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An Audio moment that stuck with you


joessportster

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1979 I was a coop student working in Ft. McMurray, northern Alberta ... very cold winter.  I ducked into a shopping "plaza" to get out of the cold.  There was amazing sound coming from a small, cramped audio store.  I went in.  Two large speakers in the corner of the room, Klipsch label.  Hmmm, corner Klipsch, with horns!  Twelve months later, I hired on permanent, but company sent me to Edmonton and told me I'd be moving about every 6 months so I had to be very mobile (I lived out of a suitcase, in "executive" suite hotels).  Took my 2nd paycheck to an audio store.  I listened to a bunch of speakers, all BLAH.  I needed small, but good speakers that I could heft and move on my own, and wouldn't take up room in my "luxury" accommodations.  Finally, the sales buddy says ... I've got these other ones over here ... label said Klipsch, model said Heresy.  I still have them, 39.5 years later.  Bingo, the sound, the size, the quality I needed.  New, self-made E crossovers thanks to this forum, Bob Crites, Erse and Jantzen.  I'm going to pass those speakers down to my children and hope they go for 100 years in the family... I have no doubt they can make it.

 

For music, belting out Saturday Night on stage with Sir Elton John at Caesar's Palace Las Vegas.  I was at the end of the Million Dollar piano, wife and daughter were within 2 feet of Sir Elton.  Daughter has a cell phone video, it's fantastic.  Most fun I've ever had with music.

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First time I heard a pair of klipsch speakers. I was 15 or 16 yrs old. They were at my cousins hifi music store. It was luxman pre/amp and turntable. FLEETWOOD MAC Rumors LP spinning. Incredible sounding, I was blown away by the sound and the price.

 

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Living in Memphis in the mid '70s, and one of my co-workers had a pair of what I remember as khorn, but like utility models. Sitting about three feet from the corners. Still sounded awesome. Could have been SKHorns. The largest speakers I had heard until then were my JBL 4311s.

 

Jump to the early '80s and I was in Wisconsin, and one of the guys I was in a church with was helping me do the audio. We headed over to Iowa to do a weekend conference and we borrowed some speakers from his brother. Turned out to be some home made LS bass bins with some horns on top. The brother was Dennis Kleitsch, known here and in many audio circles as DJK. Always super helpful and taught me a lot.

 

Bruce

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Dennis was an interesting guy... Had been a Klipsch dealer... was smart enough in electronics that, without finishing college, was hired as an E.E. at Collins Radio, where he worked until he passed away.

 

He used to run sound for bands in Cedar Rapids. He would stack a pair of the LS clone bine on each side of the stage with horns on top. The extra bin was never connected, but people were impressed anyway.

 

Bruce

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48 minutes ago, Marvel said:

Dennis was an interesting guy... Had been a Klipsch dealer... was smart enough in electronics that, without finishing college, was hired as an E.E. at Collins Radio, where he worked until he passed away.

 

He used to run sound for bands in Cedar Rapids. He would stack a pair of the LS clone bine on each side of the stage with horns on top. The extra bin was never connected, but people were impressed anyway.

 

Bruce

when was he active on the forum Bruce?  I seem to recognize those initials as someone that i’ve communicated with (but there are many that use their initials as their forum name so not sure). 

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4 hours ago, BigStewMan said:

when was he active on the forum Bruce?  I seem to recognize those initials as someone that i’ve communicated with (but there are many that use their initials as their forum name so not sure). 

 

Steve,

Dennis had been a member since Sept. of 2000, and was last on here at the end of January of 2018. His poor health finally caught up with him. I miss his snarkyness just about every day. I'm sure he was probably wrong about some things, but he was also a wealth of information.

 

He passed away on January 29, three days after he was on here.

 

Bruce

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Curious to hear about others moments
 
One that has stuck with me.  I went to a sellers home to audition a pair of Deja Vu amps he had a pair of Talon Khorus speakers set up about 4 feet off the rear wall and 4 or so feet off the side walls. Playing vinyl he put on Jack Johnson Brushfire FairyTales  the song was Posters. The drummer strikes the cymbol several times in this song near the top sounding similar to a bell. I had heard the song several times and liked it. In this mans setup the bell shimmered and floated across the room left to right just as clear as could be.  I find myself always going back to that moment trying to emulate that with every setup / system I put together
 
I have yet to duplicate that experience.    I have several moments like this that I find myself going back to in an attempt to get that sound.
 
What say you ?





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11 hours ago, Marvel said:

...was smart enough in electronics that, without finishing college, was hired as an E.E. at Collins Radio, where he worked until he passed away.

This is from his father's obit three years earlier.  It helps to explain why Dennis could do the job apparently without the "merit badge":

 

Quote

John C. Kleitsch was born Sept. 8, 1933, to Mabel and Lawrence Kleitsch in rural Iowa. John served his country in the U.S. Army in the Korean War, then graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in electrical engineering. He earned master's degrees in electrical engineering and business administration from the University of Iowa. His first position was with Boeing in Seattle, Wash. He then went to work for Collins Radio in Los Angeles, taking digital design courses at the University of Washington and UCLA. After 23 years in telecommunications design at Rockwell Collins, John taught digital circuit design for 21 years in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University.

Dennis was a rare individual.  I wish he was still contributing here.  Living only 63 years seems way too short nowadays when many folks make it to their late 80s--early 90s. 

____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

I remember when my father dragged out a relatively new Ampex 970 RTR tape recorder and played a prerecorded stereo tape of Spanish composers of notably flamenco-inspired orchestral pieces with lots of Latin percussion instruments, as well as instrumental dances from Carmen.  Even out of those little speakers on each side with the reflector doors open, I was just mesmerized by the sound realism (even without bass response) at age 6.  I sat there listening and watching the reels turn, that sound that emerged from that large suitcase-sized unit burning into memory.  I've been chasing realism in sound reproduction ever since.

 

Ampex970a.jpg

 

Listening to stereo Khorns in the corners--Belle center in Houston in 1979 playing Harry James on a Sheffield Lab direct-to-disc recording (Doug Sax recording) was also memorable--even though I allowed myself to be swayed away from buying them (which is why it's so memorable now).  I instead opted for the "more accurate and sensible" AR90s--which turned out to be the worst performing loudspeakers that I've owned. String orchestras sounded like an ensemble of steel saw players in a phone booth--somewhere in the distance.  The thoughts of them still sends shivers up my spine...and not in a good way. 

 

Chris

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