Klipsch Audio Technologies
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| Klipsch Audio Technologies | |
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| Type | |
| Founded | 1946 as Klipsch and Associates |
| Headquarters | Indianapolis, Indiana |
| Key people | Paul W. Klipsch, Founder Paul Jacobs, President |
| Industry | Audio |
| Products | Loudspeakers |
| Website | www.klipsch.com |
Klipsch Audio Technologies is a consumer and professional speaker company based in the United States. Founded in Hope, Arkansas in 1946 by Paul Klipsch as Klipsch and Associates, it produces loudspeaker drivers and enclosures, as well as complete loudspeakers for high end, high fidelity sound systems, public address applications, and personal computers.
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[edit] Horn loading
Since its inception, Klipsch has promoted the use of horn-loaded speakers as part of its goal to produce speakers which:
- Are high in efficiency (more formally called "sensitivity"), meaning that they can be driven by relatively low-powered amplifiers
- Have wide dynamic range, meaning that they accurately reproduce both soft and loud sounds
- Exhibit controlled directivity, meaning that the radiation pattern is directional, rather than diffuse
- Have a flat frequency response, meaning that there is no unnatural emphasis in the bass, mid-range or treble.
The company advocates the superiority of horns for the aforementioned properties, but some audiophiles[who?] decry horns as having a coloring of the sound sometimes described as "honkiness". Early Klipsch designs utilized a metal-throated horn whose aperture tended to exacerbate this phenomenon. In recent years, Klipsch introduced horns of braced fiberglass which were said to alleviate resonances that colored the earlier, metal designs. Klipsch also moved away from silk to different driver-diaphragm materials like phenolic, aluminum and titanium, and in 1989 they introduced a midrange horn with a tractrix flare which was said to further reduce "honkiness" and create a more open sound quality.
Current Klipsch designs, while still using horn loading for the tweeter (and, in some cases, the midrange driver), use a much more refined version which, while still highly detailed, is considered less strident. There are at least two sides to the issue of "honkiness." Some listeners deny that Klipsch speakers exhibited "honkiness," Newer Klipsch horn drivers were narrower than the previous versions, and represented a compromise between smoother response than metal, but additional resonance due to a narrower horizontal opening. When heard side by side, Klipsch horn loaded speakers and many direct radiating cone/dome high end speakers differ most dramatically (to some listeners) in the increased clarity of the Klipsch horn speakers. Much of the critical negativity can be directly traced to the use of low end electronic sources. Inferior electronic source components will have faults exaggerated by horn loaded speakers, hence an unfairly negative impression could be given under such circumstances. Using quality modern sources, the character of the classic Klipsch sound takes on a more refined, and smooth character. The same is true for vacuum-tube components powering Klipsch speakers.
Despite their lack of appeal to some audiophiles (decried as mid-fi), Klipsch speakers can be ruthlessly revealing of poor stereo components and recordings. Many audiophiles believe that Klipsch's "horn sound" is less compressed (more dynamic), more realistic, and "live" sounding than that of many other high-end speakers on the market.[citations needed]
[edit] Products
[edit] The Klipschorn
The Klipschorn, or Khorn, loudspeaker is the flagship product of Klipsch Audio Technologies. It was patented by founder Paul W. Klipsch in 1946, and has been in continuous production in the company's Hope, Arkansas, plant since then—the longest run in speaker production history. Although the Klipschorn's basic design is more than sixty years old, it has received periodic minor modifications.
The Klipschorn's large (51” H (129 cm) x 31” W (79 cm) x 28” D (72 cm)) enclosure houses a three-way design: separate drivers—the woofer, the squawker, and the tweeter, respectively—handle the bass, midrange, and treble portions of the musical signal.
Two rectangular horn lenses coupled to compression drivers handle the midrange and treble, while a 15” cone woofer is mounted in a folded bass bin compartment below. The folds open at the rear of the horn cabinet structure, utilizing the room walls and floor as continuations of horn structure, thereby increasing the effective length and size of the horn and affording greater bass extension.
The body of the speaker cabinet forms a horn, an acoustic transformer/amplifier. The “Khorn” shape is like a baseball diamond: the pointy rear is open and exposed, the flat front covered with a wood panel and the top enclosed in cloth. The speaker sits in the corner of two adjoining walls, using the walls and floor boundaries as extensions of the horn. Technically speaking, the Khorn's folded bass "corner horn" can be described as a bifurcated trihedral (floor and two walls to form the trihedral corner) exponential wave transmission line.
