The First Time I Heard Klipsch....

[thebes]

I said whoa what was that.... I sold all my worldly posessions to buy a pair and moved into the boxes they came in.... my parents told me "You'll shoot your eyes out"...

You get the drift. In other words what product, or experience brought you to the world of Klipsch.

For myself, I literally made a killing on a gambling trip to Atlantic City. I'm not a big gambler. Just went with a few friends on a weekend gettaway with a few bucks and left a day later with 8 large. Took care of lots of accumulated bills and had some mad money left over.

I had always wanted some decent speakers and here was my chance. Went auditoning to various local establishments, found a couple I liked but nothing in my price range that blew me away. Until I hit a place now gone called Audio Buys, which could well be the predecessor to Tweeters. Who cares about that anyways.

There they were a whole role of various flavors of the KG series. Bam! Didn't take long but I knew that a pair of these babies were going home with me. Compromised because of price and ended up with the KG 3.5's and even though I didn't know it at the time I had landed the sleeper top dog of the whole KG line. Still got them and boy do I still listen to them.

So what do ya say? How'd you get into Klipsch?

[r.cherry]

when i was a junior in high school a new audio store opened in town. the only audio store in fact. they sold klipsch. i was hooked. i would be in there every day after school. friends with money bought them, kirk got a pair of la scslas, pete got a set of heresys and phil got some cornwalls. i went traveling and never got any, always in the back of my mind but i had to wait. the store only lasted a year or two, but it was long enough to make it's mark on this poor kid. sooo many years ago. seems like yesterday

[Frzninvt]

A wild cousin of mine had a '78 or '79 Trans Am T/A 6.6 and he had the most incredible system in it that I had ever heard at that time.

He was using a Nakamichi 250 or 350 portable tape deck in a custom mount where the center console resided, that in turn was hooked to the best car amplifier made at that time a Fosgate PR-2100 (Long before it became Rockford Fosgate) it was 50W x 4 and was bi-ampable which was amazing for the time period. The Fosgate had an amazing preamplifer control unit with separate controls for bass, midrange, and treble, a slider type volume control and a long LED readout that started green, faded into yellow, and peaked in red. All this in a brushed aluminum housing.

Anyway, he had the rear seat cushions removed and some wooden type boxes in their place. I found out later Klipsch Heresy's! In the rear deck he had the incredible Cerwin Vega CS-15's these were unreal 6x9's they had a soft dome tweeter, and a huge 8lb magnet structure and good generate tons of bass for their size.

He fired this thing up and it was so clean sounding and played with amazing detail! The Heresy's hit like sledgehammers on the bass notes against the front seats, I guess the cabin gain helps quite a bit. I had a decent Pioneer component system at the time with some Jensen Triax II's, and a/d/s L300's in the back but man it did not even come close to my cousin's setup. I had never heard anything like that at the time, not even in a house! I was sold from that moment on. Lucky for me back then Audio Systems in Laredo, TX carried the entire Klipsch Heritage line and had them all sitting in the Showroom. Amazing! He had the big JBL subs the B-460 and B-380 and had all the killer Nakamichi, Luxman, McIntosh gear.

I heard some Klipschorns for the first time with a Luxman 25W per channel receiver and the clarity and output was amazing! Nothing impressed me much after that experience.

I have owned Klipsch speakers off and on since that time and always will.

[colterphoto1]

didn't we do this about a year ago?

[Amy]

If you did, point me to the thread! This is good stuff..

[neo33]

A long time ago, a friend loaned me a pair of home made tube amps with a whopping 3.5 WPC. I took the pair to a few local establishments but could not find a decent pair of speakers that could drive them efficiently. I called my friend but his number was disconnected. Then I vaguely remember he said something about "Klips" (I didn't even know how to pronounce it correctly back then). I went on the net trying to search for the name but could not find anything since I didn't know the correct spelling. I spent the next three nights looking at every audio board I could find. Then I ran across this site "Klispch". I said to myself: This must be it! I spent some times reading the whole site and kept thinking to myself "how can a squawker be so efficient"? Finally, I gave in and bought a pair of RF-7s sometimes later. I have since wondered aimlessly on this board. I now have Nine pairs of Heritages (gave the RF-7s to my sister). God helps me. I hate you people!

[garymd]

You all probably know my story already.

