Professor Thump

Hi Sonnie, When I designed this system I made sure that every step up in models was a step up in sound. You can only read so much into specs. Some of the specs are deceiving, not on purpose, just the way it is. For instance some models show lower Fc then the larger model. It is because the reference SPL is higher not that it doesn't go as low. When I listen to the RF82, 63 and 83 each of these models have benefits depending on how you listen. If you want dynamics then you need a 12 to 1 compression driver as in 63, 83 and RC64. If you don't listen loud the RF - 82 is flatter, just not as dynamic. It is still more dynamic then most competitive speakers because our reference efficiency is usually higher. But you can't replace the punchy kick drum snap coming from a 63 or 83. So in your case I would recommend that if you are more discerning listener you by the best system you can afford. If WAF is most important buy the little guy.

Sean, As I had mentioned in another thread...I have a similar size room with lower ceilings. 28 x 24 x 9 feet. I am using the THX Ultra II system with the inclusion of 3 RS-62's to make it a 10.2 setup. I rarely run a movie above -15 dB. If I run it at 0 to +10 dB it will part your hair. I am sitting 14 feet back from the 130 " screen. You can't go wrong with this system. I am pretty picky and I haven't been dissappointed yet. Features KL-650-THX LCRs (3) KL-525-THX LCRs (2) KS-525-THX surrounds (2) RS-62 (3) KW-120-THX subwoofers (2) KA-1000-THX subwoofer amplifier Don't forget to kiss your wife after she lets you pull the trigger to buy that system. You are getting a great deal with your wife's approval. In ten years who know where you will be or what your requirments are. If you move you can sell it with the house and make money. "Home Theater Inside"

Hi Jay and Bill,<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> To make a decision on which HP to buy I want to let you know that I don't think you would be disappointed with either the Custom 3 or IMAGE. In fact eventually you may want both. Here is how I use them and found the best solution. Do you need optimum sound or convenience? Custom 3 is the best sounding personal monitor that is available on the market. I realize that I am biased since I voiced it but this is the comments that I am getting from the experts. This is why we have the guarantee if you dont agree return it in 30 days. If you want this model you need to wait up to 60 days. Sorry but we are making final changes that allow for easier manufacturing. If you are walking jogging or moving a lot Custom series is more stable to wear. If you catch your hand or something on the cable you are less likely to pull the PM out of your ear because there is more shock absorption on the design. If you are using your PM more at work or a situation where you need to talk often then IMAGE is your model. It loads quickly to your ear and sound great. I am really picky about my sound, being an audio engineer but I can listen to either model because the both sound awesome. Custom 3 just has a more accurate EQ and the top end of the response is so smooth it sounds like butter! Here is my prediction for sales. More people will choose IMAGE first over Custom series because sound is not their highest priority, ergonomics are. It is very easy to use, looks great, and very comfortable. It is also smaller thus a little easier to move around and store than Custom. Thats my two Hertz!

I had not mentioned it Amy. It is a very complicated micro design to build in mass production. I would guess it will be a 2 month delay. They sound so good I think we should raise the price to $499... Stick it in your ear! IMAGE that is... It's in stock...

Keep your eyes open Pilgrims... Were getting ready to go live on the web with tasty ear candy! I haven't seen the layout yet but Brad says it's Bitchin!

Mike, We think the pro application is right down our alley. With my 8 years of experience at Electro Voice and 12 years of live sound, I would hope I have a pretty good understanding of what most musicians need for IEM applications. Pro stuff is cool because there are no compromises. Thats what I enjoy, pure performance. Whether it be the exceptional performance of a musician or the accurate playback of that music, it is all good. We have been doing a lot of custom shells for people in the company. This are two reasons why we are interested in this. Oneit allows us to accurately measure their ear canal geometry of many people. This was very important for the development work I needed to generate the ear tip patent application. Twowe have the opportunity to do many unique IEM designs easily in the ear shells. Since there is a lot more room in the ear shells than a generic chassis it is easy load up a lot of drivers into that design. The more drivers the better for headroom and as you may know, Klipsch is all about headroom. Not that we want to be deaf, but because we dislike phase and amplitude distortion. You dont have to play it loud all the time to appreciate the fidelity of great headroom and superior attack. Since we are attenuating the noisy environment in a headphone by isolation you dont have to play it very loud at all to hear new things in recordings that you have never heard before. If I could get a loud speaker to have the bass extension of these designs.WOW that would be impressive, and quite large. Now all we need is a perfect HRTF algorithm to make the imaging sound like a perfect room. So I thought there would never be a more comfortable design than an ear impression for a Custom IEM. I was wrong the Custom Series of products that we are launching are more comfortable! I was surprised. It may take 5 minutes to get that custom fit, but once you understand the angle that you need from the wire mold, every time you put it back in your ear you get that same Custom fit. No unnecessary force vectors in the ear canal equals no pain. Simple Right? Bob Gassel put it best today when I was talking with him on the phone. He had heard that the new headphones we had developed were more comfortable than the current designs, but he said he wasnt prepared for the level of difference in comfort. Instead of a factor of 0.5 improvement it is more like a factor of 5 times improvement in comfort! But dont believe meGet your fit kits from Klipsch in the mail and see for yourselves. So why dont you just go and stick it in your ear? This is

