Volti audio upgrades for klipschorns

Has this become the Volti speaker thread Or is it audiogon? An awful lot of discussion about Volti this week. Careful guys you might overwhelm the gentleman with all the orders he’s about to receive. Glad you are enjoying the new sounds. 

@gkelly I highly doubt it.

     Careful guys you might overwhelm the gentleman with all the orders he’s about to receive

@foggyus91 I was trying to do a little tongue and cheek hype.  Thank you so much for ruining the experience for us all. Looks like you may have had a bad experience. Would you care to share with us so we know where you were coming from?

I purchased 80's era Khorns some years ago with intentions of flipping them, what with my ill informed opinion horns only for PA systems. Boy was I wrong, I could instantly hear much potential, and this with 80's era Khorns, perhaps the worst of the lot, K401 metal exponential horn, this thing rings like a bell, and probably the worst crossover ever in any Khorn, this with the add on crossover in bass bin. So I tore out the crossover, replaced with Crites type AA, Crites cast frame woofer, now we're getting somewhere. Next mods were John Allen A55G mid driver, B&C DE120 tweeters, this along with Volti tractrix mid horn and tweeter mounted on custom baffle, now we're really talking! Next mods were a reworking of the Crites crossovers, this took place over a period of a year, incremental mods, this meant modifying the AA crossover to Type A, replacing all caps with combo of Jupiter, Audyn True Copper Max, Duelund Silver Bypass, Duelund tin plated copper, point to point wiring, Jantzen solid core copper and litz copper wax impregnated inductors, Voodoo binding posts. Result is Khorns that sound stage, image, much better tonal balance, natural timbre, even more resolution/transparency than stock Khorns which are nice in this respect,  and then we have the inherently wonderful macro and micro dynamics, sense of live performers in room that Khorns deliver. From here we play with a variety of amps, class A SS, push pull EL34, 845 SET, two different variety of 300B SET amps, and just about to receive Bendix 6094 (unique variety of EL84) push pull monoblocks. 

I couldn't have pulled this off without both Crites, Volti in the positive direction and the many criticisms of Khorns in the negative direction, much to learn from both parties.

Klipsh gets a lot of hate around here. I guess they need to stop building to price points and double or triple their price.

Volti has been posting some good reviews lately. He just did some K horn videos here. 

https://youtu.be/9BB-BTGaJxA?si=dDyeFZfgF_arc_qs

https://youtu.be/ccv7owpRRMU?si=gRe17TCnoGaYa_3W

Klipsch gets hate because very rarely do you hear from a Klipsch owner that hasnt spent a decent amount of time and money modifying them. Klipsch fans can be a bit militant probably due to the fact that many feel Klipsch are probably the worst representatives of horn sound available. Also they have sold a ton of speakers and are/were successful. 

Admittedly, I have modded and damped more Klipsch models (mostly Heritage) than I care to remember. However, many other horn brands needed it to, such as JBL and Altec. Ringing/resonances from the horns/woofer frames; other resonances and distortions from the cabinets; outdated crossover components (lets be real, any speaker) and minimizing contact between the crossover boards and the cabinets. Yes, all of this takes a great design by the master, PWK, and eliminates the drawbacks of economic production costs. I am a Klipsch devotee!

The biggest issue with Klipsch is that they are charging absolutely absurd prices for cheaper parts. MDF is cheaper wood than good quality plywood. They literally doubled their prices even when corrected for inflation. This is typical corporate mentality, probably because of Voxx International. Nothing wrong with running a business, but after PWK passed, it just more business oriented. Take a  Crites Cornscala for example. They use better components like Apple ply for the cabinets with bracing and only charge about 3k. Klipsch charges more than double for a Cornwall IV and use much cheaper parts, not to mention in bulk which cuts costs even further. To make matters worse, they just triple downed and raised their prices again. Volti uses excellent quality components and yes they charge more, but in my opinion, you get genuine quality parts. Same thing with Shinjitsu Audio who also uses excellent components. Klipsch is mostly a marketing company now.