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JohnA

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49 minutes ago, jjptkd said:

Going through the "history of the jubilee" thread it appears as though this guy owned one of the original pair and made a copy as well I haven't read through the whole thread. 

I was a consultant to Panacea. I worked on a passive radiator version of the Jubilee-Like horn we built 10 years and 2 months ago.

 

We spent about 2 days on it. I measured against the Golden Jubilee and found the rear chamber stuffed with foam, which is something PWK never did on his horns or Heresys. I have curves somewhere on another computer. Conclusion? No improvement over the Golden Jubilee.

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46 minutes ago, ClaudeJ1 said:

I was a consultant to Panacea. I worked on a passive radiator version of the Jubilee-Like horn we built 10 years and 2 months ago.

 

We spent about 2 days on it. I measured against the Golden Jubilee and found the rear chamber stuffed with foam, which is something PWK never did on his horns or Heresys. I have curves somewhere on another computer. Conclusion? No improvement over the Golden Jubilee.

 

Can you speak to the provenance of the pair he bought, now up for auction? Or if he has indeed passed?

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1 hour ago, Thaddeus Smith said:

 

Can you speak to the provenance of the pair he bought, now up for auction? Or if he has indeed passed?

He passed away about 5 years ago. They have all been sitting around in that building since his death (this could be for a number of reasons).

 

The one's with the plaques with Golden Jubilee are the real deal, commissioned by Valerie Klipsch. You need a pair of K403 horns to complete what was commissioned. Michael Klementovich had a crazy ad on Audiogon where he was selling everything he had to finance a motorcycle trip somewhere (South America????). I don't think WC got the original mid-horns they came with, and I'm not sure about what the networks were. 

 

@seti I believe knows more of that story. 

 

I helped WC get that Studer 2 track, a very, very nice machine, but from appearances it has set for 5 years in the building with no care, maintenance (or HVAC?) since his death along with the other items. 

 

WC fell out of the good graces of Klipsch, as a dealer, when he posted on the Forum (I'm sure the post is deleted, but maybe not) that he was in the process of developing Jubilee Bass Bins with passive radiators ("the Drone"), someone asked for photos and/or plans of the Drone and his response was "no photos, no plans." I believe someone posted something from his website that he was intending to build them and sell them and they were "coming soon.". The response to that post was from a Klipsch employee that they had referred the matter to their patent and trademark attorneys in Indianapolis and that he would be hearing from them very soon. As I recall he tried to walk that back, changed his website, and he didn't post much of anything on the Forum after that. 

 

WC was a very accomplished Aeronautical Engineer for the Sikorsky helicopter company, and held many patents. Hard to understand his mindset of becoming a Professional Dealer, selling at least one pair of Underground Jubilee's as a dealer, and then stating on his website that he was in the process of offering them. 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Thaddeus Smith said:

 

Can you speak to the provenance of the pair he bought, now up for auction? Or if he has indeed passed?

Not sure about the provenance, but they sounded good and measured well. He had Martinelli and also Tractrix horns that looked like the Michelin man. So who ever gets them will have Two or the Four made.

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12 minutes ago, Gnote said:

RIP W.C.

I'm sorry to hear of his passing . I talked to him on the phone once ,he talked a mile a minute but was super friendly and helpful !

 

It was fun talking with him. 

 

I sent him a 2 track master tape from him to try on his Studer, and he was blown away. I don't know if he made the Deep Dive into 2-track master tapes or not, but he was full throttle.

 

His airplanes were incredible, along with everything else. It looks like all of the aviation stuff got sold separately. 

 

Travis

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9 hours ago, Travis In Austin said:

He passed away about 5 years ago. They have all been sitting around in that building since his death (this could be for a number of reasons).

 

The one's with the plaques with Golden Jubilee are the real deal, commissioned by Valerie Klipsch. You need a pair of K403 horns to complete what was commissioned. Michael Klementovich had a crazy ad on Audiogon where he was selling everything he had to finance a motorcycle trip somewhere (South America????). I don't think WC got the original mid-horns they came with, and I'm not sure about what the networks were. 

 

@seti I believe knows more of that story. 

