Klipschorn placement and power question

From the current Owner's Manual:

Klipschorns typically perform best when positioned in the corners on the long wall of a rectangular room.If the room is very narrow and long with corners farther apart than 18 to 20 feet,the stereo image may not be optimal.A room with a length to width ratio of 1.00 to .618 is preferred.In addition,Klipschorn®loudspeakers seem to benefit from ceiling heights no lower than 8.5 feet.

The Klipschorn®requires corner placement because the walls of the room serve to complete the speaker’s low frequency horn.To achieve full low frequency extension,the Klipschorn®should fit tightly in a corner without baseboard or trim interference and the wall surfaces should extend at least 25 inches beyond the side grilles.....

As for your live listening levels, the K-horn is spec'd at 105 dB w/1w input at 1M away. Power handling is listed as 100w continuous, 400w peaks. If the speakers are able to respond throughout that power range without compression, you're looking at 126dB continuous and about 130dB peaks. In a normal room, that would definitely be live levels, but you have a very big space to fill.

I wonder if you wouldn't be better off with a couple pairs of Cerwin-Vega CLS-215s. Two paris (or even 3 pairs) are cheaper than a pair of K-horns, they don't need to be in the corners, you could lift 'em off the floor and still get plenty of bass (into the mid-20s without boundary reinforcement), and they can handle up to 450 watts each, so you can definitely get your live listening levels that way. These could also put out about 122 db continuous. Two pair would give you more like 125 dB. Two pairs provide eight 15" woofers. Bass would be no problem.

I agree with Johnnyb, you aren't really going to be utilizing the Klipchorns properly with that set-up. They will pump out tons of sound from 50-100 very clean watts. However, they may get fatiguing if you don't have a very nice clean amp (ie mac or similar solid state). Tube amps won't hold up to abuse as well.
I have seen Lascala's hung from very large rafters in a club and it worked very well and was very loud. But, to an audiophile, there was no imaging or soundstage at all.
Just think, 1 watt=105db, 2 watts=108db, 4 watts=111db, 8watt=114, 16watts=117db & 32meager watts will get you 120db of rock concert sound.

If you have to place them so far apart, you could add a center speaker to fill the middle, like a klipsch Belle or a Klipsch Laskala.

The shop is 48Wx72Lx17H. I'd like to hear stuff like ZZ Top at live listening levels.

That's almost 59,000 cubic feet. Contrast that with what most of us are familair with: An 18x20 family room with 8' ceiling is 2,880 cubic feet. Even a fairly large "great room" in a spacious upscale house would be around 12,000 cubic feet.

There's a lot of air to move in a room that big.

For live levels in a venue like this, we have to think in terms of something close to a full-range PA speaker. The Klipsch is sort of like that, and so is a 2- or 3-pair array of Cerwin-Vega CLS-215s.

Another viable option might be full-range self-powered PA monitors, maybe something like this.

dangle 901's from the ceiling and fire up the zz top.

06-03-09: Jaybo
dangle 901's from the ceiling and fire up the zz top.

... or 5 pairs of JBL-100's pointed at the listening area.

I used a QSC PLX 1202 pro amp to drive K Horns and i was as smooth as can be, not fatigueing at all. This particular amp was recommended by an engineer at Klipsch (it is what they used in one of their labs at the time). It was $600 new at the time and 200 wpc. I still use it in my office system.

The K Horns will fill that room, even that large. I also built "false corners" for mine and yes, they did dissappear. Don't believe everything that you hear on teh street.

I prefer my B&W 800's, but the Klipsch are quite a bargain for the price (used). Just use the right amp (not necessairily expensive).

Your shop is as big as a movie theater. Use pro gear.
It seems foolish to put nice wooden cabinets in that environment. You need a sizable truck -- the K-horns are a car with a big trunk.