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Jubilee Owners Near Cleveland Ohio


Dave A

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I have a guy who I recommended Jubilees to then ask me about getting a demo of them. I know at one time there was an attempt at getting a list of Jube owner going but I have not heard where that went if it even went at all. He is nearby Cleveland and willing to drive a fair distance to hear a set. So, anyone willing?

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I have seen that list and figured it was no where near complete. I know people who are not on it who have Jubes. Now I have not asked but I assume this guy is not interested in upgraded Jubes with things like TAD drivers. My assumption is stock Jubes.

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Thanks Dave A!  Hello - I'm the guy in Cleveland, Ohio looking to audition Jubilees.  Fun fact: I live about a mile from one of the largest Klipsch dealers in Ohio (per the manger of the store).  Last year I stopped by to listen to the new heritage series La Scala but they were not presented very well there, I believe the store does best with High end AV home theatre installations and do very little business selling full range horns for music enthusiasts. I stopped there after work last week to see if they would be carrying the new Jubilees that are coming out in spring 2021, they would most likely not be demoing a pair in their store, not that kind of clientele in the area.  So i'm interested in a socially responsible demo if anyone nearby is open to it!  I'll bring the beer.

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To clarify, I'm interested in any of the variants on Julbilees  (stock, upgraded or DIY).  I may head in the DIY direction if the price of the new Jubilees are outside my budget.  But I would love to hear any/all to hear at least what the 2-way full range horn is about, and if its a good fit for me. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Happy Thanksgiving - I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe!

 

Last weekend, on a cold rainy afternoon in Northeast Ohio, Skelt had me over for a demonstration of his vintage Klipschorn-based 2/6.1 system.  We mainly listened to vinyl with the Klipschorn's powered with a vintage Dynaco ST70 tube amp.  CDs and home theatre were handled via a preamp/crossover to the 6.1 theater system, where a stack of solid state amps powers the Klipschorn's, a LaScala center and Forte surrounds (except for the massive powered SVS subwoofer).  Skelt has a garage Klipsch system we listened to for a minute with (I believe) Forte's and an MWM bin. Between listening sessions and chatting about gear, Skelt showed me some of the klipsch speaker projects he has going on outside his current setup.  Skelt basically runs a small Klipsch museum out of his house with gear ranging back from the 50's and I was lucky enough to hear it all except for Jubilee's and Belle's (he sold his previous pair of Belle's a while back, hasn't gotten his hands a pair of jubilee's yet!). I'm grateful for the thorough introduction to the Klipsch full range horn sound in a home setting.  

 

The Klipschorns were effortlessly loud!, dynamic and full sounding on everything we tried:

Nektar - A tab in the ocean (original pressing sounding warm and analogue) 

The Levin Brothers - Special Delivery CD (raw, uncompressed live jazz trio recording, dry and digital recording)

Santana - Abraxas (MFSL One Step, great album, amazing AAA analogue recording if you haven't heard it) 

The Field - Thought Vs. Action (vinyl pressing of the Axel-Wilner techno project from mid 2000's, wanted to toss something heavily electronic their way, Klipshorns handled the record with ease, very impressive live club sound, I was surpised the bass did not cause issues with the turntable)

Nina Nastasia - The Blackened Air (Steve Albini-engineered/produced, my copy is a bit worn but another great album with impressive sound)

Lord of the Rings (Blue Ray, 6.1 surround, like being in a theatre.  I'm not familiar with reviewing 6.1 mixes but the sound easily beats almost all 2-channel movie mixes i can think of, the SVS subwoofer is like an air conditioner during some of the heavier sub moments of the movie, very fun experience)

 

///[Skelt, with your setup, I would love to hear the Steven Wilson DVD-A surround mixes of XTC, Gentle Giant, Yes, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, as well as his own projects, sound like through your surround rig!  There are also great surround SACD's of Pink Floyd/Roxy Music/Steely Dan, might be worth venturing into with a proper 5.1/6.1...]\\\

 

The listening session gave me the impression the recordings i was familiar with still sounded like themselves through Skelt's rig, other than how full they were compared to my home setup with more impactful and deep bass.  I'm not a strict audiophile by any means, i listen to plenty of poorly recorded rock/pop, and lots of new music and enjoy it. I wanted to play more poor recordings but we ran out of time. I'm not sure what a horn system brings to even badly recorded music, other than just more of a clear window into what's there and not there.  I''m hoping to gain more macro/micro detail out of all music from a horn system.  Aside from my main speakers (Rega R7), I'm used to mainly listening to music at work through my Audeze iSine20 in-ear planar magnetics.  They lack bass to be sure and impact being headphones, but they sound so clean, distortion-free, effortless and true-to-the-recording, I don't miss the bass.  I think that's what i'm trying to get with a horn speaker system, low distortion, in-phase, effortless sound.

