mikebse2a3

@USNRET As a founding member and volunteer of KHMA and knowing many of the volunteers of the organization I find this post about as sad as anything I’ve seen on this forum. Some of you guys complaining about this forum should take an honest look in the mirror at yourselves and your actions on this forum before throwing stones at others..!!! miketn

Just for clarity…. Is the distortion tracking with the volume level you are playing at. (Ie: does the distortion go away at lower volumes)..? Is the distortion the same in both speakers…? I’m not familiar with your digital equipment chain but based on some recent experiences with a friends system we found some digital set-up options that were wrong and the symptoms exhibited as intermittent distortion in the mid/hi frequencies especially noticeable on the vocals on many recordings. miketn

I hope this isn’t as bad as it sounding and somehow instead something Gil is able to recover from in time. I have always appreciated and respected Gil’s contributions to this forum and especially his technical abilities and knowledge. I hope and pray the best for you my friend…!!! miketn

Likewise I’ve seen people give reviews and comparisons that were BS because they didn’t practice good comparison techniques….. so how about letting us know some details about how you did your comparison. miketn

Heinz ……… I’ve made two observations about the K77 and K77M mounting (Flush with Baffle) versus (Behind the Baffle Mounting). I had LaScalas with K77M mounted (Behind the Baffles) and Belles with K77M factory mounted flush with Klipsch Z-Brackets and my perception was clarity was improved with Flush Mounted K77M in the Belle . I also had 79 Klipschorns later and based on my observations with the La Scala and Belles and the fact Klipsch made some changes to the Klipschorn at some period after Heyser’s Klipschorn review in Audio Magazine and his observations of the Klipschorn noted some clarity issues in the Squawker/Tweeter crossover frequency region which I suspected was possibly in part due to the diffraction effects of Behind the Baffle mounting of K77 and K77M tweeters. So I decided to purchase the Klipsch Z-Brackets and Flush Mount the K77 tweeters which did require enlarging the Baffle Opening for the K77 in the 79 Klipschorn. My observations and belief afterwards was that the clarity was improved on my 79 Klipschorns with the now Flush Mounted K77. With that being said if I liked how the La Scalas are sounding to you now I can see leaving them original because good or bad it is a part of the original character of that model of La Scala and gives it a unique sound which should be taken as part of the a whole listening experience with them. The K400 horn also has it’s own character when compared to more recently developed Klipsch horns like the K510 for example but I can still love them in my La Scala AL5 because the reproduction is still very engaging even if it does add a bit of it’s own character to the sound versus the K510 it is a lovely character that still is very engaging to me. miketn 🙂

Absolutely..!!! The Jubilee and Underground Jubilee are both the result of PWK and Roy’s shared visions and I have had so much fun being a small part of it. 🙂

Thanks Travis…… 👍🙂

Why trade up just add to instead…. Hey a person can DREAM…👍😄

I have a Great Appreciation for all the adopters of the “Underground Jubilee” who believed enough in the wisdom and vision of PWK and helped to keep it alive..!!! I hope all of them appreciate this fact as well as the determination and dedication Roy has always shown since I have known him for PWK’s wisdom manifested originally in our “Underground Jubilee”. Roy truly believes in PWK’s wisdom and knowledge and that it should continue and be developed now and well into the future as far as possible. Since I have known Roy I’ve seen this determination and I’ve heard him many times talk about his mentor and friend PWK and you can see all this manifested in the development of the new Jubilee and Roy’s dedication and efforts for the Klipsch Museum of Audio History (KHMA) where he hopes to pass that knowledge and wisdom to as many as possible. “Underground Jubilee” will always represent something very special and unique in my way of thinking..!!! miketn

Sorry for the large bold type in my previous post which happened when I pasted from my notes and can’t find a way to edit the text size now.

