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Why is that? Oh boy, here we go...There are several reasons, which I can only outline here. Paul and a handful of other industry pioneers, Avery Fisher, Rudy Bozak, Saul Marantz, and others, were mainsteam audio until the introduction of so-called acoustic suspension by Edgar Villchur in 1957 (he was not the originator of that concept, BTW, but that is another story). Villchur, Henry Kloss (who we all respect here) and others started the notion of "flat" response being the ultimate criteria for loudspeakers. Paul, as we know, thought distortion was the controlling factor, not "mere smoothness of amplitude response" as he put it. The flat response obsession was cover-up for the low efficiency, high distortioon and slow transient response of most acoustic suspension designs. Paul, being Paul, was loudly and acidly critical of this so-called New England school of speaker design. Paul did not suffer fools gladly, and antagonized a number of other manufacturers and their syncophants in the 'mainstream' and 'underground' audio press. These folks started a disinformation campaign against Klipsch and horn speakers in general. "Honky, congested, unmusical' were adjectives thrown around by reviewers XYZ and ABC ad nauseum. Also, consumer taste was being steered towards smaller speakers as Americans started to move more often. In Popular Electronics about 1969, J. Gordon Holt was discussing what audio components were best. He said (I paraphrase from memory): "The speakers manufactured by Paul Klipsch have an enviable reputation among those striving for the very finest. His new Klipschorns may be excellent, but I was not impressed with the earlier Klipschorns and apparently Paul Klipsch does not think my ears are adeqaute to review his speakers" Mee-ow!

Seeing that old ad copy on the Dutch site reminds me...it mention a marine model. Has anyone ever seen a marine model Klipschorn?

Richard Heyser reviewed the Klipschorn in Audio about 1980. He said (and I paraphrase) "...a bit jagged in the midrange..still a respectable performer...if you like it loud and you like it clean, this is your speaker". He also said that bass horns have percussive bass all to themselves compared to direct radiators. This article was posted here but deleted due to copyright considerations. High Fidelity reviewed the Klipschorn and Cornwall I about 1963 and were favorably impressed. The Belgian Audiophile School review of the Cornwall II is by far the best of any review of a Klipsch Heritage product. www.belgaudio.com/kcmeasurements1.htm AFAIK, none of the current "high end" mags have reviewed a Heritage product and wouldn't be caught dead doing so.

. I'm not trying to argue, but... Almost any pipe organ that even has a stopped 8' stop as its largest pipe (which plays the same as a 16' open stop) will be producing a frequency of 32Hz. Even most small antifinal pipe organs (small pipe organs of a few ranks remotely controlled by the mian pipe organ's console) have at least one stopped 8' rank which is clearly capable of 32Hz. 64Hz is typical of Low C on the manuals, that is if that low C is played by an 8' open pipe or stopped 4' pipe. Even our own 19 rank residence pipe organ ( http://chops.tzo.com/page5.htm ) has two 16' flue stops and on 16' reed stop in the pedal. Also, one of the 16' flue stops is on the swell manual as well. To answer your question,I think it is the fundamental frequency mostly that you hear. And I would be willing to say that most likely 90% of the pipe organ installations in the world are capable of at least 32Hz, not 64Hz. [] That I did not know, thanks for the info. I always thought that the deepest organ bass came from "sub-beats" between pipes.

I trust that folks who are using the RS meter are doing so with the correction curve supplied by Rives Audio et al. I have heard the same effect that DRBILL has mentioned, and it is impressive. However, I must point out that organ pipes are part of a musical instrument, and are not pure sine wave oscillators. When we listen to any 64 Hz pipe (which the lowest in all but a few installations) are we hearing the fundamental, or mainly harmonics? We hear a mixture. We also know that corner speakers excite all the room eigentones, so all room resonances are in play. I notice this with a "mere" set of four Corns, one in each CORNer. Still, I want 4 Khorns someday...

Yeah, we could do that...certainly have the room. But finding just 1 CW II is rather hard...

