Hey Leland. Yep, that sounds about right. Just got off the phone with my friend John who had the Klipsch when he was in high school. His buddy had the A7-500. Johns says his buddy coveted the bass of the Klipsch, while John coveted the smooth detail of the A7.

There are some things to try.
  1. Put them against the wall. This should help with bass. Maybe add wings
  2. Change out the symbiotic frams for all aluminum. May reduce the horn sound. Should be better overall. I'll try my 806 drivers.
  3. Damp the horn. The 511 does ring (my 811s ring much less). Damping the horn should also kill a lot of the "horn sound."


My goals:

I hope to bring these old girls up to date. I know they can sound better with proper care.
Damping, tuning, crossover work, etc.
The reason I know they can sound better is because my favorite speakers ever are the pair of A5s that I helped rebuild in Paris 22 years ago. They are the only speaker I've heard that had NO speaker sound, none. Others I've heard were close, but none disappeared the way those did. Even with different amps - everything from 300B SET to Halfer, to Krell, vintage Scott, Dynaco or MacIntosh - all the way to a Luxman integrated. All sounded great on these speakers. Different, more or less colored, but great. No speaker has ever sounded more "real" to me. Like real people playing music on real instruments in a real space. Changing the electronics was simply like putting on a different pair of sunglasses looking at the rand Canyon. A different tint, but still obviously the real thing. Beautiful.

That's were I hope to go with this pair.