Picking an integrated amp: Cambridge Audio CXA61 or CXA81 with Klipschorns?

[garyrc]

9 hours ago, archdukeobvious said:

I do have a R-115SW that's pulling the low frequency duty in the home theater, perhaps I should move that into the Klipschorn room.

 

OR, if you don't have family members who want to listen to music while others run a movie, combine the rooms.  We use the Khorns for both music and movies in the same room.  The Khorns sound great with both, and the modified Belle Klipsch center channel and Heresy II surrounds, likewise.

 

A peek:

 

The front wall. 

The wall is covered in fabric, and hides the center channel speaker, which is a modified Belle Klipsch which is flush mounted in a bump-out sticking out of the other side of the wall.  Flush mounting gains us 1 to 3 dB in the bass.  It is a good timbre match above the 40 Hz Audyssey measurement says is the  F3. The Belle is raised so that the tweeter is the same height as those in the Khorns.

We put stock upgrades in the Khorns; they have the same guts as ones made in 2018.  The fabric on the wall is acoustically transparent, as is the projection screen.  With both fabrics in the way, we get about -1.75 dB at 16K.  Audyssey compensates for that.  The bump-out also contains a subwoofer, and quite a few diffusers.

 

The front wall with the 130" wide "'scope" AT screen down.  The screen height is such that someone with tri-focals can see the whole image through the tops of their glasses.

Panavision:

  

Cinerama:

 

[Khornukopia]

23 hours ago, archdukeobvious said:

Should I be looking at something like the Marantz MM8077? It's 150W per channel, gives me room for 2 more channels (I'll eventually want 7 total), it's roughly in the same price range as 2 CXA81s, and it's available on Amazon. 

 

If you have ever dealt with a stack of amps, a single multi-channel power amp has its merits.

[archdukeobvious]

14 hours ago, garyrc said:

 

The front wall. 

The wall is covered in fabric, and hides the center channel speaker, which is a modified Belle Klipsch which is flush mounted in a bump-out sticking out of the other side of the wall

That is very similar to what I am thinking of doing for the home theater in my new build. I want to have my home theater room basically be a box surrounded by at least 2 feet of air gap on all sides (including 1 foot between the "real" ceiling and the home theater ceiling) so that I can easily access all parts and run/change wiring and prevent sound leakage. I plan on a fixed acoustically transparent screen running to the edges of the Klipschorns and burying the center LaScala behind the screen in an elevated position just like you did with the Belle. I also plan on getting a pair of Belles eventually for the side channels. Not sure what I'll do for Atmos yet. Probably just go with traditional in ceiling speakers, but i could also hang a couple pairs of Heresy speakers maybe?

[garyrc]

9 hours ago, archdukeobvious said:

I also plan on getting a pair of Belles eventually for the side channels. Not sure what I'll do for Atmos yet. Probably just go with traditional in ceiling speakers, but i could also hang a couple pairs of Heresy speakers maybe?

 

• La Scalas might be a bit better than the Belles becaise they have a K400 or K401 midrange horns, rather than the smaller ones in the Belles.  We replaced the short Belle mid horn with a K401, which required buliding a new, longer, Top Hat.  We inclined the top hat down just a bit, so the tweeter is aimed right at the ears of seated people of average height.   As you probably know, the newer La Scalas have solider construction, which may have scotched some vibration.
• Heresies in your big space above the ceiling facing down would be great.  Is 1 foot enough for the model of Heresy you're contemplating?  I know you are not doing it this way, but here is a photo from Klipsch from long ago.  Note the Heresies are supported from the bottom.  They could be lethal if they fell, or if they fell apart due to being attached from the back only.  I love the idea of placing a Khorn in the rear corner -- now, that's surround sound!  There was no Atmos back  then, although some theaters did have surround speakers in the ceiling, like the Coronet in San Francisco, which made the big ship that goes over near the beginning of Star Wars quite effective.I like all the speakers to be substantial, and my unscientifically and emotionally derived smallest would be a Heresy.  In the old days of cinema, there were some big speakers up high.  Here is a big speaker, probably horn loaded, used in 13 theaters (the war expenditures prevented more) for the first movie in stereo and also surround sound, Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940).

[archdukeobvious]

36 minutes ago, garyrc said:

 

• La Scalas might be a bit better than the Belles becaise they have a K400 or K401 midrange horns, rather than the smaller ones in the Belles.  We replaced the short Belle mid horn with a K401, which required buliding a new, longer, Top Hat.  We inclined the top hat down just a bit, so the tweeter is aimed right at the ears of seated people of average height.   As you probably know, the newer La Scalas have solider construction, which may have scotched some vibration.
• Heresies in your big space above the ceiling facing down would be great.  Is 1 foot enough for the model of Heresy you're contemplating?  I know you are not doing it this way, but here is a photo from Klipsch from long ago.  Note the Heresies are supported from the bottom.  They could be lethal if they fell, or if they fell apart due to being attached from the back only.  I love the idea of placing a Khorn in the rear corner -- now, that's surround sound!  There was no Atmos back  then.I like all the speakers to be substantial, and my unscientifically and emotionally derived smallest would be a Heresy.  In the old days of cinema, there were some big speakers up high.  Here is a big speaker, probably horn loaded, used in 13 theaters (the war expenditures prevented more) for the first movie in stereo and also surround sound, Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940).

Some very good ideas there. The house hasn't been designed yet so I can adjust the air gap to whatever it needs to be, whether digging the basement lower or raising the entire house a foot either will work for me. Even though this project is quite extravagant, I am trying to build it with a budget. None of the heritage speakers I've acquired have matching finishes save for a set of Klipschorns and Cornwalls that were sold together, though I don't think the Cornwalls will make it into the home theater anyway. The way I see it is, you shouldn't be able to see the front and rear Klipschorns at the same time anyway so do they really need to match haha? All my speakers are of 1970s vintage (minus a beat up pair of shorthorns. Still don't know what I'm going to do with those, but thought they were cool).

 

I didn't think about mounting the Heresys face down. I would probably mount them slanted facing the seating either suspended or recessed into the air gapped ceiling at an angle. Everything is possible at this point.

Edited July 30, 2022 by archdukeobvious

[Deang]

Nice room Gary. I bet that does sound great.