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Klipsch Palladium or RF-7 III


Shimei

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22 minutes ago, Ceptorman said:

 

I do know there are numerous reviews about the P-series, and I've never read a bad one. One guy even mentioned you better be prepared to spend many times the cost of Palladiums to find a speaker to outperform it, even a 100k pair of Wilson Audio speakers fell short.....in his opinion.

The late Wes Phillips of Stereophile evaluated the Palladium P-39F against the $100k+ YG Acoustics Anat Reference II Pro and came away favorably impressed with the Klipsch speaker. He gave the nod to the YG Acoustics speaker on bass, since it actually had built in subwoofers, but favored the midrange on the Klipsch speaker. Is anyone surprised, "the midrange is where we live".   

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I think there may have been some trickle down from the P already, just not so much with its style, more with other ideas.

 

I wish they would have really gone all out 100%, I would think they would still have sales, it could have gone big and changed some ranking in the speaker business. They tried and came close, it would have been cool to have something that looked like that and beat out models well over 100k with Klipsch's name on it. It could have possibly elevated the whole brand.

 

Does anyone know the reason for its failure, no sales push or advertising or is that market not as lively as some may think? I have no idea and was a little surprised when they shut it down,  it could have been a special order deal like the better Heritage and still be alive. I don't know, but for some reason, they even seriously cut the prices to move out the last ones?

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11 minutes ago, dtel said:

Does anyone know the reason for its failure

 

Just a guess: too hard to find to listen to. 

 

IMO, it's time for Klipsch to try to develop a better relationship with the magazines and the online reviewers.  When I say magazines, I include more general publications like GQ, Rolling Stone, etc. (unless they have already -- I haven't read either of those for a few decades).

 

I think Klipsch should have demo rooms at key locations, like AR did in their room at Grand Central Station.  Two on each coast, and also at both Hope and Indy.  IMO, they should demo Jubilees, New Klipschorns, and whatever takes the place of the P39s.  A remote control (chained to the wall!) should be available for the public to switch between speakers, but not change the SPL which would be preset to the same SPL from each speaker.

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47 minutes ago, dtel said:

I think there may have been some trickle down from the P already, just not so much with its style, more with other ideas.

 

I wish they would have really gone all out 100%, I would think they would still have sales, it could have gone big and changed some ranking in the speaker business. They tried and came close, it would have been cool to have something that looked like that and beat out models well over 100k with Klipsch's name on it. It could have possibly elevated the whole brand.

 

Does anyone know the reason for its failure, no sales push or advertising or is that market not as lively as some may think? I have no idea and was a little surprised when they shut it down,  it could have been a special order deal like the better Heritage and still be alive. I don't know, but for some reason, they even seriously cut the prices to move out the last ones?

Good question, I don’t recall seeing advertising. Would be nice to see a successor line taking the flagship role but priced within reach of a larger market group. It is a crowded market and a brand’s top tier offerings needs to be visible.

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12 minutes ago, willland said:

I sure would like to know who's living room those are occupying right now.  Those look awesome.

 

Bill

It's amazing that a lot of this stuff eventually gets thrown in a dumpster....or supposed to.

 

There's a room next to the loading dock in Indy filled with gear, and most of it gets thrown away. A few years ago I saw this very nice looking hi-end wood cabinet, probably 6'-7'  long. It housed a complete sound system, sub, woofers, mids, tweeters, amp. Just a prototype that didn't make it.

The junk room had a single Espresso P-39 in there the last time I was there, my first thought was that would make a nice center channel.

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4 minutes ago, Ceptorman said:

The engineers are constantly working on new stuff, and most of it never gets developed. 

 

maybe they are working on a replacement

Your right and it seems like parts and pieces of things they like gets put into new designs. I still don't understand all the different lines, reference, RP and their still may be others, Icon or whatever it was called and I might be missing some? 

 

10 minutes ago, Ceptorman said:

Here's a pic from 2004 of a hot rodded RF7/Palladium prototype.

That's different, and an odd color, the Pal colors would have been nicer to me anyway. No copper cones just copper boobs.  

