KLIPSCH AUDIO TECHNOLOGIES

'Klipsch Audio Technologies' is one of the most successful consumer and professional speaker companies in America. Founded in Hope, Arkansas in 1946 by Paul Klipsch as 'Klipsch and Associates', it produces loudspeaker drivers and enclosures, as well as complete loudspeakers for high end, high fidelity sound systems, public address applications, and personal computers.

Contents

Horn loading

Products

The Klipschorn

Other legacy speakers

Current speakers

Multi-media speakers

Klipsch used in theaters

Other products

External links

Horn loading

Since its inception, Klipsch has promoted the use of horn-loaded speakers as part of its goal to produce speakers which:

★ Are high in efficiency (more formally called "sensitivity"), meaning that they can be driven by relatively low-powered amplifiers

★ Have wide dynamic range, meaning that they accurately reproduce both soft and loud sounds

★ Exhibit controlled directivity, meaning that the radiation pattern is directional, rather than diffuse

★ Have a flat frequency response, meaning that there is no unnatural emphasis in the bass, mid-range or treble.
The company advocates the superiority of horns for the aforementioned properties, but some audiophiles decry horns as having a coloring of the sound sometimes described as "honkiness". Early Klipsch designs utilized a metal-throated horn whose aperture tended to exacerbate this phenomenon. In recent years, Klipsch introduced horns of braced fiberglass which were said to alleviate resonances that colored the earlier, metal designs. Klipsch also moved away from silk to different driver-diaphragm materials like phenolic, aluminum and titanium, and in 1989 they introduced a midrange horn with a tractrix flare which was said to further reduce "honkiness" and create a more open sound quality.
Current Klipsch designs, while still using horn loading for the tweeter (and, in some cases, the midrange driver), use a much more refined version which, while still highly detailed, is considered less strident. There are at least two sides to the issue of "honkiness." Some listeners deny that Klipsch speakers exhibited "honkiness," Newer Klipsch horn drivers were narrower than the previous versions, and represented a compromise between smoother response than metal, but additional resonance due to a narrower horizontal opening. When heard side by side, Klipsch horn loaded speakers and many direct radiating cone/dome high end speakers differ most dramatically (to some listeners) in the increased clarity of the Klipsch horn speakers. Much of the critical negativity can be directly traced to the use of low end electronic sources. Inferior electronic source components will have faults exaggerated by horn loaded speakers, hence an unfairly negative impression could be given under such circumstances. Using quality modern sources, the character of the classic Klipsch sound takes on a more refined, and smooth character. The same is true for vacuum-tube components powering Klipsch speakers.
Despite their lack of appeal to some audiophiles (decried as mid-fi), Klipsch speakers can be ruthlessly revealing of poor stereo components and recordings. Many audiophiles believe that Klipsch's "horn sound" is less compressed (more dynamic), more realistic, and "live" sounding than that of many other high-end speakers on the market.

Products

The Klipschorn

The 'Klipschorn', or Khorn, loudspeaker is the flagship product of Klipsch Audio Technologies. It was patented by founder Paul W Klipsch in 1946, and has been in continuous production in the plant in Hope, Arkansas since then.
It is important to note that there have been many improvements in the Klipschorn over the years, including a recent redesign and "revoicing" of the crossover network that results in a slightly "sweeter" sound, and smoother bass than in the past. The more than four-foot (1.23m) tall, three-foot (0.92 m) wide home speaker is a three-way design: separate speaker drivers handle the bass, midrange and high (treble) portions of the audible spectrum. These drivers are the woofer, the squawker and the tweeter.
Two rectangular horn lenses coupled to compression drivers handle the midrange and treble. In addition to the two horns above, a 15” cone woofer rests in a folded bass bin compartment below. The folds open at the rear of the horn cabinet structure, utilizing the room walls and floor as continuations of horn structure, thereby increasing the effective length and size of the horn, resulting in extending the low bass response of the woofer.
The body of the speaker cabinet forms a horn, an acoustic transformer/amplifier. The “Khorn” shape is like a baseball diamond: the pointy rear is open and exposed, the flat front covered with a wood panel and the top enclosed in cloth. The speaker sits in the corner of two adjoining walls, using the walls and floor boundaries as extensions of the horn to extend the lowest bass notes. Technically speaking, the Khorn's folded bass "corner horn" can be described as a bifurcated trihedral (floor and two walls to form the trihedral corner) exponential wave transmission line.
This design results in extremely high efficiency. One watt RMS produces a 104 decibel per meter sound pressure level (SPL) on the Khorn, which is approximately 14-20 decibels higher than conventional speakers. Such efficiency requires unusually low watts of power. Concert level volumes require only a few watts. Normal volume SPLs require milliwatts. The Khorn encourages the use of low powered valve (vacuum tube) amplifiers, or high quality solid state amplifiers, where the first milliwatts have low THD, IMD, TIM and crossover or "notch" distortion typical of Class A and valve amplifiers, but which is more prevalent in common transistor or other Classes (ie: AB or AB+B) of amplifiers.
The longest run in speaker production history, an upgraded version of the classic “Khorn” is still produced today. One smaller model, the LaScala, uses the same two mid and high range horns and drivers as well as the same bass driver. The bass bin is also a bifurcated folded horn design but is free standing and does not utilize the room walls and floor as extensions of the folded horn of the bass bin, resulting in a more compact size with the same efficiency and low distortion, albeit, with slightly less extended bass.
Two noteworthy aspects of the Klipschorn: Utilizing the room walls and floor boundaries as extensions of the bass horn helps extend the speaker's frequency response down into the 30 Hz range. Because of the folded horn, the woofer only needs to move a few millimeters, FMD, or Frequency Modulation Distortion, also known as Doppler Distortion, is dramatically reduced. Additionally, the sound the Klipschorn produces is fast, with wide dynamic range and extremely low THD compared to conventional designs. It has an immediate "impact" to it. Aficionados feel that the sound is closer to live music than other designs. Khorns require a larger room than other speakers and strict corner placement.
As the only speaker in the world to be in continuous production for nearly 60 years, the Klipschorn has remained relatively unchanged since its inception. The midrange horn was changed from metal to braced fiberglass, and the tweeter was front mounted in the 1980s. Both of these changes reduced the already low distortion. In 2005, the company made some minor cosmetic and functional revisions to this legendary speaker, including the elimination of the inset collar, or spacer, between the upper and lower cabinets for a cleaner aesthetic appearance. A horizontal wall seal was added to improve the low frequency horn's connection to the wall. The crossover, which includes some EQ, had been revoiced in the early 2000s.

