What makes a Klipsch a Klipsch?

skifastbadly · February 28, 2013

I knew joining this forum was going to be a problem for me…So far the damage is minimal, I’ve upgraded the diaphragms in my KLF20s from the distained plastic ones to the revered titanium ones from Bob Crites. So far so good. But while I had the tweeters out to replace the diaphragms, I started thinking “So, what makes a Klipsch a Klipsch?” The horn was a fairly simple plastic molded part, the magnet seemed like I dunno, a magnet. You can buy a set of upgraded crossovers for a couple of hundred bucks. ..I assume the cabinet dimensions have something to do with the sound, but couldn’t I make a similarly dimensioned box out of solid wood, line it with some cheap foam, put the same tweeters and woofers in, and have a speaker that sounded the same for far less money than I paid for the KLFs? What am I missing here?

moray james · February 28, 2013

Well the parts just happen to be very good parts and the system as well as the parts are very well designed. Then you have the support of Klipsch behind the product which is not a small thing. While this might not seem like a lot in fact it is. Hope this helps. Best regards Moray James.

skifastbadly · February 28, 2013

Interesting point you make about having the support of Klipsch behind the product. It never occured to me that I'd ever need that. Only by joining the forum have I come to realize that if I needed help, parts, whatever, the company would still be there.

This stands in direct contrast to my experience with one of my motorcycles, a Buell which is no longer made. The parent company, Harley Davidson, would just as soon we all went away. With tee shirts, if possible.

dtel · February 28, 2013

I think it is mostly in the design is what makes it a Klipsch, the horn designs and the voicing. The separate parts are nothing special but the combination together is what makes them what they are. Every Klipsch I have ever heard sounds similar in ways, they all have that live forward sound.

ricktate · February 28, 2013

Well by the time you buy the tools to do the wood woork, build the speaker boxes,invest in testing equipment to make sure they sound right, buy the individual drivers,build the crossovers, finish the wood and make the grills. It might be cheaper just to buy Klipsch to begin with. Don't forget the cost of the wood . Rick

Audio Android · February 28, 2013

Well by the time you buy the tools to do the wood woork, build the speaker boxes,invest in testing equipment to make sure they sound right, buy the individual drivers,build the crossovers, finish the wood and make the grills. It might be cheaper just to buy Klipsch to begin with. Don't forget the cost of the wood . Rick

+1........If you actually add all the parts together you would need you very rarely get a lower cost. I got my Forte II's for 350$.....the 12"woofers and 15"passives alone are worth over 500$ new from the factory. Your woofers are at least 100$ each, plus 100$ at least for each new crossover thats already 600$.

WMcD · February 28, 2013

sfb,

Welcome to the forum.

I do believe you are missing a lot: let me say this with a smile. In my view, your speaker has astounding performance and is made of high tech components, and beautiful from an aesthetic point of view.

I suppose there is the thought that similar drivers and horns (all untested) can be purchased from Parts Express and be cobbed together, along with a lot of work in the garage. Do they work together to give good results, testable results? I doubt it could possibly look as good. As far as manpower hours, it can't be recovered. Can you do that veneer work? Can anyone at a reasonable price?

If price is an issue. I'll point out that it takes a very large capital investment to make the end product at a reasonable price, per piece. Such is mass production.

- - -

This reminds me of a little part of a sci fi novel by Ray Jones. In the first novel a six fingered alien has visited the earth and made friends and returned to his distant planet.

The second of the series opens (Planet of Light) with efforts to contact him via a radio set which is a bit like ham radio. The rig communicates at a velocity above the speed of light. Call it a subspace communicator in the later Star Trek franchise.

Some military General Staff member asks. "How does this work? Is there a newly invented component in there, or are there old components arranged in a new way? IIRC. This was not ansered IIRC.

But in the case of Klipsch, there is both. The tractrix mid horn is by some standards a new component. And we have old, typical components arranged in new, or better, ways.

WMcD

skifastbadly · March 1, 2013

Hey, all, I'm not trying to start an argument or find a cheapskate way to make a pair of RF7s in my garage out of radio shack parts and plywood. I'm a long time Klipsch fan and was just wondering what was the 'holistic' thing that drew me to them. I'm not trying to dissect the brain to find the soul.

Unless, you know, you can do that.

wuzzzer · March 1, 2013

In our downtime at work we get to socialize a lot. I tend to talk about cars and electronics. A co-worker of mine asked me the other day "So why are you so into Klipsch?" Valid question. I told him that I love their sound. The dynamic, musical, live, effortless sound. I've owned a lot of other speaker brands and to me Klipsch are the best speakers I can buy in the price range I can afford.

He has a JBL setup and his fronts actually have horn tweeters, although when I looked up info on them they were only around 89dB sensitivity. He almost fell over when I told him my Chorus' have a sensitivity of 101dB. []

MikeFord · March 1, 2013

I like what a friend had to say when a similar question was posed about what makes a Porsche.

James Bailey: 09/29/12 "Just grab a sewing machine some fabric and make yourself a pair of pants........that will show you how easy it is Please post a picture of you in your new pants !"

Pants are a lot simpler than speakers, or Porsches, but there are enough technical details and practical considerations that with great certainty your 51st attempt will be an improvement on the 50th and all previous and maybe the learning curve will start rolling off.

As a buyer or seller of a Klipsch speaker I would want ANY changes made clear, so any change and its not quite a Klipsch. What makes it a Klipsch are the years of accumulated knowledge that goes into each product.