Why haven't you upgraded to Klipschorns?

[Def Leper]

I simply haven't been able to find a set that are close enough to home to pick up and at a reasonable price. That will change with patience.

[JJkizak]

Some people can't handle the "big" sound of the K-horns and are still stuck with table model radio volumes and "talk to your buddies while listening to the music syndrome" at 70 spl levels. If your not listening at minimum 95 to 100 db spl's then get rid of them and buy Bose.

JJK

[DrWho]

I'd agree that the Forte II is probably one of the best voiced Klipsch speakers. Though I would love to see a bigger version with similar voicing to bring the distortion down a few notches....the khorn is certainly very very low in distortion, but the voicing is all over the place. I have this crazy theory that there are rooms where the acoustics naturally compliment the craziness of the khorn, resulting in the very few rooms where the khorns will blow most anything away.

[tommyboy]

Price and corners for me. Believe it or not, my wife wouldn't mind them. She thinks they're "pretty". But if I ever end up with a good enough room for them, I'll probably end up with a pair for 2 channel use. It'll be some years from now due to money reasons.

[shepjk01]

My third pair of klipsch speakers was a pair of 1988 oak khorns. I bought them used off of audiogon when I was 19 from a gentleman in North Carolina and was lucky enough for family that lived there to bring them up to Indiana to me. This was while I was in college and still lived at home. When I turned 21 I moved out and my parents didn't want the speakers setting around so I sold them to a gentleman on this forum. That was 5 years ago and there sound is what I judge all other speakers by. I drove them with a cary spl98 preamp and a bat vk60se tube amp. I tried talking the wife into letting me buy another pair but she said I already had to many speakers and I do not want to part with my full rf7 setup so soon. So it is not a matter of if I will have another pair just when.[]

[gaspr]

I'd agree that the Forte II is probably one of
the best voiced Klipsch speakers. Though I would love to see a bigger
version with similar voicing to bring the distortion down a few
notches....the khorn is certainly very very low in distortion, but the
voicing is all over the place. I have this crazy theory that there are
rooms where the acoustics naturally compliment the craziness of the
khorn, resulting in the very few rooms where the khorns will blow most
anything away.

Hmmm...interesting theory but I don't
buy it. I have had my Khorns for 25 years now and have had them
in several different rooms over the years. I can't recall ever
noticing how a new room affected the "voicing" of the khorns, but
then again I wasn't conciously listening for it either. No doubt
though that some rooms are more suited to them...trouble is you don't
know how suitable they will be in a particular space untill you try
them there.

I maintain that the biggest problem with super
revealing and detailed speakers, is that sometimes your favorite music
will not sound good on them. You referred to this in another
post. I can recall buying several CD's after getting hooked on a
tune that I either heard on someone else's sytem or on the radio, and
being horribly disappointed with the recording quality. Still
happens to me a lot. I recently purchased Coldplay's "Parachutes" and
have played it only once or twice because it sounds like **** on my
system. Yet I really love most of the tunes. I beleive this
has been an ongoing problem for many of us .

So why keep
them?? Because the really, really good recordings simply sound so
right, so incredible, so goooood, that they often give me that spine
tingling sensation that no other speakers have ever done for me.
If only recording quality in general could be improved...

[Audio Flynn]

I am going to agree with DrWho on this one. I have owned several sets of Klipschorns, Belles, and LaScalas. They always end getting sold or traded in the end. However, my Chorus, Chorus II, Forte', Forte' II, and Cornwalls tend to stick around.

I feel almost obligated to own Klipschorns as a long time enthusiast, but the only place the Klipschorn, Belle, LaScalas seem to have the magic is in a honest to goodness theater, and I have heard them in that application many times as a technician for United Artists.

The modified versions can sound very good, but the tonal balance seems more spot on with the Chorus, and Forte' line with the original Forte' having the best presentation of the Klipsch line.

Cool post!

Although I love the Belles as a fine furnithure addition to my Living room. It is kind of a bummer to banish the Chorus IIs to the HT room. They are not a slouch speaker when held against the Heritage.

I just realized it has been a year since I have heard the Chorus IIs tubes. Most likely next spring I will do a Chorus II / VRD Stereo JR. / Blueberry room at AK Fest 2008.

For me and Khorns? I just like my Belles to much to ever move them out. If I get a hankering to hear K Horns I will make a pilgrimage to the Parrot room in Ohio.

[wpines]

Honest answers, I can relate to them all. I've never heard a Klipschorn and I know of noone or nowhere in Connecticut to get the opportunity to do so. So I'm gonna buy 'em and try 'em. I love my Belles and Cornwalls but I just gotta hear for myself what the Klipschorns sound like. My listening room is 14x14 and I guess that's too small so now I invade the living room and the wife's turf [Y] ...........madness

[Klipsched with Yamahas]

x2 the cost of my cornwalls, and can't justify the increased cost. Would elect to go w/the Jubilees given the choice most likely.

Secondly, no good corners in my humble abode, so acoustically NOT A GOOD MATCH.

Thirdly, I don't believe my electronics would reveal the true sound reproduction capabilities that are offered within the Khorns.

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Some people can't handle the "big" sound of the K-horns and are still stuck with table model radio volumes and "talk to your buddies while listening to the music syndrome" at 70 spl levels. If your not listening at minimum 95 to 100 db spl's then get rid of them and buy Bose.

JJK

Jeff, is that you? Did you move away from Houston?

