A rambling conversation about nearfield listening, 3 channel stereo, & horns 

I love the fact that Herb is such a great listener. He never, ever interrupts like so many people do today.

So nice to hear horns getting some love from audiophiles.

Herb is amazing. Thanks for connecting with him.

Herb is an excellent reviewer, second to only you Steve. Both of you guys have the unique ability to not only write about sound, but to describe it to anyone where it makes sense, but you both keep your reviews simple. I have followed both of you for a very, very long time and I’m a subscriber to stereophile and the absolute sound along with sound and vision. Keep up the good work Steve if you could get more of the writers and industry greats in for reviews it would be great. Hey Steve if you could have one session on what goes into reviewing and the behind the scene stuff with the manufacturers and how long do you guys actually keep the products after the review. Klipsch and even better avant-garde can be magical especially in the midrange.

Fantastic interview. I was captivated from start to end. What a great conversation. Sadly, none of my friends care about hifi audio.

I was always and am still after a 60 year love affair with audio a horn speaker lover. For 10 years I worked sitting in the same room with Henry Kloss certainly one of the founders of the direct radiator speaker. It was really all about the cost of manufacture and that the market demanded new, new, new every year. Paul Klipsch educated me concerning the fact that horn speakers have a tremendous cost to design and manufacture the horns. You cannot change them to meet artificial market demands every year or so. Paul always thought it funny that when he first marketed the Klipschorn it was the first “small” home friendly speaker on the market because of its folded bass horn. This was the days of only mono. Ed Villchur and Henry Kloss were tinkering because they knew that stereo in the home was the death knell from a marketing standpoint of the life size speakers. Henry once told me that his speakers created a sense of looking through binoculars backwards. Perfectly clear, but a miniature of reality.

You two guys are clearly old friends, and it shows. Great video, Steve and Herb!

There is so much to like about Klipsch. I always enjoy the clear detailed sound. The premier line adds such a nice touch to the sound that just made it more appealing. The less directional and perhaps softer bassier sound for the bedroom of my small Elacs (4's) do the job for that. Sound gets around less detailed and more softly which is appropriate for that setting. But for real listening in the living room, well placed Klipsch premier speakers have worked real well for me and I am quite satisfied. At first I had Klipsh refernce in the front and premiers in the rear, now I have the premiers all around ( R160 Ms) and they are just right. Detailed, clear and -for me-not too harsh. Positioned most effectively they bring life and detailed color. Some day maybe I can get the Heresey or Forte speakers but - if that doesnot happen I think it will be okay. It is nice to know that something has lasted and survived this long in the USA that still brings joy to people who have passion for good qualtiy and quality of life enhancement. Thanks Peace!

The Klipsch Heritage Line is still periodically updated and is a big part of their business - still made in Hope, Arkansas. They hold their value quite well.

Hi Steve, I really enjoyed this video on horn speakers and agreed with most what was said by both Herb and you. I was especially interested in the history of the Klipsch Heresy speakers and how they came about. I do agree they were designed as a center channel speaker but not as we think of modern center channel speakers. I've read several articles on the subject of their design and it was confirmed to me years ago by a long time local Klipsch dealer that these were designed as a center fill speaker for the Corner Horns. Depending on how wide the listening room was/is the distance between the Corner Horns could be too great, causing a "hole" in the sound between them. This in turn could effect the center image. To counteract this effect Klipsch came up with a small center fill speaker.....the Heresy, and the electronics manufacturers followed suit by adding center channel outputs to their receivers and amps. Case in point my 60's vintage Fisher 500C receiver has a center channel output! Just my two cents, I really enjoy your videos .....keep up the good work !

Love this conversation! I could listen to the both of you chat for hours.

That was a total pleasure!

