Old-Tube-Sound

A SET amp can be very rewarding with the proper setup. My SET amp is a DIY using Eimac 75TL outputs and my speakers are of course Khorns. My amp is capable of 6 watts with plate voltage of 485V that I'm currently using, but I normally run the amp at a comfortable listening level of about 1/10 of a watt. With my current setup I get all the power I need to drive my Khorns to very loud levels without distortion. The key to having a sucessful SET amp is very efficient speakers, no less than 102db @ 1 watt IMO, the lower the efficiency of the speaker the harder it will be for the SET to drive them at higher levels without distortion. I have had all kinds of tube amps, Marantz 8b, Eico HF-87, Dynaco ST-70, etc. and my current SET amp blows them all away. Don't get me wrong, push-pull amps sound wonderful and pack quite a nice punch, but they are no match for a nice SET amp setup IMHO.

Neo, Go for the Klipschorns !!!...I have a 12' x 30' room and my Khorns are located on the short wall, I have the back of the speakers toed out 10" from the corners to get the focal point about 3/4 down the length of the room and they sound better than anything I have ever heard bar none, plenty of bass and hugh soundstage dispite the fact they are not jammed right in the corners. Yes they were made for corners but beleave me when I tell you corners are not an absolute necessity for the khorns to sound no less than fantastic, at least thats what I fouund in my situation and I'm running them on a DIY SET amp running less than 1 watt. I would pass on the unfinished pair for $2,995.00 there are others that are alot nicer for that kind on money.

Well I went and checked them out and picked up the pair for $900.00...They are untouched and I got them from the original owner along with the original manuals and sales receipt and other than a 6" circular water stain on one of the top hats they are both in excellent condition. The crossovers are AK-2's, cabinets are walnut finish, I was suprised to see that the midrange horns were K-400's. Overall well worth the money I paid for them. Anybody got any advice on how to remove a water stain?

Hi All, I have a chance to pick up a pair pristine 1987 Khorns relatively cheap and want to know how do the quality and sound of the components in the 1987 Khorns compare to components in pre 1980 model Khorns. I will be going to see them later today and listening to them on the owners Denon HT receiver which will not give me a very good compairson to my own 1982 Khorns, So my question is how do the newer components stack up against the older components?

I have both but the one with the jumper is the type A crossover. Should I remove it to put it back the way it came from the factory? What would be the advantage in bypassing the inductor?

Hi All, A good friend gave me his type A crossovers out of his 1967 Khorns which I'm going to audition in my 82 Khorns with my SET amp that we were all discussing a few weeks ago. When he gave them to me I noticed that there is a jumper wire between the + woofer tie down screw and the + on the input tie down screw that does not look factory but more like an after thought, my friend said the jumpers were there when he bought the speakers last spring. I have attached a photo, can anyone tell me if the jumpers are supposed to be there or are they an addition that really shouldn't be there. I have tried to research it on the net but found nothing so I'm relying on all of you my fellow Klipsch fans for the answer, thanks. Dave

Thanks Mike....To tell you the truth I'm not a thin-skinned person and I started this thread to get opinions good or bad about my problem with a low power amp and the finest speakers in the world and I really appreicate them all, but I think Erik hit the nail on the head I really can't expect a low powered SET amp to have enough stuff to drive those big 15" woof's efficiently, My 8b on the other hand has no problems driving the horns but it has its limitations too and even though the 8b is an outstanding amp it does not have no where near the sweet sound of the 75TL SET amp. I put the horns tight in the corners for those who insisted I do and that program got two thumbs down, the wall is simply to short and it screws up the sound stage big time and the focus is way off. Like I said I appreciate EVERYONES input, Its forums like this and fellow audiophiles like all of you who have opinions and experences to help others that make this hobby fun. I would like to wish all of you a happy Thanksigving and a blessed upcomming holiday season. Thanks for your help guys. Dave

OK OK..You guys win, I will put them back in the corners and we'll see what happens. And yes I'm stuck on the amp thing, if speakers are rated at 104db SPL with 1 watt at 1 meter then a 6 watt amp should not be laboring to drive it at higher volumes IMHO. I'll let you all know how the speaks in the corners work out.

