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Belle Klipsch


neo33

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Why did PWK named this speaker Belle Klipsch?

Belle is a French word which mean (feminine) beautiful. So Beautiful Klipsch? The Belle is indeed beautiful. But if she is so beautiful in her grace, why did she have to go? Pershaps she's not sexy enough?

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He named the speaker after his wife!

Belle was a school teacher, and in those early years after WWII, when
PWK was attempting to get his speaker business off the ground, it was
Belle's income that kept the household afloat.

PWK wanted to have a center channel for three-speaker stereo but his
wife objected to having a Cornwall on its side under a table and held
that the LaScala was too "ugly" to be in the middle of her living room.
Thus, PWK designed the Belle as a fully horn loaded WAF accommodation...
and it remained in his living room even to his dying day. Basically, it
is a "beautified LaScala" with about the same sound but a lot more
expensive to build. -HornED
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i agree. when i bought my first pair of klipsch speakers in 1984 (Heresys), a brochure came in the box that showed the reference line. I took one look at those Belles and fell in love with them.

I had to chuckle at this one, as I had a similar experience. I saved and saved and saved, right out of high school. I was working as a Police Cadet for my home town police dept, for Minimum Wage. Something like $3.35/hr.

To add insult, I had introduced one of my best friends to Klipsch, and he bought a pair of 87' Forte's. Finally in 1989, the day came. I had saved (what I thought to be enough to buy my covetad Klipsch). I brought my buddy with the Forte's along for moral support.

I listened intently for probably an hour and narrowed it down to either Lascalla's or Chorus's, I though I was going to want Cornwall's as my Uncle (who introduced me to Klipsch) had recommended them. Too bad, they didn't make Cornwall's when I was ready to buy, Man I was dissappointed, but I was determined to spend all that money that I had saved. I settled on Chorus's because I truely could not hear what I perceived as an improvement between the Lascalla and Chorus to justify the added $400.00 per pair. I think the La Scalla was about $2200. per pair then. That and I knew my mother would freak out and not let me put them into the living room, as I was 19 years old and still lived at home. (My parents have about the best accoustical living room I've ever seen. I'ts a Very large 24'X20' Log home with 12" diameter logs, with a cathedral ceiling that's 21' to the ridge beam).

So, I put a down payment on a pair of OO Chorus's and they were ordered. A few weeks later, I got the call that they were in. When I got them home, I was excited. I opened the boxes and out came the Chorus's. Then the brochure fell out with the speaker. There it was, the most beautiful speaker I'd ever seen, what a let down, I'd never seen those beautiful Belle's. Actually, I am now 42years old and have never seen a Belle in real life.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Chorus's to this day, but, I really wish I had known about the Belle's when I was buying. Now that I'm married, I show pics of the Belle's to my wife and all I get is that she HATES them. Oh, well maybe in my next life.

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A friend and fellow Klipsch owner came over the other night and took one look at my Belles and said "gosh, they're beautiful".

Paul wasn't so happy with some of his speaker efforts later in life as was evident in interviews, but he got the Belle right and I suspect he knew it.

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I got these out of Theplummers back yard in Columbia Missouri. They were not advertised anywhere; just word of mouth from someone who knew someone who knew someone that had them for sale. Later Bill

Dang Bill, I'll take 2 of those.

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Here is a pcture of one of mine that I just got done reveneering They were walnut with cat scrathes up and down the fronts. There are some before pictures under the v-trac bell thread I had in the update section. I know some don't like oak but they now match my forte II's and quartets that I use for surrounds.

post-17322-13819555627796_thumb.jpg

post-17322-13819570815518_thumb.jpg

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