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Has anyone heard the newest version of the Klispschhorm?

I watched a YouTube of Robyn of Robyatt Audio. 
A long standing Quad 57 man, he has taken the ESS rebuild to the max now with a new, fairly extreme wooden frame. 
Very interesting that in this video he abandons his push of the Quads and now raves about the new Klipschhorns. Even saying that they are the best speaker regardless of price!

The new KHs are now in much improved enclosures with sealed backs making them now best away from corners into the room. But what about the sharp, honking sound of the horns? But for a diehard Quad guy to now say that the new KHs are better than the $100K+…? I was also a diehard Quad guy until I decided that I wanted bass and treble, and most of all, dynamics! There is no question that the KHs are that. I never owned KHs but did once have Heresys. I will never forget that blaring tweeter!

mglik
phusis's avatar
phusis
1,226 posts
 

@mglik --

"... I guess the Khorns now have a different and better tweeter."

The newest AK6 version I heard a few months back sported a somewhat problematic upper end, as I wrote earlier. A quality tube amp pairing might be preferable, as some here have suggested, but still I wouldn’t expect it to completely ameliorate named shortcomings.

Can’t speak for Ralph and the Classic Audio Loudspeakers, but I would expect them to better the Khorns from the central midrange on up. They extend deeper as well, but are direct radiating here nonetheless. Not to say they don’t deliver excellent bass, I’m sure they do, but horn-loaded bass (and up to lower mids) just sounds different.

johnk's avatar
johnk
1,976 posts
 

It's a 2 way with another horn system behind it. I do have a giant bass horn in the left corner that I use at times. 

 

Ag insider logo xs@2x
bouncehit
77 posts
 

@atmasphere Huh?? I'm used to horns being relaxed and detailed like good ESLs!

They can work quite nicely with good class D amps too 😉

I was amazed how well HYPEX Class D mono blocks 
paired with the AG and 75th Anniversary K-horns! Do you know of other excellent options? 😇

waytoomuchstuff's avatar
waytoomuchstuff
1,177 posts
 

@sns "My Klipschorns are fully modded,"

So, are you getting them boosted every 6 months to deal with the new strands of audio distortion?

I do a pretty "deep dive" into K'horn mods myself.  Hope we can laugh together on this one?

sns
3,427 posts
 

@waytoomuchstuff  No more 'boosting'  for me at the moment. Only mod I'd consider at this point would be the BMS mid driver, the greatest issue with the stock mid drivers is the relatively small throat size , the BMS 2" throat size is amenable to more natural timbre. I suspect the BMS would be still be an upgrade to my John Allen K55's.

The honking some hear with Klipsch are due to this small throat size and some pretty bad mid horn materials and design. Tractrix horns using wood are huge upgrade over exponential metal horns. Many use damping materials with the metal horns, really doesn't get one to natural tonality/timbre, I know from experience on this one. Again, the new Heritage have improved in this area.

 

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