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DIY Klipsch Aristocrat Towers (corner horn)


Tomtastic

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Perhaps it’s just me being dense, but I’m having difficulty visualizing the rear horn path.  The area directly behind the woofer seems to expand before going through the slot at the bottom to expand again to use the corner walls, somewhat like a Klipschorn.  Is that correct?  The attached plans help me to understand.

 

Is this really a Klipsch design as indicated at the bottom of the attachment?  It clearly differs significantly from a Klipschorn.  What say you Jim @JRH?

 

In any case, it’s an extremely cool project.  Please keep the updates and photos coming.

 

E37524DF-213A-4133-9B6E-08484C5A177D.jpeg

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5 hours ago, DizRotus said:
5 hours ago, DizRotus said:

Perhaps it’s just me being dense, but I’m having difficulty visualizing the rear horn . path.  The area directly behind the woofer seems to expand before going through the slot at the bottom to expand again to use the corner walls, somewhat like a Klipschorn.  Is that correct?  The attached plans help me to understand.

 

Is this really a Klipsch design as indicated at the bottom of the attachment?  It clearly differs significantly from a Klipschorn.  What say you Jim @JRH?

 

In any case, it’s an extremely cool project.  Please keep the updates and photos coming.

 

 

Yes, basically that's right, and every info I've read suggests it was a PWK design, patent around 1954, IIRC.

 

The K-horn is going to be more efficient since it's a longer horn path but for this pair I used a full-on subwoofer and amp, so the lower Aristocrat bin is handling up to 125hz or so (with dedicated amp) and the mids 80hz and up.  If I stuck with normal driver for Aristocrat bin, I'd have to rework how the mid/HF would be arranged, not like this at all.  So I guess this would be like a 2/3rd's horn or something. It's not fully horn loaded.  The bottom is a folded horn, the HF is compression horn, the mids are cone woofers, sealed enclosure, a concept design I guess. I started with using the original plans for the build which called for 1/2" wood, but really should be thicker 3/4" at least.  Got a few more pics on the build.

Edited by Tomtastic
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Finally, with the tops attached.  Then the front board cut out.  From there it was just the rear top board and added some trimming for the amps.  More sanding and finishing.  Staining, lacquered.  Then time to put the speakers in.  Final pic, when I had them done, I remember stopping in to demo some 802's. They sounded pretty good, base was pretty tight and fairly thumpy and deep, treble and mids didn't really impress me, seemed average.  And way overpriced.

aristocrat-27.jpg.29de2dbb82bcfe6d24d6e95254bd4a89.jpgaristocrat-28.thumb.jpg.497c6728664f2ad067b28d272aea181f.jpgaristocrat-30.thumb.jpg.82cd0a83ecd2cccbb49bda304249565d.jpgaristocrat-29.thumb.jpg.7dbaa621330bbc3076b179f4df70bf3d.jpg802-1.jpg.eea1589ef08431c79e7e19432346f4ae.jpg

 

Edited by Tomtastic
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On 2/7/2019 at 7:55 AM, DizRotus said:

Perhaps it’s just me being dense, but I’m having difficulty visualizing the rear horn path.  The area directly behind the woofer seems to expand before going through the slot at the bottom to expand again to use the corner walls, somewhat like a Klipschorn.  Is that correct?  The attached plans help me to understand.

 

It's obviously no horn at all, merely a rear-firing ported cabinet.  The slot expands several-fold unless the box is placed firmly in a corner at which time the only "discharge" area is that of the triangle left at the top.  Even if placed loosely in the corner, the best you'd get is parallel surfaces a short way along the wall prior to a minimal further expansion.  Would certainly be beneficial but not much of a horn, and not over much frequency range.

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Link to article on the original Aristocrat

 

Yes, it's a horn.  PWK designed it and he thought it was.  Placement is 1-4" from corner.  Or near a wall with some loss in bass efficiency.  The original Aristocrats were crossed at 800hz but I'm using 80hz high pass for mid and I have the bass driver set somewhere around 140hz, so there's some overlap.

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That PDF consists of scanned images so no easy text searches are possible.  A quick read-through uncovers no mention of the Klipsch name in any reference or capacity.  Conversely, on page 7 it says "The original Aristrocrat, engineered by Electro-Voice almost three decades ago..."

 

Also on that page are the placement suggestions: "the unit can be placed as far as 4 in. from the corner walls of the room.  The minimum spacing that can be used is 1 in. with a nominal suggested value of 2 in."

 

At any rate, the primary low-frequency driver interface with the room is obviously as that of a direct radiator.

 

Nonetheless it's a cool project.  Thanks for sharing.