OK Klipsch fans here is the latest...I removed the ALK crossovers and reinstalled my original AA crossovers and just in that one move I got 35% higher volume before I hit distortion, so definately the ALK universal crossovers were a big part of the problem, next I'm going to try a pair of autoformers and see if I can squeeze out alittle more volume by letting the amp see 16 Ohms across the board instead of 8 and or 4 Ohms. OK the horns in the corner issue, I tried putting the horns directly in the corners when I first got them but on a 15 foot wall the focal point or the sweet spot if you will is to narrow, about 6 to 8 feet out from the center of the wall and that was to much in my face so I toed them out to put the sweet spot about center room 15 to 20 feet, I still have plenty of bass even though I have them out of the corners and having plenty of bass has never been my problem, the amp driving 4 Ohm speaks at higher volumes has been my problem. Keep in mind even though the amp will put out aprox. 6 watts before clipping on a scope, I never run the amp that high, I may run it 1 to 2 watts tops and thats pushing it before it distorts, normal listening level I'm probably running it 1/10 or 1/20 of a watt. I thought about putting a SS amp on the bottom but that idea doesn't excite me to much, I feel would always be adjusting the top and bottom to get the right blend for different types of music, besides its more of a challange to me to try to get the amp and speakers singing out of the same song book without any outside help.

Never have heard a 45..I've heard 300b, 2A3, 10Y, RV218, GM70 and all sound good but never had the opportunity to hear a 45 amp. Responding to long wall, My audio room is 15 x 30 so putting the horns on the long wall would not work out unfortunately. Responding to ALK's Al built the ones I have, I think I might try switching back to my AA crossovers and see if that makes a difference.

This is my listening room....

Check this one out I built for a good friend of mine this past summer..Eimac 75TL outputs driven by extremely rare 1930's Telefunken RS241 DHT's and a 83 rectifier all built on a solid copper chassis that I designed and punched out myself...This is a mac daddy SET amp if there ever was one.

Your correct, they are the same type tubes that Josh Stippich uses but without the space age chassis. I built the amp but the design in large part was by my good friend Grant Gassman and anyone whos a builder knows the genius of Grant when it comes to building exotic SET amps. In responce to listening to the amp on other speaks, yes I have listened to this amp on a pair of Lowther DX4's, and like I said in my first posting this amp smokes anything I have ever heard, but Lowther speaks are very expensive and I would much rather keep my beautiful Khorns and do what ever it takes to get them to hand shake with my amp at higher volumes.

Thanks to all who have replied, looks like I have alot options here to try out...First off let me start out by saying this home brew amp is not a poor design it was well thought out and sounds better than anything I have ever heard bar none. Eimac 75TL's are real sleepers that very few know about. The design of the amp is a pair of very rare Telefunken EC8020 triode drivers, Eimac 75TL outputs and WE 354A Thyratron half wave rectifiers ( those are the pretty blue ones ) instead of coupling caps I used 1:1 interstage trannies and the output trannies also very rare are Nature Sound NS-70SE's...The problem is not the amp, its the drain the speakers put on the amp or a impedance mismatch, The mids and highs sound spectacular its the bottom thats in the mud. I'll try some of the suggestions I have received here and let you all know if any one of them worked.

Hi All, I have a SET amp I recently built using Eimac 75TL's for output tubes, its a wonderful sounding amp and runs about 6 watts. My Khorns were built in 1982 and I recently changed out my AA crossovers and I'm now using ALK crossovers. My problem is this, the amp is having a real hard time dealing with the 4 Ohm K-33 drivers, by design the amp would be happier and do much better with higher impedance drivers like 16 Ohm drivers but that creates another problem finding the right crossover point and making a change on my ALK crossovers if in fact it can be done, with the original K-33 drivers the sound distorts at higher volumes depending on what CD or vinyl I'm listening to at the time, if I disconnect the K-33's I can turn up the volume as loud as I can stand it and the sound is crystal clear, hook the drivers back up and the sound is muddy again at higher volumes, at low and mid volume everything is fine. I'm kind of curious as to why Klipsch chose to used a 4 Ohm woofer, a 16 Ohm mid-horn and a 8 Ohm tweeter in their design. I'm looking for suggestions as to how I can make the 4 Ohm drivers less taxing on my amp and get rid of the distortion at higher volume levels, I could purchase JBL D130 16 Ohm drivers, but then there is the crossover point issue and sensitivity issue. I have even toyed with the idea of running a SS amp on the bottom, I'm not real excited with that idea but it is an option. If anyone has any suggestions as to how I can resolve this driver problem it would be greatly appreciated. I love my Khorns and my new SET amp I just need to get them to shake hands better than they are right now. Dave

