soundog

Acoustics deepend on room dimensions, on placement of reflective , absorption and deflection surfaces throughout the room and on, of course, speaker characteristics and speaker placement. ie unless we are acoustical engineers, a lot of trial and error. But then too, even acoustical engineers can be wrong as in Avery Fisher Hall @ Lincoln Center, NYC initially and through many subsequent "adjustments".

The qustion is: will the attached backboard panels against the baseboards allow the recessed wall to serve as an adequate continuous extension of the Khorns base bin horn? Or will the lack of flat continuity be a problem?

What Max 2 did is very interesting. If the bass sounds great then this is a good idea. But I wonder because the seal to a 6-8 ft wall on each side was the whole idea of a khorn. Not a big problem when everything was monaural just needed one corner that had 6-8 ft of wall on either side. Stereo required a wall with two corners with 6-8 ft on each side! What I have experienced over the years was the attachment of 4x8 sheets on one or more sides of the Khorn to create a false wall where no wall existed or were an existing wall was not a solid straightaway due to windows. radiators, molding etc. If a window intervenrd then the 4x8 board would have to be placed over part of the window (not always ascetically pleasing). The idea of Paul's design was to create an extended bass horn by using the rooms side walls as part of the speaker because for a horn to acuratly reproduce low bass requires a very long horn ( horn tweeters have very short horns, midrange horns are longer and bass horns are very long ) therfore often folded as in the Khorn but the longer the horn the lower the natural reproduction of bass. Where moldiing or baseboards prevent a seal removing same is one soution or as suggested foam along each edge of the bass bin may work if the foam allowed a continuous seal from wall over molding ... a flat wall surface all around is best.

I have both 511Bs and Cobraflex horns. I like them both better than the 400s. I had to dampen the 511Bs to overcome a slight ringing but the Cobras were fine as is - must be the gasket between the two halves. The Klipschorn used University speakers in early versions and I read or heard that the Cobras were used in an early version but I can not find where I learned that. I've A=Bed them and think I prefer the Cobras but I think it depends on the material. I have two cobras and I use them as the center speaker in both systems instead of the LaScalas 400s I mount them over my TVs - the mounting bracket that comes with them is very useful. I am thinking of replacing the 511Bs with Al's wooden horns for my Klipschorn system.

Several thousand hours that is reduced by frequent "ons and offs", causing some people to leave tube equiptment on for extended periods. Deterioration is often very gradual, causing some to change tubes more frequently then necessary. Then there's the whole issue of "matched" tubes.

Only negitive is that tubes deteriorate and have to be replacec.

Only negitive is tubes deteriorate and have to be replaced.

I misspoke previously - I can not change the volume of the Dynaco preamp with the Outlaw remote but I can change the volume of the Outlaw - the pass through is for digital processing but the analog signal goes through the Outlaw's volume control. You press buttons on the remote to switch between various sources.

No, you can switch to something else with the outlaw remote but not change the volume as the signal is being passed through as is from the Dynaco tube preamp (which does not have remote posibilities).

I have Outlaw Audio seperates - a 950 preamp and a 7100 amp. The 950 has a bypass option that allows me to pass through the signal from my Dynaco preamp to the 7100.

For top rated seperates at a very reasonable price, check out Outlaw Audio website.

The Outlaw SS preamp is an excellent Home Theater preamp but the highs on music seemed a little too bright.m The use of a Dynaco stereo tube preamp mellowed the sound of CDs and also allows me to play records. I also have external DACs and upsampling devices that help make the CDs sound like LPs. I use ALK crossovers in my Khorns and 511B horns; otherwise they are original equiptment. Sealing the Khorns to the wall, the mods, AND room accoustical treatment have all improved the sound. Each has made a noticable improvement.

My amp is an Outlaw 7100 - 7 channel 100 watt per channel SS

Khorns were designed in the era of tube equiptment and they sound best with tubes. I use a tube preamp that passes through my Home Theater preamp and into 2 channels of my amp. This allows me to switch back and forth with ease, have the digital processing necessary for HT surround sound and the mellow tube sound from my khorns for music.

Sealing the bass bins to the wall is a must with Khorns. Another factor that is the most ignored but very important component of good sound is room accoustics. Optimizing room accoustics by adjusting reflections, diffusion and absorption of sound waves can make a huge difference! Wire adjustments will produce negligable results IMHO. Al's crossover upgrades make a difference as I bet his trachorns would also.