Jeff Day is well known as a Hi-Fi contributor at 6Moons (formerly) and Positive Feedback (currently). This article was originally published in his personal blog Jeff’s Place and reprinted here on ReMusic by kindly permission of the author.
I’m not often gobsmacked by audio gear anymore, but when I laid my eyes on Markus Klug’s Klughoerner hand-crafted wood replicas of historic multi-cell horns I almost swooned and fell out of my chair!
Markus’ Klughoerner multi-cell wood horns are stunning!
Ok, in my excitement I’m getting ahead of myself, so let me back up a little bit and properly introduce Markus Klug, who lives in Klingenberg am Main, in Bavaria, Germany.
I asked Markus if he’d tell me a little about himself, and how he got interested in audio, and how he got started making those beautiful handcrafted wood replicas of historic multi-cell horns, here’s what he told me.
Markus Klug: As a youngster I enjoyed listening to my Father’s audio system. I think I used it more than him. I must have been 14 or 15 years old at the time.
I bought my first audio system while I was working and going to school to become an instrument technician. I bought Quadral Altan loudspeakers, a Harman Kardon receiver, and a Thorens TD125 turntable. I changed the components out several times over the years … like usual!
I took a break from audio for more than eight years when we bought an old farm house and started to renovate. I had no time or money at all, but I never lost my love for listening to music!
Then in 2007 I built a pair of TML loudspeakers. They were nothing special. At the same time I bought a used Dynavox VR70 tube amplifier off of eBay and started learning about horn loudspeakers on the internet. The Jericho horns were my first experience with horns, and then I saw the Altec 1505B horns, and I fell in love with them! Don´t ask me why, I’d never even heard one at this time!
Then I started to study the theory of these multi-cell horns and to do the calculations for them. I could only work on it during the winter because I still had so much work to do on our house. I needed two winters to fully understand how a multi-cell horn works!
Now that the first step was done, my next step was getting skilled at making the wood horns, I made a lot of firewood until I figured out how to make perfect horns!
The original multi-cell horns have a 1-inch calculation for higher SPL. But you can´t do that with a wooden horn. The wood horns have a 1.4 inch calculation, you lose 1.5-2dB, but for home audio it is more than enough.
I’ve made a lot of historic replicas, lets count: the 805B, 1005B, 1505B, H808, H1503, 803B, 1003B, WE26A, 1803B, and the WE28A.
Then I started to create my own multi-cell horns, like MK404 and MK1525 horns. Doing the calculations was one thing, but the sound was another, I was back to producing firewood again!
The MK405 horn has replaced some of the TAD 4001 horns, so I think it’s well done. The MK 1525 high-frequency horn works great with a 1505B, and has the same directional characteristics, and with no single sweet spot in the high-frequencies.
Back to my lines, in the gallery picture on the left I share with you the process Markus goes through in handcrafting his replica horns: click on the photos to enlarge and enjoy them.
Markus told me that he charges 966 EUR plus 90 EUR shipping for a pair of his 10-cell 1005B horns, and for the 15-cell 1505B horns it is 1765 EUR per pair, plus 180 Euro for shipping costs, as two boxes are needed for the 1505B horns. I think that is an extremely fair price. Note that the prices quoted are for outside of the EU, those inside the EU must also pay the VAT, which for example, for the 1505B horns would come to a total of 2100 EUR.
Markus told me that he can also build a reproduction of the original “A” version of the Altec horns should a customer desire that (oh yeah!), except he fills them with quartz sand instead of tar, which seems like a great idea.
If you’re wondering if there’s a pair of Markus’ beautiful horns in my future, the answer is that I’ve already started saving for a pair of Markus amazing 1505B horns!
For more details on ordering a set of Marcus’ beautiful multi-cell horns, please contact Markus via email here.
Be sure to tell Markus that Jeff – and now ReMusic too – sent you!
Official distributor: direct sale
For further info: click here for Klughoerner's website
Contact: write directly here to Markus Klug
