Klewless

"Nature is analog" That is true. That does not mean that any device conceived by mankind can capture that analog perfection. However, I would be willing to bet a cup of coffee on MY OPINION about just how important this is to your ear/brain interpretation of that perfect analog sound. Here goes. Take a perfect copy of a sound, if your could actually do such a thing, and run it through some kind of (perfect) chopping filter. This filter would simply kill any sound for a very short window of time. Then increase the frequency of your chopping machine. You will eventually reach a point where you cannot tell the difference between the original and your "chopped" sound. Your ear/brain will perform the duties of the digital DAC. One could actually send this chopped sound to a speaker and it will fill in the gaps for you; no DAC required. All this just makes my head hurt thinking about it. We are blessed indeed to have systems which can do as well as they do.

There is probably a million answers to your question! Here is a summary of my feelings on the subject. 1. Digital is superior to analog records. Try listening to the new SACD releases of the Mercury and RCA 3-channel recordings made in the 50's. 2. I try not to relate the quality of the source and the skills of the producers with the medium of delivery. Both digital and analog products have released some very good and pleasing sounds, in spite of each type's "problem areas". 3. Remember that the industry seems bent on producing inferior products these days "in order to protect their interests" (my interpretation of copy protection). Most people could care less about the quality of their sound systems. There are the dedicated few who do care, and care deeply about it. I try to fit myself into the second group. I know that I did not address each individual question but I hope that the big picture is what eventually shines. I am aware of each of the issues you pointed out and agree with each one cited. Nothing is perfect, not even the live events! Even the mood of the audience can affect the performance of the players. I love my old records. I also love my CDs. And now, I love my SACDs. I do not have audiophile equipment (Marantz home theater and universal player for the digital decoders). And to further confuse the issue, sometimes I let the receiver decode the signal and sometimes the player gets that job. Each sounds slightly different with neither owning the preference. All this is just my opinion and hope it helps a bit.

Some thoughts. Isn't the JBL rear loaded? I remember Altec preaching about the "sins" of that type of design. You will run into cancelations when the wavelength between front/back of the driver find each other. I also am of the belief that originally Paul Klipsch planned to design his horn to work the same way. He discovered that approach to be less than desired, hence his version of the folded horn, which most of us love to pieces.

Here's my 2 cents. I have a similar situation where the diagonal from the corners is not right for the listening position. But remember that the Khorn like all speakers has a wider dispersion than straight ahead. I have found that I never like speakers firing straight at me anyway. A good spot is 1/3 up from the back wall (as in 2/3 back from the front wall where the speakers are). In my room this does not work out for permanent chair placement so I MOVE my chair back when I want to do some serious listening. You can rotate one or both of the Khorns in their corners as much (or little) as one inch and achieve remarkable imaging. That works. I believe the WORST place to sit is in the middle of the room. Hope this makes sense.

I'll chime in here. I think the issue relating to mid-horns and larger drivers comes from the idea that the Khorn bass horn is becoming somewhat subdued on it's top end. So we want to find a way to get the mid-horn to go a bit lower in order to blend in better down lower. But as you can see, getting lower there messes up the mid-horn's top end. Then there is the problem that compression drivers need longer and larger horns to get down lower. Thus they won't fit within the Khorn's footprint. I know people have used the Altec 300Hz horn and those dudes almost touch the ceiling on top of the Khorn! There are lots of issues and my comment here is just the tip of the ice berg.

I hope you mean by "revisiting" to be "in addition to". I love my records and continue to add to the pile on occasion BUT would not part with my SACD for all the vinyl on earth!

r. No, they are not a transition. The cornwalls came before the chorus/forte.

Over the years, I have noticed that anything Klipsch have never been cheap. BUT they have ALWAYS been good (to my ears)!

