HDBRbuilder

OK Folks, here you go: I worked as a cabinet builder at Klipsch from 1976 to 1983. Sometime not very long after I started working there a new engineer was hired. His first name is Jim and his wife's name is Becky. Jim and Becky came from West Virginia. Both were well-educated at fine colleges. They were a very loving couple and devoted to each other. They were also "good people"...the kind of people everybody enjoys being around, and are honored to have had the opportunity to know...as was the case with my feelings for them both. They were avid collectors of antiques, and especially glass collectibles...already having a surprisingly extensive collection for a couple so young. Jim's passion for antiques overlapped his vocation in that he was very interested and knowledgable about old audio equipment...which eventually led to his being "unofficially" named the curator of the Klipsch museum during its early development. Jim had opportunities to take up employment at other places which would have been much more lucrative for him, but jumped at the opportunity to go to work at Klipsch, instead. He once told me that any engineer with any sense at all would NEVER turn down an opportunity to work with PWK! I admire Jim for many things. Over the years, he has proven himself one of the most capable engineers that Klipsch has ever had...with a very long list of accomplishments there! Becky was an excellent cook, and shortly after arriving in Hope, she began working part-time at Pioneer Kitchen in Old Washington. On many of the Saturdays we had to work a half-day overtime, many of us employees would go there after work to eat. Before many of us had gotten the opportunity to know Jim very well, we already knew Becky. BTW, she makes an extensive variety of quiche to die for! These two are good people, and in writing the following anecdotes, it is NOT my intention to make anyone appear ridiculous. At some time in everyone's life they have done things that they can look back on and hopefully laugh about...as those around them laughed about shortly after the events occurred. The most important thing for the reader to remember here is that Jim and Becky are the kind of people who will laugh along with others who see humor in something either of them has done, even if the events may not have been very humorous at the time the event occurred...like I said...good people!!! FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Shortly after Jim was hired on at Klipsch, new equipment was being installed in the company's listening room that had just undergone remodeling. I really didn't know Jim yet, having only seen him run around in the plant on occassion. One day, a number of boxes arrived in shipping and receiving and were sent over to the area where I worked. They were obviously new audio components. My being an audio equipment nut, I of course was curious when I saw TASCAM on one of the boxes, and during lunch break stuck around as Jim unpacked the boxes and set the equipment up on the table there. Jim was busy unpacking and I helped him out, and when the TASCAM box was opened up, I commented that I had a tape deck EXACTLY like that at home, but it was a Teac, not a TASCAM. Shortly after that, we unpacked a DBX 4-channel noise reduction unit, and I said I also had one of those at home, but an earlier model. When I told him this, he nodded his head, but the look in his eye said "yeah, right!" Well, I asked how much the reel-to-reel cost and he said $1800.00. I told him I had paid just under 500 bucks for mine just a few years earlier, but I had gotten it while on sale when it was already going for a heavily discounted price. Same look from him again. Well, about that time the "back to work" buzzer went off and I went over to my workbench and started slapping out some more Heresys, thinking "Geez! That went well...he doesn't even know me yet and he already thinks I am full of crap!!!" Anyway, over the next few weeks, he was wandering about the plant here and there and getting to know some of the working stiffs and everybody was talking about how nice he was. I was fixing to throw a backyard party at my little frame rent house out in the country south of Emmett. I wandered around the plant on breaks telling everybody to come on out, free eats and beer!!! I also invited Jim. It was early spring, and alot of the folks planned to do something else that Saturday, and didn't commit to coming, but I ordered 3 kegs anyway. Saturday started out cold and dreary, with misting rain, but before noon the sky cleared and it warmed up nicely...a beautiful day for an outside party. I had borrowed a pair of LaScalas from the plant and had put them outside up against the back of the house, carefully running speaker wire around the side of the house through the window of the living room where my Heresys were. I had already recorded three 2-hour reels of rock/pop music and five or six cassetes of "progressive country" for the party. I had set up the stereo system so that the LF and RF cables for the reel-to-reel were running to the same inputs on the HK900+ QUAD receiver's tape monitor 1, BUT I was also running the L and R cables of the cassette deck to the LR and RR inputs on the receiver's tape monitor 1. That way I could play country inside the house from the cassette deck AND rock from the reel-to-reel outside the house on the same tape monitor, and use the joystick balance control on the HK to balance them out....gotta love that HK900+!!!! I had figured to have maybe 20-30 people max show up for the party throughout the afternoon because so many had made prior plans to go to the lake or whatever. I had already thawed out a big doe I had frozen from deer season, and although I planned to cook most of it up over the weekend, I only expected to need to bar-b-que about one ham and shoulder for the party. By noon, a few of my closest friends had arrived and things looked good...everything in order...enough food, etc...BUT...it wasn't long before alot more people arrived...soon my driveway and huge front yard and even up and down the road was filled with vehicles!!! I ended up cooking that ENTIRE doe that day to feed the crowd!!! Jim and Becky showed up in the early afternoon, coming around to the back of the house where they could hear the LaScalas cranking. I was busy as hell, cooking and swapping out a fresh keg to the cooler when they got there. They mingled a bit and Jim came to the kitchen door. I handed him two cold beers and he overheard the Heresys in the living room playing music different from what the LaScalas out back were blasting. He wandered into the living room, saw my equipment and came back and said "Hey, that is just like the reel-to-reel in the new