither better or worse than any other. What works best for you and your music? How do you put together a system that reproduces for you what you hear in your head? The only way to find out is to get out there and listen, I recommend that you audition a pair of Klipschorns, they just may be the speakers you have been waiting to hear. If you are ever in San Salvador, give me call and we'll listen together, but watch out! You may be bitten by the K-horn bug and shipping in Central America is Hellishly expensive!

Associated gear
Click to view my Virtual System

Similar products
Magnaplanar MG-3, Paradigm reference 100s, JMLabs Electra,Polk.
sunnysal
I agree with Sunnysal about everything except that they don't have to go in the corner. I'll get back to this problem later. Being restricted to the corner is a misconception that has relegated K-horns into almost total oblivion. What a shame. What a waste. These speakers are arguably the best full-range speakers in the world, but nobody in the kingdom of high-end stereo sound ever talks about them any more. The problem with having these speakers in corners creates an incurable soundstage problem. Even with a Belle or LaSala in the center avoiding "holes" in the sound stage, the width of the soundstage is still too wide. These speakers must be 90 degrees apart in order to fully hear both corner speakers. However, two channel stereo is designed to be 60 degrees wide. This discrepancy creates a super wide image similar to watching a regular TV image on a wide screen TV. Even though the image is evenly spread out, it's just not right.

Now for the remedy. The K-horns must fit in A corner, but not necessarily in THE corners of the room. Four to six foot long V shaped baffles can be constructed from solid, rock-hard particle board (not medium density particle board, or plywood). Several boards will have to be glued and screwed together in order to get the nonresonance required. You will need four of these thick sections for two K-horns. Place two together to simulate a room corner, but angle them outward facing the sweet spot (listening position). The two K-horns can now be positioned 60 degrees apart for perfect sound staging. Plus this avoids the requirement of a third speaker, which does not solve the problem anyway.

As the saying goes: you can now have your cake and eat it too!

Great system for the Klipsch horns. If vinyl and tube is your this, I agree these are a great speaker. Thanks for bring us the review.
Mr. PWK himself had his K-horns set up with false corners, as in the above example. While tubes are generaly recommended, I like *power*! 200 w/ch mosfet amps do a real fine job, but like Sal says, you must use quality equipment & cabling or these speakers will clearly show you everything that you don't like about your source.
I forgot to mention that I have experimented with false corners...in my living room I only had one true corner for the k-horns and...false corners work very well indeed! I have an old "dope from hope", the official klipsch newsletter, which shows how to build false corners to factory recommended specs...I built mine out of 3/4" plywood. The great thing about the false corners is that it frees up these terrific speakers to be used in almost any room. K-horns are worth the effort. warm regards, Tony