A rambling conversation about nearfield listening, 3 channel stereo, & horns
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ธ.ค. 2018
- Stereophile’s Herb Reichert is back for a stream of consciousness discussion with Steve. Herb and I do this all the time, these conversations take wild turns, and we sometimes funnel these ideas into articles or use them in reviews.
If you haven’t read Herb’s Stereophile reviews and Gramophone Dreams column you’re missing out! www.stereophile.com/writer/12...
I love the fact that Herb is such a great listener. He never, ever interrupts like so many people do today.
Herb Reichert is a national treasure, so genuine and a lot of experience to share in Hi-Fi. Fascinating man.
So nice to hear horns getting some love from audiophiles.
Herb is amazing. Thanks for connecting with him.
Fantastic interview. I was captivated from start to end. What a great conversation. Sadly, none of my friends care about hifi audio.
My friends don't care about HiFi either but then again none of my friends are very smart, to be honest.
My Friends don't care about HiFi either, but they wet themselves when i turn up my Klipsch.
same boat here fellows! At least we got each other lol
We need to make new friends...
A lot of people lack the attention span to listen to an album, it seems. I'm also a driver and I listen to a ton of music. I mostly prefer headphones, but I also occasionally have the stereo on when I'm cooking or doing something else that doesn't divert my attention too much.
I was always and am still after a 60 year love affair with audio a horn speaker lover. For 10 years I worked sitting in the same room with Henry Kloss certainly one of the founders of the direct radiator speaker. It was really all about the cost of manufacture and that the market demanded new, new, new every year. Paul Klipsch educated me concerning the fact that horn speakers have a tremendous cost to design and manufacture the horns. You cannot change them to meet artificial market demands every year or so. Paul always thought it funny that when he first marketed the Klipschorn it was the first “small” home friendly speaker on the market because of its folded bass horn. This was the days of only mono. Ed Villchur and Henry Kloss were tinkering because they knew that stereo in the home was the death knell from a marketing standpoint of the life size speakers. Henry once told me that his speakers created a sense of looking through binoculars backwards. Perfectly clear, but a miniature of reality.
Derek, your last sentence perfectly describes why I gravitated to Klipschorns. They just let the music sound big, like it should sound. And yet, they refine the small details as well as any speakers I have heard.
@Derek Slade
I have speakers designed by Henry Kloss.
Not the best in the World, perhaps, but I like them very much.
@@HareDeLune At one point I owned the Smaller Advents and had both solid state (Dynaco SCA-80Q) and tub amplification - the latter a really nice Bogen receiver. That Bogen/Smaller Advent combination was really, really nice. To this day I have no clue where they are - probably left behind when my first marriage ended.
@@PanAmStyle
Hmm, I've never heard of Bogen. Are they manufactured in England?
That last line is fantastic! It describes my esp with a fellow audiophiles $50k system. I enjoyed reading your post:)
You two guys are clearly old friends, and it shows. Great video, Steve and Herb!
That was a total pleasure!
The Klipsch Heritage Line is still periodically updated and is a big part of their business - still made in Hope, Arkansas. They hold their value quite well.
Herb is an excellent reviewer, second to only you Steve. Both of you guys have the unique ability to not only write about sound, but to describe it to anyone where it makes sense, but you both keep your reviews simple. I have followed both of you for a very, very long time and I’m a subscriber to stereophile and the absolute sound along with sound and vision. Keep up the good work Steve if you could get more of the writers and industry greats in for reviews it would be great. Hey Steve if you could have one session on what goes into reviewing and the behind the scene stuff with the manufacturers and how long do you guys actually keep the products after the review. Klipsch and even better avant-garde can be magical especially in the midrange.
I have Klipschorns for 10 years now, and they surprise me daily; they're the real thing! greets from Belgium, thanks for the very inspiring posts!
Have to stray from the norm of the posts currently.
My favorite quote of this highly interesting interview was "like a tuberculant mouse."
If that's not descriptive, I don't know what it is!
