Cambridge Sound Works Model Six by Henry Kloss

Cambridge SoundWorks Model Six by Henry Kloss


"The fullness of the sound, a function of mid-bass rather than low bass, is greater with the speakers against a wall than with them out in the room."

"The mid-bass and mid-range balance of Model Six loudspeakers, which are somewhat subjective in the first place, will usually be appropriate with the speakers against a wall. If you have them out from the wall and the sound is subjectively too 'thin' (particularly on vocal recordings), move them back against a wall. If they are against the wall and sound too 'heavy' or 'boomy,' particularly on male voices, try them out from the wall."

Finally, a New England speaker I don't care a whit if Zilch destroys...

Zilch, you are a speaker pro, why is it that speakers like that, that to me look so much like Boston Acoustics. With a simple design, sound so good?

Zilch, you are most likely aware there's a paper out on modifying the crossovers on these for a marked improvement.

A combo of improved, higher quality parts and tweaked values.

Hopefully someone will recall what tweaker publication put it out and will chime in. Might make for an interesting addendum to your experiment.

I kept hearing that these were a newer version of original advent's....... While they probably are better than the stuff at today's big box store.... I'll keep my LA's

"If it is necessary to place the speakers close to the listening area, try placing the units at an angle so that listeners aren't directly on axis. In a small room, you might try aiming the speakers away from the listeners altogether into the corners of the room to scatter the highs for a more natural, spacious sound."


"Thanks to proper design and materials, no individual frequencies predominate, or are missing. But as with all Henry Kloss designs, this only the beginning. He then goes on to 'voice' the system -- painstakingly fine-tuning octave-to-octave balance."

In all of these years, has anybody yet figured out what that means?

The crossover mod for the CSW model 6 speakers, are in the October 2001 issue of Audioxpress magazine.


Steve

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=142497
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=196229

gearhound said:

The crossover mod for the CSW model 6 speakers, are in the October 2001 issue of Audioxpress magazine.

Click to expand...

We already have a discrepancy. Here is the original XO per Mhardy's post in the linked thread:


The abstracted text from the AudioXpress article clearly states that the circuit was modified, i.e., NOT a simple substitution of better quality components, most notably, the HF contour filter was removed, in addition to other changes.

The polar measurements above suggest that Kloss's "voicing" comprised using that filter to provide flattest response at ~20° off-axis, which is where we typically listen from midway between a stereo pair that are located against a wall rather than toed-in. If you want "boom, tizz," you toe them in to boost the HF by up to 6 dB as desired, with more extended VHF, as well; there are no level controls.

It's clear these bear little correspondence to their namesake KLH Model 6, being more akin to Model 17, actually, with respect to cabinet size and driver complement as well as performance. Indeed, the CSW promotional lit alludes merely to a conceptual heritage:

"Today Henry Kloss has come full circle to yet again exploit the cost/performance advantages of a properly conceived two-way loudspeaker. The result is Cambridge SoundWorks' Model Six loudspeakers, a basic two-way system named in honor of his first ground-breaking two-way system."

These are clearly NOT a modern update to the legendary KLH Model Six as some here have erroneously presumed.

Plitron said:

Zilch, you are a speaker pro, why is it that speakers like that, that to me look so much like Boston Acoustics. With a simple design, sound so good?

Click to expand...

Two-ways are easier to get "right" than multi-ways with more drivers and thus, more complex integration issues. They're traditionally also burdened with compromises -- it's mighty difficult to get just two drivers to cover the full audio spectrum with finesse, though modern drivers and designs are doing a better job of that today than the vintage icons achieved.... :yes:

Zilch said:

"Thanks to proper design and materials, no individual frequencies predominate, or are missing. But as with all Henry Kloss designs, this only the beginning. He then goes on to 'voice' the system -- painstakingly fine-tuning octave-to-octave balance."

In all of these years, has anybody yet figured out what that means?

Click to expand...

I suspect it boils down to the traditional Villchur-Kloss approach to speaker design: make a speaker that is "flat" on-axis, listen to it and decide that you don't like the way it sounds off-axis, then tweak it until it you do.

And yeah, calling the "Six" was definitely sneaky marketing. Like the "AR3" I recently saw that is actually a big, black tower.

ZILCH wrote: Two-ways are easier to get "right" than multi-ways with more drivers and thus, more complex integration issues. They're traditionally also burdened with compromises -- it's mighty difficult to get just two drivers to cover the full audio spectrum"

How many drivers would be optimal in a (money no object), (size no object), speaker design?

Plitron said:

How many drivers would be optimal in a (money no object), (size no object), speaker design?

Click to expand...

Easy: one.

Zilch said:

Easy: one.

Click to expand...

:sigh::sigh::sigh::sigh: Which one ?????????

Zilch, when you getting Lowthers?

Tom Brennan said:

Zilch, when you getting Lowthers?

Click to expand...

AHAAA !!!! So Lowthers are the secret sauce eh? :beer:

None exists; that's why we do 2-ways.

And no, co-axes don't get it, either, alas....

Are cabinets with 50 speakers better capable if the cabinets, crossovers, drivers, and insulation are factored correctly? Are they more capable than single or coaxial loaded cabinets?

What I meant was, do these guys already have it all figured out?


http://www.transmissionaudio.com/

Plitron said:

AHAAA !!!! So Lowthers are the secret sauce eh? :beer:

Click to expand...

Well some say yes and some say no. The people that like them REALLY like them and they're certainly something everyone should give a listen to if possible because if they're to your taste it makes things very simple.

I've heard them sounding very good in Medallion and Hedlund rear loaded horn cabinets but I also heard them sounding terrible in a different rear horn. And then you have the various Lowther models which differ somewhat in construction and voice.

Wait a minute, did I say Lowthers were easy?

Another way to avoid the multi-way thing is to get certain full range electrostats, such speakers tend to be large and expensive but good values are available in used Acoustats and Quad 63s. And stats can sound VERY good; IMO&E no type of speaker has better clarity.

Plitron said:

AHAAA !!!! So Lowthers are the secret sauce eh? :beer:

Click to expand...

I'll say it again, "There are no full-range drivers."

I have had Jordans here, and Karma Indignias kicked them to the curb in A/B testing....