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Anyone going to axpona in Chicago?


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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/20/2022 at 11:03 PM, Chief bonehead said:

We will be showing the jubs. 

 

Maybe I need to do a bonehead class on basic properly designed horn acoustics……….

 

@Chief bonehead I wish you could live stream so we can watch the audience reactions.

 

That would a great Bonehead class for the Education Center 8-) I would pay for that....

 

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So did anyone else have a chance to visit the Klipsch booth at Axpona?

 

We bought our tickets 2 years ago (before Covid changed everything) and we were elated when we heard Klipsch was gonna show up. The official Jubs were awesome - great job @Chief bonehead Such a step up from the underground Jubs.

 

I think the most notable thing for me is that Klipsch has finally done a good job with an electronic circuit - their past track record has been a bit underwhelming, but the active crossover they put together sounded really good. Or maybe I should say really transparent? It was something that never came to mind while listening, which I think is where you want things to be.

 

I still wish there was a digital input and even better would be to include a music streaming service. Qobuzz was a major sponsor at Axpona so everyone was using that. I personally prefer Tidal because you can also use Tidal as a streaming source for DJ'ing...which I'm sure nobody here cares about, haha. Anyways, I really enjoy streaming Tidal from my Minidsp SHD and could totally see something like that built into this preamp, or digitally fed into this preamp.

 

Regarding the speakers - finally a good bass horn. Whatever Roy did has resolved the issues that I felt plagued the Underground Jubs - or perhaps it's just the lower bandwidth that they operate over? If I had to nitpick, there was some coloration in the ~350Hz range that I think was probably the "tweeter" struggling a bit. Definitely a unique distortion signature somewhere down in that range, and I think it might have just been intermods from the huge bandwidth coming from the HF unit. Maybe some suspension breakup too? Not sure. It's most noticeable with snare and other percussive sounds, but again this is me nitpicking. The highs were quite good and effortless, and wide polars without that hashy breakup sound you get with drivers like the K69. Also gone was that honky conical coloration noticeable with the TAD drivers.

 

One other thing to note....the official Jub did not sound bad with non-audiophile recordings. I've always felt speakers should be serving the source material, and I think that's one thing that differentiates these speakers from the rest of the Klipsch lineup. The band, Tool is probably produced better than most pop recordings, but there was no hesitation to crank it up and load the room. It's so addicting how loud the Klipsch stuff can go, and there was no sign of strain whatsoever. I know it's real popular on this forum to think good speakers make bad source material sound bad, but the new Jubilee demonstrates how that doesn't need to be the case. I think it's more true that bad source material reveals the flaws of the older speakers more noticeably than simpler audiophile music.

 

Regarding the subwoofer range of the Jubilee...I know Roy says they go flat to 20Hz, but I'm not sure we were getting that in this room. The Jubilee was very impressive in the 30 to 40Hz range, but they didn't pressurize the room the way I've experienced from other dedicated subwoofer systems. However, low bass is so room dependent so it's probably not a fair assessment since this room was so much larger than most typical listening rooms - and the speakers were nowhere near the corners. I suppose it's also possible we were sitting in a room mode, but it didn't seem to change much when walking around the room so who knows. The important thing is that tubbiness I associate with folded horn bass bins is pretty much nonexistant.

 

My only final thought is that the price is very confusing for me. I know a lot of people were saying the price should be higher, but then I think the higher price points would require slightly nicer finishes. I personally would prefer a lower finish quality that brought the speakers into a lower price bracket. I was actually gonna purchase a pair when I thought they were $16k for the pair, but it's actually closer to $16k each... I just don't make the kind of money that can justify that expense. Maybe there'll be a used market in the future? I was super glad to hear Klipsch has been selling several units. We need people buying new stuff to keep the industry alive.

 

Anyways, just thought I'd leave a quick review. I wasn't expecting to get to hear the official Jubilee anytime soon and was enamored with the sound. I'd love to hear them in a proper listening room sometime since the hotel ballrooms are a different experience. I bet these sound even better in a smaller room...

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5 hours ago, DrWho said:

Regarding the subwoofer range of the Jubilee...I know Roy says they go flat to 20Hz, but I'm not sure we were getting that in this room. The Jubilee was very impressive in the 30 to 40Hz range, but they didn't pressurize the room the way I've experienced from other dedicated subwoofer systems. However, low bass is so room dependent so it's probably not a fair assessment since this room was so much larger than most typical listening rooms - and the speakers were nowhere near the corners.

 

I heard the new Jubilee in the Hope lab listening room at JubFest this past October.  I can tell you that in that room that size with the speakers near the corners, that 20 Hz was real and gut-wrenching.  When Roy put on some demo deep synth music I though my eyes would pop out of my heard.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/22/2022 at 8:17 AM, Chief bonehead said:

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Seeing how the tweeters are not boxed in in any way, I had a thought that these speakers could be ideal for permanent installation in a wall, even a false wall.  Naturally, this would be most practical during the construction of such a room, but a false wall would give the same visual effect.  The speakers would be kind of there and not there at the same time.  Having a baffle the width of the room would likely help the advancing sound bubble enter the room smoothly, with fewer reflections than you'd find with freestanding speakers.

 

Of course, there are downsides:  Distance from the corners of the room would be fixed, and early reflections would need to be damped with suitable material on the side walls.  Toe-in would be impossible, unless you were using two false walls that were jointed in the middle.  Depending on the customer, that might not matter, either the two false walls or the lack of toe-in.

 

Imagine a 5.x-channel home theatre:  No encroaching on floor space, but an extremely impressive presence.  Depending on the budget, it might even be possible to have a sloping floor in front of the seating area, so that the Centre Jubilee would be lower than the Left and Right speakers, allowing a reduction in screen height.  Another way to go would be with a very large projector setup, with a nearly room-wide acoustically transparent screen, making all three front Jubilees invisible.  The Left and Right Surround speakers could also be hidden with acoustically transparent cloth, so there would be no visible speakers, but some of the best sound currently available in the world.

 

A 5-Jubilee home theatre could be a really amazing (and expensive) entertainment system!

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11 hours ago, Islander said:

A 5-Jubilee home theatre could be a really amazing (and expensive) entertainment system!

Sure would.  I'm days away from setting up my Klipschorns as fronts, La Scalas as rear, a Heresy as center, and a THTLP sub in my living room.  Only furniture is a chair.

 

Best I can do at the moment.

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5 hours ago, codewritinfool said:

 

Sure would.  I'm days away from setting up my Klipschorns as fronts, La Scalas as rear, a Heresy as center, and a THTLP sub in my living room.  Only furniture is a chair.

 

Best I can do at the moment.

 

Best you can do is pretty damn fine.  Happy listening!

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