Are the Klipschorns mainly for Classical music ??

I'm very out of date. My experience with horns, including those of Klipsch, was for monaural listening. The rational for such horns, placed in the corner of a room, was that the adjacent walls extended the horn. The sectoral horn used in several of the systems for high frequencies was an extension of concept. I had thought stereo killed them off, because few rooms could accomodate a pair of corner horns.

In the old days there were a number of such systems (unsure of spelling, JBL Hartsfield, ElectroVoice Patrician, Altec Voice of the Theater, and Klipschhorn to name a few. But along came Edgar Villcher at Acoustic Research with his long-excursion air-suspension speakers, and tar began pouring over the monsters. The small boxes lent themselves to stereo. Since then, there seems to be a general return to ported reflex enclosures. IIRC, Bozak was the first to use many moderate size cones to displace air.

So the answer to the question of whether Klipshorns are mainly for classical music is obviously no. Anyone have a JBL Hartsfield out there? At the time, I thought they sounded great, but problably wouldn't now.

Paul Klipsche and Edgar Villcher had several interesting debates at the annual Acoustical Society of America meetings, and I must admit to deserting the psysiological and psychological sessions to attend those debates. One of the great PK lines was something like, I don't care if you push it with a broom handle, you still have to move the diaphram to displace air.

db

Going to pick up second set of Klipschorns tomorrow. Thank God they are only 2 1/2 hours away instead of 6 hours.

Most of my collection is classical. i would never consider horns for classical. I need separation of the image. I can't stand whena speaker or a vacumm tube model blends everything into one "blob".
Sure horns may deliver more dynamics over most cone speakers and over all panels.
Which is why i looked for a cone that delivered with characterists of a horn.
Something that married the best of both approaches.

Allsmiles ; the info that you received about upgraded equipment making so called "poorly recorded" CD's sound better is correct . As I have slowly upgraded my equipment , I am surprised at how some rock CD's that I had quit listening to , are now sounding much better ! I had attributed it to the coloring of the music by the equipment . Whatever the reason , the results are definitly worth it !
I know that you are seeking a CDP recommendation and this may be off topic but I would suggest the Granite 657 .
I found it to greatly contribute to the above mentioned factor for CD's. It is in the near 3K range and is difficult to find used . The factory does offer a money back trial period if you like . It does have some comments here on Audiogon if you want to check it out . I also have heard and liked the upper end of the Cary line , at considerable cost increase . I think that either of these will help your rock music to sound better . NO FLAMES PLEASE

The newest pair of klipschorns are still in the Suburban but I did listen to them before purchasing and noticed a considerable better high end on rock music. The cdp preamp and amp were all high end I am sure. I am going to see what the Carver will do with it. This newest pair are '92's with AK-3 crossovers. I love the larger speaker cable connections. The '78's have such small connections....can I modify them to larger connectors ?? Saki..thank you for the cdp recommendations. FLAMES ????