There is so much to like about Klipsch. I always enjoy the clear detailed sound. The premier line adds such a nice touch to the sound that just made it more appealing. The less directional and perhaps softer bassier sound for the bedroom of my small Elacs (4's) do the job for that. Sound gets around less detailed and more softly which is appropriate for that setting. But for real listening in the living room, well placed Klipsch premier speakers have worked real well for me and I am quite satisfied. At first I had Klipsh refernce in the front and premiers in the rear, now I have the premiers all around ( R160 Ms) and they are just right. Detailed, clear and -for me-not too harsh. Positioned most effectively they bring life and detailed color.
Some day maybe I can get the Heresey or Forte speakers but - if that doesnot happen I think it will be okay. It is nice to know that something has lasted and survived this long in the USA that still brings joy to people who have passion for good qualtiy and quality of life enhancement. Thanks
Peace!
I have worked in some ultra high end salons and I, like Steve , have also sold some VERY expensive audiophile speakers and gear over the decades.. ..and im glad for having had that experience under my belt! I also appreciate, admire and like various different types of speaker designs, myself, for different applications, and in different circumstances. Equipment matching, application, and proper setup and room integration are ALWAYS important, regardless! That said I DO lkke horn speakers, yes. My default however is that i tend towards forgiving character- often vintage- TUBE amplifiers to match with horns(dont need much power, and tubes tend to be more forgiving of harshness, which horns often exhibit), most every time! - Particularly, when considering fixed seating home theater/music systems. The dynamic prowess , as a "passive loudspeaker", is BETTER than what you get from most comparable typical box speaker designs. Basically dynamic realism is greater, largely from increased efficiency. Only perhaps similarly categorized "active" loudspeakers. can compete in that regard, all things equal. Other benefits to horn designs are EASIER acoustical room integration, as they limit boundary decisions, due to their beamy focused sound propegation im terrible n midrange. This is helpful in reflective rooms with little treatment.(simply aim the speakers just to the "outside of your ears" for listening positions, and your usually good to go!)
Horns require very little power to drive (quality OR budget tube gear!). Also,, Trebble and midrange cohetence and freq reinforcement, and thus detail and dialog reinforcement is improved with horns, all things considered.
Of course everything has compromises, and horns are no exception, often being bright(cheaper designs and entry to midfi particularly- like klipschs), foreward or shouty presentation (good for movie mixes- especially behind a screen), coloration (certainly from the horn), difficult crossover blending, often less refined sounding for the levels of offerings (until you spend BIG bucks for like Avantguards)
and narrow beamy presentation (at least in consumer home horns- HOW IN THE HELL do commercial horns cover all those seats off axis without sounding rolled off on top end like home horns???!!!).
I also think horn speakers do better for stereo music listening ON THE SHORT WALL! Why? Because you can move around the entire room space and still get unrolled off quality sound!( as opposed to long wall set where, off axis to sides, the sound rolls off dramatically!
So to recap, CHEAPER horns sound great with budget tube warm forgiving equip, and play loud and effortlessly dynamic!. . Offer solid imaging, focus, relative detail on top half, great presence for rock and movies,.
Expensive high end horn peakers like Avantgard Duos/Trios are AMAZING, btw! VERY high end refined designs!, but they ARE beamy and require setup and care for lifestyle choices, as the sound from these FALL OFF LIKE A ROCK WHEN LISTENING OFF AXIS!
FYI
Love this conversation! I could listen to the both of you chat for hours.
Love Herb so much. Thank you Steve, you are an inspiration.
Thanks!
My Fortè's from the mid 80's. Best speakers I've ever owned.
I'm in the same Klipsch family, so I have to second this. . . . I have a pair of Chorus IIs from the early '90s (refreshed 2 years ago with new tweeters and crossovers) and I know I'll have them for life. They are amazing - never imagined such a large speaker to be so accurate.
