Dang!

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I asked Roy about this at the Pilgrimage.  He confirmed that the Natural Cherry finish is being discontinued and is being replaced with the dark America Auburn finish.  This new finish is cherry wood with a different grain slice than the old cherry finish and stained a dark brown.  My report about the Pilgrimage event is here: https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/240038-2025-pwk-pilgrimagebirthday-bashchief-bonehead-class-featuring-the-new-klipschorn-ak7/   (Edit: There was apparently some miscommunication about what can be shared at this time. Removed picture.)    

More pics.

More pics.

More pics.    

Now that I’m back home after the 2025 PWK Pilgrimage/Birthday Bash/Chief Bonehead Class and have recovered a bit, I’ve put together my report on the event.  Before I get to that, if you have a chance to attend any of these events, you really should.  They are fun and help fund the Klipsch Museum of Audio History (https://www.klipschmuseum.org/).  Even if you can’t attend, consider donating to the Museum or even becoming a member to help them continue preserving Paul’s legacy and promoting STEAM education.  Commercial over, now onto the report.   On Friday the first event was a Klipsch Museum of Audio History tour led by Curator Jim Hunter.  Since I have taken the tour numerous times, I decided to skip it and help with setting up things at the Klipsch Museum Visitor Center for the dinner and music that would happen that evening.  After that I went over to the Rose Hill Cemetery for a wreath laying ceremony at Paul Klipsch’s grave.  It was then back to the Visitor Center for the Klipsch Museum Membership Meeting.  Finally, there was food and music on the pro line KI-396/KPT-684-SW speaker setup in the back yard.  There was also music being demoed at the Paul Klipsch Auditorium in Hope City Hall about two blocks away on a pair of KPT-535/4 cinema speakers with a single huge KPT-1802-HLS horn-loaded cinema sub.   On Saturday we attended that latest Chief Bonehead class.  It was a fun and informative event as usual.  We spent the day learning about and listening to the upcoming Klipschorn AK7 with Klipsch Principal Engineer Roy Delgado.  (We learned about the similar changes are coming for the La Scala AL6 at the class last November.)  The speakers that were demoed were in the new darker American Auburn finish, which is replacing the lighter Natural Cherry finish.  Here are the upcoming changes to the La Scala and Klipschorn.  I’m putting the information about both speakers here so that it is all in one place.  All the changes are the same for both speaker models except for the bass bin modifications for the La Scala.  Remember that this is preliminary information subject to change.   - New mid-range horn and driver (La Scala and Klipschorn) The reason that the La Scala and Klipschorn are being updated at this time is because the tooling for the K-401 midrange horn is finally wearing out and can no longer be repaired.  Instead of making new tooling for that old exponential horn design, it was decided that it would finally be replaced with a modern modified Tractrix horn, designated the K-406.  This new horn is much shorter and features a 2” throat and “mumps”.  The next change is the midrange driver to go with this new horn. This is the large diaphragm, 2” exit KT-1133-HP compression driver used in the Klipsch Professional line.   - New tweeter wide dispersion phase plug (La Scala and Klipschorn) All compression drivers will start to beam at a certain frequency as the frequency increases.  The frequency at which this happens depends on the driver’s exit diameter.  Once this happens the horn no longer controls the coverage pattern.  A phase plug is then needed to control the coverage past this point.  That is why wide dispersion phase plugs were added to the high frequency assemblies when the Heresy, Forte, and Cornwall were last updated and why the Heritage Jubilee has always had one.  The La Scala and Klipsch will now join the rest of the Heritage line with the addition of a wide dispersion phase plug to the tweeters.   - Revised bass bin with horn-loaded vented system and different woofer (La Scala only) In order to get additional bass extension from the La Scala, Roy decided to experiment with using a horn-loaded vented system design like the Jubilee bass bin.  After experimenting with various port numbers, he settled on two ports.  These are the same ports used on the Cornwall, Heresy and RF-7 III.  Since there is only so much space on the woofer baffle, the woofer size had to be decreased from 15 inches to 12 inches.  However, this is no ordinary 12-inch woofer.  It is the same woofer used on the Forte IV.  It has a larger voice coil (3”) than the 15.  Since the ports contribute to the effective radiating area, this combination actually has lower distortion than the sealed 15.  Doing this netted an extra 10 Hz of bass extension.   - New crossover network and optional DSP (La Scala and Klipschorn) The original intent Roy had was to forgo a passive crossover and only do an active DSP like the Jubilee.  However, some people thought that sales might suffer if buyers were forced to buy six channels of amplification for stereo when only two are required for the current La Scala.  So, now the La Scala AL6 and Klipschorn AK7 will ship stock with a passive network and the DSP will be a separately purchased option.  The new passive network will be fairly complicated since Roy tried to accommodate as many of the PEQs, etc. used in the DSP as possible.  It’s so big that the production network had to be put on two circuit boards.  However, the real magic comes with the optional DSP.  This allows time/phase alignment of all drivers.  This also allowed the response to be really flattened out.  However, this also means that the new La Scala and Klipschorn will require three channels of amplification per speaker when using the DSP crossover.   - Upgrade kits (La Scala and Klipschorn) The plan is to have upgrade kits for both the La Scala and Klipschorn.  Any upgrade kits that might be offered would probably only be for the La Scala AL5 and the Klipschorn AK6, since only those versions have the Celestion tweeter with the front-mounted horn that will be carried over to the new versions.  The kits would include the passive networks and the DSP would still be an optional purchase.  The La Scala may have two versions of the kit.  Since the woofer baffle has been changed, to do a full upgrade would require replacing the entire “doghouse” in the bass bin.  So, there may be a kit with the doghouse and one without.  If you pick the one without the doghouse, you will miss out on the additional bass extension but still get all the other improvements.   How do all these changes sound?  My comments for the Klipschorn sound changes are essentially identical to those that I made for the new La Scala back in November.  We began the listening session with the new Klipschorn and the passive networks.  These sounded really good.  You could definitely hear the smoother midrange.  The hint of shoutiness from the K-401 mid-horn is completely gone.  The treble coverage was also much wider due to the new tweeter phase plug.   However, once Roy switched the setup to the tri-amp DSP configuration, the improvement over the passive networks was astounding.  The bottom end sounded fuller, the speakers sounded smoother, better integrated, and more like single sources.  The improvement is as dramatic as when I head the comparison of the Underground Jubilee and the Heritage Jubilee.  The sound was as close to the Heritage Jubilee sound as I’ve heard from any other Heritage speaker, just at a smaller scale and without the ridiculously deep bass of the Jubilee.  These are not your grandfather’s Khorns.  In my opinion purchasing the new La Scala or Klipschorn without doing the tri-amp DSP setup would be a monumental mistake.  The sound with the DSP is so much better.  I can’t wait for these new versions to be released.   The event was capped off by an evening at the Klipsch Museum Victor Center of enjoying Roy’s famous grilled fajitas and chicken.  There was also live music with an acoustic duo called the PePaw Collective and four-piece rock band LB and the Riffraff, but that had to be held in the Klipsch Auditorium instead of the stage behind the Visitor Center due to rain.   (Edit: There was apparently some miscommunication about what can be shared at this time. Removed all new product pictures.)  

Series 

Thanks, I will try soon. 

That three-piece crew sounds almost TX-like @Dave1291!