Jump to content

P17-B Review


WMcD

Recommended Posts

cone guys are always so surprised by horns:

I got the best results when staring straight down the barrels of the
midrange horns. This meant that I had to push the speakers a bit farther
apart, and closer to my sidewalls, than is usual for my room. Their
final positions produced a remarkably wide and extremely stable lateral
soundstage, with a tonal balance that had just the right amount of
midbass warmth and low-bass thump. Here, the P-17Bs sounded much larger
and more authoritative than their size might indicate.

Its midrange was big, open, articulate, very low in distortion, and
among the best I've heard from any speaker. In fact, I believe that the
P-17B's low midrange distortion sets it apart from other speakers. Its
horn-loaded inverted dome excelled at snare-drum strokes, finger snaps,
and guitar plucks both acoustic and electric. However, what really
surprised me was how rightly this driver rendered voices. Though the
P-17B's midrange driver reproduced very few fundamentals of the human
voice, it did pass along most of the overtones, especially in the area
where the ear is the most sensitive. Hearing these overtones so clearly
and correctly, and with so little distortion, allowed me to connect with
singers in a profound way.

Not only is Klipsch's Palladium P-17B a beautiful-looking speaker, it
seems equally well engineered, and a genuinely 21st-century horn design.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

What would folks think about the p17-B's on a Krell KAV 300iL integrated amp. I wanted to upgrade the bigger of my two systems in the UK to make it sound more like my big French system, which has Klipsch RF83's. I bought the apparently highly regarded Acoustic Transducer Company SCM-19's, the biggest of their passive stand mounts. Unlike Klipsch's they are very low efficiency (optimistically rated at 85dB/watt) and although they sounded good, the power requirements killed my elderly Quad 606 power amp. A Japanese friend was retiring and giving up the apartment he used during his visits to London. I bought a very lightly used Krell KAV300iL he had there. The problem is that the Krell is very cool sounding and the ATC's extremely cool/precise and the combo will have icicles hanging off your ears in 30 minutes. I am just not sure if the P17-B's will be warm enough to compensate for the Krell. The alternatives are a pair of ex-demo Sonus Faber Minima's or a used pair of Spendor SP100's.

Wilson

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...
  • 1 month later...

I sorted the issue with the ATC-SCM19's and the Krell 300iL. It was a number of factors:

1) The Chord silver cables at 1.5mm were on the small side, so I bought a set of River Cable Starflex 11 SWG with the Nakamichi locking plugs

2) There was a cracked stem on one of the cable banana plugs and a failed tension spring on the cable to the other speaker

3) The BASH amplifier in the ATC C1 sub woofer was from a faulty batch and ATC replaced it

4) It turned out that the ATC's had only done around 80 to 100 hours and most of that at low volume. They were nowhere near run in.

5) The Krell had not been used for 2 years and the caps needed some reforming

With all these factors corrected, I am now happy with the ATC's and no longer feel I have to replace them.

Wilson

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...