What are the best tube amps for Klipschorns?

Marco, wooden horns make this a whole new ball game. I'm going to check into this now.

I've thought about vertical biamping before. However, with all of the attenuators and interconnects required, this will probably turn into one expensive, counterproductive mess. I guess you know what the K.I.S.S. acronym means.

I got Al's ALK crossover for the Khorns which sounds better. I have never heard of the Crites crossover. Is that better than ALK?

I improved the bass of the Khorn in a different way. I built a false corner for each Khorn and turned the corners inward directly facing the sweetspot. This allowed me to move the Khorns in closer together to form an equalateral triangle with the sweetspot as all speakers should be. I don't know if silver wiring will make any difference in bass due to the large wavelength. However, thicker oxygen free copper wire should make an improvement.

The larger wooden horns would be no problem. All of my speaker enclosures are raw and behind a large screen made from high end speaker grill cloth.

Now it's time to check out the wooden horns.

I got Al's ALK crossover for the Khorns which sounds better. I have never heard of the Crites crossover. Is that better than ALK?

"Better" is entirely relative to who's making the call. I can't speak for the Khorns, as I have only had LaScalas. The Crites crossovers are supposed to duplicate the best of PWK's original vintage crossovers, but using modern ("better") parts. The sound will be more akin to the stock crossover, and what PWK designed. ALK's crossovers alter the original design and the resulting balance, curves, slopes, etc., significantly so the sound is quite different from stock. On my LaScalas in a smaller space I actually preferred the stock AA crosovers. In a much larger space the laser focus of the ALK's won me over, and didn't sound as hardened as they had in my home. My advice would be to try them each out if you can, and or seek more input from those who have direct experience. My friend who has done the mods with the Wood horns has used both as well as stock. He hates the ALK's, and much prefers the Crites. With the Scalas the ALK's are less forgiving, more focused and detail, and can have a harder edge than the stock AA's. The AA's are a bit softer, and easier on the ears in a smaller space. The ALK's also have provisions for selectively changing the attenuation on the mid-horn. The Crites do not have that provision as I understand. I have fooled around with that and it does alter the sound, but I found myself coming back to what was essentially slightly up from stock. YMMV depending largely on your setup and your expectations.

I think I still have pictures of my friend's installation of his wood horns. If you ping me off the thread I'd be happy to forward them so you can get some idea as to what is involved in doing such a modification. On my LaScalas, changing the tweeter made a huge difference (improvement), so I'm betting that's a good bet for you as well with your Khorns.

Good luck.

Marco

Hi Redwoodgarden,

I was wondering what transpired with your search for a tube amp that could match the Levinson 334?? Did you replace your existing pre amp and find something better?? Sorry for my being nosey but I have Klipschorns and a Levinson 334 and I'm also looking to find a pre amp that can go toe to toe with the 334.

Thanks
Andre74

In answer to your question: Wyetech.
Additional comment: Agree to consider warm tube preamp, would add to consider hybrid amps - Blue Circle, Butler, even Counterpoint/Alta Vista, et. al.

I can't imagine how a transistor amp could be preferred on a speaker like the Klipsch- unless one has never heard a decent tube amp! First off the Klipsch doesn't really play the bottom octave, so the idea that a tube amp would have less punch is irrelevant, not just because of the frequencies that are audible but also because the Klipsch is a very easy load for tube amps so there is no advantage that a transistor amp will have with 'current' *or* bandwidth.

Perhaps you might actually try a few of the better tube amps- Klipsch speakers certainly have the reputation that justifies a decent amp for them. Good quality output transformers are rated to 5Hz and a lower powered amp (under 50 watts) will have no trouble having bandwidth.

The idea that transistors play bass better than tubes is a myth from the bad old days- 2 or 3 decades ago. If you allow a story like that into your head you will miss a whole world of possibility.