I sorta wish Klipsch would have chosen the larger Chorus for the Heritage line instead of the Forte, but I think I can see the reasoning: the Forte is more of a mid-ground between Heresy and the Cornwalls, whereas my Chorus are (I believe intended to be) re-shaped Cornwalls. The Cornwalls ceased being built around 1990 and the Chorus had the exact same horns and a similar woofer and was put in a more modern-looking box. Though, the Chorus also has the 15" rear passive radiator, that the Cornwall didn't - I think the Chorus may have less inside area despite its height advantage.
Hi Steve,
I really enjoyed this video on horn speakers and agreed with most what was said by both Herb and you. I was especially interested in the history of the Klipsch Heresy speakers and how they came about. I do agree they were designed as a center channel speaker but not as we think of modern center channel speakers. I've read several articles on the subject of their design and it was confirmed to me years ago by a long time local Klipsch dealer that these were designed as a center fill speaker for the Corner Horns. Depending on how wide the listening room was/is the distance between the Corner Horns could be too great, causing a "hole" in the sound between them. This in turn could effect the center image. To counteract this effect Klipsch came up with a small center fill speaker.....the Heresy, and the electronics manufacturers followed suit by adding center channel outputs to their receivers and amps. Case in point my 60's vintage Fisher 500C receiver has a center channel output! Just my two cents, I really enjoy your videos .....keep up the good work !
Another fantastic episode. Thanks Steve!
Absolutely love Steve and Herb! They seem to both understand the essence of listening and life in general. Steve, I’d love to see WAAAAAYYYYYYY more of this type of video from you.
That was so much fun to watch. Please have this gentleman on more often.
The imaging on my 1984 Belle Klipchs was so big and precise I could see the location of every drum and cymbal in the kit!
Thanks for these stories. It makes music history wonderous!
A fun watch. Great points. The journey of learning continues...
Steve thanks for the great video today. You and Herb touched on something that made me do a mental double take when you talked about the speakers being clamped down and also the part about having to push some speakers for loudness. This is something that I've been struggling with for a long time but couldn't quite put my finger on. Now to start shopping for some speakers... Thanks again!
My most memorable audio experience was a pair of Klipschorns in a very large room driven by a 30 wpc Pioneer receiver. This was around 1975 or so. Amazing sound and dynamics.
It’s very cool and so great to listen to 2 buddies talking about HiFi so passionately.
Amazing interview. Could listen to Herb all day. The Altec VOTT were my first real exposure to sound/movie soundtracks when I was 6 and it's always been a dream to own a restored pair.
Khorn is one of the best sounding speakers I've heard and it doesn't need a big amp to drive.
Thanks Mr. Guttenberg, Great Video
Went from the box speaker, to magnaplaner, to horns. Never looked back.
Reminds me of all the times my father would talk about Altec Lansing Voice of Theater. He sold his after I was born and he's been moaning about it for about 40 years. Great video.
I love this! Sitting here in front of my JBL's!
I’m glad you’re showing some Klipsch/horn love. My first pair of serious speakers was and still is a used set of Klipsch Cornwall’s that I got for $600 and they’ve been nothing but awesome.
Great to hear you two talk. The two videos Herb has been in have been some of my favorite. Thanks for making this!!
You should see if you can review the Musical Paradise MP-301 Tube Amplifier with some of your horns. It's a great little amplifier.
Better late than never to the horn speaker party! As far as commercial horns go: Volti Audio, Deja vu Audio, Burwell & Sons which use Altec drivers whose slogan is the future of sound has been here the whole time, Ocean Way, George Augspurger, Tannoy Westminster, TAD Professional (so many main monitors in studios use TADs), GIP, Goto, Rey Audio and Maxsonic in Japan, Westlake Audio, Avant Garde, Oswald's Mill Audio, Jeffrey Jackson, Living Voice in the UK, JBL & Klipsch as mentioned, Klinger Fabre and Supravox in France, Blumenhofer and Wolf Von Langa in Germany, Classic Audio (US) and Great Plains Audio in Oklahoma which took over Altec Lansing still makes the Altec 604 8H which is an amazing speaker in the sweet spot combining coaxial and horn design: imaging voices, wow! But there are many, many others. Horns are really not such a rarity, just obscure to the blinkered dississive audio mainstream.
