[mresseguie]

These Klipcshorns (sp?) for $2995/pr nearly new in appearance.

I can't upload the photos from my phone. When I get home, I will post them.

[FullRangeMan]

Seems interesting by the price;
Ops: regret, in Ebay prices are much more cheap.

[aldcoll]

What model?? New or vintage?

Alan your audio baby sitter by choice.

[mresseguie]

What model?? New or vintage?

Alan your audio baby sitter by choice.

 








This last pair of Pioneer speakers is $595.

The store is Audio Specialties Ltd.
Used Adudio equipment
1416 NE 102nd
Portland, OR

It's mostly '70's and '80's vintage stuff. There's a Dynaco 70 tube amp for $495.

[charmerci]

Looks like it was made in 1981.


http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/klipsch-heritage-s-n-dates-code-decoder.147797/

[Letitroll98]

I remember walking into a store 40 years ago and seeing both of these speakers (might have been two different stores).  The Pioneers are as bad a speaker as the Klipschorns are great.  Maybe not the last word in detail, but the tone and dynamics are something to be heard.

[FullRangeMan]

Some photos show the mid and the tweeter are Alnico magnet.

[Mike B.]

I have been away from the PDX area since the late 1980's so this shop is new to me. The one with used I frequented was next door to Freds on Hawthorne.

[Johnny2Bad]

Seems interesting by the price;
Ops: regret, in Ebay prices are much more cheap.

eBay prices aren't quite so attractive once you account for the insured truck freight charge. Khorns are big (oversize or dimensional weight charge likely applies) and heavy (you will pay the greater of the weight charge or the dimensional weight charge) and insurance beyond $100 or so per waybill is also expensive. Plus truck freight is poor at not damaging anything not palletized, which is highly recommended. You now may be looking at a pallet charge. Finally, there is always a surcharge to deliver truck freight to a residential address or a business without a loading dock.

Depending on where you are and where the seller is, there could be multiple waybills involved. You are relying on the seller's acumen with regard to shipping; you want someone who knows enough to seek out a truck freight company that goes directly from his yard to yours. In many cases this is not possible, and then you need someone who knows enough to ship via the fewest number of trucking companies handling the cargo. This is because each time the cargo changes carriers, a new waybill is created, and each waybill is a separately billed shipment. So costs can double or triple quickly.

Based on my extensive experience (15 years +) with eBay sellers, most of whom know only one carrier and one shipping method, based mostly on their own convenience rather than any effort made to lower costs or insure good handling of the product, you are really asking for a lot of divine intervention coming to your aid.

If something goes wrong, pay again going back the other way.

A pair on eBay needs to be priced $500~$1000 lower, and possibly even more, considering the performance and condition can be confirmed with a local pair, and at least some measure of support could be agreed upon.

[thunderbrick]

To say nothing of having an inaccurate item description, risk damage risks en route and the hassles of dealing with a distant seller.

Alert:  It's not always about the price.  Because something costs more than we are willing to pay is not a basis for constant criticism.   

[Folsom]

Way too much money. They need a big time rebuild to even sound good by today's standards. I wouldn't pay more than $1k unless they were rebuilt to the hilt with upgrades.

[Emil]

Way too much money. They need a big time rebuild to even sound good by today's standards. I wouldn't pay more than $1k unless they were rebuilt to the hilt with upgrades.

They won't sound good but GREAT with these updates
http://www.klipschupgrades.com/khornupgrades2.shtml

You cann upgrade a bit at a time

[Folsom]

Exactly my point, it's going to cost $2k to upgrade them to being worth it.

[Emil]

Exactly my point, it's going to cost $2k to upgrade them to being worth it.

I wouldnt say they would be unlistenable in stock form. Just need to match your components carefully. Tubes for sure and 300B or 2A3 preferable

[Johnny2Bad]

Properly setup (Khorns need a large room, and MUST be placed in corners, for starters) and with some high quality, low power electronics, you could easily be into the system for perhaps $6000, and if you were willing to bargain hunt (buy used) on some of the electronics, maybe even $4500.

Not many people have heard KlipshHorns in all their original, no-upgrade glory, driven by very clean, well designed electronics (you will almost always be running in the 1watt or less area of the amplifier). Those that have know they do some things better than any loudspeaker available at less than mortgage-your-house-level expenditures.

