sunnysal

"Yes. You lose the large expansive soundfield, but if the room is small, a smaller set of good loudspeakers can pull the disappearing act, and they can make you forget you ever liked Klipschorns. I built some monitors using Radian 8' coaxial drivers and run them with a good sub. One of my daughters, who believes that anything I've ever owned in the past was completely overrated -- claims that the sound I have now is the best thing she's ever heard in the room. It does sound very good. " - - DeanG, can you post more about this system you have put together? while my experiences with 8" single drivers has not been totally satisfactory. I continue to think about a small speaker solution that can compete with my k-horns. regards, Tony

by all means, you should audition a single driver speaker like cut-throat suggests. I was just sharing my opinion based on my experience with those type of speakers. no treble extension to give air to cymbals, no real depth in the bass and overall a tendency to compress rather easily when driven loud-ish (we are spoiled by the seemingly endless dynamic capabilities of the k-horns!). add a "super tweeter" and "sub woofer" to the single drive and you can get something decent but then I begin to wonder why not by a three way speaker or a 8-12" woofer based two way speaker. YMMV, IMHO; yadda, yadda. As I mentioned budget is a BIG factor in what you have to choose from...regards, otny

thanks artto for the tip! both mogami and canare wires are great for interconnects and speakers wires. hard to go wrong with either and these guys offer both at fair prices. I hope others on the board check this out, I am sure they will be happy they did. regards, tony

Stepping down from a k-horn to a single driver speaker is a recipe for disaster IMHO: I have built two Fostex 8" based systems and both, while sounding quite nice for what they are, could not take the place of k-horns in my main system. also forget MMGs since these need to be quite a ways out into the room to give their best (though maggies are fantastic sounded speakers, I had SMGc and loved them). what amplifier are you using? if they are flea amps Heresy might not be a bad choice (some complain about strident highs though), if you have an amp with some watts behind it the smaller, stand mounted speaker from KRK, Klipsch, PSB and NHT all present nice choices. how much is your budget? this ultimately determines where you can look. BTW I have been eyeing the eminent technology LFT-16 speaker, it uses ribbons for mids and highs and should sound fast and clear like we hornies like. regards, T

I love those "these are my last speakers" threads! I experienced exactly the same thing in 1993 and have never looked back. tony

tried these?

A good rule to live by is that when trying to tailor room response cutting band by band EQ is preferable to boosting EQ, it has less risk and generally causes less damage. regards, tony

a great article about cables... https://passlabs.com/articles/speaker-cables-science-or-snake-oil

I too think you need to give these a long audition in your room, with your system and music before delving into mods/upgrades. once you have identified any shortcoming you can then focus resources on resolving that. Looking back after my long history of tweaking I think the sound form a stock 1990´s k-horn is almost perfect. Of course, the speakers can be upgraded and/or optimized for your system and tastes. one of the great things about these speakers is how much tweaking can be done. For the time being my advice is to get get them seated in corners and listen to the music! afterwards you can begin to look at the crossover, drivers, horns, etc. warm regards, Tony

All the best Craig!!!! warm regards, Tony

the phrase about 5 good watts (which is what I assume you are referring to) is about the quality of the sound. When one is dealing with such high efficiency speakers as Klipschorns, etc. every shortcoming in an amp´s sound is amplified and heard. hiss, hum, distortion, etc. all obvious when listened to via a >100db efficient speaker (and often hidden by less efficient speakers). At normal listening levels many would argue that these type of speakers are only using a few watts of power. thus the phrase relates to the idea that we need "5 good watts" instead of dozens or hundreds of bad watts. I have had 50 and 100 watt solid state amps and 30 and 13 watt tube amps hooked up to my k-horns and have settled for the 13 watts amps and not looked back. others feel the need for more umph...I think the issue is still not settled as to how much is enough. IMHO it is whatever pleases you musically that is correct. tony

ok, now I get it. yeah the altecs will do a better job on the top end. unfortunately my hearing forces me to still use tweeters, lol. for tweeters, the JBL 2404H is a nice unit (doesnt go into the stratosphere in terms of upper range, 18-19khz? nor is the price to high...). sounds like you have some nice systems there. regards, tony

the EV DH1012 is not a bad midrange driver and mates well with the horn (though depending on your room the 90 degree horn might have been a better choice), why are you interested in using the altec? what tweeter are you planning to use? you´ll want to cross over at about 6k with the DH1012 regards, tony

forgot to mention the only response curve I have ever seen for the 288 but it is for the G model: http://alteclansingunofficial.nlenet.net/publications/techletters/TL_231.pdf tony

which model 288? B, D, G, K or L? http://www.greatplainsaudio.com has a good specs library as does http://www.lansingheritage.org/html/altec/altec.htm regards, Tony

it wasn´t called "the golden age of audio" for nothing. while there have been developments audio design and technology in the last half decade you can find some of the best sounding equipment EVER in the vintage realm. I also think vintage still gives better price/performance than modern equipment. rebuilt and lightly modded vintage equipment may outperform the majority of modern equipment and again at a lower price point. a pair of Marantz 9 against some Krell stuff? I´ll take the model 9s... So for me SS stuff has improved greatly though while the tube stuff seems to be mostly knockoffs of the best of yesteryear...IMHO, YMMV, yada, yada, warm regards, Tony

I own 4311 and L300, I never owned Cornwalls but have heard them (and liked them!). I have klipschorns in my main system because I crave the dynamics and detail in the mids and highs that only horns can give me. That being said both the 4311 (in a fairly small room) and the L300 (in a somewhat bigger room) do a great job of making music. they have great extension on both ends, clarity and bass punch. I tend to use them for less critical listening, but enjoy the music played through them most completely, I dont agree that one or the other is better for rock or classical, etc. to me they carry the same family values across musical genres. so the L300 remains the closest corollary between klipsch cornwalll and jbl, but without the efficiency and horn dynamics. you wont go wrong with either, it is taste that will make the decision. important to listne to them both before making a purchase decision. YMMV, IMHO, yada, yada. warm regards, Tony forgot to mention another JBL I own the L65 (jubal) which also sounds great for rock and roll, etc. using them as end tables in a game room these days (need to replace the foam surrounds and just cannot work up the energy) but they did sound great

the altec and harmon are the pics of the bunch, miniwatt was a brand of tube from phillips, but I dont know the amp...the others are to get rid of IMHO. Tony

I tried them with an active crossover. they are great sounding tweeters and keep up with the k-horn in all respects. however I went back to stock tweet when I dropped tine active crossover project. there are a few others here using 2404H on k-horns (john warren was one) and I am sure they will chime in. as mentioned before there are even a few people who have incorporated the 2404H into upgrade kits (like Al K). warm regards, Tony

Esotec was the pinnacle of Marantz SS products. defined and produced as such. So I suspect that the Esotec should win a "sound off" all things being equal. reagrds, Tony

Threads don´t die, they just wait for a bump. T

he claims 25hz -3db....seems a bit optimistic no? tony edit: oops it´s 27hz -3db....sounds much better...lol

all the best DeanG! hope to see you here for MANY years more! warm regards, Tony

sell me the luxman!!!!

I must have a lots of switching options and tone controls so that limits my choices, especially now with purists in vogue. I love the marantz 7 and 7T, the older Mcintosh preamps, I guess I love almost any full features preamp from the 1950s-1970s. But my holy grail? A Luxman C5000a, a true gem from the end of the golden age of audio. warm regards, tony