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Quartets hold their own against Klipschorns!


Jer_Hy

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Heya, thinking of parting ways with a pair of quartets so I set them up right in front of my Khorns to give them a farewell listen and using a mixer, ran each on dedicated outputs so I could move between them seamlessly with the faders. I was blown away by how well the quartets kept up, particularly in the 3K and up Frequencies. The Khorns obviously can push more air down low and sound nice in a wider area but from the listening position the quartets had more clarity and were generally voiced in a more even and detailed way. In a blind test my girlfriend kept thinking the quartets were the Khorns and I may have agreed had I not done the wiring!

 

Anyone experienced this, or something like this? The Khorns are stock 1977s and could probably use a cleaning, but everything else is in fine working order...but maybe somethings off, can anyone speak to the differences in voicing of these speakers?

Stunned!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Edited by Jer_Hy
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Not exactly the same. My similar year Klipschorns sound the best out of my pairs of speakers, but with a caveat. They beat out 2 pairs of Cornwalls and Herseys. They sound better than my La Scalas, but the La Scalas’ imaging is superior to the Klipschorns’ imaging. Perhaps a time alignment issue in the Klipschorns? But better sounding than the Klipschorns? I’m gonna put my money on the Jubilees as the winner. No offense intended, but something else is going on if your Klipschorns in your scenario don’t sound the best.

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@baron167  nice to see another marylander. yeah very odd, I don't want to say sounds better, but way more different in the high-end than I would have imagined. When I ran pink noise the Khorns sounded like they had extra cloth over the tweeters

 

My eye is on the K-77 tweeters for why they are feeling for lack of a better word dull next to the quartets. I got out the multimeter, and they do seem to be in  the correct ohm range. I actually tried a pair of heresy 1s as well, those include new crossovers and diaphragms from Crites, and they too did not sparkle quite like the quartets, very odd.

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1 hour ago, Jer_Hy said:

@ricktateI haven't rebuilt the crossovers, crossover and speakers are from 1977. I do have a cheap multimeter, but I've never tried testing capacitors. I'll see if I can get a handle on that. Not looking to blindly spend on crossovers but if something is way out I'm keen to replace it.

Unless your multi-meter can read a capacitor's ESR (equivalent series resistance), it may not tell you what you need to know. It's not so much that the capacitance value changes over time, but that the capacitor become resistive as it ages. This time period varies, depending on the type of capacitor used. 

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There was a story of PWK giving a demo with Heresy's placed in front of KHorns with no announcement of which would be playing.  He'd start the demo Isecretly playing only the Heresy's which everyone (?) thought sounded very good.  Then he'd say, "Oh, let's hear the KHorns (alone)" which everone thought sounded very good and a bit better -- but surprizingly not startling so.

 

What program was used I don't know.

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1 hour ago, Peter P. said:

Perhaps it's the driver height that creates the sound difference. The Klipschorns' drivers are higher relative to ear height than the Quartets, no?

the tweeters are only about 10 inches apart so unfortunately  I don't think it's a matter of position.

 

1 hour ago, Shakeydeal said:

Hopefully this “mixer” isn’t a regular in your system........

 

Shakey

of course it is, I spin records! they're a lot of fun, and if you're into spending big money on them  you can!!

 

33 minutes ago, Blvdre said:

Unless your multi-meter can read a capacitor's ESR (equivalent series resistance), it may not tell you what you need to know. It's not so much that the capacitance value changes over time, but that the capacitor become resistive as it ages. This time period varies, depending on the type of capacitor used. 

thanks for this! unfortunately mine can't, but thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

17 minutes ago, WMcD said:

There was a story of PWK giving a demo with Heresy's placed in front of KHorns with no announcement of which would be playing.  He'd start the demo Isecretly playing only the Heresy's which everyone (?) thought sounded very good.  Then he'd say, "Oh, let's hear the KHorns (alone)" which everone thought sounded very good and a bit better -- but surprizings not startling so.

 

What program was used I don't know.

love this, PWK knew how to lead....with the ears!

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I had Quartets, KHorns and Jubilees at the same time and as expected there are differences, some major. But what I did notice is similar sonic presentation, a family sound if you will. To say the Quartet can fill a space like a Jube is a stretch and physically impossible. Same for KHorn. I sampled in the same room with LaScalas after KHorns were sold and had the same “house” sound. I think the similarities are far greater with the three way designs than the two way Jubes. House sound yes, mistake Quartet for KHorn/LS - no.

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12 minutes ago, richieb said:

I had Quartets, KHorns and Jubilees at the same time and as expected there are differences, some major. But what I did notice is similar sonic presentation, a family sound if you will. To say the Quartet can fill a space like a Jube is a stretch and physically impossible. Same for KHorn. I sampled in the same room with LaScalas after KHorns were sold and had the same “house” sound. I think the similarities are far greater with the three way designs than the two way Jubes. House sound yes, mistake Quartet for KHorn/LS - no.

Thanks, I too expected a sound signature to run through the Khorns, Quartets and heresys. The Quartets and Heresys definitely were in the same ballpark, so it seems the crossovers on my klipschorns may need servicing, the tweeters are just hardly there yet reading 10ish ohms. Even swapped the amps.

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I've experienced this before due to source. I have belles and klipschorns and they need good 2 channel equipment to drive them. We thought something was wrong with my belles for a long time, then we realized it was because it was hooked up to a surround sound receiver. Once we hooked them up to a vintage Sony stereo integrated amp, they came alive. Meanwhile, newer speakers like my klf30s sounded great on the surround sound receiver. I did this same experiment by hooking up the klipschorns to my surround sound receiver, and the life was removed from them. Those vintage speakers need real 2 channel equipment. My belles are from 1979 and my klipschorns are from 1977.

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1 hour ago, dtr20 said:

I've experienced this before due to source. I have belles and klipschorns and they need good 2 channel equipment to drive them. We thought something was wrong with my belles for a long time, then we realized it was because it was hooked up to a surround sound receiver. Once we hooked them up to a vintage Sony stereo integrated amp, they came alive. Meanwhile, newer speakers like my klf30s sounded great on the surround sound receiver. I did this same experiment by hooking up the klipschorns to my surround sound receiver, and the life was removed from them. Those vintage speakers need real 2 channel equipment. My belles are from 1979 and my klipschorns are from 1977.

 

You don't think a "dj mixer" will bring out the best in a pair of khorns?????

 

Shakey

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