This design results in extremely high sensitivity. One watt RMS produces a 104 decibel per meter sound pressure level (SPL), which is approximately 14-20 decibels higher than conventional speakers. Such sensitivity requires less amplifier power to achieve the same loudness. (Paul Klipsch demonstrated that the Klipschorn could reproduce concert-level dynamics powered by as little as 1 watt per channel.) The Khorn encourages the use of low powered amplifiers. The growing popularity in the audiophile community of single-ended valve (vacuum tube) amplifiers has sparked renewed interest in the Klipschorn and other highly sensitive Klipsch models.[citation needed]
Utilizing the room walls and floor boundaries as extensions of the bass horn helps extend the speaker's frequency response down into the 35 Hz range, considerably lower than would be possible otherwise. Because of the folded horn, the woofer cone moves no more than a few millimeters.
As the only speaker in the world to be in continuous production for 60 years, the Klipschorn has remained relatively unchanged since its inception. The midrange horn was changed from metal to braced fiberglass, and the tweeter was front mounted in the 1980s. Both of these changes reduced the already low distortion.[citation needed] In 2005, the company made some minor cosmetic and functional revisions to this legendary speaker, including the elimination of the inset collar, or spacer, between the upper and lower cabinets for a cleaner appearance. A horizontal wall seal was added to improve the low frequency horn's connection to the wall. The crossover, which includes some equalization, was revoiced in the early 2000s.
In 2006, Klipsch began offering the 60th Anniversary Klipschorn, a separate model from the standard Klipschorn.[1]
[edit] Other legacy speakers
Other noteworthy Klipsch speakers over the years include:
- La Scala
- Belle Klipsch
- Cornwall
- Chorus
- Heresy
- Forte
Two of these models, the La Scala and the Belle Klipsch, are fully horn-loaded and have extremely high sensitivity like the Klipschorn, but their "W"-shaped folded bass horns do not require corner placement in the listening room. The La Scala II, which uses the same drivers as the Klipschorn but has a smaller bass chamber and less bass extension, was recently voted into Stereophile magazine's "Recommended Components" in the "A" class for speakers with restricted extreme low frequency.[citation needed] Other models, including the Cornwall and Heresy, use horn tweeters and midranges in conjunction with direct-radiating woofers and also have unusually high sensitivity (although not as high as the fully horn-loaded models).
All of the models cited above feature separate horn-loaded tweeter and midrange. As of 2006, the majority of current Klipsch models are two-way designs, utilizing a tractrix horn for the upper midrange and treble.
[edit] Current speakers
The Synergy line is sold by major mass-market retailers.
The Reference line tends to be carried by audio specialty stores and custom installers. One feature of the Reference line is the use of the trademark Cerametallic woofers. These are a combination of materials that produce a very stiff, highly controlled cone movement.
The Klipschorn, La Scala II, Cornwall III, and Heresy III, as well as the limited-edition 60th Anniversary Klipschorn, comprise the Heritage line, which is available through select authorized Klipsch dealers, often by special order.
[edit] Multi-media speakers
The company also manufactures products for multimedia purposes; its ProMedia line of computer speakers has been sold since 1999, and it produces iPod-marketed speakers like the iGroove (with an angled form-factor) and the iFi, a scaled down version of its home theater systems.
[edit] Klipsch used in theaters
Klipsch also features its speaker designs in the Hard Rock Cafe line of restaurants and in several AMC and Regal theaters.[citations needed]
Theatres such as Hollywood's BM Theatre house are using Klipsch theatre systems for the 18000 audience capacity movie house. On a smaller scale, cinemas like Golden Village (Singapore) used Klipsch custom speakers for their GV Grand and IMAX theatres. IMAX have chosen Klipsch to be the exclusive partner for premium sound for the audiences.[citations needed]
[edit] Headphones
"In Ear" headphones or earphones using balanced armature technology were launched in November 2007. There are two lines of headphones; Custom Series and IMAGE. The IMAGE headphone are declared to be the smallest headphone in the world. The Custom Series headphones includes three models. Two models, Custom 2 & 3 include multiple transducers in each headphone. These In Ear Monitors (IEM's) utilize proprietary balanced armatures denoted by the "KG" model number on each armature. Klipsch headphones utilize patent-pending Contour Ear Gels, invented by Mark Blanchard of Klipsch Group, which are anatomically designed to accurately fit inside the human ear canal. These oval shaped silicon tips reduce ear fatigue by minimizing pressure to any one given area of the ear canal wall. The patented ear tips are designed to be inserted in the the ear canal to acquire an air seal for noise isolation and a proper frequency response.
Klipsch has quickly become recognized as a leader of premium IEM's for consumers and musicians thanks to its unique ear tip comfort features and acoustic performance.
[edit] Other products
Klipsch Group, the parent company of Klipsch Audio Technologies, also owns the Danish loudspeaker firm Jamo and in 2006 acquired the Canadian company Audio Products International (API), makers of Mirage, Athena and Energy speakers. In 2001 it acquired the company Mondial Designs, manufacturers of electronics under the Aragon and Acurus brand names, but subsequently discontinued those product lines.
