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On properly sealing Khorns

I little story, back in the 70's the dealer I worked at, became a Klipsch dealer. We got in our original order, the full line. One of my jobs was to setup the sound room with the new speakers. We setup the room with K horns in the corners with a Belle in the center for a three channel setup. We thought it sounded pretty good, but we had never heard a K horn before. Paul (PWK) and our rep came to see us a month later to check out his new dealer and spread the gospel (sort of dealer training) We had the Khorns/Belle playing in the sound room and Paul entered and started shaking his head, these sound terrible! He started checking the fitment of the Khorns to the wall and instructed me to go to the local supply house and purchase some rubber conveyer rubber belting. We mounted it to the rear tail board, so when the speaker was pushed back into the corner it sealed to the cinder block wall. Man what a difference, the bass actual moved my pants leg.
 
Gigantic said:
In all fairness, they never were. I built mine from scratch!
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Thats awesome, very nice speakers!

The comment was related to all those that claim any changes or mods to a klipsch speaker make them not klipsch anymore... or how some claim no klipsch speaker can be improved over the original design, you & many others prove that wrong. ;)
 
DEFTECHY said:
Thats awesome, very nice speakers!

The comment was related to all those that claim any changes or mods to a klipsch speaker make them not klipsch anymore... or how some claim no klipsch speaker can be improved over the original design, you & many others prove that wrong. ;)
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Yeah, I got that. I just wanted to crow about having as few K parts as possible as a point of pride. By this weekend, they will be 0% Klipsch :biggrin:
 
Although pricey compared to pipe foam (about $110 to do a pair of Khorns), these seals provide a nicely finished look and tight fit on both the tail board and walls. These are better than the OEM seals that came with my new Khorns, as the rubber bulbs are bigger and more compliant allowing a seal against most walls I would imagine. Don't know if the OEM seals are available from Klipsch and what they may cost, but these are an excellent alternative.

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Gigantic said:
Yeah, I got that. I just wanted to crow about having as few K parts as possible as a point of pride. By this weekend, they will be 0% Klipsch :biggrin:
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Kind of a weird comment seeing you are In The Klipsch Korner. Or maybe pride was not the right word.
 
lissenup said:
Kind of a weird comment seeing you are In The Klipsch Korner. Or maybe pride was not the right word.
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It’s not weird if you ascribe to the correct but blasphemous and heretical philosophy that while PWK‘s designs were designs were truly brilliant, they were cobbled by economics and the material science of their day and have considerable room for improvement. There is a noteworthy contingent who ascribe to that heresy, have been shouted down by blind and deaf corporate loyalists and sought refuge here, after being driven out of a place that we shall not mention, for our transgressions. Case in point, I took the classic LaScala design, applied every proven, yet forbidden modification that we’re not allowed to call an improvement or an upgrade and added several unique touches of my own, including better driver selections, horns, increased cabinet volume, and a passive radiator. I’ve ended up with a speaker that surpasses the original in performance, as well as all subsequent versions and has better frequency response than the vaunted Klipshorn, although I will concede that the k-horn does so via pure and superior horn loading, while I had to utilize bass reflex to manage my extension and have a little distortion as a result. At any rate, I’m justifiably proud of my accomplishment and that I’ve done so with a bare minimum of OEM parts. To those who say my speakers “aren’t Klispch” for what I’ve done, I’ll say “that’s entirely the point: they’re mine and they’re better.”
 
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Gigantic said:
It’s not weird if you ascribe to the correct but blasphemous and heretical philosophy that while PWK‘s designs were designs were truly brilliant, they were cobbled by economics and the material science of their day and have considerable room for improvement. There is a noteworthy contingent who ascribe to that heresy, have been shouted down by blind and deaf corporate loyalists and sought refuge here after being driven out of a place that we shall not mention for our transgressions. Case in point, I took the classic LaScala design, applied every proven, yet forbidden modification that we’re not allowed to call an improvement or an upgrade and added several unique touches of my own, including better driver selections, horns, increased cabinet volume, and a passive radiator. I’ve ended up with a speaker that surpasses the original in performance, as well as all subsequent versions and has better frequency response than the vaunted Klipshorn, although I will concede that the k-horn does so via pure and superior horn loading, while I had to utilize bass reflex to manage my extension and have a little distortion as a result. At any rate, I’m justifiably proud of my accomplishment and that I’ve done so with a bare minimum of OEM parts. To those who say my speakers “aren’t Klispch” for what I’ve done, I’ll say “that’s entirely the point: they’re mine and they’re better.”
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Just saying even if no Klipsch parts, they are still part Klipsch.
 
REAL bass you can feel in your chest. I have heard many systems with "real" bass that I did not feel in my chest. And most of the cars with "real' bass is hard to tell due to all the vibrating panels and windows. But DEFT is right....real bass is in the ears of the beholder (listener?).
Kind of on the same subject....I have heard untold numbers of Harley Davidsons for all my 76 years. But one day years ago, two drove up to the house across the street from where I was working. And THOSE two had the absolute lowest bass tones I have ever heard, sitting there idling. I don't what was different about them, and I have never heard any like them before or since.
 
I have “modified” Klipschorns (but the bass drivers are stock). I’d prefer deeper bass (Jubilees; MWMs), but I’m generally fine with it. FWIW, nobody has ever complained about the bass in my listening room.

Interestingly, regarding Klipschorn bass, I remember reading a Klipschorn review from years ago, before I bought a pair. The reviewer felt that, perhaps, the bass was a little underwhelming—especially considering the Klipschorn’s size.

Then he put a microphone outside to see how accurate the bass actually was. He heard a car door slam. While listening to his reference speakers, the door slam was deep but bloated, exaggerated, muffled. Then he heard the same car door slam through the Klipschorns. It was tight, clear—and sounded exactly like what it was. This was a revelation for him about the Klipschorns’ accuracy.
 
I installed the first set of Klipschorns for a doctor the first time in 1969 in his billiard/sound room. When he had an open house guess who came to visit. The man himself. I had also seen him and met him earlier at home comings and found out he went to school with my dad. Any way he thought using three MC 75's was a good choice with a C-22. He asked me after listening what I thought of the sound and I said it was a little bass shy. He though so to and said the horns needed to be better sealed against the corners. We ended up using sheets of plywood with Walnut on the surface and had a finish carpenter make sure everything was trued and a tight fit. The walls on the interior side of the corners seem to flex also so that had to be corrected, too. I understand it took the carpenter 4 days days to get everything perfect. When I returned the bass had really improved.

His wife had a pair of B-310B Classic Concert Grands for the family room facing directly toward the open kitchen. They were bi amped and really did sound better than the Khorns before the carpenter did his magic. I had to add super tweeters to make the doctor happy when listening to the Grands. The Grands were driven by two MC 2100's and a MX 112. She played mostly tapes the doctor made for her. They were the first Bi-amped Grands I heard and installed. When my Grands showed up the first thing I did a while after Christmas was bi-amp my Grands using my MC 275's. I should have never changed to 2100's. But thats another story.
 
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