 

 

 

Leaving to go up there in the AM for a week, will be with Roy, Jim, Kevin and Craig every day so I will be on the lookout. But most of the time will be in the museum, new curtains donated by a cinema Klipsch deals with for the giant windows in the new building by the airport and hanging some 600's from the ceiling, that will be interesting, to say the least. The ceilings are about 30' tall and the KP600's are big and heavy, they have special flying hardware, a thick metal beam that weighs about 75 pounds by itself to start. If we don't get killed trying to fly them I will try to get some pictures. 

 

The 600's were donated to the museum by a forum member JC (thank You) and transported by Kevin to the museum. Kevin left his home in Lafayette Louisiana drove to Georgia picked them up and delivered them to Hope AR, all of this never cost the museum 1 cent, this is the kind of volunteers we are lucky to have working for the museum.  A man lift (or whatever they are called) was rented so we don't have to work from ladders and to help with the speakers.

 

We're going to fly two of these from the ceiling. :o It will be playing for pilgrims when they visit the museums, should have an 1802 working on the floor between them. 

pilgrimage_2010.JPG

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4 minutes ago, Ceptorman said:

and most of it gets thrown away.

After they adjust it with a maul so it's unusable, I went dumpster diving while Jim Hunter held the ladder. Was just looking for some wood to make things with for the museum. Found some nice stuff like some cutoffs of the top of the 70th anniversary Khorn. I made a stand from a speaker cutout to hold it with some writing on it. they also gave me a pallet full with different size cutouts from bass drivers, different sizes. Now there is the one for each person who signed up to be a member of the museum with their names on it hanging on the walls. And one was given to each new member.

This is one side with the wood from the 70th, there is another saying on the back can't remember what I put, something about the original tin shed and this is a piece of wood from the same design of the 70th-anniversary speaker. Don't remember exactly what it said.

 

While dumpster diving with Jim for these he said I hope the police don't come, I am going to tell them this was your idea. I said OK I am going to tell them you work here and said it was OK.

He said they have had people in the dumpsters before digging around, it's why they have to take the maul to anything built that goes in them.

 

Dumpster wood

signs_(3).JPG.9885c26938c976328390817cd2f1f900.JPG

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8 hours ago, dtel said:

Your right and it seems like parts and pieces of things they like gets put into new designs. I still don't understand all the different lines, reference, RP and their still may be others, Icon or whatever it was called and I might be missing some? 

 

That's different, and an odd color, the Pal colors would have been nicer to me anyway. No copper cones just copper boobs.  

 

 

 

Leaving to go up there in the AM for a week, will be with Roy, Jim, Kevin and Craig every day so I will be on the lookout. But most of the time will be in the museum, new curtains donated by a cinema Klipsch deals with for the giant windows in the new building by the airport and hanging some 600's from the ceiling, that will be interesting, to say the least. The ceilings are about 30' tall and the KP600's are big and heavy, they have special flying hardware, a thick metal beam that weighs about 75 pounds by itself to start. If we don't get killed trying to fly them I will try to get some pictures. 

 

The 600's were donated to the museum by a forum member JC (thank You) and transported by Kevin to the museum. Kevin left his home in Lafayette Louisiana drove to Georgia picked them up and delivered them to Hope AR, all of this never cost the museum 1 cent, this is the kind of volunteers we are lucky to have working for the museum.  A man lift (or whatever they are called) was rented so we don't have to work from ladders and to help with the speakers.

 

We're going to fly two of these from the ceiling. :o It will be playing for pilgrims when they visit the museums, should have an 1802 working on the floor between them. 

pilgrimage_2010.JPG

Hanging those overhead looks like quite the task, that man lift will definitely help.

8 hours ago, dtel said:

After they adjust it with a maul so it's unusable, I went dumpster diving while Jim Hunter held the ladder. Was just looking for some wood to make things with for the museum. Found some nice stuff like some cutoffs of the top of the 70th anniversary Khorn. I made a stand from a speaker cutout to hold it with some writing on it. they also gave me a pallet full with different size cutouts from bass drivers, different sizes. Now there is the one for each person who signed up to be a member of the museum with their names on it hanging on the walls. And one was given to each new member.

