wallflower,

My comments are based on a demonstration of the Jubilee bass units and the big 402 treble units.  You see photos of a home installation above in the thread. 

There were some change outs of various amps.  All were of high quality.  I dare say that there was not any change in quality of reproduction based on the electronics.  Others are invited to comment, of course.

The recordings were varied.   They were not a side by side consideration of Fender, Gibson, Les Paul, Marshall. Sorry.

One often played source was Bonnie Raitt's vocals. 

Another fellow there commented, "I'm ruined for life",  I took that to mean, no other speaker will or can ever be this good.  I quite agree. 

I believe most of us there have heard excellent recordings, excellent electronics, and very good speakers.  None the less, I think the 402 horn, the driver, and maybe some equalization tweeks, were absolutely perfect in making the female voice reproduced with accuracy.   It may be hard to make Bonnie sound bad, but this was pure magic.

If it does that for Bonnie, I'm sure it will do it for a guitar.

Gil

Cask05:

dougdrake:

Are these things on the Klipsch website?  If so, can someone post a link?  My feeble brain is not turning them up anywhere...

  A more current pic. The things on top are bass traps.  I haven't decided how to hang them yet--they work really well in their current locations.

 

Wow, they're a long way from the Jubilee's I listened to on the inaugural Klipsch tour, in their beautiful cabinets and decidedly more decor-friendly appearance. 

"The Customer Can Have Any Color He Wants So Long As It's Black". Henry Ford

I think that the Model "T" (yes, there were models A-S before the "T" came into being) set the standard for all to follow.  Maybe parallel universes exist for loudspeakers. 

Chris 

Hey Bill W.

Was wondering what had happened to you.

Really good write up of your impressions with the Jubilees and what to me is really great is it seems you are really having a great time listening with them.

So what is one of your favorite recordings to play on them?

mike tn

mikebse2a3:

Hey Bill W.

 

Was wondering what had happened to you.

Really good write up of your impressions with the Jubilees and what to me is really great is it seems you are really having a great time listening with them.

So what is one of your favorite recordings to play on them?

 

mike tn

This may sound funny but it keeps changing. Usually its the last recording I played.  I just listened to a 30 year old direct-to-disc recording of Virgil Fox playing the pipe organ at Garden Grove Community Church in California. One of the best organ recordings I have in my collection. This is stunning on Jubs.

P.S. Thanks for your assistance with the EV data. You made it easy for me! 

William F. Gil McDermott:

One forum member, Arky (?), was next to me during a play back of Bonnie.  He commented, "I'm ruined for life".

Chris 

Bill W.:

Hi Mike,

This may sound funny but it keeps changing. Usually its the last recording I played.  I just listened to a 30 year old direct-to-disc recording of Virgil Fox playing the pipe organ at Garden Grove Community Church in California. One of the best organ recordings I have in my collection. This is stunning on Jubs.

A Virgil Fox fan!  They called him twinkle toes, you know, for obvious reasons.

He gave new meaning to the phrase "a religious experience".

Chris

Other recommendations for Organ Music............JMHO.

http://cdbaby.com/found?allsearch=Virgil+Fox

OR

http://www.cafepress.com/virgilfox/407974 

The Second listing is interesting because they also sell the Albums as well as CD's................for you Turntable fanatics............

William F. Gil McDermott:

"There were some change outs of various amps.  All were of high quality.  I dare say that there was not any change in quality of reproduction based on the electronics."

 

 

By this description do you mean to imply that regardless of electronics the Jubilees sounded the same?  If so, that would seem quite odd.  I've heard a lot high quality amps and while many sounded excellent, they all provided some type of different sonic characteristic.  Please explain.

wallflower:

By this description do you mean to imply that regardless of electronics the Jubilees sounded the same?  If so, that would seem quite odd.  I've heard a lot high quality amps and while many sounded excellent, they all provided some type of different sonic characteristic.  Please explain.

I don't pretend to speak for Gil but in my experience, I have yet to hear a significant "amp to amp" change that was as large of a difference as my "Klipschorn to Jubilee" change.