Better late than never to the horn speaker party! As far as commercial horns go: Volti Audio, Deja vu Audio, Burwell & Sons which use Altec drivers whose slogan is the future of sound has been here the whole time, Ocean Way, George Augspurger, Tannoy Westminster, TAD Professional (so many main monitors in studios use TADs), GIP, Goto, Rey Audio and Maxsonic in Japan, Westlake Audio, Avant Garde, Oswald's Mill Audio, Jeffrey Jackson, Living Voice in the UK, JBL & Klipsch as mentioned, Klinger Fabre and Supravox in France, Blumenhofer and Wolf Von Langa in Germany, Classic Audio (US) and Great Plains Audio in Oklahoma which took over Altec Lansing still makes the Altec 604 8H which is an amazing speaker in the sweet spot combining coaxial and horn design: imaging voices, wow! But there are many, many others. Horns are really not such a rarity, just obscure to the blinkered dississive audio mainstream.

Herb Reichert is a national treasure, so genuine and a lot of experience to share in Hi-Fi. Fascinating man.

Amazing interview. Could listen to Herb all day. The Altec VOTT were my first real exposure to sound/movie soundtracks when I was 6 and it's always been a dream to own a restored pair.

Went from the box speaker, to magnaplaner, to horns. Never looked back.

Great that both of you speak positively about horns and are changing the stereotypes. That said, some of the horn speakers you identify are also (and maybe primarily) box speakers. Only the tweeter is horn loaded. Tweeters are never part of the "box" anyway. Many tweeters employ some sort of short horn or waveguide built into their faceplates. The Klipsch bookshelf speakers you review elsewhere simply have a slightly larger horn that loads the driver down to its cross over point in the lower treble. I think these Klipsch horn loaded tweeters in the bookshelf speakers you like are addressing a key fault with domes: rising distortion/loss of dynamics in their cross over ranges, but the woofer is still in a box. Not so with the K-horn--and PK's innovation was a corner loaded, folded design that made it at least conceivable to have full range horns in a domestic setting; other's did it BTW, like Voigt. In fact, the whole point of the word "Heresy" is that it deviated from PK's design principle of full range horn loading, evidenced in the K-horn, which uses the corner of the room as the mouth, the Belle and the LaScala. Case in point is the attempt to link near field listening with horns broadly. This is possible with your Klipsch box speakers with the horn loaded tweeters because the horn is only operating over the highest frequencies. Nearfield would never work with midbass horns like the Khorn, JBL Hartsfield, giant WECOs mentioned by Herb, or Bruce Edgar's designs etc. (even all but the most expensive Avantgarde's rely on "box speaker" technology in the midbass). Please, please, you are both wonderful reviewers so give all of us more exposure to the correlation between design and what you are hearing.

Steve thanks for the great video today. You and Herb touched on something that made me do a mental double take when you talked about the speakers being clamped down and also the part about having to push some speakers for loudness. This is something that I've been struggling with for a long time but couldn't quite put my finger on. Now to start shopping for some speakers... Thanks again!

I built a pair of SpeakerLab Super 7’s in the 70’s & my audiophile type friend had Advents so we compared them..He insisted his speakers would be superior so we listened with my cousin..The advents went first & sounded amazing..Then the 7’s..It was as if a pillow had been removed from the speakers..My cousin started laughing within seconds of hearing the horns and accused my friend of being crazy...Simple put the Advents sounded like listening to music in the back of a theater with curtains ect. Whereas the horns sounded like being in a club...The dynamics were simply spectacular with the horns..A few years latter when klipsch Fortes came out I bought & still own them..But..A few years ago I picked up a pair of Dahlquist 10’s..a speaker that just blew me away way when they came out....Now I have the best of both worlds..PS my friend still has his Advents..

I’ll second that opinion that horns impress by their transit speed, which by their very operating nature, allows those changes to be executed with minimum distortion. I have my Altec 820 modded speakers in the corners on the long wall separated by almost 30 feet, and they are able to put the people in very specific locations with no hole in the middle. Using horns like Herb indicated with defined spatial coverage, the problems of adjacent wall reflections are also minimize , in my case using horns with a maximum of 90 degrees in the horizontal plane. I went from using electrostatics for 40 years to Altec horns, just wished I had made the switch earlier. Herb gives life to whatever subject he is discussing, I always enjoyed his writings in Sound Practices. I definitely like this format that Steve is using here, it’s basically a couple buddies sitting down and chewing the fat about tune machines, very cool.