 

That demo also has me thinking about how Klipschorns compare to Jubilee's... I'm curious how the Klipschorn 1-15" bass folded horn compares to the Jubilee 2-12" folded bass horn, or how the 402 horn compares to the upper range of the Klipschhorn? Benefits of 2-way vs 3-way speakers?  I wonder if a fully active crossover for the klipshorns would make improvements? I understand Skelt's next steps may be considering some of the Volti audio Klipschorn upgrades, not to detract here but if anyone wants to share their best Klipschorn upgrades for Skelts benefit that would be fun to read. I know the questions asked above are answered here on the forum, I've read comparisons some and understand the benefits of the Jubilees design over the Klipshorn, best way is to listen to them.  I'm still hoping for the opportunity to demo Jubilee's.

 

 

I've been considering moving towards either horn loaded system or open baffle for high efficiency, both of which have the benefit of removing some room acoustic issues.  I travelled to Michigan on Halloween morning to listen to a pair of Spatial Audio X5's owned by an AudioCircle forum member.  They are a 3way open baffle speaker, 97.5dB.  Its unfair to compare them with the klipschorn's, but they sounded fantastic and I could see being happy with them as well.  

 

I've been following the 402 MEH diy thread with interest, and may decide to head in that direction.  No bad choices going forward, all good.

 

THANK YOU SKELT! 

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I am biased, please keep that in mind.

I have owned both Klipschorns and Jubilees. No, I did not have them at the same time, but I did have each set up in the same room and each enjoyed for a number of years. 

 

Both sound good. However the Jubilees sound better, and better along a number of different dimensions.

 

If you are worried about setting up a crossover - don't be worried. There are factory measured settings available to load. 

If you are worried about needing to getting fancier DSP crossovers - don't be worried. There are a number of choices and even the mediocre  (affordable) ones will knock your socks off. 

If you are worried about needing to upgrade the drivers - don't be worried. The stock units will sound fantastic as they are.

 

I hope that I have made your decision an easy one.

 

Good Luck,

-Tom

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I think most of us have to inflict pain and wasted time on ourselves before we get to the set we really wanted to begin with. You would be wise to listen first as you are doing to all the ones you are considering. I agree with Preston and those Jubes are better than the K-Horn which is also really good. The jubes have a very serious advantage besides just sounding better. You do not have to have a corner or false corner to stick them in. I am a big proponent of speakers that work anywhere and do not need a specific set of conditions to work right.

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16 hours ago, mikld said:

I've been following the 402 MEH diy thread with interest, and may decide to head in that direction.

If you need support (if you decide to investigate this further), feel free to PM me. 

 

The comment that Dave made above about not needing corners is even more true with the K-402-MEH, because of the size/dimensions of the horn's mouth, and the fact that the dual 15" woofers in the K-402 aren't constrained by a exponential horn cutoff frequency (something that the Khorn and Jubilee use in their bass bin designs).  The trade-off is slightly higher modulation distortion below 100 Hz, but not harmonic distortion. You actually get even better mid-bass and lower midrange performance than the Jubilee (IMHO) because the woofers are co-axial with the compression driver in the same horn, and thus are allowed to couple with the compression driver acoustically.  The MEH is also 1/3 the volume of the Jubilee, 1/3 the height, ~1/3 the weight, and ~1/3 (or less, depending on the quality compression driver used) the cost of new Jubilees. The constraint is that you have to cut the ports in the K-402 horn and mount the woofers using DIY woofer mounting pads and bolts to attach to the horn.  The easiest way to do this is via a KPT-305 mid-bass module, then cut the ports, attach the woofers, and enclose the back of the cabinets.  The DSP crossover to dial them in is the same as a Jubilee.

 

I'm currently testing Hypex FusionAmp FA122's with my Jubilees and will report back on what I find, probably in the next week or two.  If everything goes as planned, this will simplify wiring and issues with having separate amplifiers and DSP crossover, etc.  The dual Hypex NCore amplifiers in the FusionAmp have been highly regarded in hi-fi circles, and combined with the on-board DSP crossover on the same assembly, makes the choice a lot cleaner and less expensive than separate amplifiers and a good DSP crossover.  It also eliminates dual speaker wires (four conductors per loudspeaker).  The FusionAmps require only a two conductor preamp signal-level line, whether it is unbalanced (XLR), balanced (XLR) analog, or coaxial digital input (S/PDIF), TOSLINK optical, or AES3 (AES/EBU using XLR connectors).  All input types are available to take an input from a preamp, digital server, disc or streamer player using the FusionAmps (no separate amplifiers are required).  This represents unprecedented flexibility in the upsteam signal chain.

