Thinking about vintage Klipsch speakers...would love advice.

Roger that, have you been demo'ng any MQA Tidal streaming in you shop, what is your opinion? I just bought the Bluesound Node, and has been streaming with Tidal. As you have described my Khorns do not treat streaming mp3 and poor quality music very well. Now that I have the Node I am born again listening to all the Masters MQA album list and making new playlist.

 

No, I have not. I don't really use any streaming service at home either. I listen to Pandora sometimes for background music or youtube for grins. When I want to sit down and listen to music, I am almost always listening to my Lp record collection. I like the sound of vinyl; the durable quality of the product, and the size of the format and its artwork and notes.
-Bill

 

I know quite a few people whose opinion I respect that feel strongly that klipsch speakers are not enjoyable. The prominent feeling being the horns are too hot and the best thing they do is get loud. I was more inline with that thinking myself.

My neighbor wanted to put together a system and asked me to help. I set him up with a pair of heresy's because I knew his idea of good sound was loud. He was going to push the volume and I thought he could get that done with those speakers without damaging them. I was correct, that's exactly what he did and I really couldn't stand going over to his house when he was playing music. The worst was when he would play pearl jam cell phone videos from YouTube cranked way up. That would induce a headache for me.

Just to experiment I ran those speakers with my fisher 400 for a long weekend in a cabin we rented together and while I did find the horn to be a bit hot, I really liked the way it paired with the fisher.

About a year later I found a pair of cornwalls and have been running those with my fisher. I simply love it and now have about $8,000 worth of stereo equipment in a box I'm not using in favor of that fisher system. I'm sure I'll go back to it at some point but for now I'm as happy as I have ever been with a stereo system.

 

Roger that, you sound like the classic audiophile, moving over the years, divorces, etc etc, I have lost, sold all my music content, transferred everything to my Mac devices, but quality has suffered, and was not listening much, until this Tidal/MQA format came out. Just bought a Bluesound Node, they have a newer Node 2 with more connections, and the sound is as good as anything that is in my BlueRay collection. The shear convenience of having your entire music collection and ability to sample good recordings from around the world, has taken a priority for most, at least now the quality is back. Wish I had a audiophile bud with vinyl nearby so I could get a earful thanks for your time. cheers

 

Yes, youtube on any stereo sound terrible, on Klipsch speakers it is even worse. They are not not streaming friendly, and as I have been posting, until this MQA/Tidal format came up in the last month, now I am listening again. Klipsch are an acquired, preferred taste to live music fans, but they are fatiguing over time. My best audio bud, with a the B&W set up can make anything sound great/acceptable, but he keeps blowing those diamond tweeters when he gets carried away.

 

I definitely feel like it is closer to a live concert sound, which I do enjoy. I've not experienced the fatigue from prolonged listening, and I do tend to listen for hours at a time. I generally average about 20 -30 hours a week of playing records.

My other system is a Paradigm Studio 100.5 with a BAT Pre and a 200w SS B&K amp. I have used a VLT phono, VPI classic with a Lyra Delos as a source on both systems and I feel the Paradigms sound a touch brighter and bit more clinical. More emotion with the Klipsch and loads of detail. I've thought about running the cornwalls with the BAT and B&K but I don't think 200w would be a good match.

 

If you're not very sensitive to bass distortion of direct radiating woofers, then Cornwalls (I, II, and III), Choruses (I and II), and Fortes (I and II) will be inside your budget and have extension that's below 50 Hz, which is about where most people associate with "deep bass" in real life. These models would also reproduce the type of music recordings as-mastered and as-bought bought very well that you have self-identified with, above.

I would particularly recommend looking at the Forte II and Chorus II models due to their use of much better midrange horn profiles (modified tractrix instead of conventional exponential of all other Klipsch Heritage models). The newest Forte III and Palladium series also come to mind.

All the other HT style slim/tall loudspeakers (References series, et al.) use smallish modified tractrix horns too, but these are not really producing midrange frequencies, but rather HFs since they all are crossed above 1 kHz so you're basically listening to a direct radiating pair of woofers for fundamental instrument and vocal frequencies except perhaps cymbals, etc. These loudspeakers have the reputation of sounding harsh. All were designed in Indianapolis instead of Hope AR. This is important to note. The only Indy-designed series to date that uses truly horn-loaded midranges is Palladium series. That line has been recently discontinued, but is preferred from a listening standpoint. Good deals may be had on the larger floor-standers, although going less than a $1K/pair is probably not attainable as yet.

I'd strongly recommend looking for loudspeakers having midrange horns instead of direct radiating woofers to reproduce midrange frequencies (i.e., about 200-1200 Hz). Constant coverage in each of the horn's two azimuths, horizontally and vertically, is critical to good sound in a home-sized room. You cannot get constant coverage with direct radiating woofers and midranges.

If you've developed an ear for clean horn-loaded bass, La Scalas (I and II) and perhaps a rougher pair of Belles might be within your budget, if you relax your footprint restriction a bit. I've found that most people that have either found a way to pair good horn-loaded subs to these two basic fully horn-loaded models have never gone back to direct-radiating bass. See PWK's own advice on this subject: https://community.klipsch.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=80871

As far as the advice on tubes, my experience has been that tube are often used to cover up the sound of deficiencies in the loudspeakers and/or room acoustics and lack of treatments in the near field. I don't recommend using tube amplification to cover up loudspeaker deficiencies. A good FET amplifier design with one or two stages of amplification and no output transformers from Nelson Pass's First Watt enterprise (i.e., NOT Pass Labs) would be my recommendation instead. But the urge to own tubes seems to be strong, nevertheless. I'd keep the investment in electronics much lower than the investment in loudspeakers and room and its acoustic treatments. Your ears will thank you.

As far as other brands, none that I've heard would come close to your budget with the cleanness of fully horn loaded drivers. All the older horn-loaded JBL, Altec, EV, etc. models have been picked over by collectors, so the prices are way out of proportion to performance. Klipsch Heritage and related non-HT models seem to be alone in your price range for the type of performance that you seem to be chasing.

Klipsch regularly wins its loudspeaker "shootouts" in cinema competitions versus other loudspeaker manufacturers in that business. That's a capability that transfers well into the home consumer marketplace. Anyone that says that's not applicable to your needs in home loudspeakers...their advice should be looked at very cautiously, IMO.

If you wish to know more about the above subjects--I'd recommend visiting the Klipsch forum. You'll find a much larger community of people that actually know something about Klipsch loudspeakers...and probably experience a much lower probability of having what one might consider to be fringe opinions on realistic audio reproduction (i.e., PWK's objective).

Chris

 

This is off-the-charts advice, and I thank you for it.

 

I can confirm this 100%, from the other side. Mirror story. I have a system like your friend's, with B&W 800 D2 speakers and Classè amplification. When I want to enjoy live rock'n'roll sound though I go visit my bud and we listen to his Cornwalls.

 

Pulled the trigger

 

Cornwalls are the best sounding Klipsch speakers that I have heard, and I have heard most of them. You really need a huge room for them, but they actually have a decent balance of lows to match the highs they can pound out.
-Bill