Jim Hunter Interview

We had the chance to ask some questions of famous Klipsch engineer Jim Hunter.  Jim is one of the best parts of the Klipsch Pilgrimage, a Klipsch historian, and friend to the late Paul Klipsch.  Before writing these questions up I was told this interview had to be cleared by someone who's last name is Klipsch so rest assured it's not a common thing for senior employees to sit for interviews.  I hope you enjoy my time with Jim.

KlipschCorner: First, some basics, how long have you been working for Klipsch?  What is your current title, and what is your educational background?

Oct. 2^nd marked my 29^th anniversary.  My current title is "Manager - Engineering Operations", and  I received a B.S.E.E. in 1974 from the West Virginia Institute of Technology (now part of WVU). 

What is your personal audio setup at home?  Do you have any pictures you could share?  Why choose this setup?

Although this may be disappointing to many readers, I really spend little time on entertainment (audio or video).  When I do come in the house, and if my kids aren't "in the way", I can listen to rosewood K-horns in the living room powered my pre-1973 Pioneer integrated 50W/channel amp.  When I'm outside I have the luxury of whole property (5 acres) background music via a pair of 4-way MCM's located in the barn (see photo).  These are powered by an old Perreaux amp and keep the dust off the barn timbers.  Basically my serious listening happens at work. 

In your history of working at Klipsch, what project are you proudest of?

I would have to say the KP-600 professional system.  For those unfamiliar, this system designed in the late 80's bested the MCM, and essentially everything else on the pro touring market.  It consisted of three identically shaped fiberglass cabinets housing hi, low, and sub bandwidths, and weighing in at less than 500#.  The bill of material contained over 2200 parts when you counted up all of the fasteners.  It could run in the upper 130 dB range all day, and was fully fly-able in large arrays.  For liability mitigation we had to secure an outside testing lab for mechanical strength.  We chose Wylie Laboratories in Huntsville, AL.  They normally do tests for companies such as Boeing and NASA.  As an aside, they have a room in which one wall is the termination of a 13' X 13' horn mouth.  This room can be excited to 165dB continuously from 20-1000 Hz.  Space shuttle payloads sometimes need this qualification, I'm told.  They also had a 250,000 watt audio amp for driving their shaker tables.  Can you envision 2 foot high, water-filled tubes?  On a less strenuous note, we had a single prototype stack at my house for a keg party, and powered it with 7000 watts of Crest and Crown (quad-amped).  Since my place in Arkansas was quite secluded, it took law enforcement about 4 hours to find us.  Oh well, we were about ready to turn in at 1:00 a.m. anyhow.

How many patents do you hold?  Are there any you are particularly proud of?

I hold just the one patent with PWK on the anechoic chamber/door arrangement.  I recall going to the AES convention in 1980 to jointly present our paper.  Paul was supposed to take the podium for the first half of the presentation, and I'd take over for the second half.  Being a nervous young pup, I was stunned when he spoke about two sentences and handed the mic over to me!  High anxiety at the Waldorf Astoria!  The longest twenty minutes of my life.

{Editor: The patent Jim is referring to is on the design of an anechoic chamber that has a special door with a wooden corner that allows the testing of speakers that require corner-loading in an anechoic chamber.  Here's a good picture of the Palladium sitting by just such a door. }

Of all the Klipsch products currently being made, what are you most proud of?  Is there any section of the audio business Klipsch is in now that you never thought you'd be in?

Besides the K-horn, I suppose it would be the iFi, a 2.1 iPod® speaker system we launched a few years back. While the iFi got great reviews and the media loved it, everyday consumers just didn't get it so it didn't sell as well as we had hoped.   But it did do a dang good job for the money.

I guess the two most unexpected areas that we've gotten into are DSP room correction in our subs, and the headphone market.  The former reflects a genuine value add, as opposed to much of the competitors in this space.  In the case of headphones, my contribution has been to search the patent database on the subject, and it's a damn big subject.  I've probably forwarded over 300 pertinent patents to our design engineers.  It's been an education for everyone involved.

Can you tell us, in very simple terms if possible, what are Theil/Small parameters and what are they used for?

Named for Neville Theil and Richard Small, they treat the driver/box combination like an electrical filter circuit.  The use of analogies between engineering disciplines (electrical, acoustical, and mechanical) allows the same math to work its wonders.  Whether you're dealing with an electrical capacitor or the air-spring rate of a given enclosure volume, they can be mapped into a single electric circuit representation.  The primary usefulness is to predict the low frequency cut-off of a "mixed system" just as you would for a simple electrical filter circuit.

I recall, on a trip to the engineering labs in Indy, you saying some things about the Cornwall regarding Theil/Small.  When the Thiel/Small research was published, PWK was involved in the research, and the original Cornwall was incredibly close to the mathematical ideals later published.  How close was it, and how did you manage that?

PWK was one of Small's "mentors" on his initial papers contributing to what we now refer to as Theil/Small parameters.  Harry Olson was the other one.  The Klipsch archive has a three-way correspondence file with these guys "politely discussing" the paper in its several evolutionary forms.  I was told many moons ago that Don Keele measured the Cornwall during his one year of Klipsch employment (1977).  Don does not specifically recall this, but agrees that it sounds like something he would have done.  We are currently digging up the data to set this one to rest.

What flavor of electronics do you personally like?  Tubes, solid state, or digital?

Short and sweet, I have no preference unless it affects quality. 

