Need Help - Klipschorn

[atf72]

I have a pair that I know nothing about, except that they sound exquisite and have not been modified since they were built. Please provide any information as to their worth, history, etc.. THANKS!!!



I'm guessing they were built in the 1950's, but I'm not sure.

Klipschorn Corner Horn Speaker System
Type K.B.M.7
Style B
Serial 1757(1 speaker); 1758 (other speaker)
Finish M.7

Mid-range horn
Type K5-J
Serial 1873

[Geoffcin]

I have a pair that I know nothing about, except that they sound exquisite and have not been modified since they were built. Please provide any information as to their worth, history, etc.. THANKS!!!



I'm guessing they were built in the 1950's, but I'm not sure.

Klipschorn Corner Horn Speaker System
Type K.B.M.7
Style B
Serial 1757(1 speaker); 1758 (other speaker)
Finish M.7

Mid-range horn
Type K5-J
Serial 1873

I suspect this is an inheritance

[atf72]

They were given to me as a (very generous) gift, and I would like to know as much about them as I can.

[Geoffcin]

They were given to me as a (very generous) gift, and I would like to know as much about them as I can.

Luckily Klipsh is still in business;

http://www.klipsch.com/product/product.aspx?cid=2

[atf72]

Yes, I am aware of that. Unfortunately, they do not provide information about which serial numbers were from what time period. Nor do they provide a value for vintage speakers. I plan on insuring these but need to find a ballpark figure.
I thought this forum would be helpful in those respects. Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Man am I green with envy. Is it okay to hate this person?

[anamorphic96]

Why not try the Klipsch forums. Or contact the company directly.

http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/

[topspeed]

You can also try audiogon.com, where you can access their blue book for current market rates.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, Khorns are legendary. Very efficient and a ton of fun to listen to. Congrats on your good fortune.

[matt39]

Audiogon and Klipsch are good info sources. Two other places you could look at are Audio Asylum which has a vintage forum and a high efficiency speaker forum and Audiokarma which is a vintage stereo site.
Gary

[atf72]

Thanks for the tips.
Much appreciated.

[Boomzilla]

If you have only one large horn on top of the folded woofer cabinet, your horns are probably early models. If you have a large, aluminum "squawker" horn for the midrange and a smaller tweeter horn above (normally a Klipsch-branded Electro-Voice T-35), then your K-horns are probably from the late 60's up till the late 80's. Klipsch didn't change the design much during these decades (nor did they need to). The K-horns produced well over 100 decibels of sound pressure level at one watt at one meter. This efficiency plus their relatively smooth 8-ohm impedance makes the K-horns ideal for use with low-powered tube electronics. In fact, I've heard that single-ended-triode amps absolutely love K-horns. Such K-horns as yours (assuming they're the late 60's to late 80's models) currently sell for between $1,500 and $2,500 per pair on e-Bay with the buyer paying the (significant) additional charges for shipping. If you have corners for the speakers, I'd advise holding on to them. The speakers will only rise in value from now on since they're no longer made. If you really want to bring the K-horns into the 21st century, get somebody to build you a digital delay box that will "time-align" all of the K-horn drivers. Then you've got the phase-coherency of an electrostat with the efficiency of the K-horn. While in the digital domain, there's no reason not to flatten the frequency response of all the drivers too. That way, you get absolutely flat frequency response, absolutely coherent phase, and absolutely maximum efficiency. Of course, they sound spectacular just like Uncle Paul Klipsch made them, too. Happy listening!

[j.4knee]

KLIPSCH S/N FORMATS

DATES DISCRIPTION EXAMPLE

1946-1947 ### (001) ending #021

1948-1961 #### (0121) starting #0121
• Klipschorns of this vintage had the s/n hammer stamped into the tailboard, woofer access door or inside the woofer chamber.

1962-1983 ##letter#### (20Y1234)

1984-1989(?) YY WW #### (89281234)

1990-1997(?) DOY Y2Y1 #### (135791234)

1998-2000 YY WW #### (00281234)


1962-1983 Letter format

A=62 F=67 K=72 R=77 X=82
B=63 G=68 L=73 S=78 Y=83
C=64 H=69 M=74 T=79
D=65 I=70 N=75 U=80
E=66 J=71 P=76 W=81

1946-1961 dates can only be found in log book (eng. Library)

DOY= day of the year
YY=year (i.e. 99,00...)
Y2Y1=2nd digit of year, 1st digit of year
WW=week of the year

Date code on drivers (1994) Example - 9429 = 1994, 29th week of the year / YYWW