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On a sad Klipsch note

Daveintn

Daveintn

Well-Known Member
I am hearing that the Pro side of Klipsch is in pretty bad shape right now with people like Trey Cannon getting laid off. Apparently Heritage sales not doing real well either. I guess it is kind of a reflection of the value people place on good audio and perhaps so so marketing. Smaller lines like bookshelf and similar gear doing decent but the gear near and dear to the hearts of most here is not. I hate to hear this about the Pro side of Klipsch as they have been my favorites for years now with things like the old Chorus speakers as a distant second.

I have no idea if this is inflation finally catching up or primarily driven by smaller and not as good is good enough. I know my children and grandchildren are progressively clueless about great audio. I sit and play music that is just rich and full of life and it moves me. They hear the same thing and MEH!

As an aside here. I had one of those old Klipsch 2. something PC speakers from years ago before Klipsch entirely cheaped out on the quality. Sitting in a near field environment they were actually very good but as a substitute for real life or concert hall substitute no way. I don't think that matters much to many any more.
 
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Daveintn said:
I am hearing that the Pro side of Klipsch is in pretty bad shape right now with people like Trey Cannon getting laid off. Apparently Heritage sales not doing real well either. I guess it is kind of a reflection of the value people place on good audio and perhaps so so marketing. Smaller lines like bookshelf and similar gear doing decent but the gear near and dear to the hearts of most here is not. I hate to hear this about the Pro side of Klipsch as they have been my favorites for years now with things like the old Chorus speakers as a distant second.

I have no idea if this is inflation finally catching up or primarily driven by smaller and not as good is good enough. I know my children and grandchildren are progressively clueless about great audio. I sit and play music that is just rich and full of life and it moves me. They hear the same thing and MEH!

As an aside here. I had one of those old Klipsch 2. something PC speakers from years ago before Klipsch entirely cheaped out on the quality. Sitting in a near field environment they were actually very good but as a substitute for real life or concert hall substitute no way. I don't think that matters much to many any more.
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Starting with guys like me coming up with Mods, "upgrades," and Klipsch derived designs (Quarter Pie) I gave away for free and built world wide, but the super low volume of these things did not affect the corporate bottom line much if at all. The world has totally gone to Blue Tooth Wireless ear buds, evolved from the Sony Walkman (which I built for myself from Koss Headphones/Transistor Radio) about the time I had a paper route in Detroit, next to a Klipsch Dealer. All Things Audio have not changed for the better with the onslaught of really good performing and cheap Chinese products, making the Arkansas factory in Hope seem a bit more towards Hopeless. My take is, you can't sell through dealers AND Internet at the same time. Has to be one or the other. But my opinion really doesn't count for those who count the beans.
 
Wow. That’s saddening. I had read on a Facebook Klipsch group page thread that Klipsch laid off some pro audio employees and that Trey had posted that you should buy your Heritage parts now if you want them, but the moderator deleted Trey’s post for some reason.

I didn’t read Trey got laid off, but it may have just recently happened which is unfortunate for him and everyone who got laid off and especially hard for those who have worked there many years and were hoping to retire from there.

This has me wondering if the great purge was from Klipsch’s new owners from lack of sales, CBH, or both?
 
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Also, Covid Lockdowns killed movie theaters for a few years, so no Klipsch Sales there. Now that they are limping back, they are competing with Home HDTV for new movies and programming. Brave New World requires not just Survivors, but Thrivers too!
 
Face it folks, as much as I hate to say it, today's audiophiles who venture into the $5k plus range of speakers have more to choose from than ever and large rectangular wooden cabinets just don't appeal to the majority of them anymore. I think that tube audio fanatics have helped keep the Heritage line alive, but that audio segment has also kind of hit the wall in sales growth. Vintage audio people resist buying new Klipsch Heritage speakers because they want their speakers to be era consistent with the rest of their equipment. Although I like the nostalgia of the cosmetically unchanged Heritage line speakers, I wish Klipsch had put forth a viable effort to develop a new high-performance line of speakers that had more modern cabinet styling that maintains a high level of woodworking craftsmanship.
 
I agree @jayvis. Mr. Paul W. Klipsch put out great speakers for good prices that most could afford and now the new Heritage speakers can only be bought by those who have large amounts of money to spend on speakers and for that amount there are many other brands and types of speakers to choose from and I’d look at many other options before deciding what speakers I’d buy and I’m not sure they’d be Klipsch.
 
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jayvis said:
Although I like the nostalgia of the cosmetically unchanged Heritage line speakers, I wish Klipsch had put forth a viable effort to develop a new high-performance line of speakers that had more modern cabinet styling that maintains a high level of woodworking craftsmanship.
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I was hoping to do that with my previous plan to build a Super Chorus, but the cost of wood made building a LaScala clone more viable. I’m sure you know who will blame the modders, who were never going to shell out for new Heritage products anyway.
 