 

 

At the time I didn't know he was a dealer. I measured the physical deminsions of the k403 for him. This didn't include the transition in the horn mouth. I think he bought Michael Klementovich's pair of goldens and built others. I got the K403 pair indirectly from Michael. It is my prized Klipsch horns. I wouldn't part with them so I believe he was going to stick with the Martinelli horns? The networks from Michael were not the ones from the Golden Jubilee's. He claims PWK gave him the secret sauce for instance moving the crossover point to to 750hz, using silver wire, and bunch of BS. I found it very difficuly to communicate with Klementovich. I am thankful to him because if he hadn't parted with the k403 I wouldn't have them. Buyer beware on the Goldens. Does anyone know how much they are? Would be cool to reunite them with the k403.

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, seti said:

 

At the time I didn't know he was a dealer. I measured the physical deminsions of the k403 for him. This didn't include the transition in the horn mouth. I think he bought Michael Klementovich's pair of goldens and built others. I got the K403 pair indirectly from Michael. It is my prized Klipsch horns. I wouldn't part with them so I believe he was going to stick with the Martinelli horns? The networks from Michael were not the ones from the Golden Jubilee's. He claims PWK gave him the secret sauce for instance moving the crossover point to to 750hz, using silver wire, and bunch of BS. I found it very difficuly to communicate with Klementovich. I am thankful to him because if he hadn't parted with the k403 I wouldn't have them. Buyer beware on the Goldens. Does anyone know how much they are? Would be cool to reunite them with the k403.

 

 

 

 

Since he paid me to drive down, along the way, pick up a pair of EV speakers, a pair of Walnut Belles, and to work on the "Drone" version of the famous "J bass horn."  We had 3 Passive radiators to try. So we built a fresh "drone core section" to measure and select the best performing drone cone by nearfield and 1 Meter measurement outdoors. The one from Klipsch was, co-incidentally the best choice. Also he had trailers full of MWM bins, and all kinds of other stuff I never saw in a large building. He was no longer married and lived with his Irish Setter named Fred.

 

So we put that in the Jube-like Drone Bass Horn he had built and I curved it against the Golden Jubilee. The 12" woofers with Neo Magnets from Eminence were the drivers. We also listened to both with the Martinelli Horn and Passive network he had. Both sounded good with Roy's Test CD #1 (my reference standard since 2007).

 

The conclusion was easy. NOT worth the effort since there was no improvement in the sound heard or the curves. Waste of time and money, when the original was unbeatable. So he stopped going in that Passive Rad. direction, so to speak. He gave me the .dwg Autocad file for the build, and had very little further communication after that. This was in 2012.

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On 8/22/2022 at 12:14 AM, Travis In Austin said:

WC fell out of the good graces of Klipsch, as a dealer, when he posted on the Forum (I'm sure the post is deleted, but maybe not) that he was in the process of developing Jubilee Bass Bins with passive radiators ("the Drone"), someone asked for photos and/or plans of the Drone and his response was "no photos, no plans." I believe someone posted something from his website that he was intending to build them and sell them and they were "coming soon.". The response to that post was from a Klipsch employee that they had referred the matter to their patent and trademark attorneys in Indianapolis and that he would be hearing from them very soon. As I recall he tried to walk that back, changed his website, and he didn't post much of anything on the Forum after that. 

I had an overnight stay or two at his place (10 years ago). He paid me to be there and lead the effort of obtaining a working "Drone" version of the Jube semi-clone. I selected the best of 3 passives (highest output) from measurements of the core section we built separately. He had a very good table saw! LOL.

 

He gave me the plans he made on Autocad (he was an early investor in the Autodesk company). He was a Klipsch audio fan and purchased many different heritage and pro products. He told me James Taylor stayed at his place and slept in the same room as I did many years back. He was a building engineer/superintendent at a large concert venue and had met many music stars. Interesting individual.

 

If I can find them, I'll be happy to send the file he gave me if someone wants to build them for fun. Just PM me, but I assure you, they were no better than the Original Golden Jubilees he got from Klementovich, the author of PWK's biography, who got a pair from Ms. Valerie Klipsch as a gift for writing the book!

 

Basically, my measurements and opinions are what got him to stop trying to go forward with passive jube clones. Main reason being, not enough Air Volume in the back chamber, which of course there is plenty of that in the new Klipsch Jubilee 75's by Roy Delgado!

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Point of clarification ........

