artarama

I think you could make a case for the speakers of your choice just like any vintage car. eg: take the new selling price of a pair of Khorns in 1970 and subtract the current average selling price ($2,000). That's your depreciation. (probably not appreciation, like a lot of cars, if you buy used could be a different story). Now if you take the amount you paid in 1970 and did a time value of money calculation, projecting forward to 2011 and then subtracted the $2K you would see the real $ cost ("Opportunity" cost??) But then who can put a value on 40 years of sonic bliss. I would say at almost any price those Khorns are a real bargin!

Nice video, I thought for a minute there at the start that you were really tall and smoking a cigarette. Nice TT also, what is it? Those four are really overkill in that room, me thinks, but I won't tell your significant other if you don't.

I agree with Peter. If you have four feet clear on either side you are good. The reflection off of the adjacent walls are part of the design. The walls are the last "fold" of the bass cabinet if you will. I moved stuff around to get at least four feet and think it sounds better. More "alive" all around and the bass is great. Very centerd sound stage.

Correction here. Not powered but the output volume is controlled by the 299 on some models and not others.? I am sure an expert will fill us in.

Welcome Adam, I can't really help you with your question directly either but I am sure someone will. I use my Scott 299 with a separate mono amp for my third (center) channel. I don't know and I wouldn't try until I heard from someone here about hooking up the center channel speaker directly to the two channel taps. Could be some unpleasant impeadance issues for the amp. I believe there were unpowered center outputs on the early model 299's and later models had a powered center output. When I had my center out coming from the 299 I felt it pulled down the two main channels a little so I had to increase volume, no big deal. The amp certainly has the power to run your Cornwalls and a Heresy very nicely. In practice try to set the two channel volume to the level you like and then bring up the center volume with your eyes closed until you can just start to make out a fullness in the center. Don't overpower the center or it can detract from the sound stage.

Oh, so now your a Corolla hater. Russ you are just soo insensitive. [:'(] Isn't Fanboy a group? Maybe a group with reallllly sensitive fans.

Welcome Chainsaw. You will love your Scott and Klipsch the more time you can spend with them. I am a relative newbie here as well and I would suggest you spend a good amount of time searching the forums to gain perspective on your questions. I think your Scott will do a good job powering any Klipsch product because they are so efficient and the Scott is such a good amp. IMHO the speakers you chose should be the best fit for your listening room/environment and musical/aesthetic tastes. The Reference line is excellent for smaller footprint and a more modern look. Don't overlook the smaller RF15's and 25's. They sound excellent with tubes and a very good value. The Forte's are excellent "all-arounds" almost nothing that they won't do well. Then there is everything else. Every Klipsch I have heard sounds awesome in the right room with the right equipment. The weakest link in your system will never be the Klipsch speakers. Search the forum, come up with an idea of what you want and then start to search out the beloved set of your dreams. They are all still in abundant supply if you are patient. Good luck and enjoy the journey[]

[Y]I agree.

[Y][Y] Well said Dennie, I'll second that emotion. I love the art of the covers & liner notes the best. I love the smell and feel of vinyl. I even kind of like that old musty smell of 78's. There is no substitute for actually holding and playing a record. Soon one turntable is not enough, then you need more cartridges, inner sleeves, outer sleeves, disc washers, cleaning fluids, little ion zappers, record holders, frames to hange them on the wall, cabinets to hold them all............when will the madness stop!! It is not convienient and you can't use a remote. You kind of have to invest yourself a little in the process of listening. The fact that music was recorded in an album format (as opposed to a bunch of singles) gave the artist the opportunity to be a little creativity perhaps. I had read this was partly why the Beatles held out so long from releasing their catalog on itunes.

I have mine sitting directly on the carpeted floor. The fellow I bought them from had built a platform that fit perfectly in the corners out of two by fours stood on edge with a 3/4" plywood top. This looked just OK, it could have been finished nicer but the fit was great, looked like it was just part of the speaker. He said he had built them because he had been in a house with a basement that flooded once and he did not want to take any chances with his beloved Khorns. I chose not to use them because I did not want to raise the speaker 4-5 inches off the floor as my ceiling height is marginal at 7.5 feet.

