I was walking down the hallway at the 2019 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, minding my own business, when I heard it–Tool’s Fear Inoculum coming out of the Klipsch Heritage room. The two Klipsch rooms were on my list anyway, but I was on my way to visit someone else before my sudden detour into pure power and undeniable visceral impact. There they were, against the back wall, two pairs of Klipsch Heritage speakers, the Cornwall Special Edition ($6000/pair) and the Heresy Special Edition ($3000/pair). I thought to myself, “Is there a better way to listen to Tool?” Maybe, maybe not.
“Pissing off the neighbors since 1946” is the new slogan for the Klipsch Heritage line, and it ain’t wrong. The crew running the two demo rooms were concerned with just two things–rocking out and having fun. They didn’t even stop at Fear Inoculum–I also heard “The Grudge” from the 2001 Tool album Lateralus, all without any prompting from me. They just did it. It was wonderful.
My experience with the Klipsch Heritage line is complex–I used to dislike them, but probably because I usually heard them paired with a 100wpc ’70s receiver. Then a friend of mine brought over her pair of Cornwalls and we paired them with my 2wpc Yamamoto Sound Craft A-08 45 power amplifier and I fell in love. Even my older brother, the guy who originally got me into hi-fi, lusted after K-Horns and once told me they were the finest speakers in the world. This was probably the mid ’70s, so I won’t object to that sentiment.
Speaking of K-Horns, the Klipsch Heritage crew had a “secret” room where the new Klipschorn 70th Anniversary ($16,000/pair) loudspeakers were playing. I say “secret” because I didn’t notice the closed door to the other room until I was about to leave. One of the Klipsch guys joked, “Oh, you can’t go in there–it’s secret.” But he relented when I told him I was a member of the press. They weren’t playing Tool with the K-Horns, which would have scored them extra points, but the demo was still more than impressive. But of the three Klipsch Heritage speakers, I think I preferred the Cornwalls. If the folks at Klipsch are willing to let me try out a pair, I’ll gladly piss off my neighbors in their honor.
Nice review