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KI-396 OWNERS THREAD


Heritage_Head

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Sorry, if there’s one of these already, I didn’t find one sorting through the search function.

 

With the growing popularity of these speakers I thought it overdue for an owners thread …..please post your pictures, thoughts, ideas, and anything else. 
 

Do most of you run just them on the floor, or do you use any kind of custom stands? Have any of you added feet? If so, I’d love to see some pictures.

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1 hour ago, Heritage_Head said:

These work really good.

 

 What are you using to power your 396's? I'm considering putting mine back together to try them out with my new Carver 285 amplifier thinking it may open them up a bit over the 275 I was running before. The 396's were probably the hardest Klipsch speakers I've owned to drive my little Carver VTA-20 was not up to task at all and it ran my Chorus II's fairly well. 

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5 hours ago, jjptkd said:

 

 What are you using to power your 396's? I'm considering putting mine back together to try them out with my new Carver 285 amplifier thinking it may open them up a bit over the 275 I was running before. The 396's were probably the hardest Klipsch speakers I've owned to drive my little Carver VTA-20 was not up to task at all and it ran my Chorus II's fairly well. 

 

image.jpeg

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5 hours ago, jjptkd said:

 

 What are you using to power your 396's? I'm considering putting mine back together to try them out with my new Carver 285 amplifier thinking it may open them up a bit over the 275 I was running before. The 396's were probably the hardest Klipsch speakers I've owned to drive my little Carver VTA-20 was not up to task at all and it ran my Chorus II's fairly well. 

The Rotel is the only amp I’ve run on them so far. They definitely suck more power than the La Scalas did (for example). When I run Odyssey on my Denon AVR, it sets the La Scalas at around -12 and sets the 396 at around -5… definitely a big drop in sensitivity compared to the LS. 
 

 

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5 hours ago, jjptkd said:

 

 What are you using to power your 396's? I'm considering putting mine back together to try them out with my new Carver 285 amplifier thinking it may open them up a bit over the 275 I was running before. The 396's were probably the hardest Klipsch speakers I've owned to drive my little Carver VTA-20 was not up to task at all and it ran my Chorus II's fairly well. 

I don’t know if I would say the word hardest, but I definitely feel like I can keep turning it up, and the speakers never really show any signs of complaining… like if I turned the RF7 way up (for example) that I used to own….at a certain point you could definitely start hearing something would start complaining…..whether it was the speakers, the amplifier, or my ears. (I don’t know)… but with the 396 I never really feel like anything is reaching a critical point. Almost like a car that you don’t even realize you’re going 110mph until you look at the speedometer. 

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8 hours ago, dmckean44 said:

Honestly, I've thought about doing the same so I wouldn't need the 5 db of PEQ and hopefully end up with something more attractive. 

 

 Yeah mine are still a work in progress I need to recess the horn and repaint the baffle then I can throw the grill covers back on that would help clean things up quite a bit. Bass so far is very punchy and tight- the ST woofers are slightly different than the stock Chorus k48k, magnet is slightly smaller in diameter but a bit thicker. From what I've read slightly heavier as well, not sure how much that would effect the sound characteristics if at all. The Chief has said the ST is a suitable replacement in the Chorus models.

 

 

20240413_125742re.jpg

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18 hours ago, jjptkd said:

I'm not sure if I belong in this club or not- I have all the correct parts for the KI-396 II's they're just stuffed into Chorus II cabinets. 

 

 

20240413_190021re.jpg

What’s in the 396 box (is that a full speaker or did you take the drivers out)? 

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18 hours ago, jjptkd said:

I'm not sure if I belong in this club or not- I have all the correct parts for the KI-396 II's they're just stuffed into Chorus II cabinets. 

 

 

20240413_190021re.jpg

Just a tip.. for best results….you want that fan blowing the the other direction (blowing the heat away, pushing it into the room). The way you have it the heat will just spin around. If you look at any electronics that have fans, the air is always going out not in. Sweet amp btw.

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5 hours ago, Heritage_Head said:

Just a tip.. for best results….you want that fan blowing the the other direction  Sweet amp btw.

 

 Thanks man its temporary until I cut in my vent system the amp doesn't really run hot I'm more concerned about the Pre-amp boxed in above it been contemplating an open air rack so I have some place for my computer as well that's not on top of my speakers. The amp is sweet best I've ever owned low level detail and bass is incredible with very nice appropriately sized soundstage depth. Seems to have the best qualities of SS and tube tech I'm very happy with it. 

 

5 hours ago, Heritage_Head said:

What’s in the 396 box (is that a full speaker or did you take the drivers out)? 

 

 Those are my 362's I picked up recently I pulled the woofers out for the 396 project I thought about stuffing the 396 parts into the 362 cabinets but I'd have to cut the cabinet to do that and they are almost new. Since the Chorus II cabinets were already set up as 2-way figured I'd give them another go and glad I did so far. Low level detail is not as good as the 335's or the forte IV's but still good and they sound really nice at normal levels. 

 

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13 minutes ago, homatose said:

does SMA or B stand for anything?  SMAll Beast? Is there a "I" variant?

 

 That's a good question- I'm certain the "B" stands for black but have no idea about the SMA. Small to Medium Application? 

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On 4/18/2024 at 5:16 AM, homatose said:

does SMA or B stand for anything?  SMAll Beast? Is there a "I" variant?

 

B-black.  There's also W-white and R-raw (birch).  

 

I forget what it stands for but the SMA-II versions basically tell you that they have flypoints for hanging them from a ceiling.  Some older versions without this designation don't have the flypoints.  

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