I definitely want to swing by your crib. It is going to be a lot of fun watching peoples faces when they try out our phones. It had been real busy with travel but maybe I will find the time soon. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> As far as the passion for my work goesfind something you like to doget good at itthen find someone willing to pay you to do that task and you will be happy for the rest of your life. When you are passionate about something it doesnt feel like work, because it isnt. But I think you already know that...Don't you Mike?

I have a similar size room with lower ceilings. 28 x 24 x 9 feet. I am using the THX Ultra II system with the inclusion of 3 RS-62's to make it a 10.2 setup. I rarely run a movie above -15 dB. If I run it at 0 to +10 dB it will part your hair. I am sitting 14 feet back from the 130 " screen. Features KL-650-THX LCRs (3) KL-525-THX LCRs (2) KS-525-THX surrounds (2) RS-62 (3) KW-120-THX subwoofers (2) KA-1000-THX subwoofer amplifier If you want more headroom you should go to the RF-83 system. The compression drivers are larger and you can hear that difference. But for music the THX is a smoother system so it might be my preference. You can't go wrong with either system. The THX system will hide better on the wall thought, since it is not as deep. It depends on your priorities. Ergonomic (WAF), Power or Response...

Michael, You do know that Hunter has a saw mill don't you?

Hi Mike, You are in luck. We have designed the headphones to interface with iPhone without any adapters. This was difficult to do since the diameter requirments are so small but we were successful in meeting Apple's requirments. I would be really curious as to how many people will want a mic on the end of our premium HP design. Beings that this is an MP3 player, will users want the HP to function also as a headset? Will occlusion be an issue for these users or an improvement? Go stick it in your ears!

It is a BOY and a GIRL!!!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Being a design engineer has many great advantages and a few bad ones. You should probably know that the payoff for an engineer is similar to the crowd's roar for the performer on stage. Every time I launch a new product I get butterflies in my stomach cause you never know what way the product is going to go for consumer acceptance. As I have explained in other threads you can compare me to an expectant father whose wife is in the third trimester and then the OR waiting room. This is what it feels like to develop an important product for Klipsch and watch it grow to success. We just kicked off MASS PRODUCTION at the factory and have made our first shipment to you the customer and now there are thousands of parts spitting out the end the production line. Gee I hope we thought of everything. Here is a reprise of the process for developing this state of art sonic creature Now we are done with our voicing of the products, although the debate never goes away because everyone hears slightly differently, and it is such an emotional decision that you can't just put it on paper and say it should measure like this. You really need endless hours of audition to make sure every track (if recorded properly!?!) sounds perfect. The End of Line test machines are set to screen for any samples that are less that the Klipsch standard of perfection. Only the best of best can have the Klipsch logo presented on the side of such an important product. No doubt each headphone is a spokesperson for the company. Now our baby has finished her schooling and you have worried that the teachers have taken good care of her. She has performed beautifully while being tested for reliability. She has passed her final exams with flying colors and now she has her diploma and is ready to give someone their greatest pleasure with her silky vocals. It is so good to see so many people taking an interest in this product and molding this child into the rock star we think she will be. So up until now Professor Thump has been pacing the floors of the waiting room, wondering if this baby girl is going to be healthy and if she can sing and play the guitar as well as he hopes. The doctor is now out of the delivery room his job has been done to the greatest satisfaction. Now it is time for you to check out this little baby and let her whisper into your ears. And once you have heard her golden pipes you can write us a line or two on our forum to let us know how well she had been trained for the ultimate test. Call it a public report card if you will. Some opinions will be good and some may be bad. But that is how we learn as a company to design new products. I believe you are going to love this product. It is simple to use, easy to load and unload, very comfortable oh and it sounds great too! Our baby is all grown up...

Does anyone know the name of the professor who attended the meeting last night?

dtel, I am glad for your interest.