Walked into Myer-Emco when I was 20 (1980) with a sweaty wad of cash just as they were taking a pair of zebrawood cornwalls out of the box to use as floor models. I'd never even heard of Klipsch but HAD to have them. They were soooo big and beautiful. $1400 later, I was hauling them home in my Dodge Tradesman with the shag carpet and bubble windows. Didn't even listen to them until I got home. Talk about a pleasant suprise! They actually sounded as good as they looked! The rest is history.

Did I tell you the part about my father coming home from vacation and giving me 1 hour to get them out of the house before he took an axe to them? I wasn't technically working that summer but I was able to buy these gigantic speakers. He wasn't as stupid as I thought. They spent the rest of the summer boxed up at a friend's house until I left for college. That trip I had them hooked up to my van's stereo. Best car stereo I ever had.

[jacksonbart]

First time I really heard Klipsch was at college. A follow Fraternity brother had a set up of Heresys with a sub. At the time I had a pair of Boston Acoustics T830s. I was amazed how the Heresys sounded so articulate at low volumes and yet could play loud with ease. The BAs were pleasant but much more laid back and would ring with the soft dome tweeter at high volume. A year later another Frat Brother had a pair of KG 5.5s, which I really liked. I spent some time with him just cranking tunes. A post college girlfriends (not my wife) father had a pair of Khorns as well as a pair of Quads, which while it lasted I was able to play with a few times, very nice. It was a year after buying my first house w/ my wife that I auditioned speakers to replace the BAs I had since college and could not resist the RF7s. The RF7s for my space with the RSW15 are a perfect fit.

[Big Ears]

My first time was in '83 at my best friends Mom's house. She was a hippie that lived way out in the country in Oklahoma. We would go stay the weekend with her all the time because she would let us party. There were always several people "camped out" around the house.

Anyway, she used to own a bar in Stillwater that closed down. On the front porch of her old farm house was the sound system out of her bar. It was a pair of Cornwalls with a pair of Hereseys sitting on top of them. Power was supplied by two Yamaha 100 watt per channel amps. We had like a thousand albums to choose from. My favorites were Styx "Grand Illusion", Steve Miller "Fly Like an Eagle", ZZ Top "Best Of" and Billy Thorpe "Chilren of the Sun". Those speakers sounded as good or better from 200 feet away as they did right up close. I think the hereseys were the perfect match for the cornwalls. They were like walls of sound!

We used that system for our senior party and literally had noise complaints from 2 miles away. The cops came out several times to try to get us to turn it down, but in those days you could tell the cops to take a hike. We rocked out till morning. I have wanted some Klipsch's ever since then, but have waited until I had the right space for them and budget. I will always have fond memories of my wild days at the hippie farm, with the Klipsch stack on the front porch and the lady named "Star" that taught me the words to "White Rabbit".

[Seadog]

My brother (two years older than me) bought a nice Sansui/Cerwin Vega system in 1976 when I was still in HS and he was still living at home. I thought it was very good, but when I went off to college, I heard Lascalas at an independent mom and pop music store, and there it was, the sound that I could not forget.

When I graduated from engineering school and had saved a few bucks, the first real purchase I made was a stereo system. I went to the local Klipsch dealer and said I wanted to buy a system, and I wanted Klipsch speakers. I was not interested in hearing anything else (although I listened to Boston Acoustic and some others to be a nice customer!). That was the first time that I had walked through the door of a Klipsch dealer, and that day I took home a pair of KG4 speakers, a Yamaha receiver, and a Technics TT. That was in 1985.

BTW, I converted my brother over to Klipsch a couple of years ago. Today we both have K-horns.

[Olorin]

First time I heard Klipsch was at a friend of a friend's house. They were Heresys, sitting on the floor about three feet apart hooked up to some 80s receiver. They sounded really bad. They had screeching highs, raspy mids, and no bass at all.

Then went to audition a used stereo system a guy had for sale in my college town. I didn't know anything about it except that it had a big honking European-spec Kenwood receiver and a Nakamichi tape deck. I like Nak, so I went to check it out. I was a little dismayed when I saw the speakers were Heresys, but when he put Moving Pictures in the CD player that all changed. I had NEVER heard that opening synth sound so rich and so clean, nor had I ever been hit in the chest like that by a snare drum that wasn't an actual snare in the room with me. I think my hands were shaking when I handed over the cash.

