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Jubilee Owners Near Cleveland Ohio


Dave A

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On 10/28/2020 at 2:26 PM, mikld said:

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. 

Why don't you pull a "Nancy Pelosi" (about Obamacare) and buy a pair (less than $10,000) with all the trimmings, then you will find out "what's in them" to actually know how they sound in your house to your ears. That's what I did.

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40 minutes ago, mikld said:

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? 

 

Time for the PWK "Bullshit" button................You can listen to Jubes 6 feet away in an "home environment." I downsized to a small living room when I had Jubes. I sold them to make room for more speakers, not because of how they sounded in the small living room (16 x 11.5 x 8). They sounded fantastic, and no subwoofer required for music with Roy's 32 Hz. PEQ. The only reason I sold them is to make room for huge subs and 9 more horn speakers for Dolby Atmos in that tiny room. I would have them back in a New York minute in a different house with a second room for 2-channel while maintaining the HT in a darkened separate room.

 

I agree about the magic of the MEH horn that ChrisA designed, since I own 3 of the smaller horns that he used as a benchmark for their creation. It's all the best you can buy for less than a lousy 10 Gs. Also realize the you can use cheap chip amps that cost about $65 per channel to get even just average ones. I ran my Jubes with tiny power amps the size of cigarette packs that used a standard 19v Laptop power supplies and I reached over 120 decibels during a Drum Recording Demo. Put your money in the horns, not frikkin' amplifiers which are really GOOD and CHEAP nowadays.

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3 hours ago, mikld said:

that they’re meant to be listened to ~25-30 away from the speakers. 

This is not correct.  However, if you drop the K-402s down a bit and allow them to stick out in front of the bass bins about 7" (I call this "shortening down the K-402s"), then the two sources (bass bin and K-402 horn) are closer together.  This improves the midbass response vertically even more and produces a little less phase growth through the crossover region.  The minimum listening distance drops to something like 3-4 feet when you do this, and the listening involvement (in the case of using zero phase growth crossovers with a DSP crossover that I've talked about on this forum ) goes through the roof, in my experience.

 

The comments about "these loudspeakers are meant for bigger rooms" as a ploy to say they are too big for home hi-fi is totally wrong.  In fact, because they have full-range directivity, they are better performing in small rooms than small loudspeakers that spray their acoustic energy around their nearby acoustically reflective objects.  In order to get the same response as Jubilees in a small room, the owner would have to completely cover the front of the room with absorption pads/panels, and then the room would probably be too dead. 

 

3 hours ago, mikld said:

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? 

The MEHs are coaxial loudspeakers, so their minimum listening distance is -1 feet (you can put your head inside the loudspeaker and it sounds the same).  There is no downside (except for the slightly higher levels of AM distortion that I mentioned above).  It actually sounds just like my Jubilees, only more so (more coherent).  If you place the MEHs in room corners--there is no downside, because the MEH mouth size couples so well to the room corner that it loads the woofers down to a very low cutoff frequency (well below 40 Hz, even better than the effect of having the woofer ports off-axis in the K-402 which drops the effective expansion rate of the horn that the woofers see--an effect that Danley himself has written about). 

 

Chris

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13 hours ago, mikld said:

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.

Howdy mikld, I am mahlman over at the other place. Check out my personal system and then realize that center to center they are 20' apart (that is center to center on 60" wide bass bins by the way) and I typically sit maybe 15 feet away. FAR larger than anything you are contemplating and let me assure you they sound phenomenal and are not too big. The idea a jubilee is too big is amusing and all I can say is hearing is believing. You owe it to yourself to be patient and seek out some of these larger all horn systems in order to be able to make an educated assessment of relative sound quality in a room environment. A fair number of people have never heard these bigger systems and therefore make statements based on what they think and have been "told" and never realize what they are missing by regarding something like a K-Horn as the ultimate. K-Horns are good so don't get me wrong but they are not in the same league as the better Klipsch pro gear.

 

  All these people with opinions, me included, need to be verified by YOU personally for veracity. Please do not make a purchase based on only what you have others tell you. You do this right you only have to do it once more.

 

  One more thing. You mention more volume than one might need. What that prodigious output potential does is give you better sound quality at any volume. A speaker that hardly has to work to produce the sound levels you want will have less distortion and that 30hz organ note will be much richer than it would be on a speaker that struggles to get there. My two favorite genres for some time now are pipe organs and Cellos. I want to pretend I am right there next to them being played and I rarely go above 80 to 85db any more. Now Japanese Fireworks as any visitor to my place knows IS played at volume because damn, you are right there and the booms shake you.

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To reiterate with all the others here the Jubilees sound mo betta then kHorns and sound more cohesive closer in than possible with the KHorns. I heard my first set of Jubes in a big metal building somewhere in rural Arkansas. I thought to myself I wonder what they would sound like in a smaller home environment. So later that year I traveled to Idaho to audition a pair. Ordered a set the following winter/spring. @mikld you need to hear a pair IMHO. 

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I don’t have jubilees, but I do have KPT 942’s used in theaters up to 300 seats. My room is 30’x16’. I have spent 2 years positioning those speakers. Foot by Foot then inch by inch, playing the same reference songs over and over. 
After all that maneuvering around the perfect spot ends up being 8’ from the speakers. 

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Not to add any pressure (as I twist your arm behind your back!)....

