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How Old Were You When The Klipsch Horns Got Your Ear?


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1978, Eighteen years old, and the only Klipsch dealer in southwest VA (Roanoke) had a pair of Klipschorns in their high-end room. The sales dude thought he'd blow this kid away by playing the song called On the Run from the Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon ; especially the part where the plane flies overhead. He was successful. I had to go home and change my shorts. Took me twenty more years, but I finally got some Klipsches. Will not rest until I have corner horns (in every corner) 1.gif

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Age 17 in Orlando, Florida. Was looking to get a pair of the "top rated" Bose 901's. The salesman let me listen to the 901's and then took me to another listening room to get my opinion on how these other speakers would rank to the 901's. The room included only 3 pairs of speakers, the Heresy's, the Cornwalls, and the Klipshorns. The salesman started with the Heresys and worked his way up to the Klipshorns. I never listened to the 901's again...

Milton

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I was 19 in the navy. Stationed in sigonella italy. I heard a pair of kg 5.2 and was amazed at how loud and clean they would go for there size. Then all the klipsch speakers i heard shortly after that in the exchange. Had to get a pair myself. 16.gif

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Just back with my honey from our honeymoon Tahitian style... nice place for basking 10.gif but a wee short on fully horn-loaded honeymoon suites 7.gif ...but fortunately, we were able to make beautiful music together 9.gif and the beat goes on... but now with the Joy of multiple Klipschorns and an admitted shortage of palms (particularly outstretched ones!).

Wow, these Forum threads never cease to amaze! To think, I am older than Dr. Bill and was exposed to my first Klipschorn a year earlier in the North Beach (S.F., CA) garret of a "beatnik" friend a bit down on his luck. Notice I said "Klipschorn"... singular... for stereo had not reached San Francisco yet! I had already begun my experimentation with an acrid old 16" woofer with a center mounted horn midrange rescued from a theater fire... but this Klipsch fully horn-loaded corner bound masterpiece got my entrepreneurial fires glowing like nothing had before!

Oh, yeah, the first tune I heard on that big old Khorn was a new release by Les & Larry Elgart called Sophisticated Swing.

Thats so long ago, Bill Russell and the Jones boys were playing basketball for USF and watching them live had been my peak life-experience until I heard the silky sound of that big, sweet-smelling Khorn I sold everything I could even my amp! My brains fully horn-loaded memory gave me my first taste of self-induced, unrestrained goal directed behavior that has never been equaled until a certain Swiss Miss bought a pair of Khorns and a Belle for me as an indication that she was willing to become my Swiss Mrs.

Needless to say, that grand old Khorn replaced old smoky in the garage out back that I had turned into a listening room much to the dismay of our immediate neighbors. My first tribute to PWK genius was liberated on the home front when, years later, I was otherwise occupied in a war zone. But the ear-comfort fare of Klipschorn induced sound has become the essence of nest-building for this fully horn-loaded addict!

This thread started out by bringing back another old memory about thirty-five (or so) years ago, I had a pair of Khorns with a LaScala in the middle in an all masonry clubhouse on a piece of property I was developing in San Antonio, Texas, after my discharge from the Army Medical Corps at Fort Sam Houston. The memory was having Les Elgart, who was living in Texas (later died in Dallas) and a friend of the late Jim Cullum, Sr., (whos jazz band at "The Landing" on San Antonios River Walk went on to Dixieland fame and fortune... now led by his son, Jim Cullum, Jr.) dig the sounds of my jazz collection on three-channel stereo (a la PWK and Bell Labs).

In those days I had just thirty-six acres on which a mini-resort and private club had been built. The five tree-lined, well stocked, bass fishing ponds and a small dammed-up stream were a peaceful retreat for Les and his brother from the hassle of trying to keep big bands together.

I remember the time when my partner rented out the old clubhouse to a band while I was shingling a roof of a new building that was being constructed on our campground prior to the San Antonio Worlds Fair in 1968. They had four road-weary LaScalas fed by Crown amps and they nearly blew me off the roof from 300 yards away! They had recorded a song that started out with Sugar Pie and it was LOUD!!! And the happy smoke that drifted out of their practice session was nothing like the acrid smell of old smoky from my teenage years. Be they famous or not, my first venture out of the service was not going to pot and the band played on elsewhere.

And, ah yes, Gils comments on not buying new Klipsch products also rang a bell for in my early years and even now for the sport of it I relish picking up grand old Klipsch products that have been treated kindly over the years. But, I must admit, I also have bought a couple dozen or so brand new from dealers here and abroad. Sometimes the desire for the Klipsch sound for a person of multiple households just wont wait for the right speaker deal to come along. -HornEd

PS: Of course, the precision, passion and writing style of Gil on this Forum have, no doubt, stirred many a soul to hurry down to his local Klipsch dealer and get an ear-taste of the audio banquet Gill has described in his thoroughly juicy prose.

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Ed! You're back! Get a little rest, because every Klipsch owner this side of the Rockies is coming to gather at your resort for an audio/video spec-get-together-tacular! Better stock up on vittles!

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1992 at the age of fifteen, I was overcome by the realism and volume that Klipschorns could generate, with such effortless reproduction. I was forever ruined - I started playing dances around the same time for other teenagers, with a mix of speakers and radio shack p.a. amplifiers, and sony cd players, that an older brother owned. Fast forward to the present, where I own Klipsch Reference 3II's.

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1977-8, had a friend in H.S. that did some DJ work and loved stereos, had a set of Khorns in his parents living room, only place in the house that would hold 'em. I remember he had a few DBX rack units, not sure what, and NO idea what he was using for sources or power, may have even been DBX amps? Did they make such a thing in the mid 70's? Anyway, When you walked into their house you went through the long wall of the living room, the horns would be on the left and right corners of the wall the entry door was on. When you were setting on the couch across from the door listening, with the door open, the "door knocker" on the door would bounce maybe 1/2 inch off the door with every heavy bass beat. I'll never forget it. Someday. Getting closer all the time, too, see my other post re Bad Day. Listening room coming soon!! Yeee hawww!!!

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Well, jt1stcav pretty much summed it up for me. However, I was only 4 years old at the time. I didn't really notice the Cornwalls until we moved two more times and ended up here in Lakeland in '82. By this time, I was about 7, and was already turned on by classical music, which I mostly heard through my dad's Cornwalls. So I guess I could say that I was 7 when Klipsch "got" my ear.

BTW, on a side note..... I used to get picked on at school a little because on all my folders and book covers (made out of brown paper bags) remember that??!!), I used to draw pictures of pipe organs and write on them "Bach Is Better Than Rock!" 9.gif

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