Audiovox to purchase the Klipsch group

[bigrfish]

These last two posts are reassuring.

[skonopa]

Changing from Khorns to Reference is another matter. They are both incredible speakers, but different.

I beg to differ. The Reference Series is not anywhere near the quality of the Heritage Series. No speaker in the Reference Series can be compared to the Klipschorn, period!

And I have to beg to differ on this. Much to your consternation, the Heritage is NOT the "end-all, be all" of speakers. I've listened to some pretty darn nice Heritage rigs, but I am still amazed at what my RF-7s with B&K gear is capable of. Oh yes, indeed, Reference speakers CAN be compared to the Klipschhorn (and as already stated, there are some that actually PREFER the RF-7s (and equivalent) to the Klipschorns!)

Ultimately, it comes down to personal preferences. As much as I really like the sound of the Klipschorns, I am still very happy about how good my RF-7s also sound.

[skonopa]

I think the majority of people were worried at the acquisition initially. So far, VOXX has done a great job letting Klipsch continue independently, and Klipsh has been making its presence more pronounced even. Naming rights, buses and the like. I have been happy with what I have seen. I am fully supportive and have bought my first new klipsch purchases in a while (the android headphones). I continue to point others toward klipsch speakers that fit their budget and application because they seem to be a great deal at every price point so far.

Some people always think change is the end of the world. It is not. Change itself is not good or bad. It just is. So far VOXX has done nothing to tarnish Klipsch. I think that is what most people expected do to other products in the VOXX line that are not up to Klipsch standards (Jensen speakers). People thought that maybe VOXX just wanted the name Klipsch (like the own the phase linear name).

I was one of the ones originally concerned about what this aquisition was going to do to the "Klipsch" name and the company itself. I am glad that my worries where proven to be for naught. Heck, I thought it was actually pretty cool that I saw an Klipsch banner ad on the Ultimate Metal forum that I also like to frequent! Believe me, I was pushing the "Klipsch" name pretty hard myself over there whenever audio discussions came up (and believe me, on a music-oriented forum, they do come up).

[DrWho]

Btw, there are
several genres of music where I'd take the RF-7II over the Khorn in a
heartbeat.

Mike,

You might want to explain this statement a bit more to those here who are trying guess your meaning.

I believe that I already understand your position on this subject.

Chris

Haha, that's a huge can of worms.

I
think the best way I could put it is that some music likes some frying
bacon on the side, and other music likes the honky tonk action. []



From a design perspective, the khorn is by far my favorite. I just
firmly believe that source material is the highest priority in this
hobby, which then leads to the notion of finding the right speaker for
the source material. I think there would be very few people on the forum
that wouldn't say that there is some source material that does not
sound good on the khorn. The common logic is to then blaim the source
material. I'm still heavily exploring this issue, but my current view is
that some of that is actually due to the speaker itself. I think the
Jubilee was the most enlightening in that regard since it can do
everything the khorn can do, and more - and some of that source material
becomes listenable again.

At the end of the day, it really just
comes down to picking your flavor. The good thing about Klipsch is that
you get good sound at pretty much every price point.

Btw, at the last Pilgrimage I ran into the CEO of Audiovox. He just introduced himself as a normal guy and we had a good time talking about audio and whatnot. When he got pulled away by his wife, Roy leaned over and told me that was the new CEO. I was actually very surprised by that because he was very down to earth and was extremely engaged and excited about the pilgrimage. I would have mistook him for any one of us forum schmucks [] At the end of the day, it will always still be a business, but there's a difference between a CEO that "gets it" and one that only sees dollar signs.

[garyrc]

I
think the best way I could put it is that some music likes some frying
bacon on the side, and other music likes the honky tonk action.

As you have probably concluded, sometimes I like frying bacon on the
side[]. I have heard something like frying bacon in live acoustical
music from time to time, and I like to hear the saliva roll around in a
singer's mouth. As to sibilance, I have found that if I put my ear up
within an inch or two of a singer's mouth, when they recover and start
singing again, I almost always hear sibilance. Well, that's (too often)
where the microphones are.

