I Bought Klipschorns :)

[meagain]

I had another quick question besides the one I asked Duke above....

The seller had monster cable on them with a good chunk of wires peeled back because it wouldn't fit. We had the same cable, but hubby instead - switched the cable and used what appears to be a lamp cord looking thing to make it fit. It looks so thin & wimpy to me. Can someone advise what's best here for proper speaker wireing? At least temporarily? And - would I be able to use big cable on these new crossover offerings floating about? Or - does it matter that much?

[charlieboy]

Congrats on the Khorns yhey are very PRETTY!

BTW: Tubes Tubes Tubes Tubes

Did I mention Tubes?[]

[charlieboy]

Congrats on the Khorns yhey are very PRETTY!

BTW: Tubes Tubes Tubes Tubes

Did I mention Tubes?[]

[Mighty Favog]

I had another quick question besides the one I asked Duke above....

The seller had monster cable on them with a good chunk of wires peeled back because it wouldn't fit. We had the same cable, but hubby instead - switched the cable and used what appears to be a lamp cord looking thing to make it fit. It looks so thin & wimpy to me. Can someone advise what's best here for proper speaker wireing? At least temporarily? And - would I be able to use big cable on these new crossover offerings floating about? Or - does it matter that much?

Please, don't tell me you're gonna open the wire debate[][]

[Jeff Matthews]

They laugh about the wire debate because the wire will not make any difference. 14 gau. is plenty good.

On the amp issue, I didn't mean dB reading. Much simpler. How high are you turning it. In the old days, our stuff had knobs with defined stop points. I wasn't thinking because I'll bet your newer HK does not. It turns continuously..... forever... and ever (why, I'll never know).

But certainly, it counts up to 100, or from from a negative to 0, or from a negative to positve number. In my question, for example, if the range on your volume was negative 50 to 50, then 0 would be half way, and 25 would be 3/4.

Just curious if your were running the volume half way up, 2/3, 3/4 or what. You'll like that Steely Dan through them. At high volumes, the music is still so..... clean. It's like the sound comes out with such little effort, yet at such high volumes.

So, tell me, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4... or what?

[meagain]

I can't listen to 5:1 stuff anymore. The extra speakers we have make it sound bad which is unfortunate. I'll need to get more speakers that will complement these.

I think I also need a new CD/DVD player. I have a $100 (or less) 2-3 year old Toshiba.

Jeff - I'll play with it now. Yes, it has a giant volume knob (cool blue light inside - I love blue lights!) I've been enjoying walking around the house getting my feet massaged. Yes - the floor is shaking! The bass drum sounds like it's real - in my house. Happy dance. []

[meagain]

Jeff - The volumne knob does spin endlessly. But the screen number stops at some point. It goes from -80db to +10db. I had an XTC album in there and went to -6db, put in something more mellow & went to 0db. They still sounded great to me. I'll have to keep testing this out. I was only looking for gross distortion and how physically loud I can go with them. I'm afraid to go to 100%. It was quite loud. I can't much envision needing to go louder than that (between 0 to +10db). I think it might just start to hurt at some point (in short order). I'm sitting pretty close to these things and they are only about 12' apart. [:$] So since the volume goes up enough for my liking - I should be OK - right?

Whoa - I heard a tad of a rumble at zero from the left area - though it might have been a few CD's sitting on my old speakers.

[Jeff Matthews]

Rumble is either CD's jumbling or too much distortion. If it's loud enough for you already, good. You'll save money. If you're ever curious, invite a friend w/a good amp to bring it over.

[meagain]

Jeff - Did you upgrade the crossovers in yours? And if so, did you notice a significant or at least 'worth the money' difference? And what year are they? I think the volume I can go to is fine for this room but maybe not enough in the future.

[Mighty Favog]

(cool blue light inside - I love blue lights!)

Oooooooooo. I smell McIntosh in your future....

[Duke Spinner]

Duke - Do you mean that by running a 500wpc amp over a 100wpc, that even at lower, non-cranked volumes - it tightened the bass? Or would that be just for very high volumes? I don't really understand the technical aspects of this.

Well, you sure can get a LOT of opinions on this matter........

Dana, Chris, Dean , and I ....run some decent amp behind the KH

some run a 45 SET....

that would not satisfy me in the bass control department, not to say, it's not fine in it's own presentation of the music

for Myself, ...going from a Crown Microtech 200/400 to a K2, increased the Bass Depth considerably...and not just at volume

i don't know that going to a larger consumer product, ie , Reciever, may make that difference.....

i have used my Crown D-75, and Pro-Valve 6L6 based amps with the KH also...

but .. the difference between say, 35 > 250 Hz .. is very obviously in favor of the K2

[thebes]

Boy that was quick! It seems like almost yesterday you were trying to decide what to get and boom: Klipschhorns![]

Congrats, and take your time, settle in with them before you throw all

sorts of wiring, crossovers, amps etc. at them. Hell if you're

lucky Chicago's leading authority on horns, T(om)Brennan will

chime in and swing bye to help you out with placement, amps etc.

but take your time!

Oh yeah, regarding your player, do a Search here for Toshiba, there are

several models of their DVD players that are very well though of for

the price, if you've got the right one(s) you can put that aside for

the time being also.