 

A bit over  20 years ago, Roy did have a working version of the Jubilee bass bin that consisted of a pair of 12 in woofers (probably k-31s, I think) and a drone (or passive radiator). The unit was measured and found to have about 1/3 less distortion (or was it 1/3 of the distortion) of the Jubilee bass bin. It also had a deeper bass extension. They were still working on it when PWK became ill. At that point any further refinement was halted. 

 

Further, this prototype  bass bin was described by HDRbuilder when he visited some friends at the factory/shop. His description is a bit contorted but he was clear on the 2 woofers and drone and how they fed into the bass horn.  Personally, I had attempted a few measured drawings (mostly guess work based on the above) and for the life of me I could not figure out how they shoe-horned that drone in between the two woofers and still maintain the flare (the space is cramped). The overall cabinet size was not all that larger than the original (underground) Jubilee. 

 

At this point I have probably said more than I should have, but this info is public and can be gleaned from various posts and threads from that time period. I and others were also contacted by this guy and invited to help out. with this "new drone version".  I (and I guess others) saw the project as a dead end and declined to participate. 

 

I spent a long time scratching my head over this prototype and whether I could partially replicate Roy's work for my own home system. 

 

I guess this is my way of reminding  the group about "giving credit where credit is due". That Roy is one smart cookie.....

 

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3 minutes ago, PrestonTom said:

At this point I have probably said more than I should have, but this info is public and can be gleaned from various posts and threads from that time period.

 

FWIW, I remember reading about exactly what you described in a magazine or journal at the time. Might have been Journal of the Audio Engineering Society; I simply don't remember. Maybe in a patent application?

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7 minutes ago, Edgar said:

 

FWIW, I remember reading about exactly what you described in a magazine or journal at the time. Might have been Journal of the Audio Engineering Society; I simply don't remember. Maybe in a patent application?

Your memory is good!.

 

It was not a JAES article, but rather a patent application a few years later where Roy discussed several incarnations of a design that could have a vent or port feed into a horn for loading. The patent was more general than just the Jubilee version, but all the elements were there. 

 

As I recall around that time you had sketched out some ideas for making the flare rate on the Jubilee have an approximation of a tractrix expansion. Those were fun times on the forum (for the most part) when folks were kicking around interesting ideas. It was a good back and forth........

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12 minutes ago, PrestonTom said:

As I recall around that time you had sketched out some ideas for making the flare rate on the Jubilee have an approximation of a tractrix expansion. Those were fun times on the forum (for the most part) when folks were kicking around interesting ideas. It was a good back and forth........

 

Jubilee Internals.gif

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1 hour ago, PrestonTom said:

The overall cabinet size was not all that larger than the original (underground) Jubilee. 

I'd bet it had to have a larger rear chamber. Besides I never measured distortion, only low end extension and flatness. This is now achieve with more Synergy between the drivers, horns, and electronics with the new Jubilee 75. Never heard yet, but I will soon.

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15 hours ago, ClaudeJ1 said:

I had an overnight stay or two at his place (10 years ago). He paid me to be there and lead the effort of obtaining a working "Drone" version of the Jube semi-clone. I selected the best of 3 passives (highest output) from measurements of the core section we built separately. He had a very good table saw! LOL.

 

He gave me the plans he made on Autocad (he was an early investor in the Autodesk company). He was a Klipsch audio fan and purchased many different heritage and pro products. He told me James Taylor stayed at his place and slept in the same room as I did many years back. He was a building engineer/superintendent at a large concert venue and had met many music stars. Interesting individual.

 

If I can find them, I'll be happy to send the file he gave me if someone wants to build them for fun. Just PM me, but I assure you, they were no better than the Original Golden Jubilees he got from Klementovich, the author of PWK's biography, who got a pair from Ms. Valerie Klipsch as a gift for writing the book!

 

Basically, my measurements and opinions are what got him to stop trying to go forward with passive jube clones. Main reason being, not enough Air Volume in the back chamber, which of course there is plenty of that in the new Klipsch Jubilee 75's by Roy Delgado!

I have a feeling it was more the cease and desist he got from the patent attorneys and the telephone call he got from Roy that shut that down, but who knows. 

 

Then I guess it was his dad who was at Sikorsky? Same exact name, but no Jr., so I guess Sr. was the dad. Helicopter patents came up several times, aviation, etc. His glider was a Schweizer, same company as Sikorsky, maybe that's where I have it crossed.  

 

He was a great guy, a lot of fun to talk to. 

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