By George McClure
Paul W. Klipsch founded Klipsch Audio in 1946 with the idea of bringing the power of the live music experience into his living room. Today the company creates speakers and personal audio for almost every consumer and professional application. We hope you’ll enjoy this interview with Mark Casavant, Klipsch’s Senior Vice President, Brand & Business Development.
“It’s so much fun. In fact, just last night I talked my teenage girls into watching the very first Jurassic Park in our theater room. They always have these Gen Z terms, you know, “jump-scare” and things like that. I’m like, “Oh, this is a jump-scare movie. Are you ready?” Yeah. They thought they were ready. They ended up squealing at some of the scenes, and they loved it. I bring that up as an illustration of how good audio systems are now.”
George McClure: I understand that you’ve been with Klipsch for 34 years. We’d love to hear how you started out, what your gig is now, and some of the points in between.
Mark Casavant: I started out as a passionate audio nut. My love of music from my teens carried into a hobby for high-fidelity audio gear. Out of college, I pursued the audio industry and was fortunate to get experience in a retail operation in Florida that also did a lot of custom installation for luxury homes. It was the late eighties, so home theater started to take off when Dolby Surround became a thing. I worked for a Klipsch dealer, and then I was recruited to work for Klipsch as the Southeastern territory sales rep, factory direct.
So, I’m into my fourth decade now working with Klipsch and I think that’s unusual today to stay with a company so long. I’m proud of the fact that we have stayed true to our brand — in fact, we’re more fierce about protecting the brand heritage of Paul Klipsch than ever. But we have evolved and entered new areas of business such as home theater, custom audio, commercial cinema audio and more. I was also part of the team where we got into computer audio in the early 2000s to reach the young, new emerging market of customers, college age, kids, gamers. We’ve entered into headphones and portable audio. So, bringing that Klipsch design philosophy to all these product categories has been, I think, the secret of our success.
George: Tell us a bit of the Klipsch story.
Mark: In its early days, the American hi-fi industry was mostly on the East and West coasts. But down in Hope, Arkansas, Paul Klipsch started his unique approach. He marched to his own drumbeat, and he, through his own discovery and his own passion, and as a musician himself, he knew the dynamic power of a live symphonic performance and the power of musical instruments en masse, and what dynamic range means for music. Back then, no audio reproduction system could really deliver the dynamic power of a symphonic performance. So, tinkering in his tin shed, Paul Klipsch poured many years of research into creating a whole different approach, which became the Klipschorn speaker.
With the Klipschorn, he created a fully horn-loaded system, a horn-loaded high-frequency driver, mid-range and low frequency driver, a 15-inch low frequency driver, but loaded into a horn. He folded that horn three times to fit it into the enclosure. He designed the Klipschorn to be used in the corner, a space that most people just didn’t use, which added to the deep bass response, this effortless high frequency response, and this utter clarity in the mid-range, the most critical range where ears are most sensitive. And he established for the company these principles of high efficiency, low distortion and broad dynamic range. Then by the nature of using horns, controlling the directivity, controlling the release of sound into the room, not spraying it everywhere, but focusing it into the listening area for accurate placement of instruments and sound stage. And also reducing reflections in your room and really focusing that sound for flat, natural frequency response. So, it’s not just what are the measurements in the test lab, but how do they actually sound in a real room. Those are the four principles that we still subscribe to today.
George: I find it amazing that, although obviously there have been a number of improvements over the years, the Klipschorns are still in production today, right?
Mark: It’s the only audio product that has been in continuous production for going on eight decades. And some of the sister products in our Heritage line, like The La Scala which began in 1963, have also been in continuous production, including pro versions as well as consumer home versions. The Heresy was even before that, way back in the fifties. It’s amazing how these products have been validated through time with quality source material. You know, we have high-definition sources with great recording quality today, but they were ready for that even back then, which is so fascinating.
George: I hear you have some new versions on the way.
Mark: We reinvent ourselves by evolution — we’re not always producing brand new products that are unrelated to our founder’s original mission. It’s kind of like the Porsche 911, you know, the 911 design has remained, but it’s been refined over the years. Even though the first generation Klipschorn was way back in the 1940s, with Paul Klipsch using slide rule computations, they were good formulas. I mean, we sent people to the moon that way, right?
George: Hey, I’m so old I used a slide rule back in the day.
Mark: Right, right. So Klipsch is pretty unique in the marketplace with advancing horn design, and that’s what you’ll see in the new models. For instance, Tractrix horn technology was a nice advancement that happened years ago, and now the latest evolution of the Tractrix horn mid-range will be in the new Klipschorn AK7 and the new La Scala AL6. We are also evolving even the original horns that Paul Klipsch used with some more advanced horn shapes that designer Roy Delgado has researched and developed.
With these new horn designs, for some people that have never heard a horn-loaded system, like a really good, well designed, perfected, high-fidelity horn-loaded design from Klipsch, they will rethink what they know about audio reproduction. It’s going to break through some stereotypes, because some people think they know what a horn-loaded system sounds like or should sound like. This will disarm them because they will be shocked and amazed at how natural and attainable this is. And you don’t have to spend six digits to get this kind of performance.