If PWK were here, what would he say about the new Palladium line, or about Extreme Klipsch Fans putting the Jubilee in their home?

I am sure he would agree that very, very "sound" technology went into the Palladium drivers and horns in particular.  A direct radiating woofer for the flagship would undoubtedly not be his first choice (surprise!), but Paul certainly availed himself of direct radiating woofers in the Heresy and Cornwall.  If he let his guard down, I can't see how he wouldn't be impressed.

As for the "extreme" Jubilee fans, I think he would be proud that his last design continues to inspire.

Acoustic treatments for home listening rooms are slowly gaining traction as an important part of the home theater and 2ch experience.  As an engineer, do you have any thoughts on this?  At what point should I stop upgrading components and start taking room measurements?

You should assess the room first.  PWK was known to say:  "If my speakers don't sound good in your room, you need to fix your room."  In some cases the room can be more important than the brand of speakers employed.  If you have exhausted your patience for trial and error room tuning, I'd get advice from someone like Auralex. 

Cornwalls vs. RF-83s: what is your opinion on the older technology vs. new stuff, do you think listening is  a very personal thing?  Is the 2000s reference line better than the 1980s Heritage line?  Is this even something you can answer without political consequences?

Ah, you DO want to get me in trouble...  The older technology was "more to the point".  That is, it took the path of least resistance in terms of form vs. function.  Today the W.A.F. rules, and mamma wants slim, i.e., essentially no-width baffles.  Well, the woofer "likes" an ample baffle such as is present on the Cornwall.  In the case of the RF83 (and family), its virtual absence demands more drivers and stronger motors to get back to roughly the same place.

What's your yearly budget for buying vintage audio components on eBay?

My personal budget is near zero, but I can usually bust that budget if I choose.  The company budget is in 4 figures.

Speaking of vintage audio components how is the Hope museum move to Indianapolis going?  What can we expect when we visit?

Most of the "progress" is still on the drawing board.  I wouldn't expect it to be open before next summer.  You can expect it to be more stylish, better lit, and clean.  I can't let everything out of the bag, but there's a good chance that a "partial architectural copy" will be included in the layout. 

If I recall correctly, you are one of the longest tenured employees, the first engineer PWK hired.  At that time, I imagine acoustic engineering being done with a lot of math on paper and sketches.  Today there are various computer simulations and marketing must have heavy input into how the products turn out.  How has acoustic engineering changed over the years?

I was not nearly the first engineer that Paul hired.  I may have been the last one that had his direct involvement in the interview process.  Yes, acoustic engineering has changed.  In 1978 I knew of no one with more than a hand calculator (slide rules had not completely disappeared).  The basic principles remain the same, but with today's computerized modeling and prototyping, one can go through far more deign iterations in less time.  Here time is the key.  "In my day" market pressures did not demand such fast development times or such short product lifecycles.  We had time to dial things in with "tender loving care".  And as I mentioned earlier, we had less cosmetic pressures for which to compensate.  Acoustics is very "dimensionally dependent" which can make it at odds with prevalent cosmetic directions.  In the Cornwall example the baffle and box volume took the straightforward path, and cosmetics "fell where they may".  Today the mechanical engineering required to "make it look right" is far more demanding, so it is a fine thing that the electronic tools for M.E. have advanced.  In the case of acoustics I've always felt that 90% of the "real work" was done prior to WWII.  Today we make them cheaper, lighter, and stronger.  The electronic tools (FEA, CAD, SLA, etc.) allow this progress to continue -- and we even get a little better in the basic acoustics as well.

Are there any memorable PWK stories that didn't make the book, or are little known, that you would like to share?

There are plenty that didn't make the book, and I guess some of them are fit for mixed company! 

Once upon a time, PWK took his wife Valerie to NYC to buy a Bosendorfer piano.  Then chief engineer Gary Gillum accompanied them, and as usual, took 100's of photos.  While the piano is a story unto itself, what I found more interesting (geek that I am) was PWK's "find" in an electronics junk store.  He picked up a very old (1920's??) impedance bridge - old enough to be housed in a very well-made wooden cabinet.  He got back to the lab and meticulously cleaned it up.  He had it operating as new, but that wasn't good enough.  "Hot rodding" an impedance bridge cannot be commonplace.  Paul added several rotary switches, input/output jacks, and untold circuitry.  Eventually he had it doing things that the modern HP bridge in the lab could not do!  It still sits on his desk in Hope.  Maybe someday we'll take a break from the hectic pace and see what makes it tick.

Open mic, say anything you'd like to the Klipsch fans who will be reading this:

Golly, I'm not too comfortable in front of an open mic.  I guess the main thing I'd like to see happen is to get the word out to the younger generation that good sound is entertaining, inspiring, and FUN.  Today, we have so many distractions---100s of TV channels, gaming, internet, mobile toys, etc.---that there doesn't seem to be time for quality sound reproduction.  However, all of these have a sound component that can generally be improved.  With the exception of an un-named competitor, the retail scene just doesn't cater to the demo like it used to.  If kids don't have it hit them in the face, they won't go looking for it.  I'm a firm believer that people as a whole do not change. It's no secret that most people want something for nothing and that's just how it's been throughout time. They want a cheap and easy-to-use product, which is not a sin, but it will never maximize the impact of their entertainment. Then they complain. Hey, you get what you pay for. And if they haven't heard a demo, they only know what they've experienced and that's just a shame. Experience seems to be the key, so get out there and corrupt some youth!