Colin Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Man, I love my horns! A kindly salesman at Sound Advice/Tweeter showed me some Sonus Faber and Mission loudspeakers in the entry level room, using a digital source, he played some jazz tunes through a Yamaha amplifier. Nice enough. None of them sounded that great, however, I had began to wonder if Sound Advice/Tweeter made a big mistake letting go of Klipsch and B&W. He switched to a Diana Krall Love Scenes tunes, which made all of the difference in the world. I knew these tunes. Moving into the next room, he used the same digital server, another Yamaha amplifier and added Martin-Logan electrostatic loudspeakers to the mix. But the story was much the same. Each speaker played the song as if recorded differently. Different instruments came to the foreground. Some, like the Logans, passed over the bass riff as if it wasnt there. The Missions sparkled the cymbals, while the Logans shimmered them. The Logans left all impressions of the box surrounding the vocals behind. The Sonus did a very good job. All fairly competent, but disappointing at that price range. None of them popped the cork convincingly. All told, the Sonus was darker than the Missions; the Missions darker than the electrostatics. The Sonus, at $1,400/pair seemed to be the better price, but the Mission had some extra sweetness for a few hundred more. The Logans sounded the best, in this limited audition, as they should for almost $2K. But I wasnt too pleased overall and told him so it didnt matter, I wasnt a real customer, it was slow night and he was spinning tunes for the fun of it. Peter Lee is the name for you southern folks. Nice kid. I thought it might be the MP3 file causing the problem, so he got the disc and we went into the high-end room, a shrine to Krell and Martin-Logan (Ascents). Of course, the difference was significant. The vocals opened up, instruments spaced out, the M/L sub added depth. Very nice. Nothing to write home about (oh, thats right, thats what Im doing now, you guys are my audio home). Okay, something to write home about, nothing to brag about good system, way overpriced. $45 hundred for the loudspeakers, five grand for the amplifier. Now the point of this tale. Went right home. Played same disc. Completely unscientific comparison. Everything different, except the disc. My room is a mess: acoustic panels, loudspeakers, amplifiers, cables everywhere. No logical conclusions possible, any yetyet I love my system and the music it makes! Even with the vintage 70s solid-state Nikko STA-5010 receiver, that is currently in my entertainment center, the soundstage was huge, wide, open, clear, articulate, separation between instruments excellent, tone and definition superb, her voice immediate and delicate, the texture, the nuances, the details, the piano sounded real, the cymbals brushed and crashed, notes were quick, dynamic, unfettered, the darkness behind her palatable. The cork pops! Simply wonderful stuff. Like a mink draped over mahogany, Diana Krall's luxuriously supple alto adorns the vintage songs of romance and longing found on Love Scenes with a palpable aura of glamour and late-night cool. Her ostensibly effortless command of phrasing and intonation, whether the mood is seduction or a sweet sassiness, further fortifies the opinion that the Canadian vocalist-pianist possesses one of the great female jazz voices to surface in the late 1990s. (Terry Wood, Amazon write-up). I used to listen to discs for hours at the Sound Advice/Tweeter salon, in the red velvet high-end shrine to massive Krell concrete blocks and knuckle-busting B&W 802s. I used to listen and think that I still needed to add something more. More knock, more oomph, perhaps, but more something. I think that no longer. I want to invite this kindly Peter Lee over to hear what a real stereo sounds like. BIG OLE HORNS! :0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Amen. Ain't it fun?! Inviting him over probably wouldn't work out as good as you think though. Moments like that tend to backfire most times. You get the blank stare, like he really doesn't want to bust your bubble, but you can tell it just isn't registering the same way with him. He begins to tell you about a system that he went and heard one time at this guys house . . . . then it's all over. The air is out of the balloon. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Gotta LOVE em'!Best bargain in sound.I have heard 10k speaks that could not touch the mighty K horn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 An example of the kinds of posts you used to submit here all of the time when I first came on board. You were one of the main reasons I decided to make my home here. I don't think my Klipschorns sound much different whether I'm laying on my bed, or sitting in my chair 6 feet from them. They are in a class of their very own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubai2000 Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 AMEN indeed!!!! Two songs on the La Scalas and I knew which kind of speaker I needed! Wolfram Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheltie dave Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Dean, you have noticed the difference with the Khorns - spatial distance really doesn't lose or gain listening impact because they are a whole room speaker, especially in a nearfield room like we have. I can wander in three of the four rooms in the basement and I am hearing just about the same sound signature. When you sit in any of the seats opposite the horns, you definitely are in the clover. The little ones were the ones who drove this point home last Friday evening. At the get together, they were dancing in the kitchen which adjoins the sound room, fourty lateral feet away from the sweet spot, while we played "Blue Danube" with the 45 amp. A watt and a half, and the four years old and younger were all dancing to the singing Khorns. It was a very sweet moment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 What 45 amp? You have a 45 amp? