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Henry Kloss?

bbest

bbest

Active Member
I'm pretty new to the forum and have been exploring a bit and I noticed there are dedicated forums for Klipsch, Fisher, Mcintosh and Marantz. Henry Kloss seems to have had his fingers in enough of our audio products to possibly be considered for a dedicated forum. It's just a thought. I'm not trying to twist anyone's arm or anything. There are probably a lot of other deserving people or brands out there to consider as well and we can't give them all a dedicated space.
 
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A few years back i recommended another manufacturers thread and a response from the mods was that they dont want every type of equipment filtered to those who like/own that type of gear. This way it keeps the general audience floating around the whole board as opposed to one forum.
 
I agree the Kloss is really important, but perhaps a generic forum for inventors and designers.
 
"I agree the Kloss is really important, but perhaps a generic forum for inventors and designers." +1

Or maybe just an "Audio History" forum
 
js1138 said:
I agree the Kloss is really important, but perhaps a generic forum for inventors and designers.
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That could work, then it keeps the focus on the person and specifically any products engineered by that person, or in collaboration with others at a particular company , and across multiple brands. We appreciate Henry for his AR, KLH and Advent creations, but personally I think what he did at Cambridge Soundworks and finally at Tivoli has lots of merit as well.

It's unfortunate that his previous work overshadows CSW entirely. ( and Kloss Video ). If anyone picked up a set of Ensembles ( before the China move) they'd be pleasantly surprised. ( not to mention its just fun wiring those things up all kinds of funky ways - Multi-amped Ensembles are just a blast. - speaking of the original 4 piece and 3 piece ( ensemble II systems). The man practically invented High QUALITY consumer level sound for computers with "the Soundworks" which was LONG before Creative Labs popped up on the scene and bought the company.

Same for Roy Allison, it could give some light to RDL Acoustics /RA Labs - damn things are as rare a Musical Fidelity X-A50 Mono amp and X-Pre ( note: ok you caught me, that comment is a cheap plug, since I'm on the hunt for both of these. :) but they are pretty frickin hard to come by - as well as RDL /RA Labs gear )

Or Winslow Burhoe ( who I believe , based on info on their site, is designing gear for Tom Hannaher over at Zvox ).

hmmm.. yes, Definitely.. solid proposal here.
 
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I thought we already had a Henry Kloss forum masquerading as the Speakers forum.

Go ahead- just ask for recommendations on what to buy.
 
Go ahead- just ask for recommendations on what to buy.
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If it's vintage it was invented by or influenced by Kloss.

Acoustic suspension drivers, first successful solid state amps, etc.

Kind of like Henry Ford in bringing a high level of sound quality to middle income people.
 
js1138 said:
If it's vintage it was invented by or influenced by Kloss.

Acoustic suspension drivers, first successful solid state amps, etc.

Kind of like Henry Ford in bringing a high level of sound quality to middle income people.
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Pretty much 3 major guys did the bulk of the innovating. James Lancing, Henry Kloss and Paul Klipsch. Sure there were many others but the influence these guys had is amazing.
 
js1138 said:
If it's vintage it was invented by or influenced by Kloss.

Acoustic suspension drivers, first successful solid state amps, etc.

Kind of like Henry Ford in bringing a high level of sound quality to middle income people.
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I've owned many speakers designed or influenced by him. I just feel his influence in today's audio world is a bit exaggerated if one were to only look at AK's speaker forum, as opposed to all speakers forums. This is the website that vintage fans particularly gravitate to, for a variety of reasons- so I think he's very well represented. Nothing against him- the KLH Six is one of my favorite vintage speakers. I think it gets a lot more right than a lot of newer, more complex speakers that I've had.
 
js1138 said:
If it's vintage it was invented by or influenced by Kloss.

Acoustic suspension drivers, first successful solid state amps, etc.

Kind of like Henry Ford in bringing a high level of sound quality to middle income people.
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Let's not overdo it with Kloss worship. I believe Villchner invented the acoustic suspension driver and Kloss with him, created AR to make a speaker based on it. As for first successful SS amp, it is recognized that in 1952 Fisher introduced the first SS amp. Also, there were companies such as Mattes that preceeded the KLH SS amp design.

I would not disagree with likening him to Ford in that he popularized stereo to the middle class and young market. Many companies popularized good sounding audio to the middle class at reasonable prices but his influence, principally AR changed the acceptability in the home (WAF) as small speakers could to many sound as good as the large cabinet systems that preceded the acoustic suspension design.

Lest I be accused of Kloss bashing, I own and use regularly his first stereo receiver, the KLH 27, own a pair of his original Advent Loudspeakers and The Smaller Advent Loudspeaker plus my main speakers for years, actually decades, were KLH Nines plus Fives, various AR systems and other KLH and Advent products.
 
Actually Harry Olson at RCA developed acoustic suspension, he just didn't make the things. It seems Olson knew damned near everything; he had vast resources at his disposal and was very inquisitive. His book "Acoustical Engineering" is an eye opener.

The assertion "If it's vintage it was invented by or influenced by Kloss." is ridiculous.

It's noteworthy that the improvements in vented speaker design first seen in the 1970s have pretty much put paid to acoustic suspension designs and the AR-KLH-Advent influence.
 
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Brian said:
Let's not overdo it with Kloss worship...
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A few kind words, a bit of appreciation to the dude and the Church of KLOSS is Born. You Hippy weirdos, with your little AR tattoos and I Love Henry T-Shirts, Pyshcos I Say, the whole bloody lot of you! I hope your woofer blows out and your fried egg tweeter, well... fries!
...and for the love of Kloss, Get a haircut man! :D


Warm and fuzzy gets cold and course quickly around here. hahaha. :)
 
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the improvements in vented speaker design first seen in the 1970s have pretty much put paid to acoustic suspension designs and the AR-KLH-Advent influence.
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I suppose that's true if you have an acoustic suspension subwoofer, like one of the better Velodynes, or if you don't care about classical music or frequencies below 35 Hz.

But a tuned port, no matter how clever, will never be as accurate as a big acoustic suspension woofer.

I notice my KEF 105.3s seem to use a combination of both.

A test is whether you can distinguish the pitch of notes below 40 Hz.
 
js1138 said:
I suppose that's true if you have an acoustic suspension subwoofer, like one of the better Velodynes, or if you don't care about classical music or frequencies below 35 Hz.

But a tuned port, no matter how clever, will never be as accurate as a big acoustic suspension woofer.
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Define accurate. For a given f3 and driver size a sealed box can have less group delay and a vented box lower distortion. Each gives something up and neither is totally accurate. Pick your preference but neither is objectively better. Note too that it's possible to make an underdamped "boomy" acoustic suspension speaker and some have. I recently read in one of Weems' books that the classic acoustic suspension designs like old ARs and KLHs were underdamped by modern standards.

As I recall your KEFs use a bandpass box for deep bass. An excellent design choice though one hardly in keeping with acoustic suspension principles. Indeed, like a vented box they trade shallow roll-off and low group delay for higher efficiency and lower excursions and distortion.

I can assure there are a great many people interested in classical music and sub 35hz frequencies using vented speakers.

In any event and despite your preference the acoustic suspension design is seldom used today, indeed, there are now few woofers available to do a DIY acoustic suspension design. I've been modeling available drivers for a small acoustic suspension design and haven't found a proper one yet.
 
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