Cwall4me Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I had the pleasure of meeting Paul in Hope back in 1973. If I remember correctly he was messing around with a miniature locomotive. He took us over to his sound room - McIntosh C28 and Mc2105 - with a full array of product. Heresy, Cornwall, Horns, and A Belle. His unique wall treatment had them all sound almost identical! I sold the line from 1973 to 1979. Back then the Klipsch reps were known as "Road Agents". I became very good friends with a Don Petersen and then lost track of him (hope he reads this post). Those were the days! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockhound Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Welcome to the board! In the years you sold Klipsch I'm curious on which product you moved the most of? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Travis In Austin Posted April 23, 2015 Moderators Share Posted April 23, 2015 What area ofnthe country did you sell them in? What else did you carry speaker wise? In that era, in the bay area there were 3 or 4 Klipsch dealers within a 20 mile radius, one McIntosh dealer, etc. Things have changed a great deal in 40 years. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjai18 Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Loving this thread. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cwall4me Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 It was in New Orleans. Ranked in sales - Heresy, K Horn, LaScala, Cornwall, Belle. Actually sold three pairs of K Horns to three different people in lees than two hours! The store owner was there and was amazed. Good products are are easier to sell! We also did Disco installs and restaurants. We did a club with double K Horn bottoms and a single K Horn mid / tweeter top section. Most of the installs were Heresy's hung upside down near the ceilings. In that era Crown - DC300A, ESL-224 electrostatic, C8 speakers, Phase Linear 700, 700B, 400, RTR, Citation 11 & 12 (assembled and in kit form), Dynamo PAS3 & Stereo 70,Dahlquist DQ-10, QUAD ESL (there was a frame available to stack Quad's), JBL Century 100 & Paragon, Levinson had just introduced the JC-1 preamp, Yamaha rolled out their initial receiver series, and the large utility / deluxe Advent's were hot (double advents - stacked tweeter to tweeter). And even Bose 901's, double 901's and Bose had their own amp & preamp - looked good - sounded like .... We took on Audio Research (D-51, D-75, D76A, SP-3A0 and the Magnapn Tympani 1A (four bass panels and two tweeter / mid panels). Since the speaker was so large, it was a difficult sale - I sold only one set. We also did the Advent TV - convergence nightmare!! The Dahlquist rep that came by at that time as a guest for one of my open houses was non other than Saul Marantz ) I was surprised)! We had an interesting discussion about the Quad ESL 57 (met Peter and Ross Walker at CES in Chicago) versus the Dahlquist DQ-10. I still have his autograph. I knew Davey O'Brien from McIntosh and would take components to the McIntosh clinic at another audio store when they were in town. very nice man. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Heresy was ALWAYS the best seller in the 1970's and 1980's...thru at least 1985. I built more birch Heresys in one day than all the rest of the builders of K-horns (2 or 3 builders), Belles (one builder), LaScalas (2-4 builders)and Cornwalls (2 builders per cabinet) built in over two weeks. And if you add in the mitered-corner Heresys, you can almost double that timeframe for the other models...basically more in one day that all the other models combined in one month. And that was the way it was...Heresy was the bread and butter of the company...highest profit-margin and highest in sales!...ESPECIALLY SO for the birch Heresy model! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho Panza Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Too bad BIRCH is no longer an option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel's wife Posted April 23, 2015 Moderators Share Posted April 23, 2015 (edited) It was in New Orleans. Ranked in sales - Heresy, K Horn, LaScala, Cornwall, Belle. Actually sold three pairs of K Horns to three different people in lees than two hours! The store owner was there and was amazed. Good products are are easier to sell! We also did Disco installs and restaurants. We did a club with double K Horn bottoms and a single K Horn mid / tweeter top section. Most of the installs were Heresy's hung upside down near the ceilings. In that era Crown - DC300A, ESL-224 electrostatic, C8 speakers, Phase Linear 700, 700B, 400, RTR, Citation 11 & 12 (assembled and in kit form), Dynamo PAS3 & Stereo 70,Dahlquist DQ-10, QUAD ESL (there was a frame available to stack Quad's), JBL Century 100 & Paragon, Levinson had just introduced the JC-1 preamp, Yamaha rolled out their initial receiver series, and the large utility / deluxe Advent's were hot (double advents - stacked tweeter to tweeter). And even Bose 901's, double 901's and Bose had their own amp & preamp - looked good - sounded like .... We took on Audio Research (D-51, D-75, D76A, SP-3A0 and the Magnapn Tympani 1A (four bass panels and two tweeter / mid panels). Since the speaker was so large, it was a difficult sale - I sold only one set. We also did the Advent TV - convergence nightmare!! The Dahlquist rep that came by at that time as a guest for one of my open houses was non other than Saul Marantz ) I was surprised)! We had an interesting discussion about the Quad ESL 57 (met Peter and Ross Walker at CES in Chicago) versus the Dahlquist DQ-10. I still have his autograph. I knew Davey O'Brien from McIntosh and would take components to the McIntosh clinic at another audio store when they were in town. very nice man. My husband is from New Orleans and I grew up not far from there in Slidell!!! Would love to know the name of the dealer if you would be willing to share it with us. Almost positive we visited the dealer! Alterman Audio was one of his favorites!!! Edited April 23, 2015 by dtel's wife 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cwall4me Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Gibson Audio Mr. Alterman shut it down a couple of years ago (after about 35 years). I was his first customer when he opened his official retail outlet. He is opening again as of a week ago. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel's wife Posted April 23, 2015 Moderators Share Posted April 23, 2015 Gibson Audio Mr. Alterman shut it down a couple of years ago (after about 35 years). I was his first customer when he opened his official retail outlet. He is opening again as of a week ago. That's good news. He always ran a first rate operation, Do you know where they will be located? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Travis In Austin Posted April 23, 2015 Moderators Share Posted April 23, 2015 It was in New Orleans. Ranked in sales - Heresy, K Horn, LaScala, Cornwall, Belle. Actually sold three pairs of K Horns to three different people in lees than two hours! The store owner was there and was amazed. Good products are are easier to sell! We also did Disco installs and restaurants. We did a club with double K Horn bottoms and a single K Horn mid / tweeter top section. Most of the installs were Heresy's hung upside down near the ceilings. In that era Crown - DC300A, ESL-224 electrostatic, C8 speakers, Phase Linear 700, 700B, 400, RTR, Citation 11 & 12 (assembled and in kit form), Dynamo PAS3 & Stereo 70,Dahlquist DQ-10, QUAD ESL (there was a frame available to stack Quad's), JBL Century 100 & Paragon, Levinson had just introduced the JC-1 preamp, Yamaha rolled out their initial receiver series, and the large utility / deluxe Advent's were hot (double advents - stacked tweeter to tweeter). And even Bose 901's, double 901's and Bose had their own amp & preamp - looked good - sounded like .... We took on Audio Research (D-51, D-75, D76A, SP-3A0 and the Magnapn Tympani 1A (four bass panels and two tweeter / mid panels). Since the speaker was so large, it was a difficult sale - I sold only one set. We also did the Advent TV - convergence nightmare!! The Dahlquist rep that came by at that time as a guest for one of my open houses was non other than Saul Marantz ) I was surprised)! We had an interesting discussion about the Quad ESL 57 (met Peter and Ross Walker at CES in Chicago) versus the Dahlquist DQ-10. I still have his autograph. I knew Davey O'Brien from McIntosh and would take components to the McIntosh clinic at another audio store when they were in town. very nice man. Thank you for taking the time to give a nice detailed response, I really enjoyed reading your response. Travis 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cwall4me Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Metairie LA Hopefully he can get the Klipsch product line again. He did a great job previously! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel's wife Posted April 23, 2015 Moderators Share Posted April 23, 2015 Metairie LA Hopefully he can get the Klipsch product line again. He did a great job previously! I'm sure that would make quite a few of us down this way happy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricktate Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Wow that was a cool post.....and very interesting. Rick 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 some pictures from that era would be cool... if you have any Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cwall4me Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Unfortunately I have none. In my earlier post I forgot to mention ESS AMT 1 and ESS AMT 3 rock monitors, Infinity POS 1, EPI 100, SAE 2500. A local recording studio would come by (still around today) and bring new master tapes to listen to on our reference system for evaluation. Crown CX824 Crown ES224 Crown IC150 Crown DC300A (two amps) Funny how things change! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 thanks cwall4me. very cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 (edited) some pictures from that era would be cool... if you have any Here is a pic of PWK measuring a Birch Heresy I built (circa late 1977/early 1978) in order to ensure the interior volume of a randomly-pulled HBR cabinet was within the same allowable limits as one of the previously-built HDBR-style cabinets. Note the LaScala in the background...with the reinforcing wedges installed in the bass bin between the doghouse assembly and the bass bin sides...to improve the response curve of the bass bin. This pic was taken when the lab was in what is now the museum building at the factory complex in Hope, AR. Edited April 27, 2015 by HDBRbuilder 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockhound Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 This is cool to read I love reading about past experiences of PWK. HDBR during the hay day period how many heresey' would you build in a typical shift? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 SOLO, I could easily knock out 80+ HBR cabs, but with a helper that would increase up to 120+...on a good day...meaning all the parts were good to go and few if any culls. I could actually build more HDBR cabs than HBR cabs in a day, since half as many glue blocks were used in HDBR cabs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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