TheEvan

quote: Hearing is fine by the way, 110 to 115 db, if limited to an hour at a time does not inflict permanent hearing loss, but there are a couple of hours recovery time. Regards, Bill Rawls Hmmm, I'm not sure if this is accurate. Check this link: http://www.betterhearing.org/conserve.htm They've got 30 minutes max for 110db, 7.5 minutes max for 120db. So I'll guess that 115 db has a limit of 15-20 min. I bring this up because I have so many friends with hearing loss, some of them severe. Some with tinnitus which is a miserable torture! I played in a fairly loud band in the 70's but always wore plugs even back then. Nevertheless, my tests show a rolloff in the highest frequencies...where I used to test flat. Mine appears to be just age, and is quite benign. Hearing loss is completely irreversible.

You're right, 12e, not 9e...the slimline job. The chassis is built out of sheet metal (ok maybe aluminum) thinner than my ductwork! The thing would twist like a pretzel when picked up. All this movement caused all sorts of ground problems, flaky connections. Sometimes the case got energized with AC. Exciting! But what a sound...

wow, y'all are quite impressive! Can a non-techie musician weigh in witgh personal observations? Good. I bought my '77 khorns with a gob of stuff...in about '84. Among that stuff was a Phase Linear 400 & a PL preamp. I ran from the room bleeding & wounded. Simply awful. There's your 200 watt SS amp. Horrible. This initiated a search over the next few months during which I tried Adcom 555 (yuck) 535 (better but boring) Lux LV105 hybrid (cool concept, decent sound). McIntosh 225...briefly seductive, but so loose & dark. A cheap Kenwood 80wpc receiver (argh!) All of which were soundly thrashed by an early 70's 35wpc Sansui receiver. Go figure. The other amp/pre combo that came with my horns was Paragon 9e with Marantz 8b. Now THAT was the stuff!! Including clean airy highs, strong authoritative bass, glorious midrange... The PAragon was finicky and I traded it...a move I still regret. I now have a Jolida 302b integrated. I find it okay, but doesn't hold a candle to my not-working NEC A11 integrated. What a GREAT sounding piece. No wonder you love SS bill...you're running what is , by all accounts on this board, some of the best-sounding gear to match Klipsch gear (McIntosh) and you're comparing it with particularly slow & loose sounding tube gear (McIntosh again). To me, the ears have it. Speaking of which, I STRONGLY recommend you get your hearing checked. If you listen at those SPL's with any frequency *at all* you ARE losing your hearing (FACT, not opinion) Can I brag on that original score? 77 Khorns, Phase Linear amp/pre (sold), Paragon-Marantz amp/pre (sold), Stax earspeker setup (sold), Technics SP10/SME3009 arm/Fidelity Research FR1mk2 cart. w/FRT-3 transformer. All mint. $1000 After selling some pieces, turns out he *paid me* to take his Khorns! Bwaahahaha!

I've posted this over on Audio Asylum, but I find this forum so much more practical & helpful. I hope it's not too far off topic. It isn't for me, since it all ends up coming out of my wonderful Khorns. I need my arm rewired, or so it appears. The wire is so thin the clips have fallen off a number of times necessitating resoldering...shortening it each time. It happened again today. Grrrrr. It's an SME 3009 arm. What do you suggest? Is this an easy DIY? I don't want Cardas or other fancy expensive stuff. I just need the correct wire.

edster, I'm interested. What are you using upstream of the amp?

Don't worry about the room size... BUY 'EM! Figure the rest out later. Khorns work quite well in a small room because of the on-axis nature of horns. Of course the bass doesn't really open up until you have more space but that's true with any speaker

Are you SURE they're integrated?? The one input in addition to the preamp input may be an auxillary input for another preamp or a direct input that bypasses the level control. Input level controls on power amps are not uncommon. McIntosh has always had them. An integrated with one input seems unlikely. Unless they were purpose-built for a specific studio application or similar...

mdeneen, once when I was between amps I borrowed my friend's Sansui AU919 (I think) I believe it was 80w/ch, maybe quite a bit more. I could pop the protection circuit everytime I showed off. By contrast my NEC A11 (a really great amp!)(70w/ch)never hiccuped,never shut down, and played much louder. I have played various tube amps at full volume on demanding material and have never popped a fuse, burnt a tube, nothing. The list includes Marantz 8b, Mcintosh 225, Fisher KX202, Jolida 302b. They all play incredibly loud. Through Khorns

How cheap? If they're cheap, just get 'em. I LOVE the way they look!

I don't know if it's *too much amp...clearly you don't need that much power for these speakers. The problem is, this is the wrong *kind of amp for these speakers. I had the same amp paired with my Klipschorns and the results were awful. Hard, hard sound. Any idea what they have to demo it with? A mid powered Japanese receiver will sound much better on these speakers than the Phase Linear. My opinion, of course. Oh, buy the speakers!

B-b-b-but Bob, WHERE oh where can I audition some Klipschorns? My nearest Klipsch dealer?

