rplace Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 Want to know everything leading up to this? Check out: Frzn Tip And Speaker Match Request> First a little background info. I never actually thought I would own a pair of khorns, they always seemed just a little beyond my reach both in accommodating them and financially. So I was content to dream about maybe having a pair of LaScalas some day that needed to be refinished or something along those lines, while getting by just fine with my Forte IIs. Time goes by and I actually have the ability to build a dedicated home theater/music room and focus on Chorus/Forte as my speakers of choice. My room ends up being rather fluid in its design in that I did not have had a clear plan in mind when I started out (note to selfget a plan next time). Two rows of seats or one; 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1; Screen size; Screen aspect ratio; the list goes on. About the only thing I was sure of was that it would be built around Klipsch speakers. Still it was a great project, fun doing the work myself and fun learning a lot along the way. This forum and the members contributed greatly to my success to date. Too many people to thank all I can say is if you are in the Baltimore area and want to watch a movie give me a yell. With the room mostly done and filled with Chorus/Forte/Academies in the finish of WO/OO/Black and sounding great I turned my focus on getting them all to match. A forum member had WO CIIs and was looking for Heresies (I had those too) and an Academy this looked promising. That did not quite work out and good for him as he scored a great sale on ebay with his BIN price. Great news for him, I am happy as he was a pleasure to deal with back and forth even though things did not quite work out. Then a pair of Klipschorns shows up on ebay minus one top. Price seemed right and I had a friend in the area (Toronto, Canada) willing to pick them up and store them for me till I could get them. Got all worked up looking at ways to get the missing top and putting the wheels into motion. I am not the only one that saw a good deal and the auction ended up going for more then I was willing to pay. A bit disappointed I start scheming. So now I am in Khorn mode. I look on Audiogon and there is a guy in driving distance with mid 70s vintage in decent shape but way more then I am willing to pay. We have a little back and forth, get close, but again not meant to be. For the time being I get the khorn monkey off my back and go back to more reasonable goals of Chorus/Forte in matching finish. Much to my surprise the forum yields many promising avenues. Olorin and I have a plesent exchange of several emails trying to work out the details of rehabbing his Cs and trading for my two black Academies, TigerwoodKhorns gets a lead on WO Cs in his area for me. In the middle of all this my new friend (and my wifes new nemesis) FrznInVt turns me on to Khorns and Heresies about an hour from my home. Better yet, GaryMD lives all of 5 minutes from the sellers house and offers to go take a look at them for me. Hmmm, this is shaping up nicely almost too nice, what is the catch? Now I start to take a long hard look at my theater. Can I shoehorn them in? LarryC is quick to give me the dimensions I need and it looks like they will just fit. Still no reason to back offlooking more and more like I am moving up to the big leagues. The seller is none to quick to get with me on the details I figure he is getting tons of requests and cant process them all or this is too good to be true. Gary however has better luck and stops by less then 24 hours after this whole ball gets rolling. He gives me a glowing report on both the speakers and the seller. Man I am starting to get really excited now. Now I must face the reality that I already have 6 speakers in my 13X16 room and two pair of Heresies waiting in the wingsit now takes all my fingers/thumbs to count my Klipsch speakersif I go with the sellers Khorns + matching Heresies I will need to take my shoes off! If I would need to count everything with a Klipsch badge on it in my house including subwoofer and the modest 5 speaker setup in the living room I am using up every single digit I have. ONE more speaker and I will have to drop my pants to count themoh the humanity. Oh will my wife be pissed ;-) Thursday night was a sleepless one as I contemplate all my possible configurations. This Klipsch gem here that one there another suspended from the ceilingbut how to do itno the WAF will be already stretched thin with the Klipschorns, maybe some nice stands to pretty things up, yea thats it. NO. They cost money and I am already on thin ice with the winters home theater project. The wife thinks I have a thing for the girls at Home Depot and their orange aprons as I am there 3-4 times a week. Man I am excitedcalm down the Toronto pair went bust and surely there are others in the Baltimore area eyeing up this prize. Man I gotta get some sleep. Count sheep 1, 2, 3 they turn into speakers in my room 4, 5, 6. Friday was a total drag. Stomach in knots called the sellerleft email not much info for most of the day. I told the wife of the plans, she was not at all happy. She asks me if anything will ever be enough. However; she is a fantastic person and even though she was against it she did not say no. It was a rather frosty afternoon, but through it all she was as reasonable as possible. I really must have done something good in another life, because I dont understand why I had the good fortune to land her and be working on a set of khorns. I get with the seller late Friday and set up a meeting for Saturday morning. Then I score the bonus of on invite to GaryMDs house to check out his KHs, killer vinyl collection and equipment. Look for a thread on that soon as I think it may have changed my life in a way. All I can say now is AMAZING. I am at a total loss for words. Another sleepless night as I fantasize