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Klipschorn for Cinema?


Stentdoc

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I am interested in making an investment into quality speakers for a large living room - roughly 25' x 12'. I am wondering if anyone on the forum has experience with the Heritage series Klipschorn speakers for the main channel front speakers. I would be interested to know what center and surround speakers people are using.

Should I go with the reference series since they are matched? I am also a music lover and this room is the center of the house and I would love to hear quality music reproduction once again.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Sincerely,

Don

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Hi Don the Klipschorns would not be matched to the reference series at all. Most people use either a belle or a La Scala for the center channel and maybe heresies or Cornwall's for the surrounds

Edited by Youthman
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Welcome to the forum

All heritage or all ref. It depends on what you prefer, your budget and the WAF.

It is more difficult($$$$ and size) to get a subwoofer that keeps up with the heritage especially if you're talking the big boys.

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Any top line ht from klipsch is going to get you to great places. I have a flagship reference ht and a heritage ht in another room. Heritage will be a much better value if you find good deals imo. But you probably wont have a matching system in the room. You will probably end up with different color speakers all over your room unless you are willing to wait a long time to match everything. Plus you will have to work on the older speakers also. My advise is to get heritage but you should keep those things in mind if you do.

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I am interested in making an investment into quality speakers for a large living room - roughly 25' x 12'. I am wondering if anyone on the forum has experience with the Heritage series Klipschorn speakers for the main channel front speakers. I would be interested to know what center and surround speakers people are using.

Should I go with the reference series since they are matched? I am also a music lover and this room is the center of the house and I would love to hear quality music reproduction once again.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Sincerely,

Don

We have a HT with Klipschorn (AK4) LF and RF, Belle Klipsch center, Heresy II surrounds and a Klipsch RSW 15 sub, in a room that is 25 x 16.75 x an average of 10.16 feet high.

The treble, midrange, and upper/middle bass sound is clean, clear, effortless, and as dynamic as all get out. Thanks to the sub, the lower bass (below 80 Hz) is not quite as precise sounding, but still powerful and impressive. The sub has no trouble keeping up with the Khorns & Belle, SPL-wise.

We use Audyssey room & speaker correction; you might want something like that, since your length is close to being a multiple of your width.

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Not sure how much of the forum history was dumped in the changeover but there was a member that had an all Klipschorn HT right down to a custome Klipschorn center and Jensen Imperials in the rear all powered by McIntosh. His user name escapes me at the moment. I will try and find a link.

I was running 4 Klipschorn's, a La Scala center, and Belle surrounds at one point and it was Epic! I have scaled the system down some since all those speakers were taking up a lot of real estate. The Klipschorn mains imaged so well that when running in two channel you would swear the center La Scala was active.

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Would your TV be on the 25' wall or the 12' wall?

Excellent point. Klipschorns on the 25-foot wall would image behind the back of the room; not great. Klipschorns on the 12-foot wall would image 6.5 feet from the front wall; too close to any display. With that size room, I would go with three La Scala on the 12-foot wall and not Klipschorns.

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I have Klipschorns as main speakers, a La Scala center channel and Cornwall surrounds. I like this very much and I agree with the advice that the ideal is to use speakers of the same series, all Heritage, all Reference or all Klipsch Palladium, etc. Considering the 25x12 dimensions of your room, I must emphasize that Klipschorns have specific placement requirements that may be a challenge with that room. As mentioned in an earlier reply by another K-horn owner, you might consider buying 3 La Scalas (or 3 Cornwalls or 3 Palladiums, etc) for your front sound stage. You can be more flexible with your surround speaker choices. A sketch of your floor plan and general Idea of your budget would be useful info for us to help you.

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Klipschorns make great HT speakers. By themselves they can sound like a whole surround system in the right room. Now that I have gone to 7.1 I have La Scalas for center and side surround. Tried Fortes and Chorus on the sides but the La Scalas are much better. Using KP-100 in the back. Tried Fortes there but the KP-100s work better, I think the tractrix horn in the KP-100s is better for back effects. BTW my K-horns are 24 feet apart and I sit aprox. 14 feet back. The front speakers are due to be replaced soon by Claude's Quarter Pies. :D

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Used Heritage can be be incredile value. The Heritage sound is pretty different from reference though so I suggest you make an effort to audition both, as many varieties as you can, before taking a plunge.

My living room is very similar dim's to your space and I have experimented with systems from 2-5 speakers on both long and short walls with Heresys, Cornwalls, LaScalas and Belles. To me, the narrow spacing that the short wall allows is such a dimminishing factor on the experience to make it a no-go for either movies or music. The long wall is VASTLY superior. As mentioned above, your L:W ratio doesn't give you the depth for the limitations of a proper K-horn setup. It is my experience and opinion that any symmetrical mix of 3 Belles/LaScalas on your long wall is very satisfying (It can be a club-like experience) and Cornwalls are pretty sweet if that's what one's budget allows. If you're mostly into music, 3 (or 3.1, 3.2) channel is enough. Sides don't add that much, especially for music, and you don't have depth for rears. In my book, quality wins big over quantity.

I don't recommend mixing all horn speakers and direct radiators on the front but I find it acceptable on the sides or rear. I also think that when using a center it should be a close match if not identical to the L & R--and at the same height. It makes big difference in the quality of the stereo image.

Go slow and do you your research--it's very pleasurable and cheaper in the long run. Above all, enjoy the journey.

All the best, Mike

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If you build artificial corners, you can aim Klipschorns at the listeners, even in a room like yours. There are plans for these corners somewhere on this forum. I am so biased in favor of Khorns, it's not even funny. Another alternative, that might be even better, would be Jubs. Several forum members have them ... see threads. The name of one individual who has Jubs in his HT is Hendricks, I think.

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Thanks to all for your response - you all are great! I will take your info into consideration. I may have to drop back to the reference series since the surrounds have to me mounted on the wall.

Thanks to everyone for responding. This forum is great!

Sincerely,

Don

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I am interested in making an investment into quality speakers for a large living room - roughly 25' x 12'. I am wondering if anyone on the forum has experience with the Heritage series Klipschorn speakers for the main channel front speakers. I would be interested to know what center and surround speakers people are using.

Should I go with the reference series since they are matched? I am also a music lover and this room is the center of the house and I would love to hear quality music reproduction once again.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Sincerely,

Don

If you have the budget for new Khorns, then go with the Jubilees from the Pro Cinema division. They are all special order anyhow and I would insist on the K-402 Horn on top. I own a pair and they are incredible. I don't think it's critical to match the surrounds at all, they can be most anything but the R and L are most important. You can easily do 2.1 for music and 7.1 for movies from the same receiver or Pre Pro. The switching from one mode to the other is automatic, since the system can detect a CD in a BR player and switch to 2.1.

Edited by ClaudeJ1
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