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Jubilee Audition in Chicagoland Area


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I was there! And I'm still alive! Seriously, thank you to Steve and to his family for hosting us. Also, thanks to Kwing for the ride to and from the city. I hope some other attendees jump in so I can put avatars to faces.

It was a real fun party with a very happy group of listeners. Steve's system is excellent. So great to see and especially hear Jubilees with my eyes and ears.

Steve and others can jump in to correct or add to any of the following: As it is currently arranged, the Jubs are in a 7.1 surround system in Steve's basement party space. (I'd go into further detail but you can probably just click on Steve's profile to see the specifics.)

We played a wide variety of cd's people brought with them. The two major highlights for me were listening to Black Sabbath's "Ironman" and "War Pigs" as well as a fellow forum member's self-engineered choral concert that sounded just superb. Steve's system gives you the impression that it can take any recording, with any kind of dynamics and respond smoothly and with power and excitement!

The custom Belle Klipsch Steve is using as a center channel is quite a piece as well. Since my own system is true two-channel, I found the presence of the center in stereo recordings to be surprisingly strong. This was something I noticed on recordings with a vocalist, but not on choral or orchestral recordings. Of course, I am used to the "ghost center" of my two-channel system at home.

We also enjoyed several tracks from Pink Floyd's PULSE DVD and from a Blue Man Group live in concert DVD. Steve has a nice flat screen display to accompany the sound system. But I kept thinking during these moments that anyone with a sense for sound would be amazed at how much more dimenion the soundsystem is able to reproduce in the room than the display. Perhaps a 3D projector will have to be next for Steve...

Thanks again to Steve and family and all the good people at the party. It was a pleasure to spend time with you.

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We are bless in the Chicago area with so many Klipsch fans. Steve is definitely among the top in Chicago (if not the entire US) with his awesonme collection of Klipsch heritage and professional speaker systems. I can't imagine having more! He will need his own power plant soon.

A note to Stave: Thanks for hosting a great party. Your wife and daugghters are patient indeed. I like the fact that you have already pass the Klipsch torch to the next generation....with the ear plug speakers for your kids.

Having said that, I had a great time again. This was my second exposure to Steve's Jubs. I was pulverized by them the first time listening to Steve's Pink Floyd and Blue Man group DVDs. This time, I brought my own music. I wanted to know if the Jubilees can handle more "finesse" music. Even so, I brought the Black Sabbath disks that Seth mentioned. I have not heard "war pigs" at that volume level since Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill rocked the old Chicago Stadium: holy smokes. I did have a chance to hear Diana Krall's "Temptation" and some of my traditional Chinese music (featuring erhu solos). I also second Seth's comments about the recording brought by ARTTO. The strings and Choral music sounded awesome: powerful, clean and without harshness. Art's self engineered music sounded better than the professional Camina Burana demo disc he brought. I would love to get a copy of it for myself. I get the impression that the JUBs can handle anything. They postively rocked the house and shook the foundation. No one even wanted to sit too close to them: everyone seemed contend to sit as far back as possible.

Steve did a nice job on his Belle center channel: featuring ALK trachorns and DeanG VCAP crossovers. A bit too dominating at times but very open and unlock traditional heritage sound: a definitely upgrade over the stock Belle/Cornwall mids and highs.

Steve also did a great job on his Cornwalls where he upgraded the midrange horns for his upstairs system. I would have been content just with those,

Some lingering thoughts and what ifs, that would have made the party even better: maybe 2010?

The 510/K69 combo was not up on the Belles, I cannot imagine the Belle sounding better than what Steve has now! But I have to take the man's word for it.

Dr Who was missing - no slight to Seth, Art, Jason, JamesV, Jim, etc.. but it would have been nice to meet one of the most knowledgeable guys on the forum (IMHO).

I wonder what the Jubs would sound like BI-AMP: with a solid state high current amp driving the bass and tubes on the top. May be I can try that on my Jubs, once I get them running. AFter Steve's party, I am convince more than ever, to get my own Jubs and the K69/K402 combo running asap!

Thanks again Steve! Lets do this again in 2010....

