[TWInsall]

Have you guys priced pick- up trucks lately. I can remember them costing under 2500 dollars in the 60's. You can't touch a full size pick up for less than 10 to 12 times that amount today. And if you want a top of the line pickup $70,000 is not uncommon. So if a klipschorn cost 1/4 of the price of a pickup in the 60's it would only cost 1/12 the price today. Remember Klipsch speakers are hand built, and labor is not cheap. The price of wood has sky rocketed over the years. And I guarantee using Titanium drivers and better cone materials and improved adhesives is not cheap. I imagine if you would convince all your friends to buy Klipschorns instead of toys and spending outrages money on electronics and the sales numbers increased then Klipsch could keep a lid on the prices longer. But with out support just be thankful they are still making the heritage series. JBL and Klipsch are the only two left. Other companies making custom horn loaded speakers make Klipsch prices seem like bargain basement prices. Especially those in Europe. Price a Magico horn loaded speaker lately. Or a pair of JBL dd67000. They pushing $45000 a pair and are 9 DB less efficient, which means you need to buy big 500 watt mono amps, that aren't cheap either. I guess you could buy some Altec 604's built by Great Plains audio for a $1000 bucks each and build really nice cabinets for another $1000. but you would be 5 db short and the 604 won't handle the power to make up the difference. Shure you could use a great 10 watt amp with your klipschorn and a 40 watt amp with the Altec. But without the horns, you wouldn't have the low distortion of a Klipschorn. Hw do you put a value on that. Magico says they build a speaker that can produce 120 db with less than 2 % distortion down to 50 HZ. They cost $58,000 a pair, don't have horns, which means a room compromises the sound sooner and faster and you will need 1000 watts a channel. Mac MC 1.25K amp aren't cheap. Any one want to pay for an ARC 750 watt tube amps if you like tube sound. Just thank God Klipsch is still in business. There are always a few used nice Klipschorns available on the world wide net. Buy those , work with the factory or Bob Crites to make them better than new. Where there is a will you will find the Corner Horns or Cornwalls you can afford..