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1 hour ago, glens said:

That PDF consists of scanned images so no easy text searches are possible.  A quick read-through uncovers no mention of the Klipsch name in any reference or capacity.  Conversely, on page 7 it says "The original Aristrocrat, engineered by Electro-Voice almost three decades ago..."

 

Also on that page are the placement suggestions: "the unit can be placed as far as 4 in. from the corner walls of the room.  The minimum spacing that can be used is 1 in. with a nominal suggested value of 2 in."

 

At any rate, the primary low-frequency driver interface with the room is obviously as that of a direct radiator.

 

Nonetheless it's a cool project.  Thanks for sharing.

I've had a difficult time determining if PWK actually drew up the plans himself on the Aristocrat and other EV folded horn designs, if I had to guess I would say no.  I would say at the least, back in the 50's when EV was licensing the designs, anything that was corner-loaded was Klipsch-designed because of the patents.  There was one brochure on the Aristocrat and a few others that had mentioned they were Klipsch licensed designs (trying to find it).  I believe there may have been an arrangement for EV to sell the corner horn enclosures in exchange for selling EV drivers to Klipsch.  

 

It's a rear folded horn or back horn and corner horn since it uses the corner. So a rear (or back) folded corner horn.

 

Ah, here it is but the image scans weren't high quality. Even the design plans list Klipsch design, again, maybe because at the time corner horns were Klipsch domain.  Odd, since PWK didn't invent the corner horn, merely perfecting it.

 

http://www.itishifi.com/2010/01/electro-voice-and-licensing-from.html

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The closest known Klipsch design of which I’m aware is the Rebel — not one of PWK’s favorite efforts.

 

@Tomtastic don’t take any of this personally.  I love your speakers and your preservation of a classic EV offering.  Is it a horn or something else?  Who cares? What’s in a name?  A rose is a rose . . . .

 

 

 

CA28A182-1153-42D3-87C9-4281EF239936.jpeg

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17 minutes ago, DizRotus said:

The closest known Klipsch design of which I’m aware is the Rebel — not one of PWK’s favorite efforts.

 

@Tomtastic don’t take any of this personally.  I love your speakers and your preservation of a classic EV offering.  Is it a horn or something else?  Who cares? What’s in a name?  A rose is a rose . . . .

 

Also the Shorthorn, which when I first saw the kit speaker at the thrift store that's what I thought it might be. So I quickly looked up the shorthorn on my phone to get an image to compare but I quickly discovered it wasn't that for sure but I hauled it home anyway because I was curious and then found the Aristocrat.

 

And on another subject, I finally found the 15" version of the Aristocrat, I read a post about it at one point a year ago and couldn't find the name on it.  It's The Royal. It was the same as the Aristocrat but larger for a 15" driver, but I suspect they didn't sell them very long.  Maybe only in the early 50's. Posting a link to it here so I can find it again. There's some pictures of it there. http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/electro-voice-royal-corner-horn.400244/

 

Yes, it's been fun most of all.  I can't wait until my next project but I'm not certain what the bass horn will be.  La Scala, or something else.

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5 hours ago, Tomtastic said:

Ah, here it is but the image scans weren't high quality. Even the design plans list Klipsch design, again, maybe because at the time corner horns were Klipsch domain.  Odd, since PWK didn't invent the corner horn, merely perfecting it.

 

http://www.itishifi.com/2010/01/electro-voice-and-licensing-from.html

 

So that gal in the bottom right corner of the first image stepped out of the shower to tinkle?  A bath, I could see...

;)

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  • 1 year later...

Have I really been away that long?

 

I will report my progress and send pictures when I drag my Aristocrats out of hiding.

 

Right now I'm only waiting on one JBL N1200 crossover. I have a pair of JBL 175DLH horn/lens/drivers and just received a pair of D-131, 12 inch bass drivers. Same as the JBL 130 but with a 12 inch cone. Everything should be nice and cozy on assembly but I'm certain it will fit together. The other components are a pair of slightly modified Dynaco Mk IV tube amps. A McIntosh C-24 preamp, given new life by Paradyme McIntosh in Sacramento. A flawless little MR67 does the FM duties.

 

The local collage jazz station puts out an extremely good signal. That, and with NPR broadcasting classical music, there is no reason to look for anything else. Which is good. 1670886925_T2eC16RHJHgE9n0yFlKjBQHWNRhotQ60_57.thumb.jpg.c92aea3923e29bcd069c015719a6cb37.jpg              With the exception of a couple of religious stations and their original music, there is little to find, here in the Central San Joaquin Valley.

 

The wait is almost over.

 

"Ma, have you seen my camera?"  foto courtesy of E-bay

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