JRH

Congratulations! You have the second Cornwall ever shipped!

There was a Dick Moore, but it was in the early 70's I believe.

Am I right?

We have at least one photo of Jack with PWK in 1975. Probably have correspondence too.

Looks like you've got the Holy Grail of signatures. In addition to PWK you have Bob Moers, then President of K&A. Price will be positively affected, but condition is also important. It looks like you have a bubble on the top edge veneer that is likely repairable. A good review of eBay would probably be in order. If I had to GUESS, the pair in good condition could bring anywhere from $4000 - $8000. The Belle looks to be cherry, and they are bringing close to $2000 at times. From the serial number the K-horns were built in 1973. If you could supply your grandfather's name (here or privately) I can check to see if he already appears in the archives. As for the paper and photo documentation, the Klipsch Heritage Museum Association, Inc. (a non-profit spun off from Klipsch Group, Inc. last year) would be most interested in reviewing the group, and possibly adding it electronically to our archives. We do not currently have financial resources to make an outright offer, but obviously any donation (or loan for scanning) would be most appreciated.

Unfortunately some of the old records are a bit cryptic, but I can get you close. The woofer cabinet build date and the final assembly ship date can be fairly far apart. #1356 woofer cabinet was built on 8/5/58. #1357 was 8/6/58. The records do not show a ship date for either. Must have been operator error (Lloyd McClellan likely). The previous serial number #1355 shipped on 7/21/58. To illustrate the non-sequential logbook entries, the earlier #1334 shipped on 1/8/59. Yes, 1959. So best guess is late 58 or early 59!

Ahh..........toasted woofers like Kerry used to make! I got the job of analyzing the remains. When a woofer actually catches fire, it is usually a stupid amount of power, either resulting in "hitting the stops" with mechanical damage and subsequent shorting out, or the amp is clipping and sending square waves with an inordinate amount of high frequencies (heat!). I've looked at several smoked woofers over the years, so the specifics on these are lost.

I won't pretend to know what they are worth. eBay and other audio sites should be reviewed, although I imagine another Forum member with a clue might just chime in. Sherman Fairchild was a good friend and early supporter of PWK. If our new museum had any money (not yet!), they would be considered as a possible addition.

You're going to have to elaborate a little. I'm not getting a picture................

The book may be inaccurate on this point. PWK told me that he offered his joined initials to the jeweler with standard letter orientation. The jeweler suggested reversing the "P" to make it more balanced. Supporting this is his pair of 1919 (still in high school) Brandes headphones with his initials engraved with standard orientation.

The variations PWK was speaking of in the old K-77's was as much as +/- 3 dB on average. At one time he was making 3 variations of the network to accommodate this gross spread. However, that was a temporary fix until EV got their act together (a few years only?). I can't say for sure what Klipsch was doing in 2005 (I was in Indiana), but at the very least an audible sweep test was executed for rub and buzz. Today the components are individually tested for frequency response in addition to the audible evaluation.

Belatedly, the original quote (5 watt amplifier) was definitely used by PWK. It was a derivative of Teddy Roosevelt's quote regarding a 5 cent cigar. When I run into something accurate to quote, it will be shared, but don't hold your breath right now.

Sherman Fairchild was a good friend and proponent of PWK. At Paul's direction he had his "carpenter" build a bass bin from then-existing plans. From what I can tell, the unit was not like the original patent, but an early version of what would later be the Klipschorn. [BTW, A Mr. Jurek at Langevin suggested to PWK in 1945 that they were already referring to his horn as the "Klipschorn".] Paul had to go to Sherman's penthouse to seal up all of the gaps that the "carpenter" left using about a pound of wood filler. Fairchild's unit used either a WE or Altec top end at first (1943). When Paul was developing the K-5 horn in 1945, he could not obtain any plywood (war shortages) so Sherman sent him two 4 X 4 sheets to prototype the K-5. Paul built two, one of which is still with X-3 at NMSU's museum. The other one was LIKELY sent to Fairchild. If anyone has it, the Museum is gladly accepting donations!

There were three series of Tangent: T10, T100, T1000 for example. All were built primarily as economy models for the military. I would attach brochures, but the site is not accepting attachments, at least from me. While the first series was Kg-based, the T400 (and T4000) was Heresy-esque. The T5000 was Forte-esque.

