I have not and will not be going to all the rooms. But the most impressive small rooms to me, in more order,were the AGD GaN room, the Playback Designs/Tannoy room, The Border Patrol DAC room, the GTT audio room with that Kronos turntable.

 

The Klipsch Jubilee room was horrible unless you want your listening room to be an arena and lose your hearing. Just no concern for demonstrating any details, soundstage or imaging. Just blasting you out of the room with death metal. What are they thinking?

 

What do you mean “what is Klipsch thinking”? I think they know very precisely what a good chunk of their audience wants and expects. You have to play to your greatest strength.

 

of course these immense Jubilees can play loud. Just look at them. But can they soundstage, image and have detail. You can’t tell any of that from what and how they are demoing them. Personally, I wish they had a smaller room with a pair of Forte IVs in them.

 

And out come the militant Klipsch contingent proving once again that they are the audiophile equivalent to Harleys enthusiasts.  Just one persons opinion of a speaker of all things. Relax, enjoy your Klipsch and be happy. Relax, heavily modify your Klipsch and be really happy.

 

The big Klipsch were just, well,  not good.

 

The comments found elsewhere on the Klipsch 2022 Axpona 2022 room seem to be universal in what the participants heard. My interest is in “who was calling the shots” as far as the music being played, i.e., was it Roy D. (the Jub designer, who was said to be in-room) or some Klipsch or dealer marketing guy?

 

One comment elsewhere mentioned said that they listened to Tool’s 10,000 days (i.e., an album having a Dynamic Range DB rating of DR=8). This probably isn’t the way to demo a top-of-the-line loudspeaker having the kind of dynamic range capability/low modulation distortion as this fully horn-loaded loudspeaker exhibiting full-range controlled directivity. Additionally, like any loudspeakers in real listening rooms, some amount of acoustic treatment and dialing in is required–even with Jubilees (in my 15 year experience using them in-room).

 

In my past evaluating experiences with Mr. D. and the “underground Jubs” in Hope, AR more than a dozen years ago, those invited to attend used James Newton Howard & Friends (DR=19 or 20), Flim & the BB’s, Tracy Chapman, Jennifer Warnes, etc. as reference in-room subjective listening tracks as we tried out various configurations, of DSP PEQs and crossovers, high frequency drivers, different bass bin configurations, and upstream electronics–tubes, etc. In these trials, the Jubs were the most revealing loudspeakers (in a clarity sense) of the recordings themselves that I’ve experienced–and I lived with dipole panel loudspeakers for 20 years. “Neutral”, “articulate”, “clear” as well as “balanced” were the words that come to mind, and not “party speakers”.

 

In other words, “Tool” wasn’t on the playlist–certainly not by any stretch of the imagination. I would have left the room if Tool or any other metal rock band was played. I wonder what happened this past weekend?

 

Volti Audio, Triode Wire Labs, and Border Patrol – YouTube

I also like this video. Volti Audio speaker sounds like my Altec A7.

 

Volti Audio wins for having the best bang for your speakers that were nearly full range, hybrid horn speakers, highs were nice, very engaging sound and the Rival SE has a 15″ woofer. The Razz is $5,900 for the moment, they also played good music. Not that low dynamics stuff many rooms were playing, who listens to that crap it’s like a new version of elevator music, makes you want to take a nice nap.

Now for worst sound of the show, Klipsch’s Jubilee. Very loud HF were extremely irritating, music section had dynamics but not much I was familiar with. Plus those things were huge probably the size of a big SoundLab E
ESL.

 

Volti Audio is a solid best value for the show going off what I heard. I’d like to see how they measure.

 

The volti Razz were on sale at the show for I think $4999 pr and they sounded good in that little room.

 

Border patrol 300b SET amp
Volti Audio Razz speakers
The speakers I came to hear did not let me down. huge wall of dynamic sound made more impressive being driven by a 16 watt SET amp albeit a very expensive one.
Big deep bass, clear highs. midrange slightly recessed but adjustable.
Good option for a more refined, uncolored horn sound

 

How was the Klipsch Jubilees with Rotel Michi room ?

 

Loud and honky wall of sound. It was awful. No soundstage, it just aggressively came at you. Granted they were blasting Tool’s Pneuma, but I have that recording and it has a proper sound stage and it well mastered.

 

I was really excited too hear the Klipsch Jubilee but from where I was able to get a seat, they didn’t sound very good. I’m chalking it up to the very large and completely untreated room.

 

One electronics brand was using large Klipsch corner horn speakers. Absolutely horrible muddy sound, mid-bass was loose and boomy. Proved my theory IMHO that horns sound midfi at best. I had to leave after only a minute.

 

Are you referring too the new Jubilee speakers? That room sounded terrible.

Yes. Downright awful. After 30 seconds I couldn’t stand any more.

 

Volti Audio Razz with a Border Patrol integrated and DAC set-up was effortless and engaging. Not bright at all, as some horns can be.

 

The Volti Razz’s were a ton of fun to listen to as well and I’m considering buying a pair to put together a second system. One of my favorite rooms though i’m pretty sure there’s some odd things going on with that speaker (somewhat confirmed by Stereophile measurements in their review) but it images well and the voicing while probably not what you would call reference like made everything played through them enjoyable.

Busts were the large Klipsch… hashy mid range and no low end for a HUGE speaker

 

Those massive Klipsch look like a similar (but much larger) design to the K-Horns, which need to be tucked tight in a corner. These were sitting in the middle of the room, which might explain why they didn’t sound right and had little bass.

 

Next to the Krell room was Klipsch, and they brought a pair of Jubilee 2-way speakers. While very impressive, they had the volume way too high – 102dB!! Way too loud for a demo. But, the sound was very clear. I believe they unveiled these at CES this year.

 

If you are a Klipsch fan, the Volti Audio Razz sounded better than Klipsch normally do to me. The Razz are the entry point for Volti at $5K/pr.

Continuing with horns, the Klipsch room had the ginormous Jubilee speakers. Not great with what I heard but could be the room/source material.

 

I like to generally stay positive, But they had the worst sound of the show. They would have been better off turning the amp off and having a static display.