[J M O N]

I made the upgrade years ago. Best speaker I've ever owned and I've owned all the Heritage models at one point or another (Cornwalls, Belles, La Scalas, Heresy). I also have a set of Chorus IIs, in fact they are currently serving rear surround duty in my HT system. I'm also very familiar with both Forte versions (both being excellent speakers for the money and size). Setup and associated equipment is very important with Khorns though. I've run a basic Denon HT receiver through the Khorns and was underwhelmed.

[ZAKO]

I also was underwhelmed....and did something about it.

[ClaudeJ1]

I also was underwhelmed....and did something about it.

What did you do exactly??

Claude

[ZAKO]

Threw out all guts kept the bass bins....Something Paul Klipsch did several times.

[whell]

Why haven't I upgraded to K-horns?

Let's see...

Money. And, um, money.

And, oh yeah, money.

[Jim Cornell]

I have owned Chorus, Cornwalls, Cornwall 2's, TSCM, Heresys, at one pont in time I had to sell off to make more room. (family issue) First of all, if the Klipschorns did not exist I would of stayed with the Cornwall. I was overall very happy with the Cornwall, untill I brought the Klipschorns home.

I have built a home theater 2 times in the past, and I'm on my third, this time I have a top of the line Pioneer Elite, I think it performs better than the past recievers, it has 7.1, I have 2 speakers to go, to finish this set up.

In my opinion people who own the Cornwall, are not to far from having the Klipschorns. The cornwall design is in your face bass response, while on the other hand the Klipshorns are simular to having a subwoofer in the trunk, and the top end up front. The Klipshorns are a totally different design, than a basic front loaded speaker.I am going on almost 10 years of having the Klipschorns, I started out with 2 pair, and I kept the 1975 type B, I sold off the type D, after I rebuilt the top ends, and placed side grills on them making them appear as a type C. Man that was fun back in the day. I turned up 4 Klipschorns here one day, I could feel the floor lift it was nuts LOL. Man what a sound.

I sure miss the old days. Today I have my H/T with Klipschorns, and a smaller surround seems to do OK, I just had to turn the rears up, as well as the center +5 not bad.

Here in the denver area the heritage are hard to come by, they always were. I miss the Heresys, there was something about them I really liked. They were sweet speakers, there not a Klipschorn by any means and they sounded very smooth and sweet. I have listened to the La Scala, in my opinion they sounded sweet also, I would be happy with them as well as the Cornwall, or the Klipshorns. Having 4 Cornwalls here at one time, they were cutting each other out on bass, 1 pair sounded better that 2. Same as the Klipschorn, I think 1 pair sounded better than 2.

My Klipschorns have updated crossovers, but thats it, the wiring as well as the drivers are all original. Im happy, I always have been.

The RF line is sure nice these days, I went to Ultimate Electronics to look at them, while I bought the RC-52 center. The RF line is nice, they sound great, but so does the KLF-30. That was one design that was sweet.

Well all I can say is I took the plunge several years now, and I am still very happy with my Klipschorns, but at times I still miss the rest a lot.

Regards Jim

[IB Slammin]

From an engineering standpoint, I think the khorn is by far one of the coolest speakers ever built. I could go on about this, but I think everyone has the same appreciation for the design.

However, from a listening standpoint I haven't been completely sold.

I learned about the khorn through the forum and have since made it a goal to hear them in as many situations as possible. People on the forum are really cool in that regard and I've had the opportunity to travel around to hear khorns in all sorts of listening environments. The first listening session was in a dedicated acoustically treated listening room. The experience was both awesome and disappointing. I have since heard more khorns than I can remember and there have only been a few situations where I would consider the khorn implementation to be better than the simple Chorus II setup I currently own. And there is no shortage of cornwall systems that have sounded better too, so it's not just because I'm biased (what purpose would that serve anyway?)

Anyways, I've heard khorns sound like crap more often than they have sounded good. To be fair, my "Khorn Journey" has also revealed flaws in a lot of the recordings I used to enjoy. It's annoying really because I prefer to enjoy good music, but a good sound system is going to make bad recordings sound like crap...I guess it's the whole music-phile meets audiophile conundrum. One of these days I would like to go back and listen to some of the earlier systems knowing what I know now.

For what it's worth, I've noted a trend that the more recent versions of the khorn tend to sound better. Especially the latest crossover version (AK-4, AK-5? I forget) which has finally introduced some EQ to take out some of the crazy peaks in the bassbin. But if you were considering the purchase of a new khorn, then you might as well consider purchasing a Jubilee...

I know it's blasphemy to "not like" the grand daddy of Klipsch speakers, but to claim that they are always the end all, be all in music reproduction is a bit far-fetched too. They are very room dependant and it would be misleading to claim that they will work the best in any environment. Would I go with khorns in the most ideal everything situation? Probably not.

..................Has anyone not liked their Klipschorns and replaced them? ............. The two threads need to be one..........

tc

[wpines]

I'm upgrading to Klipschorns. I've got great corners in 2 rooms, one large and one small. I put a deposit on these. 1988, original owner. I'll pick them up in a week or two. He said they're oak but sent this picture. Isn't this walnut?

[Daddy Dee]

That would be walnut. The serial number label should include "WO" as the finish, assuming that is oiled walnut, which it appears to be.

Congrats. You've got some very fine speakers. I think you will be amazed at how big clean and clear you find the sound.

[jt1stcav]

Congrats on your "new" Klipschorns, Brad. They look fine...hopefully they'll sound just as good as they look.

I haven't a good room for a pair...it's way too small, and a closet door is entirely too close to the left corner to get a proper seal.

And then there's my limited budget...but I'm quite content with my dad's old Cornwalls, and my current RB-75 monitors!