[Jeff Matthews]

Jeff - Did you upgrade the crossovers in yours? And if so, did you notice a significant or at least 'worth the money' difference? And what year are they? I think the volume I can go to is fine for this room but maybe not enough in the future.

No upgraded crossovers. Still Type AA. Don't know what year. The drivers have AlNiCo magnets, which might not be used anymore. There are some writings I've seen that say AlNiCo is a better magnet. Maybe all KHorns still incorporate them. I don't know.

I wouldn't worry about crossovers now if I were you. I have seen lots of comments that you should make upgrading them a priority if you get some old, used KHorns. But really, with my Crown running them, they are plenty good. Not to say I won't change my mind down the road....

Listen to Duke's comments re: Crown, also. He runs a K-2 apparently. Never heard it. But here's a link:

http://www.djmart.com/djgear/crowk2powam.html

It is even described as having "tight, chest-slamming low end, crystal-clear highs and a well-defined midrange." That definitely describes the way my Microtech 1200 sounds. I think the units are probably comparable, except the K-2 would be even a step up. I know mine is more than a KHorn can take, so the K-2 would definitely be overkill. But so what? Look how inexpensive they are. The K-2 looks better IMO, too. If you want to really see what those KHorns will do, drive them with a K-2. I've never heard it, but I am absolutely, positively sure after you hear it drive your KHorns, you'll know that your Harman Kardon is mere child's play.

Have fun!

[jheis]

Meagain;

I'd recommend being a bit cautious driving a low powered amp at high

volume levels. You are much more likely to fry the voice coils of

your speakers if your 65 wpc amp is driven into "clipping" than you are

if you feed your speakers "too much" power from a higher powered amp.

Lots of people prefer to use high powered amps because of the

"headroom" they provide - which means if there is a transient spike in

the music, the amp has the reserve horsepower to handle it. When

an amp is driven into "clipping" it sends DC rather than AC to the

speakers and can fry them in very short order.

James

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Duke,

I thought that I was running a lot of power. 500 wpc at 8 ohms (and a REAL 500 wpc)!

I have never gotten my "little" 200 wpc amp to clip, or even come close.

Is the K2 a digital amp? It has no fan and a sealed chasis.

Chris

[ricktate]

Wow those look good just clean the wood and rub them down with boiled linseed oil [bLO] and make sure you put the rags outside.The crossovers can be upgraded easy you can get new oil caps from BEC and maybe change the woofer inductor,take out the diodes if there are any and then do A-B with the old crossover.I cant imagine why you dont like the finish, in the pics it looks great ,,,clean with 25% mineral spirits and 75%BLO should do the trick.Make sure you seal the tailboard and the horz. part of the bass binn to the corner.I would try to get a old HK430 twinn powerd reciever to,,,,i think you will like it.Rick

[Duke Spinner]

Duke,

Is the K2 a digital amp? It has no fan and a sealed chasis.

Chris

No .... it is a BCA, Balanced Current Amplifier, the current unused by

the speaker is returned to the amp, by virtue of low output resistance.

instead of turning to heat ...

the K models have the Crown Studio Reference front end, with a lower cost, ie, less output devices , final

[Cal Blacksmith]

Before you start worrying about upgrades, take the time to make the

speakers fit the room as well as they can. If this means false corners,

then do it. As to wire, 14 ga zip cord will be fine, larger than

that and designer name wire only waste money.

In relation to power, those speakers will deliver 104 db at one meter

with one watt. They max out at 121 db. It takes a doubling of watts to

get 3 db gain so to get 107 db at a meter you need 2 watts, 110 db= 4,

113=8, 116=16, 119=32 and 121=64. They are rated to a max of 100w

continuous input with a 400w max peak. As long as the volume you are

listening to, is not clipping the amp, you are fine. Head room is

another thing. If you were to be really cranking it, you might need an

amp to cope with a spike and thus need some high power but it is more

about the current that the amp can deliver to control the woofer. Thus

tubes are a better fit and tend to sound better than SS though many

people love SS and I will not say they are wrong.

Congrats on the Khorns, what was it? Two weeks from "Hi my name is" to Khorns, you move quick![]

[PrestonTom]

Congratulations on your K-Horns.

You have certainly received quite a bit of advice. Enjoy your speakers, they really are special.

I will note however, that Cal Blacksmith has given some very reasonable advice. You have some very efficient speakers and their impedance does not go very low (won't drain current from the amp). I would not worry about getting a large amp, however I would worry about an amp that provides very clean power. Otherwise, any distortion, hiss, or hum will be revealed. Also, believe me a 65 watt amp will not clip when driving K-Horns. The HK amp should do fine

As Cal implied, at this point your biggest gains will definitely come from properly placing them in the room.

Good luck,

-Tom

[Jeff Matthews]

In relation to power, those speakers will deliver 104 db at one meter with one watt. They max out at 121 db. It takes a doubling of watts to get 3 db gain so to get 107 db at a meter you need 2 watts, 110 db= 4, 113=8, 116=16, 119=32 and 121=64.

Wo, there! Are you saying that after feeding them 64 watts, the rest of the power goes somewhere other than loudness? Doesn't sound right to me.

My old 90-watt/channel Marantz cranked all the way up was still not comparable to my Crown.