suggestions on how to hook my k-horns

[garyrc]

It's not that bi-amping is not a good idea with most speakers, it's that K-horns are less in need of that than most speakers, and your money would be better spent in other areas.

khorns put little or no stress on an amplifier as they are highly efficient.

Also, according to Heyser (the most detailed review of K-horns; in AUDIO c. 1986), K-horns have virtually no difficulty with "admittance," whatever that is, so much so that he didn't even include admittance results in his review.

if they aren't sealed in the corners they ain't gonna sound good at all

... the back edges of the tops & the side panels on the bass bins with the grille material hit the corners before the tailboard & horizontal edges of the bass bins im sure.

This shouldn't happen. Maybe the pipe foam will solve this problem -- be sure to push the K-horns tightly enough against the walls to really squash the pipe foam.

Having stuff that close to the sides of k-horns will muck up the sound. The wall finishes the final bend in the horn. It also messes with imaging.

Cask talks about that in another thread on this forum, with "Corner Horns" in the title, I think

... you are essentially doubling the power sent to each speaker, instead of one amp sending lets say 200watts to handle bass & mid/highs, you have 2 amps sending 200watts each, total of 400 watts.

If you are concerned with power in watts, remember that HT AV Recievers tend to provide only about 80% of the power they advertise, if you have 5 or more channels running. If you are going to run two channels only, the AVRs probably deliver the advertised power to those two channels.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Garyrc

[001]

thanks for the input gary. i don t plan to use these for home theater, just 2 channel & they will be driven off seperates. i learned that most avr's do not make good pre amps. bi-amping is probably overkill for these, i will just decide on a good 2 channnel amp & use the rest of the equiptment elsewhere.

i just got the pipe foam & it will keep the sides & backs of the tops off he walls, without it they hit. im very impressed with them on the right recordings now that im running a pre amp, much better than my receiver as a pre.

Edited February 9, 2014 by klipschfancf4

[kevinmi]

can i get some ideas on how to use the gear i have??

My best advise would to be to keep it as simple as possible-if you are using a HT preamp, make sure you set it in a direct, or stereo setting, so the signal doesn't travel through unneccessary curcuits. K-Horns are VERY revealing, so sending the purist signal to them is beneficial. Stay away from bi-amping, you'll only get frustrated at the sound.Remember the K-Horns are very efficient, so if you are using high power amplifiers, the amplifiers may not be in their best behavior, but instead just idling along. I have better luck with good sound from a 60 watt per channel amp than a 100 watt amp. I have driven my K-Horns with a 2 watt tube amp and had more than enough volume.

[001]

can i get some ideas on how to use the gear i have??

My best advise would to be to keep it as simple as possible-if you are using a HT preamp, make sure you set it in a direct, or stereo setting, so the signal doesn't travel through unneccessary curcuits. K-Horns are VERY revealing, so sending the purist signal to them is beneficial. Stay away from bi-amping, you'll only get frustrated at the sound.Remember the K-Horns are very efficient, so if you are using high power amplifiers, the amplifiers may not be in their best behavior, but instead just idling along. I have better luck with good sound from a 60 watt per channel amp than a 100 watt amp. I have driven my K-Horns with a 2 watt tube amp and had more than enough volume.

definantly not using my HT receiver as a pre, & if i did i do know not to use it in anything other than stereo/direct mode. however my upper end onkyo AVR doesnt even come close to the adcom gtp500 in sound quality. so im sticking with seperates on the k-horns. i have high power s/s amps & the 200wpc rotel seems to be pretty darn good at all volumes, but at the level i like to listen to music, it is far from "idling along." these k-horns were designed to give you the "concert sound in your home" & believe me, thats what they do. about 40% on the volume knob is really all i can take in my smaller basement!

thanks again

[kevinmi]

about 40% on the volume knob is really all i can take in my smaller basement!

And I'll bet you are not even pushing 10 watts at that volume!

[001]

about 40% on the volume knob is really all i can take in my smaller basement!

And I'll bet you are not even pushing 10 watts at that volume!

agreed. when on the onkyo m-504 it shows about 10 watts constant, maybe 15-20 peaks at the most.

[kevinmi]

kevinmi, on 09 Feb 2014 - 2:43 PM, said: klipschfancf4, on 09 Feb 2014 - 11:24 AM, said: about 40% on the volume knob is really all i can take in my smaller basement! And I'll bet you are not even pushing 10 watts at that volume! agreed. when on the onkyo m-504 it shows about 10 watts constant, maybe 15-20 peaks at the most.

Now that's what I call headroom!

Sounds like you found your winning combo. Never hurts to try each and every possible combination you can, even if it's to find you don't like any of them. Those big ole' horns will sound great when you get them dialed the way you want them.