Kef 207 V.s Klipshorn [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

PDA

View Full Version : Kef 207 V.s Klipshorn



whitewolf
10-09-2004, 10:16 PM
help me out here. i have done my research for like a week now. was unable to find a good forum apart from Klipsch official forum. Now i have a room of 27 (length) X 15 width and i want to buy two front speaker for my home theater. now ruling out all the other speakers . now i am left with 3 so i posted this on the Klipsch forum and they are all up for the HORNS so i am posted here to get a more unbiased recommendation.

the options i have here in Pakistan are ( and btw i cant hear them no chance. so forget about that u guys are my only help now):

1. KEF 207 (flagship) for 6000$ ( yes 6000$ for sure)
2. Klipschon (flagship) for 7500$
3. definitive 7000sc (flag****) 6500$

now help me out. and i will get a denon amp dont know what model its for 3000$. i know this is not totally complete info but please no more questions just answer and recommend. and i would appreciate if someone would tell me if Klipshorn are better than kef or if kef 207 is clearly better than the horns, i am still unclear there.

aimen
10-10-2004, 06:21 AM
hey white wolf
i too live in PAK
the problem is i cant see y u r paying so much for the folllowing speakers
klipshorn flagship ?!?!? ddo u mean RF7s or old vintage
where r u buying them from
u can import them with import tax/duties and stil get better speakers
r just go and buy some old technics and infinity
out if these 3 i would definiatly go for def tech7000
horns are considered bright and fatiging adn i mean considered but many ppl like them
i havent listened them myself but bright are usally like the tipical kenwood pioneer car speakers avalible here, i find them very bright and fatiging specially the cheaper ones but many like them
i clearly dont like bright speakers, i have listened to come klipsch center channels didnt find them tht fatiging nor tht bright as i was expecting but i will never invest so much money on klipsh or such speaker which has a clear image of being bright without listening
u r spending about 6000$
do have rest of the system? wt speakers r they
i prefer u also check out the custom build speaker route
any way where do u live
r u importing speakers
or buying locally?

aimen
10-10-2004, 06:29 AM
also u can get locally yamaha rxv1400 for about 40,000RS, v2400 will be around 75000RS
i also heard yamaha AZ1 or AZ9 going for about 90,000RS which is a bargain but tht was not sealed box.
also if u can spend so much u better make a trip to dubai, i am sure u will be more then happy with some under 2000$ speakers:-)))))))))))))))))

whitewolf
10-10-2004, 07:13 AM
well here is my celll . call me 0300 8286849 and we will discuss

aimen
10-10-2004, 07:55 AM
do u have hotmail aur yahoo ID
better talk on net
u can add me....aimen0@hot....

aimen
10-10-2004, 08:13 AM
i was reading reviews about KEF 207
http://www.kef.com/products/reference/refmodel_203.html
according to this review it seems very promising and it costs 15000$/pair how r u getting this speaker for 6000$
any way i have listened none of the following speakers my self
so my recommendations are just considerations

RGA
10-10-2004, 10:55 AM
The Khorn is still being made it's been made now for about 40 years and is a great speaker - it has been eclipsed in a number of sonic areas but still great fun musically. Kef I've never been thrilled with but different strokes.

I don;t see the Khorn being the front for a home theater system - it's mmore for the two channel crowd - being a corner placement speaker it may not be best suited for home theater without matching center.

Though The Audio Note E is a corner speaker and my dealer ran two J's as center speakers which apparently put the B&W system to shame for home theater - so I'd like to hear the K-horn in home theater - they have outstanding dynamics.

I'd post on www.audioasylum.com in their high efficiency forum - lots of people own the K-Horns and may be of more help for a specific inquiry like this.

aimen
10-10-2004, 11:02 AM
RGA i would love to hear one day ur beloved audio note speakers.

RGA
10-10-2004, 11:40 AM
yeah I don't think there are any dealers in Asia or the Middle East. There are dealers in the Far East, Europe, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Then again they never seem to bother updating their site so who knows.

