What got you into Klipsch?

[Audible Nectar]

It's a shame, because I am absolutely enamored with my Klipsch H700's; I also have some significant completist tendencies and had envisioned myself getting Klipsch subs and satellites for my home theater system, just to have everything all matchy-matchy. I would have eventually upgraded so something like a Cornwall or La Scala; I still might, but it won't be their product I buy- I'll either get Crites or, more likely, go the DIY route. It bothers me even though I wasn't necessarily personally targeted, although I did have a couple of posts removed that were critical of the new policy, so perhaps I was. There was such a great vibe amongst the mod community and it instantly vanished in a day. It tells me that the company doesn't value its customers as much as it values its product and perception. That seems terribly short-sighted.

It does, but I look at it this way: There's NOTHING NEW under the sun here, and if you want the real "plate of options'" that buying up older stuff and reforming can provide, there's enough of us around that's done it who can share what they did, just as others did for us over there. The toothpaste is out of the tube, and I take the attitude that whatever it is that provides the best result for the situation and dollars that the marketplace is such that any needed solutions can be found out here whether on that forum or not.

Once stuff gets organized a bit better I suspect there will be a better "concentration" of us knuckleheads SOMEWHERE who will still spread this stuff, as well as some of us who will still maintain relationships on Klipsch forum so we can buy up those ready to modify Cornwalls from their Garage Sale section and give 'em the love

Also, as we well know, and especially in today's times, NOTHING remains in stasis besides maybe a Nelson Pass amplifier so what is the situation today might be something else different tomorrow, so always remember that too I know people on that forum whose loyalties seemingly change like the wind, but on a long enough timeline the cream rises to the top, and to this day a number of people I met there, who I agree with them on NOTHING else and even within the realm of Klipsch have disagreements but we find each other and get solutions word of mouth and relationship by relationship. Some of these people, LOL, if not for Klipsch we would fight like hell....

You can do Heresys all the way around and DIY it too if that's what tickles your fancy without having any other loyalties to the company per se.....and point of fact most subwoofer options that I find best are stuff other than Klipsch anyway (Klipsch is OK but there's usually good to better alternatives and a lot of competition in that space). Klipsch subs aren't necessarily the best match when we're talking Heritage anyway (where they might be better with the "brand match" if it's RF series or something similar.....)

The changes in policy over there should not dissuade anyone from ditching their Klipsch DIY/mod project over here as they are awesome and worth the work. I went through a round of anger with that company some 30ish years ago too but it still didn't prevent me from wanting a pair of their speakers, especially knowing how easy they are to repair oneself and how unlikely you are to need to do that

 

[Gigantic]

The upshot is that it has driven me deeper into the DIY/Mod realm, as I'm currently about halfway done with a new set of cabinets that will house all of the mod bits in my H700s and I'm in the long term planning stages for a pair of Cornscala derived speakers, albeit with a few significant chassis mods to better work in my space. I imagine I may have some issues with regard to a modified baffle and cab shape, but I look forward to the process of resolving them.

 

[tyler8]

I heard Supertramp's Crime of the Century on a pair of Cornwall's back in the late 70's. I had never heard anything like that before.

 

[neosoul]

I bought my first Klipsch speaker which was the rb81 II, paired with a Marantz nr series receiver. After that I was hooked, now I have a trio of Klipsch quartet speakers for my dedicated listening room paired with a different Marantz nr series receiver. Later I bought a pair of Klipsch the Sixes for computer desktop duty.

 

[john5220]

I had a friend that cleaned houses, and one of her clients was going to a Bose system, and was getting rid of their speakers. She couldn't pronounce the name, but knew it started with a "K"! I told her to have them hold 'em until I checked them out and they were KG4's for $15 0 and not a mark on the cabinets! As luck would have it, I found another pair a couple of months later at a Goodwill for $50

 

[Daveintn]

Back in 1982 I was invited to hear a stereo system. OK I think, so big deal, a stereo system. So I go over there and in his living room there are two big black box things in the two corners and two more smaller big black box things further into the room from the corner things. He plays Toccata in D Minor and Mellancamp's Crumbling Down. The look on my face must have been priceless as he went and got his DB meter and it showed 113DB yet we could still hear each other speak and it did not become painful. The corners were KHorns and the two smaller units were La Scalas. It took a number of years before I finally had Klipsch speakers but I never forgot what I heard that day. Years later I had a set of MCM-1900's in my shop and I still played those two tunes on occasion, especially the Toccata. I finally ended up building a Super MWM set which is a derivative of the MWM bass bin that would go much lower so I could sit next to the big organ pipes. Goes down to an honest 27hz as a single fold horn and I have not looked to improve further since this set got dialed in.

 

[Daveintn]

The upshot is that it has driven me deeper into the DIY/Mod realm, as I'm currently about halfway done with a new set of cabinets that will house all of the mod bits in my H700s and I'm in the long term planning stages for a pair of Cornscala derived speakers, albeit with a few significant chassis mods to better work in my space. I imagine I may have some issues with regard to a modified baffle and cab shape, but I look forward to the process of resolving them.

When I was working on a new speaker design the shape I picked was closer to the Chorus then the Cornwall. I have found the Chorus to have a better more defined bass and with an LMAHL has had remarkable fidelity in the Chorus speakers I have restored or fixed up.

