The First Time I Heard Klipsch....

[Royster]

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On 6/21/2005 8:26:55 AM colterphoto1 wrote:

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.

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Yes, it was kind of neat having family that had a love for good sound. I still kick myself for letting dads Marantz tube stuff get away. I know that atleast 10 kids that were hooked for life after listening to the Who, Stones and a lot of great Motown at our place.

Back in 8th grade, a emerald green swchwinn stingray, and a pool party at our place moved a nerviue shy kid to the top of hipster status. Mustang sally cranked with tube power and Khorns. Ohhh, how easy it all was back then. lol

[3dzapper]

Here is my Klipsch story:

Although I had heard of the Klipsch brand and seen advertisements for Klipsch speakers

Before I bought mine, I had never heard one. The most memorable ad was the one for Heresys:

"two Thirds of A Klipschorn for one third the price."

I was into audio since my late teens but not into a position to afford much. I had a pair of

Realistic Optimus 1 speakers and Realistic reciever for a few years. Many of my friends had

AR speakers. I bought a Marantz 2325 reciever after seeing a review in Audio. I found then

that my speakers were the weak link.

Then came THE ARTICLE that changed my life! Of course I am refering to the 1975 interview

with Paul Wilbur Klipsch in "Rolling Stone". The author began by raving about the rock and

roll sound of his Klipsch LaScalas and decided to go to Hope, Arkansas to meet THE MAN.

Reading the describtion of PWK's background, his ecentricities and, especially, his wearing

pants larger than normal to allow him to carry copous numbers of trinkets in his pockets, I

said to myself "This guy's a Kook and a geneous, I want some Klipsch speakers!"

I started saving all my spare change at that point. Skipping lunch from the wagon as well as

a few beers.

I did some research and built myself as close to a pair of Heresy clones as I could afford

using drivers from Radio Shack. They weren't pretty but they did sound good. As a matter of

fact, my daughter used them for many years until she bought her own Fortes in the '90s.

I saved and saved until I had enough change for a pair of Heresys. Then I said to myself

that with the difference between Heresys, Cornwalls and LaScalas, I would not be happy for

long with "mere" Heresys. So, I saved some more. Finally in late 1977, I had the $800 for a

pair of Cornwalls and a couple hundred more stashed in my wallet!

On a Friday night my wife, brother and myself drove the sixty or so miles to Welesly, Mass

to a store called The Music Box, the closest Klipsch dealer. They were closed! We returned

on the next day after work armed with a pile of my favorite albums. I brought my wife

because I felt that this was a family decision and to keep myself from doing something rash.

The people at The Music Box were some of the friendliest I have ever had the pleasure to do

business with. They ttreated me with dignity despite the soiled jeans and stained hands of

an auto mechanic. They played a half dozen of my albums on their display Cornwalls and

McIntosh amps and we were very pleased with the sound and ready to buy when I said "I've

just got to hear them, put the ones in the corner on." Naturaly, I was refering to the

beautiful Rosewood Klipschorns.

He attached the leads to the amp and to the sounds of the Beattles "Hey Jude" I looked at my

wife and she smiled. Those were our speakers!

We talked to the salesman a bit about prices for various options, there was no discount from

the list price in those days, and amonst ourselves about finances. We decided to use a few

hundred dollars from our house savings to make up the difference from my savings. We bought

our klipschorns in raw birch KC-BR models. They were delivered the following Thursday.

Those Klipschorns are still with us near thirty years later. They are veneered with

beautifully figured black walnut veneer these days and still take their regal place in the

corners.

My love affair with Klipsch products continues to this day. A day that I don't listen to my

Klipsch Heritage is not complete.

Thank you Paul.

Rick

[colterphoto1]

beautiful story Rick, thanks for posting.

[rplace]

The first time I head Klipsch speakers was in the early 80s at a Frat house. They were beat to hell and hanging from the ceiling by chains. I dont know what was driving them but they were pealing the paint off of the walls. Blistering, a$$ kicking, clear, loud, Rock n Roll. I was amazed at the sound and the size. I said some day I have to have some of those. So far I have owned four different pairs of Heresies and currently own two pair.