listening room!!" I said "I told ya that I had one just like it!" He said "I am gonna go give Becky her beer and come back and look at your set-up some more! Do you have a minute to talk about it with me?" I said "Sure thing, Jim!" He came back and I explained how I had set up the tape decks to the reciever and such, and we did alot of shooting the bull about equipment on and off the rest of the day while enjoying the biggest party I ever had thrown!!! Funny thing, though...Jim never did give me that "yeah, right!" look again after that day. THE FAMOUS FENCEPOST INCIDENT: It has been my experience that engineers, architects, and such sometimes let themselves get so focused on the final result of a project, that they get in too big a hurry to let common sense enter into the process. A year or so after Jim and Becky arrived, they bought a piece of land on the edge of Hope. The intent was to first build a "barn-like" structure on the land. In this structure they would have both room to live, and to store their massive amount of "stuff", while saving the money they had been paying for rent and using that money toward building their home. Good logical thinking!! Well, one day at work, I realized I had not seen Jim around for a day or so...and I knew he had a "hot project" he was working on that required him to be spending some time in the cabinet shop to get it completed. I asked around the plant and all I heard was: "You haven't heard about what Jim did the other day?", and then the employee would start laughing so hard that they couldn't even finish telling me what had happened to poor old Jim. I later found out from Jim, himself, the details: Before construction on "the barn" began, some improvements were in order on the land. A fence had to be built and Jim, with occassional help from some of the employees, began setting the fenceposts, but there was just one problem: At the point where the fence met the "driveway", he needed to set a heavy post with bracing to later support a gate. Well, he had decided that if he was gonna go to all that work, then he was gonna use the best damned fencepost material there was for that heavy endpost. And that material was gonna be OSAGE ORANGE. Osage Orange is probably the hardest damned wood in North America. It is locally called by a variety of names such as "Bois'd'Arc" and "Horse Apple tree". It is the most insect resistant, rot-resistant, water-resitant, hell...EVERYTHING resitant...wood there is that one can find in North America, too. In other words, it will last FOREVER!!! Jim's kinda fencepost!!! The important thing to remember about it though, is that because it is so damned hard, it is also CHAINSAW RESISTANT!!! Jim, being a logical sort of guy, knew that he had an osage orange tree very close to where that post had to be set, and that if he cut it down for the post he wouldn't have to haul it far to get it there...and osage orange is HEAVY AS HELL!!! He also realized that he didn't need the tree trunk, because it was alot larger than what he needed for that fencepost. He instead decided to just use one of its limbs that was "just right for that post". Well, the weekend before I noticed he wasn't at work, Jim decided to saw that limb off that osage orange tree. Keep in mind that the limb was about 8-10 feet up in that tree. He went and got his chainsaw, and put a brand-new chain on it, because the wood was hard as hell and a sharp cutting instrument would be needed. Then he got out his ladder so he could climb up and saw the limb off, and put it against the tree, and climbed up it with his chainsaw. Well, Jim sawed and sawed and sawed...finally getting that damned limb sawn through...and just as the limb started to come down, he realized, MUCH TO HIS SURPRISE, the folly of having that ladder leaning up against the tree UNDER THE LIMB HE WAS SAWING OFF!!! As Jim lay around for the next couple of months in a cast for his broken hip, he had alot of time to gloat over having a huge fencepost that would last forever just sitting there on the ground waiting to be set. THE MDF vs. PLYWOOD DEBATE: Jim and I had gotten to know each other alot better over time and had alot of respect for each other in many ways. One thing I found particularly unusual about Jim was his willingness to listen to another's opinion on a subject, especially if that opinion was based on solid information...a quality not always found in engineers , architects, etc. Jim was also pretty good at taking others' suggestions and giving them a try if the suggestion seemed a good one. He was also generally extrememly polite, even when being presented with "bullsh*t". One morning I got to work and was milling around before the "time to get yer butt to work" buzzer rang and I noticed a complete set of panels and such for a pair of LaScalas and another set for a pair of heresys had been sawn out of medium density particleboard (MDF). I asked around and was told a pair of heresys and a pair of LaScalas were gonna be built out of the parts. "The 'powers that be' are considering making some of the Industrial speakers out of particleboard now." Later that day, Jim came over and asked me to rout out the throats to the LaScala "doghouse" motorboards from the MDF panels, and the LaScala and Heresy fronts, too. I told him I was gonna be covered in that fine dust and wasn't looking forward to it, but I did it, and I asked him why they were gonna build a LaScala out of "this crap". He explained how the consistent density of the MDF made it a better material for the performance of the LaScala folded horn, as compared to plywood...and said that its lower price would save the company alot of money in production...but it would only be used on the speakers that were painted black or fiberglassed. I retorted that "It may save some money in materials, but in every other way it will cost alot more in production and other areas". He asked me why I thought that? As I went back to work, building heresys, he stood near me and we discussed this: I explained that it would require a better dust collection system on the saws and overhead router to keep from covering the workers in its extremely fine dust, and that it would also require the wearing of dust masks when performing those functions. I also explained how the people around it during those functions would be spending alot of time cleaning dust off their safety goggles which would lower output. Jim then told me how much faster the sanding room portion of the manufacturing process would go since the MDF required no sanding of its outer panels because it was already so smooth. I retorted that, since the LaScala and decorator Heresy were both built using lap joints, and those lap joints were left slightly "proud" to