I guess there's two ways to look at or hear it create a sound you are happy with a figment of your Imagination or recreate a live performance that you have heard in a good acoustic environment. That's the only way you know how it truly should sound. We don't have the luxury of being in the recording studio. You need a performance measure an audio standard a baseline to judge the performance. Bottom line what horns do for me is making it a live performance. I go to about 30 live performances a year in a good acoustic environment. Horns sound real sound live they recreate the performance.
@@gene8933 Strange how "audiophiles" who have never heard a horn speaker in their life "know" they do not like how they sound because they are "colored". Ha. If they're so colored why are there so many of them on the market.
Great video. You and Herb are awesome!
Herb! Great to see you again so soon! Loved meeting you again in France, hope to see you again in Bellême next year!
I will definitely return to Belleme
Herb is freakin cool!!!!!
why?
Because he’s an educated and positive gentleman. Unlike a moldy old bloke like you Ado...
@@kingtrance6826 Oh dear, wish I hadn't asked.
Indeed sir!
I had a conversation with Herb Reichert and Steve Guttenberg at Axpona 2019. Herb told my wife and I one heck of a funny story of his past and he had me laughing my ass off. Both Herb and Steve are two of the coolest guys in the audio hobby. I'm a big fan of both!!
What an interesting guy, refreshing view of things, great sense of humour. A guy who actually thinks, just a pleasure, thanks
Listened to Heresy's when I was thirteen and have been a Klipsch fan since. I have Klipschhorns and La Scala's now. You have to choose your listening room for the Klipschhorns with them in mind.
I've had an electrostatic phase (Martin Logan SL3) , a horn phase (Impulse Lali and Ta'us) but I am now come full circle back to box speakers. Fun trying them all but there are so many box speakers to choose from that you stand a better chance of finding one that matches your requirements with least compromise. Currently found audio Nirvana with active ATC speakers, they have it all for me.
Also been a great fan of nearfield listening for hifi for 30 years, seems to be finally getting the recognition it deserves. The minus is you pretty much need a dedicated listening room to use it.
I built a pair of SpeakerLab Super 7’s in the 70’s & my audiophile type friend had Advents so we compared them..He insisted his speakers would be superior so we listened with my cousin..The advents went first & sounded amazing..Then the 7’s..It was as if a pillow had been removed from the speakers..My cousin started laughing within seconds of hearing the horns and accused my friend of being crazy...Simple put the Advents sounded like listening to music in the back of a theater with curtains ect. Whereas the horns sounded like being in a club...The dynamics were simply spectacular with the horns..A few years latter when klipsch Fortes came out I bought & still own them..But..A few years ago I picked up a pair of Dahlquist 10’s..a speaker that just blew me away way when they came out....Now I have the best of both worlds..PS my friend still has his Advents..
I've been in the Radio City Music Hall, the sound certainly was loud enough. This was a very enjoyable video.
Altec Lansing started one year after Tannoy , Tannoy 1926 and Altec 1927. Altec then broke off into two companies in 1946 into JBL and Altec . Klipsch didn’t get into the game until 1946. Altec was always known for their theater speakers ( like the A7-A5- and for the home they made the Barcelona and Valencia speakers) which was called “voice of the theaters.” These three American companies still exist today in one form or another. But it’s the older Altec Valencia’s that are still king of the horn because of their 18 x 7 inch horn and their 15 inch very efficient mid/base speaker.
You are so dame right . Worked around the world and in Italy working found Casta Speakers and loved them . Have the Casta C now for 12 years and will never change them . Love tubes My staging is fantastic, , if recording are great or muddy or tinny that is what you get. Honesty always. Room is 17’ wide 22’ long. 22 watts linear and live sound is everywhere. When I was in school 50 years ago I had the Threater of Sound Speaker form a closed down movie threaten. Amp was an Sansui Audio 5000 amp and 2500 preamp and a Dual 1229 Turntable. Horns and the beautiful Speaker
I have always loved and preferred clear highs. When you hear a symbol ona good system with a good horn especially a live recording I don’t think anything can reproduce it like a horn can. Another is strings. A violin softly playing in the background can sound like it’s being played right in your living room and if your system is good enough you can tell exactly where the violin was located when it was recorded. More of a 3D sound quality. I used to get so much negative feedback fir my love of horns. As if I were listening to something like a Bose. Recently that has changed and ppl are starting to appreciate horns with me.
