Ki Choi

Fini: I've been driving my K-horns with Cit IIs most of the time and remainder with Heathkit W5M's. Why I like Cit IIs for Khorns ? - People talk about the world class output trannies on Cit IIs that make the amp special. I am not a tranny expert but there's something special going on with the Cit IIs compared to the W5Ms and more modern SET amps such as Bel Canto SET40 35w/ch single ended triod. A word of caution though... with the highly sensitivy Khorns, there are high chances that you would hear low level hums from the Cit IIs. As you upgrade the componets with SDS power boards and McShane mod kits, it improves but Cit IIs are never dead quite. I have the hum from all three Cits IIs in my set up and one of my good friends in Portland has a Cit II with the latestest McShane mods and SDS boards but he hears the same low level hum through his Khorns as well. BTW, both SET40 and W5Ms are dead quite with Khorns even with my ear right next to the drivers. However, even with the flaws, I still end up playing the Cit II for my two channel critical listening set up. It's the music with more real bass and there's more tube magic (the famous second order harmonic distortions - very pleasing to my ears). That's what's different about the Cit IIs compared to all the other amps I have tried both tubes and SS. One remedy for me was to use the long wall for my Khorns and seat very far away (~25') to minizise the hum I hear. I know it's there but have learned to live with it. Ki

RmAustin, I used the line about how all the family can enjoy the music coming out of my very first pair of Khorns. Then I got the second pair telling my wife that I had to get them since I had planned on selling the first pair all along.. I did get the first pair out of my house but ended up trading them for a pair of Klipsch Belles with a forum member in town... The third pair was harder to justify but I over came it by telling my wife that all the boys in this FORUM had at least two pairs... Then I had to get the fourth pair mentioned above...by this time I made up my mind to get them first and worry about the consequences. Basically I decided to beg for forgivness than to ask for permission... I am still living and married to tell you about this. Oh, I forgot about the single Khorn that showed up at my door step somewhere in between second and the third pairs... and then these pesky Heresys... I am happy for you. Hope you do enjoy the Khorns and your wife is as understanding as mine... so far... Ki

I concur with DeanG. One of the Khorn pairs I bought from a guy in MD was a 2002 model with some surface marks on one of the speakers. I bought the pair for $3500 with the flaws thinking it was going to be a good deal. It took $1200 to properly crate/pack and ship via ShipSmart (another story...) from MD to Seattle and then had to pay another $850 to get them refinished professionally. So I sunk in $5,550 ... and didn't even get the new Khorn smell... Ki

It took me a while to find out why Khorns are still made and loved after all these years - without any significan changes. People have been voting with their ears and have opened their wallets for Khorns - me included. There are only few other audio gear that come close to my mind that I would call them the "keepers" such as - Marantz 8B, HK Citation II, some of the old tube Mac amps, etc. If you can afford it buy them new, do it. As it was said here before, there's no big sonic differences in new vs. old. However, if I had known I would be taken by these babies as much as I have been, I would have bought them new also. Ki

I would nominate DVP-NC555ES 5 disk changer with excellent sound. A good digital source worthy of Khorns, IMO. Ki

Both Multichannel SACD and DVD-A support 6 discrete channels. L, C, R, RR, RL, and Sub outs. If you want to stay with the STD setup, 5.1 cable would do but if you plan to preserve the extra effecs channels then go for the gusto. Ki

More than likely Gil is correct with his first possibility. When the power comes back on, there are numerous big surges that come through the power line from inductive loads around the house including your neighbor's freezer and AC's likely to damage your amp's power supply. If your power supply has blown rectifier(s), it would cerntainly hum. It would behoove you to go to a Radio Shack or Home Depot for an AC line checker that looks for proper ground and nuetral before damaging other electronic gear. As Gil had suggested, if you take the amp to your friend's house and the problem still exist, I would contact your homeowner's insurance for repair. Ki

JM: A good suggestion on taking advantage of the fourm memeber for repair help. I recall I had to take the amp completely apart to get to the bottom of the circuit board to replace the relays before selling the amp. I had the output signals jumpered for years. For the price, it's still a good amp for everyday use. Ki