A tagline to this quote is that as a *general* rule, the horn's cutoff should be close to one-half octave below the intended lower crosover point, and hopefully somewhat more. From PWK's original article on the K-400, the cutoff, when attached to the bafle, is 250 Hz; the original low-frequency crossover was at 400 Hz. I suspect this "rule" is more honored in the breach than in execution, but it is still good design practice.

I am looking to replace the center channel speaker on my HT set-up with one of the current Klipsch center units. The current unit is OK but it is half of a pair that need to be shifted to another room. The current HT set-up is 4 CW IIs in the four coners of a 16 x 25 room with vaulted ceiling. Receiver is a Yamaha RX-2500 (I think) so power is not an issue. The monitor is centered on a stand that is about 24 inches high. There is a lot of clear space above the monitor-about 8 feet or so to the peak of the room, so perhaps the center can be mounted above the monitor. The current center is on the floor behind the monitor stand which is largely open. Thanks in advance!

In short, no. There are too many variables. The only "universal" rule I can think of is the assertion that a bass horn driver should have a Qes of 0.25 or lower. However, the K33 has a somehwat higher Qes so that is not a hard & fast rule. Maybe Don Keele will write an authoritative horn book that collects all the acquired horn knowledge base of the last century.

The high audio game works like this: you get middle-age guys with declining hearing and rising income. There is a sweet spot, where the curves of hearing and income converge, between the ages of 40 and 60. These are the same guys who gladly shell out tens of kilobucks for the dream cars of their youth, as now seen on ebay etc. You talk psuedoscience and create a self-reinforcing culture of advertising and reviewing in the mags and sell 'hi-end' as part of the entire lux-life lifestyle, the costlier the better. You create anxiety about being left behind the curve and your retailers encourage anxious 'audiophiles" to "trade up" to whatever this year's A list component is. Next year the cycle begins again.

The simpliest way to mount components to wood is to drill holes on each side and use zip ties. A piece of foam tape over the components, especially caps, is a wise precaution to keep the zip ties from compressing them too much. Don't use silicone seal or hot glue. As far as protection from the elements, if they are inside the cab they are protected from moisture well enough. It's impact and maybe a misplaced foot or piece of cargo I'd worry about. I'd put a piece of acrylic on standoffs over the crossover board to keep stray things from making direct contact with the components. You could also mummify the crossover board with electrical tape. That provides extra sealing and is easy to remove when you want to change the crossover. Just looks kinda tacky.

A plane wave tube is a measurement device that provides a standardized air load for testing horn drivers. The response curves shown by manufacturers for horn drivers are almost all made with such a device since most drivers can be used on many horns. It is not meant to be part of a loudspeaker system.

There are many outfits that will do this...if you are an established firm with a DUNS number and they think they will get an order in the 1000s in the near future. There may still be a few small firms that will make speakers on a onesie-twosie basis to order, but I imagine the price is not cheap. You might try Menlo Scientific, menlow@aol.com. or (510) 758-9014. Menlo is an engineering firm that interfaces with numerous OEMs here and in the far east. I have no connection or experience with Menlo, but I'm aware of them from the OEM R&D side.

Thanks Gil. Not doubting your sincerity, it just seemed that the provenance was "squishy". You are right on about circles of interest being smaller in those days. It would be interesting to research how Paul "marketed" the Klipschorn before the "regular" production began in 1948 with the units made by the Baldwin piano company. Word of mouth from influential people like Fairchild would have been essential. Interesting to see cars of the period next to moderne architecture. The cars almost always look clunky.

Gil, this is an amazing find-thanks. First off, are we sure that's a K-horn? Does K&A have a record of one of Paul's experimental units being sold or lent to Fairchild? Paul, as I'm sure you know, was at the proving grounds in Hope then, as an Army officer. I know he continued work on the horn during the war since I recall his discussion (in the K-5 article) about an FM program in 1944. I doubt there was an FM station close to Hope so that implies a major metro area, like NYC. The townhouse itself is amazing for 1943, considering the wartime shortages of material and labor. I'm going to Google it to see if I can find out more history.

sometimes I take this form...

