.....not recommending the Klipschorn

[Speedball]

Stopped by our local dealer the other day and they are changing the displays around quite a bit and they even had a new high dollar Bose display. I asked the fellow I usually chat with if they will stock some heritage speakers. He seemed to be caught off guard and then says we once had some used Klipschorn set up in the back room and they did not sound so good. He shook his head no and said they do not have any bass even with the big driver.......?????

So much for believing the dealer.......

[jt1stcav]

What a shame.

They ditch the Heritage 'cause they don't sound good and have no bass. Those incompetent morons! Now their new Bose layout will sell to the average joe-schmoe consumer who thinks the world of Bose and has no ear for great loudspeakers simply because the dealer didn't know how to set their Klipschorns up properly using inferior electronics, etc. And that dealer's business will probably shoot through the roof now due to this restructuring, thinking all along that their business could've been better all along had they never carried the Heritage line.

Man, how I dislike idiots![:@]

If it were me, they'd never get my business again.

[J.4knee]

Amazing, no bass out of KHorns [:^)]. When Good Guys was still around our local store had a schmuck who ctritiqued La Scala's as being bass heavy. [:@] Then he tried to sell me Energy Dipoles. [:'(] Yeah I have little faith in most dealers these days. They seem to hire kids who think good bass comes from a car subwoofer. The only dealer in the SD area I trust is Breier Stereo but they are selling stuff a bit out of my price range at the moment. They are our best local McIntosh dealer, the only one I know of with KHorns on the floor and a well stocked "Room O' Mac's"

[j-malotky]

Reminds me of a story I heard from a fellow forum member last year. He bought some used Khorns from a guy who inherited them and did not like them because there was no bass. When he went over to get them, the guy had them out in the middle of the room, did not know to put them in the corners.

JM

[soundbound]

I've discovered a lot of audio sales people know very little about audio. Even at some high end audio stores. They try to convince you they do by talking big like they do, but really are just faking it the best they can. They crack me up often with things they say about audio and their advice. I feel kind of bad for them in one way, because they're just trying to do a job they do not have enough real knowledge of. The bad part is that they mislead the public.

[MarkBK]

Very few dealers these days really understand hi fidelity sound. There are still independents out there - but even in the Chicago area - they are few a far between.

[edwinr]

Even in a big town like Sydney, with over 3 1/2 million people, you can count genuine hi-fi dealers on one hand. Genuine hi-fi has a limited market. In fact I read somewhere that there are less than 1 million audiophiles in the entire world.

[DrWho]

...I asked the fellow I usually chat with if they will stock some

heritage speakers. He seemed to be caught off guard and then says we

once had some used Klipschorn set up in the back room and they did not

sound so good. He shook his head no and said they do not have any bass

even with the big driver.......?????

Well I've never been a fan of the khorn bass either...cabinet

resonations, time delay, tubby sound, horn loaded bass (not

representative of what the recording engineer was hearing in the

studio...), etc etc....just to name a few reasons []

I would totally go with cornwalls over khorns...

[colterphoto1]

it's about profit margin and marketing to the masses. he can probably push a bazillion of those HTIB thingies out the door before 3 people would even take time to ask him to turn on the Khorn, let alone purchase a pair.

[djk]

Moving the Klipschorn into a mall store with a fiberglass dropped ceiling , and 1/2" sheetrock over metal studs, totally killed sales (no bass).

[Klewless]

Just remind those turkeys that most ALL speakers can make bass notes. And at a very low frequency at that.

The problem is that very FEW of them can make their bass notes loud enough for you to hear them out into the room!

The Khorn is one of the few that can.

As an aside, remember that even subs are essentially one-note bass. It happens to be the one that the ROOM decides which frequency you get to hear.

I too have found out that I seem to know more than most dealers and unfortunately that is one of the issues which is driving the young away from true hi-fi.

I encountered a young man one day who was at a total loss as to the meaning of "high end" sound or even where to hear it for the first time. Same sad situation for classical music in my area. Young people are turned off by the stuff they play on the air.

Thanks for listening to my ranting.

[jdm56]

Ignorance...and no real motivation to attain enlightenment!

I've heard klipschorns sound horrible more than I've heard them sound fantastic, BUT, I know they can sound fantastic...with the proper room and set-up! Most people that hear a bad-sounding demo once will just write off that speaker. That's their ignorance.