Good luck in the speaker hunt.

whitewolf
10-10-2004, 12:47 PM
yes rga please do that and reply here in some hours. i really need to find something better than the K horn. and i have no idea why cant the kef beat the Horn. since the 207 kef are a new technology and so expensive. they should be able to beat the horn. and the horn have these requirements like corners and all . too much of a hassle

aimen
10-11-2004, 02:48 AM
is there any specific reason for ur these 3 choices
u said u havent listened to them ur self
so wt r the reasons u r counting others out

RGA
10-11-2004, 03:13 PM
whitewolf

Just because something is a big name, expensive and new doesn't mean it's better. The K-horn has some colouration no question about it but it also sounds big, dynamic, full bodied tuneful and very engaging. Lots of speakers at lower prices are less coloured buut also sound atrocious in comparison. Getting rid of the colour by chopping 50% of the musical value is not a trade I'm prepared to make and that is exactly what MOST(not all) all slim line design current speakers I have heard do.

My dealer refused the current Kef line - I heard them at another dealer and was not impressed and that dealer doesn;t carry them anymore. Sure they got good reviews but so does everything - and NOT EVERYTHING is good.

I can't tell you what you will or should like - I know what I like and what I don't. I didn;t truly know what I liked until I heard Audio Note. When you come across a system that hits you almost imediately that this is getting it right then you'll know.

I think the K-Horn gets a lot right - an it's around because what it does right a lot of current stuff isn't doing. You have to know what you're looking for in reproduction - the most awesome powerful bass? Other certain sonic attributes or faithful musical reproduction.

I go to this review a lot because here's a fellow who owns the K-horn and he owns many other speakers with very reputable backgrounds and names. Each speaker does something that he likes better than the Audio Note E. If I was a reviewer i could pick things out as well. A speaker that has more dynamics, another that can play louder, another with more bass, another with a bigger soundstage, another that is more airy. But those others had compromises to the musical event - the E does not in the end. http://www.stereotimes.com/speak071701.shtm

Hell I have a review from Hi-Fi Choice's Paul Messnger and he gave the current E an 89/100 and a Best Buy tag. He had lots of negative things to say about some certain aspects of the sound - But at the end of the day he kept them for himself. That's the difference to me. You can have speakers to review - a number of others of similar price got best buys and higher ratings - but the one he would actually want to listen to music on was the E.

The B&W N801 is nearly 4 times the price of my speaker - it has more bass can ply louder is absolutely gorgeous to look at - if someone told me I could trade it straight up on sound alone I'd say no. And this applies to speakers from all Canadian makers I've heard, all panels and stats. The only speaker I would consider would be the E. Or a speaker I have not heard yet obviously.

That's what YOU need to find - the speaker that blows you away such as to make it YOUR reference product that all comers have totry and beat. My dealer has brought in so many speakers and the first thing they do now is compare it to the Audio Note's to see if it will have a chance to sell. (Not including companies they have carried for years - though some of them they've dropped). Totem was good for them but when Audio Note came in they sold 6 pairs of Totem all year because they simply do not sound anywhere remotely as good for the money they want. The Mani 2 for example costs $5400.00Cdn and the J and E models they had were considerably less money and EASILY superior. Totem they now carry in name only. Ie; you can order Totem through them but they don't stock them - The owner stopped carrying the big B&W's and sent the Paradigm Signatures back to Paradigm. They can't sell em. They had the same pair of N801's sent back 3 times by 3 different customers. Obviously they had been successful with Totem and the Nautilus lines and presumably they'd have kept the Paradigm Sigs - because against eachother they're competitive no doubt. Some people like PatD like the Paradigm 100V2 better than the N802 and surely he's not the only one. So of course selling these brands against eachother makes sense. When Audio Note came in it was no longer a similar playing field when these t-ball speakers were up against the Yankees.

