Fortissimo Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 I know there are endless designs out there. Some amazing speakers ranging from ribbon, to electrostatic, magneplanar and dynamic. And I know of the "shortcomings" that Klipsch have by contrast. Things like subtlety, articulation and transparency. But: I am old school in terms of speakers. I believe that there is no replacement for displacement. In that respect, even small klipsch have a visceral impact that other designs lack. I know that other designs pull you into the music in thier own way. But with klipsch, it's like nothing is massaged or hidden. The music is clean, clear and impactful: much like live music. Even the largest Klipsch exhibit that "small monitor" control and focus. The largest Klipsch recreate orchestral slam like no other. I also appreciate how "tight" Klipsch speakers tend to be in terms of bass response. They not only produce powerful bass, but it's *never* flabby or wooly. Before this year, I could think of a lot of speakers I'd like. Most of them on the large size so they can deal with dynamics and realistic SPL. And they usually require a megawatt amp to sound right. Now they all seem irrelevant. Klipsch leaves me wanting for nothing else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dzapper Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 I've been thinkin' about trying a pair of them Klipsches myself.[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 I don't know what you're talking about. I managed to buy one pair of old beat up Cornwalls and never bought another pair of them Klipsch speakers. There's lots that sound just as good. pay no attention to the sig line..... M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 They are addicting no way around it. But you know its really funny most none Klipsch fans think there horrible! I change many minds at the AKfest every year[] Last year we had a Friday night kind of mixer in my room at AKfest and two of the guys were Klipsch haters. After several hours of listening they told me my company motto should be "NOS Valves can make Klipsch sound good the they can make anything sound good" I laughed and said most of my klipsch customers wouldn't appreciate that statement! Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audible Nectar Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 I'm the same way. Klipsch killed my interest in the vast majority of other speakers on the market. Every time I ever listened to speakers thereafter, it was "well, the Klipsch do this better", etc. It's like what Bob Dylan did for folk, or what Guns and Roses did for hair bands: Once experienced, all attempts thereafter to copy it just come off "lame". There are exceptions to this rule (like vintage JBL, Altec, Tannoy, and a few other similar designs), but for me, Klipsch are like corn flakes: THE ORIGINAL AND BEST. No need to reinvent the wheel, folks! And as Craig explains, any tool must be used properly. Most people who bash Klipsch did not hear them being used properly. As with anything possessing that kind of potential power and capability, controlling that is a must. When used according to the advice of a professional (and package directions) they yield extraordinary results[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fortissimo Posted April 17, 2006 Author Share Posted April 17, 2006 No matter what the elitist audiosnob says: there are speakers out there that cost an arm and a leg, and they can't do rock at all. Oh, they will give you flowery nuance and a polite presentation of detail but: They sound watered down compared to klipsch. And that, IMO is a fatal flaw of sound reproduction. You cannot communicate reality, and make it non-impact. It doesn't work for me, and it doesn't rock. Or jazz or blues for that matter. But silly me, even chamber music sounds good on klipsch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbuckster Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 I am a simple man with simple tastes, an old blue collar type, old fart. I am no where even close to guys like NOS valves, Colter,Audio Nectar, you know who I'm talking about. My small stereo outfit would make most forum members snicker under their breath at me, that's fine, but I know the sound I like, and Klipsch delivers that. I bought new KG4's in 94, just bought a new set of H2's, you know, I'm a happy guy. Klipsch is the only speaker I would ever consider. Will I ever buy more speakers, I can't answer that right this minute, but if I do, they will be bigger Klipsch's. The dream is Khorns powered by McIntosh, will it happen, who knows. Yeah, your right, Klipsch ruined me for other speakers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fortissimo Posted April 17, 2006 Author Share Posted April 17, 2006 Yep, I have forte II's and a sub when needed, which isn't often. And my goal is to move up in size to la scala, belle or hopefully khorns. BTW: I always thought KG4's were killer small speakers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 "Hello......My name is Glenn.......and I'm a Klipsch-O-Holic." [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodog Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 I was thinking about this last night after BS Button and I left another audio-fool's home. BS took me over to see this guys collection of stuff.. MAN... lots and lots and lots of stuff... HUGE (and I mean HUGE) Infinity speakers (at least 7' from floor to ceiling) and backed by columns of woofers with this and that doodad whatchamacallit going on.... 5 Yamaha NS-100 studio monitors Krell Monoblocks (160 #'s of monoblock!), passive crossovers, active crossovers, huge snaking cables everywhere, a turntable that looked like a spaceship (I gotta admit... the turntable thing sounded really good..) black boxes everywhere and then there was the other room... with Apogee Divas, ribbon speakers, more huge SS monoblocks, cables, boxes. Whew... really, it was overwhelming. I could sell my house (and my car, and my bicycles) and not be able to buy half of what he had in one of those rooms, but... the sound I have in *one* of my rooms is far superior. I'm Forrest, and I'm a Klipsch-a-holic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mowntnbkr Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 I am in the same boat as you guys, but I have to admit I sure do like my Altec Lansing model 14's and if the right set of model 19's come along I am going to jump on them as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fortissimo Posted April 17, 2006 Author Share Posted April 17, 2006 I was thinking about this last night after BS Button and I left another audio-fool's home. BS took me over to see this guys collection of stuff.. MAN... lots and lots and lots of stuff... HUGE (and I mean HUGE) Infinity speakers (at least 7' from floor to ceiling) and backed by columns of woofers with this and that doodad whatchamacallit going on.... 5 Yamaha NS-100 studio monitors Krell Monoblocks (160 #'s of monoblock!), passive crossovers, active crossovers, huge snaking cables everywhere, a turntable that looked like a spaceship (I gotta admit... the turntable thing sounded really good..) black boxes everywhere and then there was the other