Belle Klipsch review

Direct from PrimaLuna, putting 12AU7s in place of the 12AX7s will destroy the tube and eventually harm the amp. It has to do with the differences in current draw.

 

That is correct.

When I looked up my purchase of the 6-dB attenuators on Amazon, I bought them back in 2014. I had them on my front 250-WPC Emotiva SS amp. I didn't have an issue with SQ, at any time that I had them in the system.

You can also check eBay for a used Emotiva, ControlFreak, which is the black analog volume control, that is hanging over the back of the tan sofa. Because, the preamp volume control is directly behind my head, when I sit on the tan sofa, it is not in the optimum position for adjusting the volume going to the power amplifier. So I just set the preamp volume where I want it. Currently it is set at the twelve o'clock position but I control the volume level up to that point with the handy ControlFreak.

Here is a photo of the one with balanced connectors.



Mine use the RCA connectors.

I can control and continuously adjust the level of all three amplifiers while resting my left arm on the back of the sofa.

Basically, it is just adding in another continuously variable attenuator into the circuit.

I also have another analog remote volume control, that is in a small box. It has a small Jemmy Audio Volume Control label on the back of the unit. it also appears to sold under the name Nobsound, which you can purchase on Amazon for $56.



This unit is equipped with both RCA connectors and balanced connectors.

Here is the rear view of the unit.



I bought this unit from another forum member who was offering it for sale, as a back-up, since the Control Freak has been discontinued. I have not made use of it as yet, so I cannot offer an opinion on its functionality.

I'm thinking that if you were to employ a secondary analog volume control, it may serve you better than the attenuators, which I had purchased before I had any outboard volume level controls.

 

Right-o!

 

Here are the earlier ALK Universals I have in my La Scalas:



The various leads to access different autoformer taps to set the mid-horn level to taste can be seen, though the design still looks pretty similar. ALK also make an ‘extreme slope’ crossover, which I assume would cut a bit more mid-band energy away from the bass horn, which would likely be a good thing given it can sing along a bit. I certainly found the Universals, which I was lucky enough to find cheaply second hand, a big gain on the stock Klipsch AL-3 which were fitted to my speakers. They really did sound pretty odd stock!



I have my La Scalas parked in the corners/alcoves of the room which warms them up a bit. It’s not an especially optimal setup, but makes for decent TV sound.



I measured them with REW a good while back, that’s a response plot from the listening seat, the corners do get the bass down a little deeper.

 

Your description of the Klipsch sound is almost exactly what I told customers at the hi-fi store I helped manage in the 80s to expect if they went down the street and got a pair instead of what I thought were better offerings we were selling. I couldn't stand the sound of Klipsch back in the 80s and it seems we agree today and for the same reasons.

 

This new cheaper version of the Universal's doesn't sport the parts to do a great job as compared to the original's.

 

Funny, I've heard the exact same thing from every Hi-fi shop I've ever been to that doesn't carry Klipsch, which is every hi-fi shop I've ever been to. Amazing Klipsch has been able to remain as a company since 1947 selling such god awful speakers.

Bashing on Klipsch is a time honored audiophile tradition that I myself have enjoyed over the years. Speakers for knuckle dragging mouth breathers who only understand sound quality to mean "loud". That certainly describes a large segment of their customer base. But......Just because they can used as cannons doesn't mean that's their extent of their abilities.

These designs in the Heritage series go back to the 40's, a time when amps were producing very little power. The advancement that PWK made was being about to fill a room with 90db of clean sound using less than 10 watts. As time and technology moved on, it became all about power. And that takes us back to the hi-fi shop, no high end store in the 80's was trying to push a 30 watt amp as an audiophile's dream come true. More power, more money, more profit and no Klipsch. Give it too much power and they vibrate wildly and ugly.

People are often confused about what Klipsch sound like. It 's like a powerful telescope but instead of looking deep into space for detail it is focused on the rest of your system. There is really nowhere to hide, garbage in means garbage out. If you want to clearly hear the differences between pressings or the differences in a NOS tube and Russian made, Those Klipsch horns will deliver the goods. It's not the right speaker for most people, they will not bend to your will. You have to feed it what it wants or it will yell at you.

