Speakerlab Khorns vs JBL C40???

funwithampex

Active Member
Need some help. I just came across apair of speakerlab khorns. I am thinking of putting them in my mine system. Yep they were the poor mans klipsch back in the day but I really like the wood and I don't have a pair of Klipschorns at the moment :D But right now I am using a pair of JBL 001 system in a C40 style cabinet. Wondering what people would think about the two? Am I upgrading or down grading. The speakerlabs sounded good minus a missing tweeter and played with a crappie sony receiver.
 
I head the SL corner horns back in the 1970's and thought they sounded pretty god- for what they went after! I think with some driver upgrade and a bit of xover tweaking they could be much better!
If it were me I would get the corner horns, set them up and see how I like them. Next I would look at the driver/ xover upgrading. Just be sure they do not rattle and all the glue/ screw joints are in good order.
You (hopefully) are very fortunate to hae the right kind of room to properly load them into. Good luck with thm!! SL made some pretty great gear in their day and those horns were among the best.
DC
 
I head the SL corner horns back in the 1970's and thought they sounded pretty god- for what they went after! I think with some driver upgrade and a bit of xover tweaking they could be much better!
If it were me I would get the corner horns, set them up and see how I like them. Next I would look at the driver/ xover upgrading. Just be sure they do not rattle and all the glue/ screw joints are in good order.
You (hopefully) are very fortunate to hae the right kind of room to properly load them into. Good luck with thm!! SL made some pretty great gear in their day and those horns were among the best.
DC

The cabinets are pretty well put together, everything is glued and finished nailed. They even silicone the seems. I am missing one tweeter but this gives me the opportunity to upgrade the tweeters. I am getting ready to move the C40s to the dinning room and get the corner horns up here. My room isn't extremely large but I do have 2 corners I think they will work in. They sound pretty good just sitting in the driveway too.
 
Their design dictakes they be placed in a corner with two long walls extending from each side as the walls actually finished the horn extention for the best bass propigation.

Did they use the typical T-35 EV tweeter? I think in one other SL version they also used the WA4000 wave aperture tweeter. The WA4000 is an outstanding tweeter!!
DC
 
Even with the JBL using the old 130A, I think you'll have better bottom end with the JBLs since you have the horn-loaded C40s. You could use some HF extension but the LE175DLH is likely a match for whatever the SLs use for a tweeter. :dunno:
 
I would put in a new set of Crites CT-125s, they are a drop in replacement for the T-35 and are very nice sounding. Replacement diaphragms are cheap too, I don't know if they are available for the WA4000.
 
I built a pair (of K-Horns) from scratch back in '75 and used the EV-350's as tweeters. I loved them and still think that they sounded pretty nice.

Best Regards,
TerryO
 
Last edited:
I messed with my Speakerlab Ks for three years. I came to the conclusion that with their woofer and there tweeter, they suck. They were basically a midrange speaker. The JBLs will be much better balanced and wider range. This is just my opinion of course.
 
I messed with my Speakerlab Ks for three years. I came to the conclusion that with their woofer and there tweeter, they suck. They were basically a midrange speaker. The JBLs will be much better balanced and wider range. This is just my opinion of course.

Dennis,

I bet you had the EV T-35 tweeter. The T-350 tweeter was quite a bit better sounding (IMHO) than the T-35, but OTOH, it was about twice the cost. I don't remember anything about the woofer being substandard, but who knows?

Best Regards,
Terry
 
Dennis,

I bet you had the EV T-35 tweeter. The T-350 tweeter was quite a bit better sounding (IMHO) than the T-35, but OTOH, it was about twice the cost. I don't remember anything about the woofer being substandard, but who knows?

Best Regards,
Terry
Agreed. The T-35 is but a shadow of the T-350. Mind you the price of the T-350 is quite a bit more than that of the T-35. You get what you pay for.
 
Well that was the fastest I have ever owned a pair of speakers. I bought them this morning at an estate sale, brought them home at 1:30pm....brought them in the living room about 5pm and now at 11:30 they are gone. Turns out the lady running the estate sale wasn't suppose to sell them, she had my number on the sales slip....so she called me...then had the owner call me...after a huge headache I sold them back to the original owner for a nice chunk of change for all the shit I went through.

My thoughts on the SK's while I had them...is that they are very nice sounding speakers but very very bassy and the cabinets while heavy are not heavy enough for the bass...as they like to vibrate across the floor...would I buy another pair...probably if the price was good....but I don't think I would listen to them very long.
 
Dennis,

I bet you had the EV T-35 tweeter. The T-350 tweeter was quite a bit better sounding (IMHO) than the T-35, but OTOH, it was about twice the cost. I don't remember anything about the woofer being substandard, but who knows?

Best Regards,
Terry

Nope, it was the Speakerlab 4000. God awful thing.
 
Back
Top Bottom