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Shinall high end speakers


staygroovybaby

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it is a different build. This has been kicked around a good number of times. This man did some innovative work and the Belle visual esthetic looks to have been inspired by him as well. These are not a scam or cheap cheesy rip off designs theses are well built loudspeakers which were built with Paul's knowledge. There are archive posts with detailed info on the build he did a lot of interesting things. Hope this helps. Best regards Moray James.

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The speakers look awesome. Roughly how old are they?

 

The story is cool. Can anybody point to any documentation or reference to this good ole boy licensing from PWK to Gary Shinall? 

They were made in 2007 or 2008, I am not sure. They were the last pair made.    You say they look awesome, the photos do not do them justice.  And they sound better than they look.

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The top hats easily unscrew from the bass bins, however, making the handling of moving those loudspeakers much more manageable.

 

I had to haul a pair upstairs (a curving staircase) by myself, and then about a year later, they had to come downstairs again. 

 

Without removing the top hats first, it would've been terrible.  As it was, the bass bins could be walked up the stairs one step at a time.

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This forum's own Andy, aka HDBR Builder posted the following in another forum at: http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/hug/messages/13/136733.html

 

Obituaries

DEATHS FOR FRIDAY, JULY 18, 2008

Friday, July 18, 2008 9:36 AM CDT

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Gary G. Shinall, 65, of The Woodlands, Texas died Wednesday.

Gary Shinall
2335 Hickory Hollow
Spring, Texas 77386

http://forums. klipsch.com/forums/t/40215.aspx?PageIndex=10

 


HDBRbuilder is a ex-Klipsch employee:
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On 4/22/2004 8:07:36 PM HDBRbuilder wrote:

I talked to Mr. Shinall on the phone this afternoon. Here is the scoop from our short conversation.

He sounds like a really nice guy. He is about 60 years old. He lost his long-time job to corporate pull-out to overseas not that long ago. Even when he was working, he built speakers as a sideline thing and has been doing it for over 30 years.

In the 1960's he made a few trips to visit with PWK. He told PWK that he intended to build himself a pair of K-horn copies, because he couldn't afford to buy factory made ones and he thought they were the best speakers made. He bought the drivers and such from PWK for his original copies. Later on in the 1960's, he contacted PWK again and told him he wanted another set of drivers and horns, because he was gonna build a copy of the LaScala for a center channel between his home-built K-horns...BUT he was gonna change the design of the LaScala somewhat so that the cabinet matched up aesthetically with his K-horn copies. PWK sold him the drivers and asked him to send some pictures of what he built. He sent the pictures to PWK, and was very surprised to see the Belle Klipsch come out a year or so later looking very much like the center-channel speaker he had built. He told me that he took great pride in the fact that PWK might have used his re-work of the LaScala cabinet design to base the aesthetics of the Belle Klipsch speaker upon. He did NOT claim to have invented the Belle Klipsch speaker, he just stated that it looked very much like his LaScala re-work design, and he was proud that PWK liked its basic appearance so much that he "adopted" it for the Belle Klipsch.

He has a 3000 square foot shop with a little showroom built into it. He just builds the speakers and puts them into the showroom so that people can listen to them, and if they want them, he will sell them. He said he has been doing this for many years as a sideline and hobby. Most of what he sold over the years was made for people who had heard his speakers and wanted a pair for themselves...basically a "word-of-mouth" advertising thing. I asked him if he intended to expand into a full-blown operation, he said no. He said that he is too old to do anything like that...and he intends to keep things as they are.

His midrange horns are welded up out of sheet aluminum by himself, with welded-on brackets for the drivers to mount to. His XT200 model is built in the same basic aesthetics as the K-horn is (but is NOT triangular in its rear for corner use), with a top-housing containing the tweeter/s and midrange horn, and the lower portion of the cabinet is basically the equivalent of two stacked separate heresy-type sealed cabinets with one 12" short-throw woofer in each one...IOW a large cabinet, with a horizontal divider in it creating the equivalent of two Heresy cabinets in interior volume....sort of a super Heresy. He said the mid-horn is a 600Hz one for that speaker, whereas the midhorn for his K-horn copy is a 400Hz horn. He uses no MDF in his builds, only quality 3/4" plywood. For his smaller speaker, he builds them with butt joints out of a luan-veneered plywood, then veneers over the cabinet's plywood withpaper-backed veneer, because it is easier for him than trying to get chip-free miter-cuts using the thin veneers found on TODAY's black walnut-veneered plywood. He prefers the Luan for a good substrate to apply that veneer to because it "grips" the adhesive so well.

He told me that he recently put up a website because somebody had suggested he do so. His website got the attention of Audiogon folks, who in turn got its attention on this forum. He is aware of this thread, and has read it. He sounded hurt about it...and doesn't really understand why he is getting "bashed" so much on this forum. He feels that he is just trying to make a long-time hobby of his pay for itself and show a bit of profit...especially important now that his job left these shores.

I asked him if he had any help or expected to need to hire anybody for his little business. He said that he didn't want to deal with employees and all that, and it would remain a one-man operation as a sideline. He lamented that on occasion he gets a handful of special-orders, but trying to get them out in the high quality build he is proud of causes him to stay up late at night in order to meet the delivery time he gives the customer. He keeps his operation's sales primarily within a small radius of the shop because he normally delivers them himself or the buyer comes to pick them up.