Those were my only speakers for more than ten years. Then I came here. Now I have twelve of the things.

[colterphoto1]

Here's one thread

http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=17768&forumID=74&catID=19&search=1&searchstring=&sessionID={2396FB4F-6D85-4760-9C4E-3949CDA267BC}

although my post isn't on it. I'll keep digging.

[Blackmesa]

Promedia V2.400's (4.1s) turned me on to klipsch. Those speakers actually revolutionized the multimedia speaker market.

[MrMcGoo]

The first Klipsch speakers that I listened to was a pair of Khorns in 1972. They were not fully sealed into the corners and were on a Kenwood receiver. The room had a tile floor. With all of these handicaps, the Khorns still sounded better that any other speaker that I had ever heard.

Twenty years later the story continues. Magnolia opened a store (now closed) that stocked Klipsch speakers in the KG series. I started my trip to the dark side (upgradeitis) with KG series then added Epic CF-2s. The darned RC-7 got me hooked on the Reference series. I bought the full 7.1 setup with the RSW-15 to replace my SW-12 II.

I will stick with the Reference series till I get corners for Khorns.

Bill

[colterphoto1]

Okay, I'll type it out again, couldn't find the old thread.

My first time listen to Klipsch speakers was as a young man, just starting work as a pa installer for Calliope Sound in Indianpolis ( Now Indy Pro Audio). They had a showroom/stage on the northwest side of Indy. I walked in, met the owner, and saw THEM. He had an early set of the MCM Grand stacks set up on the stage for bands to audition. The double 15" bass bins through the mid bass/ hi horns and that 5 pack of tweeters on top. Played me the Who's - Who are You through a Nakamichi Dragon cassette deck, I'd never heard the song like this- when Roger hit that famous 'Who the F are You!' line, it was like he was in the room, full concert levels.

I later was in charge of setting these stacks up at outdoor concert venues. My main system for rentals to DJ's and small bands was a double stack of split Industrial LaScalas (you know the beautiful ones with fibreglass and aluminum trim).

Thanks to the Forum I now own a very similar setup in my garage which lovingly blows the hair clean off my body when I wax my cars!

How's that for a love story Amy?

Michael

[travisc]

I live in a college town in vermont. One of the local coffee shops, Muddy Waters, have a pair of quartets sitting sideways in the rafters, they have this post and beam thing going. Everytime I was in there my eyes would look at those speakers. I didnt know what they were, but everytime I was in there the sound was great. They have a huge cd collection, every time the genre was different and it always impressed me.

When a friend offered to sell his forte II's, he said there just like the ones at muddy waters. So I bought them AB'd them against bose 901 series II, gave the bose to a friend. Then it started;} thank God I dont have a house. But I am looking and now Its got to have a heritage sized living room.

[edwinr]

The first Klispch loudspeakers I heard were La Scalas. It was about 1990 and I was in the market for a pair of new speakers. I heard nearly every 'speaker in the shop including Missions, B&W and Monitor Audio. They sounded okay but nothing special. At the back of the shop the store owner had his own La Scalas (not for sale). These speakers blew everything in the shop away - then some. I couldn't believe the incredible sound. I ended up with a pair of KG5.5's because I couldn't afford new La Scalas back then. Soon I may end up with a brand new pair of the La Scala updates. You never know.

[Frzninvt]

Travis, you in Burlington, VT? I work in Burlington, but live in Milton. If you ever want to demo my setup with the speakers I have listed below you are more than welcome to do so.

[Royster]

Well I guess for me it started as a kid. Really never had been around anything else. Dad had short horns until 77 when he bought new khorns, 2 uncles had korns, dads pals had scallas.

There was a dealer in Villa Park, Il called Hifi Hucth. Walked in there 05,30,1982. walked out with Corns,nak dragon tape deck, denon TT with dp 103 cart, denon int amp...... thought that i had gone to hifi heaven. Hauled all this back to my studio apt, which was a stero syst, and a california king water bed. AHHHHHHHH the simpler days.

So it was only right for me to continue the chain. Now had dads horns, scallas, kg 3.5, kg 2.5, rsw 15 x 2, promedia. And if car adio was offered wold switch from my Oz Audio.

[colterphoto1]

Royster, the old guys in your family had it GOING ON! Man that's like thousands of pounds of Klipsch in the family homes. You guys ROCK.