be sanded flush in the sanding room, then that didn't make much difference because it would take alot more time and skill to sand those edges flush and the joint seems would have to be puttied with something so that the seam didn't show after painting. Then I told him that MDF never does well being sanded, and explained why. I also reminded him that the dust collection would be a problem back there, too...and that for the case of the LaScala, at least, the sheer increase in weight of the cabinet when made out of MDF would require more time be used by the ladies back there in order to get the cabinet turned over and around on their little tables during the sanding process, since it would take at least two of them to do it each time it had to be done. I also reminded him that none of the gals back there were "spring chickens" anymore, and not to forget time lost on the job due to back injuries from all that heavy lifting. Then Jim and I discussed the painting process. I explained that MDF just "sucks-up paint bigtime" along the sanded edges, making it difficult to achieve a clean looking finish...especially where lap-joints are concerned. This would require a better job in the sealing of the cabinet prior to painting, therefore more paintroom time. Finally, Jim said that at least in the cabinet assembly process, no time would be lost. I then explained to him that MDF doesn't accept the glue we use on its factory-finished sides, but sucks it up bigtime on its sawn edges, and how a different adhesive MAY have to be used. I also pointed out that if the nails going through the flat side of the lap joints into the edge below were too much off center, the MDF would either at least "swell-out" some or a chunk would "blow out" of it, therefore requiring more care by the builders when assembling the cabinets, and more time...and in the case of fixing accidents, it would take alot more time...resulting in loss of production. He nodded. Then, I mentioned that in final assembly, when the components were screwed into the cabinets, it would require more attention so that the MDF didn't strip out from too much torque OR the screw heads didn't get twisted off...not to mention that when putting a screw into MDF, it tends to bulge upwards, and the inherent problems that would cause getting a good seal of the horns and woofers to the fronts. Then I mentioned that MDF doesn't hold a screw as well as plywood does. All through this discussion of MDF, Jim stood there patiently listening while I talked and built cabinets. He was taking it all in. But when I told him it would not hold a screw as well as plywood, he said that the manufacturer rep for the material had told him that was just an "old wive's tale." I told him I could prove it, if he came back during lunch break. He said he would and then he left. At lunchtime, I took a long glue block and stapled it to a table-top. Then, I pre-drilled the pilot holes for mounting the drivers into two heresy fronts..one was birch plywood, the other was MDF. Jim watched this, noting I was drilling each front the same. Next, I installed the two UPPER screws through a mid-range horn flange into each the fronts., using the same pneumatic screwdriver. Then, I stood each front up on their bottom edges, with their side edges touching, and with the bottom edges against the glue block I had earlier stapled to the tabletop, so that the bottom edges of the Heresy fronts couldn't slide forward. Now the horn throats were sticking out toward the edge of the table. I told Jim to stand, centered between the two midrange horns, to put his hands on top of the throats of the two horns and steady them, without grasping them, and with his hands identically positioned on the throats. He did so. Then I told him to slowly walk backwards, taking minute steps, while retaining equal downward pressure on the horns until he was off balance and the horns were EQUALLY supporting his upper body weight. He seemed amused at this, but did just as I asked. While he was doing this, I positioned myself so that i could see the upper edges of the horn flanges (the only edges screwed against the fronts). It was only a minute or so before the screws in the MDF heresy front started to back out, as Jim continued to back-up with more and more of his weight being EQUALLY transferred to each horn throat. I had intended to tell him to stop before the screws in the MDF backed out very much, but he immediately noticed it, and stopped anyway. He stood up straight and said "You're right!!! MDF doesn't hold a screw as well as the plywood!!! That salesman was full of bull!!!" I said "Remember, Jim, a salesman's job is to sell the product, and he will tell you whatever he thinks you want to hear to make the sale...ESPECIALLY if he makes his living from COMMISSIONS!!!" Then I removed the screws from the top of the midrange horn flanges in each heresy front, grabbed a pair of tweeters and told him to watch. As I drove two screws slowly through the tweeter flanges into the wood below, I had him positioned to observe the point where the flange met the wood on that side. I said "Now watch as the wood bucks up as the screws goes into it, then notice how it will flatten back out as the flange is pulled tight to it on the plywood, BUT on the MDF it will never completely flatten back out". He watched, and he learned. I said, "Now is that gonna be a good seal, or is there a possiblity of squeaks on what is supposed to be an airtight seal?" He grinned. Next, I shot a nail dead center into the edge of the plywood, and another into the MDF. Then I told him to grasp the wood by its edge and slowly "feel" where the MDF had swollen outward, but the Plywood hadn't. He did, and grinned again. I grabbed the MDF and said "Those sanding ladies are gonna hate this stuff." He grinned again. Lunchtime ended and he left and I got back to building Heresys. Although those pairs of LaScalas and Heresys WERE built and tested, they never went into production. While the process of building these two pairs of speakers progressed, I sometimes noticed Jim talking to the employees involved. I like to hope that my input to Jim was the reason for that, as I sincerely believe it was!!! I can just imagine him performing those tests for the "number-crunchers" and telling why the changeover would not end up saving any money after all...but I doubt he would have needed to say any more than: "Our exhaustive testing has concluded that, although MDF is less expensive than plywood, other costs involved in using it would negate any benefit from that savings, and very likely increase the overall cost of each unit produced"...or something like that. This message has been edited by HDBRbuilder on 04-26-2002 at 11:18 AM