M.E.262, you did the right thing. All careful hobbyists document what they did, as much for themselves as for the benefit of a future resale. Most auto hobbyists are very careful about documenting chnages to classic cars, especially in frame off restorations. The finished products should be worth a great deal of money and documentation is essential to getting best price. This touches a chord with me since I am a certified Configuration and Data Manager and this kind of documentation is essential for all phases of the product life cycle.

And as bad as this might sound, many areas of New Orleans devastated by Katrina are now a veritable gold mine for savy developers and even individuals willing to tackle what's left over. A friend of mine here at work is from Chalmette and he & his wife are looking to buy a couple of homes for $40K each. The neighborhood was once full of $150K homes. Do the math. He said that he saw homes (or what's left) for sale for $20K. The bottom line is that once N.O. makes a full recovery, some folks will have made a LOT of money buying cheap land and turning it for a healthy profit. (snip) Tom The people who are buying properties in Da Parish, or in Holy Cross, or Lakeview, or fixing up same, are taking a huge gamble. It's a multi-vector poker game. CAT 5 Levees? Bulldozed neighborhoods for storm-abatement green space? Federal money-promised today, withdrawn tomorrow? The mayor's race (no pun intended)? This year's hurricane season, and the next, and so on? I know the N.O. economy very well and it did not have much depth beyond tourism, services and welfare to begin with, so "a full recovery" to what is was is impossible. I wish 'em luck, especially homeowners who are not waiting for anyone. Some of my friends are in that same boat and have no choice but to patch things up and pray.

that URL probably doesn't work. You might find it by Googling Capehart. I'm not sure what the problem is, Firefox does some odd things with this forum...oh well

http://home.pacbell.net/drakcap/38hart.html think remote control, continous music, and programable equipment is recent? Here's a catalog from high-end home theater from 1938.

Oh yeah, some friends of mine, not first time buyers, excellent credit, combined income six figures...moved from Denver to SF. It took them four bids, on four properties, to get an 800 sq foot condo, and-get this-on one of the bids they had to write an essay stating why they wanted the place, and what they would do with it!

Joe, Belated congrats. I know the York area, convenient to Philly and Balmer but not too close to either! I went through the housebuying trip 4 years ago. I lucked out and found a co-worker who was desperate to sell and had actually taken the house off the market in frustration. The place needed work, so we've been slowly fixing it up. The 25 x 16 living room with a vaulted ceiling and exposed faux beams -so 70s!- was a big plus. It seemed to whisper "Klipschorns!" When you do taxes next year and realize how much you can deduct you'll be very glad. Just for point of reference, I had interviewed a real estate agent in New Orleans for a personal project. He lives in the French Quarter and I also lived there in the mid-80s. He said the entry price for a single famnily home with no off street parking is about 600K, with off street 800K and up. After I came home, I looked on the New Orleans MLS and found an 800 sq foot house across the street from where I used to live (Note to natives-800 block of Gov. Nicholls) $525K! Such a bargain. Now the real estate agents are telling people they can get even more for their properties in the Quarter, so asking prices are going from absurd to astronomical. Of course, displaced folks are generally not in the market for 600K houses or 2000/month apartments.

I once had that issue, sigh. The Design Acoustics DA-12 was one of those "let's make a speaker like a crystal shape and see what happens-oh yeah, and we're trying to simulate a point source." I heard a pair about that time and my memory is that it was if anything less open and transparent than some lower-price speakers. The DA-6, which was more conventional, actually measured better, although I never heard it.

True enough...but the folding scheme is more 'violent' than was/is acceptable, before or since for a 'hi-fi' MF reproducer. This and that wacky mailing-tube folded midrange in the EV Patrician were not successful, otherwise we'd see their progeny all around us. The consensus of mature engineering thought is that folding is unacceptable for MF and HF horns for 'hi-fi'work. I saw a lot of time and money being poured into old technological dead-ends like this when I was a subscriber to Speaker Builder.

In one of Paul's papers on FM distortion, he measured the Cobraflex and the results weren't good. He said the folding scheme was "violent reflexing".