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HERESY: Center Channel in a 1957 MONO System???


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Can anybody tell me what a center channel system looked like in 1957? Pretty sure nobody made a 3-CH receiver back then. Was it Stereo + 1? Was it Mono with 3x separate amps? Was it for home stereo, or for theaters and other professional installs? Trying to figure out what that 3-speaker system was used for in 1957, and how they powered it. Thanks for any thoughts,

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Can anybody tell me what a center channel system looked like in 1957? Pretty sure nobody made a 3-CH receiver back then. Was it Stereo + 1? Was it Mono with 3x separate amps? Was it for home stereo, or for theaters and other professional installs? Trying to figure out what that 3-speaker system was used for in 1957, and how they powered it. Thanks for any thoughts,

The center anchored the stereo soundstage. It was a seperate mono amp. It prevented the hole in the middle between widely spaced flanking speakers.


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15 hours ago, DizRotus said:

 

Perhaps Jim @JRH, Andy @HDBRbuilder or Claude @ClaudeJ1 can speak to this.

It was a Belle, that he had in hiw 2PH3 setup at home with his second wife, Valerie. It was named after his late first wife, Belle (which means Beautiful in French). It was a "pretty version" of a LaScala with a shorter mid horn. It was arguably the best looking speaker Klipsch ever made and was also the very best Center Speaker one could use with Walnut Khorns, bettered only by a LaScala between 2 Birch Khorns. I had this all Birch 2 PH3 setup in my house for 30 years until I got into more Channels for Home Theater.

 

In fact, PWK told me that when he designed the Belle's K-500 horn (no longer made) he concluded that the K-400 was "longer than it needed to be." Be that as it may, the K400 (metal) and the K-401 (plastic) LENGTH, is what makes the LaScala a more Phase Coherent Speaker because the Mid Driver Voice coil is close to 1/4 wavelength from the woofer voice coil in the short bass horn section at the crossover point. This could explain the preference for a LaScala with Subwoofers over a Khorn by some people when a passive network is still in play. However, having an Tri Amplified Active Network on a Khorn with time delays and PEQ's makes it a different animal altogether! Let's just say that the Belle was well named, sounded great, but the sales volume, even in pairs, was, understandably, the lowest in the Klipsch line. This make it the rarest of the Heritage Line on the used market today, even when found in pairs.

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12 hours ago, Randyh said:

The latter was influenced by the work of Jensen's Jim Novak, and preceded Neville Thiele's work by two years. In the mid-seventies, Don Keele was working at Klipsch and measured the Cornwall against the then-accepted Thiele/Small parameters. It was within 4% of the lowest distortion standard alignment.

Also, it was a full 12 years ahead of the publication of Thiele's work in the journal of the Audio Engineering Society. Thiele's work in Australia was relatively unknown until that happened. When I pointed this out, PWK got a big grin on his face (which was a rare occurrence), as I'm sure I was one of the few people, at that time, to come to this conclusion on my own.

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12 hours ago, Randyh said:

By 1981 it was forgotten that the “original Cornwall II” occurred in 1963 when the K-1000 horn was replaced with the K-600 horn. Same thing with the Heresy, so we have had two II’s in both models!

I did an sMAHL tweeter and capacitor upgrade to a pair of 1974 Cornwalls belonging to my High School best friend. His Cornwalls clearly have an Electro Voice woofer in them, as an original from the factory, which he got new, and I'm the only one that ever opened up the cabinet. It appears that Klipsch bought drivers from several source until they settle on Eminence almost exclusively for different products.

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18 minutes ago, ClaudeJ1 said:

It was a Belle, that he had in hiw 2PH3 setup at home with his second wife, Valerie. I was named after his late first wife, Belle (which means Beautiful in French).

 

 

It's kinda creepy, but it's nice to know you're beautiful.

 

(still laughing at your typo)

 

 

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