Picky: My guess is that you have a NAD 2200 power amp. These and other similar era NAD amps used relays to mute the "thump/pop" from power on and offs. If can order the replacement relays from NAD in Canada. Let me know if you want to pursue further in repairing the amp. BTW, most NAD amps are much better than their price reflects. NAD 1100 (50w/ch) is one of my favorate SS power amp. It sounds very similar to Pass Aleph 30 without the noise to me ears. I haven't tried their current line of power amps. Ki

I have been following this semi-hot thread... "Let's not argue over who killed who in this happy occasion" to borrow Monty Pyton loosely. I have BLO, regular Pledge furniture polish, Factory Lacqured finish, and custome high-tech lacqure finished Klipsches, and they are all beatiful to my eyes and make beatiful music... They are different children and I can't pick a favorate. As for thier longevity, regardless of their finish, the Klipsches will outlast me for certain... After all it's the perfect musical illusions we are after aren't we? Ki

For my Khorn HT setup, I tried Yam RX-V1 receiver then moved to a JBL 650A multichannel amp. Currently I use a Sony TA-E9000ES for the processor and a matching TA-N9000ES multichannel amp for its simple setup with great sonic results. It's my summer set up, and I am very happy with it. I believe you can land a pair of TA-E/N setup for less than $1K on online used market. IMO, it's much better than majority of the HT receivers on the market. When the weather cools down, I use five Heathkit W5-Ms for the amp duties. Ki

I got into Khorns about 1.5 years ago without ever hearing them first hand. There was a letter on Stereophile magazine couple of years ago where an elderly person wrote in to express his dissapointment with the moden high dollar speakers he had heard at the dealers. As I had tried most of the speaker models he was describing, I could relate to what he was saying. He concluded his letter by saying the most realistic grand piano he had ever heard on a stereo system was a pair of K-horns driven by a Marantz 7c/8B playing a recording of one of the masters on a LP... My first K-horn was a pair of '71 model. I liked the sound so much, I have aquired three other pairs (plus a singe one) since then. They range from '76 to '02. To my ears they sound very smiliar from '71 to '02. If there were any sonic differences, they are very subtle, only recognized after being played side by side for weeks, IMO. And the difference may have to do with differences in placement than anything else. So, my suggestion is to find a local pair without too much concern with the pair's model years and get sucked into the magic of the Khorns. Ki

I admire anyone who can do these kinds of things on his own... In my case, I had no experience or space to refinish my Khorns. So I relied on a professional furniture refinisher for two pairs of Khorns (refinished in lacqer) and an Academy. It wasn't cheap but the results were stunning. So, if you live anywhere near Seattle area, I highly recomment Maple Valley Furniture for refinishing Klipsch speakers professionally. Ki

Seti: I have a passive sub in my HT set up with a Klipsch Belle doing a center channel duty. The sub is crossed over and powered by a Hsu Research's crossover/amp unit. You can also find various options for a reasonably priced external crossovers at http://www.marchandelec.com/ and get a used power amp such as Adcom 555 for around $300 or http://www.hsustore.com/500-watt-amp.html <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> is what I use. You can find the one on a used market for around $400. Ki

Alan: Not to confuse you further but I would recommend the following: 1) At your normal listening position, you need to find out what your main L&R speaker will go down to. I did not see the make and model of your main speakers. Without the sub playing, you'd need to play series of low frequency tones. I am not certain if your receiver has low frequency generator built in. I do recall one of the older Yam RX-V1 receivers had it. If your receiver can not produce the low tones, I'd play test CD's with low frequency tones starting at 20Hz and goes up 1/3 oct. at a time. My guess is that majority of speakers will roll off drastically at 50Hz. 2) Use one of the Radio Shack's sound meters to measure whereyour main speakers are getting weak producing the low frequency.. They are not expensive but very useful as you get further into the HT setup (for proper sound level of your center and rear speakers, etc.) 3) Knowing your mainl speakers' low frequency limitations, I would then move over to optimizing your sub location. I would play the same test CD or any recording with good kick drums (not necessarily the low organ recordings). Disconnect your main speakers so that you are only hearing your sub. Move the sub around until you hear the maxium output without distortions. In general, corner placement works the best in most cases. 4) If you have a chioce of crossover slope, I would select the highest number for the steepest cut offs. I would pick "Small" as your main speaker selection and set the receiver crossover point to your main speaker low frequency drop off points. Set your sub crossover point to at least twice the receiver's sub crossover point. 5) Play the same test CD and adjust your sub level according to the sound pressure you would measure from your listening position. If you'd like to borrow the low frequency tones for your trial, send me a PM. Hope it helps. Ki

