kwingylee

Maybe Steve can have a formal Jubilee party? I can ping him.... I am glad the former EV owner spoke up. I asked Steve during the demo and he wasn't sure. Sounds like the DeanG xo could be tweaked for the EVs?

I might be speaking out of place here. Here is my 2 cents. Take this for what is worth. I worked in China from 2000 - 2005 as an expat in a high tech field. I had offices in Guangzhou and Shanghai and travelled throught Hong Kong quite a bit. I am of Chinese descent but grew up and schooled in the midwest. Been involve in audio since the late 70s. While in China, I had the chance to listen to many Chinese products at length from Shanling, Cayin, Mingda, Consonance, etc...before they flooded the US. I met occassionally with the audiophile community in Guangzhou - we had a weekly meeting. The epicenter of audiophilia in China is Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou. Shanghai was catching up in 05. The audiophiles in China are very sophisticated. They are heavy into tubes and vintage american stuff such as WE, ALTECs and JBLs. I heard great great stuff over there, mostly from the DIY community. WE300Bs are the King of tubes and 2A3s are queens. 805 and 845 based amps are quite popular, followed by EL34s and 6L6s. KT88/6550s not as much. Audiophiles in the orient are obviously into asian music. Music preferred by Chinese audiophiles are midrange-centric. They put a premium into tones, details and soundstaging. Gut wrenching bass and loud music are not so popular. My Black Sabbath disks were not well received. They did like my Patrician barber stuff. It was an interesting exchange in musical taste. I bought a lot of Chinese audiophile stuff there. All recorded with tube mics, preamps etc...they sound great! I say this because Chinese tube amps are voiced for music preferred by Chinese. That is great if female singing and acoustical instruments such as erhu and peipa is your cup of tea. They do occasionally listen to heavy drum music. You can find some of the stuff from musicdirect and acoustic sounds. You can see this by noting the western brands that so well in the asian audiophile community: Harbeths, Spendors, Quad ESLs, Rogers etc. I saw my first pair of Klipsch speakers in CHINA in 05 - it was a pair of La Scala Is in a used shop. Many of the Chinese tube amps are implementation of classic western designs. So when you buy a chinese tube amp, make sure your sonic priorities are aligned with the Chinese. If you like heavy rock and roll, they may not work so good. I was not too impress with any of the Chinese solid state stuff. I bought one to use in my office, They look great but sound mediocre to me. I hear they have greatly improved in the last few years. Chinese speakers suck - including the ones loaded with Lowther drivers. The only exception was one company that produced Proac clones for 30% of the Proac price. I wanted to bring home Chinese electronics because they were so much cheaper than here. Besides the ones from big electronic companies, there were many DIY/clones of classic western designs (such as MACs, CATs, etc.). I ultimately settle for a 2A3 based SET amp and a EL34 based integrated amp. My advice: listen before you buy.

dtel: I can make your bass bins into bunk beds for my kids....they are huge!!! In fact they can fit 4 little kids []

DrWho: I don't know which IPOD. I do not have an IPOD and I don't know about the various models. But its the full size one with the big display - maybe 40M Harddrive.... I was listening to Jubs over MP3 files :-(

Coytee: I wish the K69 was on the 402. The JUB owner said he couldn't tell the difference so I had to take his word for it. In terms of size, the EV driver is about 4-5X the size of the K69 driver. Your point is well made - crossover adjustment probably was needed with the EV to get the voicing that Roy intended. I was just grateful to be in the house of a very generous forum member with a tremendous system. How dynamic were they? The physical sensation was so great that I got up and went to the back of the room. kwingylee

Didn't mean to disparage JBL drivers. I am sure they are great. I just have never heard a JBL speaker system: PA or home that I like. Its not the parts, its the sum of the parts that brings the results. I admire PWK for making great speaker systems using modest drivers. The K33 is a joke compare to the equivalent JBL and ALTEC drivers. JBL speaker systems sound like a bunch of drivers. I can make the same criticism of many high end speaker systems that I have heard. Great driver techology (supposedly) but with under-achieving results. For example, I much like Proacs but dislike the 800 series B&W speakers. One of my recent experience include classic JBL monitors the size of Cornwalls, driven by very very high quality tube OTL electronics and a REVOX RtoR. They sound loud but I much prefer the musicality and coherency of my buddy's Cornwall IIs driven with a modest EICO integrate. The CWII + EICO make music to me. SImilar experience with JBL speaker systems in IMAX theaters that I have attended. They were punchy and extremely loud but they don't sound real to me. The Jubs can produce almost the same experience during my audition but I did not want to leave the room the way I want to leave the IMAX theaters... My apologies to the JBL fans and teams...

