Are Klipsch speakers really that bright?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Jerryb, Feb 8, 2010.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. stereoguy

    stereoguy Its Gotta Be True Stereo!

    Location:
    NYC
    Klipsch with Solid State Amps = eeccchhh.
     
  2. stricee

    stricee Forum Resident

    WRONG!!
     
    The Pinhead likes this.
  3. axnyslie

    axnyslie Forum Resident

    Mine were bright initially. Once I mated them with a good SET amp and bi-wired them they because nice and neutral sounding.
     
  4. DaleH

    DaleH Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southeast
    That's where I picked up my RF25s, at the Rochester road location. I also got my Well tempered Record Player there in the 90s. It's a nice store.

    The first time I heard Khorns was at their Woodward store. The guy had them playing way too loud and they did sound bright, and painful.:(
     
  5. djost

    djost Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    From my limited experience, it's all about system matching.

    I started out with a pair of Theil 2.2 speakers and a PS Audio 200CX amp and PS Audio 5.5 preamp, which I thought sounded pretty good. Overtime, I have sold this stuff and replaced it with a pair of Klispch LaScalas (Crites CT-125 tweeters, ALK Universal xovers), a pair of 2A3 tube mono amps, tube line stage, tube phono preamp, and a subwoofer. With the Theil and PS Audio stuff I felt things sounded good, but also sounded very "limited". With the LaScalas, tubes and subwoofer, I "feel" I turned my living room into a concert hall.

    With all that being said, stock LaScalas with the PS Audio 200CX and 5.5 preamp sounded pretty bad. It took matching my LaScalas with tubes, a subwoofer, and eventually upgrading the tweeters and xovers before I got a "system" that I love listening to. I no longer listen to my records for an hour or two. My listening sessions have turned into entire day or evening/night kind of thing.
     
    Heckto35 and SandAndGlass like this.
  6. stereoguy

    stereoguy Its Gotta Be True Stereo!

    Location:
    NYC
    klipsch


    >>>>nope. In fact, out of all the speakers discussed here on SF, I'd say there are more negative comments about Klipsch horns than any other speaker. Theres a reason why. And having owned Horns, I know the reason.
     
  7. motorcitydave

    motorcitydave Enlightened Rogue In Memoriam

    Location:
    Las Vegas, NV, USA
    Ok, how about low powered Class-a solid state like pass labs or accuphase?
     
  8. Ctiger2

    Ctiger2 Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    I LOVED my Klipsch until I heard something else...
     
  9. beavis

    beavis Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sayre, Pa. USA
    Klipsch La Scalas + ALK x-overs + McIntosh MC275 + McIntosh C220 = :edthumbs:

    Substitute MC30's or MC225 for MC275= :edthumbs:

    Oh, and with McIntosh SS, too....

    And Bottlehead 2A3s, Primaluna gear, and 813 tubes....

    You like the sound you like and that's what it is all about.....:cheers:
     
    drobo likes this.
  10. Ctiger2

    Ctiger2 Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    Yes, with the La Scala's you have to match them with a sub or you won't get the full range. You just know there's something missing listening to La Scala's without a sub.
     
    djost and SandAndGlass like this.
  11. DaleH

    DaleH Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southeast
    I had to re-work the crossovers on my 82 Khorns to get them sounding halfway decent. Even with the tuning they will still let you know when they're too loud. When I was running vintage Altec drivers I had to keep an SPL meter at the listening chair to avoid playing them way too loud.

    Both crossover points were overlapping too much and each had a huge impedance dip. The midrange and tweeter were overlapping by 2 kHz. With the severe physical time alignment mismatch built in and the crossover overlap the 4 to 6 kHz range was ringing pretty bad. The tweeter also had a large peak at its resonance of about 3 kHz that affected the midrange.

    They sound pretty clean and balanced now. How many full range speakers can blow you out of the room with 1 watt?
     
  12. djost

    djost Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    Yes, I would agree that the La Scala's without a sub you won't get full range. But, what's wrong with adding a sub? If I had a couple of good corners, I would probably have a pair of Klipsch corner horns by now. Since I don't, for me, La Scala's with a sub is the next best thing. I guess all I'm trying to say, is with some careful system matching you can make a pair of Klipsch Heritage speakers sing.
     
  13. royalcrown

    royalcrown Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona
    I love my Cornwalls they have a great live sound. It really depends on amplification and your room.I like my Cornwalls so much I have 2 pair. They can cause listener fatigue after long periods, then I switch to my JBL's.
     