My first pair of Klipsch speakers were KG4s. I had been shopping at a used record store in Ann Arbor Michigan and picked up a few discs. I stopped into The Stereo Shop and the salesman threw one of my newly acquired CDs in. Echo and the Bunnymens Lips Like Sugar poured out of them like sonic gold. I bought the KG4s that day. As we drove away with the two boxes in my 1979 rusted out Subaru wagon I joked to my then girlfriend (now wife) that I doubled the value of my car by throwing the speakers in the back of the car. It was a snowy, miserable, Michigan winters dayand I had to drive home with the back of the wagon open for over 45 minutes. I did not care. I now owned a pair of Klipsch speakers.

My wife and I comment on that one day every single time we hear any Echo song - it is as if it happened yesterday. I can see it perfectly in my mind over 15 years after the fact.

The KG4 were sold to finance a pair of Forte IIsI still have the CD used price tag on it and all.

[J.4knee]

My first time I heard them was in a local Audio store in PA back in high school (Late 70's.) They had Heresy's and I thought wow they sound really good. Fast forward ahead about 5 years and I am in the NEX in Yokosuka, JA. The Nakamichi rep had a pair of Heresy's set up and I listened again and wow I was amazed. A couple months later (I think), he had a set of La Scala's set up. I asked him to demo them and bought a set that day. I picked them up at the warehouse, had to rent a truck, the warehouse worker looked at the boxes and said wow what are you gonna rock a Disco?, I smiled and said no just a Japanese neighborhood. I got them home my Japanese neighbors though I bought a washer and dryer, needless they were a little dismayed when I said no they are just stereo speakers. This all took place back in 1984, Ive had my La Scalas ever since. Ironically I swore I would get a set of Heresys to back them up and low and behold fast forward another 20 years and I have three La Scalas and two pair of Heresy IIs. I guess you could say that first impression kind of stuck with me.

[masterngc]

It was when the promedia 4.1's came out. I heard about these speakers but had never heard of klipsch, so i went to the nearest klipsch dealer, natural sound and they had some heritage series speakers, and some other speakers as well. when i heard the speakers, either k-horns or lascalas, i had an eargasm and knew that i wanted klipsch speakers. I still don't have any real ht klipsch's, but i did just buy a pair of promedia ultra 5.1's for my puter and they don't sound that bad... but i will buy a decent ht system once im out of recording school...

[Cal Blacksmith]

I know there was at least one other thread on this or a related topic. I found this one:

http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=62240&forumID=74&catID=19&search=1&searchstring=&sessionID={8DDD1FD0-8E7D-4E3E-8192-FF3F6063C7FA}

but this is the thread I was thinking about;

http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=58247&forumID=74&catID=19&search=1&searchstring=&sessionID={625F3B69-FCA6-48B2-BA84-4FE3480ADB77}

On the second thread I wrote:

The first system I had that cost more than a mere pittance was purchased in 1977 from a high end shop in Fayetteville N.C. Sound Systems Inc. Yamaha had just come out with their first high end equipment. I went in looking just to see what they had. Well I fell in love with a Mac 225 running a pair of Khorns but that was out of reach for a lowly E4 in the army. So I walked out with a Yamaha Ca600 integrated amp, CT400 tuner, B&O 1900 turntable, Tandberg 1900x reel to reel and a pair of Yamaha NS 600 speakers. I still have everything but the speakers as they were stolen when I shipped them home on my exit from the army. The reel to reel needs a new drive belt but other than that it is in great shape. The turntable needs a new lid as the spring that held it up broke the plastic tabs that it attached to and the amp sits on my spare equipment rack but the tuner is still in daily use with my current system.

Things have changed since this post but the first Klipsch is still the same!

[thebes]

Wow, quite a wide variety of stories. Hope I'm not boroing naybody with this topic, hadn't realized it had been done before.

Seems like for most of us, something about Klipsch that we couldn't articulate at the time, grabbed us and wouldn't let go.

I was particularly taken by Rick's story, something sought after and saved for, and a group effort requiring participation and mutual agreement by his wife.

Now for you youngsters back in the day when Rick was a young man, a 60 mile trip was something to talk about. First you had to put on goggles,big leather gloves, a waxed trenchcoat called a "Duster" and then climb into something called a "Fliver", which was an open topped car they had before they figured out you could put a top on them. Then the entire family and associated relatives, including Aunt Tillie, would pile in and off they'd go. Of course the tires were made of natural rubber and you had to change them at least once every 20 miles or so, and by the time they got to where they were going they were in someplace called "the next county" and the local dialect had changed.

