OT Klipsch

[SJ David]

Wow! Tell us how you really feel, Bowtie! BTW, does anyone know if these Klipsch heritage speakers have the "bent/curved" horn like the Altec Model 15 horn? Is that what he supposedly invented?
"Paul Wilbur Klipsch (March 9, 1904 – May 5, 2002) was an American engineer and high fidelity audio pioneer, known for developing the high-efficiency folded horn loudspeaker...."

The curved horn of the Model 15 harkens back to the Western Electric theater system and the early phonograph systems. It is a means to fit a horn into a smaller package which is what Klipsch was doing with his folded bass horn design but on a much smaller scale. Bends in a horn have a detrimental effect on the wave transmission. Straight bass horns are not domestically compatible so a compromise is accepted to fit a large horn in a smaller space a la the Klipschhorn. I recall reading somewhere, possibly from Bruce Edgar, is that any such compromise should be to limit the number of bends and limit each bend to not more than 90 degrees. Further, if you have many sharp bends bifurcating the path- splitting larger cross sections into small cross sections- mitigates the effect of the bends on the wave front. The bass horn section of the Klipschorn is split into two paths. So if all this holds up in practice the single 90 degree bend of the Altec 32 horn should have limited effect on the wave front.

I don't recall Klipsch using a curved horn for the mid or high applications, at least for what we now know as the Heritage line. JBL, University and others used a small package curved horn for high frequency applications.