Heresy's would be a good choice. Although this is a Klipsch forum, I hope other would understand... I would recommend a pair of used Paradigm Mini Mk III's. These small foot print monitor speakers are no longer made but can be bought on the used market for around $200. Other than mega thousands dollar monitor speakers, Mini Mk III's are well regarded for their accuracy down to ~50H and were used by pros for recording studio monitor duties. I have a pair of them in a same room as Heresy's. I don't think Heresy's are as accurate but do sound better to my ears being more sensitive but also bigger foot print and more $$$. Ki

Sorry, it was posted mistakenly. The moderator can delete this thread since I was pointing it out on the 2-channel forum. Ki

If you happend to have two drivers for the Academy speakers for sale, please send me their conditions and price. Ki

Try the link below for additional information from my previous post on the same subject: http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=47395&forumID=66&catID=19&search=1&searchstring=&sessionID={C0F6F245-1D19-47C2-949B-6E4B210F2225} Ki

In Seattle, Bill and Melinda just announced that they are giving away $3 Billion dollars... But it seems the pair of old K-horns from Bill and Anne brought more joy to folks. Ki

Since my center channel duties for both HT and Multichannel setups are filled by Hoggy's ole Belle Klipsches, the single '92 K-horn is sitting all alone seeing no action these days. I'd like to know if you or someone you know might have a mate to my single K-horn for sale. If you can think of one being available now, please keep it in mind... Ki

Arco: I see from your Website you have a Cit II in your system as well. So, you have no hum from your K-horns driven by Cit II? All of my Cit IIs have no power ground (lifted) and dedicated AC power. Ki

My favorate female singers are Maura O'Connell, Allison Kraus, and Mary Black in that order. Ki

Dave: You are welcome to visit my home whenever you are in Seattle area. I have had problem of jumping on the latest audio bandwagon too often and have accumulated my share of audio toys over last thirty so years. However there are few that I would consider "keeper" and sits in my rack. For the front-end, I am using the Sony SCD-1 that tought me patience. I have to take coffee (Seattle's Best) breakes while waiting for it to load new CDs...but I can not imagine how one can improve upon SCD-1's Red Book CD play back peformance especially in its mechanical design - it's the best, IMO. I use Bel Canto Pre-1 as preamp when I play SACDs but do like playing CDs (most of the time) on the SCD-1 as a transport feeding the old Meridian 518 as remote contolled digial attenuator and using Bel Canto DAC2 driving the power amps directly. I like the setup's simplicity with minimal active components in the chain and it's glorious sound. Before discovering W5-Ms and Cit IIs, I used Bel Canto SET-40 (35w/ch SET) mostly. I was demoing my old ESL-63s using the SET-40 to a local guy about a month ago. The sound was so good, I almost kept the ESL-63s but let them go. So I like W5-Ms for the Khorns and Cit IIs are bridged for my other system based on Sound Lab A-1 electrostatic speaker setup. Ki 206-409-3972

A word of caution for potential Cit II + Khorns users: As a owner of three Cit IIs, there's an unavoidable problem of low level hum with driving highly sensitive Khorns with Citation II amp. A friend of mine also tried McShane's mods and SDS power supply upgrades, etc. to lower the hum level but could not eliminate the hum completely. I have learned to live with the hum considering the stellar performance from the amp and by sitting ~18' away from the Khorns. On the other hand, the lowly Heathkit W-5Ms are dead silent but lacks the lively dynamics of Cit II to my ears. Ki