Klipsch, high end?

I've heard both extremes: seems that people either really like Klipsch, or they *really* don't! I've always been a fan of Khorns, & ever since I was privileged to spend some time with Mr. P.W.K. himself, I simply HAD to get a pair for my own. Don't have much corner-space (or any open space) in my large-ish living room, but when I happened into a good deal on Belles, I jumped & have never regretted it. Belles are made to work close to back walls, so that's a good fit for my situation. Yes the horns do have some tonal colorations, but they are super efficient & quite revealing, not to mention the speed & slam-factors. You can also tweak those resonances with Dynamat & lamb's wool, etc. there are a lot of tricks that you can play around with. I prefer the solid-state sound, & I've always found that big S.S. amps worked much better on my Klipsch than tubes do. MANY dealers have tried to sell me on tubes for my Belles, in fact Klipsch was designed with & FOR tube amps, back in the days before SS was even available. A trusted high end dealer once talked me into keeping my Belles at a time when I was considering alternatives, & that dlr. certainly had a vested interest in selling me some other speakers instead. I have used McCormack DNA-1 & DNA-1 Deluxe amps; the Ayre V-3 is even better. Cost a side-issue, the Belles can really pump-it-out too. We once measured 125dB SPL on the coffee table, with a lab-grade meter (*don't* try this at home - hee hee). I can't speak for any of the newer model speakers referred to above, but these old classic Belles are presently doing nicely in my $40K 2channel rig; hardly low powered / mass market.

Firstly, to answer you question: Get some other speaker. With bryston power isn't an issue and so you don't need the efficiency of klipsch horns. And soncially, I've never though much of them. A dealer talked me into a pair of epic series 2's several years back and I hated them. I was running them on a jolida tube amp and really wanted to like the sound. The synergistic cable helped and the dynamat I added to the cabinet walls had the effect of adding a subwoofer, it was amazing. But I still never liked them. They were harsh sounding. I remember playing the last of the Mohican's soundtrack a week or so after owning them and my sister just cringed at the violin climax's. Last week I was at that dealer and was listening to the kipsch line with the gold drivers in a 5.1 setup on a denon receiver. They sounded ok at first but the sound was bright and fatiguing. I just don't care for klipsch, they may have been great in thier heyday, before my time, but there are alot nicer speaker out there for the money.

I didn't mean to be brash or forward in that post. I agree with the other posts that the older classic models may have been/and still are nice(r), but the newer stuff isn't anything spectacular. Get a good conventional electrodynamic transducer type speaker, Bryston is a good choice in amplification.

I'll stop posting I promise. I'm just trying to address the question, which gets lost on alot of threads I've noticed. I think what alot of people mean by "klipsch being a good speaker for mass-market gear" is that they may be one of the fewer higher end/higher priced loudspeakers that present a nice stable resistive load for the amplifier. That coupled with high efficiency means that someone who doesn't want to give up their reciever but move up to better speakers will be able to hear the advantages of the klipsch. Obvioulsy, a pair of Thiel's (which, incidentally, is what replaced the epic-series 2) may not give much of a sonic improvement if the amp now struggles.

Ez I was waiting to see if you have anything more to add before I jump back in :-)
Dynamat on SIDEwalls is something I'm going to ask you about; that sounds interesting (most people just put it on the horns). However even the good old Klipsch can be harsh-sounding if you don't have them set up well, which can be difficult. You simply must have good cabling & equipment matches for the application in order to achieve good sonic results, while realizing the efficiency & dynamics of horns. It is no easy feat to pull off the right balance, so if one is not willing to work at it then you will be probably dissapointed as-above.