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Bring your tubes over I will listen!

Just to relate a bit… I was watching some YouTube hifi audio reviews last night through my AL5s (AppleTV->Yamaha RX-A8A->Yamaha C-5000->Yamaha M-5000-> AL5s). I know, sounds crazy to listen to hifi reviews through hifi. I have become accustomed to how many of the reviewers sound through the AL5s. I noticed one reviewer sounded more husky and less intelligible than what I remember. Now mind you the reason I love and live with the AL5 is exactly this mid bass effortless throw without the boomy sound I commonly hear from speakers with smaller diameter woofers. But, a quick check on MusicCast and yep bass and sub were boosted all the way from my son watching a thriller. So I moved them back to flat and intelligibility was restored and no more overly husky voice. Low frequencies literally bust up higher frequencies in travel to the ear. There’s a war in the air! My point in saying this is that I read and watch a lot of people comparing the different ways amps and speakers sound as if they are “only swappable” rather than what I, studios and live performances do which is “tunable”. If I can’t get the sound I want with bass and treble controls, or some of the other sound attenuation at the ready, I will usually realize something is not working with my levels or my PEQ configuration and I will go adjust there, select another premade or custom profile. I will also try switching to Pure Direct to quickly rule in or out something I’ve done to modify the source material. My guess is in some rigs people don’t have these controls. I couldn’t live without them, and in fact the other day I was playing some old CD and record source on directly connected to the C-5000 a fully balanced preamp with only bass and treble controls and I reminded myself to think about moving my sources so I could do more eq with them via the AVR, since my modern sources sound great through this chain and going into the same preamp, but the source is the output of an AVR with all the peq and adjustments wizardry that makes things sound the way I like. In my 2-channel only-days, I remember trying a cheap equalizer and while I was able to “fix” some source material, I didn’t like the added noise in the chain, but those noise days are over with digital peq. So what I’m trying to say is that the AL5 will do what you want in your room because it is way underutilized in most day to day home use cases so it has the headroom to be altered or in your case toned down in the frequency range that is bothering you, but you may need more source controls that what a purist pre-amp+colored or uncolored amp can do. But I was also watching a reviewer saying that sensitive speakers like AL5 reveal everything from high powered noisy signal chains so basically all his “size matters” gear is junk with a good speaker. Back in the old days when I was first getting into the hobby a dealer told me about noise floor and other problems caused by high power amps, even good ones. My budget couldn’t afford a big amp anyway but he was right, in that a lower powered amp had a non-detectable noise floor and had a way of opening up the music in ways that I would later discover was lost when I replaced it with more power on the same Chorus speakers which are also high efficiency though nothing like the AL5s. I could get more bass with the new amp (Sony) and play louder and cleaner, and I learned to adjust, but I missed the air of the low power Denon for low to moderate volume. So if your amp is for some reason not playing flat you could fix it by altering the source, ie lowering the levels of frequencies that it is boosting, as well as adjusting for the room acoustics. Luckily the artists agree and have been incorporating modern eq in their live performances to make old songs sound even better and some will remaster/re-perform old lifeless recordings. But I do appreciate hearing my old stuff sound literally exactly the way I remember from the 80s when I want to. That is a testament of good gear that has a clean flat signal chain. It takes me right back to my college dorm and my room at childhood home, to my first digs as a young adult. After a song or two, then I’m ready for the newer bigger than life sound again from a room adjusted PEQ signal chain. However if I’m working at home and want background music I do prefer a less “in your face” presentation and will tone it down. Now that I described it, I’m going to enjoy some low flat background music while I work and hope you will too! Oops there I go again, had to boost both bass and treble for Bush The Science of Things, for it to sound good at low volume from CD. I know half of us hifi guys will never get a self-driving car with no ability to drive ourselves. We want the knobs. Fiddlers unite!

