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Advice on K-Horns


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Hi,

In my main system I have a pair of Cornwall II's a Heresy for a center and a pair of Heresys for surrounds. I'm very happy with the sound and have all the bass I could want. However, I have a chance to pickup a pair of K-horns for a very good price. I can't demo the speakers in my home and it's a long drive to pick the K-horns up so once I make a deciscion and do the drive, I'm committed. Anyway, my room is about 16'X 25' and I have two corners for the k-horns but one corner has baseboard heat running along the bottom?. I'm wondering if I would gain anything by switching out the Cornwalls for the K-horns. I like to upgrade and have always wanted a pair of K-horns but don't want to go through all the trouble of driving 6 hours each way and then be left with speakers that don't sound any better then what I have? I would really appreciate any advice that anyone can give me who have both speakers or have listened to both speakers and can lend advice on my dilemma.

Thanks in advance.

This message has been edited by trader on 06-20-2002 at 10:56 PM

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If you are confident that you are really getting what you are expecting to get (as far as condition and parts) then yea, you should probably do it. If you don't, you'll always wonder if you should have.

Once you have them set up, you might want to consider killing the baseboard heater on that side of the room so the cabinet doesn't become damaged over time. Just move a tube amp to that side of the room. I use mine to heat the whole 2nd floor.

f>s>

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Cary AE-25 * S F Line 1 * S9000ES * HSU x-over * SVS CS+ * Klipsch RF7s f>s>

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If the k-horns are good, then you should get em...that baseboard heat MAY not have ANY adverse affect on the k-horn if it is put there...because the cabinet won't be against it...unless the heating element extends completely into the corner...the only parts touching the baseboard area are the tailpiece and the side grilles...BUT either way, you still don't want LOTS of heat extremely close to those cabinets...problems WILL occur!! Besides, when you listen to them, your face will flush and your ears will be warm just from the experience of it...you may never even need the heat on in there!! Smile.gif

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This message has been edited by HDBRbuilder on 06-21-2002 at 12:51 AM

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I would say without question the Khorn is a better speaker than the Cornwall. I just bought La Scala's and A/B'd them with a Cornwall at Colin's house on a pair of 3.5 watt tube monoblocks. The La Scala and the Khorn have the exact same drivers and horns. The Khorn however will go much lower than the La Scala. As for the comparison, the La Scala was a much more dynamic speaker. It sounded more lifelike and cleaner than the Cornwall. The Cornwall had deeper bass but I preferred the clean sound and tightness of the La Scala bass. BTW, the Khorn will go as low as the Cornwall and do it with less distortion.

If these speakers are as advertised and you are getting them for a good price, I would take today off and get them as fast as you can. If not, someone will beat you to it...

Mike

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Trader, I am including my reply to your PM here since I was out and about when you sent it. I also posted this reply in another thread where you commented on the general topic. Note that my comments tend to agree with HDBRbuilder's more diffinitive comments on the heat issue.

I would agree with Trader on the audio "character" difference between K-Horns and KLF-30's since I have different systems that feature both. If I had to make a choice... it would be easy... K-Horns have the cubic inches and fully horn-loaded bass... weighing in at over 170 lbs. it is the undefeated heavyweight Klipsch Champion.

Here's my reply to Trader's recent PM (that may have not reached him... and so is repeated here):

Most folks think of my HT rig which has six KLF-30's (featuring one as a horizontal center), a pair of KLF-C7's as Front Effects and a 7' dual SVS Ultra sub tower.

But, I also have a music system that gives me an extra dimension of advice in your case. I have a pair of Cornwalls that I use as surrounds on my music system. The center is a Belle... and the mains are recent vintage mighty Klipschorns.

There is no doubt that Klipschorns are the hands down performance winner over all other Klipsch speakers whether designed by PWK or not! Fully horn loaded bass provides an audio treat that stands apart from any speaker anywhere close to its price range.

The late Paul Klipsch designed the Klipschorn to cover the essential range of classical music and added a Belle for a center channel as a WAF consideration.

The Cornwall was an attempt to create a speaker that would have similar character to the K-Horn without the size and expense of a fully horn loaded cabinet. But, there is no doubt as to which has the far better sound... pick up the K-Horns and you will never look back.

Actually, by adding the K-Horns you have the potential for a great 6.0 multi-channel music and HT system. K-Horns for mains, a Cornwall for the center (better than Heresy for HT) and Heresys for side/surrounds and rear effects.

You could go to 7.0 by using the Cornwalls for surrounds and the Heresys for center and dual rear effects. Try it both ways.

In my HT system, I scaled back from 7.1 using a pair of KLF-10's as rear effects to 6.1 using a single KLF-30... which was far better IMHO.

The heat strip on the baseboard is a potential problem both in making a tight seal with the wall required to give the K-Horns their spectacular power and efficiency (the folded horn effect extends beyond the bass bins to using four lateral feet of wall on each side... making your walls an integral part of the design)... and in the destructive effect the heat may have upon some superb drivers and cabinetry.

Two options are: have the heat strip cut down to allow four feet from the corner in each direction for the K-Horn... or build "false corners" (you can search on the Forum to find PWK's plans) as PWK did in his own home.

Of course, particularly for HT use, I would add an SVS Ultra subwoofer and some bass management... or perhaps a new SVS PCi with the BASH amp inside. Not only does will that supply a missing ingredient to full-out HT... but will seamlessly provide any bass not provided by any of your speakers. K-Horns go down to about 35Hz... and I prefer a ubiquitous bass environment that goes at least 20Hz with over 110dB in SPL potential.

Most people do not realize it, but the low end of human hearing is non-directional... so people associate the those low sounds with their associated sounds in the directional frequencies... thus, it "seems" like the low sounds are coming from the appropriate directional speaker. A bit weird, perhaps, but, oh, so wonderful!!!

Go get 'em! -HornED

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HornEd is right about those extreme low frequencies being non-directional, but APPEARING to be so in the way in which your brain registers them. Extreme low frequencies which you "hear" are not really heard in the normal sense, but are vibrational transfer through your skeletal system and body's density, instead of your ears' tympanic membrane(eardrum), to the bones in your middle ear and cochlea...registering more as a monaraul tone, but in both ears simultaneously...and signaling your brain to link these low frequencies to the upper frequencies each separate ear picks up in the "normal" way...therefore giving the EFFECT of stereo reception to your auditory area of your brain which associates these low frequency tones as a part of their separate upper range "stereo" reception...and signals your brain to link them to the direction the upper frequencies came from...weird, but true!!

Each person's ears are a little different, but one can generally say that human ears only actually pick up frequencies from around the 40Hz(or a bit higher) to 18KHz range( give or take a few Hz)...below that it is body resonance ability that carries the sound to the middle ear.

Low "C" on a pipe organ is around 32Hz...if you have ever heard a good pipe organ at low "C", you will readily see that what you hear isn't coming into your ears...but through your body!!...but it is amazing that it appears to be stereo as it registers in your brain!!...even though from just one source(the pipe)!! A very weird feeling, but you can actually observe it first hand!! Smile.gif

Another way to show this is to put on a good pair of ISOLATING headphones...start out by listening just to the headphones, with speakers off....then turn on the speakers while still wearing the headphones...the bass will increase, but that is resonance through your body giving that increase...not directly into your ears!! Try it sometime!! Smile.gif

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This message has been edited by HDBRbuilder on 06-22-2002 at 01:00 AM

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