What would you do?

[Toxicant]

My brother is putting together a system and he needs some advice.

He turned me on to Klipsch back in '84 when I bought my cornwalls, any way, I was talking to him last night and he said he was looking at a set of k-horns from the '50s. I'm not sure what year they are but I said, "what are you nuts? why get a pair so old".

So am I the one that is nuts or does it not really matter what year they are. I understand the newer ones are mdf but other then a driver change here and a crossover there, is there much difference?

Mine are from the early 80's with AK2 crossovers and I'm happy with mine, is there any year better then the others?

Thanks guys!

Ron

[Soundthought]

Three major differences with the pre-63 Khorns are;

A. Rear slot is double the width of current models because of the need to augment low-level output when running a mono set-up (read: pre-stereo) so bass is accenuated.

B. The K-5-J wooden/fiberglass horn, which is unique unto itself even though it has inherant design flaws.

C. The WE-2 (500-5000) crossover networks are designed for 35 watt max input.

I own a pair of '57 Khorns and have been quite happy with them, but then again, i'm a sucker for antiques.

Regards

John.

[Toxicant]

He's got a pair of Mac 75's to drive them, but with tube amps would you ever get near 35w?

This whole tube watt thing confuses me, I hear some say I have a 6w amp and never turn it up and others want the scott mk something because it has more balls?

[Daddy Dee]

Audioreality's points are most interesting. I haven't heard any Khorns older than '73. that is the year of manufacture for my pair of Khorns and they sound fabulous. Have heard some folks quibble about the sound from models in the 1950's, and I would suppose those points are the sources of the difference in sound.

To answer the question: What would you do... I'd go for some of the later models. I don't know the precise year the break would be, but 70's and up would be among them.