Mixing speakers

[Taz]

A friend and I were talking of the plus and minus of different speakers, Such as Cornwall with lower base, and La Scala with better midrange. The conversation soon turned to whether or not the differences of sonic output would compliment each other, or leave the quality somewhat less then optimal? Not something I have to worry about soon, but would be interested in opinions, or observations or those who may have heard such setups.

Thanks again guys.

[Chris A]

The conversation soon turned to whether or not the differences of sonic output would complement each other, or leave the quality somewhat less than optimal...

I've found that some people can hear the difference in lower distortion via horn-loaded bass bins, like the LS or Belle. The converse of that statement is that some people cannot, instead preferring "chest pumping" effects over bass accuracy. Richard Heyser's Khorn review notes the difference of the Khorn bass with that of other "audiophile" speakers of the day on the last page of this article. This is a really good discussion that is very apropos to your discussion.

PWK started his company on this low-distortion bass concept although initially he thought that he was really providing high-efficiency speakers. Low bass distortion is a historic Klipsch specialty. There are five Klipsch speakers/bass bins that I'm aware of that provide that low-distortion bass: La Scala, Belle, Khorn, MWM, and the Jubilee. The last three units produce the best low frequency bass of the bunch-the first two are much more compact units.

PWK also mentioned that the Cornwall and Heresy were originally developed to provide a "Klipsch center channel" between two Khorns, but later he stated that he did not recommend those two speakers for center channel use, instead recommending the La Scala or the Belle between two Khorns (this was before the MWM and the Jubilee). The reason for his change of advice? The Cornwall and the Heresy have much higher bass distortion that covers up the clean bass from the Khorns.

Note that the Cornwall and the La Scala use essentially the same midrange/tweeter horns, drivers, and crossovers, so there should be little if any difference at those frequencies. If one does hear a difference it's probably because they are not focused on 25 dB-higher FM distortion of the Cornwall at lf.

Chris