Bruce, Have a good time in HK. Keep an open mind and you will love it. The people are very humble and quite interested in learning English. If you have any specific questions, don't hesitate to ask. I have been traveling to that region for more than 10 years. When you buy things also remember that you can negotiate most items down 30-40% in price. If you are stalled on negotiations just walk away and they will lower their prices. This is normal practice and they expect dickering on price. Don't forget your medicine bag, especially Ce pro so you can recover quickly if you eat something funny. Also drink as much water on the 15 hour flight which will help you with the first several days of jet lag.

Hi dtel, Glad you enjoyed the demo! Here is an explaination of all our IE models from an earlier post... How many arms do I need? Here is the lowdown as best as I can explain it without you having the earphone models in your ears.... Before I explain how many armatures you need. Let's go over some terms first: IEM or IE = In Ear Monitor - this is usually a professional level earphone that is customized to fit your ear canals. The performer will use these to minimize stage volumes, so they can work for more than 10 years without losing your hearing. With lower volumes it is easier for them to control what they want to hear in the monitor mix thus saving their hearing. Now the performer can stay on pitch and keep good timing. PM = Personal Monitors, earphones with armatures Headphones or HP = General description for all types Earbuds = Similar to the Apple headphones with Moving coil transducers inside Entry Level PM's.......... use a simple balanced armature. The challenge the engineer has primarily rests in the balance armature design itself, the damper and the nozzle design. This is a very difficult task to make full range since the transducer will work well in the LF or the HF but not generally wideband. Typically the Bass, Vocals or Drums suffer the most with this design, sounding slightly harsh or not having any output that is audible in that range. In other words the vocal sounds throaty or scratchy depending on the model. There is also limited SPL with this design due to being a single arm design. Even with these disadvantages it sounds better than any moving coil design that I have heard since the mass of the diaphragm is much less the HF is much more accurate than a standard earbud with a moving coil. Custom 1 has been optimized to give the best balance of LF and HF. This design uses a KG332 armature. Mid Level PM's............ use either premium single armatures that are usually smaller or dual armatures with minimal or no EQ. Each product has its limitations. For Klipsch's IMAGE PM a premium armature is used which is a proprietary KG926 driver. The KG926 is ultra compact. Less weight generally means more comfort because there is less force on the ear canal. This model has "special sauce" which I can't go into, due to its proprietary nature, but it is very full range with delicate high's and smooth deep bass. The sound is very accurate due to its light weight diaphragm and the multiple levels of treatment to the design. Generally speaking people will have a hard time complaining about this design. It is easy to use and sounds very accurate. Vocals are silky smooth and drums have a nice snap to them. You can not believe your ears...a product this size sounding this full! The primary limitation is that it is small so you must have a good air seal or you will loose bass. The way we have minimized this problem is by making the chassis micro small with a thin aluminum extruded body or chassis. This small diameter allows the armature to get closer to your eardrum than all of the others models out there. Precision machining is required to make this model, and the design is complicated to get correct due to its size. The patent pending eartip also insures a better seal since it is similar to the shape of your ear. Another type of mid level design is using dual armatures similar to our Custom 2. In the Custom 2 design we have partnered with Sonion and have applied for a patent on this armature, so I can talk about some of the details. The KG534 driver is really two drivers i.e. two motors two armatures and two diaphragms that are tandem (back to back). The benefit of this design is that the diaphragms pump air in opposing directions so any vibration modes are minimized. Think of this similar to dual air bellows on your fireplace with a single nozzle. When you have dual diaphragms your SPL increases by 3 dB and your distortion goes down because it is not working as hard. Part of our applied patent evolves around the low pass acoustic filter that is built into one of the two armatures. This give Klipsch greater control over the EQ since we can have two pistons, one optimized for bass and one optimized for full range. This baby rocks! Musicians will love this product because it is portable yet very efficient. Your vocals will stand out in the mix as an IEM application. High Level PM's...............use two or three armatures and a passive crossover. Our Custom 3 goes much further. Not only does it have two different types of drivers and a passive crossover it also has a patent pending low pass acoustic filter. The Custom 3 utilizes a Klipsch KG723 for the HF tweeter which is a premium armature. This allows the vocals to be ultra silky and very low in distortion. The LF is implemented by a KG732 armature for the LF woofer. The Custom 3 has TWO low pass filters the armature has an internal LP filter plus an additional.... you guessed.... patent pending LP filter on the outside which is optimized for a very low crossover point in such a small chassis without sacrificing sensitivity in the low region of the response. This bad boy has it all! Looks! Comfort! And Concert Level Sound! The passive crossover has 5 components more than any other in its league. With the two acoustic filters and a second order crossover, the LF has a 24 dB per octave rolled off at 1 kHz. Why so low? Everyone else seems to crossover above the vocal region but we wanted to eliminate Intermodulation Distortion (IMD) so we have removed the kick drum and bass tones from the tweeter so the diaphragm can concentrate on silky highs without movement from the LF signal. This also allows us to take advantage of the shape of the crossover for additional EQ in the midrange. The vocals are so natural that this high end IEM won't fatigue your ears like most designs can. But my favorite part is the BASS. I use to have a regional touring pro sound system for live performance applications. I had eight 18 inch 1000 watt drivers just for the subs, so I don't have to tell you how much I can appreciate good clean bass. Image hearing headphones flat BELOW the musical bandwidth. There is no limitation to the bass. I just wish it would shake my pant legs like my pro system did. I encourage everyone to try this product before the buy any other. You will find that the money was well spent. So what type of HP do you need? You will have to be the judge, but you will need to keep in mind that there is a reason why there is large range of prices. The number of arms does make a difference for the IE headphone family. Hopefully this helps you understand what a large difference there is for our family of products dtel...<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /> Why don't you stick it in your ears!

