Chris Robinson

IMHO, the first watt needs to be clean because that's the power range you're typically driving Klipschorns with. I started with my grandfather's McIntosh MC-2105 and barely moved the needles. Way overkill and sounded a little lacking. I then tried some Denon integrated amps and had some joy, especially (obviously) in a 5.1 or 7.2 environment. But the best I've heard, personally, was my 2A3 SET amps (3W each) with tubed pre-amp. I was (very) fortunate to try Jeff Lessard's initial efforts with his Pantheon pre-amp, followed by a pair of his Horus 2A3 monoblocks (with cobalt laminations on the output transformers) and a pair of matched AVVT 2A3 Meshplates. That pair of tubes is now pretty much unobtainium and they are sonically wonderful and visually captivating. I'm attaching a couple of crappy pictures of them when I last took them out for cleaning. PS: Greg Roberts' V-Trac modifications (Volti Audio) made a huge difference over the stock midrange horns. That was a life changer; dialing back the midrange via the ALK crossover taps allowed the bass to "come up" in comparison to the midrange and balanced out the whole audio spectrum. Chris

If that is the K-500 horn, yes, I am interested. Bob Crites Bob, Please check your email [] Chris

Just as a casual comment here ... All the guys are on the right track here. I upgraded my crossovers to ALK's some years ago but never realized how bring the midrange horns were until I put V-Tracs in their places and dialed back the midrange on crossovers. Wow! The K-horn really sounded like something I'd never heard before with PLENTY of bass. Chris

Hi all, Just doing some housekeeping at the end of the year. I have the above all boxed up and ready to ship to anybody on this forum (and in the USA) who needs one. All you need to do is pay for shipping to your destination and it's yours. Happy Holidays ... Chris

Cask, I was thinking the very same thing .... Could take a beating and are beer-resistant! Chris

LOL, I thought it was Mobile Homeless making an anonymous guest appearance Picky, great shots and prose to accompany them. Looks like a fabulous time was had by everybody. Sorry to say I've been off the forum for a while. I'm still in Hilton Head but am commuting to Dallas weekly as I get ready to take over our company's Texas manufacturing operations at the end of the year. We'll be relocating there sometime between now and then. Still enjoying the Klipschorns and Belle family room. Our son, who is about to turn 13, has suddenly figured out that Klipsch is VERY COOL. He discovered a pair of KG4's in the attic and promptly set them up in his bedroom ... and CRANKED them up. There is no going back, I'm afraid! Another generation of Klipsch afficionados! Chris

PWC, Welcome to the forum as well. I have Greg's first pair of re-veneered Klpschorns here in my family room. I am very familiar wth Greg's work; it's insanely great. He also has one of the best Klipsch restoration websites in the world. If you haven't been there, here's the link. You will learn a lot just reading what he's put up there. http://www.klipschupgrades.com/restorations.shtml If you go his other website, Volti Audio, you'll fnd his V-Trac horn kits. In my humble opinion, putting his V-Tracs in my Klipschorns took them to a whole new level. I am using the throat adapters until I have a liittle extra money to get the 2" drivers, but they are wonderful as well. After you've had a little listeniing time with whatever pair you go with, try to find someone on the west coast who has a pair of V-Tracs and give them a listen. http://www.klipschupgrades.com/vtrac.shtml These are not inexpensive mods and require universal networks made by a bunch here ... Bobby Crites, Al Klappenberger, DeanG, Greg too ... But the new networks got the midrange balanced correctly and with the larger tractrix throat, the sweet spot is very big and the music just seems to open waaaaaay up. It's all a good trip and journey. Just adding some ideas to the great wealth of knowledge on this site. Chris

WC, That's a really nice post. I'm glad Danley has made the process so clean and straightforward. I fly through CLT a few weeks every month. I'd love to drop off some time and hear your system. Must be insane. I have Klipschorns with a Belle center (Heresy rears for WAF). The DTS-20 is hidden from sight as yours are. I don't think I have the "roar" factor yours do, but it's definitely not shabby. Chris

Thanks, Dtel ... Hope you and the family are well! Yeah, I might have been among the first, not sure. Soundbroker up in WA originally brought Danley to light and it seemed like a good sub solution so I tried it. It's been great. Danley is a great company that offers outstanding customer service. I had a few amplifier hiccups which they dealt with quickly, even when the amp was out of warranty. Nice people. I've read with interest about the DTS-10 kits which were available at one time. Can't imagine that much bass in one room, let alone a pair of them. Chris