 

I'm not confused about what Klipsch speakers sound like. I've listened to them many times. And I never said anything about knuckle dragging mouth breathers. And I'm not a "basher." But as an orchestra teacher who lives and breathes around real instruments and voices every day at work, I do not find the Klipsch sound very lifelike. YMMV. Each to his own.

 

My apologies, I had no idea I was talking to an orchestra teacher.

 

I would have to agree with most of that. While my Forte I did this the Belles do this in spades. My most well recorded CDs sound great, but MOST recordings are not mastered well. I would say 95% of the recordings I have ever encountered are mastered not so well. And at least 50-70% are so terribly mastered I simply only play them as background music or in the car. The Belles make these lesser quality masterings sound SO MUCH WORSE!

Furthermore, every preamp and every amp I have inserted becomes more and more distinguishable. Each amp and preamp sounds MORE different from one another than ever before. I am hearing tape splices, tape dropouts, little electronic artifacts, buzzes, clicks, pops, over modulations, and even some good subtle things never noticed before. I am hearing the engineer noodle with the soundboard on rare occasions. To continue the telescope analogy, I can hear the Crab Nebula from here!

I am going to say something that may put any of what little credibility I may have here at stake. I have been running the PimaLuna 5 since I got it because it sounds better than my NAD312 power amp section (no surprise there, right?), either my Crown PL3 or PL4, my Electron Kinetics Eagle 2C, my Dynaco ST70 or my Threshold s300II.

As for preamps, I have tried my Crown SL2, Xiang Sheng 726A, Threshold FET10He and Spectral DMC-15. Now for the part that blows me away and may completely derail this thread. The preamp that sound hands down the best is the preamp section of my NAD312!!! WTF?? I have 3 other NAD integrated here including the C325BEE that I may try!

This goes to show one of two things, either I am deaf or SYNERGY plays more of an important role than the hierarchy of "quality" does. I say trust your ears over reviews (including mine) and do not even worry about how much something costs or how it SHOULD sound based on design or level of quality parts. Sometimes things just sound good because they integrate well by accident!

I have a PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium preamp coming this week and all it has to do is beat the preamp section in my NAD312!!!

 

Orchestra teacher really isn't much of a credential, certainly not much in the way of mine is bigger than yours, but it does give me a daily reference point. When I listen to hi-fi stuff I don't listen for highs or lows or midrange or dynamics or inner detail or pace or whatever the latest buzzword is. I just ask myself, "do those trombones sound like trombones?" "Do those violas sound like violas?"

 

And yet I had an orchestra conductor friend who told me back in the 80s when I played Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra by Bernstein on Columbia Masterworks LP for him through Cornwalls, that it was like standing in front of a live orchestra. So, opinions vary regardless of experience or "authority".

And that is what I listen for the most, do real instruments sound like real instruments? And most of the time the production and mastering precludes any chance of that.

 

Yes, bad CD's are very tough sledding. I was at Best Buy for the first time in forever about a month ago and bought Tom Petty's Wild Flowers on CD for $5. It was a mess, just too loud at any volume. But at the same time, I'm getting way more enjoyment out of good Hi-res files where I was never all that taken with them in the past.

That is surprising about the pre amp of the NAD being the winner. I will say that my most expensive gear isn't always the best when working through my Cornwalls, it is really all about the synergy.

 

My speaker history for the past 30 years:

Harbeth HLP3 - magical in a small room.
Audio Physic Virgo II - amazing if you have the patience to dial in placement.
Reference 3a DeCapo - musical immediacy at its best.

One day I was at a party, started talking to the host about music/vinyl. He led me downstairs to his listening room. First thing I noticed were a pair of giant speakers up against the wall. He told me they were Klipsch Cornwalls. I've always been sensitive to brightness so I braced myself for the shrill sound I have been reading about for the past 30 years.

I bought a pair 5 days later.

 

I do think that knowing what an acoustic instrument sounds like is a very valuable reference point. I've spent thousands of hours with a Martin Guitar on my knee. I'm not saying I'm very good at playing it but i know what the wood sounds like, the difference between stings and I can hear the gauge of the pic. When I test out new stuff I play a Tony Rice album and I have a good idea of what that is suppose to sound like.