There is a strange consistency to
which media have sounded good or bad over the years on my Khorns in my
room(s). First or second generation reel to reel tapes (on a Crown)
have always sounded good. The Lps I've saved (bad ones given away)
usually have sounded good. SACD sounds good (now using an OPPO for SACD
-- someday I'll get around to updating my equipment list), almost all
BDs and DVDs sound good (except for a few horribly transferred ones,
like The Man Who Would Be King --the Lp soundtrack sounds grand, but the DVD is screechy and highly distorted). But CDs are a gamble.
I have tried to guess the percentage that are good, and that varies
with my mood from about 30% to 80%. Example: My old Readers Digest (!)
collection of the Beethoven Symphonies on stereo Lp sound bloody
wonderful through my system, but the very same recordings
transferred by one of the best companies (Chesky) to CD, with 20 bit,
128 times oversampling masters sound thin, lack energy, and seem to have
a dip from maybe 100 Hz to 250 Hz.

Great news about the CEO!

[Bubo]

Amy I appreciate your comments and I appreciate that you and every employee of Klipsch is scared out of their wits right now. However, you're whistling down a dark alley if you think that Audiovox (loosely translated: "the people's music") is anything more than a conglomerate that sucks out the good will garnered by formerly honest brand names to slog inferior products. Their entire marketing rational is predicated on the rational that the consumer has a short memory and will buy the junk they rebadge under the formerly respected corporate logos.

I don't claim to know, but I presume this is all boils down to inheritance taxes and the family is going to make a move while the very lucrative window on estate transfers is open. Seen it all first hand over the last couple of years when a really fine regional family owned paint company called Duron was acquired by Sherwin Williams. The family divided up a billion plus, the customers got shafted with increased prices and reformulated inferior products. The employees got stiffed on pensions, benefits and self-respect. Oh, and incidentally, Sherwin Williams got rid of a competitor that killed them in every market they were in together.

There will be a lot of people here that don't chime in on this thread because they will be busy out buying up heritage speakers while you can still get them, their loyalty to Klipsch, like it's owner, driven by only one thought, monetary gain.

More economic devistation by the Black Hand of Government withering peoples hopes and dreams.

[Bubo]

Good idea to mirror the site.

Audiovox can't shut the forum down can they?

No way..........until they buy the company then they can do whatever they want.

I can host the forums and try and download and save all the forum posts but that will take time.

[Bubo]

After reading the first 10 pages of this post, I began to sink into a dark place or at least a quite one with poor sound reproduction.

So I decided to read Audiovox's web site, the are clearly giddy that Klipsch is #1 or #2 in all of their spaces and a supplier to Apple.

Perhaps the marketing and engineering guys will be able to overcome the M&A guys desire to make the compay pay fast by gutting it. AKA turning the milk cash cow into hamburger for a fast buck.

I also hope that the new owners realize that most people aspire to own a Mercedes based on the image and prestige of their very high end products, most settle for a 300E to fulfull the dream.

That said, most can't afford or have the space for the Heritage line, but most want to own one.

Klipsch is already into the soundbar space and surround in a box, hopefully the new owners will produce MB190s for the space and not Yugos.

I'll wait and see.

If the new owners decide to exit the high quality end, I'll vote with my feet.

[edukates]

My 2 cents....

Klipsch was a FANTASTIC brand 30 years ago. They have a value to their name still... The name caused me to wast my money on their stuff not just one time, but two times.

Thus, Audiovox is buying the name. What I know about Klipsch and how they operate makes me want to say everything that is wrong, but I can buy the exact same products they are having made in developing countries, put a sticker on the front and start my own audio company as Klipsch quality of products is lower than Sony and customer service is the same.

PS If they were a public company, I'd be buying 1 share, fedexing the CEO with a long list of things that need to be fixed. Hopefully Audiovox got them cheap as their name on mass market products will certainly be a great business investment for audiovox.

[Thaddeus Smith]

thanks for your input, obviously-disgruntled-customer-or-former-employee.

[ClaudeJ1]

edukates, with his fist and only venomous post, needs an EDUCATION about reality.

