greg928gts Posted February 27, 2005 Share Posted February 27, 2005 9 hour round trip to Vermont to pick these up from Don Gurney (digjr). He built these himself but they just don't work well for his home theater setup. Don bought a whole Khorn upgrade kit in the late 90's so these have AK-3's in them which I'm going to switch into my Khorns first just to see how they sound. Then I've got plans . . . I'll post more when I get farther along with my experiment. These have a 12" woofer, a midrange horn about the size of a Belle horn, and K-77 tweeters. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D0N Posted February 27, 2005 Share Posted February 27, 2005 wow those are nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BS Button Posted February 27, 2005 Share Posted February 27, 2005 Good grief, send more pictures. They look outstanding. Get some badges from Klipsch and stick 'em on there. BS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 Well that is about the most interesting speaker I have seen in a long time. Please let us know EXACTLY how these perform. With the reduction in size the possibility of using them in the living room with false corners looks way more possible. They are so cute! I wonder what the bass response is - can you assess it? Lots more questions - but I will give you time to get them in first - GREAT SCORE though!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 that lil one up top is a supermini khorn with 2" woofer! Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frzninvt Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 The midrange horn is an EV horn, I have seen them on custom Cornwall DIY speakers before. Don does really nice work, his mini Belles were really awesome. He did offer for a time to build Academy's for people but there was not enough interest to make it worthwhile. They were still going to run $450-$500 since the parts alone were like $376 or more and that was not including the input cup, cabinet and grill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 Greg, They look great! So how do they sound at your place? Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.4knee Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 We told you not to let them get wet! Now look what happend when they dried! Nice score.... Please provide a full report on performance please!!!!!! Again nice score. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodger Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 Maybe a certain Speaker Company should consider something like these. They ARE very nice looking. I truly hope you like them. dodger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q-Man Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 I would like to hear your opinion of them, if you can A/B them with your Klipschorn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted February 28, 2005 Author Share Posted February 28, 2005 Please give me some time guys, I have a business to run which takes up most of my days! I will test these out all in due time. There are some inherent problems though. I expect the bass output from these will not be very deep. That's not the main problem though. The problem is that they have AK-3 crossovers that send 400hz and down to the bass bins and 400hz and up to a horn that is only good down to 600 hz. See the hole? I think what I need are Cornwall crossovers, but I'm not sure the bass bins will be able to produce up to 600 hz. Perhaps the answer lies in the Belle crossover? Perhaps the answer lies in not using as a whole speaker but only use the bass bins and crossovers, which is why I bought them! First thing's first, I'm going to put the AK-3's in my Khorns to see how they sound compared to the aftermarket A's that I have in there now. I also have some new-to-me tubes to try out in my Horus' I picked up 3 old 2A3 black plate RCA's, two of which are Navy spec from 1943! I hope they still work. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frzninvt Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 Just remember the other part of that AK-3 crossover is in the woofer bin, if that is where Don put it. It should consist of a single 100uf cap or two 50uf's and 4mh coil. The rest of the network resides on the board itself. It was designed with the K-55M in mind which is what he had on those EV horns I believe. A number of folks have stated that the K-55V and K-55M were interchangeable so they should work in your '81 Khorns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 too cute! too bad Klipsch didn't make a half size model... plus a twice size version too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q-Man Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 I could care less what the top section sounds like. That can be fixed with different drivers, horns and a network. There won't be any fixing of the bass horn. That's why I am wondering what it sounds like. It might just be good for a bon fire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted April 21, 2005 Author Share Posted April 21, 2005 I finally got these put back together and did a real listening test in my upstairs room where I keep a few systems. I have a pair of Cornwalls in that room that I run with a Scott 299A and a Denon transport/MSB LINK DACIII. I put the mini Khorns in the corners in place of the Cornwalls keeping all the electronics the same. These mini Khorns have K-77 tweeters, K-55 mid drivers, a plastic midrange horn slightly bigger than the Cornwall, and Klipsch K-1050 12" woofers. I installed the "B" crossovers that Larry (lwhaples) generously gave to me from his Cornwalls. So if you think about this, the only thing that has really changed from my Cornwall system is the bass bin. I put on a Spyro Gyra CD and cranked up the 299A. Right away I was struck by the efficiency and output of the mini's. They are more efficient than the Cornwalls. The highs and mids sounded very much like the Cornwall, but I think the mids were actually a little fuller sounding and the speakers had better soundstaging and depth, probably due to the location of the horns in the corners, at least that was my take on it. Now, to describe the bass. First impression was of a very strong, deep sounding bass. I was surprised at how deep these went, every bit as much as the Cornwalls. They really had a nice impact and filled the room with ease (10 x 14 room). However, the bass was muddy in the upper ranges. A bass guitar line, or the lower strings of a guitar seem to muddle together without enough definition. There's also a distinct "shelf" if you will, where the sound jumps from the frequencies coming out of the bass bins to the midrange. It's more of a real difference in the sound quality of say a 400Hz note and a 800Hz note. The smoothness of the lower notes coming from the midrange horn was noticeable compared to the muddiness of the upper notes coming from the bass bins. I also noted some "beaming" from the mids. Some lower midrange notes were "coming forward" more than others. I have a rack of equipment and a pair of speakers between these mini's on the wall, and the corners are not the best for the mini bass bins to work in. So I expect these would sound better in a room better suited for them. There's no full back wall behind the listening position either, it's a 4' tall wall that is open to the space below. This tends to keep reflections down, but the room requires a speaker with very strong bass to be balanced with the mids and highs. The Cornwalls do pretty good as far as the balance in this room, but the mini's were actually better. The bass almost sounded like it was boosted a bit on the 299 when it was actually set flat. Actually was more to my liking. Overall I was very impressed with the mini's, maybe even more so than the Cornwalls. I'm going to try a K-22 in the bass bins and see how they sound, I'll also try the AA crossovers in them to see if that cleans up the lower midrange and upper bass frequencies, then I'll go back to the Cornwalls as a final comparison. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyKlipschFan Posted April 21, 2005 Share Posted April 21, 2005 Nice to see an honest review from someone who bought something(Has to be great right?) and A/B equipment as well. Only thing I might be sure and and do is try is a lot of different music material. Spyro Gyras song, Morning Dance" one of my favorites on my Klipsch speakers just SINGS everytime. That is, if it is the lp record or what CD version it is on. Sometimes need to lay back and try different things to listen to to be more objective too. My 2 cents. PS. I Think they are wonderful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lwhaples Posted April 21, 2005 Share Posted April 21, 2005 Greg, Glad to hear you are able to use the crossovers. The speakers sure look GOOD! I didn't care for the high tones in my Corn's and am glad I got the ALK's from Dean. Thanks for posting the write up on your Mini's. Enjoy! Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted April 21, 2005 Share Posted April 21, 2005 Greg, Other than the money, the extreme slope crossovers from Al might be in order, it you could get the crossover freq. right. Maybe try a 3 way electronic crossover to get a better idea (most of those are only 24db/octave though). Those really look great. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipsch Employees Trey Cannon Posted April 21, 2005 Klipsch Employees Share Posted April 21, 2005 Greg, are you flying down or driving to the tour? If you are driving and can, bring the babby horns...we can test them for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted April 21, 2005 Author Share Posted April 21, 2005 Trey, I'm flying. I thought about driving and bringing them with me, I'm sure others would be interested to hear and see them, but the drive is just too much for me right now. Thanks for the offer. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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