What are the best tube amps for Klipschorns?

The salesman that provided me with the Khorns 30 years ago also introduced me to the Levinson amp. To me it's a winning combination. However, every other salesman I know, and every Goner say just the opposite...I need tubes to smooth out and soften the horns. Am I the only one in the world that's right, and everyone else wrong? Something smells fishy. I shared this dilemma with the same saleman. He said that he still recomends the Levinson, but would also recommend the Mac mc275 as a tube alternative. Jaybo provided the same idea. It seems like a solution is beginning to take shape. I'm going to borrow the store's mc275 and experiment with the Levinson and the Mac. Perhaps a combination of the two will work.

I have learned a lot today. Thanks for all of your help and suggestions.

You might also consider vertical bi-amping, keeping your Levinsons on the bass, and purchase some tube amps for your mids and highs. It would be a bit more complex to setup and balance out, but it may give you the results you want.

A friend of mine who is a Klipsch authority has recently been trying out some very serious modifications of his Khorns, including the Crites crossovers (I think Boa2 is happily using those as well), as well as the wood horns and Beyma tweeter replacement endorsed by Al Klappenberg. He tells me those modifications have made a very significant improvement over the already outstanding Khorns, and that he'll never go back to stock. He was also a friend of PWK and tells me that Klipsch always wanted to use wood for the mid-horns but manufacturing costs made it impractical. Check those mods out at the Martinelli Website who actually manufactures the horns. The Beyma CP25 is the drop-in replacement for the Klipsch tweeter and will also make a significant difference in pulling out detail. It is larger than the stock tweet so you'll either have to put it on top of the cabinet or do some significant mods to the mounts.

Good luck.

Marco

PS In case I wasn't clear those mods are intended to give you more detail and resolution. They will not necessarily boost your bass response. They may alter the perceived bass response in altering the rest of the range. You could consider replacing the bass driver with a better one as well. Not sure of the drop-in replacement there, but I'm sure there is one. You may search the Klipsch forum for more input. It does sound like you are already content with the bass though. You can also replace the stock wiring harness, which is essentially copper zip cord, with some quality silver wiring to get further detail. This requires a long break-in period but it was worth it in my LaScalas.

From what I understand, the horn/tweeter swap also dramatically smooths out the highs. So Marco, that could be the best suggestion yet!

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.