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A real BIG THANK YOU to Steve for having all of us over.

Steve was a very gracious host and I had a fabulous time even though I was a feeling

a little “under the weather”.

The most apparent thing to me was the 402 horns. The two way

system, IMO, is much more seamless ~ coherent in the midrange and treble than

the Klipschorn K400/K77 combo. I guess I’m going to need to talk with Roy. I’m still not

convinced as to why the 402 can’t be mated with a Khorn bottom. The crossover

points are similar, the current Khorn actually crossing over 50Hz higher than

the commercial KPT Jubilee 535. I didn’t really hear any benefit over and above

the Khorn (at least the way mine are setup in my room) as compared to the

Jubilee, except for the 402.

As others have mentioned, I also found Steve’s modified

Belle with ALK trachorns and DeanG VCAP crossovers to be a substantial

improvement over the standard Belle. Here too, I wonder how a 402 would work

with a Belle since the crossover points are the same as the Khorn. I suspect it

probably has something to do with the crossover slope more than the crossover frequency.

I’m glad everyone enjoyed my recording of John Rutter’s “Gloria”,

especially in light of comparing it to one of TelArc’s recordings. I’ve been

striving to achieve a Mercury Living Presence/TelArc type of sound quality to

my recordings for years. After recording the Glen Ellyn

– Wheaton Chorale twice a year for twenty years I believe I’ve finally succeeded!!

Sixty-five person chorale, grand piano, pipe organ, nine piece brass ensemble,

percussionist (xylophones, cymbals, etc) and timpanist, at the College Church

in Wheaton, IL, live-in-concert ~ with TWO microphones. Any one who wants a

copy of the Gloria excerpt can contact me and I’ll send you one ~ or, if

someone knows how to make this available via download please let me know. The

whole concert will be available from the Glen Ellyn-Wheaton Chorale in a few

months. http://www.gewchorale.org/ (a

non-profit, audition, but non-professional chorale, except of course the

director and accompanist).

I guess my only caveat is, IMHO, I don’t think we heard what

the Jubilee can really do. IMO they could benefit from better front end components

(Steve has valid reasons for not going to valves for instance), and of course

(you all know this was coming, right? LOL), the room. Room acoustics can make or break

the “system”. In this case there probably isn’t a lot you can do about it. Unfortunately,

more often than not, it’s one of those things that must be given consideration

from the very beginning. Everything that comes before the room is influenced by

it. A chain is only as strong as the weakest link. There are no substitutes.

Thanks again Steve for opening your home to us and having a great listen! Now, I’ve

got get hold of Roy. [:P]

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Steve, my gf and I would like to thank you and your family for opening your house to us and the rest of the Klipsch community that showed up. Also thanks Jim for the entertaining evening, it's really nice to see and talk to you guys again after 2 years, we really had a great time.

I can second what the others have said, OUTSTANDING SETUP..... This was my first experience with the Jubilee's and they sound great, also that Belle center was unbelievable.

Also the others have hit it spot on with all the music played during that evening, from War Pigs to Art's creation. All the music sounded fantastic, even the few samples that I brought along that my gf wanted to hear. Even though Seth called me out on some of it, that I really don't listen to it, that was a good one..... [:P]

All in all it really was a fun time, Steve if you have another get together count me in with a plus one cause I know my gf will want to come again.

James

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Thanks for the writeups guys - I was really bummed that I wasn't
able to make it. My grandparents had a big party celebrating their 50th
anniversary and then we had the family Christmas party later in the
afternoon....I was thinking about dodging out early, but my parents
wanted to carpool.

Was Steve running DH1A's for the tweeters,
or the K69's? The DH1A is definitely a step up and I wouldn't want
anyone to get disappointed if the K69 didn't end up meeting
expectations. Sadly you can't get the K402 without a Klipsch driver
attached...

I'm really glad to hear that Art's recording seems
to have come through well. When helping Steve dial in his system, I
intentionally tipped the voicing a bit to be extra friendly towards
hard rock, since it seems like Steve really enjoys a good jam out
session. I've found in the past that overdoing it can sometimes make
minimalist recordings sound a bit thin and far away. I know Art has a
real good ear for the stereo pair mic'ing...I guess it sounds like the
voicing wasn't too far off?