Interesting thread ... I'm in the Danley camp ... went with the DTS-20 in 2006 due to its small footprint, allowing me to hide it behind millwork. While the DTS-20 is not as powerful as the -10, it is plenty for our family room. I'm the only one in the house who will crank up the volume (and only when I'm home alone), but it sounds very balanced with the Klipschorns at regular listening volumes. My Denon AVR989 comes with the Audyssey MultEQ XT, and I must say that the setup was a snap and got the Klipschorn-Danley balance just right. I know this because it sounds great and natural when in the room, but thunderous from other parts of the house. I find myself looking out the window for thunderstorms when my wife is watching movies downstairs. For photos, see thread below. You can see the room being remodeled and the millwork going in. Enjoy. http://community.klipsch.com/forums/t/70761.aspx?PageIndex=1

I recently upgraded my Belle center channel (between the two already upgraded Klipschorns). You can see the arrangement in the photo. Again, I used my ALK crossover with the existing K55 driver and the K-77 tweeter. Chris

I have many Heritage speakers ... Belles, Cornwalls, Klipschorns, Heresies ... I love them all, but like so many here, I have tweaked them over the last 12 years and have come to a few "pareto-ized" conclusions (biggest bang for the money). I'll limit my comments to the Klipschorn since that is where your concerns lie. First big improvement was to upgrade the crossovers. I went with Al Klappenberger's ALK crossovers (the Universal) because years ago, they were all that was available. As stated before, there are other options out there, most built by contributors to this forum. Al's crossovers are still working great, seven years later, but by far the most beautiful are Greg Roberts' crossovers. They are works of art, like all his products. You could put them on top of the cabinet for display. His website is voltiaudio.com ... The crossovers let you dial back the midrange which has the positive benefit of bringing up the bass midrange. I attenuated the midrange by 9db and that was just about right for my ears. Second big improvement was to swap out the midrange for a tractrix flare. Again, Greg @ Volti has a very affordable midrange option with the V-Trac. You can still use your K-55 compression driver with this setup by using his adapters. The native V-Trac has a 2" throat and your OEM K-55 is a 1", hence the need to taper the flare. If you have a few extra dollars, go with his BMS 2" drivers. I've had these in my own Klipschorns when demo'ing his equipment, and the music coming from the Klipschorns was incredible. They were the best speakers I've ever heard, period, and while I haven't heard every speaker out there, I've heard a few. In my humble opinion, improving the upgrades and midrange got me nearly all the way there (I'm saving for the BMS drivers which I'll hopefully do this Fall). Greg is a class act and a gentleman. Look through the restoration pages on his site too and you'll see the kind of work he does. He loves Klipsch products like all of us here. He's just made them better. Feel free to send me a message if you want to discuss further offline. Chris

Late to this thread ... I have a pair of modified Klipschorns (ALK Universals plus V-Tracs) and a center Belle with Heresy surrounds. The Belle makes a very nice center, especially since it is shallow in depth and fits into 20" deep millwork very nicely. The front array integrates very seamlessly and is amazing with excellent source material. I have a Danley DTS-20 also buried in millwork since the footprint (standing on end) is so small. The DTS-10 (two) looks like a killer setup although I have a hard time comprehending how much "thunder" those things must put out. The DTS-20,aka the Tower of Power, has half the power of a single DTS-10, and the presence of the TOP is scary. It literally loosens my bowels on occasion (probably too much information, but it's true). Old School Heritage makes for wonderful home theater, just ask Indy or anybody else who's done it. The best of the best, in my opinion! Chris