HornED... Thanks, I am glad some folks enjoy a bit of my recollections on here. By no means am I an expert on woodworking, nor anything else for that matter...but I feel that I have had a decent amount of experience in that endeavor and am happy to provide some hints and such to those who feel they may be of some use. As for you suggestion of a book that includes some of this kind of thing and some of the anecdotes...I think it would be a good idea..BUT it should not rest solely on anecdotes from just this humble man's recollections. Besides, if I had thought of my little additions to this forum ending up in a book, I would have put more into the writing of them, instead of just typing it out and firing it off in standard onlne lingo...LOL! I do happen to have laying around somewhere some pics of individuals taken at the plant from that era...and participating in some of the "unofficial" recreational events that were impromptuly organized...if you know what I mean. As for those of you who would like to read some of my observations on important personalities at Klipsch with whom I have been acquainted, I will post another thread today in this section pertaining to one of them...for your "reading enjoyment." I just hope he doesn't feel a need to hire a "hit-man" to call upon me during the wee hours in the future over this. "Coming Soon to a Forum Near You: The (mis)Adventures of Engineer Jim"

John Warren, Thanks for the info. Personally, I am a bit strapped for cash right now, since I just got a deal on some LaScalas...but, I posted that for two reasons...to find out just what the speaker cabinet design was all about(my passion is building speaker cabinets, and in that passion I like to understand the designs, baffling involved, bends of horns, etc)...and the other reason being that at less than 40 bucks(so far), plus shipping, there may be some who frequent this forum seeking the particular drivers in the cabinet(they sure look nice and clean from the pics), if not the cabinet itself...and, like you, I believe that the owner has those "qualities" you mention, but often those particular "qualities" in a seller allow a buyer to escape with a desired item at a ridiculously low price...Just a thought...