DeanG, I'm with you on the slower rate crossovers. While Al is correct with the overlap issue, I don't think it is that big of a problem with the Khorn. With the crossover somewhat near the mid horn cutoff the overlap diminishes considerably, unlike direct radiators under similar conditions. Plus one can only hear the interference by constantly moving around while listening. I have found that twisting the Khorn as little as an inch can produce remarkable results in the sound stage. Meaning it is easy to move yourself from an area of diminished (cancellation) to one of enhightened response due to the interference patterns. With sharp crossovers one has a tendency to hear individual drivers as opposed to a larger sound image. I am not trying to say that each crossover type does not have it's own advantage. They do. I too like the original Khorn type of sound and have never had anybody who came over to listen complain about driver overlap. They always seem to be blown away by the open, clear sound. Just my two cents worth!

Is there any distortion in the cannons of 1812 Overture? For all I know it may be all distortion. But there ain't nothing like feeling it com'in your way. That is why I have Khorns! Along with other things. I have found that the smoother your system, the louder it can be played without sounding loud. Ain't this hobby just great!

damon, That shelf is the port, there is only one. The rectangular openings could just as well be viewed as "windows" into the port. Klipsch could have designed it differently by stopping the front panel at the top of the port shelf. Then he would have had to put in something around the edge to attach the grill onto.

D-MAN, No doubt about your sharks. But when they splash their waves against the walls, man what an effect! Everybody, Why not build it with a removable motorboard? If we really got clever I'd bet we could design one where the entire front panel could be bolted onto the doghouse. Sort of having your cake and eating it too!

Well you asked! I am one of those with one foot in the boat and the other on the dock. I am done with 2-channel. Am doing 3-channel and skipping the surround stuff all together. However I am using surround decoders on my receiver to get the third (center) channel. I love the result.

Swap the speakers to opposite channels. If the noise follows the swap, it was the electronics. If it stays put, it could then be the driver or a component in the crossover. The next step would be to swap the driver from one speaker to the other. Don't forget to mark each driver so you can be sure to put originals back together. If the "suspect" driver in the other speaker sounds OK, then the problem is in the crossover. Should still have the noise in the same place. On thing. Do each of these tests one at a time. It is so confusing and easy to forget just where you are in the process. Copeous NOTES go a long way in preservation of sanity! Good luck!

Thanks, I am running a PC with good ole IE 6. I forgot to mention that the two pictures of the Khorn with the big round horns on top used to display. Now they don't. The info about sharing makes sense. Maybe (hope) I have nothing to worry about. Really hate to reinstall XP. There once was a time when I actually enjoyed installing windows OSs but no more.

HELP--------------HELP For the last couple or three days everytime I go to "Updates and Modifications" "Design a better Khorn bass bin" I get a dialog box that says "Connect to idisk.mac.com" All I do is cancel the dialog. IS THIS SOME KIND OF COMPUTER VIRUS???????

Khorns would LOVE 30+ feet to play in. A center channel puts you into hi-fi heaven!

I could be mistaken, but I believe Klipsch (partly) designed the vertical Cornwalls so that they could also be used in a "low-boy" configuration. This was pretty common in speakers yesteryear.

Al, Are you guys saying that the mid/tweeter mounting board is the same size on both the Khorn and Belle?

Bi-wiring is where you separate the low and high parts of the speaker's crossover, then run dedicated wires to each section. Some speakers allow you to do that by removing an external jumper. Some people run heavy wires to the low freq section, and smaller wires to the high freq section. The same amp still runs the same speaker only now it would be using two pairs of wires instead of one. Hope that helps.

ko, If you are going to feel guilty, guess I'll have to also. I love my sub.

As an experiment, I'd be tempted to buy two Klipsch center channel speakers for a small bedroom, and stand them on end. Small footprint.

Tom, "There's nothing you are supposed to like." That's a good one! Best summation I've seen in a long time.

It seems to me that "comb filtering effects" are an issue only if you are moving around in the sound field. If you are sitting in one spot you cannot hear what the drivers are doing to each other someplace else! And I always sit in one spot. You know, one of those freeks who actively listens to the rig, then turns it off when done. When I really want to hear bass, I sit in another room. Have been tempted to put the sub in that other room so I can hear it where the system resides. But only tempted at this point in my life.

Hey, That salesman has got a head on his shoulders, and it ain't full of air!