room... with Apogee Divas, ribbon speakers, more huge SS monoblocks, cables, boxes. Whew... really, it was overwhelming. I could sell my house (and my car, and my bicycles) and not be able to buy half of what he had in one of those rooms, but... the sound I have in *one* of my rooms is far superior. I'm Forrest, and I'm a Klipsch-a-holic. Those are probably the infinity IRS-III. They were $65,000 per system back in the day of Arnie Nudell. Now he makes Genesis speakers for $135,000 that look almost the same. *one pair* of Krell monoblocks can cost as much as a new Camry, loaded. Unless they are the master reference, in which they cost the same as a new Lexus LS-430 loaded. I attended a hi-fi show in which one of the rooms had $250,000 system from meridian digital. It sounded kind of dry, but the bass was flabby and bloated. I know, it had to be the room. But the room with a $5k system (Vandersteen 2ce signitures) sounded terrific. But my friends cornwalls and dynaco amp (The whole system might be $2.5K) just blew me away. All the music was so dynamic and powerful compared to all the high-end voodoo and $20K speaker wires. We listened to the cornwalls all night, and talked about how much worse some of the high end rooms at the show sounded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodog Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 But my friends cornwalls and dynaco amp (The whole system might be $2.5K) just blew me away. All the music was so dynamic and powerful compared to all the high-end voodoo and $20K speaker wires. We listened to the cornwalls all night, and talked about how much worse some of the high end rooms at the show sounded. The first comment I had when leaving there was to BS Button, saying that his Cornwalls driven by a JuicyMusic Peach and an Aragon SS power amp was far superior to what I had heard there with one exception.... floor to ceiling woofers do tend to smack you with bass. [] Dynamic and powerful... yep, that's Klipsch. Woo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnWhite Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 ??? Huh? other brands? ya mean their's something else besides Klipsch?[*-)] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fortissimo Posted April 17, 2006 Author Share Posted April 17, 2006 I was just listening to Stanton Moore (Corrosion of conformity, Galactic) cd called "Flyin the koop." First I got up to check... did I leave the sub on? nope. Damn! Ok. A couple cuts into it there is some walking bass and the image is so crisp I had to check..."Is that coming from my center channel?" oh wait, it can't. I am on stereo mode from a cd. It's off. Double damn. I can only imagine what a full horn setup in a big room would do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 Fortissimo, I'm probably blind, but what kind of system you running? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erukian Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 Hey Folks, long time. Even though I left the klipsch camp last summer, I found myself looking back and thinking "what if" I went with some Heresy's instead of the decision I made. I now think I have a good grasp on what part of the industry Klipsch holds and why you guys and geezers are so loco over them. PWK really brought the horn out of crappy PA systems and made them capable for high fidelity, so we all look to him as a true pioneer in the audio scene. A no-nonsense, no-bullshit kind of guy, the kind which everyone appreciates. His speaker designs are so efficient as a result of horns that you can drive them at normal and even loud listening volumes with a 1-5W tube amp, SET amp, t-amp, or any low powered amp that would power a 4ohm-sub 90dB efficient speaker horribly. Please keep in mind here that there are great speaker brands that are designed from fantastic engineers that learned from the best, including PWK. PWK's patents aren't the 'end all be all' of hi-fi audio and you'd be a fool for thinking so. It's been around 50+ years since the heritage designs and while there is a lot of bad cheap crap out there, there is some good stuff from other manuf's that sound as good if not better than Klipsch. So I ask that just keep in mind that while you may not care about learning about all the interesting developments in the audio world over the past 50 years, the hi-fi scene in some areas has changed for the better and it shouldnt be dismissed as whole. -Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Lindsey Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 Get a clue, Joe... Nobody is dissing other speaker manufacturers. It's just that we know what we are looking for in a speaker, and we prefer that Klipsch sound. There are other horn speakers that sound good too. Believe it or not, Klipsch makes speakers that sound better than the Heresy. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 Please keep in mind here that there are great speaker brands that are designed from fantastic engineers that learned from the best, including PWK. PWK's patents aren't the 'end all be all' of hi-fi audio and you'd be a fool for thinking so. It's been around 50+ years since the heritage designs and while there is a lot of bad cheap crap out there, there is some good stuff from other manuf's that sound as good if not better than Klipsch. So I ask that just keep in mind that while you may not care about learning about all the interesting developments in the audio world over the past 50 years, the hi-fi scene in some areas has changed for the better and it shouldnt be dismissed as whole. I totally agree and logically feel the same way...until I try to sit down and name some specific products in the same price range - or heck even ignoring the price. If you've got any in mind then I'd love to hear about them... As far as audio technology...all the engineers I've talked to claim that it's all completely the same. They are just working to reduce the limitations of the system. The reason the older heritage designs haven't changed over the years is mostly due to the fact that they are already optimized - even on today's standards. Many people have gone about trying to tweak the khorn bass bin to absolutely no avail. The only change to the lascala bass bin is a ported mod, but it is done in such a way so as to not affect the behavior of the horn (again, an already optomized system). But there is a new khorn bass bin (build by PWK, imagine that) - once the Jubilee comes out onto the market I have a hard time believing anything is going to come close sonically: a fully horn-loaded 2-way system. Nevertheless, there is still a bug in the back of my head that wants to make things better...and to do it for the same price. I wouldn't want to get into the audio business if I felt there was nowhere to go [] But ya, I'm all for hearing about specific speakers...that way I can go out and do some comparisons myself. I'm yet to hear anything better than a pair of cornwalls (im not a fan of the khorn or lascala) - and I've heard my fair share of uber expensive setups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 Forte II's are giant killers! buzz per dollar kings! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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