The Prodigal Son Returns

/

In 2002 a Vitavox-licensed Klipschorn was purchased for the Klipsch Museum of Audio History. (In the late 1940’s Vitavox of England was the first company to license the Klipschorn design. This unit appears “at first glance” to be one of the very first.) When it arrived in Hope it was to be forwarded to Indianapolis. The crated speaker never arrived. After much debate it was given up for lost. On Monday, at the conclusion of a thorough cleaning of the Hope Lab, a massive crate with a label reading “KP-418 Subwoofer” surfaced. When brought to Chief Bonehead’s attention, the label was recognized as being wrong. Opening it revealed the long-lost Vitavox. Due to Mr. Paul Jacobs’ and Voxx International’s generosity, the artifact was donated to KHMA. While the speaker does not retain its S2 compression driver, it was discovered that the original Vitavox Type K15/40 woofer was still in place. A worthy addition to the museum and a fascinating piece of audio history!

Southwestern Proving Ground (SPG)

/
Southwestern Proving Ground (SPG)

In 1941 PWK was at the height of his 3rd career, oil prospecting. He worked in Houston, TX for Dr. E. E. Rosaire, initially at Independent Exploration, and then he followed Rosaire to Subterrex. It was his first job after receiving his graduate degree of Engineer at Stanford. Rosaire had a saying that PWK never forgot: “When any of you guys piss with your left hand, I want to get a patent on it!” In the seven years with Rosaire he received eight patents in electrical and acoustic methods of discovering oil.

Read More

PWK Text Book Donation

/
PWK Text Book Donation

Early in his military service at the Southwestern Proving Grounds, Paul acquired this book, along with many others specific to his then hobby, loudspeaker design. As with many of his books and scientific journals, he left his mark with “notes in the margins”. Mr. Bruce Marlin donated this book, which was given to him by Paul during his own engineering service to Klipsch & Associates in the 1990’s.

Read More

Honoring Our Founders

/ Klipsch/
Honoring Our Founders

During the 2018 Pilgrimage, KHMA took the opportunity to reward our highest level members, the Founders and K-horn Corps. This year’s special event was a gourmet dinner at Dannie’s’ Café in the woods of Hempstead County. With KHMA staff, the total was about 30 people, which was the capacity of this quaint little venue (we had the place all to ourselves!). Richard Groves and Matthew Smith provided an outstanding selection of wines and champagne. Thanks guys! 

Read More

Orderly Conduct

/
Orderly Conduct

About ten years after the Summer of Love, tolerance for such nonsense remained rare in Arkansas.  It was a sun shiny day when John Simmons entered the Post Office sporting his "disgusting afro" haircut.  He would soon regret his less-than-chivalrous act of not holding the door open for a city police officer since the back of John's t-shirt featured a "cartoon voice balloon" with a single word - Bullshit.  Such profanity was not tolerated back then, and because a Post Office is by definition on federal ground, the officer left the building and waited for John to re-enter his jurisdiction - the street.  As soon as John exited federal land, the officer promptly drove his car from across the street, and said "Hold it there buddy!"  John was arrested for disorderly conduct. 

Read More

Texarkana Gazette features KHMA

/
Texarkana Gazette features KHMA

The renowned Klipschorn got its start in Hope roughly 71 years ago, and you can still savor the sound of that storied history. You'll discover it at a modest building that at one time housed Klipsch speaker manufacturing. In fact, it was the original Klipsch factory, where Paul Wilbur Klipsch moved his young operations after selling speakers out of a tin shack for a couple years.

Read More