Some stuff got left out the in post for some reason....must be an editor issue. The Jubilees are a very unique experience. The sheer presentation was overwhelming. Its sounds BIG!!!!! Its a wall of very loud, smooth and dynamic sound. I had no desire to leave the room... I regret I did not have a chance to judge their ability to generate stage width, height and especially depth. I like the K402 horn. But I have also heard Greg Roberts' VTRACs and would like to hear how they go with Jub bottoms.

I had a chance to audition a pair of Klipsch Jubilees, equipped with a K402 horn, EV driver with titanium diaphram and DeanG passive crossover in the Chicago area this week. I made the mistake of not bring my battery of music and spent most of the time listening to Floyd, Genesis and Blue Man Group, as well as a TELARC disk containing various STAR TREK sound tracks and ALSO SPRACH ZARANTHUSTRA. I also sampled some Nora Jones off an IPOD. The system was driven by OPPO/OUTLAW/YAMAHA amps. The Jubilees are lethal weapons!!! These are without a doubt the best Klipsch speakers I have ever heard. I have owned LaScalas, Cornwalls and now Khorns. These Jubilees are far superior. The played at incredible volumes with gut wrenching bass, full midbass and little trace of the horn harshness. The sound field was very even distributed across room. It was very clean and even everywhere in the room. ThI had to make sure the Belle center was off.e dynamics was nearly limitless. The experience was intense.The impact was incredible. Did I say they were dynamic? The last time I was overwhelmed like this was in the mid row of the IMAX theater (loaded with Junk But Loud) speakers - except the Jubilees sound cleaner, smoother and a less restrained high end. Did I say they were dynamic? Center image was superb. In the Norah Jones track, Her voice was solidly anchored. I had to make sure the Belle center was off. My only regret was the fact that I did not have my own music to test the stage depth, height and width of these monsters. The experience was extremely different from what I am custom to at home. I built my main system to excel in dimensionality and tones in the tradition of the BBC sound. The Jubilees are a whole different beast entirely. As good as the K402/EV/JUB Bottoms sounded, I wondered what they would sound like with the VTRAC from Greg? The bass was fantastic, but the top horn can be visually overwhelming. Either way, I am about to embark in the Jubilee journey as I am on my way to procure a pair of Jub bottoms and worry about the rest later.......

How much are you asking for?

I like the suggestion of the full extension. Make the Klipschorn look like the Jubilee. Has any one done this to the same quality that Greg Roberts has done? I realize this is a tall order but to me at least, its kind of pointless of go through the pain of enclosing the back and still be enslaved to a corner.

I like the suggestion of the full extension. Make the Klipschorn look like the Jubilee. Has any one done this to the same quality that Greg Roberts has done. I realize this is a tall order but to me at least, its kind of pointless of go through the pain of enclosing the back and still be enslaved to a corner.

Nola: Thanks for the detail write up. I am far from settle on anything. Which caps did you used tp recap? Can't wait for your impression on the ALK-Us. Kwingylee

AT the INDYFEST 2009 forum thread, one of the host/participants had a pair of Klipschorns with extended "wings" that made them resemble Jubilees. Would that be a viable option?

I second the Thorens TD165/166 series tables. They can be bought cheap with a cartridge for less than $200.00 even with the ubiquitous dynamat mods. I bought one off ebay. Did the suspension and Dynamat mods, bought a Ortofon cartridge for it and built a new base. Total outlay for less than $200.00. The table really sings and more musically involving than the TD125 and Marantz TT15S1 I have now. I missed mine.

Don: Have you done any of the DCX2496 mods suggested in that forum? Or is yours stock? How do you like its sound? The DCX2496 and the BBE DS-26 are those too good to be good deals. You seem to get a lot for $299 street price for both units. Kwingylee

Sargent: That is what I like too! A friend of mine uses a BBE DS26 to drive his 604Gs and it sounds great, The thing even has EQ that can be used to great effect and is a lot cheaper than all of the capacitors..... Kwing

# of people killed by U.S. Nukes = 200,000 " " # of Nukes Detonated by U.S. = 1,054 " # of Nukes in the U.S. arsenal: 12,000 Hey Mark, next time you quote numbers like the above, can you also put them in the proper historical perspective. As an Asian American born and raised in Asia, experiencing the cultural revolution first hand, have direct family members severely impacted by Japanese imperial troops AND having a wife that grew up under Soviet oppression. I personally find the quoting of numbers such as the above and giving the impression that the US is somehow evil for having done them is offensive to me. What alternative reality would you rather have? Having done fairly well for myself here and having the opportunity to work as an expat in over 25 countries and many continents. I still kiss the ground (figuratively) everytime I land in US soil. I thank God for having the opportunity and priviledge of living in the US. Can we please keep this as an audio forum and leave the politics out?

