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Viintage Klipsch Speakers Origin ???


BrunoStoner

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Jim,


Can you tell me what I have here?

I acquired a really nice pair of old Klipsch speakers in huge ornate wooden cabinets. They look like they were used in an auditorium or something. They work great. Can you help me find out more about them like year mfg., age, model, purpose, value, rarity, collectability ?

Here's a pdf link with a bunch of more pictures.
http://montereymusicclub.com/klipsch/klipsch.pdf

I'm being told they're home made cabinets and Klipsch never put out anything like this. They were definitely made by a cabinet shop, not home made. They're a matched set, the cabinet work is A1 and there's no evidence there was ever anything else inside them to think they used to be something else.

Each of the back of the horns have a Klipsch tag; PK K-55-V / serial #10035 and #10041.
There is a Klipsch id strip on the bottom edge of the electric board that says Type A. What would that mean?

 

Who likely made these and is there any way to trace the history via the above serial numbers ?

Thank you,
Gary Smith

DSC00731.JPG

klipsch-speakers-1.jpg

klipsch-grill-1.jpg

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1 minute ago, BrunoStoner said:

Each of the back of the horns have a Klipsch tag; PK K-55-V / serial #10035 and #10041.
There is a Klipsch id strip on the bottom edge of the electric board that says Type A. What would that mean?

 

Who likely made these and is there any way to trace the history via the above serial numbers ?

Those serial numbers are for the DRIVERS on the horn lenses...and have nothing to do with the speakers, per se.  Those drivers were used on many different models of Klipsch speakers, to include the Heresy, Cornwall, Belle Klipsch, LaScala, and the Klipschorn, itself...and were additionally used on a number of other Klipsch models, to include some of the "Industrial" (now called PROFESSIONAL) series speakers.

 

That cabinet, in and of itself, was NOT one made by the Klipsch factory, but that does NOT rule out that it may be based upon a Klipsch speaker FUNCTIONAL design....to include it being a more elaborate cabinet based upon a set of Klipsch speaker plans, which at one time were sold to DIY folks.  Due to the nature of what you have, it is nigh unto impossible to say who actually made it.

 

In order to have any idea of what (if any) discontinued Klipsch speaker design it is based upon, your pics do not allow for a definitive answer to that question.  It obviously fires to the rear from the backside of the woofer, while also firing forward from the woofer, itself.  It may have been some sort of modification of a shorthorn design, or it may have been a completely NON-Klipsch design that ended up being loaded with Klipsch internals.

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22 hours ago, BrunoStoner said:

HD,

 

Thanks for the info.

 

"Rear firing" ? Not sure what that is. Are you referring to the open backs? There are back cover panels that go on the cabinets, I just don't have them on right now.

It certainly APPEARS as if there is a rear-firing port on the lower one-sixth of the rear of the speaker to me...does your "removed back panel" cover that area or something?...and if the panel DOES cover it, then does that particular area of the rear panel have a hole in it which may or may not have grille cloth covering it?

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hi Bruno,

 

Let me end this mystery ...those began life as Jensen Imperial back loaded corner horn cabinets. It is a 1950's design. They could be bought from Jensen as kits and put together or prebuilt. They could be loaded with a large number of different Jensen speakers. Somewhere along the line someone put a board across the top basshorn exit and put Klipsch mid and tweet drivers there and added a Klipsch crossover. They also cut a round hole in the front of the cabinet for a midrange, that is not in the original plans. The round whole at the bottom was for a 15 in. woofer which rearloads the basshorn.  The plans for these are on the internet, just google Jensen Imperial corner horn. This WAS NOT a Klipsch designed cabinet.

Edited by Stig
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