At Klipschorn users: How big is your listening room?

[Hornylicious]

My K-Horn room is 15' x 20' with a 10' ceiling. The speakers are on the long wall. I find that taller ceilings allow for the sound to air out and to be richer and more full, with greater bass extension. I have been told by Klipsch that with K-Horns it is best not to have ceilings less than 8' 6", which is basically twice the height of the roughly 52" tall K-Horn, but I would imagine that your speakers will still sound great in your room. I have heard K-Horns in rooms with ceilings less than 8' and think that taller ceilings are much better. I would be interested to hear from K-Horn owners with shorter than 8' or really tall ceilings. Enjoy the thrill ride...

[colterphoto1]

does Klipsch still have some of the Anniversary Khorns for sale? They have to be getting close to running out of them with only 200 pairs made.

M

[Bill H.]

Michael,

They are not the 60th year models.............but there is a good pair on Ebay now with 4 days 4 hours to go...............and they are already at 2,325.00......................

http://cgi.ebay.com/Klipsch-Heritage-Klipschorn-Speakers-Pair-B-Stock_W0QQitemZ190328373134QQcmdZViewItemQQptZSpeakers_Subwoofers?hash=item2c50747f8e&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262

[MojoX]

I listened to a pair of 60th aniversary models a few days ago in a room that was perhaps a little smaller than mine. The amps was a Nad M3. Last time I heard it bi-amped with Marantz SM-11 I think. Although it was very nice the session with the Marantz amps was still better (especially the highs which were not as bright and the bass) . But the Khorns weren't perfectly in the corners.... Nevertheless I think you cannot do better than with the Klipschorns if you want lifelike, energetic and thrilling music with natural bass.If you have other priorities other speakers in this price range are propably better. The only disadvantages for me are the price and the weight. That's why haven't decided yet...

But what I know now is that my room isn't too small and if I am reasonable I shouldn't have problems with my neighbours I guess....

[pmsummer]

Kind of an odd-shaped room. 14 x 22', but there's a big notch at 16' (really 14x22/10), and large hallway openings along both long walls, so the Ks go along the short wall. They sound great.

[garyrc]

• Your overall room size is fine for K-horns. I have never heard a better all-around speaker (but I haven't heard the Klipsch Jubilee or the Palladium).
• A somewhat higher ceiling MIGHT be better, but you could consider putting a small Sonex foam pad with anechoic wedges (or other similar) at each of the two first reflection points on the ceiling. The point is to keep the tweeter sound from being returned to your ears (by reflection from the ceiling) too soon, since the primary tweeter sound is arriving before the midrange anyway (See the Heyser article c 1986). Don't put too much absorption in the room, though. Khorns like diffusion, and a good reverberant tail.
• Are the two corners you would use good and solid? I don't know if this would help much, but if someone lives on the other side of that particular wall, you MIGHT be able reduce the amount of bass hammering on that wall by using artificial corners that are moved out into the room a little bit. Make them out of 3/4 ply on both sides of 2 x 4s or 2 x 6s that are 16 " o.c., or, better, 8"o.c.. If you get plywood with hardwood veneer, they could be nicely stained to match the Khorns. Several forum members use them to allow the Khorns and artificial corners to be toed-in exactly right amount so that the person in the center chair is looking straight down the throats of the tweeters.
• Your current speakers may put out just as much (or more) bass as Khorns at certain frequencies, and many subwoofers certainly would. The advantage of the Khorn is not more, smoother, or more extended bass, but bass cleanliness, effortlessness. low distortion, and high enough efficiency to flap you pants legs from across the room on Fanfare for the Common Man.
• For some movies you may need a sub anyway.
• Just for ducks, you might want to look into your local sound ordinances. They may list a certain maximum dB level at the border of your property (in your case, on the other side of the your walls and out in the hall). If you do, be sure to get a printable copy that specifies the weighting. Staying within the legal limit won't keep the neighbors from calling the police, over and over again. One of the reasons we moved from an apartment into a house was to be able to play our music the way it was written.
• Some people have mental problems if they can even hear someone else's music. Others go with the flow. When we lived in Berkeley, CA, we put up with Knights in White Satin, on infinite repeat, at the wee hours of the morning, just about every night.. We finally found a vantage point that would allow us to look into the guy's window. There he was, dancing and leaping around in a white robe. A few months later it stopped. Perhaps the guys who came for him were wearing white, as well.