In todays world, the majority of people, even audiophiles, and especially in the HT arena, want skinny speakers. And for very good reasons. And when you have outfits like Bose who basically sell a mild form of snake oil, in that they say "you don't need that stack of electronics; those big old speakers taking up you house", well, that's just what people want to hear, so they flock to Bose by the droves. And to Bose' credit, they apparently deliver enough of their promise to make most of their customers happy. They never seem to miss that big chunk of sound above the sub and below the sats. (check out the test charts --most all Bose and other's tiny-tot sub-sat systems have a huge dip in their response between 100-200Hz.) "Shoot, it's only an octave; we got nine more!" Well, except for the top one and the bottom one. I guess 7 out of 10 ain't bad.[]

[DrWho]

bah...I had an awesome long reply and then it got lost in the wind []

*sigh*

[edwinr]

Whew! Thanks goodness for that... [<)]

P.S. Just Kidding, Doc. []

[DrWho]

Whew! Thanks goodness for that... []

P.S. Just Kidding, Doc.

lol, that just means it'll be bottling up until the next time I'm

motivated to write about it again...and thus it will probably be twice

as long. []

Actually...I've got some songs I would like some khorn owners to

listen to and give their impressions on. Ideally it would be with

original CD quality so I will look into making some samples available

online...or anyone interested could just PM me their email address and

I can send them that way.

I've heard khorns plenty of times in really nice dedicated rooms,

but until I've heard every khorn system I don't think I will be able to

rest in my distaste...

[Daddy Dee]

I think Colter probably nailed it. Selling Bose instead of Klipschorns is about what most people want.... itty bitty speakers. The guy is in business to make money right? The tiny minority of Klipsch dealers who display Khorns in an indicator, IMO, that they don't sell enough Khorns to justify the floorspace dedicated to display and demo.

Now, if the guy actually thinks Bose sound better....

[Def Leper]

Just being a dealer doesn't mean that someone has the slightest level of expertise in setting up a sound system. Usually the worst sounding systems are in dealer showrooms anyway. I don't think this is the case here, though. I think you are simply being lied to by someone who doesn't know anything about klipsch heritage products. Anyone pushing Bose is only interested in the highest profits anyway, and depends on a steady stream of ignorant people with credit cards.

[JJkizak]

The Audio store that I visit has a large room about 25 x 25 ft with a couch in the center and small Klipsch speakers and many other brands set up alonside them. The bass is not very good and they have this electronic thingy on the shelf which selects different combinations of amps and speakers which they do not know how to operate properly. They couldn't get the Klipsch subs to work at all. Their 1080P Mitsubishi DLP's looked real good though. If they put a set of K-horns in there with a Cornwall center channel people would go to Audio GA-GA Land. And if you use an equalizer to reduce the 100-400hz area 2 db you can reduce the "Tub Colorations" to minimum. I will agree that the Cornwall is a free spirit when it comes to colorations.

JJK

[Colin]

When I first got my classic Klipsch corner Khorns, it was because the mid-range of Mike Lindsays stock LaScalas was that slightly better difference that I just had to have (oh, and I sold my horizontal horn, B2 crossover, walnut oiled Cornwalls for the same price I paid for my Khorns!).<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

In the shop they sounded horrible, but I had faith (belief without evidence) that they would sound better in my corners with $500 BottleHead 2A3 Paramour monoblocks (kit). And they did. BUT.

But the bass, although present, was not the powerful, solid mid-bass (80-100Hz) thump of the 15 <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Cornwall woofers. Bass measured flatter and deeper, but did not seem to push as much air.

Then I sat near some live acoustic music in a large setting and realized what the trouble was. It was accuracy. The Khorn is more accurate. It makes acoustic instruments sound live and natural, but does not do as well with the big mid-bass bulge so many of us want from our home movie and music reproduction systems.

We dont want accuracy, many of us. We want the wall of sound and power that resembles the rock club or concert experience. To most of us, that is meaning the of live music.

So I added a powerful and deep ACI Titan sub-woofer, which easily gives me the thump I need, when I need it.

[edwinr]

In many ways, the bass of the Klipschorns compares to the big Mangneplanars. You definitely don't get that 'thump' with the Maggies, but the bass extends down to the nether regions. It takes a little while to get used to this kind of bass, but it is much more accurate. This representation of the bass may explain why some, on first hearing, describe the Klpschorn as lacking in bass.

After some time listening to the Klipschorn's bass reproduction, other loudspeakers sound very colored.