The Klipschorn AK7 with the matching Heritage Active Crossover.
A Rare Fully Active Experience
We're not just amped for our Klipsch Unleashed event, we're tri-amped.
It's less than a month to our Klipsch Unleashed event on July 12, and before the details and RSVP messages go out, we thought we'd make sure everyone understood what a big treat they're in for.
One of the most significant upgrades with the new Klipschorn AK7 and La Scala AL6 is that they can be paired with the matching Klipsch Heritage Active Crossover, which means they can be driven with three stereo power amplifiers, or, if you're a real "separatist", with six monoblocks, one per driver.
While many all-in-one speakers, including the high-end Focal Diva Utopia, use an active configuration, it's extremely rare to encounter it in a separates system. After all, to be fully active with three-way speakers, you need an active crossover (not many hi-fi companies make these), four pairs of interconnects (one from pre to crossover, three from crossover to amps), three pairs of speaker cables, and three or six power amps with power cables.
Cost aside, that's a lot of wiring and a lot of shelving. So why do it?
Advantages of a Fully Active Setup
With a separate stereo amp channel or mono amp per driver, your power amps are doing much less work at a given volume, running at low noise and distortion, and leaving plenty of headroom for big transients. This advantage is multiplied by the fact that you no longer have any signal losses through the crossover, as active crossovers can correct for this.
"Active crossovers are cool because they can boost and cut frequencies in their distribution network, whereas passive crossovers can only selectively distribute and cut," says our service manager, Josh Phelps.
Active systems are also highly tunable. You can run different amp topologies or sound signatures for each driver. For example, use a tube amp for the highs, a hybrid or solid-state for the mids, and a class-D for the lows. The Klipsch Heritage active crossover allows you to change HF and LF gain settings, so you don't have to hunt down power amps with exactly the same gain.
Listening to a fully active system is an audiophile Holy Grail, and we are thrilled that we can have one in our showroom, thanks to Klipsch. Look out for our event emails, coming soon, and make sure you RSVP, as space is limited.
If you can't be at the event, talk to your favorite in-office salesperson just after July 12 to get a sense of what this setup can do. Even if you don't go active, there are ideas from this world that can be applied to any system.
Browse Klipsch.
The Klipsch Switchboard
The back of the new Kilipschorn AK7.
Pictured above, is the back of the new Khorn. On the extreme left are the "passive network inputs", in the middle the "passive network outputs", and on the right, the "driver inputs".
A "Normal" Setup
To simply plug an amp into the AK7 as you would with any speaker, you use the top pair of the passive network inputs (leftmost connectors), and use a jumper cable (not pictured) to send the signal down to all the inputs. This signal passes through the internal crossover, comes out of the middle connectors, then goes to the speaker drivers via the jumper cables that you can see in the photo.
A Passive Bi/Tri Amp/Wire Setup
With no jumpers on the left passive inputs, as seen in the photo, you can connect mulitple amps or multiple speaker cables to the Khorn, still using the internal crossover. If you can find a preamp with three outputs, you can even passively tri-amp these speakers. Disconnecting just the bottom connectors lets you use something like an AudioQuest Bass cable for the woofers, and a full-range Zero cable for the mids and highs.
The Active Setup
Once you remove the jumper cables between the middle and right connectors, the passive crossover is no longer in the signal path, letting you connect power amps to the driver input connectors on the right, to directly power each driver. But if you connect the full-range output of a power amp to the tweeter and maybe the mid, you're going to blow them. So you need an active crossover to send each amp the highs, mids, and lows, respectively.
Luckily, Klipsch has matching crossovers for the Khorn and the La Scala. They have been tuned by Klipsch designer Roy Delgado, and use DSP to deliver unparalleled time alignment, balanced EQ, and a true-to-source response.