Clarification here on Trey. Apparently he was furloughed and not laid off though I am not sure what the difference is.
 
soundbound said:
Trey had posted that you should buy your Heritage parts now if you want them, but the moderator deleted Trey’s post for some reason.
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Lot of that going on it seems. Things posted on Cory's group which is where my correction's source was from about Trey were very short lived also.
 
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Gigantic said:
I was hoping to do that with my previous plan to build a Super Chorus, but the cost of wood made building a LaScala clone more viable. I’m sure you know who will blame the modders, who were never going to shell out for new Heritage products anyway.
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This is actually funny. Even if I had the money, I would still rather build my own Jubilee with subs, since I can PEQ the crap out of it too. I had a Gorgeous Pair with Tigerwood that looked better than any of the Klipsch Jubilees, even the one I saw in 1999 that PWK was photographed with. I also worked with 2 of only 4 built Golden Jubilees (the same ones some guy is trying to sell for $80,000 on Ebay). Not everyone has my history with PWK, I know but I have to wonder what happened to the Palladium Line of "high end" Klipsch speakers? I thought the sounded great, even at $20,000 a pair. But if you look at the used "audiophile" speakers being sold on US Audio Mart, you can see they lose their value a lot more than the Heritage Stuff has. And in less than 5 years, not 50.

Some "modders" like me can design their own speakers out of whatever material they want and come up with a world class product. We all can. Much like EVERYONE is not a "photographer" because of their iPhone and all Mirrorless Cameras now try to handle like and iPhone, looking at the shot BEFORE the button is pushed (like my students did a few weeks ago).

I only did the Super Heresy, Quarter Pie, Double 12 BR, Double 15 BR, and Dave's SuperMWM using real SCIENCE and NO trashed prototypes in the process. All worked the first time with nt lost, expensive lumber in the process. All this using modern tools on all of them and the SH for my bedroom stereo system being the first. BTW, it took over 50 iterations to get the Quarter Pie with lumber that was cut a LABhorn in the beginning because I couldn't afford 3 more drivers. So I built a tapped horn with it.

All I did was share the joy of the results for free. Nothing but great feedback from those who followed the recipe to bring 50 year old PWK speakers up to modern performance with Dave's Tweeters.

I just read on FB that some guy just put an Eminence Delta Pro 12A in his Heresy IV's and says all he did was put an 8 ohm resistor in parallel to make it a 4 ohm woofer to the crossover (I would have changed the Woofer Xover myself, but it's his $3,200 Heresys he modded). The K28 Klipsch used in the IV has a smaller magnet, meaning a lower BL product and 4 ohms just uses more amplifier power to bring up the output of the woofer to be closer to the horns. I'm sure the Bean Counters approved Roy's design and
 
I opine that accountants drove the aftermarket and modding market for Klipsch. There had to be a cost cutoff point for their speakers. What then happened is tinkerers found they could improve on the original product oft times at very reasonable cost on items Klipsch was not going to provide especially for past models or indeed on new stuff where those budget pennies were pinched until they squealed.. The mantra of "Genuine Klipsch Parts" oft mentioned does not work with 40 year old driver tech. It also does not work well with new replacement aftermarket drivers that work just fine at cheaper prices like the Eminence Kappa 12a which is a dead ringer for the venerable K-42. So people look for alternatives.

I wonder what percentage of speaker owners are also modders? Thinking it is a pretty small number. Perhaps Klipsch was right to not worry about this group
 
The current generations (younger than us, lets say less than 50 years old) are now driving sales and marketing. Malls have closed, restaurants, anchor business/brands that flourished for generations are closing or going out of business.

It's a brave new world out there and I ask my (cynical & sarcastic) self from time to time if I want to be a part of it. I do, but it's not going in the direction I like or desire.
 
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Pat and the gang are letting low margin and/or slow moving product groups go to improve overall margins. Gotta keep the stock up and the board/investors happy.
 
No, I'm serious: a Taylor Swift photo-op with Klipsch speakers would turn their fortunes around. Her fans are a force to be reckoned with. They singlehandedly usurped the vinyl/record industry, from what I heard.

www.forbes.com

Taylor Swift Proves Once Again That Nobody Can Sell Vinyl Like She Can

Speak Now (Taylor's Version) is only the second album in the modern era to sell a quarter million vinyl copies in one week.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com


pitchfork.com

Taylor Swift Albums Account for 1 in 25 Vinyl LPs Sold in 2022

As the vinyl industry struggles with backlogs and bottlenecks, Swift’s multi-cover Midnights blitz secured market dominance—though Bad Bunny had the year’s biggest album across formats
pitchfork.com pitchfork.com
 
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Daveintn said:
Lot of that going on it seems. Things posted on Cory's group which is where my correction's source was from about Trey were very short lived also.
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I think Cory’s FB group is where I read it too. Trey may have been posting things about Klipsch that Cory didn’t want known, because he sells Heritage and has a lot and hopes invested in it. I think it was posted that Trey posted Klipsch is considering stopping producing Heritage and that’s why if you want Heritage parts you better get them now, but Trey’s post was quickly deleted most likely by Cory who controls that page. I think Klipsch laying off many from their pro line was posted there too.
 
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