George: These are obviously very high-performance speakers, but with their beautifully sculptured wood, they also make a really elegant addition to a home from a lifestyle perspective.
Mark: That’s a very relevant point because these are truly works of artisan craftsmanship. The craftspeople in Hope, Arkansas are not newbies — they have decades of experience. They have to learn the skillset before they attempt to build an enclosure for high performance audio, which is extremely complicated. It all starts with the wood and even the proper curing of the wood. They have to be measured within these tight tolerances before we start cutting, and before we assemble them. The wood grains are book matched as they go down the production line in pairs, with matching serial numbers. So, when you get these home, you look at one and see the symmetry of the wood grain in both speakers.
George: Tell us a little about Klipsch and whole-house audio integration.
Mark: We recognize that a big part of audio today is design appeal and how to integrate products into your home effortlessly. In modern homes, it’s a very common thing now to have whole-house audio. And we of course can do that with our in-ceiling and in-wall speakers. And home theaters are a great, wonderful use of home space, too. What’s kind of cool about the Klipsch floor standing products, we have matching center channels in the Reference Premier line, so you can combine the cabinet systems with the installed audio. You can do a combination, and they have the same sound signature, so it will be to your ears invisible. You know, you might want cabinets in front of you, maybe with subwoofers, and then you can have everything else hidden. We even have a few customers who use the Heritage product even in home cinema applications.
George: It’s really essential to be able to do the in-ceiling speakers for the Atmos systems today, and it’s nice that they’re voice matched for a seamless sound field.
Mark: Yes, we use horn-loading even in our architectural products.
George: That’s awesome.
Mark: And it does make it unique in the marketplace because if you put a speaker in a wall or ceiling, the wall becomes the baffle. It’s like the face of a speaker system, then you have the driver. So, the wall can affect the dispersion pattern. But if you have a horn-loaded architectural product, it will focus that sound out in a controlled manner, which makes Klipsch architectural products pretty unique in the marketplace, because we’re using our horn technology.
And they’re efficient, so they don’t require as much wattage, which makes them more reliable, because you’re not pounding on them with hundreds of watts to get the sound out of them that you want. So, the high-efficiency, low-distortion story plays well to the architectural products.
George: And you’ve got outdoor speakers, also.
Mark: Again, horn-loaded. Yeah. Same benefits when you’re outside. And I just love listening to music outside. It’s kind of an interesting effect outdoors at night when everything’s quiet, maybe you’ve got a fire pit going, but you play your favorite music and you’re hearing it in high fidelity from your outdoor speakers, because we have in-ground subs also, so you get the deep bass as well as that focused clarity. Outdoor audio is fantastic. It’s a great investment in your summertime lifestyle for sure. Heck, some people put cinema out by their pool, like with these TVs that are designed to operate outdoors.
George: Oh, yeah. We’ve seen a lot of these outdoor theater systems with the new outdoor TVs with the high brightness — it’s kind of amazing what they can do.
Mark: It’s so much fun. In fact, just last night I talked my teenage girls into watching the very first Jurassic Park in our theater room. They always have these Gen Z terms, you know, “jump-scare” and things like that. I’m like, “Oh, this is a jump-scare movie. Are you ready?” Yeah. They thought they were ready. They ended up squealing at some of the scenes, and they loved it. I bring that up as an illustration of how good audio systems are now.
George: Absolutely. Would you like to tell us anything about your sister company, Onkyo?
Mark: Sure. Onkyo was established the same year as Klipsch, in 1946. The company has a longstanding reputation for wonderful electronics, really great-sounding, attainable audio electronics with that Japanese tradition of quality and precision. And we’re continuing that evolution with Onkyo and Integra. Onkyo really stands for ease-of-use for your stereo, home theater, and even whole-house system — with brains and sophistication, but also taking it to another level of quality without the complexity. I think that sometimes audio, maybe it’s a little bit mysterious for some people and like, “ah, that’s really complicated. Just gimme the quick version”. And a lot of people resort to Bluetooth speakers because they don’t want the complexity. We make those, too, we make great ones. But for a true whole-house and home cinema setup, it helps to have the brains of these new Onkyos with the quality of sound inherent in their tradition. They’re incorporating some tools that make it really easy to calibrate your home theater and just make it sound outstanding that years ago would take a professional to come into your home and calibrate your system. And I’m talking about DIRAC.
George: Yes, DIRAC has taken the world by storm. We interviewed one of the founders a couple years ago, and it’s really become kind of the gold-standard for calibrating home systems. So, it’s awesome that Onkyo has that built in.
Mark: Yes indeed. And just to kind of lean into the design angle too, Onkyo has a new Creator series, which is like a little desktop speaker, and they have really put a strong focus on the styling. There’s also the new Icon series, which is coming out later this year, which is a beautiful preamp and amp with a classic audiophile vibe with VU meters, etc. So, lots of good stuff coming out of the Onkyo and Integra camp.
George McClure is a Senior Editor for Technology Designer Magazine and the Technology Insider Group. Previously, he was the General Manager of Fidelity Communications and most recently a Marketing Manager for Denver-based ListenUp.