about refrigerator sized, wooden clad, mounds of audio bliss wedged into my corners. Saturday comes, a quick breakfast, cup of coffee, dig up a couple of test CDs, stuff a wad of bills in my pocket (seller requested cash hope I am not off to get whacked over the head with a sock full of pennies) and I am off. Man that was the longest 45 minute drive in my life - all sorts of things running through my head. Ill spare you those details and get to the good stuff. Gary is meeting me at the sellers house to educate me on all things khorn and help with the movehave I mentioned yet that GaryMD is the best? He actually deserves two pair of free klipschorns. If you dont know what I am talking about do a search for free 1976. The story will choke you up unless you are subhuman. Enough about Super Gary lets get back to the tale at hand. Turns out the speaker are very dusty, not just thirsty or parched but famished for oil. All in all they are in very nice shape. They were delivered to the seller in 1987 and have not moved from the two corners until today. The room was even painted around them; with the khorns moved out of place you can see light yellow corners with white walls everywhere else. The seller is a super guy, great stories about his kids rocking the house with his (soon to be my) beloved speakers. I investigate. They are HUGE. Bigger then I remember. Gary reassures me they look smaller when in the actual corner and melt into place over time. The seller, Gary and I concoct a plan to get the bottoms in place before the wife ever sees them in the car or middle of the room, then add the tops a little later. Hey, I am willing to try anything to avoid the trouble I think these will cause. I simply MUST have them after seeing/hearing them. The sonic tests was more of a formality then anything as the speakers were out of the corners in a crowed room running off of, shall we say, less then stellar equipment. Still they sounded great. We talk a bit, come to terms on price, dismantle them, wrap what we can in blankets and load them in to my car. Now all that lies ahead is cleaning them up, sneaking them into the house, and many years of an ear to ear grin as I listen. Thanks for letting me rant about my adventure, incase you could not tell I was very excited to get them. Keep an eye out for my Khorn review, story about GaryMDs awe inspiring set up, and the warming up of the wife to the walnut wonders. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 It's a rather convoluted tale you weave, but I got through it. If any of us tried to put our lifetime of Klipsch adventures into a single post, they'd be just as long. Congrats on the score. You definitely did your homework and paid your dues, so welcome to the big leagues! Yes, GaryMD is one of the good guys, as are most you will find on this FOrum. Where else would you feel secure paying thousands for something based on the advice of a 'stranger' or wilder yet, pay for something and send someone you had never met in person to pick the items up and store/transport for you? Looking forward to the Khorn reviews. It's the one Heritage Klipsch I don't own (yet) Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rplace Posted March 16, 2005 Author Share Posted March 16, 2005 Can't seem to get a good picture with flash or without. Any suggestions. This is with flash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dzapper Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 Rich, Just when it was getting interesting, you cut it off!! Tell us the tale of sneaking them in and the SWMBO"s reactions. I was lucky, my wife was with me when I bought mine. It wasn't a hard sell to a then 23 YO rock fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rplace Posted March 16, 2005 Author Share Posted March 16, 2005 2nd try with smaller file Ok, what am I doing wrong? Why can't I imbed the image in the body of the message. I have done it before with standard "img" tag referencing the picture after upload. Any help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frzninvt Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 Congrats Rich! I am glad you scored. I am on a roll this is the second pair of Khorns that I have assisted with getting mated with a forum member in the past two weeks how cool is that! I am sure you will be tickled pink with their performance. I bet Gary's system did sway you he has some very nice stuff put together. I would really like to hear a nice tube system someday to see what I may be missing. Give us some listening impressions when you can, and most of all enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rplace Posted March 16, 2005 Author Share Posted March 16, 2005 Same speaker with out the flash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rplace Posted March 16, 2005 Author Share Posted March 16, 2005 Looks like I got it figured out...here is 2nd speaker with and with out flash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rplace Posted March 16, 2005 Author Share Posted March 16, 2005 FRZN, you are the match maker in the used khorn world. Keep at it as you are spreading joy around the world. 