Karlson

-kinda made fun of them - until I actually heard one's awesome dynamics and got to know them a bit better - I've owned Transtatics, Maggies, Tympani 1D, Edgarhorn, Acoustat, Klipschorns and piles of boxes - Karlson have been the most fun and most powerful sounding for their size.

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An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
since Google uses tracking robots to determine possible copyright issues, it would take a public domain track. I don't feel well enough to try to multitrack and it wouldn't be so good anyhow. There's probably obscure modern material which would slip through but that's too much of a chance.

here's a site with free to use music http://musopen.org/music/piece/840
 
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I have not visited the Karlson in a while but they always look good.

OT: not many reports from Bill Fitzmaurice but maybe the thought just came seeing the Karlson in a music setting.

I had a baby Karlson sample build going at one time but it needed something. The good news is I set the cabinet outside and somebody snapped it up-- maybe for car audio, who knows?

Greetings to the Karlson gang.
 
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One of the few classic designs of that era I haven't heard. Looks really interesting...better for guitar than audio?

Depends on which model you have. I've seen Meathead using them in very large concerts for mid bass. They have an amazing punch in the mid bass with lower distortion than anything else around. They can reproduce drums at live levels with relatively little power and you have to experience it to believe it.

They are full range but can do with a bit of help from a tweeter. One of the more interesting behaviours is that it does have next to no "beaming" effect (your head does not need to be in a vice to have the stereo image). I prefer it much above a horn: it has similar characteristics yet is a fraction of the size for the same lower cutoff frequency.

Sound produced by these speakers carries far further than from any other enclosure I've tried.

We see the principles laid down by John Karlson utilised in microwave antennas and other fields.
 
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Best driver/enklosure kombo I've hit so far in the fullrange category is the little SK8 w/ FF225WK. Only needs a little help on top.

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I briefly tried Philips AD9710 in the larger K12 "Karlsonette" over a year ago and remember it being good, I'm currently revisiting this match.

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IG
 
Karlson OK

This is the best cabinet I´ve heard. My father has build two 8" in the 70´s, when I was a baby (I born in 1969). 40 years late, I build two 15" + 4" and one more 12" plus 4" (woofer/tweeter coaxially mounted), with separate amplifiers for woofer and tweeter (only TDA2006 with +-14V for W and TDA2003 for Tw.)., and the sound they gives makes an earthquake in my house, with only 15W total in the output stages.

The pic you post look to high, is a mod from yourself?

Had you tried with the rectangular window and or with the multiple slots upper exhaust, and which is the audible difference? Mines have rectangular windows.

Good job, boy !!!
 
"Had you tried with the rectangular window and or with the multiple slots upper exhaust, and which is the audible difference? Mines have rectangular windows."

-around 1956 Karlson switched from a horizontal slot port positioned above the driver to a set of six 1/8" tall slits. I'm guessing the slits were in hope to get better control with weak motor drivers. I know the slits tend to distort a lot easier than a "fatter" port if driven by sine wave (but music is rarely a pure tone)

imo - the regular K15 sytle vent works well in a K12 and the front shelf can be dispensed at that size.

regarding the taller version, I'm not yet sure what it does without a test box - it may tune the front lower - the slot height and coupler height seem important in getting a good response when its that tall and ideally should be done with a test box and experimentationas that cabinet had 2->5dB less output in the 110-200Hz region when loaded with a Tangband w8-1772 than the same driver in the early model (1954) Karlson 12.

Carl Neuser was the first person I've seen to make taller couplers and has claimed they tend to go "lower"- here's one of his8 inch test boxes with a maple veneer K-tube tweeter waveguide. Those slotted tubes are a great way to do a tweeter down to around 1500Hz.

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I'm a poor woodworker and have relied upon long distance friends to help so not much gets done. Plus I've suffered from vertigo for the last 40 years - here's an 18" klam I made
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in general for fullrange or 2-way I think you want something which is reasonably low in mass and has a good midrange - maybe with a rising on-axis response - -FE206EN is a good driver. I've had vintage drivers with funky parameters which sounded really good on vocals such as UCX122 University with qts >1 and fs around 109Hz - that was better than a P-Audio coax with a generic crossover network in the vocal area.

re:"SK8" that's pretty small but should sound good. Betsyk in K12 made strong bass with very small excursion - so little that I shook the tinsel leads out of their eyelets by cranking it up loud - the cone didn't hardly move.

