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*cough* CES 2017 *cough*


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3 hours ago, Jainbaby said:

Hello Community,

 

My name is Steve Jain

Welcome Steve

 

I do like your designs, looks good, some people have all the cool jobs. :emotion-21:

 

Now that your here watch where you step and I hope you had your Tetanus shot. :o Ok it's not that bad really, many good people here and all are fanatical about one form of klipsch or another. :biggrin:

 

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5 hours ago, Jainbaby said:

Hello Community,

 

My name is Steve Jain, it was my crazy idea to build THE FIFTEENS.  I am crazy about the golden era of audio (which in my mind is up to the 1950-1960's).  I like mechanical things, old things, and in general have a vintage mind.  

 

It's my chubby bald self in the videos...

 

So what we wanted to do with THE FIFTEENS was create a romantically nostalgic speaker that took a lot of the good things from the golden era and marry them with what we believe todays consumer wants.  As a huge vinyl van, I wanted to ensure that we enhanced the experience when using these with vinyl, so we added Moving Magnet AND Moving Coil phono preamp built-in (we may be the first to ever do this).  Typically when you start your vinyl journey you start with a MM phono cartridge, and as you start to get more and more into vinyl you may want a MC cartridge and that necessitates a "step up transformer"...we wanted to take that mystery out of the equation.

 

We are getting some requests for a Passive version, but at this moment we are not looking at a passive version.  If you want passive, look to our outstanding current and new Heritage Collection of speakers.  

 

I am crazy excited about the response to some of my crazy ideas for the new products (Heritage Wireless, Powergate Max, The Fifteens, The Sixes and the new Headphones), I have an amazing team and you can rest assured we will keep pushing the envelope on whats possible from a material composition standpoint.  We are focused on celebrating our history and blending the 70 year legacy with todays streaming and digital world.  More crazy ideas coming...I promise!

 

 

In your opinion, which current speaker do THE FIFTEENS sound the most similar to?  I think they are an absolute knockout!  I'm looking forward to hearing them at some point.

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1 hour ago, lakedmb said:

In your opinion, which current speaker do THE FIFTEENS sound the most similar to?  I think they are an absolute knockout!  I'm looking forward to hearing them at some point.

 

Well, my goal was for them to sound like no other speaker on the market.  Our acoustic engineer (on the powered side) and I have had many discussions.  My goal is for the speaker to be about: Speed, Dynamics, Scale...and ultimately about TONE.  Don't kill the newbie, and I may be in the minority, but I personally don't care much about bass.  I didn't want to use a 15 for the ultimate bass response.  I wanted to use a 15 to be a nostalgic nod to PWK's dream speaker which he said would be a 15" 2 way.  And for a nod to Western Electric...515, the Voice of Theatre stuff and so on.  All the stuff I've always been a fan of.  Its not about excursion or the size of the voice coil...

 

Kerry-who many of you may know, said something really interesting the other day, he was like "I heard about people like you...who don't care about bass, but not sure I have met one of you before".  I'm happy about that and totally cool with that statement.  I don't listen "in the sweet spot" or sit in the middle of two speakers listening for imaging, sound stage, depth (insert more audiophile terms)....I often listen off axis.  If the "TONE" is right, them I'm listening to MUSIC, which I much prefer to HIFI.

 

Hope I didn't go too far into left field on this...it is after midnight while I type this....

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31 minutes ago, Jainbaby said:

 

Well, my goal was for them to sound like no other speaker on the market.  Our acoustic engineer (on the powered side) and I have had many discussions.  My goal is for the speaker to be about: Speed, Dynamics, Scale...and ultimately about TONE.  Don't kill the newbie, and I may be in the minority, but I personally don't care much about bass.  I didn't want to use a 15 for the ultimate bass response.  I wanted to use a 15 to be a nostalgic nod to PWK's dream speaker which he said would be a 15" 2 way.  And for a nod to Western Electric...515, the Voice of Theatre stuff and so on.  All the stuff I've always been a fan of.  Its not about excursion or the size of the voice coil...

 

Kerry-who many of you may know, said something really interesting the other day, he was like "I heard about people like you...who don't care about bass, but not sure I have met one of you before".  I'm happy about that and totally cool with that statement.  I don't listen "in the sweet spot" or sit in the middle of two speakers listening for imaging, sound stage, depth (insert more audiophile terms)....I often listen off axis.  If the "TONE" is right, them I'm listening to MUSIC, which I much prefer to HIFI.

 

Hope I didn't go too far into left field on this...it is after midnight while I type this....

Let me guess, you went to a lot of rock concerts in your younger days?

 

Sam Tellig, way back when he reviewed LS II in 2006 said he was just fine with the bass rolling off at about 50hz.  He's a "treble" guy apparently.

 

Maybe when you are in Hope we can get Roy to set up a pair of home Jubilees to listen to, you will get Soundstage whether you want it or not, and you will find yourself living in that giant sweet spot.

 

Really glad to see you here.

 

Travis

 

 

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11 hours ago, dwilawyer said:

Let me guess, you went to a lot of rock concerts in your younger days?

 

Sam Tellig, way back when he reviewed LS II in 2006 said he was just fine with the bass rolling off at about 50hz.  He's a "treble" guy apparently.

 

Maybe when you are in Hope we can get Roy to set up a pair of home Jubilees to listen to, you will get Soundstage whether you want it or not, and you will find yourself living in that giant sweet spot.

 

Really glad to see you here.

 

Travis

 

 

 

No, not a ton of rock concerts...just preference...

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9 minutes ago, Jainbaby said:

There may have been a pair of passive 15's in the office doing a little shootout against the Forte and Sonus Faber...

Ah-ha!  So can we take this as indication they are not fully active, but rather amplified passive speakers?  If so, will Klipsch sell slave/passive Fifteens to those who want them?

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14 minutes ago, Jainbaby said:

There may have been a pair of passive 15's in the office doing a little shootout against the Forte and Sonus Faber...

IMG_4486.JPG

 

Very cool!  It's interesting to see some of those pre-production versions (I see an RF7iii prototype there too), and interesting to know that there was some competition brought in for benchmark purposes.   

 

 

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Squeaky wheel approach, Carl.  If enough clamor for them, they may cave in.

 

12 hours ago, Jainbaby said:

Well, my goal was for them to sound like no other speaker on the market.

This made me wonder why Klipsch doesn't have a modern flagship speaker, something analogous to JBL M2 for example.  

And it also seems to me that there is a convergence of similar sound that corresponds to the degree of the quality of the engineering involved.  Good speakers tend to sound more similar than different, so aiming for a distinct sonic character as opposed to neutrality seems counter-intuitive.  Crush the puny competition with wide dynamic range, I say, but otherwise give what the recording has honestly.  Let the musicians set the 'tone.'  

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32 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

What's your definition of tone?  How did you go about achieving it?  When did you know you found it? 

 

So hard to describe.  My nirvana is high sensitivity speakers paired with SET tube amps.    

 

I guess its about getting as close to walking by a room and hearing something sounding similar to when you walk down the street and instantly know there is live music.  

 

 

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30 minutes ago, Ski Bum said:

Ah-ha!  So can we take this as indication they are not fully active, but rather amplified passive speakers?  If so, will Klipsch sell slave/passive Fifteens to those who want them?

 

They will both be active and not use passive crossovers inside.  Can't say too much more yet or Chris might kill me!

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4 minutes ago, Jainbaby said:

 

They will both be active and not use passive crossovers inside.  Can't say too much more yet or Chris might kill me!

Ok.  Then speaking of tone, since these are fully active, are there any provisions for tone control or equalization?

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