Any objective reviews (or experience) with the New (2021) KLH Model 5?

KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
I used to own a pair of KLH 6V (vinyl version of the model 6 from a time when using vinyl woodgrain was very much the exception rather than the rule). They were IMHO a stand-out product representing very good sound for the money! I forget what I paid, but the vinyl version was not very expensive. I actually believe that they they discounted it more than the savings from vinyl alone so as to better penetrate the budget market!
In any case, I have a soft spot for KLH, and am interested in finding out more about this new model 5 speaker ($1000 ea).
For those not familiar, Henry Kloss was one of the main designers for Acoustic Research back in their early glory days, he then became the founder of (and the K in) KLH, and from their was the main designer for Advent loudspeakers; so he has a bit of street cred for speaker design. Of course, he is long dead and not involved in the design of these new speakers. However, I can imagine someone over 15 years younger than I saying KLH is a crap audio company, and wanted to clarify that they were once a quality speaker maker, but at some point someone decided to cash in on the name and started marketing cheap crap, milking the KLH moniker. I don't know if KLH has changed hands since then, but the "crap KLH" only sold cheap stuff to my knowledge so I am hopeful this might be an actual revival of KLH!


Yes, I have seen Andrew Robinson's very enthusiastic review of this speaker, but I have learned that despite his depth of experience I cannot trust his opinion - I was sorely disappointed with the Klipsch Heresy IV that he declared the best speaker in it's $3000/pr price range (I would rank it in the $500/pr. range)! I should have known better about subjective reviews, but at the same time @zieglj01 is subjective with his comments and he has never let me down!
 
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D

Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
I used to own a pair of KLH 6V (vinyl version of the model 6 from a time when using vinyl woodgrain was very much the exception rather than the rule). They were IMHO a stand-out product representing very good sound for the money! I forget what I paid, but the vinyl version was not very expensive. I actually believe that they they discounted it more than the savings from vinyl alone so as to better penetrate the budget market!
In any case, I have a soft spot for KLH, and am interested in finding out more about this new model 5 speaker ($1000 ea).
For those not familiar, Henry Kloss was one of the main designers for Acoustic Research back in their early glory days, he then became the founder of (and the K in) KLH, and from their was the main designer for Advent loudspeakers; so he has a bit of street cred for speaker design. Of course, he is long dead and not involved in the design of these new speakers. However, I can imagine someone over 15 years younger than I saying KLH is a crap audio company, and wanted to clarify that they were once a quality speaker maker, but at some point someone decided to cash in on the name and started marketing cheap crap, milking the KLH moniker. I don't know if KLH has changed hands since then, but the "crap KLH" only sold cheap stuff to my knowledge so I am hopeful this might be an actual revival of KLH!


Yes, I have seen Andrew Robinson's very enthusiastic review of this speaker, but I have learned that despite his depth of experience I cannot trust his opinion - I was sorely disappointed with the Klipsch Heresy IV that he declared the best speaker in it's $3000/pr price range (I would rank it in the $500/pr. range)! I should have known better about subjective reviews, but at the same time @zieglj01 is subjective with his comments and he has never let me down!
I think the Klipsch Heresy measured terribly not surprised you didn't like it. I'm curious about this speaker too I lived KLH as a kid
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
I think the Klipsch Heresy measured terribly not surprised you didn't like it. I'm curious about this speaker too I lived KLH as a kid
Bet the measurements you saw were performed by Erin after I dropped them at his house!
I could not find measurements when I bought them, but found a pretty good price on the Heresy's (one that should not lose money on Craig's list) so I went for it.
 
D

Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
Bet the measurements you saw were performed by Erin after I dropped them at his house!
I could not find measurements when I bought them, but found a pretty good price on the Heresy's (one that should not lose money on Craig's list) so I went for it.
Yep I love his site he does a great job!
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
Yep I love his site he does a great job!
He is definitely provides some of the best, most comprehensive measurements you can find along with educational commentary. I'm lucky to be close enough to help "the cause" by providing an occasional speaker for measurement!
 
zieglj01

zieglj01

Audioholic Spartan
Yes, I have seen Andrew Robinson's very enthusiastic review of this speaker, but I have learned that despite his depth of experience I cannot trust his opinion - I was sorely disappointed with the Klipsch Heresy IV that he declared the best speaker in it's $3000/pr price range (I would rank it in the $500/pr. range)! I should have known better about subjective reviews, but at the same time @zieglj01 is subjective with his comments and he has never let me down!
I am not a fan of His reviews
 