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 The Klipschorns are amazing for sounding great even when you're not in the same room. When I used to have them in the basement, and go upstairs for a bite to eat in the kitchen, I would marvel at how good The Beatles sounded. Instead of being in the same room with me (figuratively speaking) they were in the next room, a floor down. But they still sounded real. Who needs a sweet spot with tone and dynamics like that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Painful Reality Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 What 45 amp? You have a 45 amp? ----------------------------------- Nooo... Deano had 45 amps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Painful Reality Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 One of my concern about the Khorns is the "depth" of the soundstage. Obviously these are desigend to be on the walls. But does the soundstage suffers a bit? Also how close can you sit from the Khorns Assuming these are about 16 feets apart? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Colin, Great post! Yep, there is nothing like those big ole horns. Even to pay the full price on Klipschorns, I'd be hard pressed to suggest anything that could beat them. And it is one of those odd wonders to have a product so good that it isn't included in the audiophile "review" culture in current publications. If Klipschorns had been designed and built by a cynical type, I could imagine them saying, "Yep, if we would have known they were going to last so long, we wouldn't have built them so well!" PWK came up with the most enduring "audio value" on the market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipsch RF7 Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 How do the Khorns compare to the RF-7's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piranha Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 ---------------- On 1/21/2004 6:48:25 PM Georg Friedrich Handel wrote: How do the Khorns compare to the RF-7's? ---------------- In my opinion, there is no comparison. But I think DeanG has owned the RF-7 and currently owns the Khorn. So perhaps he'd best the best source to answer this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheltie dave Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 I had a botique 45 from Chicago for three days. I was amazed with the sound it could put out at 1.5 watts maxed out with the Khorns! The "nearfield" environment I have is twenty two feet mid to midpoint Khorn seperation, 12 feet mid to listening position depth, and fifteen feet for the mid to center bisect hypotenuse. Long and somewhat narrow, but I'll live with it gladly. Both the botique 45 and 2A3 SETs suffered from a lack of solid bass, but that did not detract one iota from the music we listened to or having everyone enjoy what was spun. Dave Cruisin sounded especially grand on his '81 release. I could wax eloquent about the varied palate we enjoyed, but Liam would be waxing even better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 You have the Dukane amps in your sig, do they work yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheltie dave Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Mike, they get loud enough to shake the snot out your nose and shoot it thirty feet across the room. Gotta run! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q-Man Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Colin, It must be like a year and a half since Mike and I stopped in on you and let you listen to the LaScalas that we were carrying around. I remember that he invited you to come to his place, but I don't remember your answer. I do remember you having a rather good ear when we compared the LaScala with your Cornwall. Then the next thing I heard from you was that you bought yourself a pair of Klipschorns. I'm about done with my mods and thought that you might enjoy giving them a listen to. I'm willing to set up a time with you after I finish my center channel K-Horn if you care to drive up the coast someday. It would be interesting to see what you think since you have lived with K-Horns for a while now. But, don't do it just for me, only if you are interested in hearing them and maybe a couple other things. I don't know where Mike disapeared to, do you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Colin the way you describe your experience makes me DROOL for khorns, I must have KHORNS you have helped to make up my mind. I also USED to have Martin Logans Ascent, Arius i Theater 1 center, sucked for music quialty. Returned the ML's to tweeter got on the Klipsch forum and am going NUTZ so Thanks a lot, now that I finally put my klipsch system together, I need to change it agian. Glad your so happy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piranha Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 ---------------- On 1/21/2004 8:27:30 PM smilin wrote: Colin the way you describe your experience makes me DROOL for khorns, I must have KHORNS you have helped to make up my mind. I also USED to have Martin Logans Ascent, Arius i Theater 1 center, sucked for music quialty. Returned the ML's to tweeter got on the Klipsch forum and am going NUTZ so Thanks a lot, now that I finally put my klipsch system together, I need to change it agian. Glad your so happy ---------------- Audiogon, not eBay Or new!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKubicki Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Great post Colin! I must say that my experience with KHorns is that when I listen, I am confined to a very narrow sweet spot and the sound is best there. I have freind at work who is more of a HT guy who says he really didn't like the sound of horns, and I keep telling him he has to come over some time. The other day he told me he attended the CES and went to hear some horns, from his description, I believe they were the Edgarhorns. He was not impressed! I need to find out what Dr. Edgar was playing throught them and what the room was like...he neeeds another listen (or an ear test). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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