crexrun

I have a set of Kp-301s, the pro version of the Cornwalls, and I am using them for Music, and have used them for movies as well, they sound excellent. They are much brighter than the speakers they replaced, and they are my first set of Klipschs, so maybe that's a Klipsch thing. I think they do a very good job with everything, even though they have different drivers than the Cornwalls. I think that one of the biggest things is that the Pro models have higher power handling, and maybe better protection, I would say they would work fine. When I first listened to them with music on my vintage equipment, I thought they sounded very bright, but also very detailed, and accurate. They made the Linaeum Tweeter Optimus speakers I was using sound very muddy by comparison, and they took some getting used to, but I am more used to them now. I have no tone controls whatsoever, and are running with Technics Pro series seperates, and do quite well. I use my Linaeums for my movie set-up now, I have a 5.1 setup, and they do very well for that, I don't notice the top end rolloff compared to the 301s, and they are very vocal, so they do fine for movies. I would assume that the 201's would be similar to my 301s, and I have heard of a few people running 301's for a HT setup, and I know that if I can find at least 1 more pair, preferably 3 more, I would run either a 5.1 or a 7.1 setup with all 301s, and use that setup for both music and movies. Crexrun

Likewise, I have no plans to get rid of these. I would like to find another pair for a great HT as well as music, but I don't think I can find a pair as clean as these. Thanks for the reply, Crexrun

Thanks a lot Trey, I was pretty sure that was the scoop, just wanted to make sure. I don't think I'll need to be bi-amping these things anytime soon in a Home environment, but it's nice to know that I can! Thanks, Crexrun

hello, I was just wondering about the hookup on my KP-301s. They have dual sets of banana plugs, and I'm assuming that it's for the Woof on one set and the mid/tweet on the other. There are 2 fuses, and 2 1/4" ins as well, and I was wondering if bi-amping is possible. Most home speakers I've seen have removeable ext. bridges that you remove when biamping. these, however, have jumpers soldered in on the inside, so you would have to cut that jumper to bi-amp, correct? If you hooked up 2 amps with them connected, I wouldn't think that would be very amp friendly. Any help would be appreciated, Crexrun PS, they are currently hooked up with the lower set, but it makes no difference if it's top or bottom, I checked. Thanks!

Wow, finally some concrete answers! Thanks a lot guys, I appreciate that a bunch. So I'm assuming I got a pretty good deal on these, they were in a church for thier whole life, they look like new, barely dusty, and obviously not abused. As far as the Ib setup, I have looked into that somewhat, for when I build my house, in the next 2-4 years is the plan. For now, I think maybe the answer for me is a single 15, in a 6 cu ft cab as DrWho instructed, I will just get a good active crossover and run my second SE-9060 to that, and I can simply set the enclosure centered between the 301's for the moment. I would do the infinite baffle setup right now, but unfortunately, I am renting, so now modifications are allowed, especially mounting 4 15"s in the floor in the kitchen! What do you guys think about having the 301's off the floor, it seems to sound fine, I don't NOTICE any difference due to refraction, but I'm still new to some of this. I've been playing with audio for about 10 years, but I have never gotten onto the wavelength/refraction train, I've been more concerned with building car systems, which of course, are a different beast all together. Thanks again for all the info and comments, and thanks for welcoming me to the site! Justin