K

kini

Full Audioholic
I used to own a pair of KLH 6V (vinyl version of the model 6 from a time when using vinyl woodgrain was very much the exception rather than the rule). They were IMHO a stand-out product representing very good sound for the money! I forget what I paid, but the vinyl version was not very expensive. I actually believe that they they discounted it more than the savings from vinyl alone so as to better penetrate the budget market!
In any case, I have a soft spot for KLH, and am interested in finding out more about this new model 5 speaker ($1000 ea).
For those not familiar, Henry Kloss was one of the main designers for Acoustic Research back in their early glory days, he then became the founder of (and the K in) KLH, and from their was the main designer for Advent loudspeakers; so he has a bit of street cred for speaker design. Of course, he is long dead and not involved in the design of these new speakers. However, I can imagine someone over 15 years younger than I saying KLH is a crap audio company, and wanted to clarify that they were once a quality speaker maker, but at some point someone decided to cash in on the name and started marketing cheap crap, milking the KLH moniker. I don't know if KLH has changed hands since then, but the "crap KLH" only sold cheap stuff to my knowledge so I am hopeful this might be an actual revival of KLH!


Yes, I have seen Andrew Robinson's very enthusiastic review of this speaker, but I have learned that despite his depth of experience I cannot trust his opinion - I was sorely disappointed with the Klipsch Heresy IV that he declared the best speaker in it's $3000/pr price range (I would rank it in the $500/pr. range)! I should have known better about subjective reviews, but at the same time @zieglj01 is subjective with his comments and he has never let me down!
There's this review. He seems a little more non biased or whatever-
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Yes, I have seen Andrew Robinson's very enthusiastic review of this speaker, but I have learned that despite his depth of experience I cannot trust his opinion - I was sorely disappointed with the Klipsch Heresy IV that he declared the best speaker in it's $3000/pr price range (I would rank it in the $500/pr. range)! I should have known better about subjective reviews, but at the same time @zieglj01 is subjective with his comments and he has never let me down!
Quite honestly, you shouldn't put full trust in any reviewer's experience. No one is immune to the effects of expectation bias, and it is a far more powerful effect than most people give it credit for. Hell, I wouldn't even trust my own experience, at least insofar as it being an accurate representation of reality. A lot of objectivists have this idea that they can rise above it, but they are as susceptible as anyone else. Their bias is just motivated from a different direction.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
I can't help you, no exprience with KLH. I do se them on the used market pretty often tho, mostly their older stuff. Some of it still fetches a fair price.
 
Kvn_Walker

Kvn_Walker

Audioholic Field Marshall
Quite honestly, you shouldn't put full trust in any reviewer's experience. No one is immune to the effects of expectation bias, and it is a far more powerful effect than most people give it credit for. Hell, I wouldn't even trust my own experience, at least insofar as it being an accurate representation of reality. A lot of objectivists have this idea that they can rise above it, but they are as susceptible as anyone else. Their bias is just motivated from a different direction.
I wasn't a fan when they first came back, with inflated specs that were obvious BS, and floating Henry Kloss' picture on their website as if the product they were selling had any influence from his accomplishments.

This new model, being acoustic suspension like the KLH of old, does get my attention though. I'd have to see how that metal dome tweeter measures though. Outside of SEAS, I haven't cared for any I've heard.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
No one is immune to the effects of expectation bias, and it is a far more powerful effect than most people give it credit for. Hell, I wouldn't even trust my own experience, at least insofar as it being an accurate representation of reality. A lot of objectivists have this idea that they can rise above it, but they are as susceptible as anyone else. Their bias is just motivated from a different direction.
I couldn't agree with you more. There's no rising above it no matter how hardcore an objectivist you might be. I catch myself biasing, know I'm biasing, and it still sounds better/worse because of it. The only way around it is blind testing.
 
D

D Murphy

Full Audioholic
There's this review. He seems a little more non biased or whatever-
I dunno. This guy needs an editor. And some measurements. I owned the original 5's for many, many years and they were my favorite of the New England school. I happened onto a pair not too long ago and was less impressed--there are interference effects all over the place due to the dual horizontally positioned mids, and the crossover hadn't taken that into account. Good thing the new version discarded that feature. I reworked the crossover on that pair and they turned out great--it would be very interesting to compare that version with the new one. The most unique feature of the original Five was its use of acoustic suspension midranges. This was the same driver they used in the radio and suitcase all-in-one system, where it ran full range with some equalization. A very nice driver, and probably the reason I kept my pair so long back in the day.
 
