Klipsch Palladium P-39F?

I understood you to mean that the crossover has an impact on 90% of the sound not the cost, i just question the validity of this claim. Furhermore what brand of high-end speakers use crossovers the size of amplifiers? Theil 3.7 is the same dimensions as the lowly Klipsch RF-7 and the the Wilson Sophia is not a huge speaker either. I don't doubt that Klipsch takes WAF into account with the Palladium line but so does every other high end manufacturer. The Klipschorn certainly does not attempt to be a cute speaker, does it employ the massive crossovers you speak of? What company does?

Macallan7,
NOT MANY!!! But most speakers use simpler crossovers, however there are several using outboard large ones, some only take about 1 inductor and 1 capacitor for example, but still is the size of a shoe box. Its not about the part QUANTITY, the Quality parts are far larger. For example you take 1 cap, like a 10 uF cap in a standard Klipsch speaker, its about the size of a half roll of pennies for example.

That same CAP from Clarity or Mundorf, or someone similar and its literally almost the Size of a soda can. So it is definitely not easy or cost effective for most mass produced speakers to implement this for sure. That was not my argument either. Hey I would definitely take a pair of palladiums don't get me wrong, but knowing for 1000 bucks more with such a huge investment already Yes I would build outboard far better crossovers and they would be about the size of a 12" X 16" X 7" amplifier each. And the Palladiums issue with crossover is they are Very complex from what I saw, they are a 3 way meaning a section for tweeter, woofers, and mids, and have about 10 to 15 parts per board. If you use some good ribbon inductors and some Mudorf or clarity caps in that crossover not only will they be that large, but also about 10 to 15 lbs each in weight.

Here is a quick link I came up with on the klipsch website actually… The woofer and tweeter boards alone next to each other although not easily seen in perspective because nothing is next to them as a reference would barely fit next to each other like that on the table in a basic preamp chassis you have on your rack. see link it’s a cool project to which you can read and check out. Oh and looking back at the link now I do see its the crossover shown next to large Mono block tube amps! Almost the same size. Don't get me wrong the crossovers pictured here are probably 5 times the cost of the palladiums, and they can get much more expensive than even this.

http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/103108.aspx

     

I don't doubt that better crossovers exist, i just doubt that 90% of the sound is controlled by this. If that is the case then I would be quite confident that many high end companies would have huge external crossovers. I am sure the crossover is very important, i just think that the ones Palladium or Wilson or Theil use are sufficient.

Again Palladiums which is what this is about are a very cool speaker, the main change and very refined part of this speaker is the "Boat tail" cabinet eliminating the box noise issues and damping of your standard rectangle boxes. They simply put a little more money into crossovers not what I consider a 20,000 dollar speaker to have…. But again its un-realistic to think that Klipsch of all companies would even entertain an outboard crossover with 1000 dollar worth of parts in it for several reasons, they are not really targeting audiophiles that can live with this, they are not really trying to make the best of the best, but simply show that even their more efficient design can compete at that price level. In the end you would have to TRI wire the speaker which is a BIG hassle to run a better crossover outside the cabinet, and have another box on the floor, but if I owned them and wanted the ultimate performance from them that’s what I would do! Great attempt on a speaker, at 8,000 bucks used I can see it being a nice buy!

These are the best sounding (modern) speakers that I have ever heard! McIntosh gear is a great match with these speakers.