 

A three-way FusionAmp is available for $47 more using the FA123 FusionAmp.  This can be used with a dual-diaphragm compression driver, such as the BMS 4592ND to give superb performance in a three-way design instead of two-way.

 

I can help to estimate the costs of the different MEH choices/paths that you have, but all are significantly lower compared to the other two Klipsch choices you've discussed, and the sound is like that of a Jubilee (i.e., it's using the same HF horn as the Jubilee). 

 

Any way you decide to go, I believe that you're on a very rewarding path.  I can recommend the MEH and the two-way home Jubilee quite enthusiastically.  The home version of the Jubilee is also slated to be revealed in the coming months, so if you intend to go that direction (and have the extra cash for the nicer looks), that is yet another option that you might consider.  I can guess that it will be a bit more turn-key than current home version Jubilees--albeit at a higher price.

 

Chris

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16 hours ago, mikld said:

 

 

That demo also has me thinking about how Klipschorns compare to Jubilee's... I'm curious how the Klipschorn 1-15" bass folded horn compares to the Jubilee 2-12" folded bass horn, or how the 402 horn compares to the upper range of the Klipschhorn? Benefits of 2-way vs 3-way speakers?  

 

I have owned, or still own every Heritage model with the exception of the Belle.

Several years ago I built a pair of DIY Jubilee bass bins and mated them to the K-402 with Faital HF-200 CD.

With Chris A's generous support to dial in the system with the Xilica crossover, this set up was not even close to my previous KHorn, La Scalas, Cornwalls for musical performance!

During a momentary lapse of reason couple of years ago, I sold my Jub-clones, huge mistake.

 

After missing this ultimate sounding system I decided to try and get that experience back and came across a pair of beat up Peavey FH-1 bass bins

that I then stuck a pair of Klipsch K-510 horns on top with again another pair of HF-200 CDs.

This was very, very good sounding, but alas not quite what the Jub-likes were.

Next step was to purchase a new set of K-402s/K-691s/ and stands to swap in for the K-510s.

Presto, probably 95% of what my full Jub clones delivered!

 

Long story short, IMHO, the magic of the Jubilee is the K-402 horn.

This horn changes how you look at any other Klipsch Heritage speaker, not to mention any other speaker system out there.

 

Track down and listen to  a properly dialled in pair of Jubilees (or variant with the K-402)... hearing is believing!

 

 

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It’s a good group of folks here, thanks all. I appreciate the experience in ownership and diy design. Horn loaded systems came to my attention from forum member's MrDecibel, Johnk and mahlman over at audiogon. Eventually they brought me to find an affordable path to fully horn loaded systems readily available for purchase or diy, over at John Inlow’s website and here.

 


Long-winding newbie question: Im aware the jubilees are capable of more volume than most folks need inside their home. Mrdecibel has said he likes jubilee’s, but find they’re too large for a home environment, that they’re meant to be listened to ~25-30 away from the speakers. For jubilee owners, do you find they suffer from listening at safe, comfortable listening levels, at a closer than recommended distance between speakers and listening positions?  ChrisA mentioned the MEH’s are 1/3 volume which probably means they scale better to a home environment with shorter distance between speaker and listening position.  Being that the meh design is less sensitive, does that take away any magic of the horn loaded speaker? 

 

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10 minutes ago, mikld said:

Mrdecibel has said he likes jubilee’s, but find they’re too large for a home environment, that they’re meant to be listened to ~25-30 away from the speakers.

 

I'm in a fair amount of disagreement with this assessment.  One thing I noticed after replacing my (3-way) Khorns with the 2-way Jubilee's is I was getting better more cohesive sound CLOSER and inside the room with the Jubilee's verses the Khorns.  I actually had measured once and noticed that I had to be about 30' away from the Khorns and they sounded distinctly better than closer in.

 

The Jubilee's "come together" maybe 7-10 feet from them so you can be much closer and still have that "one voice"

 

Corners:  They're intended to fit in a corner which in most places is typically dead space.  They (both Khorns and Jubilee's when in corners) are probably the single most space efficient speaker made.  They don't need to be pulled out in the room like a shoe box sized Pioneer HPM or CV or (insert just about any other brand).

 

they ARE large....  but once they're tucked into the corners, their large size pretty much melts away .

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