[Islander]

When we lived in Berkeley, CA, we put up with Knights in White Satin, on infinite repeat, at the wee hours of the morning, just about every night.. We finally found a vantage point that would allow us to look into the guy's window. There he was, dancing and leaping around in a white robe. A few months later it stopped. Perhaps the guys who came for him were wearing white, as well.

Sometimes you wonder what your neighbours are doing. Sometimes you wish you didn't know...

[JJkizak]

12.5 x 24 with Cornwall center and sub.

JJK

[MojoX]

Can I toe in the Klipschorn so that 25 inches of one wall would be enough for the K horns. Because then I would have 4 corners and 2 on the side where no neigbour could feel animated to dance like crazy...

[garyrc]

I'm not sure what you mean, but you can only toe-in Khorns when they are snug in -- nearly sealed in with a rubber gasket -- and completely touching some kind of firm corner --- either an artificial corner that you turn, but keep sealed to the Khorn at all times, or a natural corner which would mean that the tweeter would be on the 45 degree line.

In either case, you should probably sit pretty much on axis.

When PWK introduced the idea of the artificial corner he said it would produce 90% of the performance,

Klipsch has always said that you need 48" of uninterupped wall on both sides, measuring from the apex of the corner itself .... recently they have started to measure from the Khorn's side grills (but what part of the side grill?), and that specification may, or may not, be 25" .... I forget. In any case, you need that expanse on both sides, so any toe-in other than 45 degrees is not possible without movable artificial corners.

One editorial review (in High Fidelity mag, I think) implied that Khorns work better with 5 feet of uninterrupted wall on bothe sides coming out from the corner.

I have seen them (in an irresponsible dealership) with only a little wall space ,,, they sounded much worse than mine, which have corner walls extending 17 feet in one direction, and about 23 in the other!

[garyrc]

All that I wrote in my last post applies to all standard Khorns, but not to the 60 th Anniversary model, which has a sealed back. Elsewhere on the forum people have talked about sealing the backs of their older Khorns.

Even with the 60th and its sealed back, one of the Klipsch engineers commented that the Khorn should be at least near a corner to exploit corner loading, Jubs also. I would think that the best for a sealed back Khorn would be in a corner, but toed as you like it.

[rplace]

15'X17' with the khorns on the 15 foot wall because they had to be that way. The room has a lot of absorbtion/diffusion treatments. It sounds great, but a bigger room with a taller ceiling (mines is just under 8') would be nice. It is in the basement and no neighbors close by. It is never too loud[]

If its too loud, you are too old.[H]

[davis419b]

I have a 14' X 22' X 8' to 10' vaulted ceiling. I use 4 Khorns for H/T and 2 for stereo.To get them to image correctly I had to add false backs to them. This might also keep from rattleing the sheetrock walls as they are used to complete the bass binns. The bass is as good as it was when pushed back in the corners tight but now they image. I had always read that Khorns need a big room but never read that it had alot to do with imaging. For the first year I owned them I never saw anything about imaging. Here is a of pic on what I use.

[garyrc]

rplace: "It is never too loud If it's too loud, you are too old."

An interesting formulation, but ..... all my life, starting when I was about 14 with my first High Fidelity system (the stereo Lp came out about 2 years later), I was told "Turn it down!" .... by parents, older relatives, and all those old people in general. My peers and I found that our parents would not believe how loud our orchestra got during Pictures at an Exposition until we invited them to a concert and they could hear for themselves. Old people! The exact same thing happened when we dragged them to the gloriously loud, clean & authoritative 6 channel magnetic stereo 70 mm Todd-AO version of Around the World in 80 Days (1956) -- they broke out in somewhat immature giggles, because they knew we were right. They never experienced the old Fillmore auditorium's rock bands of the late 60's, but they would have been horrified. It figures that the oldest person there probably was Allen Ginsberg, in his 40s, and sometimes naked.

So I thought I understood the age factor, until I became an old geezer. My hearing is still good (despite the Fillmore). Some 50 years have gone by since the first instance listed above, and I have been repeatedly shocked when my music loving daughter (in her early '20s) and her friends ask me to "Turn it down!"

Go figure.

[Rudy81]

My room is 20'Wx27'Dx9'H. I sit back 14 feet from the Khorns and have them toed-in with the use of false corners. You cannot go wrong with that purchase.