 

I totally agree. Knowing what an acoustic instrument sounds like in real life is VERY important. A recording is not the best reference, whereas real instruments played without any electronic intervention is. It seems each generation is further and further removed from that essential reference judging by the recordings put out these days. There reference must be other recordings rather than real instruments. Maybe their experience is with video game sound effects?

 

Fortunately a few still spend time with real instruments. All my students spend time every day making music with one while surrounded with others doing the same.

 

That is wonderful. Let's hope this continues and even grows in our culture rather than to make music via computer programming.

 

Yeah, I hear you on Wildflowers. The CD I use to demonstrate the horrible sonics of modern recordings, and what is typical, is Lucius Wilde Woman CD. I do not know what is about the tendency to have every layer having all this reverb and compression and then adding even more reverb and compression on top of all that! There is so much noise, digital hash, distortion, banging of lids and marbles in buckets that not one shred of nature comes through. They have so much energy in the 3000 hz to 6000 hz area and then a boomy bottom and that is all they seem to care about. Oh and ALL instruments have to vie for dominance. They all have to "cut through the mix".

Hey, how about mixing some space in their somewhere so you do not have to crowd every sound into one ugly, non-musical ball of wax? Where there COULD be a bit of breathing room they stuff it full with some electronic effect, keyboard or synthesizer. The first time I noticed this kind of sound was the Cocteau Twins. Another band I like but cannot stand the sound is Asobi Seksu. Some of these modern recordings somehow accomplish this noise and hash with a simple acoustic guitar and voice!

It seems that "shoe gazing" and a lot of "alternate" style music requires this hash and noise. There are a lot of hard rock bands that sound clean, organic and relaxed by comparison. I find a woodshop or downtown traffic and construction less offensive sometimes!

If the sound sucks, so does the music in my view.

 

The irony as I understand it is Paul Klipsch utterly hated rock and pop music, his taste was classical and acoustic music. He also hated solid state amplification when it arrived and his speakers are very obviously voiced for a good tube amp to my ears. The people who tend to be the most critical of Klipsch seem to be those who have only heard them playing rock at ear-splitting levels driven from a transistor amp! PWK would have hated that too!

PS Well setup with a good tube amp I’d argue the Klipsch Heritage range can produce a remarkably believable piano - they get the dynamic envelope right in a way most cone and dome boxes just don’t somehow. Its one of the first things that struck me about them as I grew up in a home with a grand piano in it so that sound is just wired into me.

 

I've breezed through the pages and I have yet to see a picture of your room layout with the speakers. Can we get one? Also - if the Belle's are on hardwood - I'd buy some home depot rubber cups/protectors to couple the speaker more tightly to the floor. That is how I have my Cornwalls. Sounds like Corwalls would have been a better choice.

 

Electric guitars, organs and drums sound mighty real through my Heresys. I don't blast them either, they just Rock.

 

I've never heard an electric guitar by itself. All I've heard is an electric guitar played through a Marshall or Fender or Peavey or headphones. Maybe you can judge a home hi-fi speaker by its lifelike electric guitar sound (whatever that means) but that's above my pay grade. Same with any other amplified instrument. I need unamplified instruments reproduced through a home hi-fi or I can't judge anything.

 

I've only had my Quartet's for a few months and the first week I was going crazy trying to get them not to "yell" at me. I found the less power I used the better they sounded. They are among the best sounding speakers I've owned. Been thinking I need to get some stands for even better sound just don't know what ones will work best.

Back in the day (late 70's early 80's) there was a place here in Denver called The Rainbow Music Hall that had Klipsch sound system hanging from ceiling and the place rocked!! Saw Thin Lizzy just after "Live and Dangerous" came out........ what a show!

 

Got the PrimaLuna Prologue Premium preamp today to go along with the PrimaLuna Prologue Five power amp I have been using for about a week. So far so good. I am hoping the ALK Universal crossovers will be the last thing I need to do. I can live with the sound I am getting now though. (as much as any audiophile can live with anything that is).