Pretty cool way to buy some speakers, of course, they did the exact same thing if they were off to buy a butter churn.

Any more "stories in the city" to share?

[jheis]

Back when I was going to law school in SF, one of my classmates (older than the rest of us) was an Aussie named Nick. Anyway, Nick had a pair of Cornwalls and a party at his flat was my introduction to Klipsch. Needless to say, I was blown away.

Nick ended up selling his Cornwalls because his girlfriend hated them. They were too big and "nothing but bass." Of course, as a starving student, I couldn't afford rent - let alone Cornwalls, so Nick's speakers got away. A few years later, however, I found a pair of '81 Cornwall demo's at (of all places) the Good Guys. Still have the receipt: $734.86 - dated 9/4/83. Still have the Cornwalls and they're the one purchase I've never regreted for a second.

The next Klipsch purchase was a pair of used KG 2's. I answered an add in the classified's and the owner brought them over to my house. He told me that he had sold them to someone else, but took them back "because one of the drivers was bad." Since I figured I was going to have to replace a driver, I offered him 50 bucks and he said "deal." After he left I unscrewed the passive radiator on the bad speaker and found a loose spade connector on the woofer - problem solved. Still have the KG 2's as well.

Since then I've added three pair of Heresys and a pair of La Scalas. Thanks Nick!

James

[skonopa]

I am certain that I've heard Klipsch over the years, but never realized what they were (or thought there was no way I could afford them). Part of it was that I was not really into high-end audio (again, figuring it was some hoity-toity, snooty, 'audiophile', type thing that only the super-rich got to play with).

But, when I bought my house, I decided I wanted something better than the boombox hooked up to the TV thing that I was using before. I ended up with a Yamaha reciever with some Infinity RS2000.5 fronts, using some cheap Yamaha speakers as surrounds. This worked fine for the next six years or so, but it was a pro-logic setup.

Wanting to get into the newer Dolby-Digital and DTS format with this fancy new "DVD" thing that was coming out, I wanted to upgrade the reciever, thus I ended up with a Denon AVR3802 (which I am still using as a pre-pro). However, now that I got the fancy new reciever, I wanted to at least get some better surrounds instead of the Yamaha speakers. I was going with the idea of just getting the rest of the Infinity, or at least getting some newer Infinity speakers.

However, in the time between buying my original HT setup and the newer one, I've gotten a set of the Klipsch ProMedia V2.400s (which I am still using). I was in the market for some new computer speakers to replace the Sanyo shelf system that I was using. Unfortunatly, I was not particulary impressed with any of the offerings on the market at the time, at least nothing that really sounded as good as that trusty ol' Sanyo shelf system I was using. At the very least, I'd have to spend some serious money to get anything that even appealed to me. Then I heard about these new computer speakers Klipsch put out. I've heard of Klipsch, and thought they were one of those "high-end" brands that only the rich and famous got to play with. Us mere mortals were stuck with Sony, Yamaha, Panasonic, et el, i.e., the typical "Best Buy" brands.

But once I started to see some of the reviews in the press, and also found out what the asking price was. I was like "you get all that for only $250!!??!!". I was ready to spend upwards of $500 or so to get something that sounded anywhere close what I wanted (hell, I paid a good $200 for that Sanyo shelf-system as it was.) I went to order a set directly from the Klipsch site, as nobody had any around here. Friggan waiting list of some six months! Finally recieved them towards the end of March of 2000. I had them delivered to my place of work. I so wanted to set them up right there in the office and try them out, but decided to wait till I got home. When I finally did get them setup, I was just completely blown away by what I heard! More than I expected! I've found my replacement PC speakers! .

I than got poking around on the Klipsch site just to see what they had. I figure if those little things sound as good as they did, I can only imagine how the "big" Klipsch must've sounded! I saw the, than brand new, RF-7s on the website! $2200/pair! YOUCH, that is more than I figure I wanted to spend. Hell, I did not spend that much for my entire HT setup that I had at the time! Also, there was no dealer in the immediate area anyway. I was ready to make the trek up into D.C. itself, since there where a couple listed in the "dealer locator" site up there. This went on for a couple years until I got to upgrading the reciever, which I had to order through the internet, since nobody around here carried Denon either at the time. Plenty of Bose around, and I remember going into one store and asking about surround sound systems, as I wanted to upgrade mine, and all they pretty much had was Bose! I told the guy that I wanted a "real" system, with "real" speakers. I thought that Bose was to expensive for what you got anyway, even at that time, and they just never really impressed me, especially after hearing those ProMedias.

Well, it just so happened that a local dealer, in the form of Tweeter opened up that very weekend that my Denon arrived by FedEx. One of the guys at work told me about it, since I did mention that I was kinda in the market for a new HT setup, or at least upgrade my surrounds, as I did like those Infinity RS2000.5 speakers that I had. Well, on a nice April weekend (the weekend after Easter, in fact), in 2002, I went to check out the store. I figure I'll go make a quick visit and then go hit the river or something, since it was such a nice day, and I wanted to be outdoors. Walked into the door, with one of the salesmen immediatly walking up with the "I can I help you?" line. I told him that I just recently gotten a new reciever and I wanted some new speakers to replace the Yamaha surrounds that I currently had. Plus, I also need some cabling to hook the DVD player that I've also recently gotten as well, namely the digital/optical cable. He went and proceeded to show me thier selection, and I immediatly saw that black/copper oval! I yelled out "Klipsh! OMG, you have Klipsch! I want to hear those!" They did not have RF-7s at the time, but they did have the RF-3 II's on the floor. I immediatly fell in love with those. Well, after much going back and forth, with many a speaker returned, I eventually ended up with that Reference-7 that I figured I could never afford (and it did take some serious stretching of budgets to get it). Of course, the following year, when Klipsch pulled out of Tweeter, I ended up with a pair of RF-5s that I figured were not worth it. Boy, was I wrong! Those are excellent speakers. It is tough call if the price difference between those and the RF-3s was worth it, but at $900/pair that I got this particular pair of RF-5s for, I could not pass it up.

It may not be the much vaunted Heritage, but even after having heard some various Heritage setups, I am still amazed at just what these RF-7s are truly capable of, especially with a good amp, such as this B&K amp. I have a feeling I have pretty much found the last set of speakers I'll ever need for the rest of my life. Even if I did come across a pair of K-horns (and I am keeping an eye out), which I figure I can fit in my 20 x 15 foot basement room, I will still be keeping these Ref-7s in the HT setup. I just friggan absolutly love these speakers and amp combo.

[Sanman023]

when my dad took me to good guys and demo'd the kg 5.2's...loved it...and we brought it home...i was about 17? maybe younger.....

[colterphoto1]

No prob Mssr Thebes, this topic does ROCK and is very timely given that this is Pilgrimage week. I offer you a song....

To the tune of Monty Python's 'Spam'

Thebes, Thebes, Thebes, Thebes,

Thebes, Thebes, Thebes, Thebes,

Marvelous Thebes, Wonderful Thebes

Thebes, Thebes, Thebes, Thebes,

Thebes, Thebes, Thebes, Thebes,

that's about it, I'm afraid it's not a very good song, sorry....

Michael

[Cal Blacksmith]

Michael, your song is on a par with "I like traffic lights" by the same "band"

[Piranha]

Flashback to 1978, United States Air Force, Torrejon Air Base, Spain. I was absolutely blown away when I first heard a pair of Cornwalls there. I was HOOKED!

I guess the Armed Forces don't sell Klipsch in the BX, PX, Audio Photo Clubs etc. anymore according to HDBRBuilder? That's pretty sad indeed.

[Duke Spinner]

Ok ..

about 1975, a guy in town was making Cornwall Vert copies ..

stuffing a Leslie woofer ( jensen), and some ev horns in them ..

the bass killed anything but jbl scoops ...

[Royster]

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On 6/21/2005 8:25:22 AM Royster wrote:

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.

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Damn, I feeeeeeeel old!!!

It was 1971 when dad purchased the KWO's.. was looking through some old papers this A.M. and there was the paper work.

Time flys (unless you listen to blowse)... then you die