HIiFi pete Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 I had posted on the forum to sell this fine example of a vintage handmade Klipscheorn a year ago when my father passed away and left it to me: http://community.klipsch.com/forums/t/143023.aspx I've since brought the Klipschorn home that my father meticulously built with plans he got from Mr Klipsche, with hand-written side-notes from his several conversations with Mr Klipsch about the construction in 1949, a treasure in-itself. Well now that I've got it home, no small task along with the hand-made 20 watt stereo tube amp my father also built in 1950, and ~7000 78 rpm records, I decided to hold on to it and put it to good use. Being an audiofile enthusiast and musican, I hooked the K-Horn up to my Fender 15W Champ tube amp and single 12AX7 tube microphone pre-amp and started to play my Blues Harp through it. The souind experience was nothing short of incredible! The use of a mere 5 watts filled my home with raw gutteral vibe's that can only come from a tube amp, the Klipschorn, and a B-Flat harp playing Sonny Boy Williamson!. I was amazed how wide a dispersion the frequency range of the K-Horn has without anything else to assist in midrange and high frequency notes, the raw harmonica notes filled my house from one end to the other. The smile on my face was ear-to-ear, and a song in my heart! Originally the Klipscheorn my Dad built had three horn tweeters underneath the top panel of solid cherry in a cabinet which had been discarded in the family cleanout of my Dad's house and unfortunately the upper cabinet was lost. I recall that my Dad removed it to the basement sometime in the early '60's and set it aside for a single AR 3a 8" speaker cabinet to bring clean mid-high frequencies to the stack, which were far better than the horn tweeters. It's amazing how clean and rich sounding the K-Horn with 15" Electro-Voice woofer is after 60 years, and not being used since around 1975. There was a lack of hi frequency which I really wanted out of my harmonica notes while playing with other members of the band that have more powerful guitar amps when we practice together in my home. It would be great to have the K-Horn on a stage though, but it's just too big to lug around. So next was to re-establish some form of mid-high frequency range to the K-Horn. Answer: one '80's-vintage Klipsch KG-1 and a Phoenix Gold impedance matching network. I'm working to get my Dad's tube amp going, and also to hook the K-Horn up as a sub-woofer to my not-so-Vintage soild state analog 1990 Marantz amp, 1977 pair of Ohm B+ speakers with the pair of KG-1's as surround rear channel, which has been a great stereo for 20 years. I have already tried the Harmonica mic and pre-amp hooked up to the Marantz and Ohm's , but it doesn't sound nearly as good as the Klipschhorn and KG-1 powered by the Fender. I'm not going to let this nice example of original Klipsch technology go until I'm six-feet under. I'll pass it on to my son when I move on. For now, I'm enjoying every note out of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groomlakearea51 Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 You've got to get that in a better corner!!! LOL!!! That will make all the difference in the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HIiFi pete Posted December 16, 2011 Author Share Posted December 16, 2011 I understand. My Family/Media room doesn't have any corners. This is the only available spot which resembles a corner in my house that I can place it, it is an open architecture house. In my Dad's house where it sat in a corner for 60 years the plaster on the walls and ceiling adjacent to it is cracked like a spider web. lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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