DJK, As per the squawker drivers on the early MCM1900 being made by CETEC, that makes sense to me, since the little "woofers" that drove its subsquawker were also made by CETEC...If I remember correctly they were something like 8" ones.... Yeah, I also remember the engineers runnin back and forth over to the workbench behind me tryin to make sure those 4-driver throats would fit in the cabinet for the squawker once the drivers were mounted to em...they also toyed with 3-driver throats some...took awhile to figure that little problem out...LOL! The 4-driver throat took what appeared to be the same drivers that were on the heritage series, but the original SINGLE-driver-powered squawker had a driver that was bigger...I guess that is where my confusion came in over who made the squawker drivers for the heritage line...Actually I think both driver types were sitting on the workbench when I asked Jim H. who made them. BTW....the MWM woofer section sat outside for a very long time...maybe even a year...with white noise runnin through it...in testing...pretty much 24/7. I always thought to myself..."Man, Jim H. would be really ticked-off if he came to work one morning and it was gone!!!"...LOL! The same tweeters as on the rest of the heritage line were used in the early MCM1900 tweeter box...or at least they looked the same...six of em stack-mounted, with lenses horizontal, in each box....upward/downward dispersion regulated by an by an arced panel secured inside each side of the boxes...to mount the lens flanges to...having the lower tweeter firing upwards the most and the upper tweeter firing downwards the most....the tweeters firing across each others' paths to achieve the dispersion along the vertical axis....the easiest cabinet in that system to build, by the way...LOL! I think the reason they "cross-fired" each other instead of the other way around in the cabinet design was because the arc required didn't allow clearance of the magnets if they reversed it so that the tweeters wouldn't fire across each others paths...and something about the controlled dispersion wouldn't be as good because there would be some gaps the other way...something to do with the lens' flanges' width...the farther out the listener was....who knows?...I just built the cabinets and enjoyed listening to them...LOL! Another interesting aside about the MCM1900 system: When the first "Star Wars" movie came out, the company had arranged to have a private screening of it for the employees on the Saturday before it opened in Texarkana. Well, we worked overtime that Saturday morning, and at quitting time we all ran home cleaned up, grabbed up the "significant other", and carpooled or rode on the provided buses to Texarkana to watch the movie. We were allowed to bring "refreshments of our own choice" to the theater, but the ice chests had to be brought in through the side exit doors instead of the front door for obvious reasons. The powers that be had hauled a pair of MCM1900's and some heresy monitors and such over to the theater and set them up inside it just for this showing...WOW!!!...WHAT A MOVIE!!!!!!...sure was nice to be sittin there havin a beer with my popcorn watching that and listening to the effects thru something I had built a few weeks before!!!!

OK, Folks... I figured this thread is the best place to ask about this...please take the time to check out eBay item # 1347657227. I would like to know what type of speaker this really is...supposedly a University...the drivers shown inside of the cabinet are gorgeous old pieces...can anybody here tell me what they are?...what the design of this speaker is like?...I see lots of baffles and insulation, but it is difficult to figure out the cabinet design from the given pics....inquiring minds want to know!!! BTW, this item appears to be EXTREMELY underbid at this time!!!! Thanks for any help in answering my questions.