You are so dame right . Worked around the world and in Italy working found Casta Speakers and loved them . Have the Casta C now for 12 years and will never change them . Love tubes My staging is fantastic, , if recording are great or muddy or tinny that is what you get. Honesty always. Room is 17’ wide 22’ long. 22 watts linear and live sound is everywhere. When I was in school 50 years ago I had the Threater of Sound Speaker form a closed down movie threaten. Amp was an Sansui Audio 5000 amp and 2500 preamp and a Dual 1229 Turntable. Horns and the beautiful Speaker

I’m glad you’re showing some Klipsch/horn love. My first pair of serious speakers was and still is a used set of Klipsch Cornwall’s that I got for $600 and they’ve been nothing but awesome.

Listened to Heresy's when I was thirteen and have been a Klipsch fan since. I have Klipschhorns and La Scala's now. You have to choose your listening room for the Klipschhorns with them in mind.

I have always loved and preferred clear highs. When you hear a symbol ona good system with a good horn especially a live recording I don’t think anything can reproduce it like a horn can. Another is strings. A violin softly playing in the background can sound like it’s being played right in your living room and if your system is good enough you can tell exactly where the violin was located when it was recorded. More of a 3D sound quality. I used to get so much negative feedback fir my love of horns. As if I were listening to something like a Bose. Recently that has changed and ppl are starting to appreciate horns with me.

I love this! Sitting here in front of my JBL's!

Altec Lansing started one year after Tannoy , Tannoy 1926 and Altec 1927. Altec then broke off into two companies in 1946 into JBL and Altec . Klipsch didn’t get into the game until 1946. Altec was always known for their theater speakers ( like the A7-A5- and for the home they made the Barcelona and Valencia speakers) which was called “voice of the theaters.” These three American companies still exist today in one form or another. But it’s the older Altec Valencia’s that are still king of the horn because of their 18 x 7 inch horn and their 15 inch very efficient mid/base speaker.

Great conversation. I had to give up my Heresy’s because of space in this new house, and I found in my search for new speakers that dynamics were usually the most important and the biggest piece I was missing. I think your last point about dynamics being almost more important than frequency response is right on. The Heresy’s were not the most accurate speakers I have ever heard, but they were exciting and fun and engaging. Maybe that’s the dynamics?

I still think a set of Altec-Lansing Voice of the Theater speakers with the folded horn bass cabinet with an 18" driver with the dual driver horn on top is still the most dynamic speaker I have ever listened to.

Sinatra had 3 LaScala's in that system. I met Paul K at Marven Electronics in Fort Worth in the mid 80's. He was still pitching 3 channel, especially for rooms wider than the listening distance. I still have a small knife that is stamped with "Stolen from Paul Klipsch"...

My first set of horn loaded speakers I owned were the Pioneer CS-R700. I bought them in 1975 if I remember right and I thought those things sounded better than anything else available at that time and place. I sold them after about two years because I moved, still miss them. For the next 40 years I went through the dome loaded speakers and I always thought there was something missing. Two years ago I got a pair of Klipsch Premium Series speakers and what I was missing all those years came back.

I have always been PRO Horn - the reason I stick with Klipsch

I love this, I am a huge horn fan. I'm just a regular guy that was not tainted by what's good and what's not. So I just bought speakers till I found the speaker. I found Altec's, I love them beyond belief, I build my own now. Big beautiful horned speakers with wonderful sound.

The "heresy" about the heresy loudspeaker is that the woofer is not horn loaded, it's a direct radiator, sealed box. Paul had a write-in campaign to name the speaker.

Great to hear you two talk. The two videos Herb has been in have been some of my favorite. Thanks for making this!! You should see if you can review the Musical Paradise MP-301 Tube Amplifier with some of your horns. It's a great little amplifier.