I get very fanboy excited by this company and unnashamedly so. I sent an e-mail to the owner and he said that a lot of customers have a religious like following to his gear. I'm an Athiest/Agnostic(still deciding) in 14 years of listening to gear I can;t say I've heard any system from anyone that gets the results as right for long term musical enjoyment - or hell just the piano as right. I've heard big Martin Logans, Legacy, Wilson, B&W, JBL way more expensive...

I do have some I would really like to hear - the bigger Von Sweikerts, Spendor, ATC, ELAC, The Avante Guarde Trio, among several others.

I think you should find something that makes you overjoyed everytime you get ready to listen...For you that may NOT be Audio Note. I think it's unfortunate that people will listen to a Paradigm or B&W floorstander and say something that is considered the ultimate in high end circles like Wilson. Wilson is so overpriced for the sound on offer that people will say well gee the Studio 100 or the N804 get most of that sound, or some will say are just as good if not better - so they will say the laws of diminishing returns stops around this Studio 100 and N804(or CDM 9NT) level - and that paying more gets very very very little improivement. in this case I would agree with them.

The problem is using Wilson as the reference of what great speakers are because they're pricey or have a mystique about them. The 100V2(not the V3) and the B&W CDM 9NT are truly in the ballpark of the Wilson's I've heard. Sure some will quible as to which is better but they'll at elast be in the ball park of eachother. To me it's not that these cheaper speakers are way too good for the money - No it's more that Wilson is WAY too expensive for what you get.

I reviewed Wilson Sophia's positively but really I should have thought them through - for $16,000.00Cdn IMO a reasonable price should be about $3,000.00Cdn and this price I'd have to really think about.

Anyway sorry for the long winded post. Time to go back to the music.

Cheers.

topspeed
10-11-2004, 05:11 PM
The problem is using Wilson as the reference of what great speakers are because they're pricey or have a mystique about them. The 100V2(not the V3) and the B&W CDM 9NT are truly in the ballpark of the Wilson's I've heard. Sure some will quible as to which is better but they'll at elast be in the ball park of eachother. To me it's not that these cheaper speakers are way too good for the money - No it's more that Wilson is WAY too expensive for what you get.

First off, $25K for a pair of ANY speakers, be it Wilson WP7's, AN, Von Schweikert, or whoever is too much to spend for something as trivial as speakers. Then again, some people think spending $100+k for a car is equally ludicrous. The market dictates what something is worth. Based on Wilson's sales record, apparently the market thinks they are worth it.

In my experience, neither the 100v2's, 9NT's, Von Schweikert's mighty VR11se (all $160K of it), or any speaker I've heard are as good as the WP7's. If you think the Paradigms and B&W's are in the same ballpark, that ballpark is about the size of Texas! Driven by ARC mono's coupled with a Wadia transport and DAC, the WP7's brought me closer to the event than I've ever been. The imaging and delicacy of detail was so realistic it was spooky. As much as I enjoy my 7NT's, I know they can't hold a candle to that rig. This has nothing to do with "mystique" or pricing, it has to do with personal preference. Simple.

RGA
10-11-2004, 08:00 PM
Topspeed

I was referring to the Sophia - Sorry. And I think it's a better speaker than the 100 and the CDM's. BUT, whatI'm saying is that people listening will certainly start to WONDER about the Diminishing returns. I am sure most people would wonder when going from the 7NT to the 9NT or the 9NT to the N804. Or a Nad 350 to a Nad 370 etc. My blathering meant to illustrate that with AN I felt that the notion of diminishing returns doesn't apply in that when you move up there is a significant step in the upgrade for the money. But then whether it's worth it is up to the individual like you duely note.

topspeed
10-12-2004, 10:15 AM
No worries RGA,

BTW, I agree that there is definitely a point of diminishing returns. I also agree that the poster should get the K-horns, although if he wants to go multi-channel someday he's going to be in trouble.