I turn on source on first, preamp second and amp last, I bring up the amp slowly on a variac over a minute time span to avoid the in-rush voltage that is super hard on tubes. I shut everything down in the reverse of turing it on.

Hi All, I would like to get some opinions on the the advantages and or disadvantages of swapping out the K-33 drivers in my 1983 K-Horns for a pair of JBL 130A drivers. In researching the subject it seems most feel that the JBL's would be an improvement over the K-33's and then again some say leave well enough alone that the difference does not warrent the swap so now I'm not 100% convenced its a good move on my part and at a 400.00 to 600.00 price tag for the JBL's its a fairly sizeable gamble. I love my K-Horns and if the JBL's will make a positive improvement I want it. So fellow Klipschpiles give me your thoughts Keep the K-33's or go for the JBL's, thanks. Dave

Poof..Here Today..Gone today..Aren't you glad eBay got the scammer before the scammer got your money???

If you are going to go with tubes get a SET amp ( single ended triode ) in the 1 to 3 watt range, less is better for K-Horns. I recently built a SET amp using Telefunken EC8020 drivers and Eimac 75TL outputs and at normal listening levels I'm running my K-horns at about 1/10 of a watt and it absolutely smokes anything else I have ever heard. Paul Klipsch said it himself "What the world needs is a good 5 watt amp". More power and or SS amps makes the K-Horns sound like crap IMHO.

cut-throat, I sent you an email through gmail, give me a shout if the CT's are still available.

How do these compair to the stock k-77 tweeters?

Hi All, I have a pair of 1983 K-Horns that currently have the K-77M tweeters and K-55V solder lug mid-horns and I'm considering purchasing and installing the older K-77's with the Alnico magnets, so I want to get some opinions from members of this forum on which tweeter is the better choice the K-77 or the K-77M, so before I make my move give please me your thoughts is the K-77 the better tweeter or is the K-77M's as good as it gets. I recently replaced the AK crossover with an original AA crossover and that made a hugh difference in the sound and now am wondering if replacing the K-77M tweeters with the K-77's will take my K-Horns up another notch or two on the high end and make the sound alittle sweeter than it already is. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

If you have a SP-8 MKII Rev. 5, 6 or 7 take the cover off the bottom of the preamp in there you will find two resistors that are soldered to stand off's on the circuit board you can't miss them they are the only resistors that are connected to stand off's unsolder one leg on each resistor and that will reduce the gain of the preamp 6db add 12 db attenuators (you can buy them at parts express) to the inputs at the amplifier and that will calm the preamp down to a level that will make your horns sound like you have never heard them before. The SP-8 is one of the best preamps ever made, I use mine with two Acrosound ULII's mono blocks on my K-Horns and the sound is simply to die for. Do those couple of steps to your SP-8 and you will be giving it a big bear hug when you listen to it again. If it still sounds like crap then something else is wrong.

Hi All, I own a pair of 82 Klipschorns and they currently have the AK crossovers in them. I have a chance to pick up a nice pair of AA crossovers out of some old LaScala's. So I'm looking for some feedback from you K-Horn owners in the know, should I leave the AK crossovers in there and forget the AA's or should I grab the AA's and install them? Are the AA's better than the AK's as far as quality of parts and will my K-Horns sound better with them? or are the AK's of better quality parts and sound? Thanks for your help guys and have a very Merry Christmas and great New Year.