For all you AES members of the local Indiana chapter I want to thank you for visiting Klipsch tonight. I hope you enjoyed the tour of our R&D lab and especially the headphone demo's that we gave. We also had a huge turnout of the student chapter of AES at Ball state. If any of you guys surf our forum I hope you will give us some feedback on the Custom 3 and Image samples you heard. Keep Thumpin!

Is there something you want to tell us about you and Roy?

I swear Michel (that's French for Mikey) I wasn't in that basement...That evidence was PLANTED! I've bee framed!

OMG Mikey er Mikus, How did you find my original proto? You been digging into my closet of prototypes? Blow the dust off those bad boys and I bet they sound like angels...or not... Stick that on your ear....Everyone comes with a surprise inside

Okay guys and gals, I have been bending your ears about IE headphones and I would guess some of you who like earmuffs feel lefts out. So here is your chance.... What is your favorite circumaural headphone? Why? How does it sound better for your? Do you normally use a HP amp with it? If so what one? Stick it in your ear might not work so I will have to come up with a new slogan. Hmmmmm.... I will think on that.

Nothing like high efficiency speakers! Check for refrigerator or furnace motors. Those are very reactive loads which shift the power on the AC. If you turn the power off on your main breaker you can narrow down the source. The other source could be RF signal... CB's, Radio's, WiFi, Wireless phones...RoomGrooves... If that doesn't narrow it down then yep...they are possessed. Maybe PWK is trying to talk to you from beyond.

Yeah Mikey, We got our own little box to play in... Since I can't find a good picture on the web I am gonna have to get a picture of your little speakers with a drum set in the middle to demonstrate the Texas Headphone effect. Could you duct tape those to your head for the photo? You do drum don't you? I am sure you can get some duct tape from Trey. He uses it for everything, even flossing. I wonder if you could get the MCM's on top of the 600's or is that the only way for you to store it in your House of Klipsch? But make sure you set up a stereo pair cause one stack is just not enough! Have you ever had it so loud that the Aqueous Humour in your eyeballs modulates blurring your vision? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqueous_humour This is your word for the day...Test on Friday! Don't stick that Texas Headphone in your ear!

SXT is a more compact version of iGroove. HG is iGroove with a black high gloss paint. CS series are planning on shipping soon....

Free Food for Headphone Demos ? Hmmm I never would have thought of this. Is this like baiting at your deer stand? It is interesting that you had mentioned ProMedia products. I believe Klipsch's first high powered 4.1 brought a lot of new users to our company. Prior to that we were mainly known only for Pro Theater and Heritage products. Maybe we should have give aways drawings for iGroove, or SXT? Hey don't knock the chiseling on stone tablets...It cut down on paper usage. We didn't even have cell phones during the "dark ages"....Imagine that. My idea of portable audio was a Sony Walkman with "auto reverse".....Whoooooooow![] Go Notre Dame!..... Oh well..... never mind........

I want to clarify blsamuel's comments... At the Pilgrimage I set up about 20 headphone preamps with a common music source. This way every user could adjust volumes to their preference. Since we only had limited proto's at that time, I set out a lot of competitive headphones which were both IE and Circumaural. Evidently, Bsam didn't want to try the other models due to comfort issues.