Klipsch for rock music: Heresy III or KLF 20 Legend?

[Little Wolf]

Hi,

I'm an owner of Klipsch Heresy III: they sounds amazing and I like them!

Next week-end I'll have a chance for listening a second-hand pair of Klipsch KLF 20.

In your opinion, what is the best for listening moslty rock music? (Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Led Zeppelin, etc.)

Thank you

[wuzzzer]

You'll get a lot more bass from a KLF-20 due to the larger cabinet and dual woofers. KLF-20 midrange may be slightly better due to the tractrix horn.

Probably won't be a huge difference at lower volume levels but when you crank up the volume is where the differences will be most noticeable.

[tom b. 57]

KLF-20 will rock the house.

Tom

[oldmako]

I don't think it will even be close at high volume, particularly with "loud" rock. Might I suggest Baba O'Reily with the big knob way up??

Please post and let us know what you think.

As in yachting, there is no replacement for displacement.

**Disclaimer - I have a serious Jones for some KLF 20s or 30s. And my neighbors have a serious Jones for the day Mayflower parks a semi in front of my domo.

[BusaDude]

What is "best" is a loaded question around here... I haven't heard the new Heresy III's, but I have owned Heresy I's and currently own KLF-20's. My guess is between those two, if you like listening to rock music (with the volume turned up) and want to hear/feel the low bass, then you will probably really like the KLF-20's.

[newkman]

I own a pair of KLF-20s & I can't believe how loud they will crank.

They are fed by a 250 watt Adcom & they just don't stop. Very decieving as well, you don't realize

how loud they are until your wife is jumping up & down in front of you moving her mouth with

nothing coming out.

[tom b. 57]

"Very decieving as well, you don't realize

how loud they are until your wife is jumping up & down in front of you moving her mouth with

nothing coming out. "

Hmmmm!

That gives me an idea!

To the Bat Cave!

Tom

[dtel]

your wife is jumping up & down in front of you moving her mouth with

nothing coming out.

Is that possible ?

[Ducatiman916]

Look for a pair of epic series cf3 or cf4,you wont find a better pair of rock speakers

[Southern]

your wife is jumping up & down in front of you moving her mouth with

nothing coming out.

Is that possible ?

My wife gave up on trying to shout above my music, now when I turn up the volume the doors in my house slam shut even if they are already closed.

[Mallette]

I never know quite what to say when this "what's best for rock music" question comes up. So I usually say the same thing:

Accurate is accurate

OK, there are "shadings" of accurate, brought on by many things technical and environmental.

However, these shadings are not showstoppers unless you have a six second slap echo or something.

So, an accurate speaker will play rock music...accurately.

Aye, the rub. Since so much rock is completely artificial in one way or the other, "accuracy" is debateable. Most of the stuff from the 50's and much from the '60's was mixed with accentuated mids and almost no dynamics so it could be played on car radios with the windows open (little or no AC then). Some of the best rock repro I ever heard came from the 8" round all range and the vacuum tube radio in my '52 Chevy. The Louie, Louie ROCKED! However, I rather doubt I would have been able to tell a Stradivarius from a bowed handsaw on it.

So, it may not sound all that great played on accurate speakers.

When it comes to rock, if it sounds good it IS good and accuracy may not only not help, it may hurt.

Dave

[Coytee]

Accurate is accurate

I agree and would like to offer another thought to contemplate. Pardon me if I do not express it eloquently...

Let's presume you have a Heresy and you are sitting 10' away from it. You have some solid state power and crank things up to 100 db's at your ears while sitting in your chair.

You stay put in the chair and your fellow Klipsch bretheren come in, unhook the Heresy's and replace them with LaScalas. The sound is attenuated a bit such that your ears still only hear 100 db's at your sitting position. Different speakers, same loudness at your ears.

In come your Klipsch minions again and now they replace the LaScalas with Klipschorns or Jubilee's or MWM's or MCM's or KP600's and once again, the sound is attenuated so that at your ears, you are hearing 100 db's.

In virtually all of those circumstances, the loudness of sound you are hearing is by definition the same.

I will contend to you though that the larger speakers will feel like they are playing not necessarily more loud....but bigger and therefore more lifelike (and therefore better in my opinion)

To butcher an analogy.... the smaller speakers might put out more of a laser beam focus of sound such that at the end of the beam it's the aforementioned 100 db's in loudness.

The larger speaker will put out a flow of sound that might eminate out at 45 degrees and if you are standing anywhere inside this much wider beam of sound, you will hear this 100 db's (unlike how the sound will dramatically fall off if you step outside the beam of the laser light)

The still larger speakers will put out sound at say, 90 degrees so now, you can not only still have the same 100 db's at your ears at your sitting position but virtually everyone else in the same room with you will ALSO have the same 100 db's of sound (presuming similar seating distances)

So for me, it's not so much how loud something might specifically go but rather how I feel the scale of the sound is as described above.

Ultimately, if you do not care what others to your left/right hear....then you can probably get by with the smallest of speakers (perhaps even headphones []) If you want to include the rest of the people in the room then the larger playing speakers would be more up to that task.

I think Klipsch calls this constant coverage??

[Mallette]

In virtually all of those circumstances, the loudness of sound you are hearing is by definition the same.

I will contend to you though that the larger speakers will feel like they are playing not necessarily more loud....but bigger and therefore more lifelike (and therefore better in my opinion)

No problem at all with your description and I am in violent agreement with you. What you describe is very in line with my "shades of accuracy." Take a large pane of glass and set it along a wall. Most any practiced listener will hear a difference. However, it's no less accurate.

Dave

[Coytee]

Dave, just in case I was vague, my comments were not directed at you but rather Little Wolf. I have no doubt that you are probably more aware of those realities than even myself.

My apologies for not being clear and if you did realize I was talking to Wolfie that, well that's ok too []

[Y]

[Mallette]

Yes, sir, I understood and was simply falling in line with you.

Bottom line is that any accurate speaker will reproduce accurately whatever you feed it. However, there is plenty of recorded music that may not sound best when played accurately. If one's genre is a steady diet of such, accurate speakers may not be best...and there is nothing wrong with that. See my signature.

IMHO, that sums it up.

Dave

BTW, most of the studio monitors popular when I was in radio were not accurate...but they accurately reflected the target audience experience, so they were "accurate" where it counted. Deming: "Quality is defined as fitness for intended use." One of the most popular was the EV "Sentry," which I would not wish to have in my house.

[oldtimer]

Partial hijack here. I'm thinking of going for the klf-10's. But check out the Khorns on Maui!

http://honolulu.craigslist.org/search/ele?query=klipsch&srchType=A