A fun watch. Great points. The journey of learning continues...

Excellent commentary on the virtues of horn loudspeakers! My analogy of horn speakers verses tradition audiophile box speakers is like going to a amusement park. The audiophile polite box speakers are like going around on the nice merry go round carousel while the horn speakers put you on the most intense extreme roller coaster with tremendous speed! To each his own when it comes to sonic preferences but my Klipsch Belles with full Volti audio modifications I will never ever sell on my musical emotional ride!!! Which ride do you prefer?

Electro voice tweeter horns and speakers have that live sound,longer listening may be tiring.Just a thought.Keep it coming Steve great job, always learning.

Herb! Great to see you again so soon! Loved meeting you again in France, hope to see you again in Bellême next year!

We can hear sharp transients because our ancestors needed to know which direction both their predators and prey moved. If you hear a twig snap in the woods you'll know where the sound came from.

I've been in the Radio City Music Hall, the sound certainly was loud enough. This was a very enjoyable video.

Thanks Mr. Guttenberg, Great Video

Now we know where the Heresy name came from. I was wondering.

Yeah, shooting the bull over audio is cool. Thanks for keeping it real, nice way to finish the year.

If I am remembering correctly back about 1960 when my father was selling electronics he had a pair of Altec Lansing speakers about the size of the large jbls. I think they had a horn at the top and can still remember how great they sounded.

I have a pair of Klipsch Palladiums, horn speakers, driven by a SET Decware amp. I also have a pair of Golden Ear Triton 2, cone speakers. Comparing the two speakers which I believe were both top of the line speakers at some point in the past. I can hear the clarity of the horn speakers surpass the Golden Ears. It is clearer with more define edges around the instruments. There is a problem. There is that horn coloration that isn’t for everybody. It’s very very subtle but it’s there and it can take out some of the natural timbre of the music. If you notice it and it bothers you, no amount of amp switching will fix it, at least for me. But the clarity and the aliveness of horn speakers really gets you going, especially with Jazz.

Great talk again with herb and Steve five stars wonderful content you guys need a video each together perfect.we need to unlighted buy you gentlymen.peace

“LOVE ME SOME HERB” just bought a new Primaluna Prologue Premium amplifier with a push from Herb’s rave-review of the amp. And I quote, “Class A sound @ a Class C price” LOVE ME SOME AUDIO-“VALUE”

Hi, have You listened to the JBL 590 horn? On sale often for $500 (normally $1000).

The new kid on the block is Danley Sound Labs SH50. I come from the JBL & Klipsch world and they have nothing equal.

Absolutely love Steve and Herb! They seem to both understand the essence of listening and life in general. Steve, I’d love to see WAAAAAYYYYYYY more of this type of video from you.

Nice interview, very enjoyable. There is no need for three channels. The center image from a properly designed two channel system will throw a center image that has the same tonality and presence as the Left or Right driver. One would even swear that there was a speaker hidden. Especially with the near field listening experience.

You two make me miss my Klipsch Heresy II's. I was driving them with an Adcom 535.

Ah: His Herbness returns! Steve: it would be great to see both of you in the conversation :-) Charming discussion of horn speakers. Fascinating that we seem to have got music reproduction just right early on, with tubes and horns, then shrank and disappeared down a rabbit hole! Any thoughts on transmission line speakers?

Being a saxophonist and clarinettist, I can tell you that "horns" are important. ALL shapes have correlation to sound in terms of tone (overtones) and direction. Horns are made to project. By contrast, to get my guitar to project (a box, essentially) you have to do a number of things to the design to really get that box to vibrate and project - and even then, by nature of its design, there is no way it can compete with the shape of a horn. I can say the same for my flute - that small tube with parallel walls just CAN'T project like the horn designs. Look, Adolphe Sax (inventor of the Saxophone) was SO enamored with parabolas he was working on an Opera house with parabolic walls. He understood the physics of "horns", even then (mid 1800's).

