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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
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
1,213 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
3,626 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.

 

waytoomuchstuff's avatar
waytoomuchstuff
1,213 posts
 

@ sns.  As they say in hot rodding: "There's no substitute for cubic inches". In this case, there's no substitute for larger midrange throat area.

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,097 posts
 

Surely, Ralph, your Classic Audio Horns are a different world than Khorns?

Have you heard the 75th Anniversary ones?

@mglik 

I was commenting more about the issue you raised regarding

sharp, honking sound of the horns

Which IME isn't a thing. If its a properly designed horn, it will be musical as long as the source is musical. Horns have controlled directivity, which allows you to minimize early reflections from side walls (which the ear interprets as harshness). So if set up right they are often smoother than regular midrange and tweeter drivers.

Surely, Ralph, your Classic Audio Horns are a different world than Khorns?

Have you heard the 75th Anniversary ones?

To the former: they are! To the latter: I don't think so; I heard a set of Klipsch speakers at AXPONA which featured a very large midrange horn and they were quite good. Big, dynamic, open, detailed and smooth- easy to like 😀

Do you know of other excellent options? 😇

@bouncehit since you asked, I'm using our class D amps on my Classic Audio Loudspeakers and they work quite nicely together!

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