This is one side with the wood from the 70th, there is another saying on the back can't remember what I put, something about the original tin shed and this is a piece of wood from the same design of the 70th-anniversary speaker. Don't remember exactly what it said.

 

While dumpster diving with Jim for these he said I hope the police don't come, I am going to tell them this was your idea. I said OK I am going to tell them you work here and said it was OK.

He said they have had people in the dumpsters before digging around, it's why they have to take the maul to anything built that goes in them.

 

Dumpster wood

signs_(3).JPG.9885c26938c976328390817cd2f1f900.JPG

That's very cool to make something out of nothing, I like that. I'll bet the recipients will cherish them. You and Christy sure do a lot for the Hope campus.

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On 3/3/2019 at 7:20 PM, Ceptorman said:

Here's a pic from 2004 of a hot rodded RF7/Palladium prototype.

Pre Palladium.jpg

 

Awesome! Looks like they'd fit a product gap between the RF-7s and Palladiums. If they were also between in price I'd be seriously considering them.

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I repeat:

 

On 3/1/2019 at 12:38 AM, garyrc said:

The Jubilee has horn loaded bass (is fully horn loaded) and would be expected to have tighter bass, with less excursion, lower modulation distortion, and probably be more dynamic, wouldn't it?

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On 3/7/2019 at 12:29 PM, Shimei said:

Don't know if comparisons are aloud here but I'm looking at Tekton Double Impacts: https://www.tektondesign.com/double-impact.html

 

Even for 9000.00 which was my initial budget I could pop for the Ulfberht: https://www.tektondesign.com/ulfberht-pmd-monitor.html

 

Your thoughts?

From what I've heard around the Tektob Double Impact is amazing. 

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On 3/6/2019 at 3:16 PM, Shimei said:

 

Awesome! Looks like they'd fit a product gap between the RF-7s and Palladiums. If they were also between in price I'd be seriously considering them.

Thankfully these prototypes are a 3 way design. This would correct in my view a design flaw in the RF-7 III as a 2 way. Take it to a 2.5 way design at least and its would be nearly golden. 

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On 2/27/2019 at 9:59 PM, Schu said:

I've heard the p38 and the p39... they are quite good, world class. My personal preference is for the Heritage sound, but I would personally love to own a pair of Palladiums someday.

I've seen 38's for around $5000 and 39's for $7500 in the distant past. I think both those prices are fairly reasonable...

I hope we're not asking whether or not Palladiums are $17,000 better than a pair of $3,000 RF7iii... that's not answerable,  everyone's threshold preferences are different.

It's been a long time since I heard the Palladiums, the P-38 and P-39, both in Indy, but I thought both had a much higher class of sound than the RF series, not nearly as thin sounding.  Like all Klipsch, electronics quality can make a big difference.  I don't know the Emotiva brand, but the P's would likely benefit from a better unit than Onkyos.  They are best heard over a high grade of preamp and amplifier and would benefit from an pre/amp upgrade rather than compromising on those items.  Obviously pushing your price up, not down..

 

The P's in Indy were demo'd over different quality electronics in two different years, and really suffered from the Onkyo-based demo the second year, IMHO of course.

 

 -- Larry

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On 3/3/2019 at 9:12 PM, dtel said:

I think there may have been some trickle down from the P already, just not so much with its style, more with other ideas.

 

I wish they would have really gone all out 100%, I would think they would still have sales, it could have gone big and changed some ranking in the speaker business. They tried and came close, it would have been cool to have something that looked like that and beat out models well over 100k with Klipsch's name on it. It could have possibly elevated the whole brand.

 

Does anyone know the reason for its failure, no sales push or advertising or is that market not as lively as some may think? I have no idea and was a little surprised when they shut it down,  it could have been a special order deal like the better Heritage and still be alive. I don't know, but for some reason, they even seriously cut the prices to move out the last ones?

My sense of it was that they were very expensive for the market and took up too much square footage for dealers to want to carry them, especially as a new line.  Add to that traveling to actually hear them (often hundreds of miles!) took real dedication to go hear them.  Klipsch has the same problems with trying to sell K-horns and those are much closer to a product that is ready to sell itself.  

 

 -- Larry

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