DrWho has been giving me some very good information on subwoofer design tips on my "KP-301" thread, and it was starting to get a little long, so I thought I'd start a subwoofer one as well. DrWho, In the other post, you mentioned cancellations from having my 301s off of the floor approx. 14", do you recommend having them lower, or do you think that with the add. of a sub, I will do away with the reduction in low end, from refraction from the ceiling? I would very much like to have the mid horn at ear level of somewhere close, it seems to sound so much better, like I'm in front of the stage, versus above it. Angling the speakers while on the floor raised the soundstage, but not as much as I prefer. I would like to build an attractive sub cabinet underneath the 301's to reduce floor space as much as possible. I would also like to (when possible) have these speakers placed more in a corner, as I believe they were designed for, (the original "Cornwall" was named do because of corner, wall placement I read on Klipsch.com) and have the subs underneath, to reinforce the very low end a little more, and also to simply make a more attractive arrangement for day to day living. I could easily make an L shaped cabinet if needbe, that would go under and behind the kp-301s, so I could have the volume, and long ports, and plenty of room to mount the 15's, and also be able to keep the base at whatever height I want. I have the amp end taken care of, I picked up another Technics SE-9060, this was the TOTL in the late 70s, it operates at 70 wpc RMS at .002% dist. 20hz-20khz, and a 120 db S/N ratio. They are very clean, good sounding amps with plenty of power. It is also a stereo/mono amp, it is basically 2 seperate amps in 1 chassis, that are bridgeable. It goes to 180 watts mono, rms, and will operatedown to a 4ohm load in mono, and will push around 210 to 4 ohms. I was thinkning of just running this into a stereo, 4 ohm load, using a DVC 8 ohm sub, and having the coils in parallel. I could also run them in 8 ohm mode, if I got a dual 4 ohm sub, and just turn the level up on the amp to the desired volume. I may not get 125db out of the subs that way, but I don't need that, I listen to it at a talking level, or slightly higher, 95% of the time, I don't need to really crank on it that often. When I DO crank on it, the 15"s in the 301s become a little more active, and they fill in the low end a little more anyway. One more thing, I think some of my low end woes are possibly due to the fact that these speakers were in a church for the last 12 years, and probably never operated at a very high level, and probably never really had the woofers broken in, as they seem to be very stiff, basically "new" stiff, IMO. I have been running some bass heavy music through them, and they already seem to be a tiny bit better on the bottom end, after a few hours. I put in a test CD, and the low end bass notes seem to almost make the woofers "pop" at low levels, like the coils want to move the cone, but the surround and spider are still too stiff to let it move like it should. I'm not damaging them, I am very careful of things, and this only happens at very low levels, less than 1 watt. Anyway, I'd like to hear your opinions on the height of the KP-301s, and if you think my power will be sufficient to fill the room with what I'm looking for from what you've seen. Thanks a lot, It's much appreciated, Justin

Well, that's awfully nice of you to offer DrWho. well, for basics, I am looking to have a sub get as close to 20hz as possible, I know they will play down there, but I am looking for good response somewhere down to that reason. I watch movies on this setup on occasion, I also have a serperate HT, but I sometimes like the accuracy of my vintage gear. I would like the stereo subs, because I am not crazy about having a single sub for stereo music, it always seems to make itself known. As far as a budget is concerned, I would like to stay around maybe $300 for the subwoofers, and I am already working on the amp end of it, I believe I have a line on an matching Technics SE-9060, it is a stereo/mono amp, built in the later 70s, and off excellent quality, parts of their pro series rack mount components. I guess I can wait to get this all finalized too, there's not a tremendous hurry, but you know how audio goes! If someone can recommend a driver that plays deep, but is somewhat musical, and say, $100ish, I would be interested. I would also need something as efficient as possible, due to the high eff. of these KP-301s. I am not looking for floor rattling bass in my daily music, but the ability to do that would be nice from time to time, I am just looking for an overall, quality sound. I will run the subs wherever needbe crossover wise to blend in smoothly with the 301s, but still be full and powerful when needbe. I'm guess I'm just saying I want a sub that will complete, and keep up with, the KP-301s. If I went with a 15, I could easily make it a downfiring design, if you think I should lower the height of the 301s, but if you think I'd be ok with the current height, I could probably make them a front/rear firing design as well. I build very nice cabinets, I am a perfectionist when it comes to things like that, and the car stuff I've done is always very strong, and draws a lot of compliments. I better get back to work, thanks for the help, it's always nice to hear opinions! Thanks again, Justin

Thanks Doc, I appreciate it. I had them on the floor initially, they did seem to sound a touch warmer, but They seemed to present a lower soundstage to my ears, and angling the cabinets up did little to help. They did seem to be slightly higher when angled, but they seem to sound more lifelike when the midrange is at or very slightly about ear level. I am new to the horn type speaker, I know they present themselves differently than a conventional design. I am certainly no expert when it comes to speaker placement, I am thankful for any info that is passed on to me, and from any source. As far as subwoofers, I was big into the car audio scene until the last couple of years, and There are certain combinations of boxes and drivers that I like very much, and it seems that to equal the bass quality, and volume, you have to spend a large amount in a home subwoofer. I know they are designed for different purposes, but when I have played around in the past with a sealed, efficient car audio sub, I seemed to have good results, occasionally. I was planning on perhaps building a set of risers for the KP-301s, approximately 10-16" tall, and placing a quality car sub in each of those, the design would be decided on when I get closed to doing it, but I would then run the subs stereo, maybe using an NHT crossover in my Rack, or similar. Home subs, that I have listened to (rural SD) seem to be very taxed at the very low end of the spectrum, I have a certain song by Deana Carter, it has organ notes to around 22hz, and most home speakers, and subs, have a large degree of difficulty presenting this the way I would like. My car systems, on the other hand, while obviously not as true to life as a home setup, had little problems producing 20hz and under. I realize this is an effect of the car's much smaller cabin, and the wavelengths of lower frequencies, (which I dont' grasp 100%) but even out of the car, a lot of good car subs sound excellent, IMO. Also, there is the cost factor, due to constantly changing colors/ designs/ models, car audio subs can often be had at low cost at the end of the model year, even the good ones. It is still up in the air for now, but I am looking at getting something going within the next month or so. Any thoughts you had would be great, thanks for reading, Crexrun

