Klipsch K Horns (the new AK6)

I'd be very surprised if anyone would buy these relatively gigantic speakers for 15 grand, and after moving the furniture around in their ballroom or airplane hanger would sit there and say, "these suck." I'd bet these buyers know what's what with The Big Klipsch and like the things regardless of the "measurements." A big pile of wood...cool...and I don't even care what they sound like as I simply like the fact that they exist as a current thing.

You have to put this speaker in context. Back in 1960 the most powerful amps all tubes was 90 watts. In order to get realistic volume levels you had to resort to something like the K horn and back then they were the ultimate speaker and they stood alone on that pedestal for almost a decade, long enough to permanently imprint themselves in the minds of all audiophiles alive at the time. We all dreamed of getting K horns not to mention they are handsome loudspeakers and fit nicely into many rooms. In this day they are not the speaker for serious listeners. Humans are very sensitive to phase and volume. It is how we locate danger. The phase aberrations in the K horn prevent it from imaging correctly. I would love to correct all that and see what you wind up with. Like I said above I bet it would be one fine speaker especially for low power tube guys but it would take a lot of amps, an electronic crossover and DSP.   

but it would take a lot of amps, an electronic crossover and DSP.

What happens with all that then is "sterility" with what seem to me, no harmonic decay, too much electronics digital and analog between the source and the speakers, I’ve heard it so many times with DEQX type manipulated systems, "lifeless sterile music" a bit like what class-d does.

Cheers George

George, behave yourself. No one mentioned class D amplification in this thread....:-)

In my initial opinion, the new Klipsch Heritage line seems/feels cheaper than the old stuff.  Things feel more veneery or plasticy than the older stuff and definitely not premier multi-thousand $$$ quality finishes.  If you knock on the sides of the Forte iii, you still get a hollow sound showing there's little to no engineering done on the interior of the box, yet you're paying for it.

Maybe this doesn't really affect the sound, fine, but it doesn't feel like a premium product and I'm a klipsch fanboy.