My first set of horn loaded speakers I owned were the Pioneer CS-R700. I bought them in 1975 if I remember right and I thought those things sounded better than anything else available at that time and place. I sold them after about two years because I moved, still miss them. For the next 40 years I went through the dome loaded speakers and I always thought there was something missing. Two years ago I got a pair of Klipsch Premium Series speakers and what I was missing all those years came back.
Nice story
Great that both of you speak positively about horns and are changing the stereotypes. That said, some of the horn speakers you identify are also (and maybe primarily) box speakers. Only the tweeter is horn loaded. Tweeters are never part of the "box" anyway. Many tweeters employ some sort of short horn or waveguide built into their faceplates. The Klipsch bookshelf speakers you review elsewhere simply have a slightly larger horn that loads the driver down to its cross over point in the lower treble. I think these Klipsch horn loaded tweeters in the bookshelf speakers you like are addressing a key fault with domes: rising distortion/loss of dynamics in their cross over ranges, but the woofer is still in a box. Not so with the K-horn--and PK's innovation was a corner loaded, folded design that made it at least conceivable to have full range horns in a domestic setting; other's did it BTW, like Voigt. In fact, the whole point of the word "Heresy" is that it deviated from PK's design principle of full range horn loading, evidenced in the K-horn, which uses the corner of the room as the mouth, the Belle and the LaScala. Case in point is the attempt to link near field listening with horns broadly. This is possible with your Klipsch box speakers with the horn loaded tweeters because the horn is only operating over the highest frequencies. Nearfield would never work with midbass horns like the Khorn, JBL Hartsfield, giant WECOs mentioned by Herb, or Bruce Edgar's designs etc. (even all but the most expensive Avantgarde's rely on "box speaker" technology in the midbass). Please, please, you are both wonderful reviewers so give all of us more exposure to the correlation between design and what you are hearing.
I have horns in 2 of my listening rooms. I find what most people regurgitate is they are fatiguing. When I hear this I know immediately they don't have a clue.
Right!
Yeah, shooting the bull over audio is cool. Thanks for keeping it real, nice way to finish the year.
I love this, I am a huge horn fan.
I'm just a regular guy that was not tainted by what's good and what's not.
So I just bought speakers till I found the speaker.
I found Altec's, I love them beyond belief, I build my own now.
Big beautiful horned speakers with wonderful sound.
I’ll second that opinion that horns impress by their transit speed, which by their very operating nature, allows those changes to be executed with minimum distortion. I have my Altec 820 modded speakers in the corners on the long wall separated by almost 30 feet, and they are able to put the people in very specific locations with no hole in the middle. Using horns like Herb indicated with defined spatial coverage, the problems of adjacent wall reflections are also minimize , in my case using horns with a maximum of 90 degrees in the horizontal plane. I went from using electrostatics for 40 years to Altec horns, just wished I had made the switch earlier. Herb gives life to whatever subject he is discussing, I always enjoyed his writings in Sound Practices. I definitely like this format that Steve is using here, it’s basically a couple buddies sitting down and chewing the fat about tune machines, very cool.
If I am remembering correctly back about 1960 when my father was selling electronics he had a pair of Altec Lansing speakers about the size of the large jbls. I think they had a horn at the top and can still remember how great they sounded.
I still think a set of Altec-Lansing Voice of the Theater speakers with the folded horn bass cabinet with an 18" driver with the dual driver horn on top is still the most dynamic speaker I have ever listened to.
I have always been PRO Horn - the reason I stick with Klipsch
I've had and loved sr80s for years and I just bought a pair of Klipsch r 51m. I have never been happier.
Herb is one of my favorite people.