Nobody has any comments or info for me on these? I'd sure appreciate anything, I haven't been able to find much on these. Anybody have them, love them, hate them? Thanks, Crexrun

I have done a little reading on screens, and I always thought that the best HT would definitely have the center behind the screen as well. IMO, the easy solution to the problem of HF reduction from the screed material, and to not having the front L/R speakers behind the screen, is to simply have the outboard speakers have a removeable grille made out of the same material. Place the center as close as possible to the screen, and with grilles on the L/R it should sound close enought to work. The KP-301s I just got are plenty bright already, I would consider running the fabric on them fulltime if it didn't degrade performance noticeably. You could perhaps even get the fabric colored from the factory, and if not, you could find another acoustically transparent cloth, black or whatever, to cover the screen material if needbe. Just my opinion, and what I might try if I had this situation. Crexrun

double post.

Here is all the info I have, KP-301, serial 030294520, 1 Inepected by Jerry White, Tested by Vanessa Herter? The tweeter is a k79, the mid is a k57, the woofer is a k48 I beleive. The crossover, Klipsch Balanced Network, Type KP-3.0B Thanks for looking, Crexrun

Hello Everyone, first post. I just picked up a set of KP-301s, from a shop here in rural South Dakota, does anyone know anything about them? I have been lurking here for a week now, and have found the specs from them, and know the driver numbers, but I am still unsure of a few things. First, are these pro Cornwalls? I have seen that posted a few times, but have never gotten a good answer. I am using them for 2ch stereo, and also they will be used for the occasional movie, in 2ch also. Second, what is the history of these models? I checked the serial number, the guy I called at Klipsch wasn't super helpful, but I have deduced that this pair -030294520- was made January 30th, 1992, #4520 but that may be wrong. They are in very nice shape, and are the black versions with handles and the corner guards. I guess I am just wondering, even though they sound good to my ears, minus a little on the low end of the spectrum, are they really designed for this purpose, or are they designed to be fed a ton of power for PA use? They are very detailed on top, but sometimes I think the very low end of the midrange is lacking, it seems bass guitars and the like should have a little more fullness to them. The bass is very accurate, and the high end is wonderful, if not a little to bright for the low end. I am running them with some vintage gear, The Technics Pro series rack mount equipment, from 77-79, I have a set from 1978 consisting of a SE-9060 amp, SU-9070 preamp, SL-1700 TT, and I am using a Philips DVP-642 dvd player, and I also have a JVC AX-Z911 Digital reference amp, circa 1988, with an optical in that I am not using, but is in the cabinet. I absolutely love them for horns, guitars, female singers, etc., it all sounds just right, but there's something that seems to be missing down low, it's not just boom-boom bass, it's the way a bass guitar kind of flows out and fills the room that seems to be missing. I have no tone controls on the Technics gear, but when I ran them with the JVC, a TOTL amp that retailed for $1200 in 88, which has a bass control, they sound much better if I crank the bass way up. I am not trying to ruin my eardrums, I just want to even it out. Movies sound excellent with them as well, but they don't dig as deep as I thought they would being this large, but that's the tradeoff for efficiency. It seems like either there is a small dip in the response, or the 15 is crossed over too low, or themid doesn't go low enough, but I find myself wanting an EQ to figure out what the deal it. I am planning on getting a powered sub to go along with these, I am not expecting them to rumble the floorboards, I just want them to sound a little warmer. Any comments or thoughts are appreciated. One more thing, why 2 sets of binding posts if they are connected internally? There is a low and high freq. fuse, 2 1/4" inputs, and the four binding posts. You could bi-amp them, but you would have to cut the internal wires connecting the posts, correct? I'll post a couple pics, maybe I can get a little feedback on them. PS, in the pics, the speakers were on the floor, now they are about 14" up. They are in a bassment, all concrete, but quite a bit of furniture and carpet, however the rest is open. They may sound a lot warmer in a furnished living room. Thanks in advance, Justin Tollefson