  14. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian

    Been using my Klipschorns for quite a while now with a 60wpc class A amp and find it wonderful.
     
  15. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Never would have guessed it by your Forum Name..:laugh:
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  16. theanswer337

    theanswer337 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona
    Yeah, they're not bad! :laugh:
     
  17. motorcitydave

    motorcitydave Enlightened Rogue In Memoriam

    Location:
    Las Vegas, NV, USA
    Cool. Which make and model of amp, please.
     
  18. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    I remember about 30 years ago the dad of my buddy John had a blond pair of Klipschorns powered by a Fisher 800 receiver. He played us the old Elektra stereo LP of the first DOORS album on his Thorens TD-124 turntable and I was blown away by BREAK ON THROUGH. I think people forget that those speakers were designed to play stuff that wasn't so agressive sounding. Old LP's sound perfect on the K-Horns because of that very factor. But try playing a modern CD on them and run screaming from the room.

    Gotta make sure you play the stuff on them that was meant to be played on them, any old LP will do!

    Wish I had the room for a pair but I don't. Klipsch wants to send me a new pair but I just don't have the space for that corner-loading thing to happen....:(
     
    Khorn and SandAndGlass like this.
  19. stereoguy

    stereoguy Its Gotta Be True Stereo!

    Location:
    NYC


    Thats certainly true, BUT do you really even WANT a pair of expensive speakers that you can only play "certain things" through? Personally, I wouldnt.

    To me, its much better to build a system that sounds good, (maybe not great) with any source you feed it.
     
    popol_vuh likes this.
  20. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Depends on how many systems you have. I have two modern and one vintage. No room for more.

    No one system is going to give you EVERYTHING (sez me).
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  21. stereoguy

    stereoguy Its Gotta Be True Stereo!

    Location:
    NYC
    LOL....Steve, with 3 systems, you must lead all of us in that category!!
     
  22. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Eh, the only one that counts is the one I actually own, my vintage Tannoy/McIntosh/Marantz system..

    The other two are loaners. Wonderful but just loaners. They don't have the distortion that I dig with my vintage system sometimes. My old 1962 Gordy 45 of "DO YOU LOVE ME" by the Contours only sounds "correct" on my vintage Tannoys.

    Just the way it is... It colors so nicely..
     
    insoc123 likes this.
  23. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I think you nailed it! I guess unless one is looking for painful accuracy, one should try to get a speaker that is voiced to what they normally listen to.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  24. Tigerwoodkhorns

    Tigerwoodkhorns New Member

    Location:
    Nevada
    Klipsch speakers are not necessairily any brighter than any other revelaing speaker. Us a cheap SS receiver and they sound just plain aweful. With the right electronics they do sound good, somewaht colored, but very good.

    Despite my username, I no longer have any Klipsch speakers hooked up. However, I just happen to have a pair of Cornwalls that I picked up locally for a guy on the Klispch forum. My system is all SS, but set up for B&W 800's. so it has a warm tone (dare I say tubelike). I use a Musical Fidelity hybred preamp and Classe monoblocks.

    I hooked up the Cornwalls, and they actually sounded quite good with this front end. Absolutely no harshness, which completely blows the silly argument that you cannot use SS, especially high powered SS with Klipsch (I'm using amps rated at 350/700 wpc, 1st 80 wpc is pure class A).

    They also imaged very well, which surprised me. The only thing that I did not like was the midrange. It is hard to explain, it was not harsh, just recessed and details were farther back than my normal speakers. I also felt the need to turn them up when I listened and I have always found that with better speakers and electronics you do not have the feeling to turn them up because you can already hear the detail. I also did not turn them up very loud but I do remember that when I had K Horns and Belles, their tone would change when you turned them up loud. The imaging also got larger and larger instead of just louder, so they really did not behave that well at volume.

    Adding a large Tractrix horn is supposed to fix the midrange on these. I have an old project in pieces that has K Horn bass bins, JBL midrange compression drivers and tweeter and a large Traxtrix horn. Just too many other projects to get to this one.

    For the money, Heritage are very hard to beat, you just need to make sure that you have smooth gear driving them, not necessairily expensive, just nothing harsh.
     
  25. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

    Yup, that's the essence of why some of us love our Klipsch horns and others detest them. I mostly listen to pre-1970 vinyl, and I have a vintage low-power tube amp.
     
    Jam757 likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine