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Audio purists famously split hairs over every little component in the audio chain, not the least of which is the speaker system. Each audiophile swears by his favorite. The concentric design of Tannoy has its adherents since it does away with crossover and attendant distortions and anomalies. Those who favored the famous Quad electrostatic range still swear by it for its "transparent" sound. Then there are audiophiles who favor the transmission line loudspeaker enclosure or those who favor a loaded horn design. Some would go as far as using the infinite baffle instead of an enclosure that introduces its own coloration no matter how carefully designed. The physics of each are different as is the resultant audio. In essence, most of these speaker enclosure designs impinge bass reproduction and its quality.
In this scenario Klipsch speakers are worthy of mention. The Klipsh home theater speakers embody the ultimate refinement of the loaded horn design that results in deep, extended, natural, powerful and realistic bass response. The package, however, is compact, pointing to the engineering ingenuity and expertise gained in horn loading since Paul Klipsch started making speakers in 1946. Klipsch refined his speakers for reproduction of classical orchestral music characterized by its extremely wide dynamic range of sibilant hiss to thumpingly resounding grand finale. That he was conferred several awards and was inducted into the Audio Hall of Fame is his just dues. The Klipschorn is a milestone even today. Klipsch designed speakers to have high sensitivity, wide dynamic range, low distortion, smooth frequency response and powerful bass without any coloration. The sound is natural and recreates the feeling of being present in a live orchestral rendering. Interestingly, Klipsch was the first to design what is so common in home theaters today: a central speaker flanked by two wing speakers. Klipsch today offers speakers ranging from $ 359 to $ 45000!
Horn loading, even folded horns, do not work in isolation. They rely on room acoustics as well as precise positioning to achieve the desired low frequency response. Precisely engineered horn loaded systems such as those from Klipsch have achieved frequency response as low as 10 to 15 Hz, which is well in the sub-woofer range of today's engineering parlance. Horns have a decided advantage over transmission lines in that the distortion is far less and the power at the lower end is solid. True audiophiles prefer horns and Klipsch is as state of art as it gets in horn loaded speaker design.
It is no secret that loaded horns or folded horns are large in size, annoying the lady of the house who might order the speaker removed from the area much to the chagrin of the audiophile. Klipsch systems reduce the size to discreet levels without compromising on the extended response and solid transparency of bass response from a compact home theater system. Lady of the house is happy and so is the audiophile.
There are people who will swear by their Bose, Cambridge, KEF and Wharfedale or the exotic B&O, Focal speakers or the Danish Dynaudio. Nothing, however, comes close to Klipsch, the company that engineers both the horn loaded enclosure to precise specs and the driver units, a marriage made in heaven for those desirous of audio ecstacy.
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