For some recordings a mixture of the right and left channels does what a third microphone would have done in front of the orchestra. The way I did this was in the intermediate stereo amplifier stage. I have a series push pull driving a pair of 45 grids which I had originally used for a bi-amplification of my speakers. When I converted to Magnetic planar speakers I wired up one pair of 45 plates to drive a pair of 833-A's and the other pair to drive a pair of output transformers the secondaries of which I connected together mixing the stereo channels. This mixed sum drives a center channel GM70 amplifier. That gives me a choice to run the system 3 channel for orchestral recording but not to run it for opera, which can be run in 5 channel surround sound Dolby digital and a switch on the center channel amplifier to use the disc player center channel to drive the center channel amplifier. Or I can not turn on the center channel if I want to listen in pure stereo.

Send more Herb!

Cerwin vega also makes horn speakers and also they put them in theaters.

You can't find SEOS horns even if you walk right up to one. Almost impossible to distort the image. As such, they end up working incredibly in the near field. I have always been a near field listener, having moved around a bit and not having acoustically consistent living spaces so, near field has always been the cure. Not just horns, but waveguides in general, have been one of the biggest improvements to the image factor. Even the most subtle waveguide treatments to tweeters in general are notable.

Herb is one of my favorite people.

Steve’s Best...think not!! Comparing box speakers to my cell phone is an absolute joke😱 Maybe it’s just to rattle us speaker box fans but really, low blow... I plan to love my Harbeth‘s for many many years to come.

Fantastic show. I’m a big lover of horn speakers. I own JBLs.

I own a pair of jbl Studio 590. They sound good played loud; but they sound so sweet at low volume and near field. They present the whole range of the melody, even beautiful bass even at low volumes. My opinion.

It doesn't get any better than this. Hopefully more to come?

Steve always enjoy your interviews. I think they would benefit if you set the camera up as more of a talk show. You should be in it, with tripod or something. Eg carson, something like that is more comfortable for the viewer and probably interviewee

As a guitarist, I recently have re-discovered alnico magnet speakers. Most speakers now use a ceramic magnet to reduce cost. Those old speakers just sound amazing in guitar amps. I am guessing the same thing happened in home audio , and the old speakers probably used those as well... any thoughts?

It's all about the size of the speakers. People demanded the smaller size. It just stuck. Now its listening with headphones, ear buds, etc.

My Klipsch RP280s imagine great in my old livingroom, but now its harder to get it now w/ 9ft ceiling. Still trying to adjust till i get there.

A list of articles (agree with ‘em or not) from Herb that are must reads, are on Audiostream: www.audiostream.com/category/herb-reichert Especially on the topic of Horns and Tubes. I have ‘budget’ Tannoys now, which only have concentrically mounted horn tweeters, and aren’t really that efficient.

I totally agree. I have owned many box speakers and still do. AR 9s, Snell, Theil, Rogers, Linn, Naim Ohm F's to name a few but I would rather listen to my JBL, Seos, 18 Sound, RCF, Selenium and Eminence type horns . So much more fun !

I use a pair of small Klipsch Reference RB-10's for near-field listening on my computer. Nothing else I have tried works as well or is even close to those Klipsch. The speakers disappear and you feel surrounded by the sound similar to wearing headphones.

By 'old Quads' I presume he means electrostatics? Ah waiting for that electrostatic / horn hybrid speaker (i'm kidding). I guess we all know that often the best solutions often are ignored.