 

[Gigantic]

When I was working on a new speaker design the shape I picked was closer to the Chorus then the Cornwall. I have found the Chorus to have a better more defined bass and with an LMAHL has had remarkable fidelity in the Chorus speakers I have restored or fixed up.

the chassis that @ClaudeJ1 and are working on has more in common with the Chorus than Cornwall. the intention is to use either a 17"x11" or 10"x18" horn with a 2" driver and naturally, LMAHLs. I've been jokingly referring to them as "Chornscalas" which irritates Claude to no end. ;-) but my basic thought was to apply the ideas behind the Cornscallas to a Chorus-esque cabinet. I can sell something Chorus shaped to my partner, but I doubt she'd go for a Cornwall; heck, I don't even want something that sized.

 

[Daveintn]

Yup my two way had an influence on that. I sent the basic box size I proposed to Claude to run through his software program and it was good. He then recommended a woofer and initial port slot size and after some tinkering with the box size, marginal amounts by the way, and experimenting with the port slot size it turned out to be really good. Ended up with a 14" x 7" mouth size machined horn on top which is the 2 to 1 ratio he recommended and used an extrapolated cavity shape derived from the MAHL's and the end result by general consensuses by those who have heard them and have also owned things like Cornwalls and KPT-456's and KPT-904's these new un-named two ways are better.

For grins and giggles I had a couple of Klipsch forum members over a while back and I decided to roll them to the roll up door and point them out. My Crown XLI 800 amps only do 200 watts per channel but that is a lot of sound with efficient speakers. From over 100' away they were pegging the db meter at 85/86. The speakers can easily handle 400 watts and I may never know how loud they can be because 200 watts takes them way past tolerable levels anyway. My thought behind what I was proposing to do though was to have a compact footprint and output that could do pro venues as well as stellar audiophile duty. I was playing Alman Brothers at the Fillmore and it sounded like a real concert. My neighbor who lives a quarter mile away and up on the ridge top stopped me a couple days later and said the speakers sounded good from his house

Wondering what four woofers would do?

Speaking of woofers these ones I used are Kappa 12a's. I have become a big fan of output from 12" woofers and think the sound produced is faster and more defined then the 15" ones I have heard. I believe the smaller cone size makes a difference in definition. Now if you stick a 15 woofer like the K-43's in a big horn with a 108" throat you discover that the horn will make that 15" woofer produce sound to conquer the world with.

 

[ClaudeJ1]

Speaking of woofers these ones I used are Kappa 12a's. I have become a big fan of output from 12" woofers and think the sound produced is faster and more defined then the 15" ones I have heard.

I'm hoping to do a shootout of our 2 way BR's. I'm using 15's with the same motor structure as the Kappa 12a's with the Kappa Pro 15a's. Mine vs. Dave's. If twin 12's are good, let's see if Twin 15's give us "mo betta."

 

[Late Boomer]

What got me into Klipsch? 98 dB sensitivity of their speakers. It was twenty years ago, and I did not buy them, I bought cheaper and smaller ones instead with just 92 dB. I did buy their subwoofer when I went to Costco the other day, along with a pair of $20 sneakers. Good deal, both the sub and the kicks.

 

[ClaudeJ1]

What got me into Klipsch? 98 dB sensitivity of their speakers. It was twenty years ago, and I did not buy them, I bought cheaper and smaller ones instead with just 92 dB. I did buy their subwoofer when I went to Costco the other day, along with a pair of $20 sneakers. Good deal, both the sub and the kicks.

So why did you bother making the post about NOT buying Klipsch, since it did not answer the OP question?

 

[ClaudeJ1]

Ended up with a 14" x 7" mouth size machined horn on top which is the 2 to 1 ratio he recommended and used an extrapolated cavity shape derived from the MAHL's and the end result by general consensuses by those who have heard them and have also owned things like Cornwalls and KPT-456's and KPT-904's these new un-named two ways are better.

I measured it, photographed it, but never Heard it.

 

[Late Boomer]

So why did you bother making the post about NOT buying Klipsch, since it did not answer the OP question?

First, the question was "What brought you to Klipsch". Do you see the word "buy"? What originally brought my attention to Klipsch was high sensitivity, I thought it was important to me. Second, I did pick up a Klipsch subwoofer while shopping for new sneakers, I don't know how did you miss it, my reply contains only five sentences. It is a good sub. 12-inch. Cheap and boomy. I run it at 10% max, otherwise I think my ears will start bleeding. I put it in a kitchen to accompany two in-wall speakers. Cooking and washing dishes is a lot more fun now. I wanted to buy Klipsch shelf-sized active speakers, but after reading the reviews claiming that the speakers stop working within a year I reconsidered and bought another pair that is five times cheaper and has more inputs, bluetooth, tone control and a remote.

 

[ClaudeJ1]

irst, the question was "What brought you to Klipsch". Do you see the word "buy"?

Looks like we both skipped something in the communication. No worries.

 

[bonadurers]

When i was in high school a friend of mine had a system in his apartment sporting no less than four Cornwall's. McIntosh for power and I don't remember the turntable brand. circa 1975 ish
From then on.

 

[Phinocus]

Bought a pair of Cornwall's in 78 while stationed in Ulm Germany. Back then all the Army bases had amazing audio shops and I walked into one that was demonstrating a pair of Cornwalls. Love at first hear. Asked the man in the shop if I bought them would he bring them to my room in the barracks on Wiley Kaserne. They cost $1400 for the pair back then. Not bad ! Really enjoyed those speakers but an ex stole them when we broke up. Now 44 years later have a pair of Forte iii and I'm like a kid in a candy store. Doing the damping and ordered upgraded crossovers. The damping makes an immediate improvement, don't care what anyone says. It simply works . Really enjoying these speakers.