Klipschorn-Klipsch-The Loft NYC

There's a pic of David's Klipsch setup on his myspace page. Just click pics.

I was just reading an exerpt from Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979 by Tim Lawrence. Mancusco used both Klipshorns and La Scalas in his club. You can regularly find La Scalas for 500 - 600 dollars on ebay, sans shipping. The bass is not as deep as the K-horn, but for modern music, you will have to augment the bass anyway. Finding an appropriately fast, high output subwoofer will be challenging. If money is not an issue, Avante-Garde makes a horn subwoofer. They do look cool, so I guess you could justify the expense becuase of the wow factor. They could be prohibitively large for your venue. While on Avante-Garde, their main horn speakers are highly regarded in audiophile circles. Keeping them safe and yet visible so the MOMA design can be admired could be problematic. Shahanian Acoustics made a large horn subwoofer called the Contra-bombarde whose form factor is friendlier, but I have only ever seen one for sale. There is a pro grade servo driven sub made by ServoDrive inc. They have two models, a compact bass reflex (ContrBass) that goes down to 18hz, and a horn model (ServorDrive BassTech 7) that goes down to 28hz. Given the small space the bass reflex model probably fits your need, though it is not as efficient as the K-horns. You may even be able to arrange getting one to audition in your space. VMPS makes "The Larger Subwoofer" that has similar specs to the ContraBass, and is under $1K, though may not be as bulletproof.

Is this a dance studio, a dance club? Are you gonna serve drinks? K-horns will sound awful in a large, hard surfaced room unless you get (as you stated) tube amps and the room gets full of people. Bodies make excellent sound absorbers and diffusers.

perfectly square room will suck no matter what speaker you use, or where you place them. Standing waves will eat your lunch.

Maybe if the place is full of soft bodies (people) it will work out OK.

Two Khorns and about 20 watts will make everyone in there go deaf. But with smiles on their faces.

You need 4 K-horns easy enough to buy used just can't ship them too easily or just buy them new and they will ship them to you. I told you in the other thread that Mac amps would be a good match!

The Klipsch Belle would be a better bet in a square room. Same driver compliment as teh K-horn but doesn't need the corner. You would have more freedom to move them from the corners.

Interesting - Here is something that might be just the right information (found via a basic Google search):

Interview with David Mancusco of NYC Loft

I hope this helps :)

Rene

No idea if they were used in "The Loft" but in 1970 there were only a couple of choices for a commercial application from Klipsch. It is very possible that they used La Scalas which had a professional version and were frequently used in clubs for their high SPLs. Why don't you audition some instead of worrying about trying to replicate something exactly. You can get K-horns or a new Variant of the La Scala to this day. The efficencies are are still 104Db/W/M, they would make good club P.A.s I'm sure.

There are many at the Klipsch Speaker Forum who may be interested in your question.

They are the same but not very acurate, just loud. Listen to some EAW's, Bag End's, or Meyers speakers to compare. They are pro speakers but they are more smooth and flat the KHorns. May want to soften the room with sound treatment because all hard surfaces will make any speaker sound like crap in a shower stall.

Khorns, LaScala II's or the new Cornwall III's will do the job. I am using a McIntosh MC352 with my Khorns and am quite pleased with the sound. Being partial to SS amps (set it and forget it) can't offer any insight to the Manley amps.

For high volume and clarity any of the above Klipsch Heritage models are hard to beat.

Best of luck with your sound system.
Cheers!