My Experience with KLH Model Nine Speakers
Cosmos,
According to the KLH set up literature that I have you have set up your speakers opposite of how the factory recommended them to be. I agree with you that they are fine sounding speakers. I have five sets of them. I have three working pairs with two sets configured as a double panel set and one single panel set. The double panel set, my main system, needs to use the 8 ohm output on your amplifier and the single panel set uses the 16 ohm output. I have been running the double panel set with a pair of new McIntosh MC275 MKIVs in a mono configuration with about 150 RMS watts per channel. I have driven them with Heathkit W7A mono amplifiers using EL 34 output tubes with less bass and highs but more detail in the midrange. I did have trouble using my Eico HF89 50 watt stereo amplifiers in the mono configuration and 100 watts RMS and do not recommend anyone to use this amplifier with this speaker in the mono configuration. The amplifier almost blew up and might have taken the speakers with it.
As far as the sound coming from them I have heard the Magnapan 3.6 in California using a MC275 amplifier and a C2300 preamplifier and a McIntosh CD player which I don’t remember the model number. It sounded very nice. My problem is that I have been walking into high end audio stores for a few years now and liking the sound in very high end systems but nothing has beat my KLH model nine speakers systems for certain sounds and my JBL Hartsfield speakers for clear efficient sound at low volume in other ways. I have actually been asked to leave one high end store after being asked what my systems were.
In my second system I use the single panel set with a MC275 MKIV amplifier, an EICO ST84 preamp, a CD5001 CD player, a Thorens TD160 turntable and two Otari MX 5050 II tape recorders. The sound from this configuration is delicate in the midrange and not as low or as high as the double panel set in the low end or high end. However, with the proper placement these speakers the sound is wonderful in the midrange. Like the other KLH system which I will talk about next they expose bad recordings immediately. You can tell when a CD was recorded well such as
My main stereo system on the second floor of my house uses two double panels set at 8 ohms with McIntosh MC275 MKIV amplifiers run in mono mode connected to a Citation One preamp, a Thorens TD 160 turntable, a Denon DVD 3300 player used to play CDs and two Revox A77 two track tape recorders. The speakers are two feet in front of my closet and four feet from the wall. When I play CDs, records or two track tapes this system will immediately let me know if I have a digital record. The sound is flat and has no depth. If I use analog records the sound comes out such as Mercury Living Presence or RCA Living Stereo records. Some newer records that are purely analog also sound good. I am not able to say why a CD sounds nice from say Nora Jones and the record of the same digital recording sounds flat on these systems. The same goes for Melody Gardot’s “My One and Only Thrill” which is also a digital to record recording. Yet when you play a RCAs “Living Stereo of Beethoven’s “Violin Concerto in D” has great extension in the bass and high end with the CD and well developed midrange and depth in the record. I also copy old prerecorded 2 track tapes from the 1950s and play them on either system. Almost all of these used tube electronics in the recording process and have a nice depth of field in either system. As soon as I can afford to I will join the Tape Project for to get first generation tapes and play them on these systems. I have money for new products but haven’t found one that I want to purchase yet.