Sinatra had 3 LaScala's in that system. I met Paul K at Marven Electronics in Fort Worth in the mid 80's. He was still pitching 3 channel, especially for rooms wider than the listening distance. I still have a small knife that is stamped with "Stolen from Paul Klipsch"...
Klipsch developed the center channel because klipschhorns are corner horns (they use the room's intersecting walls as an extension of the horn flare). This wasn't an issue with corner horns in the days of mono, but with the advent of stereo, in some rooms if the corners were too far apart, or against a long wall, a "hole" in the sound could develop. Within reason, in a well proportioned room where you can get a proper listening distance from the speakers, a pair of corner speakers will image just fine.
Great conversation. I had to give up my Heresy’s because of space in this new house, and I found in my search for new speakers that dynamics were usually the most important and the biggest piece I was missing. I think your last point about dynamics being almost more important than frequency response is right on. The Heresy’s were not the most accurate speakers I have ever heard, but they were exciting and fun and engaging. Maybe that’s the dynamics?
The "heresy" about the heresy loudspeaker is that the woofer is not horn loaded, it's a direct radiator, sealed box. Paul had a write-in campaign to name the speaker.
So I'm glad to see more people waking up to the Klipsch horn speakers, especially the newest "books shelf" RP models. Of course horns are very efficient so the can have more dynamic impact with lower power requirements. But I also understand audiophiles reluctance to accept the "horn sound". This all stops with the Reference Premier series though.
Let me explained why.
The typical commercial production horn design, made of metal or plastic resonates at a frequency that can sound "harsh". They are also typically "exponential" which is designed to give wide dispersion but can reflect off walls excessively causing unpleasant distortion in smaller rooms. The newest Klipsch RP horns have a "tractrix" design for better dispersion and are hard rubber coated to reduce resonance. This is one of the most brilliant and under appreciated innovations in modern horn design.
A Tractrix curve is the shape of an expanding wave front, hard rubber coating reduces mechanical vibration, less distortion or "harshness".
But you really haven't heard the true brilliant's of the Klipsch RP series because as we all know these speakers are manufactured to sell at a certain price point. They use inexpensive polypropylene and electrolytic caps and sand cast resistors.
But Klipsch true brilliant's was to only compromise on the crossover components not on the driver design. The box design is pretty good as well. That being said if you upgrade the crossover components, value for value, you will be blown away by the true sound quality of these speakers.
I personally own the RP160M and have replaced the crossover components, new caps and resistors only, for around $160.00. While that may not sound like a lot the Klipsch couldn't use such expensive component and still meet their price point on a $550.00 speaker.
Fantastic show. I’m a big lover of horn speakers. I own JBLs.
Some good points made as someone who sets up live PA systems and has a Vandersteen home system, yes horns jump, also I used race rally cats so I get that also.
Excellent commentary on the virtues of horn loudspeakers! My analogy of horn speakers verses tradition audiophile box speakers is like going to a amusement park. The audiophile polite box speakers are like going around on the nice merry go round carousel while the horn speakers put you on the most intense extreme roller coaster with tremendous speed! To each his own when it comes to sonic preferences but my Klipsch Belles with full Volti audio modifications I will never ever sell on my musical emotional ride!!! Which ride do you prefer?
I have a pair of Klipsch Palladiums, horn speakers, driven by a SET Decware amp. I also have a pair of Golden Ear Triton 2, cone speakers. Comparing the two speakers which I believe were both top of the line speakers at some point in the past. I can hear the clarity of the horn speakers surpass the Golden Ears. It is clearer with more define edges around the instruments. There is a problem. There is that horn coloration that isn’t for everybody. It’s very very subtle but it’s there and it can take out some of the natural timbre of the music. If you notice it and it bothers you, no amount of amp switching will fix it, at least for me. But the clarity and the aliveness of horn speakers really gets you going, especially with Jazz.
I really enjoyed this interview & would like to see more interviews like this one..Have you ever met Bob Carver and if so any recollections..Any chance of interviewing him?