Carl tends to size the rear chamber like a horn so uses rear volume ("Vbr")=(qts*fs*Vas)/50 as a starting point - that could be small for lower qts but might be ballpark for mid-q. (Carl doesn't share data nor plans)
 
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Modeling a bass reflex with the rear chamber volume and a given tuning frequency should give a well enough damped response, <3dB of hump relative to reference level is preferable IMO. Don't trust the vent dimensions though, as it will be mass-loaded by the front chamber and will tune lower. The tricky part after that is figuring the front chamber.

When staying close to the traditional aspect ratio, a W-effect will be seen on the response in the upper-end of the gain bandwidth. Having a larger vent area seems to somewhat reduce this effect, but it's still there. You want to avoid peaking right before the first dip in the W and in the center of it, whenever possible. If lucky, the near-field measurement will be within ±7.5dB in this W-region, room placement can make things better as well.

It really is a tinkerer/tweaker's speaker, unless you get real lucky and everything falls into place on the frist try. :)

I just compared my K12 with a 10" pro mid-bass, Celestion TF1020, to the same driver in a 49 liters reflex tuned to 50Hz. The reflex is smoother and goes deeper, but the Karlson brutally out-punches it (and the reflex is no slouch itself).

IG
 
I made them 10 years ago, and in them I listen electronic music, and popular spanish singer/songwriters Joaquín Sabina, Joan Manuel Serrat, Víctor Manuel, etc, some of them near to rock, and they sound pretty fine in my set. I forgot to mention that my system configuration is some rare. I made 2 K with 15" + 4", one for each stereo channels, and the 12" + 4" for a third amp wired to opamp who differences L-R sound, and then it goes to one third output amp via an independent volume pot, and wired to the 12"K.

In live CD´s, MP3´s, or more accurately, OGG´s files, the difference channel at certain volume gives an impressive 3D effect, but over advanced this pot gives a bad sensation.
 
I made them 10 years ago, and in them I listen electronic music, and popular spanish singer/songwriters Joaquín Sabina, Joan Manuel Serrat, Víctor Manuel, etc, some of them near to rock, and they sound pretty fine in my set. I forgot to mention that my system configuration is some rare. I made 2 K with 15" + 4", one for each stereo channels, and the 12" + 4" for a third amp wired to opamp who differences L-R sound, and then it goes to one third output amp via an independent volume pot, and wired to the 12"K.

In live CD´s, MP3´s, or more accurately, OGG´s files, the difference channel at certain volume gives an impressive 3D effect, but over advanced this pot gives a bad sensation.

So your K12 is a center-channel of sorts? Is it in front or in the back?

A single Karlson with the slotted-tube waveguide on top can produce a wide and big sound. Especially great on electronic music where there is no actual spatial reference to the production of its sounds.

IG
 
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First Q, the ans is yes, but conditioned to the respective volume control, and electrically placed after the mains, so, a decrease in mains also decreases the center.

It is rear the listener. My audio/radio room (I´m also ham radio) and electronic lab, is about 2.70m wide, 2.50m height and 3m large. The K12 is in the middle of the 3 wall unde the working table, and the 15" ones, one on each corner about 45 deg, so 3 speakers converges to aproximate geometrical center of such room, and the audio set is opposite to the 12K, say, in the center of the other 3m wall.
 
OK, yes, thanks. What happens is that I live alone, by my own decision, never married, so I do in my house what I want. Also, I must be the worse TV watcher on the earth, only minutes in the month. TV here in Argentina, is disappointing bad, add to it I can´t stay seconds still, so I turn on the homebrewed set when wake up, say, 9 of the morning, and shut it down say, 22. Then I listen music all day. I have 3 oldies 486´s, two of them with 3 * 80Gb HDD, and about 1400 hours of live electronic music from • Téma megtekintése - Honnan szerzed be a zeneket ?
plus dozen of CD´s transferred to MP3 or OGG formats, and all them running DOS 7.10. So audio quality isn´t the best, but sufficietly good.
 
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