Let me begin by saying that I sense some natural discomfort from some “Underground Jubilee” owners with the introduction of the newly designed Jubilee. This happened with the introduction of the “Underground Jubilee” in 2006 with Klipschorn Owners and what I would like to point out and I experienced recently is if you listen to a 1954 Klipschorn, 2020 AK6 Klipschorn, Underground Jubilee or the newly developed Jubilee the quality of sound reproduction is awesome in so many ways that create an emotional connection with music that many of us covet and will never forget the first time we experienced it. If you are fortunate to own and enjoy any of these systems you have some of the best sound reproducers ever made and as the 1954 Klipschorn reproduction I experienced at the KHMA Feild House during this Chief Bonehead “Last Jubfest” event proved I would gladly own and be extremely happy with any of them. With that said here are my impressions of the Jubilee… The first impression and longest lasting for me was the overall absolute effortless most natural reproduction over the Jubilee’s full bandwidth (18Hz - 20kHz) that I have ever experienced from a loudspeaker with well recorded material. I’ve personally experienced this type of feeling to a degree with the “Underground Jubilee” and Drivers on the K402 such as the TAD-4001, TAD-4002, Radian 950BePB and the KPT-HLS-1502 prototype subwoofer but the new Jubilee takes this to another level that I believe most listeners will notice within a few minutes into good recordings. The Jubilee’s extension down to 18Hz is real and is as clean and natural feeling/sounding as the KPT-HLS-1502 prototype that I use with my “Underground Jubilee” as well as the La Scala AL5 ME systems. My one question about this area was the feeling based on the recording I was using (Andrea Bocelli- “Fall On Me”) and my experiences with my systems and a few others was in the frequency region somewhere below 100Hz and probably more in the 18Hz - 40Hz region was if it needed to be raised a few db because I’m use to a certain low pressure wave washing over and around me during this song and it was clearly there with the Jubilee but didn’t hardly reach the level I expected. Roy mentioned that it was possible to raise the LF Level and that might have resolved this question for me but there simply wasn’t enough time available for me to explore this option. Again maybe I’m running my sub a little hotter than I should and that was the cause of the difference but either way that was the only question I was left with and a difference that I’m certain I could easily adjust to my taste in my room. The attack and decay of instruments was accurate and wonderfully reproduced especially noticeable on many of the recordings using piano, drums,cymbals and string instruments. On good recordings the Imaging was excellent with very specific locations of vocals and instruments within the soundstage and these images possessed realistic life size qualities which I found extremely engaging. The movement of images in some recordings was as focused and smooth as I have ever experienced and again very engaging for me. The Soundstage and Imaging on good recordings was presented with Height, Width and Depth that was as good or better than anything I’ve ever experienced and this Imaging/Sound-staging capability will be something that can draw listeners emotionally deeper into recordings and is a highly coveted aspect of music reproduction for me. The Clarity and Inner-detail was also among the best I’ve experienced from a loudspeaker and the Jubilee was unique in my experience in that it exhibited these qualities across its full spectrum bandwidth of 18Hz - 20kHz and this makes it my new reference when comparing other loudspeakers in the future. The Jubilee reproduces sound in such a cohesive way that I really couldn’t describe or identify it as a 2-way loudspeaker but instead it truly reproduces sound as “One Complete Voice” for lack of a better description with no tell-tale indications of a crossover region or drivers/horns of dissimilar characters and I consider it as a new reference standard for me in this area as well. One last but very important observation for me was how the Jubilee reproduction quality in the Lab Listening Room here in Hope (which I have been fortunate to experience many times now since 2006) wasn’t altered as much by being in or out of the corner versus my past experiences listening to the “Underground Jubilee” and other Klipsch Loudspeakers in this same room and this was equally true of the Listening Locations where reproduction was very close to equal in quality with the least variation from seat to seat that I have ever experienced in this room and totally surprised me. miketn

