Brand

Vintage Klipsch speakers

Paul W. Klipsch patented his corner horn in 1945 and began selling Klipschorns from a tin shed in Hope, Arkansas, in 1946. In 1948 the company moved into a former telephone exchange building, and the first Klipschorn built there was numbered 121 because he added 100 to the serials to make the company look bigger. The Heresy followed in 1957, named after a colleague said a Klipsch that didn't go in a corner would be heresy, and the Cornwall came in 1959. Both use a direct-radiating woofer with horn-loaded midrange and tweeter drivers, which makes them unusually efficient. Klipsch sold the company to his second cousin Fred Klipsch in 1989, and manufacturing stayed in Hope. Collectors now call that family the Heritage line, a name Klipsch's marketing coined after 1997. Replacement drivers and crossovers for these speakers are widely sold, so ask which parts are original.

5 models we cover.