 

Without counting, I'm thinking maybe 40% or so of all owners bought without ever hearing them first. (which I think is cool as beans)

 

I used to keep track of that because at the time it was near impossible to find them to hear them (as you are finding out) so many just jumped.....  I think this is one reason why so many (virtually every one that I've spoken with however, I've not spoken with all of them)  anyway, I think this is one reason why so many Jubilee owners have expressed an openness to make them available for audition as they were once in those same shoes.  It's also pretty cool to see the wide eyes and mouth agape of the person who's hearing them for the first time.

 

There was once a term, you were either a "Heard" or not....  what was most interesting at that time (over 10 years ago) were the "NON-Heards" that were giving commentary on how the speaker "must sound" for various reasons....rather than actually bothering to hear them and know how they DID sound and further understand the superlative accolades that were being given.

 

What's really cool now days is the "Heard" base has grown.....and grown..... and today there are now many more converts.

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(since I was born/raised in Hamilton I get to say the following without any grief)

 

"Since you live in  Cleveland...."    (Supposed to sound derogatory, coming from someone from the other corner of the state)   if you indeed acquire a pair of Jubilee's, you will be the appointed person for that neck of the woods to audition them for others.

 

Nice thing is, most folks (100% in my experience) are a joy to host....  well....  unless they're from Cleveland...  HA!  I kill myself. :emotion-14:

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1 hour ago, babadono said:

@mikld How far is Knoxville? I'm volunteering @Coytee to audition for you. Idaho was more than a days drive for me. BTW if you're ever in So Cal you could come my way.

 

Ahh Grasshopper who thinkest thou art pulling a shennegans on me....  Mike & I have been in talks about that very thing.

 

(I think that would count as at least strike one??)

 

Turns out he comes to this area every now & then to do some hiking.  Don't know if he might fly down or drive.

 

Now, if he DRIVES down....  I might need to be nice to him (at least initially) to see if I could sucker him to make a pit stop for me while in the Hamilton area and pick up a Chesters pizza for me and bring it down!  (of which I'd more than happily pay so there are no freebies being attempted here)

 

Funny/true story....  as a backstory, my college roommates & I grew up on this Chesters and loved to go there.  We'd decide while starting to make dinner in Oxford (call it an hour away) "Man, I could go for a Chesters right now" and we'd yell out "Chesters tonight" and at the drop of a hat, we'd make a road trip for dinner.

 

Fast forward 10/15 years and one of them was going to be driving through Knoxville and said he had a surprise for me (I was working so he was going to leave it on my porch).  Now, this specific EX-roommate (notice emphasis) was a genuine prankster....  we had a joke about getting "faced" when you were pranked.  "Faced" is illustrated by taking your hand and putting it about an inch in front of your victim's face while rubbing it in.  "Palming" their face might be a good illustration.

 

I get home that night and indeed, I see something on my porch.  OMG, it's a Chesters pizza in their box!!!  I scurry up to it, pick it up and carry it in.  I immediately turn the oven on....  while it was warming up, putting a coke from the fridge into the freezer to make it extra cold....  I open the box.

 

I swear on my life, I can HEAR him laughing at me....

 

That SOB took the pizza OUT and ate it.  He took a section of a 2x4 piece of wood....  TAPED it to the box to give the closed box the heft the pizza might have AND, that little SOB, found a halloween plastic "hand" (life sized) and also taped the hand in there to "face" me as he KNEW how I'd react and that my mouth would be watering just anticipating my dinner and he KNEW he'd score a major point.

 

He did and we still laugh hysterically about it to this day....  and this was now, about 30 years ago.

 

Hmmm....  now that I reflect on what I've written....  "Mike" from Cleveland might come to hear the Jubilee's.  My EX-roommate who faced me with the empty Chesters pizza box was also named MIKE....  now, I'm getting suspicious.

 

Who, ME hold a grudge about an empty pizza box???

 

:ph34r2:

 

 

 

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If it comes to pass (its looking like it will here at some point) I accept the Jubilee Cleveland chapter.  Coytee, if/when i'll make it your way, i'll bring you Guided by Voice records from Dayton, Pizza and Chili from Cincinnati, whatever you need send the list!

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On 10/28/2020 at 12:52 PM, Ceptorman said:

They had a screening of the new Jubilees in Indy a while back, at the Palladium Theater. Not sure if they are still in Indy or not. With the covid cuties it might be hard to find some to listen to right now. 

 

Do you mean "Covid Cooties?

JJK

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13 hours ago, mikld said:

If it comes to pass (its looking like it will here at some point) I accept the Jubilee Cleveland chapter.  Coytee, if/when i'll make it your way, i'll bring you Guided by Voice records from Dayton, Pizza and Chili from Cincinnati, whatever you need send the list!

You make it that far another three hours gets you here and you are invited. I have some of the 904 stuff sitting around and some 415/4's and some 402 horns also so you could get most of your listening done here in Tn. It seems to be the fate of serious Klipsch owners that we are compelled to make road trips to accomplish what we want.

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20 hours ago, babadono said:

@mikld How far is Knoxville? I'm volunteering @Coytee to audition for you. Idaho was more than a days drive for me. BTW if you're ever in So Cal you could come my way.


Alert — Don’t fall for this “generous” offer. Unless you have a strong back and are willing to tote tons of retaining wall block for the privilege of a Jube audition. Shame on you Eric — 

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