I would suggest the first thing you try is simply moving them out of the corners a bit. You have a good sized room. Try pulling them out about four feet from the front wall and two feet away from the side walls and toe them in a bit. Second I would clean up all the connections at the drivers and on the crossovers and replace the gasket on the midrange driver. Just screw it off (left to loosen) You can find a usable O-ring at your local Ace hardware and Bob sells exact replacements. That's all the easy and cheap, almost free stuff. You didn't mention being unhappy with the bass output. I sometimes used a sub with mine, but liked it better with out most of the time. If you are still not satisfied, then I would look at what tubefanatic recommended. He had great input when I was buying my Scott. I swapped a few solid state set-ups around and played with equalizing and by far the tube amp made the largest single difference. I like the LaScala's a lot with both solid state and tubes, tubes just seem to make it easier to sound good. Note that I mine are "stock" I have not changed caps or modified the crossovers so I do not know how those changes would compare. They are amazing speakers... Oil them (unless their painted) and Love them!

I have a LIVING STEREO album of Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney "Fancy Meeting You Here". The notation on the back is dated 1958. The back reads: "IMPORTANT NOTICE - This is a TRUE STEREOPHONIC RECORD specifically designed to be played only on phonographs equipped for stereophonic reproduction. This record will also give outstanding monaural performance on many conventional high fidelity phonographs by a replacement of the cartridge. See your local dealer or serviceman." (Oh I wish we had either of those again!!) The lable reads: "Stereo-Orthophonic High Fidelity Recording" The liner sleeve reads: "Now available in NEW ORTHOPHONIC and LIVING STEREO versions...already acclaimed for their musical excellence and technical perfection. " Both the liner and cover of the LP are printed in four color. A very nicely done product. I am sure at this time Bing was getting the best of the best available at the time in both production quality and engineering. The record is in great condition and sounds great. There is a lot of "back and forth" in the duets and it always seems the voices are very centered and just as prevalent out of the left channel as the right, however the instruments are bouncing around from the left to right channels a lot.

Very nice! I really enjoyed reading the tape details in this link. I guess that would certainly indicate how PK felt about "dial twiddling" Any idea how many copies of that tape were made or still exist?

Are you sure you were awake for both CD's ? Or just dreamin' that. []

Short answer is they can all make great sound in that room. I have never owned any Chorus but many here love them. I have owned (do own) Forte II's, Cornwalls and La Scalas. I think you would find the larger drivers of the Chorus or Cornwalls are going to give you better results than the Forte's at low volume levels but they are really big speakers and take up some realestate. If your decorator doesn't mind, go for it. The Forte's are great but I think they like to be turned up a bit. They sound better with some current pulsing through those drivers. But hey what speakers don't? The La Scalas sound crystal clear at low volumes but to get much punch on the low end you need to turn them up or start working with a sub. They are probably a little overkill for a room this size. First, I would try pulling your forte's away from the corners a few feet twice as far from the front wall as the side walls and angle (toe in) just a little. Test the loudness button and adjust the tone controls. This can sound pretty good at low volumes with some gear. One of the best set up's I had was with the two Cornwalls set about 15' apart and a single Forte II in the center. If you can set up along the longer 11.5' wall and if your gear will run a center channel heaven awaits! This would put your sweet spot about five or six feet from the front wall so you need to be able to live with that.

Hey DT, sorry to let this hang for so long with out reply. I am using the Scott 299 for the KHorns and the Marantz MA700 with a LaScala for the third center channel. Most of the time I am listening only to the two KHorns with out the center. The Klipschhorns are simply amazing in how they fill a large room with sound with such ease and clarity. There are a lot of nuances that can be hammered out but the two speakers and the Scott and the room are 90% of the equation. Probably a 30-30-30 split of importance. Your system is only as good as the weakest link. I am also paying a lot more attention to clean records. I am also enjoying my digital music more.

Thanks Jackson! At this point I am happy to report that I am thrilled more than ever with the KHorns. Any trepedation was based only on ignorance. These things rock! IMHO, if you have the space for them, there is no way they will fail you. All issues if there are any, lie upstream of these guy's. I don't know what more you could ask of a speaker. Maybe they could generate electricity somehow or make you a musician just by listening to them [H] [Y]

Those are beautiful! I like the carpet too. Keep track of those grills, I would ask around here about how best to preserve them. They will need some oil or remoisturizing somehow to keep them from becoming brittle with age. You have an obligation with those to keep them in nice shape! Congrats!

Michael, Those are the exact products I used. I vaccumed as much dust off as I could, then dusted with a dry cloth (old T-shirt), then three buckets of Murphy's oil soap. Let them dry then one coat of Rejuvenating oil, being sure to wipe off any excess after it sets for a few minutes. I plan on doing a couple more coats this week end. The jack cups are brushed aluminum, the picture doesen't show it but the logo is perfect.

The Beogram is a nice table and has a great sound. Not the same quality of sound as the Thorens or Kenwood primarily because they have better cartridges. The Beogram build quality is actually very good even though it seems kind of light weight. It is precise, very convienient to use and I like the looks. A great fully automatic table for everyday use. The cartridges are available but expensive.