Got acquainted with “Horn Speakers” (Altec Lansing), on a practical study level 1969, in a college stage sound class, in a acting theater. It was hard then, as it is now to imagine putting a pair to 5.2 configuration in a home application.
Electro voice tweeter horns and speakers have that live sound,longer listening may be tiring.Just a thought.Keep it coming Steve great job, always learning.
I listen daily to 1980's vintage EV. Never gets tiring to me. Love the sound! 100 dB sensitivity. Dynamic!!!
Dave
For some recordings a mixture of the right and left channels
does what a third microphone would have done in front of the orchestra. The way
I did this was in the intermediate stereo amplifier stage. I have a series push
pull driving a pair of 45 grids which I had originally used for a
bi-amplification of my speakers. When I converted to Magnetic planar speakers I
wired up one pair of 45 plates to drive a pair of 833-A's and the other pair to
drive a pair of output transformers the secondaries of which I connected
together mixing the stereo channels. This mixed sum drives a center channel
GM70 amplifier. That gives me a choice to run the system 3 channel for
orchestral recording but not to run it for opera, which can be run in 5 channel
surround sound Dolby digital and a switch on the center channel amplifier to
use the disc player center channel to drive the center channel amplifier. Or I
can not turn on the center channel if I want to listen in pure stereo.
We can hear sharp transients because our ancestors needed to know which direction both their predators and prey moved. If you hear a twig snap in the woods you'll know where the sound came from.
Steve there’s a company out in British Columbia called planet 10 hifi that provides plans for a speaker called the Frugalhorn, using Mark Audio or Fostex drivers that are second to none and must be heard. Also a company called Decware in Peoria I’ll. That makes small tube amps and a horn speakers . These are small companies along with Cathodyne. Bottle head , Blumenstein, , and others that deserve your attention in this realm of really terrific sound quality that don’t advertise and don’t cater to magazines. Take a gander!!!
I have reviewed Decware and Bottlehead amps.
thanks,
liked it very mucho
You two make me miss my Klipsch Heresy II's. I was driving them with an Adcom 535.
Send more Herb!
Great talk again with herb and Steve five stars wonderful content you guys need a video each together perfect.we need to unlighted buy you gentlymen.peace
Fascinating discussion. It is probably slew rate that you respond to in the reving analogy. I find a similar reaction to open baffle speakers. There is a freedom to create sound missing in the box speaker.
When he cups his mouth Paul McGowan from PS Audio lol. 4:29
I thought the exact same thing!!
Same here, Paul bugs me when he takes jabs at horns
@@scottyo64
PS: PM is 99% truthish.
The rest is BS
I agree, two times Paul has maybe let his prejudices get the best of him, his distant for horns and McIntosh. Otherwise, he been a great ambassador of audio.
Now we know where the Heresy name came from. I was wondering.
If you go to their website, you can enjoy the RICH history in photos and stories on Paul W. Klipsch and his important contribution to audio as we know it today. (thats right, speaker companies pay homage to him and his 3-way speaker designs, he was one of the early ones!)
“LOVE ME SOME HERB” just bought a new Primaluna Prologue Premium amplifier with a push from Herb’s rave-review of the amp. And I quote, “Class A sound @ a Class C price” LOVE ME SOME AUDIO-“VALUE”
I had a pair of kg5.5 , never like the sound , but 1 day for the heck of it, I tilted them back about 2” and I couldn’t believe the sound difference, hard to believe but it was a totally different sounding speaker that I then kept
Speaker placement / position, and listen position can make more difference than most people can imagine.
Best part, it's free!
Nice interview, very enjoyable. There is no need for three channels. The center image from a properly designed two channel system will throw a center image that has the same tonality and presence as the Left or Right driver. One would even swear that there was a speaker hidden. Especially with the near field listening experience.
Cerwin vega also makes horn speakers and also they put them in theaters.
I use a pair of small Klipsch Reference RB-10's for near-field listening on my computer. Nothing else I have tried works as well or is even close to those Klipsch. The speakers disappear and you feel surrounded by the sound similar to wearing headphones.
