Klipschorn placement in narrow room

[Flysurgeon]

Anyone know if the Klipschorns can be turned outward a little in a narrow room? Should false corners be made? I need to place them on a 12' 6" wall and be far enough away (10-12') to watch a large projection TV. Any help would be appreciated.

[DizRotus]

In my experience, a large rectangular room, with the Khorns in the corners on the long wall, is better than with them on a narrow wall, even if it has two good corners. It's a problem if the depth of the narrow dimension is too shallow to allow you to get far enough away from the long wall and the speakers.

What you describe would be far less than ideal for anything other than very temporary. Cornwalls would be better in that scenario.

Placing Khorns along a longer wall, using one or more false corners, would be better than stuffing them into a narrow cove.

[DRBILL]

I agree with DizRotus. Our dedicated music room is a shoebox 18' X 24'. The K-horns are on the long wall with a Heresy center. The seating is one small sofa opposite the Heresy. The "sweet spot" is big enough for only three people. But "how sweet it is," to quote the late J. Gleason. It is stunning.

Be brave!

DRBILL

[Erik Mandaville]

Both Neil and Dr. Bill describe the physical layout of our setup exactly. I had had the Klipschorns on the short wall for awhile, and it worked ok. Even on the short wall we had been using a center channel speaker (experiments included a single Heresy, La Scala, and Lowther rear-loaded single driver horn). However, I must say that the long-wall (21 feet) placement is better in terms of both perceived low-end response, and just in how the horns seem to load the room.

I have a friend who also just finished an involved and very well done Klipschorn restoration project, and he has the speakers on a shorter wall. The way he handled the on-axis positioning of the top cabinet, which would have otherwise resulted in a listening position that was only a few feet away from the loudspeakers, involved simply rotating the top section out and away from the bottom half to which it's normally connected. In terms of making the best of this situation, this idea is quite good IMO. The bass bins are still snug in the corners, and the top half is angled toward the listening position. He is also using a La Scala/Klipsch minibox combination for a derived center channel. IME, a center channel fill, carefully adjusted for subtle response, can be a benefit even with the horns placed on the shorter wall.

The other option is of course the false corners mentioned above. If you have a subwoofer, your Klipschorns might be really excellent on the short wall with the entire cabinet rotated toward the listening position. You might need to crossover at a higher frequency, perhaps around 80cps or so, but the response is IMO likely to be very satisfactory.

Good luck!

Erik

[meagain]

That's interesting - rotating the top horn section while leaving the bass bin. I wonder if that would work for me and wondering how one can secure it so there's no vibration, etc.

[Jeff Matthews]

Seeing as the top cabinet is also shaped for the 90-degree corner, I don't know what you all are talking about. When the speaker is in the corner and snug, you can't just rotate it - not even the top section.

I suppose you could pull the top section out of the corner and let it over-hang in front of the bass bin in a cock-eyed fashion. The goofy look would distract me to death.

EDIT: That's funny! Can you tell what word they edited with asterisks?

[WMcD]

If I was in your situation I would leave the bass horns snug in the corner and angle the upper unit.

I expect that there is no vibration issue to worry about. It may look a bit walleyed, but that is all.

Experimentation is warranted. Some people report good results with the axis of the horn crossing someplace in front of the listening postion. Others find good results when the listener is looking down the throat of the treble horns. I.e. aiming them to the listener.

Some of the issue of what works out best may be a function of the room. I've suggested that part of the issue of aiming the horn is what surfaces it does not hit.

Overall, the effects are not possible to predict with any accuracy. So you have to experiment. Comments from people here show that small changes can make big differences.

Gil

[D-MAN]

Unbolt the top cabinets and turn them. Live a little. Take a walk on the wild side. Sheesh.

DM

[Jeff Matthews]

Unbolt the top cabinets and turn them. Live a little. Take a walk on the wild side. Ha-Sheesh!

DM

So THAT's how you do it? [<)][Y] - (the red is not the author's original)

[D-MAN]

I've always felt that the cock-eyed top cabinet looked bad, but what are you going to do? There is only one other solution, and you already know what that is... short of remodeling or selling your house...

P.S. my avatar says it all (and they are on the SHORT WALL, to boot)!

DM

[Deang]

Short wall positioning can sound wonderful but not without false corners. On the short wall, with the Klipschorns pushed into the corners -- the bass doesn't sound "right".

[D-MAN]

Dean, I think that might be something specific to your setup.

It really depends on the room - mine are in natural corners on the short wall, and they sound fine, but they aren't Khorns, either.

DM

[oscarsear]

D-Man is right. Like him my Khorns have been topped and I'm using free components. My mid-range horn is shorter than the 400 and that allows me to push the squawkers to the outer edges of the Khorn bass bin. The bass bins set in corners 15" apart but the squawker and tweeter set in equivalent corners closer to 18" apart. This also brings the sound stage forward somewhat.