I can't say where there yet, but the French company Lavardin, who makes great great solid state amp, hasn't either changed a thing for the first 15 years or so, from when they put out their first product, the now legendary Lavardin IT into. amp, with their patent circuit called: memory free distortion. First after 15 years, they changed one littler thing, and for the next 5 years or so, nothing happened, until Lavardin decided to provide the very wanted remote, so these old farts can be sitting down, when fiddling with volume and mute, which was the only two things they made it do. Alone for that, i love em'..!! I guess, a company knows when they got it right the first time, when keeping up the succes for decades, without changing anything. I bought my end game pre/mono combo from that brand, years ago, and can't see myself with any other amp, no matter price.? That gives me some comfort. Cheers from Denmark

Thanks for this! Listening on my heresies...just plain clean. Built and retailed and loved horns since sixties. Modified cerwin vega horns. Worked in commercial sound putting horns in theaters...just plain great. Enjoying your horn run.

best 2 channel i've ever experienced was Avantgarde Duo 2's

Pure source analogue and moving coil ,NoSignal Processing!!ClassA amplification or Naim,,cabling and interconnects chosen for transparency and Loudspeakers of whatever manufacturer chosen to suit your room and a level of personal preference must and should exercised.A good loudspeaker is agood loudspeaker irregardless of type

Size is the problem. Even a cornwall is only the midrange and hf are horn loaded.

Paul Klipsch always said that distortion is inversely proportional to efficiency

thanks, liked it very mucho

I enjoy Horns for HT, maybe even farfield. I can't handle any horns for nearfield, and they really aren't designed for that. Horns need space.

Are tannoys dual concentric and kef uniQ drivers considered horns???

I want 3-channel!

You can make any engine rev like a race engine, just put a lightweight flywheel in it BUT it will hurt driveability, especially for a manual transmission. Like most things, it's a compromise, and since different people value different things, there is not single best concept.

That's each week together.

I love horns there the best

You guys look like you could be brothers!

Have you heard of Oswalds Mill Audio? That’s where (website) I first heard about horn speakers and the same story about movie theaters audio technology that was developed then and forgotten (mostly) for smaller box speakers. Any one heard these speakers? They look great!

Have had Heresy speakers, two sets now, for decades. Everything else sounds dead to me, like I have earmuffs on. A sub-woofer for the lows and nothing sounds as good to me. Listen to a recording of band with horns, jazz, big band and nothing else even comes close.

Very interesting "ramble"!

Small company that make horns Ferguson hill uk I own a set of the fh007/008 and there simply stunning but there large ones fh001 is one I want to hear

Sorry, most of the horns I've listened to, especially Klipsch's, are wayyyyyyy too dynamic. They remind me of an announcer at a game and they pierce my ears. What horns should I be lustening to?

herb 👍

I love hearing stories like this. Except if you make it look more like a conversation instead of a shot of one person who looked like they were on a boat. I got sea sick. But seriously I could listen to this guy talk for hours.

? Hey Steve I consider myself an audiophile. Can an audiophile system and Home Theater co exists? By the way I have to take a listen to a good pair of horns to see what all the excitement is all about.

Horns have gotten a bad rap because sometimes they can appear too bright?! I’ve got Klipsch towers and a powered bookshelf monitor, and if setup and toed in appropriately they image well and brightness is nonexistent

Common you guys! You've been enthralled with domes and cones in boxes for decades. And now, that touting horns, all the design aspects of all those previous types of designs are up for ridicule?! "Box speakers sound like my cell phone". Please. Seriously. All designs have their positive and negative aspects. Horns, as good as they are at some of those aspects, are not the 'next coming'. I've heard some of the best horns in the world, including a freaking amazing custom set with Ionovac plasma tweeters. I've heard the Avant Garde, Cessaro, Volti, etc, and they are all great. But I've also heard many, many high end cones and dome in boxes, that are equally (if not more so) amazing. And as far as imaging goes, yes, many horns image great. But even the best, do not image as well as comparably priced domes and cones.

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

Has anyone tried three channel stereo with their Klipsch’s ? Check out “the Hafler Array”. The original patent for it can be found online. It’s a way of deriving a center mono channel from a stereo amp without affecting the original L and R channels.

I have all 3 of these things lol

why do people rely on old man ears. huh, what did you say?

I brought home a pair of Heresy speakers and instantly said wow, worst sound ever!! Guess I’m used to my Legacy Focus and the bass!!