3dZapper, I got totally lucky. She went to the grocery store right after I got home. Probably discussed with my adventures to date and left for a bit. At any rate I blew the dust off, gave them a quick bath in lemon oil, and put the bottoms in as per the plan. She came back, never even asked about them or looked at them. About 4 hours later we were going to watch a movie. I said I needed 1/2 hour to set things up. I dragged in the tops this round, cleaned/oiled/assembled/wired and we watched "Ray" what a great sounding movie. She never even commented on the size of the speakers. She did say they sounded great. No friction at all...but no approval either. Last night we sat together drinking wine and listening to various cuts from many CDs. She finally broke down and asked why all the wood and what was the difference between normal speakers and these. I jumped up, spun one around talked about the folded horn and how the high/mid is at the top. We both marveled at the long mid horn. I then went on to talk about how the speaker is actually using the wallsbla bla bla. She said enough already lets just listen. All is well! She loves them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfogg Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 Nice looking theater, the K'Horns fit in well there. Is that a 104" or 112" 2.35 Carada?I have the 104". Shawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 Wow great story, thank you for posting it. Your pictures look great you really got a nice looking pair. Now that you have joined the big league you gave to share with the rest of us how they sound. Very cool of the other members to help you out the way they did. Envious big time. What is the width of your HT room? Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dzapper Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 "All is well! She loves them." Enough said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frzninvt Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 Looks like you have moved a Chorus into the center channel duty now? It looks bigger than a Forte II I know it has to sound awesome! How couldn't it, seems they just fit into place for you. You have a killer HT room, I got the gear but now I need a room like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 Love the wall color, wall sconces and flooring. Is the floor just Armstrong tiles? Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rplace Posted March 16, 2005 Author Share Posted March 16, 2005 Jacksonbart, the room is 13.5 wide in the pix you see. It is about 16.75 deep. Khorns do overlap the edge of the frame a tad, but not the actual screen. Sfogg, it is actually the 96 I was going to go with the 104, but though it might be just a tad wide for my room. Glad I did or the khorns would not have fit. You and I had a lot of back and forth on the AR of the screen. I am so glad I went the wider route. Thanks again for that. Frzn, You are right about the Chorus moved to center dutynice because they are all WO up front which is what I was after when I originally posted about chorus/forte trade. Bonus was that the Heresies that came with the khorns were WO. So now I got a good start on matching all finishes. BTW, I have watched 2-3 movies with the new set up. No comparison as far as the KHs in the cornersand the chorus makes a great center so far. I know the best would be Belle/LS, but I dont want to push my luck for the time being. Time to lay low on the speaker buying binge and enjoy what I have for a while. Thanks for the kind words on the rooma labor of love. Happy with the dark red walls with sand textured finish. Black front wall and ceiling looks theater-like in my mind. The blue sconces give it a 30s art-deco feel to me. Still need to trim out my rack of equipment and finish a few things off while await the arrival of my seats. Getting close. The Khorns just fit as mentioned above. Almost looks like I planned something rightjust got lucky. I do need to cut into the walls now and get my wires rerouted behind the speakers for that finished look. Also need to reroute my sub power as it is right along the right wall and keeps that one KH from getting snug up against the wall. Always something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rplace Posted March 16, 2005 Author Share Posted March 16, 2005 CP1, no that is a berber carpet with a mostly brown/tan mix...some blue and red highlights as well seems to work well with all the rest of the stuff in the room. I can't seem to get a decent photo to really show the dark red walls (they are much darker then the photo suggests) and still get the speakers to show up. That big white rectangle in the front does not help the light metering. Guess I need to put a movie on and use a slow shutter speed. You got any photo tips for dark rooms? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted March 17, 2005 Share Posted March 17, 2005 photos in dark rooms, use a tripod. meter (point camera at) screen with image and manually set the shutter speed so the shutter will be veeeerrryyy ssslloooowww ( like 1 sec) and capture the screen image. The aperature should be set the same on the lens and flash, because this controls the flash part of exposure. (flash is like 1/5000 of a sec, so any additional length of time the lens is open just sucks in more ambient light, not flash light.) You may not be able to make these adjustments on a digital camera. If not, just take flash photo of gear, cropping the big WHITE thingy out so your meter is not thrown off. Then use tripod and NO FLASH to capture the screen image. Michael this is what it reads like when you guys talk NOS tubes and SET and that other foreign language.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryC Posted March 17, 2005 Share Posted March 17, 2005 ---------------- On 3/17/2005 3:30:45 PM colterphoto1 wrote: ...manually set the shutter speed so the shutter will be veeeerrryyy ssslloooowww ( like 1 sec) and capture the screen image...flash is like 1/5000 of a sec, so any additional length of time the lens is open just sucks in more ambient light, not flash light. You may not be able to make these adjustments on a digital camera. ---------------- Excellent photog JT1stcav has pointed out that the "slow synch" setting on some digital cameras will do just that -- keep the shutter open for a long time before (or after?) the flash, and help fill it in with ambient light. Haven't tried it myself yet. Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-MAN Posted March 18, 2005 Share Posted March 18, 2005 Holy COw! that's a GREAT looking setup. I'm extremely jealous. Green with envy. Oh, no! I'm covetous. Now I'm in trouble - thanks alot!! DM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.