In my experience, I'd try to draw a parallel of getting a nice hamburger at some burger place verses going to a nice steakhouse and ordering a filet OR their NY strip.  I'd think it reasonable that there is a larger jump from the burger to the steakhouse (Heritage to Jubilee), than there might be between the two offerings from the steakhouse? (different amps of high quality)   

For my listening, the biggest jump/change in sound that I've heard in my room was putting the Jubilees in there.  The next biggest jump/change I've experienced is when fiddling with the crossover settings, going from a 24 db slope crossover to an approximate 48 db slope crossover and even at that, with the steeper slope tweeks, I could ONLY tell a difference in sound when listening to female vocals which ironically, also happened to be Bonnie Raitt.  When listening to instruments only, I personally can't tell a difference between either slope

The amps I've run through my Jubilees right now have been a McIntosh 2102 powering the top horn (several solid states on bottom) and I'm currently using a 4 channel solid state amp to run both speakers with my tube preamp (Peach) and my tube power amp (2012) OUT of the food chain.  I personally find the changes of those amps to NOT be as significant of a difference as swapping out the speakers themselves.  Truth be told, I can't sit here and tell you ANY differences I've heard (not to say that maybe you or someone else couldn't detect changes) but "my ears, my stuff, my room..." I'd have to agree with Gil in that there is essentially no (or very minimal) change.  Some refuse to believe that and that's ok. Again, this isn't to say that a critical listener might not feel there is a different "ting" with something, but I'd liken that to the wine taster dude who says the film on the glass of wine as he swirles it is 'slightly thicker bodied and longer lasting' than the other glass of wine...  BOTH have the swirl and he's making a judgement from one to the other.  To sit there and have issues as to the thickenss of the swirles on the glass of wine....  well.... that tells me that person is doing ok with other things in life to have the time to worry about those exceedingly small differences that others, may not see (or may not be there).

Heck...  2 years ago when people heard the single Jubilee in the corner (the trip to Hope that induced Mike & I to buy them), everyone was mouth watering at how they sounded...  well...  we auditioned them with some QSC or Crown amps (I think), AND as I understand it, something like a $75 Emerson CD player that simply can't be accused of being "audiophile" yet it left everyone that I'm aware of, walking out of that room just shaking their head, impressed with what they heard.

Hearing is believing...  if you're ever near Knoxville.....

Coytee:

Heck...  2 years ago when people heard the single Jubilee in the corner (the trip to Hope that induced Mike & I to buy them), everyone was mouth watering at how they sounded...  well...  we auditioned them with some QSC or Crown amps (I think), AND as I understand it, something like a $75 Emerson CD player that simply can't be accused of being "audiophile" yet it left everyone that I'm aware of, walking out of that room just shaking their head, impressed with what they heard.

 Yeah, don't overstate Roy's Emerson.

I didn't want to humiliate his cd player...  I mean..how ironic is it that out of the "kitchen" of cheap Emerson cd players, PA amps and a classy couch...  emerges a creation like the Jubilees

And Roy DOES have a classy couch!! 

So I'm curious....  Could you hear differences with your Khorns when you switched out different upstream components?

wallflower:

William F. Gil McDermott:

"There were some change outs of various amps.  All were of high quality.  I dare say that there was not any change in quality of reproduction based on the electronics."

 

 

By this description do you mean to imply that regardless of electronics the Jubilees sounded the same?  If so, that would seem quite odd.  I've heard a lot high quality amps and while many sounded excellent, they all provided some type of different sonic characteristic.  Please explain.

The amp thing in general is quite controversial. 

I may have posted an article a long time ago about Quad amps.   These were solid state and tube.  The designer compared the input to the output by a subtraction process.  No difference could be found.  Distortion should have popped out.  It did not.  There was also a test of switching between the solid state and tube using relays.  No difference could be heard.

One magazine writer ageeded to attend the demonstration at first and then backed out on the excuse that the relay contacts were not gold plated.  it was pretty much an early version of what goes on with ABX tests.  If some human fails the test, they sometimes say the test is unfair. 

I think it is pretty obvious that there is more than one way to build an accurate amplifier.  But if two amps are accurate to a reasonable degree, they should sound the same.  Also, it should be only inaccurate amps which sound different.  These last two statements, I expect, drive amp fans crazy.  

In any event, I didn't hear any difference. Maybe Golden Ears can.

Gil