They have virtually zero dynamic compression. They do not change in character when the wick is turned up, or the party goes long and loud. At low volumes the clarity is astounding. And if you have never heard clean, dynamic, horn-driven bass notes, you are in for an eye-opening experience. One you will never forget, I am confident in saying. Cone driven bass routinely runs 10% or higher THD. You should at least once in your life hear it at 100 dB SPL and 1% THD. You can get that in an electrostatic, but unless you own a vintage pair of rare Dayton-Wright XG8's, not at high SPLs and not without extremely stable, high power solid state amplification, which will easily cost you more than these Khorns alone.

Perfect? No. But no one offers perfection at $3k.

They even have a positive Wife Acceptance Factor, as they are beautifully finished pieces of furniture (always wood veneered marine-grade birch plywood), and when installed in your home, are not even obviously loudspeakers (which women, for some reason, universally consider ugly). Certainly, like almost any audio gear, they could benefit from judicious wads of cash thrown at them. But necessary? Not even close. I could easily live with them and a nice 10~40 watt tube amp for the rest of my days.

[mresseguie]

I have been away from the PDX area since the late 1980's so this shop is new to me. The one with used I frequented was next door to Freds on Hawthorne.

I think Fred's swallowed that one.

I prefer going to Pearl Audio or Stereotypes Audio for new equipment, and Echo Hifi for used equipment.

I remember walking into a store 40 years ago and seeing both of these speakers (might have been two different stores).  The Pioneers are as bad a speaker as the Klipschorns are great.  Maybe not the last word in detail, but the tone and dynamics are something to be heard.

The shop owner made a point of directing my attention to the Pioneer speakers, so I thought they must be nice sounding. Huh. I was gullible enough to mention them here, but not enough to buy them.

[Johnny2Bad]

The shop owner made a point of directing my attention to the Pioneer speakers, so I thought they must be nice sounding. Huh. I was gullible enough to mention them here, but not enough to buy them.

There were a few exceptions, and by "a few" I mean "a very very few", but Vintage Japanese loudspeakers are almost universally horrible sounding. The vast majority were not marketed back home in Japan, but only in North America, and built to sound attractive to ordinary ears. You might say that BOSE is an example of the best of the mass market Japanese loudspeaker "sound". Back home the Japanese either bought compact speakers by domestic manufacturers, or in larger sizes those made by American or European brands.

Even the legendary Yamaha NS-10's were not installed in studios for their accuracy, but rather because they were reasonably good sounding stand-ins for the mass market Japanese speakers people had at home. Let's not forget everyone also mastered on the Auratone 5C, which cost about $80 each (you always checked your mix in mono) and which was the "crappy radio sound monitor". Long out of production, they still sell briskly in the used market.

I did find that Technics made an effort in the late 1970's with a series of time aligned speakers that had less of the typical Japanese speaker faults and were rather neutral and flat in response. However, in comparison to the best American, Canadian, British and European speakers they were up against hard competition they rarely won. The remarkable thing is they occasionally won at all, and I'm talking about with people with a good ear, which was very much against the norm.

* There is a joke which went the rounds back in the day of how an amateur sound man ran the console ... "more bass, more treble, too loud, more bass, more treble, too loud, more bass ..."

[Letitroll98]

The shop owner made a point of directing my attention to the Pioneer speakers, so I thought they must be nice sounding. Huh. I was gullible enough to mention them here, but not enough to buy them.

Me too, at least a much younger me.  I went in to buy the Pioneers, I mean they're Pioneer, right?  The salesman said really?  I ended up with a pair of Scott speakers that I believe are still playing in my ex wife's house (you know, the one that used to be mine).  So I guess they must be attractive looking or something for both of us to be nearly enchanted.

[Folsom]

I've heard the creme de la creme version by Volti, and even those didn't amaze me or anything. So I say with some confidence that without the upgrades they're not up to snuff IMO.

[Emil]

I've heard the creme de la creme version by Volti, and even those didn't amaze me or anything. So I say with some confidence that without the upgrades they're not up to snuff IMO.

When it comes to horns, you either love them or hate them. There is no in-between