[Vintage-Audio] KLH modular systems

Sat Dec 6 23:19:36 EST 2008

Thanx Duane..

First let me say that at 74 I have lost most of my hearing over 10 KHz. But 
I remember what it sounded like. The sound system in my office is really 
nice sounding with the main sound from the JBL L-173s and fillins from the 
Advents, Wharfedales and KLHs. The main mess has great bass coverage and 
more important very little doubling. The bass is very clean and it allows me 
to use a subharmonic Synthesizer (dbx 120) and fill in those low notes 
removed to keep the needle in the groove. With 8 tweeters in the system 
there is no lack of highs although I cant really hear most of their output. 
The mid range from the JBLs is impeccable and not too bad from the Advents.

The main advantage of the acoustic loaded speakers is that they do not have 
a resonance at the low end. This "hi-Q" acoustic circuit tends to get driven 
(think "rung") by tonal energy near or harmonically related and makes for a 
boomyness typical of poorly designed bass reflex systems. Of course "very 
good" speaker systems seem to get around this issue by using very expensive 
iterative designs (before computers). This is what the JBLs like the 4320 
and even the low cost L100 systems have, but is lacking in most all other 
bass reflex systems.

Another thing I try to correct is the dynamic range compression in all 
recorded media. I have a dbx 3BXIII expander in addition to a Carver C-4000 
Preamp. The main receiver/amplifier is a 7.1 100W/ch with several dozen 
digital decoding and processing codes.

Some other equipment in my office is 4 DVD/CD recorders, two cassette 
recorders, an MD recorder, a Teac X-1000Rbl reel to reel tape deck, two 32 
point patchbays, Two SACD players and a SAE 5000A click remover. 24 inch HD 
flat screen TV, 21 inch TV,  four TiVos, VCR and Beta recorders, three 
camera security system, two computers, two printers, coffee pot, four floor 
to ceiling bookcases, flatbed scanner, Dual turntable. One very large (4 x 8 
ft) desk for the ham station. I still have room for three chairs and stuff I 
haven't seen for 10 years or so.

All this junk may not be vintage and have tubes or other glowing places, but 
they mostly do have lots of early descrete transistors and some bad 
capacitors.

WBob

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Duane Fischer, W8DBF" <dfischer at usol.com>
To: "Vintage home and professional audio equipment from 1975 back" 
<vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net>; <W9RAN at oneradio.net>
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 7:01 PM
Subject: Re: [Vintage-Audio] KLH modular systems

> Hey Wolfman Bob,
>
> First, why do you like acoustic loaded speaker systems?
>
> Second, There are a lot of woofers and low frequency midrange here, and a 
> couple of standard midrange and tweeters mixed in. Maybe I am missing 
> something Bob, but isn't this low end heavy?
>
> Third, Where are you crossing over and how with all these different 
> cabinets/systems?
>
> Now people, after Bob has described "some", but not all, of what he has in 
> this small room, one wonders exactly where he fits into this sound 
> chamber? Suspended by his heels from the rafters? Vertically standing on 
> the floor with speaker columns preventing him from breaking wind or taking 
> a deep breath to scream for help? Some fascinating visual image 
> possibilities Wolfman Bob!
>
> Now Bob has been to my QTH and let me assure you that he is both a very 
> intelligent person as well as a brilliant engineer. He knows his stuff! As 
> small as this room he partly describes is, he has cleverly managed to 
> build things into walls in such a way as to provide much more open area 
> then it sounds like. I just wish I had the opportunity to hear this system 
> of his! It has to be awesome!
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "wolfbob" <wolfbob at csnsys.com>
> To: <W9RAN at oneradio.net>; "Vintage home and professional audio equipment 
> from 1975 back" <vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 7:19 PM
> Subject: Re: [Vintage-Audio] KLH modular systems
>
>
>>I like acoustic loaded speakers. I have two 12 in Advents for the center 
>>front and rear, two 8 in KLHs for the side and two 12 inch Wharfedales for 
>>the rear left and right. Along with the main JBLs (ported) in front left 
>>and right these are driven by 100W/ch 7.1 system.  I haven't used the sub 
>>for a couple years. I also have two Cambridge systems (also designed by 
>>Kloss) one is a 5.1 driven by a Platinum Creative Audigy II sound card out 
>>of my main computer and the other 2.1 on the HD TV. This makes for some 15 
>>speakers in a 12x12 ft room (not counting the radio equipment of three 
>>transceivers and four scanners and another Cambridge 2.1 for the second 
>>computer. The lap top is on its own). Bring on the sound...The Cambridges 
>>have a 4 inch woofer in a ported box and satellite little acoustic 
>>speakers all over the place.
>>
>> WBob, WB6JPI
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Robert Nickels" <ranickel at comcast.net>
>> To: "Duane Fischer, W8DBF" <dfischer at usol.com>
>> Cc: <W9RAN at oneradio.net>; "Vintage home and professional audio equipment 
>> from 1975 back" <vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net>
>> Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 1:24 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Vintage-Audio] KLH modular systems
>>
>>
>>> Duane Fischer, W8DBF wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The Advent are power hungry and need 20 watts continuous RMS, or more, 
>>>> to produce acceptable audio. If you only have ten watts, it will not 
>>>> demonstrate the new amp or the response of the Advent speakers.
>>>>
>>> Thanks for your comments, Duane.  I agree, although I'm just guessing at 
>>> the power output from this amp since I haven't found any specs on it. 
>>> In fact it would be just like Henry Kloss not to publish output power 
>>> specs, but rather to say "it's loud enough".   Some of his advertising 
>>> material was pretty refreshing, given the lies and stupid claims many 
>>> hi-fi manufacturers made in those days, "IHF music power" and all that. 
>>> I know the smaller Advents would take everything my old Kenwood 20 watt 
>>> per channel amp would give them, and then some.
>>>
>>> I tend to believe the blurb I found that referred to 4" woofers and a 
>>> ported design.  That would be more efficient and in line with the power 
>>> level I think this unit delivered.
>>>
>>> 73, Bob W9RAN
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/vintage-audio
>>> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
>>> ** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
>>>
>>
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>> ** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
>>
>>
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>
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