Fellow Klipsch-ofiles: Since I bought by 77 Khorns and joined the forum, I have been enlighten by the useful suggestions of many of you. On the technical front, I very much appreciate the contributions of Al K, Bob Crites, DeanG and others. I have learned much from their posts. I am in the process of deciding what to do with the type AA networks on the Khorns. Al's universal network is a great option, as well as simply replacing the 13uF and 2.2uF caps in the AA. Active XO is yet another. Based on the comments here, several websites and the audiogon forums; as well as my own experience with Mundorf Silver Oil Supremes. I am leaning towards the Mundorf Supreme Mcaps for the straight cap replacement, taking advantage of audio connexion's current 20% discount. However, the price even with the discount is still only marginally lower than the DIY version of Al's ALK-Universals, which remain a strong contender. Building ALK-U with all MUNDORF supreme caps will costs almost $500.00 for capacitors only sans inductors. A striaght capacitor replacement of all AA caps using all MUNDORF supreme M-Caps is around $200.00. Supreme Silver Oils are way out of my price. I like AL's design philosophy to limit the upper frequency response of the K55V/K400 combo. It makes a lot of sense technically. However, the need to provide a constant impedance to the amplifier, to me at least, is not as important as all my amplifiers can source a lot of current. I am wondering if others on the forum have tried modifying only the squawker part of the AA by converting the original network to a second order bandpass and filtered frequencies above 4.5K to the sqawker while leaving the tweeter and woofer sections the same? I used an online calculator to work out a possible configuration for the squawker. To convert the squawker filter to a bandpass will require only a simple LC network on the driver side of the T2A transformer and moving the tab. The L and C values are small This will add minimum costs to the AA network and its reversible. Has anyone tried this? I am also interested in hearing anyone that is triamping the Khorn with an active XO. I have a 6 channel Parasound amp 1206 that I believe can do a good the job triamping the Klipschorn.

Thanks for sharing the impressions. I was very impressed with Greg's setup as well with the short audition I had at akfest. The bottom line for me (and I am sure others as well) is the $2,000 costs of the upgrade without crossovers, and $2500 with Al's assembled Universal network.

Excellent read. I like the section on Dave Wilson. One of the few contemporary speakers that approached the Klipschorn in terms of dynamic range and "excitement" were in my experience, the Big WILSONs, Rockport Antares, MBL 101Es and big powered ATCs....The Big WILSONs come the closest. At least I now know about his inspiration. I sat my wife in front of my recently acquired 77 Khorns over the weekend, driven by a 3.5W SET playing Stevie Ray Vaugh's Tin Pan Alley. Other than saying the speakers were big and weird, she was rendered speechless by the sound..... this is from a person brought up on BBC style monitors.

I guess my comment applies to 60 ann Khorns as well. Is the idea to guarantee a good corner fit? Or to allow them to be placed away from corners. If its the former, then there is a much less cumbersome way to do it but if its the latter, than I perhaps would like to extend the structure so that it ...ahem,...mimick the Jubilee's?

Greg: I don't know about this. I would think that you would want to extend the back further ot - ala the Jubilee. Klipsch recommends a minimum side wall extensionm of about 24". Making it less than that would reduce the surface area at mouth of horn and presumably impact the bass response.

Your posts are great - keep them coming...

Hilarious, thanks for sharing. I recalled one where a guy was reminiscing about his first hi-fi to his buddy. He was able to recall all of the model numbers but can't recall his first wife's name...lol.

Greg: Appreciate your comments here. How about your take on the Jubilee vs Klipschorn/VTRAC/BMC/Beyma combo? For me personally, the price of admission is so close that one would have to give the Jubs serious consideration... Also, from your website, you mentioned sealing the back of the Klipschorn. What does that mean? Do you add gaskets or actually attach false corners to the Khorn?