Klipsch Heritage Klipsch Heritage: An Audiophile Deep Dive

The Klipsch Heritage line is where the company keeps its oldest and most uncompromising engineering ideas alive. Rooted in Paul W. Klipsch's lifelong obsession with high efficiency horn loading, the Heritage family is built around the belief that a loudspeaker should turn as much amplifier power as possible into acoustic output, with as little distortion as the physics of the day will allow. The active DSP crossover discussed here is the modern brain that sits at the center of the Jubilee Heritage system, and for the experienced listener it represents a genuine shift in how a Klipsch horn system is voiced and controlled.

What exactly is this Klipsch Heritage product?

This is an active DSP crossover, a digital signal processing device designed specifically for the Klipsch Jubilee Heritage system. Rather than being a loudspeaker in its own right, it is the electronic filter and voicing engine that divides the audio signal before amplification and sends properly conditioned bands to each section of the Jubilee. In other words, it is the piece that makes the rest of the system behave as intended.

How does an active crossover differ from a passive one?

An active crossover splits the frequency spectrum at line level, before amplification, whereas a passive crossover does its filtering after amplification inside the speaker cabinet. That distinction is the entire point of this product. Its signal path role is explicitly to replace the passive in-speaker crossover network. In a conventional passive Heritage speaker, the amplifier drives a network of inductors, capacitors, and resistors that then feed the drivers. Those components sit in the high current path, dissipate energy as heat, interact with the changing impedance of the drivers, and impose insertion losses. By moving the filtering upstream to line level, this unit removes that lossy network from between the amplifier and the driver, so each amplifier channel connects almost directly to its horn section.

What is the crossover topology and why does it matter?

The topology is an active, line level crossover implemented in the analog-domain sense as pre-amplification filtering, with the actual filter math executed in the digital domain. Because the division happens before the power stage, the filter slopes, corner frequencies, phase relationships, and level matching are all defined by DSP rather than by physical passive parts. This is significant for an enthusiast because passive filter behavior drifts with component tolerance, temperature, and the reactive load of the driver, while a DSP-defined filter holds its target response precisely and repeatably. The result is a crossover region that behaves the way the designer intended, not the way a network of imperfect components happens to resonate under load.

The DSP Engine and Signal Processing

How does the digital signal processing actually work here?

The processing is handled entirely by digital signal processing, meaning the incoming audio is converted into the digital domain, filtered mathematically, and then output as separate frequency bands for amplification. DSP allows the crossover to apply filter types and slopes that would be difficult or impossible to build accurately with passive parts. It can implement steep, precisely defined slopes, apply time alignment between the horn sections, and correct for the acoustic offset that naturally exists when a bass horn mouth and a high frequency horn mouth sit at different depths. Getting the two sections to arrive at the listener coherently in time is one of the hardest problems in a multiway horn system, and DSP addresses it directly by delaying the appropriate section in the digital domain.

Why does DSP give better control over horn behavior?

DSP gives better control because horns are not flat, uniform radiators, and their response needs shaping that varies with frequency. A horn loaded driver produces very high sensitivity, but its response across the passband is not naturally ruler flat, and its behavior near the ends of its operating range can be peaky or roll off in ways a passive network struggles to tame gracefully. Because this unit works in the digital domain before amplification, it can flatten those tendencies with equalization applied exactly where needed, aligning the two sections into a continuous, coherent whole. This is why an active DSP approach is often reserved for a flagship style system: the horns can be pushed to their potential without asking a passive network to perform miracles.

What does the two way configuration mean for the Jubilee?

The configuration is a two way division that matches the Jubilee horn sections, so the DSP splits the signal into exactly two bands, one for the low frequency horn and one for the high frequency horn. The Jubilee is a two way, fully horn loaded design, and this crossover is tailored to that architecture. The single crossover point between those two sections is arguably the most important voicing decision in the entire system, because it sits in a critical part of the midrange where the ear is most sensitive to discontinuities. By handling that division digitally at line level, the crossover can blend the two horns with matched levels, aligned phase, and correct timing, which is what allows a large two way horn system to sound like a single point source rather than two separate devices.

Amplification and System Architecture

Why does this system require bi-amplification?