Btw, if Art's recording sounds
better than his Carmina Burana disc, then I'd love to pick up a copy.
How much you selling them for, Art?

When are you getting Jubs, kwingylee? Sounds like we'll need to crash your place here pretty soon [;)]

Just
one other thought to throw out there...I know Steve's room at first
glance seems to break a few rules of thumb (like being square for
instance), but his LF modal response is actually quite tame and the ETC
is rather well behaved too. It's not perfect, but I was extremely
surprised by how good his room is without doing any dedicated treatment.

So did Steve drag out his MCM stacks too?

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Thanks for the reviews fellas. I'd have gotten up there but had previous committments. Sounds like a great time, Steve has been quietly assembling one of the Midwest's premiere Klipsch collections for some time now. He was a great help last year when we got together in Indy for a pro demo/concert in the park. Nice notes about the 7.1 setup, will have to read what else it consists of- how was the surround implemented and was it startlingly realistic? Any details on room size or acoustic treatments if he's gotten around to that yet?

Must have been too cold to head out to the garage to get blasted by those MCM's eh? That would have been the topper!

Looks like there's maybe a few more Klipschorn Jubilee converts in the crowd. Good job Steve!

M

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Was Steve running DH1A's for the tweeters,
or the K69's? The DH1A is definitely a step up and I wouldn't want
anyone to get disappointed if the K69 didn't end up meeting
expectations. Sadly you can't get the K402 without a Klipsch driver
attached...

I'm really glad to hear that Art's recording seems
to have come through well. When helping Steve dial in his system, I
intentionally tipped the voicing a bit to be extra friendly towards
hard rock, since it seems like Steve really enjoys a good jam out
session. I've found in the past that overdoing it can sometimes make
minimalist recordings sound a bit thin and far away. I know Art has a
real good ear for the stereo pair mic'ing...I guess it sounds like the
voicing wasn't too far off?

Btw, if Art's recording sounds
better than his Carmina Burana disc, then I'd love to pick up a copy.
How much you selling them for, Art?

I know Steve's room at first
glance seems to break a few rules of thumb (like being square for
instance), but his LF modal response is actually quite tame and the ETC
is rather well behaved too. It's not perfect, but I was extremely
surprised by how good his room is without doing any dedicated treatment.

We missed you Mike.

I believe Steve was running DH1A and said he preferred them. They sounded fine to me.

I didn't know you helped Steve dial in his system. The voicing sounded fine to me on my recording and other orchestral recordings we played.

The Gloria excerpt from the concert is free ~ just email me and tell me where to send it to. It is "raw", unedited, not normalized or anything (I had only 2dB headroom left so I may not normalize the final product anyway). I only put the three track markers on for playback convenience. We played only the third section (finale). When you play this back your systems, the peak levels should be around 105dB+ as this was the peak levels at my listening position in the first row of the church. The full concert CD package will be available from the Chorale, you should be able to order it through their website (gewchorale.org), if not let me know & I'll make sure you get one. I believe they charge about $16.

Interesting that you should mention the LF modal response because that was my impression too. The bass response seemed rather flat considering the squarish room proportions and low ceiling.

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Mike:

Steve was running the EV DH1As instead of the K69s. The EVs are monsters: nearly 3 times bigger than the K69s IME.

My Jubilees are 1/2 there. I have the bass bottoms. I have the EV DX38. I have the amps. I need the K402 and K69 combo as well as a new floor put into my room. I will have to sell some stuff to fund them.

My problem is that my room is 1/5th the size of Steve's. Its very well damped now for my present speakers. I suspect that I will have to 100% damp the wall behind the listening chair as well as the two side walls when I finally get these things up and running. Can I solicit your help when the time comes?

As far as having a big party. There is no way I can support more than 3 people in my listening room.

Finally, Steve MCM stacks were not available. Those would have been WAY too much,

Kwing

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