Great question if you don’t mind I chime in too. There’s a video from chief bonehead about the best sound comes from big horns in small rooms. The horn-loaded woofer in the AL5, in a small room at low volume is going to be impactful. But the front vented enclosure of the Cornwall will too and will sound deeper than AL5. The physics of the two designs can mean there is a difference in bass delay and how it interacts with the room. If you’re a low sound level bass head I’d go with Cornwall by itself, or al5 with the latest large klipsch subwoofer (what I run). I’m on wood pier and beam and it rumbles the couch which is fun for movies and high dynamic range music. The Cornwall and AL5 midrange horns are different and they sound quite different. It takes some listening to learn what you are hearing and missing in both designs. The AL5 is HUGE, refrigerator huge, but the bass bin is architecturally significant and really adds to a room in my opinion. Andrew Robinson thought they were too big for his space before he moved but I thought they looked rockstar cool and his acting skills tipped me over to choose the AL5. What I didn’t quite understand until I unplugged the separate pieces and played them independently was that most of the sound I pay attention to comes from the bass bin and it plays quite high. The top piece when played by itself literally sounds like an AM radio and makes me laugh when I hear it. So a ton of sound, I’d say most of the character and quality comes from the 15” driver. If you want dynamic punch in the mid bass the AL5 is going to hit you. But the Cornwall hits too, just in a less direct way. I’ve lived with Chorus for decades that has front vents like Cornwall but taller. Chorus has super tight bass but a little indirect compared to AL5 until you get to concert levels. The cabinet tuning is what makes me grin every time I’m jamming with the AL5s, while my chorus now fill role of surrounds because they are tall enough to reach over the side of the couch, and participate in all channel stereo. My experience with tubes on klipsch is they hit harder in mid bass but roll off both sub bass and high frequencies which makes them sound “sweeter” to some ears. A tube amp needs a big power reserve to push the bass properly at low volume. Sound reinforcement can be tricky business though…you’d get closer to what chief bonehead says on a budget with 4 Cornwalls than 2 AL5s, because at the end of the day, the more 15” drivers in a room will give you more impactful sound pressure at low volume, something you will feel and is listenable without running you out of the room. With 4 Cornwalls you’ll still use less floor space than 2 AL5s. In your shoes I’m not sure what I would choose! To me there is the physics versus the architectural look competing in my head on a given budget and available floor space. The horns have the directivity to slice through the bass waves which normally interferes with high frequencies so intelligibility is not sacrificed. Have fun!!!

“Imaging” can also occur in the amp and input signal where a given frequency has a notch or curve that isn’t flat. So if a speaker plays true the rest of the rig might not be playing true. But disregard “true” as the constant listening goal. It’s just a way to measure. I have drawers full of artists I wish I could EQ and have my system remember next time it’s played. I’m sure if “the artist” listened to their track compared to others on my system they would agree some eq is needed and the engineer should be replaced. But again artists have funny warped ears caused by live performance ear damage. You might not want what they want to hear.

Yes exactly. The mixing board can pan left and right per input channel, and the pan can be some percentage or 100% in one direction just like a balance knob on a stereo. There is no up/down control. Vinyl engineers have to remove stereo bass or the needle will pop out of the groove. In Atmos object-oriented mixing the panning can be output channel specific so it can seem as though you get some “height” but the reality is that height is achieved by panning between the mains and the ceiling speakers. There are no controls that govern placement within a single speaker radiating pattern. That’s just an artifact of the speaker. Some people prefer speakers that radiate the same strength for every frequency in a given direction while other people want that “imaging” which actually means the speaker is not radiating all frequencies uniformly in the same direction with the same power. Instruments don’t either I might add, so there is room for interpretation and you can play with reproduction exactly the way musicians play with their instruments. Dave Rat has some good YouTube videos demonstrating radiation patterns to mimic live instruments. Sales people did an amazing job selling the magic of imaging. But it was never “as the artist intended”. That was a sales lie.

Yep, to me it’s the AL5 midrange. Bass interferes with voice intelligibility and I can easily fix it either way by fiddling with bass and sub boost, depending on the movie or music. I am unable to improve intelligibility on some other brand speakers I might add. In a similar fashion my ear was trained to Chorus which are now my surrounds and I still love to hear them do their thing because the horn shape is different. But the AL5 midrange horn and the natural bass are magical. The tweeter adds just the missing touch without, as you say, sounding “modern”. Modern to me is the smile curve with the scooped out midrange and pianos generally sound hollow on speakers with that curve/eq to me. One might need to have played and stood next to a piano for years to know the difference however. If you enjoy the style try some latest releases of Yello to exercise those AL5s. Guests looked around the room surprised to see if other people were present because the voice sounded so natural from the AL5s.

Me. Sent email to Travis.

The bevel on the bottom where the book sits isn’t flat so it’s going to buggar the bottom cover and pages.

Small towns have a reputation for dope and love. Which came first? The love or the dope?

You guys are pretty good at creating envy especially since there’s no extras. Arrrrgh!

The subs don’t have much of a resale value because if they work they aren’t sold. Any new electronic is subject to part deterioration from heat/lightning and faulty wiring/misuse. You might see some resale in military towns, from the person that buys for YouTube reviews and resells, and from the occasional “I over-extended myself” seller, estate sales, otherwise it’s probably stolen merchandise. Others can add their two cents about used gear.