Gil, wire?..You have the nerve to ask if I know about WIRE? Hell, man, I was raised up in Arkansaw...we all know about wire HERE!!!!! Geez!!...nobody EVER leaves the house here without WIRE...and an oilcan...hell, you can fix anything on the old studebaker pickup with that and a pair of old pliers!!!! But, me not being one to "worship the archaic"....I have been adapting well to duct tape, WD-40, and vise-grips!!!!

Gil....I saw that....c'mon, now...you KNOW you love the oboe in "House at Pooh Corner" through horns...admit it , now

Thanks guys, very enlightening...and most important of all, I CAN UNDERSTAND IT!!! It is nice to get technical answers put in a way where I can understand them! I would love to see more about this issue over driver construction and materials, PROVIDED it doesn't become a heated debate, but is done in an informal manner among friends as I have seen here so far. Any other comments on the ALNICO vs. ferrite magnets? By the way, TB, although I like old things, I do not consider myself a worshipper of the archaic...whenever something PROVES it is all-around better at doing something than that which preceded it...I am all for it!!! But, as a woodwooker with many years experience and an affinity for good quality wood, lumber-cored veneered panels and high quality plywoods....just to let you know how I feel about MDF...let me say what my daddy used to say: "Particleboard ain't much better than dogsh*t and tater peelings...you will see that once it gets wet!!!" And that still holds true!!!

Edster00, Thanks, man...but no tellin if I will ever get to do that or not at this point...hell, after reading these Cornwall postings (and you KNOW they are!!!!), the company may decide to come back out with Cornwalls themselves (but I doubt the earlier versions will ever be offered as an option again)...but I would hope there wouldn't be any of em made with MDF core like they are gonna be using in the new heritage revival models...I personally prefer plywood and/or lumbercore myself!!!! HML's, huh?...well, I personally don't remember building any mahoghany heresys...and I probably never built more than 2,000 or so (maybe more) miter-jointed heresys (trust me, at over about 50-75 mitered heresy cabinets a day for a solo builder...and twice that for a team back then), it don't take alot of days to build that many over 7 years)...but, who knows, maybe I was the builder...my memory ain't perfect on everything I did a quarter century ago!!!

TBrennan... Yep, yer right...I heard him say that myself a few times...LOL! ....overheard coming from PWK when an employee brought in an old beat-up Rebel to try to restore: "Why do you want an old Rebel when you work here and can get a new pair of GOOD speakers inexpensively?"....LOL!

Tom, From the pictures he posted on tthose KDBR's, they look correct in every way. In his description he states that they have just recently been veneered with maple...which is a bonus if it was done right...even though they are "bottom end of the line" models, they are still made out of good plywood...and if they go for a good price I would grab em...It doesn't cost but about 60 bucks a 4' x 8' sheet for maple veneered 3/4" plywood...and less than three sheets would be needed to add a top to the high-end housings, add a real top to the woofer using the other original one as the bottom of the high-end housing, and add the side pieces to the upper cabinet and a riser...for BOTH speakers!!!...then a bit of maple iron-on edge veneer and you have some very nice maple K-horns!!! After all, you already have two patterns for cutting out the tops there...a real no-brainer!!!....P.S. Don't forget to add the "kick boards" at the bottom of each one...and you can order a couple of side grills for em or make em yourself, too!! You won't need any grill cloth up top at the front, they will look better without it, anyway!!!