I’ll try to cover as much detail as I can remember and if I am mistaken about anything I would appreciate Roy correcting, clarifying or adding to my descriptions/information. (1) The Jubilee LF Horn consist of (2) 12” drivers to improve efficiency and the (3) Vents are located in the lowest position because they perform better when they are coupled closest to the floor of the listening space. The best location of the vents was learned during the development of the KPT-HLS-1802 and verified during the development of the KPT-HLS-1502 and now the Jubilee LF has also verified that research. (2) The Jubilee LF Horn has a true 20Hz flare rate while the “Underground Jubilee” and Klipschorn have 40Hz flare rates so this along with the (2) 12” Drivers + Vents + Back Chamber allows the Jubilee LF Horn to reach a solid 18Hz on its low end performance. Note also the mouth area of the Jubilee LF Horn is much larger than the “Underground Jubilee” which also leads to a performance increase. (3) The Jubilee LF Horn has been designed with improved splay angles of the Bifurcated Mouths which increases performance of the polars to a higher frequency before the cloverleaf effect of polars from Bifurcated Mouths begin to appear. This was an area of improvement that the “Underground Jubilee LF Horn offered over the Klipschorn LF Horn. This feature improves the performance and consistency of the polars in the crossover regions of the Jubilee LF Horn and the Jubilee HF Horn when compared to the “Underground Jubilee” which was the best we have had when it was developed until now. (4) The Jubilee HF Horn consist of the Klipsch K693 (Celestion Axi2050) driver mounted to the K402 Horn and Roy’s design of a Phase Plug Extension which optimizes the coupling and polars of the Jubilee HF Horn/Driver. Roy has extended the polar control of the horn/driver to 19kHz which up until now was limited to ~6.8kHz with all the 2” exit drivers internal phase plug controlling the frequencies above that point. This improves clarity of imaging by allowing a more consistent specific location and consistency of image movements within the soundstage with less wandering due to polar shifting with frequency of previous designs without the newly developed phase plug extension. The K693/K402 combination brings another area of improvement versus past designs by lowering the low end frequency extension of the Jubilee HF Horn/Driver combination. This allows improvements in the Polar Control to a significantly lower frequency and allows a wider range of frequencies to be handled by the K402 Horn. This lower polar control of the Jubilee HF Horn and the higher polar control of the Jubilee LF Horn allows the apparent seamless blending of the Horns in the crossover region which is if I remember correctly about 270Hz electrically and 340Hz acoustically. (5) The DSP unit has both IIR and FIR filter capabilities which allows the optimization of Frequency and Phase of the Jubilee System. It has both Balanced and Unbalance Inputs/Outputs. The LF and HF both have Level Controls to allow optimizing when using dissimilar amplifier designs for the LF Horns and HF Horns. So with all that said how did it sound to me….😄 Sorry but …I’ll have to go into this tomorrow when I have time because I want to describe my experience as accurately as possible and its late and I’m tired.

This was our question and answers sessions we held at the KHMA Feild House after the first day with Chief Bonehead and many gave their impressions of what they experienced and thought about the “Jubilee” and the “Underground Jubilee” comparison.

When we weren’t at the Klipsch Lab Listening we were at the KHMA Feild House and this was a pair of recently donated 1954 and 1959 Klipschorns from a church that from my understanding PWK use to make recordings at. I played some of Pauls Recordings on them and they sounded beautiful in this space.

2nd day was Stereo Demonstraion and Listening to our own recordings.

Chief Bonehead holding Class

The first day we listened to the “Underground Jubilee” and the Jubilee to music demonstrations that Roy played for us. I’ll post my thoughts later when I have more time but for now I want to get as many pictures posted as I can.

The DSP for the Jubilee will have matching wood finishes. It has RCA and XLR Balanced Inputs and Output options and Level controls for the LF and HF Horns for those needing to match different amplifier designs.

This is Roy’s new phase plug extension for the K693 HF Driver that extends the control of the polars to approximately 19kHz when used with the K402 HF Horn. The improvement in imaging has to experienced to fully appreciate the advancement this offers. I believe their is also a patent application for the design.

The K693 HF Driver and Bracket. Also note the painted backside of the K402.

LF and HF connection panels. Access to the (2) 12” LF Drivers and the Ports is now through this back panel.

Pictures just can’t begin to show how beautiful the “Jubilee” is in person. This pair was the first production pair made in Walnut and assembled by Roy for verification of all details before the 75th Jubilee production was to begin. The quality of the Fit and Finish of the cabinets were awesome. The K402 is painted inside and outside and is a beautiful grey. Roy said they painted approximately 20 horns before they got it to their satisfaction…!!!

Some pictures of Group Listening Sessions during the classes.

LF HORN mouth bracing and the base of the Jubilee also supports the grill placement.

Grills are magnetically attached.