The wit -- and wisdom -- of Col. Paul Wilbur Klipsch
mhardy6647
Posts: 33,801
Paul Klipsch was nothing if not an iconoclast. His loudspeakers, perhaps most notably the Klipschorn (in more or less continuous production since the late 1940s) has (ahem) colored the world's impression of horn loaded loudspeakers ever since.
Even though his (at least to my ears) loudspeaker are not the best examples of horn-loading (indeed, far from it), he had some very deeply held, and interesting, opinions as to what is really important to loudspeaker design.
I was looking for some pithy Paul Klipsch bon mots about loudspeaker distortion (horn loudspeakers, if nothing else, usually have much lower levels of harmonic and modulation distortion than direct radiators) -- and I stumbled upon this.
The publication date (1974) makes the "gas guzzling" comment even more amusing -- and, some of us might opine -- apt.
To keep this, sort of, on topic for a Polk Audio forum -- like Polk, Klipsch is one of a (very) few hifi companies that has kept at least some focus on its legacy, and focused to some extent on the support of its legacy customers. Some other ones of note include harman/kardon, Yamaha and Electrovoice (although, in those three cases, mostly in terms of the availability of legacy documentation).
Even though his (at least to my ears) loudspeaker are not the best examples of horn-loading (indeed, far from it), he had some very deeply held, and interesting, opinions as to what is really important to loudspeaker design.
I was looking for some pithy Paul Klipsch bon mots about loudspeaker distortion (horn loudspeakers, if nothing else, usually have much lower levels of harmonic and modulation distortion than direct radiators) -- and I stumbled upon this.
The publication date (1974) makes the "gas guzzling" comment even more amusing -- and, some of us might opine -- apt.
To keep this, sort of, on topic for a Polk Audio forum -- like Polk, Klipsch is one of a (very) few hifi companies that has kept at least some focus on its legacy, and focused to some extent on the support of its legacy customers. Some other ones of note include harman/kardon, Yamaha and Electrovoice (although, in those three cases, mostly in terms of the availability of legacy documentation).
Comments
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I have a cherished piece of Klipsch memorabilia that was given to me by another Mark (Doro). It's a facsimile of a pin Paul wore often on the INSIDE of his lapel. Due to the high potential for panty wadding here, I won't post a pic. I can hint, hopefully, that it deals with the same subject as my avatar.
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Yes, yes. Quite.
I have a photo of the Col. with a festive tie he used to wear -- likewise, this is neither the time nor place to post it
