oliver2

Yes, Generg and me moved the speakers around, ensuring the different speakers are in the same listening positions. Both of us heard the same as you did.

We did a shootout between Forte-1, Forte-2 and Tangent T-5000 Forte-1 had a little bit more bass than Forte-2. Forte-2 sounded less grainy and more clear in mid-tones, probably due to the Tractrix Horn, but had less bass. Tangent T-5000 is almost indistinguishable when compared to the Forte's. Sits in between Forte-1 and Forte-2. Better bass than Forte-2, very same mid/high tone representation as Forte-1. Indistinguishable, if you don't hear them in direct comparison, and even then differences are minimal.

Here's some additional information, thanks to Woody Jackson, former CEO of Klipsch Inc., who kindly answered my questions. Woody: "I was with Klipsch for a number of years and worked my way from a territory sales rep in the late 70’s to National Sales Manager through 88; then CEO until I left the company in 92. I have very fond memories of my years there!!" Question: A 1989 Video of Klipsch on Youtube mentions you. Were you the creator of the Tangent line ? Woody: "I was not the creator of the Tangent product line. It was created in the middle to late 1980’s as a product line to be sold into the US military bases in the AAFES (Army Air Force Exchange Service) in Europe and Pacific locations. While Klipsch Engineering designed the product the sales staff (including myself) was very actively involved with “voicing” any products Klipsch produced. We would listen to new models and compare them with slight variations in crossover designs until we were satisfied that the new product had the “Klipsch” sound." Question: Is it right that Paul Klipsch (who was 87 at that time, and didn't seem involved actively anymore), was not keen on the Tangent line, and why would that be ? Woody: "The Tangent line allowed us to package classic Klipsch sonics into a less expensive cabinet. It was designed to provide a lower cost product that more servicemen could afford. The Tangent line was built using vinyl covered MDF (fiber board) instead of the classic Klipsch real wood veneers over hardwood. This reduced cost. The Tangent line wasn’t sold very extensively in the US markets as most of the Klipsch distribution in the US was with independent specialty retailers. As I recall, we may have put the Tangent line into a couple of regional retailers in the US that were more “big box” oriented." Question: Rumours say, there was an engineer that developed the Tangents, and the guy left to JBL. That might be a word-of-mouth tradicted false information, and it was you, who later left to PWJ Consulting ? Woody: "I don’t recall any Klipsch engineers leaving for JBL. The engineers on staff at the time the Tangent line was released largely stayed on with Klipsch for many years. Like any company we had turnover but I don’t recall anyone going over to JBL. We had one engineer get involved in the automotive audio industry as I recall. After leaving Klipsch I did form PWJ Consulting. I was primarily a channel/sales and marketing consultant but wasn’t just limited to audio (although I had several audio clients). " Woody: "Klipsch was my “dream job”. I regretted leaving the company for many years but when I look at the state of audio distribution (retailers) in the US market today I’m glad I’m no longer in that industry. My expertise was in bridging the gap between what the market wanted from us and what we wanted to engineer. That, in addition to being a heavily relationship based manager with Klipsch retailers and distributors. That type of relationship approach really doesn’t exist much anymore in the US." Question: A lot of historic information about the classical Klipsch speakers and the Paul W. Klipsch time is available on the internet, but not much information about the time when Paul was older and probably (assumption) not so active anymore. Woody: "Lastly, I’m not certain about the absence of news from ‘88-‘92. After Paul sold the company to Fred Klipsch I dug in as CEO under Fred’s ownership and we did extensive re-working of our approach to manufacturing. We implemented a lot of positive changes on the plant floor to better forecast our costs and manage our costs. During that time we made an extremely successful introduction of a newly remodeled line of Klipsch KG speaker products (KG-1, KG-2, KG-3, KG-4 and KG-5) and also introduced a line of architectural in-wall speakers. The amount of time devoted to those efforts likely precluded our ability to do much public relations/press work but I was very active in US based audio groups at the time. There was an article published in American Airlines “American Way” magazine which I noted someone had posted (scans) on the community forum." American Way article:

Here's an article from 1992 on the Tangent series, Arkansas Business, March 9, 1992: https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Never+sounded+better%3A+Klipsch+%26+Associates+Inc.+of+Hope+introduces...-a012133079

There's a guy called "Woody" in the 1989 Video on Youtube. The Klipsch employee stated that the Tangent line was introduced by Woody, and that Paul was not too keen of Tangents. Woody is probably: Woody Jackson President/CEO, Klipsch, Inc, November 1978 – June 1992 (13 years 8 months) President/CEO 1988-1992 National Sales Manager 1983-1988 Western Regional Sales Manager 1980-1983 Midwestern Sales Manager 1978-1980 when he left Klipsch, he went to PWJ Consulting. The relatively bad reputation of the Tangent series might come from the fact, that the smaller Tangent series (e.g. T100) were not up to the classical Klipsch speakers. They were smaller bookshelves, sold in volumes through PX/BX AFEES military stores around the globe. The T-5000 as the high-end version however, has the same/similar drivers as e.g. the Forte/Heresy II, and uses the Heresy -II crossover. T-5000 Drivers: K-75-K 1" K-53-K 1.5" K-28-K 12" K-120 12" I assume the T-5000 will sound great, and I will soon be able to compare it with a Forte.