J

jonuiuc

Audiophyte
I took delivery of them 2nd week of April. Driving them with a Yamaha RX-A1080 in a 5.1 -7.1 if I get around to mounting the two Mirage Omnisats (same as center pictured) as height speakers. Needed a change because old speakers on stands as fronts were just too small for me to enjoy music the way I wanted (needed more weight in low mids and upper bass). Also had these Mirages for almost 15 years, so time for a change from omni to direct sound. Room is a little challenging, as its wider on the right of where speakers are placed and doesn't seem right to tailor the system so only one person in the center gets good image, I'm not so preoccupied with that anyway, so I try to set it up so the most people get the best sound they can (the omni's were ideal in that way). Multiposition YPAO seemed to work it out. Sweet spot is less forgiving and smaller than the "all omnisats" system, but thats expected. Music has the fuller bigger sound I wanted, and sub isn't working as hard (old setup had all omnisats crossed at 100hz) Now for the fronts I'm trying to decide between 40hz and 60hz (ypao picked large, so I'm not doing that), both crossovers sound similar, so I dunno.

Anyway if you wanted subjective impressions, I can't say I can compare them to much but my ancient omnisats and my even more ancient Yamaha natural sound desktop receiver and bookshelves (that system can't go deep and isn't as clear high, but that old mosfet receiver sounds warm and gorgeous). There definitely have a modern very high fidelity sound, nothing sounds overly warm (I at least have truly warm sound to compare it too) or old fashioned. Bass is seems tight and fast, but not wimpy. The overall impression is that its very clear in the midrange, voices sound better than the old omnisats (those were a little thin in the midrange when comparing). Highs sound just as good at both. I think I can only hear to 13-14k so I dunno seems fine. I left the treble attenuation on full "hi" just so the YPAO could do its thing. I've been tempted to lower it once or twice, so that option exists. Listening to some old low-fi punk from the 90s (Ataris, Audio Karate, Tsunami Bomb)... yeah I finally ran across what people have said about hi-fi, those sort of poorly mastered tracks were fine on the old omnisats (omni sound prob to diffuse to attack my ears) and sound quite great in the car and old warm natural sound system, but with the type of clarity on these, it became unpleasant after a few tracks.

Because of the joy of work from home, I have played them 8ish hours a day as background music at medium to low volumes. Very coherent, no distracting feeling of being able to pick out the individual drivers, sound sounds like its coming from higher than it is (it might be the stands tilting them up, or it could be I'm sitting low enough), the old omnisats sat as high as my ear level and these sit visibly lower, but audibly, I can't tell. I'm happy how well they integrate with my legacy satellites, it might be the receiver doing its thing or might be all the satellites also have a metal tweeter and 4 inch midrange so presentation just coincidently matches. As for the sealed design, I can't compare it to any ported but tested them by pulling them out and pushing them as close to the wall as I could get away with, and it doesn't sound much different, so maybe there is something to sealed and forgiveness of placement.

Anyway, I dunno if that helps anyone, its a nice pair of speakers in room. I had some physical requirements (absolutely positively had to be less than 34.5 in or shorter so as not to block the view of the TV for people to the extreme sides of the room) so for me it was going to be this or maybe the JBL L82s or a lower priced pair of floorstanders (was eyeing Tekton mini lores, there isn't much shorter than 35" tall). My room is about 20" x 16" x 8" and has no rear wall, just opens into the kitchen and foyer. The speakers have no problem filling the space, but the listening positions in the area range from 7-13 feet away spread laterally from the center. Off center performance is better than I expected, considering I was coming from omnipolar speakers. That said, if KLH does not make a matching wood veneer center for this, I will probably eventually upgrade my old center Mirage to a Ohm Walsh center, just cause the old one is kinda wimpy now compared to the fronts and I like having the omni center with my wide room so people on the edge can still get clear center dialog. Though to be honest, I've turned the center off and these things are great at doing a phantom center, like stuff just snaps to the middle and its clear and easy to discern.

(edit: punctuation)
model5.jpg
 
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lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Been curious about the latest incarnation of KLH, that was a speaker I saw a lot of in the 70s and early 80s at friends' places. I had a pair of a later version of KLH sold at Costco, which weren't horrible but were fine as the garage speakers I bought 'em for at the time (and now they're in daily use at our local pub entertaining the workers :) ). Staying tuned in....
 
Jayt

Jayt

Audiophyte
There have been a few more great reviews on this speaker on YouTube and online magazines, including Stereophile (for those who didn't care for some of the other reviews), where they received a good amount of praise.
 
Kvn_Walker

Kvn_Walker

Audioholic Field Marshall
There have been a few more great reviews on this speaker on YouTube and online magazines, including Stereophile (for those who didn't care for some of the other reviews), where they received a good amount of praise.
Good tip!

 

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