I suggested that in his website he give full credit to PWK for his cornerhorn model design. I think he intends to do so. He said he has had lots of emails ever since this thread began and he can't get anything done AND properly answer all the emails he has at the same time, but he will do his best. He said he answered 25 emails last night alone!

This is what went on in the conversation with him. I will NOT comment on any ethics involved or anything else. Everybody has their own set of ethics and everybody has their own sense of right or wrong. It is not up to me to make those parameters for anybody else. He has a great respect for PWK and his speaker designs...that much was obvious to me...and for ME, that is enough! Anybody else on this forum trying to turn a hobby into something that can support itself and maybe make a bit of profit on the side? Just a thought.

 

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I had a similar experience back during the time HDBRbuilder is referring to.  I can't remember exactly because my hard drive crashed and I lost all my communication from Gary Shinall including a ton of pictures he sent me.  But I did talk to him and exchange a bunch of emails with him.  He sent me a ton of pictures showing partially and fully built cabinets.

 

My take was that he was a perfectionist and not in any hurry to turn out anything less than perfect.  It appeared he used very good materials, including his wiring.

 

I remember distinctly that he absolutely assured me on the phone (and with pictures) that the dimensions of his bass horn were EXACT to khorns.  At the time I was looking for some and explored his option.  I have no reason to believe that he wasn't telling the truth.  The pictures all looked just like a Klipsch Khorn.

 

He seemed like a very nice guy.  Too bad he died so young.

 

Anyone who buys this pair of speakers will probably own a pair of true Khorn bass bins.  I don't know about the rest.

 

I think the $4K price is way too much though.  Even the REAL Khorns only go for half that usually.  :) 

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They have all Crites aftermarket parts in them.  No offense but everyone uses that stuff around here.  It is all supposed to be good quality aftermarket replacement parts at reasonable prices.

 

The gold here is Mr. Shinall's workmanship on the cabinets.  It's not replaceable and I am sure it is meticulous.  I'm sure that's worth something as well.

 

The sound I'm afraid has little to do with Gary though.  He built Khorn bass bins just like Klipsch.  Same dimensions, and the speakers employ aftermarket parts that are very common on this board and all over the world actually.  Bob Crites sells everywhere.

 

Just being honest.

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This might sound a little funny, but have you tried contacting the Shinall family at all?  Sometimes in a small family craft business the family might want a pair or two back for themselves or for someone close to the family who may have wanted a pair of speakers from Gary but never got them.  You never know.

Edited by mark1101
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This might sound a little funny, but have you tried contacting the Shinall family at all?  Sometimes in a small family craft business the family might want a pair or two back for themselves or for someone close to the family who may have wanted a pair of speakers from Gary but never got them.  You never know.

Thanks again for the info. You are being very helpful.  It was a very tough decision for me to put these up for sale. I am currently working a couple of electronic deals. If they go through the way I hope, Then the Shinalls will remain with me. Again thanks for your imput. I really enjoy this site. I have a pair of cornwalls that I am doing some cosmetic changes on. I am having the work done at a professional cabinet shop and then to the body shop for painting. I will post photos when they are finished.  Though I have many other plans that have nothing to do with audio,  I just cant get the audio monkey off my back. 

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I had a similar experience back during the time HDBRbuilder is referring to.  I can't remember exactly because my hard drive crashed and I lost all my communication from Gary Shinall including a ton of pictures he sent me.  But I did talk to him and exchange a bunch of emails with him.  He sent me a ton of pictures showing partially and fully built cabinets.

 

My take was that he was a perfectionist and not in any hurry to turn out anything less than perfect.  It appeared he used very good materials, including his wiring.

 

I remember distinctly that he absolutely assured me on the phone (and with pictures) that the dimensions of his bass horn were EXACT to khorns.  At the time I was looking for some and explored his option.  I have no reason to believe that he wasn't telling the truth.  The pictures all looked just like a Klipsch Khorn.

 

He seemed like a very nice guy.  Too bad he died so young.

 

Anyone who buys this pair of speakers will probably own a pair of true Khorn bass bins.  I don't know about the rest.

 

I think the $4K price is way too much though.  Even the REAL Khorns only go for half that usually.  :) 

 

I thank you for your comments.  The only part that has me confused, is when you say  $4000.00 is way too much.  It is impossible to build these speakers at this level for 4k.  The value is for a collector who is looking for professional high end set of very rare set of speakers. No they are not real Khorns as u stated.  However I have had two other pair of Khorns sitting side by side with the shinalls. and  I choose these over the Khorns.  In no way am i dogging Klipsch., however these speakers for the money stand alone.

 

 

 

I'm not sure about that.

 

I think you could build K-Horn bottoms with Fastrac wood horns, BMS Mids, and ALK extreme slopes on top for around 4000. I'm guessing they would sound better than these...

 

As for the collector sets...idk, these fall in line with custom speakers in most peoples eyes. Sure my "Gormscalas" are unique, but I would never be able to sell them for 3000 dollars, even though I have that much in parts on them.

 

People that buy Klipschorns expect them to have resale value down the road. I'm sure most people are running into the problem your having, which is, these things don't have resale value like Klipschorns do.

Edited by Gorm
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