Khorns- Winter and Spring Project Completed

[jweed]

Hi all,

Thought I would post some pictures of the Khorns Klewless and my self built over the winter and this spring. We made two pairs of Khorns. Klewless used the traditional Khorn components while I changed the midrange and the tweeter.

I used an Altec 805 tar filled multi cell horn for the midrange, and a JBL 2404 for the tweeter. I also used Al's ALK crossover.

All I can say is AWSOME when I listen to them.

More pictures in next post.

[jweed]

Here are some more pictures.

I do have assembly pictures if anyone wants to see them.

Regards,

Jeff Weedman

[DNTBUY4N]

I have the plans and the wood to make Speakerlab Horns. Wife has me doing outside honey do's. Probably will start them in fall. Did you use their plans for the bass unit? or did you have others?

[MarkF]

Weed,

What are you driving them with? I also use the 805 horn on my Khorns with the Altec 1.4" throat Altec 288K's and a Electrovoice T35 tweeter. I am driving them with Welborne 2A3 SET with a Passive preamp and I also have a Cary 2A3 with a Cary SLP98. They do sound good.

Mark

[jweed]

Mark,

I'm driving them with a Scott 340B (7591s) in stereo with a Sony CD player through a MSB DAC Link II, or a Yamaha VRX990 when doing the HT thing. I have LaScalas for the rear, a Altec 605A for center channel and two Klipsch SW series II subwoofers (15 and 12).

Fantastic sound for movies as well.

[Clint Phare]

jweed-

What driver is on the horns? I have a set of the 8 cells and 10 cell horns and some smaller horns mated to 290 drivers. I also have a few sets of 288 drivers. Oh I also have a set of A- 7 bass cabinets. I seem to hold on to stuff for no particular reason . It drives my wife nuts! I have never been impressed with the A- 7's, but the opprotunity came up and I took them.

[jweed]

Clint,

The drivers are Altec 288Bs. It takes two people to put the top section on the bass bin section.

[Al Klappenberger]

jweed,

Very interesting! I just started today to do something similar to by Belles.

I am going to try two-way using Altec 511B horns with JBL 2421 drivers. I know that two-way is what PWK wanted, it just wasn't possible with the limits he had to contend with.

The pictures are just to document things as I go along. It's a long way from done!

Al K.

[WMcD]

Nice work guys. I have built a pair from the Speakerlab plans from scratch too. So I can appreciate the effort.

Let me open up a real can of worms. It seems to me that reverse engineering a Jubilee from the AES article would be a far easier woodworking project than making a K-Horn "close copy".

Any thoughts out there?

Gil

[jdm56]

JWeed,

Nice work!

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JDMcCall

[Clint Phare]

This post has got me thinking a bit. There seems to be a segment of members who like putting that Altec stuff on top of perfectly good Klipsch speakers. Kinda like slapping a hood ornament from an old car onto a new chevy : . I have some horns ( 1005's, 805's and a smaller set for the 290's ), some drivers ( one set of 288b, 1 set of 288c and a set of 290's ) and a set of A- 7 cabinets that I would be willing to trade for a set of Forte's or Cornwall's. I would also consider Heresy's. I am also interested in some interesting electronics. If anyone is interested ( although I don't quite get the Klipsch/ Altec mods ) let me know.

[Al Klappenberger]

Clint,

Yep.. What we are dong could be consdred "Heresy", but there is some good logic involved..

The latest pictures show the stage I am at right now.. I still have to make a fram for the grill cloth covering (you know.. wift acceptance factor). The Altec horn has the Klipsch K55v jurey riged on them and the K77 tweeter is hung by a single screw. It will go when I get the JBL drivers.

I will say this so far: Vertical is definitely the way to mout the K77 tweeter. The dispersion is much better. I almost could do away with the center fill Cornwall!

Al K.

[Q-Man]

Alright guys, I have a few questions.

But, first of all let me say, nice job Jeff.