I can't say with absolute certainty, but I'd vote for the driver side of the motorboard.

As far as I know, PWK heard his first symphony in Houston during the 1930's. Forty years later when he was married to Valerie he would explain that he preferred symphony and Valerie liked opera. When they went out they would compromise and go to the opera. Actually they attended quite a bit of symphony too, including much support (patronage, recording, and financial) for the Arkansas Symphony, which he occasionally referred to as the Arkansas "Sympathy". Beyond symphony, it would appear from his KlipschTape exploits that he liked Dixieland, Jazz, choir, and particularly organ, both theater and classical. His knowledge of organ acoustics AND mechanics was staggering. It might be said that he liked everything EXCEPT rock.

"In the beginning"...........he made his own amps. The Brook was probably the first store-bought model, and then it was McIntosh, followed by Marantz. He had several models of each of the latter two. He also used a Radio Craftsman 400 at one point. I believe it was Don Davis that said it was due to its "cost-effectiveness". When transistors came out he was slow to change, but eventually he did when he had enough of his own analysis done. Crown and BGW were among them. We have the shipping papers, correspondence (with the owners), manuals, and receipts for many of the early ones.

There might conceivably be a difference between "measurements" and "marketing's presentation" of the results. It has been an ongoing battle since PWK hired the first salesman (1961) to keep things honest, and I would venture to say there is no other manufacturer that exceeds us. Klipsch Engineering has always been very conscious and conservative in measurements. We have "always" paid close attention to AES standards, and our procedures have not changed materially (any more than the standards themselves). I might only guess that sensitivity measurements are the crux of the issue. While I don't keep up with what hits the press these days, we at least used to be clear on measurement conditions, and they have not changed. Conditions like a real room vs. anechoic chamber vs. 3P are critical. Our final sensitivity ratings are based on performance in a real room which increases the number, dependent on the speaker's directivity. BTW, out of necessity Paul Klipsch practically invented the three-position microphone technique (he got a patent on his "Logarator"). When he finally had enough money for an anechoic chamber he never looked back. If you consider the professional market, Klipsch submits data for inclusion in the industry standard EASE system, which forcibly puts manufacturers on a level playing field. Even here we have some disagreements on exact conditions of measurement, but we comply with the professional industry standard. Don't ya love how the Klipsch spell-checker doesn't recognize Klipsch?

Heresy 8" woofer and LB-76.

Pictures containing PWK are always solicited! The Archive's collection stands at just over 700. Let's push it over a thousand! I would be more than happy to scan at high resolution any prints that are sent in (and happily returned). If digital and they constitute a bandwidth problem, I might be talked into sending out a memory stick or two. Otherwise, please forward to jim.hunter@klipsch.com, at least until the end of this year.

For the record, the only logos I can confirm to be made in-house (and not necessarily exclusively) were the clear plastic Rebel plates. It is possible that the clear plastic K-horn logo was also made in-house. The last attachment is his homemade pantagraph for logo duplication.

The Shorthorn T is probably the 3rd rarest Klipsch production speaker. As I recall, less than 50 were made. Where was this installation?

The only example of a SpeakerLab "K-400" that I have seen was a fiberglass version which would be pretty simple to come up with. Take an aluminum original, fill it with "mud", and create a pattern on which to lay up fiberglass. If they made an aluminum version the simplest route would be a sand-casting arrived at in a similar fashion. PWK and Bob Moers were well-aware of SpeakerLab. As patents on the K-horn had long-since expired, and there were no patents on the K-400, the only recourse was to prevent SpeakerLab from using trademarks, which they did enforce.

It was not the K-400. Unfortunately I cannot say with certainty which model "came out of the trash can at Jensen". I think it was John Eargle's trash can when he was working at Jensen. There is documentation, but it's currently a needle in a haystack. If I had to bet, it would be the K-700. Eventually I will come across that documentation, but not today!

Correct on the pursuit of a two-way K-horn. The steep filters he seemed to be obsessed with are referred to as "M-derived". Some of this work slipped into the KP-600 crossover, as well as other behind-the-scenes contributions. Roy "made the most" of PWK's never-ending engineering curiosity. I'm sure he could add much to this dialog. Also, the thesis of John Post on Tractrix horns was the turning point on his enthusiasm for this taper rate.