edwardre, Yes, there WAS a "KA" model way back during that era...and if I was a betting man, I would say that is what you have...but I am not THE authority. Either way, I have had the opportunity to see a "KA" before. When I was working there, serious attempts were just starting to be made to try and buy back some of the earlier speakers for the museum that was already a "work in progress"...word had been put out to the dealers on what was being looked for in case trade-ins showed up. On occassion one of the early ones would be returned to the plant for a repair or upgrade, and a deal would be struck-up with the owner to trade it for a new one (or pair) so that it could be kept at Hope and eventually become a museum piece...or end up in one of the "honchos'" collections. That is how I saw one...it had come in and some minor repairs were being made to it...it was definitely a "KA" model...but I cannot for the life of me give you details as to the differences in looks...it may help if I saw pics of yours. Once, we got in one of the very early k-horns made...it looked like it was only gonna be good for firewood to me...until they put me to helping to try and salvage it one day...Boy, you should have seen this piece of junk!!!!...it looked like it had been exposed to weather for 20 years...all the plys in the pine plywood had almost totally separated on it...but...inside where the pyramid was it looked surprisingly good..and it had a Jenson Coax woofer in it!!!!!pretty cool!!!!Ya gotta love them ole big woofers with them horns in the middle of em!!!!...Anyway, after alot of work with alot of different people tryin to figure out how to salvage it...it was done...it still looked like hell, but not nearly as bad as it did when it arrived...at least it was solid again and the deterioration had been halted and wouldn't get any worse...LOL!...I wonder if it is in the museum now?...Maybe I need to hop on the ole airhead beemer and run to Hope in a few days and badger somebody into lettin me do a tour....Hmmmmmmmm Here's a thought for ya...if you holler at one of these administrator guys on here...and ask em real nice to show a pic of yer horns to Jim Hunter, he outta be able to tell em what ya have for sure...he and his wife are kinda antique freaks to start with and he is a BIGTIME antique speaker freak...he started working there just after I did...but I know for sure he is as busy as a one-legged man in a butt-kickin contest right now...but you can give it a try This message has been edited by HDBRbuilder on 04-24-2002 at 07:37 PM

m00n... Yep...been using the ole HK 900+ ever since then...hell, I even deejayed college parties with it for 3 years in the mid-80's...and in 1992 I had a pot on one of the 4 amps start to go out so I got em all replaced along with one pigtail bulb for the front face of it...50 bucks!!!!...LOL!...the guy who did the work was so excited to get to work on one that he just charged for parts and their shipping!!!...LOL!...He tested it, told me it slightly exceeded new specs in all areas...and said that was the first time he had ever seen that on a piece that old!!! HK had one helluva rep in the days that I bought it...and it was their top of the line model in 75...and maybe one of the best if not THE best 4-channel receiver ever made!!!!..Hell, it better be...it weighs a ton!!!!...I outta know, I have moved it around a million times!!!!

Edster00, What?...1973???????...Man, you sure know how to hurt a guy's feelings!!!...I kinda woulda hoped you would want some Cornwalls built by MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! between '77 and late '83...that really hurts!!!!!

IWILWALK, Cool!...I love the heritage from that era...can't wait to see em...and...when you take the pic, if they really are from between 76-83, and you look at the top left rear corner just below the joint...and the builder code is an "A" or an "AB" stamped into em, then I built the cabinets....I pretty much built almost all the heresy "D" styles those days and the vast majority of Cornwalls...but on occassion, whenever I ran out of room to put cabinets waiting to be sanded...I got to go build some walnut heresys or LaScalas or industrial models( I built alot of Industrial speakers, too)...It's too cool to get to see speakers I built over 20 years ago...everytime I see em, it gives me a good feelin inside.

ok....good reading so far folks....but is what I have ALNICO or not?....and is it preferred over the other...why or why not?

Yeah, mOOn, I hear ya....i like my HK900+ I bought new in 75 alot too ...just think, back in those days you had a choice between buyin what I got or payin the rent for a year...a grand was alot of money in '75!!!

To: BobG and the "name withheld for reasons unknown" engineer Bob quoted.....a resounding "Well Said!!!!!" I wonder if that mysterious engineer may have been PWK himself, or maybe Jim H., or.....?

Well, A for the label on the back of the Heresys having the year of manufacture written on them in 1980...NOT!!! I worked there from 1976-1983, and the serial number was encoded with the year of manufacture, but the serial number was NOT on the label, it was stamped into the top edge of the heresy. All the label told was the model designation, who inspected it(the person who did the final assembly), and who tested it...sooooo...when you get home look again, please. dougdrake... The KG series was just going into production when I left Klipsch...but the prototpyes of some that came out after I left were around... Are you really SURE you want me to comment on the KG series? Let's just say that when I put one on top of a heresy and had them both on the same channel on "speaker A" and "speaker B"...and I never heard the KG...I kinda said..."nope, I don't want one"....but really...the introduction of smaller bookshelf speakers and floor standing speakers for the generation of that era's living in apartments and condos with limited floorspace demanded Klipsch come out with something to compete in the marketplace and survive...so it was a good idea....for their size they were pretty good speakers....what can I say?...even today, if I get a home theater, I will build it to take heritage models...instead of what alot of folks use....my preference, besides....what is the problem with giving up a bit of floorspace in the plan for a home theater if you plan to design and build it to start with? by the way there is a admittedly lousy pic of one of my heresys on another thread in this forum relating to cornwalls...if yer interested

