REQ: What Vintage Klipsch to Use With Vintage Marantz

[FACSman 0]

I just picked up a 1972 Marantz 2010 Receiver and am thinking about using it to drive some vintage Klipsch because of the efficiency. I live in a townhouse so K-Horns are out of the ? What other vintage Klipsch do you recommend I look for?

TIA - Rich

[Frank1938 42]

I would suggest the Heresy III and a nice small sub. They come up for sale here on the forums from time to time.

Frank

[glennconti 0]

If you are on a budget, you can pick up some Heresy I's or II's for $250 to $350 and than update the crossovers from Bob Crites for another $175. The Heresy III's cost bout $800 used if you can find them. New H3's are about $1300 on ebay.

[RRFL 6]

The Heresy all versions are a great choice for the most compact of the Heritage range. A sub woofer is not necessary, it's an optional extra resulting from the recent popularity of home theatre. You can place the Heresy into the corners of your room to add the effect of corner loading which increases the performance of the Heresy significantly.

The Cornwall using a 15" ported woofer is the next smallest in the range and has a lower bass extension than the Heresy.

The Belle is the next smallest and fully horn loaded. It's the most compact of the fully horn loaded trio which then goes to LaScala and the K-Horn.

The K-Horn is possibly the best option as the 3 fully horn loaded models are the most sensitive.

The K-Horn sitting in a corner takes up less space than you would think due to it's triangular shape. They are actually very compact extending about the same distance out from the corner as the Cornwall.

You don't need to turn the K-Horn up loud for it to sound optimum. At whisper quite midnight to 6:00am levels the result is outstanding to say the least. The detail will amaze you.

IMO there is more value in the price of a pair of used K-horn rather than something smaller plus the cost of a sub woofer. That would include the majority of new cutting edge designs out now in a store near you.[]

[FACSman 0]

My thanks to each of you for your responses:-)

Rich

[artto 361]

I don't mean to be mean, but I wouldn't get too hung up on that "vintage" Marantz. That particular era of Marantz while very pretty to look at is not of the same sonic signature that one usually associates with "vitnage" Marantz, that being their earlier tube gear.

In 1964 Marantz sold out to Superscope in Japan. Superscope was not particulary known for quality in terms of build or sound. Most solid state amplifiers of the late 60's early 70's suffer from the same poor sonics due to "engineers gone wild" with the new transistor technology which allowed them to make a lot of "mistakes", the kind of mistakes that were simply not possibly with vacuum tube technology.As a matter of fact, using those old solid state amps with high efficiency speakers is probably not the best combination to consider. Those amps actually have their highest distortion at their lowest output and are actually much noisier than an equivalent power tube amp. Most of us who lived through that era involved with audio thought they (solid state) were the cats meow at the time and later figured out what we were missing.

Now, if we were talking about a Marantz Model 8 or 9 it would be a different story. And as you may have noticed, the prices demanded are reflected accordingly.

[FACSman 0]

Thank you for your candidness; I'm considering Klipsch Heresy's to use with a circa 1972 Marantz 2010.

Having grown up in the late 60's early 70's; I remember having two complete discrete 4 channel systems.

Also was a big fan of Henry Koss (& Ed Vilchur); as in Pro4AA, AR3A, KLH17, Original Advent Loudspeaker,etc.

All of which I have owned along with that era's Marantz gear, Craig 4 Channel 8 Track, Marantz 6300 with Shibata stylus, CD-4 Demodulator, etc.

[RRFL 6]

I believe this is reasonably accurate as far as I remember.

The last of the Saul's stuff around 1975 designed and built in USA was the 1200B Integrated then the 3300 pre Model 240 power Model 250 Power Model 500 Power. The 1200B was the combination of the 3300 & 240 in one caseing. The matching tuner had a scope for tuning. I still have my 1200B I bought back in 1975 when I was selling HiFi.

The smaller integrated amps were the 1120, 1060, 1030 designed in the USA built in Japan.

The smallest receiver was the 2015 and I connected it up the the Klipschorns we had in the shop and it sounded quite OK. The 1200B with the Klipschorn was remarkable being the highest powered lowest distortion integrated amp in the world at that time.

The next series of Marantz was different and I still have the brochures with the new products in my file. At that time I lost enthusiasm for the product line. The 1200B was replaced by the 1250 and I suspect it was basically the same design as they then quoted the extra 25w/ch in the specs that the 1200B produced on HiFi reviewers tests. The 1200B produced 20% more than spec on test full bandwidth. I have found my 1200B is excellent for breaking in 4 ohm sub woofers at 20hz non stop for days on end.

We used my 1200B with my LaScala extensively as the Front of House for small live pub bands back in the 70 & 80's with outstanding results. People still ask me if I still have my Tuscan Yellow LaScala and my 1200B.

There is a totally different sound with valves and it took me a while to accept transistors. Valves will always be as valves are IMO and I can totally accept why many people are dedicated to those "vintage" vintage creations from Saul.

Saul Marantz sold his company to Superscope in 1964 and I believed went deeper into speaker design.

Superscope began producing Marantz products in Japan with Standard Radio Corp circa 1966.

Standard Radio Corp became Marantz Japan in 1975 after which all Marantz gear was Made in Japan.

In 1980, Superscope sold Marantz Japan Inc. to Phillips, only retaining rights to the name in North America, at the time, Phillips and Sony were creating the compact disc.

In 1992, Phillips bought the North American Superscope rights.

In 2001, Marantz Japan bought out Phillips interests in the company.

In 2002, Marantz Japan and Denon were bought by a Japanese consortium, D&M Holdings.

So from the Late 1970's to 2002 Marantz was very different to that it was before.

I still reckon a small 1972 Marantz receiver will work fine on the Klipsch Heritage line and of course there is always something better available for when you want to upgrade.[]

[RRFL 6]

I don't mean to be mean, but I wouldn't get too hung up on that "vintage" Marantz. That particular era of Marantz while very pretty to look at is not of the same sonic signature that one usually associates with "vitnage" Marantz, that being their earlier tube gear.

In 1964 Marantz sold out to Superscope in Japan. Superscope was not particulary known for quality in terms of build or sound. Most solid state amplifiers of the late 60's early 70's suffer from the same poor sonics due to "engineers gone wild" with the new transistor technology which allowed them to make a lot of "mistakes", the kind of mistakes that were simply not possibly with vacuum tube technology.As a matter of fact, using those old solid state amps with high efficiency speakers is probably not the best combination to consider. Those amps actually have their highest distortion at their lowest output and are actually much noisier than an equivalent power tube amp. Most of us who lived through that era involved with audio thought they (solid state) were the cats meow at the time and later figured out what we were missing.

Now, if we were talking about a Marantz Model 8 or 9 it would be a different story. And as you may have noticed, the prices demanded are reflected accordingly.

If you compare the sound of the very latest SS amps to the 1200B often the latest will be a massive disappointment. The 1200B was a traditional rating of 100w/ch 8 ohm both ch driven 20 - 20K. There is a lot around today that on paper at a glance appear better. I think a lot of the stuff around today is just smoke and mirrors.

[FACSman 0]

ty, rodrocket. The 1200B sounds (no pun intended?) awesome!

http://www.classic-audio.com/marantz/1200b.html

I've got the 2010 & 2215b.

http://www.classic-audio.com/marantz/2010.html

http://www.classic-audio.com/marantz/2215b.html