I totally agree. I have owned many box speakers and still do. AR 9s, Snell, Theil, Rogers, Linn, Naim Ohm F's to name a few but I would rather listen to my JBL, Seos, 18 Sound, RCF, Selenium and Eminence type horns . So much more fun !
Klipsch forte ii and heresy ii owner. I hear a lot of people say how these speaker rock and are great for rock but the magic began for me with jazz. And my mind was blown acoustic guitar. It damn near sounds as though there is a guitar being played in the room. Allison kraus, sarah jarohz
, opeth, coltrane, anything produced by Rudy Van Gelder! You simply need too hear these horns. If you have and it was screechy or fatiguing.... Listen off axis a bit. Adjust your position and distance or something. Perhaps use your treble control ( thats why its there) . once dialed in...these speakers just envelope you and make you want to hear more. Yes heresys need a sub or 2 but they are worth it. Now i listened to the klipsch heritage( forte 3 and lascala 3) at ramf this year and i dunno...it didnt do for me what my home forte ii system does but you alrrady did a vid on that lol.
Man I love my Heresy IV’s. Brought me out of the audiophile doldrums.
My Klipsch RP280s imagine great in my old livingroom, but now its harder to get it now w/ 9ft ceiling. Still trying to adjust till i get there.
The new kid on the block is Danley Sound Labs SH50. I come from the JBL & Klipsch world and they have nothing equal.
Ah: His Herbness returns!
Steve: it would be great to see both of you in the conversation :-)
Charming discussion of horn speakers.
Fascinating that we seem to have got music reproduction just right early on, with tubes and horns, then shrank and disappeared down a rabbit hole!
Any thoughts on transmission line speakers?
Hi, have You listened to the JBL 590 horn? On sale often for $500 (normally $1000).
A list of articles (agree with ‘em or not) from Herb that are must reads, are on Audiostream:
www.audiostream.com/category/herb-reichert
Especially on the topic of Horns and Tubes.
I have ‘budget’ Tannoys now, which only have concentrically mounted horn tweeters, and aren’t really that efficient.
Thanks for this! Listening on my heresies...just plain clean. Built and retailed and loved horns since sixties. Modified cerwin vega horns. Worked in commercial sound putting horns in theaters...just plain great. Enjoying your horn run.
It's all about the size of the speakers. People demanded the smaller size. It just stuck. Now its listening with headphones, ear buds, etc.
Walking encyclopedia of knowledge !
Being a saxophonist and clarinettist, I can tell you that "horns" are important. ALL shapes have correlation to sound in terms of tone (overtones) and direction. Horns are made to project.
By contrast, to get my guitar to project (a box, essentially) you have to do a number of things to the design to really get that box to vibrate and project - and even then, by nature of its design, there is no way it can compete with the shape of a horn. I can say the same for my flute - that small tube with parallel walls just CAN'T project like the horn designs.
Look, Adolphe Sax (inventor of the Saxophone) was SO enamored with parabolas he was working on an Opera house with parabolic walls. He understood the physics of "horns", even then (mid 1800's).
I own a pair of jbl Studio 590. They sound good played loud; but they sound so sweet at low volume and near field. They present the whole range of the melody, even beautiful bass even at low volumes. My opinion.
I have 580 Studio's...what gear are you using with your's? My AR M1 were my best ever until these.
I'm auditioning the 590s and Forte right now and it's a really tough decision.
jeremy whittler I have a Yamaha AS-801 and Nakamichi PA-5ii. I haven’t ran them with the Nak because they’re doing full HT duties right now with a Yamaha rxv-3800
John OBrien let us know which one wins your heart and let us know why...
Their both great John OBrien! Which one did you end up going with?
Herb hit it right on the head. "rate-of-change"
As a guitarist, I recently have re-discovered alnico magnet speakers. Most speakers now use a ceramic magnet to reduce cost. Those old speakers just sound amazing in guitar amps. I am guessing the same thing happened in home audio , and the old speakers probably used those as well... any thoughts?