New Jubilee owner

[Coytee]

Weve got a new Jubilee owner. His name is Bob and he lives in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Washington state. Prior to his purchase, he told me he wasnt the kind to chat much on forums. Over the process of him debating, ordering, waiting and now receiving his Jubilees, weve talked on the phone and emailed back/forth a bit. Im sure hes also done the same with Mike/Dean amongst possibly others.

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I asked Bob if it was ok if I cut/pasted his comments on the forum just in case anyone down the road does a search on it and finds someone elses comments interesting reading. Clearly some of his comments are responding to me but I wanted to keep it simply to his comments. I think you can get the gist of what his feelings are without any of my blatherings interrupting him.

So, here are his comments...he makes some interesting points (IMHO)

Oh, and Bob, if you DO read this... welcome to the club.

2/28/2007

go figure, because of the snow the delivery truck got tied up. They can't deliver now until Friday afternoon! Bummer.

3/2/2007 11:49 AM

They are up and running. They shipped them with K-1132 drivers instead of K-69 drivers by mistake. I'll have to wait for the correct drivers. The K-1132 are a more aggressive driver made for behind the screen use. I'll get this straight in a week or so.

First impression was terrible. I was ready to take pictures and put them on ebay! The bass was one note and lacked definition and had a distinct boom. I remember years ago when I first unpacked my K-horns, my wife and I wondered how could we have made such a poor choice. That's 'till they broke in. Then there was no looking back. The Jubs have been on now for about 7 hours and they are sounding MUCH better. I have moved them away from the rear and side walls a bit which has reduced the coupling and the one note sound is all but gone. They are still slightly muddy but improving. I can't give a accurate opinion of the 402s yet because I don't have the k-69s. One thing I have noticed for sure, the K-horns play deeper, but the Jubilee bass boxes have far more output. I will have to do some eq work here but I'll wait until I have the speakers set up right. I can now see the potential and I am sure they will end up better than perfect when I'm done. I'll keep you posted.

3/3/2007 10:26 AM

Opinion update. Even though I have the wrong driver on the 402's I have to say they absolutely are far superior to the K-horn mid/high. Not even close! The Jub bass section has far more bass and lots of impact but I don't think they have the magic of properly set up K-horn bass sections in corners. More to follow, I have yet to do any testing or EQ, just ME and my speakers breaking in as I move them around (away from walls). I won't do any PEQ until I get the K-69 drivers installed.

3/3/27 11:49 AM

The jubs image far better than the K-horns, much more defined. Part of that could be due to the ability to position the speakers. I do notice a 'slight' bit of grain from the EV DX28 that I didn't have before on analog sources. That is not the fault of the speakers but because of other tradeoffs it's worth it. The lack of the 4.5/6.0 Khz K-horn crossovers between the mids and the highs is very pronounced, it is most noticeable when listening to female vocals, seamless! The EV crossover at 500 Hz can't be heard to my ears. Nice presentation, very nice. I never realized how much I could hear the K-horn crossovers until now. I won't miss them. I can only compare the seamless transitions from bass to highs to headphones.

Any buyers remorse on my part? At this time, No, not a bit.

3/3/27 12:46 PM

Yes, Klipsch knows about the driver screw up. Chuck M. is shipping the proper drivers on Monday. They will arrive next Friday. Unfortunately I will be out of town for a few days so they will have to wait until Sunday to be installed. A simple swap is all it is.

My wife has had many years of live classical music. I listen to her opinions as she has shared my hobby and my speakers with me since 1972 when we first met. She has heard them all! Her comment is that these speakers make an instrument sound better than life. Her example is that it makes a student violin sound like a Strad.

3/3/2007 1:01 PM

No it's a tweeter, it has the same frequency range as the K-69. It's more aggressive by design and meant for behind the screen applications. The nice thing about this is that I have the opportunity to hear it both ways.

3/3/2007 1:40 PM

I will never, unless given no choice, use another passive crossover! I could not even imagine using a passive on these speakers. Dean W. needs to know this. I did biamp my K-horns for a bit with the EV DX38 just for kicks and it worked well, but it really comes to life with the Jub's.

3/3/2007 1:54 PM

You know, I thought K-horns were excellent with percussion. These speakers are enough to make you go nuts. Amazing. I think it's the bigger than life presentation that does it.
Bob

P.S. Bass is improving by the hour.