Bi-amplification is required because the crossover splits the signal before the power stage, which means each speaker needs two amplifier channels, one for each horn section. This is not optional in this architecture. Once the passive in-speaker network is removed, there is no longer anything inside the cabinet to split a single full range amplifier feed. The active crossover outputs two separate line level bands, and each of those bands must be amplified independently and connected to its corresponding driver section. For a stereo pair, that means four amplifier channels in total, two per speaker.

What is the practical benefit of bi-amplifying a horn system?

The practical benefit is that each amplifier channel drives a single driver section directly, with no passive network in between, so the amplifier sees a cleaner, more predictable load and delivers its power more efficiently. Because there is no passive crossover soaking up energy or introducing phase shifts at the driver terminals, the amplifier maintains tighter control over the driver, which improves transient response and damping. It also means the low frequency amplifier is not being asked to reproduce high frequency content and vice versa, so intermodulation effects within each amplifier are reduced. On a system as sensitive as a fully horn loaded Jubilee, this direct coupling lets subtle amplifier characteristics come through clearly, which is exactly what an experienced listener building a reference chain wants.

How does connectivity and system integration work?

Integration works by placing this crossover between your source or preamplifier and your power amplifiers, where it accepts a line level signal and outputs the two divided bands for amplification. In signal flow terms, the source feeds a preamplifier, the preamplifier feeds this active crossover, the crossover feeds two amplifier channels per speaker, and those amplifiers feed the two horn sections directly. Because it operates at line level, it is compatible with the kind of separate amplification an enthusiast typically already owns or is willing to specify. The key discipline is matching amplifier gain and character between the two bands, since any level or tonal mismatch between the sections is now handled in your electronics rather than fixed inside the speaker.

Build Philosophy and Materials

What is the design philosophy behind this piece?

The design philosophy is to give the Jubilee Heritage system the precise, adjustable, time-corrected filtering that a passive network cannot provide, while keeping the horns themselves free of internal electronic compromise. Klipsch Heritage products are traditionally built to be kept and used for decades, and moving the crossover into an external active unit fits that ethos in an interesting way. It separates the parts that benefit from modern electronics, the filtering and correction, from the parts that are timeless, the horns and drivers. This division lets the acoustic core remain pure while the processing can be tuned and refined.

Why keep the crossover outside the speaker cabinet?

Keeping the crossover outside the cabinet removes heat, vibration, and component drift from inside the speaker and places the filtering in a controlled electronic environment. A passive network inside a hard working horn cabinet is subjected to the mechanical vibration of the drivers and the internal temperature rise of the enclosure, both of which can affect component values over time. By externalizing the crossover as a line level active device, those influences are eliminated, and the filter behaves consistently. It also makes the filtering serviceable and updatable without opening the loudspeakers, which is a meaningful practical advantage for a system meant to last.

Where This Sits in the Heritage Lineup

How does this fit within the Klipsch Heritage family?

This active DSP crossover sits at the top of the Heritage philosophy, because it is the dedicated processor for the Jubilee, which is the most ambitious fully horn loaded system in the Heritage line. The classic Heritage models such as the corner horn and its stablemates rely on refined passive crossovers and are designed to run from a single stereo amplifier. The Jubilee system, with this active crossover at its heart, takes a different path, embracing external DSP and bi-amplification to extract maximum performance. It represents the modern, no compromise end of the Heritage spectrum, where the traditional horn loading heritage meets contemporary digital control.

Who is this crossover really for?

This crossover is for the experienced enthusiast committed to running a Jubilee Heritage system as it was engineered to be run, with separate amplification and active, DSP-defined filtering. It is not a casual upgrade or a universal accessory. It is a purpose built component that only makes sense as part of the Jubilee architecture, replacing the passive network entirely and demanding bi-amplification in return. For the listener willing to build that chain, it offers a level of coherence, control, and precision over a large horn system that a passive design cannot match, and it does so while honoring the fundamental Klipsch Heritage belief in the horn as the finest way to move air. If you are assembling a reference grade horn system and want the Jubilee to perform at its full potential, this active DSP crossover is the component that makes the whole design work as intended.