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KLH Audio Brand Comes Back
By: Marco Attard-European Custom Installer
Forber Klipsch president of global sales and board member David P Kelley brings back KLH– the famed audio brand co-founded by Henry Kloss back in 1957, which was acquired by Kelley around a year ago.
“KLH is one of the most storied and revered audio brands in the world, founded by one of the most iconic engineers in the history of consumer electronics,” Kelley. says “I am taking the brand back to its roots, to Henry’s original mission, to build world-class loudspeakers and radios at affordable prices. I am proud to be the new owner of KLH and will honor Henry and his many contributions to the audio industry through the introduction of our extraordinary new KLH products.”
The KLH of 2018 plans to bring back at least some designs from the past– such as the Model Eight radio and Model Nine electrostatic loudspeaker– together with new products, including “disruptive solutions that will turn things upside down.” One of such new products is the VX-1, a voice-enabled keypad the company describes as a world first.
The VX-1 carries wifi, aptX Bluetooth, HiRES audio circuitry and amplification, and is designed as a replacement of existing in-wall volume control panels. It uses the same speaker wires, making it wasy for installers to set up, and becomes a Alexa-enabled means to control other sources and components when paired with the MUZO iOS/Android companion app.
On the speaker side KLH offers 12 in-room models– the Ames and Albany 2-way bookshelf speakers, Kendall, Quincy and Cambridge floor-standing models, Story center channel, Beacon and Broadway surrounds, and Stratton and Windsor 10- and 12-inch powered subwoofers. All have MDF cabinetry with wood-veneer finishes, and use Kevlar drivers with anodised aluminium dome tweeters. In addition, the floor models boost bass performance through low-resonance drive chambers with hand-tunable baffle ports.
Also on offer are the Maxwell in-wall and in-ceiling speakers. Named after physicist James Clerk Maxwell, they are designed for 2-channel and home theatre applications, with tuned, sealed back boxes with MDF baffles, 6.5-inch Kevlar-coated fibreglass drivers, 1-inch silk dome tweeters, tapered array crossovers and gold-plated 5-way push-pin binding posts. The in-ceiling models use silk dome tweeters mounted in the centre coil of a Kevlar-coated fibreglass driver, and feature a concentric design giving broader dispersion.
Another range of in-ceiling, in-wall and all-weather speakers is Faraday– named after scientist Michael Faraday, they are based on 2-way designs with IMG woofers, soft dome tweeters, magnetic bezel-less painted microperf grilles and gold-plated 5-way push-pin binding posts. The all-weather Fraday models come with 5.25- and 6.5-inch drivers, each with soft dome tweeters and a C-bracket.
KLH will show off all the above mentioned audio products at CEDIA Expo 2018.