Heli, I agree 100%! It is really too bad the studios make so many mediocre to poor recordings. You obviously do not believe that "thinning the herd" is nescessary. Your my new hero!

I wanted to post some of my first impressions while they are fresh and my experience with these icons is still developing. Sorry for the long read to all you ADD metelheads (oops, stereotyping! I have listened to the KHorns now for about twenty hours over the last five days. During that time, I have made four amp configuration changes and alternated between no third channel, a Cornwall center and a LaScala center. I used CD’s, an iphone and records for sources. Primarily I rotated tracks from about fifteen various musical styles of recordings. I chose Stevie Ray Vaughan-Couldn’t Stand The Weather, Dire Straits-Self Titled and Johnny Mathis-Wonderful to be the three I was sure to play with all set ups. These records are all in pristine condition and original pressings. My very first impression once the KHorns had been set up in my corners with my equipment was “that is great”; I had put on Tin Pan Alley first so I started out with a very good “impress me” recording. After that record, I played a few other random selections and started to get a bit of a gnawing feeling in my gut about how garymd was disappointed when he first got his. On many recordings that I thought were clean and decent 8/10 condition they sounded very “dirty”. I would clean them again and it would get better but still noisy. On some, the bass sounded boomy. On others, the high’s sounded tinny. On many, I would reach for the tone controls being sure they were not set to flat but yes, they were. I had better consistency with my digital recordings but no comparison to what my vinyl used to sound like. I still felt that all this finicky behavior (not to be confused with “fini type behavior”) was somehow a strength and hidden potential for these speakers. How could you not like them, you lusted over them for soo long, you laid down some serious coin, you bragged them up to your wife and kids and hey they are just too beautiful to be bad. Taking DT’s recommendations, I started to change out the electronics and things started downhill fast. Remember that the C28 and M2 were my first string for this room. I started to panic…! At 10:30P I decided it was time to face reality. I would pull down the Scott 299 (that tubefanatic helped encourage me to buy) from the upstairs system. If the tubes did not tame these beasts, I was in trouble. I would really have a hard time convincing my significant other that my new big purchase would require me to buy some more really expensive sources and of course better records. Well as you all probably guessed the Scott was magical and I was back to getting the sweet sounds I was used to. However, wait, now the sound stage seemed even wider and deeper, hey, there are a few more instruments in that recording, and wow, I could hear her take a breath! Now I started to get tears in my eyes. I would use the third/center channel on and off and can say that it is not as necessary as it used to be with the LS and Cornwalls. The soundstage with the KHorns seems to be very plainer in the sense that it creates that “wall of sound”. The third channel seems to push that wall farther into the room. I can stand very close to one speaker and still hear detail from the opposite channel. The sound seems to be“omnipresent”, surprisingly less directional than with previous set ups. Many times during listening the sounds would all seem to come together directly in the center. I would go to turn the center channel down and find that it was not even on. These things are definitely not for the inexperienced or faint of heart, kind of like giving a Hayabusa to a sixteen year old. The mighty KHorns will simply not tolerate dirty vinyl or poor recordings. They are very picky about just what electronics they will mate with. (Some people are picky that way too). Luckily I had pretty much sorted things out by the time one of my daughters had a chance to sit down and audition them. Her innocent observations made it all worthwhile. She sat there for several minutes listening and then simply said, “That is really cool, I’ve never heard anything sound like that.” (She has a two-year degree in audio and visual media!)

Have a look at my system profile and you can see the choice I have, and I am going to try them all out. Right now I am using the Kenwood Basic M2 main amp, Marantz MA700 for the center channel and a McIntosh C28 pre.

I am very curious to see what that does. Look at my system profile and you'll see the choices I have. It is kind of fun to anticipate what each one will bring to the table. Common wisdom would lean toward the Scott but who knows. I am going to leave that one for this week end. Right now I am using the C28 and M2.

DT, Thanks for all the advice during this venture. I definately need some time to figure out how to make these sound their very best in my room. These fill this room(19.5' X 31.5' X 7.5') easier alone than any other set I have for sure. My best combination prior to this I felt was the two LaScala's with a Cornwall center. I had to have them all pulled out into the room about five or six feet from the back wall and I could really adjust the tow in to get a great sound anywhere in the room. Right now my first impression is that the sweet spot for the Khorns is much closer to the speaker than what I had before. Another first impression is that my digital music sounds better than it ever has and some of my records sound worse. I am really going to have to get to the bottom of that.!!