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1955 Klipschorn- Rare and Amazing! - $5000 (SW Portland)


Zack R

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1955 Klipschorn- Rare and Amazing! - $5000 (SW Portland)

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© craigslist - Map data © OpenStreetMap

(google map)

condition: excellent
make / manufacturer: Klipsch
model name / number: Klipschorn
size / dimensions: 48x30x24

Beautiful pair of 1955 Klipschorn- verifiable by serial numbers- with original, large wood midrange horns. Woofers were replaced in around 1960 with Klipsch branded Jensen P15LLs. Midrange drive is a Klipsch KV 400 and tweeters are large, alnico EV T-35s. These have the original, early 16 ohm crossovers with big coils and Paper in Oil can caps as well. Very rarely offered or seen, and these are superior in every way to the stock and modified 1978 pair I owned. Cash sale only. No trades, checks, money orders etc...
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/7/2019 at 11:51 AM, mungkiman said:

July 29, 1955 was the last day for the four digit serials (i.e. 1811). After that the "number- letter-serial" system went into effect (2 August 1955). The first "number-letter-serial" speaker was produced on the 2nd of August 1955; that serial number was 1A812.

 

 

 

 

An Oregon shout-out to Mungkiman for posting this quote from the 2-Channel Archives. His post called this revised document to my attention. I haven't been on the board much lately, so I don't know if some of these changes have been made in recent years. I also don't know if what I'm about to say has already been beaten to death in the Forum--if so, I apologize.

 

There are a number of reasons why I think the information cited by this quote is in error. Maybe some other late 50's-early 60's vintage Klipschorn owners can pipe in.

 

First off, using the "A" code for years from '55 to '63 doesn't make any sense from a record-keeping perspective, and other parts of the archives directly contradict this. It's possible that "A" could have been used for a while or intermittently, but there is just no way that 4-digit serial numbers could have stopped in 1955, which is part of the premise.

 

According to other company records the Electro-Voice T-35 tweeter (designated K-77 by Klipsch) was first installed in Klipschorn #1445 on October 15, 1959. I recently sold single Klipschorn #1610 to a Forum member in Portland, so naturally it had the early version of that tweeter. I believe that #1610 speaker was either late 1960 or early 1961, because it also had the K-33 Electro-Voice woofer EV 15WK ("K" designation made specifically for Klipsch). According to company records, the last of these EV woofers was used in March 1961, when the company changed to Jensen. But the cited letter code timeline would suggest that the #1610 Klipschorn was built before 1955 because of the 4 digit code, and I don't believe that.

 

I am aware that drivers can be changed, but this particular Klipschorn is one of many examples available to support what I am saying about the 4-digit numbers.

 

I suspect this consecutive serial number pair of Klipschorn speakers in this ad is from 1962, because of the "A" code. That's probably why they have K-33 Jensen woofers and K-77 Electro-Voice T-35 tweeters. 

 

This is not to take anything away from what is clearly a beautiful and historic pair of speakers and the CL poster's description was based on what should be reliable information from the Forum.

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I recently asked about my Klipschorn in the "Ask the Historian Section", (Serial number 1761), and the records indicate it was from March of 1963,

so the 4 digit serial numbers seem to have gone on for some time. I imagine Jim Hunter would have the best answer to this question.

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My earlier post was written before reading that hanksjim1 had already identified incorrect date code info on the forum and brought it to the attention of Klipsch Historian, Jim Hunter. Please see "Early Klipschorn Serial Number Confusion" in the "Ask the Historian" section 

In short, the serial number changeover from 4 digit numbers to letter codes happened in 1963 not 1955, and the "A" code was not used from 1955 to 1963

Hopefully someone can unlock the serial number document and fix these errors.

I'll ask Jim Hunter what the correct date is for this specific pair of vintage Klipschorns listed on CL in Portland

And shout-out to hanksjim1 for being way ahead of me on this--sorry for my redundancy everyone!

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