JoshT, I certainly meant no offense, just reporting my findings about what I hear or don't hear. If you hear differences in cables (beyond a reasonable minimum cable) there is a bewildering array available out there. Personally, I'll use my $ on a better cartridge, etc.

Tubes & Klipsch are made for each other. Then again, some solid state works very well too, like McIntosh. Or my late lamented NEC A-11 which sounded fantastic. Haven't tried the ASL's but I've tried 4 other tube combinations (including my present Jolida) and all sound great.

Josh, I guess you could have expected somebody to chime in with this answer. I just got here first: The cables, within reasonable parameters, make no difference. Especially to high efficiency speakers like Klipsch.

what's wrong with just wrapping the horn with damping material such as bituthene, etc? If the horn is prevented from resonating into the cavity, then what's the problem? Now, if the horn excites resonances in the plywood itself through the interface of the horn/cabinet I suppose damping material could be put on the mounting fange. After that, damping material could be put on the inside surfaces of the cabinet. Aaaah, where does it stop, though?

Colin, I grew up in a hifi household. My dad loved to build kits. His last set (he passed away in 66) was all Dyna...pre, tuner, monoblocks. To that he added an AR turntable (to replace his Weathers) and some verrrry heavy sand suspension Wharfedale speakers. A sister *Still has that system and it sounds *Great. The rest of the story is that when I started getting my own gear I was inevitably dissatisfied. I loved looking at gear, but none of it seemed to measure up to my boyhood standard. Until I had a tube driven Klipschorn system in my living room...

Oh, and I forgot to say... Congratulations!

quote: Originally posted by Q-Man: Since the birch plywood on your K-Horns is already stained, & if it looks good, you can just buy the birch edge banding & finish the job. Q. Thanks Q You're probably right. Back when I was originally jonesing to veneer 'em (15 yrs ago)I had catalogs of veneers...I couldn't decide between Macassar Ebony, Brazilian Rosewood, English brown oak (qtd), teak, and other exotic stuff...i'm sure you hear my motor running. Now it would probably cost a fortune to do that. So, this is me getting some birch edge banding to finish the job... My den is made of nice oak veneer plywood in 4x4' squares, picture-framed with nice oak moulding. It's really done very nice...the old library look. Against that background my Khorns nearly disappear anyway...I don't know why I even think about it. I really noticed them when they were against a light painted wall.

I'm also interested in your SP-25 table. I've got an SP-10 that has been in storage for years. Why? Because I broke one of the hair-thin leads coming out of the SME 3009 arm when changing a cartridge. Rather than take it to a solder-head to make the repair, I put it away and brought out my Rega Planar 3. Anyway, I think the SP-10/SME sounds noticeably better than the Rega setup. My audiophile friends think my ears are stuck. Oh well. I know good sound when I hear it and i pay no attention to audiophile nonsense blather! Anyway, I know the 25 & 10 are similar. Any comments, tips, warnings...??

No response from any Klipsch insiders? None? Lotsa food for thought and many good ideas above. Of course, I particularly like MY idea....

Q, thanks for bringing this thread to the top. I am quite blown away! You are certifiable, but I'm lovin' it. Sooooo, this brings to the fore an old question I've had. I have had raw birch Klipschorns for a long time that the previous owner finished in a simple walnut oiled finish. For year I've toyed with the idea of veneering them...They sell sheets big enough to do it woithout joining from Constantine's I think. Then I'd have to get some edge banding for my plywood edges. Am I losing my mind? Pitfalls I'm not aware of? I've never veneered, but I've edge-banded on mdf...wasn't bad at all...

Hey folks, I've decided to unload my Fisher KX-200 integrated. I'll either put it on audioreview.com or ebay. But if anybody here wants it I'll sell it to a Klipsch owner for much less. It has a center channel output with an 8-step attenuator. Very cool. If anybody's interested, email me...I have pictures & info. I'll hang on for about 3 days, then post it for sale on one of the two aforementioned sites.

Well, I must admit that when we moved 14 years ago many houses we looked at were rejected because they didn't have the corners I needed. However, now that i have my corners, with Khorns duly installed, the Klipschorn must be one of the *least* intrusive speakers upon home decor. What, you say? Yes, my wife is ok with them. She places plants & other decorative elements on the floor in front of them. She's festooned the tops with lovely batik cloths, pictures & other decorative elements. (well, we had to weed out the really light objects since they will walk off the speaker during crescendos!). And they're tall enough that other furniture items can be between then & the listening spot without messing up the sound that reaches you. A big bonus is that our den walls are 4x4 oak veneer "library panels" separated by really nice oak mouldings. The Khorns nearly disappear against this background.

Betcha it's gonna be car audio. Re-branded Clarion. Made in the far east.

Shreveport is a Mardi Gras wannabe.... Come south for the big kahuna in New Orleans. Or for something more quaint, try the smaller crowds in Lafayette (only about a half million) or the cool horse runs in Mamou, or the wooden boat parades in Madisonville.... or in New Roads on False River... Down here, school is closed and the post office doesn't deliver mail on Fat Tuesday!