Yeah, I saw that too...and the seller even admits he helped to gut out the rest of the components that WERE correct....SOME PEOPLE!!!!

Edwardre, As for whether the special request models were serial-numbered...of course they were! I sincerely believe that these "special orders" were primarily intended to mate with a SINGLE Cornwall that had been purchased years earlier, and the current owner wanted a perfectly matching mate to it for stereo use. As for the ones purchased by the employees, yes they were serial numbered, and normally the folks in final assembly knew way ahead of time that the employee would be ordering a pair of speakers...(generally the purchasing employee "put the word out" through the plant ahead of time, even sometimes picking who would be the builder, sander, painter, final assembler, etc.)...and of course in the cabinet dept. we expected the purchaser to come over and pick out his/her wood, too. By the time the speakers made it to final assembly, the folks there would have "left-open" a pair of serial numbers in the series that (in the case of speakers not exactly being stock configuration) MOST CLOSELY aligned with a model designation being manufactured. Generally these serial numbers were either ending in "99" and "00" or in "00" and "01". But by no means does this mean that EVERY speaker with those digits at the end of its serial number were ones built for an employee purchase. Does this give the answers your were looking for? BTW...included is a very lousy pic of one of my heresys to give you an idea of what a "custom-built for-an-employee" decorator heresy might look like...sorry about the quality of the pic...i did it with my cheapo puter minicam. This message has been edited by HDBRbuilder on 04-24-2002 at 04:11 PM

Edwarde, I think the salesman was trying to say: "All other things being equal, a high-current amp will produce a cleaner sound through accurate high-efficiency speakers than a low-current amp, even if the 'stated max watt output root mean square' of the lower current amp is higher than that of the high-current amp". If this indeed is what the salesman INTENDED to say, then I must still agree with him Does that kinda help clear things up? Now I am gettin confused, dammit!!! LOL!

Although I have alot of different music tastes, I am also, at heart, a rocker!!! Nothin like a bit of Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way" to assist the first cup of mornin coffee in getting me moving for the day I also love the sound Klipsch heritage series when powered by a good tube amp...even though I currently have only my old trusty ss Harmon/Kardon to crank up. Many folks have asked me, when I would get on the subject of tube vs. SS, why I like the tube more. It was hard to describe without my drawing an analogy... "I can work as either a machinist or a woodworker...I have relatively equal skills in either one, but I choose woodworking over being a machinist(even though I may be able to earn more as a machinist) because I like the medium better...wood has a warmth to it that metal just doesn't have...I like that warmth! Tubes have that same warmth!"

mOOn, In response to: "When you pump out higher current, less watts, it produces a cleaner sound than lower current, higher watts. Any truth to this?" In a word, YES!

IWILLWALK, While reading your posting I noticed that in your equipment list you have in storage: "1980 Heresy II." I am not trying to be a nitpicker, but, although the Heresy II had the same "drop-in front" design as its predecessor (the plain ole heresy), it, instead, is easily recognized by its having the components mounted into the cabinet from the FRONT instead from INSIDE. If your heresys are actually from 1980, then they are NOT heresy II models...just heresy....you may want to re-check on WHAT you have...or...on WHEN they were manufactured...the two don't jive. I sincerely hope I don't sound like I am being a nit-picking smart-azz, but if you are basing this on something the seller told you, then the seller was wrong. As to your question about what kind of Klipsch those are in the pics...I also got the same pic in e-mail after asking about them...and since I have no knowledge about alot of the various models that came out after 1983, SORRY, I don't know either...LOL! Now if they were heritage series, or early KG series, or early "industrial" models I could help you...but....