3/3/2007 3:02 PM

You will never realize how much you can't hear your passive until you replace it with an active. And then you will know how much you did hear your passive. That's the best way I can put it.

3/3/2007 3:29 PM

I have been listening to lots of great music, I have a large collection of well recorded music and I like many styles. I'll give you a top five or more tomorrow. I need more time to answer that question.

I am using a Mark Levinson CD player, and a Mark Levinson amp for the tweeter. The bass amp is of my own build. I will replace the Levinson tweeter amp as soon as I find the time to make a replacement. I can design & build my own electronics with out the compromises a profit making company has to suffer. I'm running about 100X2 on the bass and 50X2 on the tweets, all class A bias. I am not using a preamp, just a buffered passive.

The bass still improves by the hour. How long did it take your bass sections to come to life?

3/3/2007 5:15 PM

I'm a very fussy listener and imaging is what it is all about. I can see and feel my music in my mind as I listen. I CAN ONLY listen in a sweet spot, and the image has to have shape, size, depth and color. It takes good equipment and everything else that goes with it. These speakers are excellent at imaging and that is one of the most important qualities. With out an image I don't care how good a speaker sounds, it's junk. This is one reason why I like to listen to most recorded music over live music, I can have the image from the perspective of the microphone.

I doubt many people will hear my speakers, maybe a few friends. I'm out here in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest near the Idaho and Canadian border, I came here for solitude, and I found it.

3/3/2007 6:45 PM

My K-horns are for sale! They are upgraded too. The bass is awesome on the Jub's now. No issues or concerns. The Jub's are now jaw dropping enough to cause TMJ (Edit: Temporo-Mandibular Joint disease) to good jaws.

3/4/2007 12:45 PM

Basically I'm sending you my thoughts and impressions live as I have them. I'm sorry if I'm boring you with them.

BTW: I bought your "Big Phat Band" CD last night. Some nice tracks on that disk. Thanks.

When bass drivers are new they are stiff, the surrounds and the spyders need time to break in. It makes them sound as though they have far more mass and therefore muddy. Now that I have been running these speakers for two days I have to say the bass is fantastic. At first I felt that the K-horn bass section had an edge. As far as I'm concerned now the K-horns as wonderful as they are, are not even in the contest in any regard with the Jubilee speakers. Over the years I have always owned K-horns but I have also had large JBL, Large Altec VOT, various planar speakers including electrostatics, high end Tannoys and just about everything else. Nothing and I mean nothing comes even close to the Jub's. I like my music to sound like real music, I like a huge dynamic range, I want to feel the pulse and texture of my music and now I have it in a mind bending quantity. I find that many speakers try to make music sound pretty, soft, sweet and polite, I want it to sound real.

I doubt I'll be shopping for speakers again. Period.

3/4/2007 5:21 PM

Well, right now I have room in my basement with one pair of K-horns, one pair of Speaker Lab K-horns, one pair of LaScala speakers all for sale. I'll keep the Heresy speakers. I guess I'm going to put them all on ebay, I don't know how else to sell them and it's a pity as my K-horns are nicely upgraded and in awesome condition. My LaScalas are oak. Well, they are outta here.

[Guest " "]

Intresting read........and an added bonus...some speakers will be up for sale soon.

[Deang]

I could not even imagine using a passive on these speakers. Dean W. needs to know this.

Ah crap, I did NOT to want to hear that.!

His initial comments on the bass didn't surprise me. I had the same problem when I first got the Klipschorns. After pulling them out of the boxes and setting them up I was ready to go back to RF-7's.

Tell Bob I said not to send back the K-1132 drivers, they're better than the K-69-A. Not really, but it will really annoy him and give him a bad case of audio nervosa.

[Guest " "]

DeanG

Is the active xover thing an op amp issue or cost?

I'm about to pull the trigger on a tube based active xover.  Not sure if I want to buy a complete kit, or just put one together from scratch.

[sfogg]

"I'm about to pull the trigger on a tube based active xover. "

For a Jubilee or something else? The tubed units I know of don't have the EQ needed for the Jubilee and they lack the delay function.

Shawn

[seti]

Jubilees seem to be selling fairly well to consumers considering this forum is probably the only place they would find out about them : )

[Guest " "]

"For a Jubilee or something else? The tubed units I know of don't have the EQ needed for the Jubilee and they lack the delay function."

Not for a jubilee.    Your right, it will be just an active xover with no EQ or Delay.

[kaiser SET say]

I heard Bob's magic late in 2006 when I first listened to the Jubs[] pls pass on to him my congrats Richard[] You might want to change that subject line to say New (and VERY HAPPY) Jubilee Owner[]

[Coytee]

Jubilees seem to be selling fairly well to consumers considering this forum is probably the only place they would find out about them : )

He actually called Klipsch direct, got ahold of Colter. Said he had Khorns and wanted to upgrade them. I think Michael told him about the Jubilees and gave Bob my name as well as me his so we could talk in some more detail. The rest as they say... is history.

[Y]

[Me Loves Khorns]

HOW MANY PEOPLE WITH JUBS ARE USING A PASSIVE CROSSOVER VS. AN ACTIVE WITH BIAMPING?

PAUL

[Coytee]

Total known owners (including Dean)

Myself-active Dx-38

Mike-active Dx-38

Ralph-active Dx-38

6foot8 (no idea)

Bob-active Dx-38

DeanG-passive

Does that make Dean a passive aggressive?

[Me Loves Khorns]

What is the finish out price for a set of Jub's now?

Paul

[Coytee]

check your pm's

[Me Loves Khorns]

HAS ANYONE TAKEN THE TOP HORN OF A SET OF JUBS AND PUT IT WITH THE BASS BINS OF KHORNS?

IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?

PAUL

[Coytee]

Rigma has his 402's atop his Khorns (while he finishes his clones)

I think there will be a hole in the sound as the 402 is crossed over at 500 hz and I think the 400/401 crosses at 400.

The 402 (which is the BIG one we saw in Hope) WILL nicely match LaScalas and Belle's. The fact that the K402 is taller & wider than the LaScala is tall & wide shoudn't intimidate you!!

Here's Rigma's pics http://www.jubilation.ws/ You will see just how big a 402 is on top of a Khorn

[kaiser SET say]

"Does that make Dean a passive aggressive?"

I can't believe Craig's not gotten hold of this one yet[]

Building the Empire one pair of Jubs at a time[]

[edwinr]

Interesting read. Thanks.

[Guest " "]

Coytee

I want a mini set in walnut....it has to look like my khorn so I can swap it out when the wife is asleep.

[Deang]

"Does that make Dean a passive aggressive?"

Ha ha. People who know me well might say so.

I'd sure like to know more about what passive Bob was running in his Klipschorns. I had a couple of people tell me the passive version Roy cooked up for the gathering in Hope sounded as good to them as the active version they heard the year before. I suppose I shouldn't put a lot of stock in that. It's depressing to think about. Going active means at least another $1500, but I can build a killer set of passives for $500 and only need one amp.

Bob's comment about the low level grain in the EV unit made me cringe. I absolutely would not be able to deal with that -- and the lower the volume the more you hear it. I'm also not like Bob, I don't like the sound of the brutal truth. Capacitors are like crayons to me, and that's exactly how I use them.

Someone needs to try the passive, and since I'm just about broke it might as well be me. Besides, not everyone is into the idea of running an active and multiple amps, and if it works out for me, maybe a few more will buy them. It does reduce price and complexity.

[mikebse2a3]

"Does that make Dean a passive aggressive?"

Ha ha. People who know me well might say so.

I'd sure like to know more about what passive Bob was running in his Klipschorns. I had a couple of people tell me the passive version Roy cooked up for the gathering in Hope sounded as good to them as the active version they heard the year before. I suppose I shouldn't put a lot of stock in that. It's depressing to think about. Going active means at least another $1500, but I can build a killer set of passives for $500 and only need one amp.

Bob's comment about the low level grain in the EV unit made me cringe. I absolutely would not be able to deal with that -- and the lower the volume the more you hear it. I'm also not like Bob, I don't like the sound of the brutal truth. Capacitors are like crayons to me, and that's exactly how I use them.

Someone needs to try the passive, and since I'm just about broke it might as well be me. Besides, not everyone is into the idea of running an active and multiple amps, and if it works out for me, maybe a few more will buy them. It does reduce price and complexity.

I'm not sure what to think about the low level grain with the EV unit. I've not experienced anything I would describe as that in my setup.

Anyway Dean I'm glad your going to try the passive because I believe you will be very pleased with a passive Jubilee. The Jubilee with passive that Roy demonstrated for us sounded "very" good to me and I know he refined it more after the pilgrimage.

mike tn