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KLH Five Synergy - Unlikely? Winner

Posted by Brian Levy (A) on August 1, 2014 at 08:00:30

The Fives have been run with everything on the shelves now, includes using units that were not even candidates for the shootout. Most have done nicely with the speakers but, each has in some small way unbalanced the sound, some emphasized the bass, some the mids and some the high end. Different units also affected the dynamics. Then the usual coloration, instrument and voice shifts. It seemed like I needed to look outside for something that would take the best of each and bring it together. None were bad but in toto the exercise told me I had slipped back into that audiophile mode. My equivalent of alcoholism.

I even started thinking of looking for another Sherwood S5000II and having it gone through just to give it a shot.

Anthony Newman Romantic Master works for Organ, a recording of the River Organ at The Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity in NYC. This has been a nasty for the amp's and Fives. With some the bass and impact of a big pipe organ was not quite there. With others it was very much there but the higher range seemed slightly overwhelmed by it, especially in the more complex passages. A couple lost all the sense of the air of the pipes while at least one brought it out too much. About 6 minutes into the recording there is a sustained note with tremolo. With the big Sony and Sherwood it came through with ease. Others had not hint of the tremolo, it was too smeared and with on it was there, then disappeared, I suspect the power supply just could not keep up with the demand for as long as needed.

Another issue for me, at least was the sound stage. With allocate them, the biggest of sitting center of a massive church pipe organ seemed off. Not tall enough and wide enough, wide enough but not tall or the opposite. With some it seemed I was closer to one section of pipes and with other setups closer to the other section. I suspected it was mic'd somewhere in the center.

Using Holst, The Planets I am presented with a challenge. My Canadian mix includes presentations from Berlin, Slovakia and, Pretoria. Not bad but having to reconcile several orchestras is a further challenge. The passages that should relax and distress sometimes do not and with complex passage the entire presentation can just fold the cart and die. One day I have to get a better recording. The one advantage with this recording is that if there is some weakness down stream it likely will give you some unhappy listening somewhere during the listening experience. With each amp, it showed how good it can be as a test recording. Without going into detail, only one amp got through the torture test relatively unscathed.

I won't bore you any longer with this tale. None of the units were clear losers though a couple did not stay in the test very long as they were clearly being outclassed. Most surprisingly was the H-K 630. Even with the less that seller preamp section I thought the power amp section would,do be strong enough to carry it. I could have thrown on the outboard preamp but decided it would be unfair. The Philips 785 was even more surprising. As magical as it is with the ADS L300 speakers it and the Fives did not hit it off at all. I think each unit that made it through for many would be a keeper. It boils down to individual taste and listening priorities.

Not in this round of testing of the larger one I have been doing was a loner, sitting quietly, unassuming on a shelf in a corner. I knew it was there and it not even considered as a possible contender. I had even tried a JVC briefly early on, that is disregarded this little guy was in my eyes for this testing.

Last night not long before closing. For the night I looked at it again and against every fiber in me said what the heck, it might as well go through the hookup and have its self respect totally destroyed. Put it in system and put in the organ cd briefly, switched to the Fives and, hopefully,do on; so.ething is terribly wrong. I listened for about 10 minutes to get a taste of the organ and that sustained note. Almost perfectly done. Not too dominate, tremolo there the entire time with not waver or loss towards the end. Overall balance as to seating seemed about right. Sound stage horizontally and vertically very good. At this point I stopped as I was tired, and began to think I had ear fatigue or something.

This morning I went through each recording with just the Fives. As I went through my rough notes for each combination with the Fives, I discovered the little orphan did not have the same bad points and even bettered most of the good points. I have not even switched to the Wharfedales at this point as the Fives are Singing so well. One thing that has struck me as interesting has been the volume level where the speakers have opened up. With every amp, I clearly had to have them at a level above my target of a polite level that would not disturb the next door neighbor in an apartment. The Fives opened up up nicely at a level with this unit above the Wharfedales and Heresy IIs bit, not by much. The criteria as to music level was met.

When you read comments about the Fives, they vary. Many coated them to the AR3a and suggest they fail because the bass is not as pronounced. Other think the mids are too forward, etc. The general consensus is there is an imbalance in the overall frequency range that is there downfall. I do not understand this as many of these same persons prefer the AR but, do not find a similar problem while those few detractors find the bass overpowering the mids and highs. In this I agree and never have cards for the 3 series though admit they are a powerful speaker that can be impressive. The Fives on the other hand even back when we sold them never garnered that type of praise. We found them to be unassuming and could be in the right system just lost as a component and the music takes over. Here, I am finding it again. The bass is not over whelming the other ranges, it is not too forward, not too bright. With complex passages and this amp things do not get mashed up and fail. Okay, what is this orphan?

The KLH Twenty-Seven. Yep, that brainchild of Kloss from the same period as the speakers. Back then there was an assumption that it was used to voice the KLH speakers in development at the time with the Sixteen amp but, no one at KLH would ever confirm it. I do not remember pairing them back then in systems or displays so this is a new experience. In fact though Framers was a full line KLH dealer I do not remember them even carrying the receiver. Maybe the Wellesley store had it because of its different market but, Peabody, Boston nor Hanover had it. Tech also did not stock it. I remember Audio Lab in Cambridge did display the receiver, tuner and amp as it was the only store where I ever saw all 3.

At this point I am going to out on a limited and say I believe our suspicion as to the amp or amps used in voicing at least the Five was the Twenty-Seven and Sixteen. I would venture a guess the Twelve, Six, Seven and others of the period were also voiced with them. The synergy between the receiver and Fives is too great to assume otherwise.

At this time, the KLH pair will stick as a final choice as pairing. I am playing these recordings with the Wharfedale W70s as I type this missive and so far not has arisen to suggest it may not be as good a match to them. It seems to maybe even doing better in presentation and negating the issues that showed with the other units on the W70s. If this turns out to be correct, the the KLH Twenty-Seven could become my main unit and the fight then concentrates only on whether the Fives or W70s become the speakers in that system. When that happens, everything else kicking around will go to a new home.

Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada

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