Klipschorn's

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Jack Flannery, Apr 26, 2015.

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  1. Jack Flannery

    Jack Flannery Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    went to this Veitnamese fellow's house to pick up a turntable. He builds his own SET amps from scratch and had one holed up to a pair of Klipschorns. He said the amp was about 2.5 wpc. I heard those speakers one other time with some Japanese receiver. I also heard Belle Klipsch hooked up to one of those old 270wpc Pioneer watt-wars receivers that sounded like hell. Well, I get it now. I'll post a picture sometime but man, that system sounded sweet.
     
    Last edited: Apr 26, 2015
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  2. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    I have a friend "in the biz" who has a custom-built, very large theatre room with PROPERLY PLACED Klipschorns and a La Scala in the center. I went in skeptical (despite owning Klipsch speakers myself for many years), and I went away very impressed.
     
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  3. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    If you own Klipschorns, they need to be placed in corners to play correctly. If you don't have corners, consider Cornwall or Chorus. Low damping factor SS amplifiers are fine with them, 50 watts/channel plenty with loads of headroom. Remember, placement with all Klipsch classics and source components important to their performance and sound. Bob Crites updates make them even better too.
     
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  4. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    I have Chorus in my living room presently. I like them and use a McIntosh MA 5100 to drive them. And enjoy listening to that system.
     
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  5. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    The system I referenced is also McIntosh driven, FWIW.
     
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  6. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    And I must try my bedroom MC 2505/MX 114 combo with the Chorus.
     
  7. onlysleeping

    onlysleeping Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chico CA, USA
    I have Khorns and a tpa3110 amp, McIntosh mx113 preamp. Sounds nice. I'm still comparing the Tpa3110 to the tda7297. They really don't need much power, just clean. I have had difficulty getting noise out of the system and keeping hiss minimal.

    When playing good source material my set up sounds great. The khorns can get very bright and I often turn the treble down. Bad source, or poorly encoded or low res mp3s sounds especially awful.


    I would love to try an SET amp but they are too expensive.
     
  8. Burt

    Burt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kirkwood, MO
    They can be cheap to build if you can get the tubes. Almost all old directly heated triodes have gotten nutso priced because of hoarding and unless someone makes a guitar amp using them they are not coming back into mass manufacture. I maintain that if you just use a beam power tube strapped as a triode there is very little difference and you can always build with such a tube to start and convert later, just leave enough room for a 2.5 or 5 volt filament transformer on the chassis.
     
  9. jcmusic

    jcmusic Forum Resident

    Location:
    Terrytown, La.
    I have used khorns and an SET amp 2 wpc max for years, nothing comes close in my opinion!!!
     
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  10. beowulf

    beowulf Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chula Vista, CA
    -
    You should check out Decware's Super Zen Triode @ $895 brand new, made in USA, all point to point wiring and a lifetime warranty. 2 of the best-bang-for-the-buck watts out there, and that also push out a really beautiful holographic soundstage. I pair my McIntosh C220 preamp up with a Decware Taboo MKII S.E.P. @ 6 watts with great results as well.
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2015
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  11. onlysleeping

    onlysleeping Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chico CA, USA
    Thanks for the suggestion. I do have an EICO hf87 tube amp but it has some noise issues. These speakers are pretty fussy but they can sound great.
     
  12. Jack Flannery

    Jack Flannery Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    I will find this conversation interesting.
     
  13. beowulf

    beowulf Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chula Vista, CA
    My Omega speakers are also fairly efficient at 95dB @ 8 ohms (of course not as sensitive as your horns), but my Decware amp is so quiet that if it wasn't for the tubes glowing, you wouldn't even know its on. You can find used Super Zens going for around $600.

    I feel fairly confident in saying that you will most likely really dig this amp. It's not overly tubey in its presentation so it will go nice with a vintage preamp like the Mac you have. Or since it has a volume control and 2 RCA inputs you can plug a source directly into it such as a DAC, CD Player or Phono Stage and bypass the Preamp altogether for the most purest path possible.

    Steve Deckert makes fine products and his Zen Mystery Amp just made Tone Audio's Product of The Year Award in 2014. The ZMA is a 40 watt amp that costs $5695, but what I find interesting is there are some Decware fans who own both the ZMA and Super Zen and often say that the Super Zen is still Steve's best amp, but at 2 watts it can only drive a handful of speakers with enough authority (which yours are so efficient it shouldn't be any problem at all). But it's nice to know that soundwise the little 2 watt'r Super Zen can compete on the same level as his flagship offerings.
     
  14. onlysleeping

    onlysleeping Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chico CA, USA
    Nice. For $10 the sure tpa3110 sounds fantastic. Deep bass. Doesn't take up much space or power either.

    Back on topic. The Khorns are very bright. I find I turn treble down on these to listen without being too loud. I have not touched fhe crossovers which are the original AA version. And when they weren't in a corner the bass was lacking. Now they are in corners on a lesser power amp (previously tried a McIntosh 2505 which paired better with other speakers), and I can rattler stuff off the walls.

    They also look nice after being cleaned off with orange oil.
     
  15. onlysleeping

    onlysleeping Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chico CA, USA
    Another oddity I noticed with the khorns - with any amp I've tried changing the polarity on both speakers makes them sound better. So positive cable on from the speakers plugs into the respective negative output of the amp and negative to positive. I'm not sure why this is but to me it sounds more full, warmer, better. Maybe because the sound bounces off the wall?
     
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