After talking to Mark F. some time back, I picked up a pair of Altec 288-16K drivers and 805-B horns. I also bought a pair of the JBL 2404H high frequency drivers that Jeff is using. And yes I have a pair of AL's networks.

I was going to use the above with the Jensen Imperial base horn cabinet or another home design base horn that I have been working on.The reason hear is that the 288-16K drivers & 805-b horns cut off at 500Hz. The Klipschorn cabinet cuts off at 400Hz.while the Imperial reaches 600Hz. Al's network also crosses over at 400Hz. A while back I asked AL if he could design a network for me that would crossover at 500 to 600Hz. and maybe again at 8,000 to 12,000Hz.

My question is for Mark, Jeff and AL. Arn't you guys missing something in the 400 to 500Hz range? Or am I missing something here?

The 288-16K has a frequency response of 500Hz. to 15,000Hz. 109 SPL measured at 4' from the mouth of the horn with 1 watt input of pink noise. Power compacity 15 watts continuous. After getting these specifications from Altec, I'm also worried about the drivers low power capacity. The JBL tweeter on the other hand can handle 40 watts.

Q.

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Q-Man

This message has been edited by Q-Man on 06-03-2001 at 10:18 AM

[jweed]

Q-Man,

I've talked with Altec and the 288 can go down to 300Hz as long as you are not sending 100 watts of power at 300Hz. The 288s can be used on the Altec 300 cycle horns.

I use an EQ and have a slight bump at the 500Hz range which must be to take care of the problem you pointed out. I use a RTA to EQ the room. I try to cut frequncies rather than boost any to fix any room problems.

I find the transition from the bass to the midrange pretty seemless.

[Shock-Late]

I'm quite wondering about vertical mounting of the K77 tweeter. Never tried, will try it tomorrow, but I can't see why klipsch mounted them horizontally if they sound better vertically. And also, the shape of the little horn WOULD seem to indicate that the horizontal dispesion is better...strange. But why not after all...

[Al Klappenberger]

Shock.

I think the reason Klipsch mounts the tweetera horizontally is stricticly business related. To vertical mount it (like with the old Cornwall) you would then have a left and a right speaker to make in pairs. What a mess that would make for the production department! I heard that was exactly what happend with the early Cornwall (grapevine).

AL K.

[John Warren]

mounted horizontally to reduce enclosure height, saves wood.

vertical mounting better but others on this board will say no.

it's a diffraction tweeter, mathematics says it is better, designed specifically from the mathematics.

[djk]

Klipschorn #141 with vertical tweeter.Original University SAHF has been replaced with the later Atlas PD5.I used to own Klipschorn #253 that had the same K5J with SAHF and T35. http://community-1.webtv.net/KerrB/VINTAGETUBEAMPHORN/page4.html

[edwardre]

Very interesting. My KHorns also have the University SAHF mid-drivers but the tweets are University 4401's, mounted vertically. Also, the Woofers are 15" Stephens Trusonic 103LX. The only mod I made was to replace the fiberglass sectoral mid-horn in favor of the Altec 511B (and a whole lot of dampening putty to eliminate the inherant 511B's potential for 'ringing'). All pieces (except the 511B's) have 'Approved by PWK' labels. Sound is spacious and glorious. Bass extension from the Trusonics is deep and solid. Similar to current KHorns, but you truly 'feel' the sound. Like in your jaws and cheeks even at normal 'TV' listening levels.

Also, the cabinets are slightly narrower (~28inches). Somebody once told me they were "KA's"?

Finally, the crossovers are massive as compared to the AA on my center Belle and are not identified by a alphabetic set of letters, but rather just say 'Klipsch Klipschorn Network'.

Not sure exactly what I've got here but they are definately keepers!!

[J M O N]

MarkF,

You say you are driving your Khorns with a Welborn Labs 2A3 amp, but you also have a Cary 2A3 amp that is not being used. Does that mean you like the Welborne better than the Cary?