Okay sharia police

Sorry I hurt your eyeballs. This is certainly not a generational issue.

Not a hater but a lover of good commercial sound. This is worse than my Bose Wave Radio. What I want at a bar/restaurant is crisp clear music that doesn’t overwhelm conversation but is as discernible. Otherwise we just get conversations with mud that makes people talk louder.

I have a 1985 or thereabouts high school annual from Arkansas with that very same cover. I laugh every time this topic has an update, but wish they would have printed some extras.

This is the command structure under which the volunteer served. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/114th_Territorial_Defense_Brigade_(Ukraine) There is one specific company I found raising funds separately for the brigade the US volunteer was in. The team is here https://sigma.software/about/management-team They show fund raising for a separate reconnaissance unit of the 135th Territorial Defense Battalion but the link is bad here and points to the 40th…They claim “19 of our colleagues joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and territorial defence in the Vugledar, Bakhmut, Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Chernihiv directions.” https://unity.sigma.software/en/ I have been donating to UNITED24 primarily because I didn’t want funds misdirected. They have these contact emails. If someone in the business wanted to ship some units I think the Brigade level or the UA24 contacted directly might be the most direct contact for coordination. GENERAL QUESTIONS: HELP@U24.GOV.UA FOR PRESS: PRESS@U24.GOV.UA FOR PARTNERSHIP: PARTNERSHIP@U24.GOV.UA

Maybe Mr Carlson's Lab can help!

I was watching a memorial for a fallen US citizen acting as trainer in Bakhmut and noticed the PA system they were using seems to be on the blink. Wondered if Klipsch or someone in the biz might take the opportunity to get them some gear that works correctly and honors the fallen soldiers and their families. https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3739582-ukraine-brigade-holds-memorial-for-us-soldier-killed-in-ukraine-battle-against-russia.html

Can your experience be translated into THD+N minimum specs for amp buyers to consider with Klipsch? Yamaha indicates residual noise at 40 uVrms. If an amp is audible at zero input there’s voltage that can be measured on speaker cables with meter. Surely one could just measure that and know if it will be audible on klipsch. Seems easy enough for a dealer to measure and communicate.

Pass already told him the amp was operating normally and the noise floor was normal and audible with sensitive speakers. Nothing to troubleshoot.

Klipsch should sell horn-loaded baseball caps so everything sounds better. I still cup my ears with my hands anytime I want to hear better. A Klipsch horny cap would be awesome until I get yelled at which is quite often. Nerds unite.

Yea Google klipsch jubilee demo, or any other speaker make model demo to get past the talk and into the listening. Enjoy!

The OP complained about noise floor not THD anyway. Audible THD is around 5% for an average ear so all these decimal places are pretty much meaningless. There are other qualities of amps that are more noticeable once THD is below audible levels. Here’s a simple discussion of car audio THD. “When the harmonics reach 5%, they are clearly audible. If the tone was music, you would have trouble hearing 5% THD. The 1 % is only barely audible and it's mixed with a continuous, steady tone. With music, it would be inaudible.” https://www.bcae1.com/thd.htm#:~:text=When the harmonics reach 5%%2C they are clearly,steady tone. With music%2C it would be inaudible. People hear noise floor long before they complain of THD. People also complain of an amp not producing adequate high frequency at low volumes, and then lacking LF slam at higher volumes. Then there’s the midrange mud. But some artist sound benefits from lack of reproduction fidelity so there’s that too. I’m always surprised with what people latch onto spec-wise instead of what they have learned to hear and expect out of old and new music.

YouTube much? Dealer much? Easy enough to see Jubilees demoed with Esoteric, McIntosh, anything you want, just need pre-amp outs for active crossover. Whatever Klipsch uses for road shows comes out of loaner inventory/local dealer. Listen to the Klipsch rep Chad about what can run Jubs!

Klipsch demonstrates Jubilee on all sorts of amps. They don’t “use” Rotel it’s not part of the purchase. Dealers use various amps with Jubilee. The Jubilee has 2 woofers. For comparison the JBL 2226H/J has 600W AES continuous pink noise power capacity and is 97dB sensitive. So two of the JBLs would mean 1200 watt continuous while the Jubilee double woofers will do 300W continuous. Interesting but not the full story. Jubilee power handling: POWER HANDLING (CONT/PEAK): LF - 300W / 1200W HF - 100W / 400W Note the power handling of the Jubilee top end. Many amps have gain stages that are inoperable, literally switched off, at low output and that’s why they are quiet. Less is more. A good explanation for one such amp is here.