Other legacy speakers

Noteworthy Klipsch speakers over the years include:

★ Klipschorn

★ La Scala

★ Belle Klipsch

★ Cornwall

★ Chorus

★ Heresy

★ Forte

★ KG4
Many are popular collector's items, most notably the ''Klipsch 60th Anniversary Klipschorn''.[1]
The flagship of the line remains the ''Klipschorn'', a three-way, fully horn-loaded loudspeaker built since the founding of the company. There have been many improvements in the Klipschorn over the years, including a recent redesign and "revoicing" of the crossover network that results in a slightly "sweeter" sound, and smoother bass than in the past. Other Klipsch models with similar design principles are the ''La Scala'' and ''Belle Klipsch''. These fully horn-loaded designs are claimed to deliver very realistic sound. They also boast extremely high sensitivity (Paul Klipsch demonstrated that the Klipschorn could reproduce concert-level dynamics powered by as little as 1 watt per channel) and unusually low amounts of certain types of distortion. The ''La Scala II'', similar to modern day Klipschorns, with the same speakers, but with a smaller bass chamber, and less bass extension, was recently voted into the Stereophile "Recommended Components" in the "A" level for speakers with restricted extreme low frequency.
Other current models—including the ''Cornwall III'', ''Heresy III'', and models in the ''Reference'' and ''Synergy'' lines use horn tweeters in conjunction with direct-radiating woofers and also have unusually high sensitivity (although not as sensitive as the fully horn-loaded models).
All of the models cited above feature separate horn-loaded tweeter and midrange. As of 2006, the majority of current Klipsch models are two-way designs, utilizing a tractrix horn for the upper midrange and treble.
Klipsch is one of the major manufacturers of cinema speakers. Partly because modern films need very powerful and clean sound, some of the Klipsch cinema speakers benefit from division of labor in a three- or four-way design. Some are horn-loaded in the bass, as well as in the midrange and treble.

Current speakers

The ''Synergy'' line is sold by major mass-market retailers.
The ''Reference'' line tends to be carried by audio specialty stores and custom installers. One feature of the Reference line is the use of the trademark ''Cerametallic'' woofers. These are a combination of materials that produce a very stiff, highly controlled cone movement.
The ''Klipschorn'', ''La Scala II'', ''Cornwall III'', and ''Heresy III'', as well as the limited-edition ''60th Anniversary Klipschorn'', comprise the ''Heritage'' line, which is available through select authorized Klipsch dealers, often by special order.

Multi-media speakers

The company also manufactures products for multimedia purposes; its ProMedia line of computer speakers has been sold since 1999, and it produces iPod-marketed speakers like the iGroove (with an angled form-factor) and the iFi, a scaled down version of its home theater systems.

Klipsch used in theaters

Klipsch also features its speaker designs in the Hard Rock Cafe line of restaurants and in several AMC and Regal theaters.
Theatres such as Hollywood's BM Theatre house are using Klipsch theatre systems for the 18000 audience capacity movie house. On a smaller scale, cinemas like Golden Village (Singapore) used Klipsch custom speakers for their GV Grand and iMAX theatres. iMax have been chosen Klipsch to be the exclusive partner for premium sound for the audiences.

Other products

Klipsch Group, the parent company of Klipsch Audio Technologies, also owns the Danish loudspeaker firm Jamo and in 2006 acquired the Canadian company Audio Products International (API), makers of Mirage and Energy speakers. In 2001 it acquired the company Mondial Designs, manufacturers of electronics under the Aragon and Acurus brand names, but subsequently discontinued those product lines.

External links

★ Official website

★ Fan website