Happy New Year, everybody! I made some modifications in my home 5.1 system recently and wanted to offer some updated listening impressions. On the whole, the overall sound quality has increased an order of magnitude. Details ... First, I installed the V-Trac modifications on my Klipschorns. To save a few dollars and also make the mods in steps, I went with Greg's V-120 throat adapters and used the stock K55 drivers. On the ALK Universals, I altered the taps and attenuated the mid's output to -9.5 dB, taps 0 & 2. This cooled off the more efficient midrange voicing and brought the bass to the forefront where it belonged. The net result was stunning. As others have noted, this delicate balance between the bass and upper frequencies is executed brilliantly. Greg got this exactly right. Secondly, I had had some issues with the Danley DTS-20's built-in amplifier. Even though it was far out of warranty, the great folks over at Danley sent me a fresh amp and I returned the original. I fired it up and it was off to the low frequency races once again. Finally, my old Sunfire pre/pro was giving up the ghost so, after some research, I found a new Denon 989 receiver with the Audessey MultiEQ XT room correction. In it went into the rack and I ran the simple 8-position diagnostic with the microphone, let it calculate and reset. The result of all this has been remarkable. The Klipschorns are magnificent, the Danley low frequency is very fast and keeps pace with the Klipschorn's alacrity. The balance of the entire system and its interaction with the room is as close to perfect as my ears can detect. Hard to believe it all integrates as well as it does. Next stop ... the center channel Belle will get the V-Trac treatment ... coming soon! Happy sonics to you all in 2011. Chris

Wishing all my forum friends, here and now, come and gone, the happiest of holidays, wherever you may be ... We amply populate this planet and bring great ideas to a common place. I have learned much in my years here, and I am grateful for the friendships made. Cheers and happiness for a much better 2010 for all. Chris

Well, the V-Tracs are on their way to the west coast ... and another lucky participant. I totally endorse Randy's comments above ... and Mike Lindsay's comments this Fall ... This is by far the biggest upgrade you can make if you have stock Klipschorns. I was ready to pull the trigger on a new pre-/pro-, but putting these V-tracs in place verified that my challenges were not in the signal processing ... they were in the midrange (and tweeter, actually). I had the good fortune, while living in Texas, to hear a pair of Jubilees and these come awfully close to them ... the seamless nature of the midrange and the bass interaction made this new configuration really sound like an awesome 2-way system. While they may not be Jubilees, they sound amazing and the level to which they motivate the bass is staggering. Beefing up the mid-bass is just wonderful and I could have listened to these speakers for DAYS. I will just say this ... the sonic ROI on this upgrade is off the charts. I will be ordering a pair of these as soon as I can, hopefully in January. Greg, really, really nice job with this. I wish you and Volti all the best down the road with your efforts. I will be watching closely

These demo units arrived 1-1/2 weeks ago but due to some crazy business travel I have only opened the crate and set them up this morning. I am now listening to track #3 of my demo disk and all I can say is "Greg, you've hit a home run with this product!" The sound that is coming from my Klipschorns is an order of magnitude better than what I had earlier today. There is no way to compare the two, but I'll try ... First impression ... Bass! It's really unbelievable how the addition of the 2" midrange horn and flare has really beefed up the low-end. Stunning. Secondly, the midrange is exactly like so many before have described ... detailed, wide, unconstrained ... just wonderful. This is easily the biggest upgrade to my system imaginable. Mike Lindsay was exactly right ... best speakers I've ever heard. I have so much music to listen to this afternoon and tomorrow ... want to try some movie tracks ... Good Lord ... what a difference. As soon as I can, my wallet will be a few grand lighter. Great work, Greg. Absolutely a game-changing product. Chris.

Definitely like this one the best so far! Bill, I must have driven right by your home a month ago when driving up to Toronto ... Would have been easy to drop in and say hello

Sounds like a very good job ... and a busy one. 20% of the time out of the country is tough work. I did it for years and it feels like it now Chris

Thanks for the feedback, Jay ... I know on my old Cornwall II's (vertical tweeter), I preferred the positioning to the1980's vintage CornwallI where the tweeter was right over the midrange, so your comments jive ... Many thanks! Chris

Have to agree ... the backwards "audio" hurts my brain [:S] I like the name, though ... I always thought "Downeast Audio" would have been good, but I'm sure it exists already and sounds like the name of a hi-fi retailer. Good luck with growing your business ... and we can all say, "We knew Greg back when he was working out of his basement ..." Chris

PS: In order to save a few dollars, I am thinking of recycling my K-77's into Greg's V-Trac setup. Are his tweeters a significant improvement in the sound over the K-77's? I'm thinking that most of the improvement in sound is in the midrange ... Thoughts welcomed.

Ditto to the above. I also love the T-77 up on that block ... Very cool ...

I think I am next on the list for the demo units. After spending a day watching Mike Lindsay play golf and listening to him yammer on about how great these were, I knew I needed to give them a try. Very much looking forward to hearing them soon! Chris

Check out NOS Valves, our beloved Craig Ostby on this forum ... He reworks these old beauties ... and a fair man to deal with. You won't be disappointed.