One of my favorite quotes: "There are more horse's a$$es in the world than horses."

[Panacea Engineering]

Makes accusations with NO backup = TROLL

[Mighty Favog]

Odd, I called Sony with an issue a couple months ago and had not only great but successful customer service.

[Don Richard]

I can buy the exact same products they are having made in developing countries

[bs]

[Mallette]

Odd, I called Sony with an issue a couple months ago and had not only great but successful customer service.

Glad you had a good experience. Up until around ten years ago, Sony had a service center in Dallas where you could get ANY Sony product you had fixed at a flat rate if at all possible. Gone now...

Now THAT was customer service.

Dave

[neo33]

You're too kind!

thanks for your input, obviously-disgruntled-customer-or-former-employee.

[2point1]

edukates

The name caused me to wast my money on their stuff not just one time, but two times.

Another happy Bose owner?

[Boxx]

edukates

The name caused me to wast my money on their stuff not just one time, but two times.

Another happy Bose owner?

If you have any need for more Bose gear, I have some sitting in the garage ready for sale....

[nola]

While looking at a link to:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klipsch_Audio_TechnologiesI just found out about the sale to Audiovox. Wow.....

First, let me compliment the many employees at Klipsch who have ALWAYS assisted us. I just completed my first big Klipsch equipment buying road trip in a long time. The lady in Houston with the single Belle that I bought had so many nice things to say about the folks that called her back from Klipsch. Real customer service on a product line that very few people buy new anymore. Meaning, the company likely loses some money on folks like us. Yet, they maintain the server for Forums like this and there is always someone around at Indy (and Hope) to help us out. At a time when the economy is in the hole and sales must be poor, we can only compliment management. Yup, the pilgrimage seems a bit messed up this year, but how many companies actually do anything like this? (Very few)

How and why Fred Klipsch put up with all of our communal whining is beyond me (based on when I was active on the Forums and did my Indy and Hope trips around 2009 +/-). But he did put with us. I have no clue as to what has happened at Klipsch in last 3-4 years. I hope Audiovox has been good to folks and the former Klipsch company.

Let's face it, the company has to make a product that folks want to buy and at a price folks will pay. Beyond local "audioheads" no-one wants the old large footprint and pricey (as new) Heritage line, when they think a 12" sub and satellites for under $500-1000 are good enough. I tried for years to get younger friends to attend our local audio meetings with no luck at all. The market has changed...maybe we have not. I get emails about some of the new products. Clearly there is no marketing to compete with Bose and BeatsAudio, but remember folks, that is where the market and the money lies these days (please feel free to correct me if I am incorrect). PWK never made stuff for the masses, but maybe that time has come, Be realistic, bills have to be paid. My 2 cents....

[garyrc]

... a product line that very few people buy new anymore ...

... Let's face it, the company has to make a product that folks want to buy and at a price folks will pay. Beyond local "audioheads" no-one wants the old large footprint and pricey (as new) Heritage line ...

... PWK never made stuff for the masses ...

I have interested quite a few people in Klipsch, including the Heritage line, and I always encourage them to buy new if they can afford it, both to support Klipsch, and to avoid speakers that have been subtly damaged due to misuse. I enjoy letting them hear what 2 Klipschorns and a Belle in "wide stage stereo" sounds like, as well as 5.1, with Heresy surrounds. Now they do want "old large footprint and pricey (as new) Heritage line ..." []

Whenever someone praises the sound at a Regal theater, I say, "Many of them use Klipsch speakers."

I think Klipsch has hit on the perfect solution to the problem of Heritage not being mass market stars: make them when they are ordered.

Given the absurd prices of many of the speakers reviewed by Stereophile ($106,800 for a pair of YG Sonja 1.3s), new Klipschorns are a bargain, and the fill an important market slot. Besides, tucked in corners, they look a lot better than YGs, and a number of other speakers. With modern tools, like room treatments, Audyssey, and the rest, they can be better than ever. It was refreshing indeed to see Sam Tellig's very positive, group A, review of La Scalas a few years ago, and Colleen Murphy's "As We See it" praise of Khorns in the current issue (August 2013).