Klipsch arrived at High End Vienna 2026 with the kind of product lineup that reminds everyone why the brand still matters after 80 years: big horns, real wood, inspired design, unapologetic efficiency, and enough Heritage DNA to satisfy even a die-hard lover of vintage horn speakers.
Our 80th Anniversary Klipschorn and Klipsch/OJAS kO-R2 preview covered the two biggest attention-grabbers, while our separate Klipsch Rebellion preview focused on the new compact Heritage bookshelf speaker that may end up being the sleeper of the entire announcement.
On paper, all of these products sit in very different parts of the Klipsch universe. One is a tribute to Paul W. Klipsch’s original corner-horn loudspeaker. One is a design-forward collaboration with Devon Turnbull (a.k.a. OJAS). The third is a smaller-format Heritage model based on the rare 1958 H8 “Model H” design.
Seeing (and hearing) them all at the show, the message was pretty clear: Klipsch is not treating Heritage like a museum wing. These are real products that will find their way into real music lovers’ homes this year. They are inspired by the past, but use modern fabrication techniques and crossover designs to bring the performance beyond what was possible with the legacy products.
At around $2,700/pair, the Klipsch Rebellion may be the most interesting of the three from a real-world buyer perspective. It is the first compact bookshelf/stand-mount loudspeaker in the Heritage Series, and Klipsch says it traces its roots back to PWK’s rare 1958 Model H “H8” design, of which only 16 were made.
Paul W. Klipsch designed the Model H as a dedicated center channel speaker to fill in the gap between the company’s other speakers when they were spaced far apart from each other, in order to improve the imaging by providing a rock-solid anchor for vocals. That kind of backstory can become marketing fog very quickly, but the Rebellion has a more practical job: give Heritage fans a smaller horn-loaded speaker that does not require a dedicated listening room, reinforced corners, or a long conversation with a structural engineer.
Standard finish options for the Rebellion include American Walnut and Black Ash. To celebrate Klipsch’s 80th anniversary, a limited-edition Tigerwood finish will also be available (I wonder if the golfer gets a discount?).
At the other end of the room, the 80th Anniversary Klipschorn was pure legacy with new control under the hood. Limited to 280 pairs worldwide, the anniversary model updates the Klipschorn concept with an external active DSP crossover while retaining the essential corner-horn architecture that made the original one of the most recognizable loudspeakers in audio history.
With high extremely high sensitivity, the Klipschorn can be driven from a single ended triode tube amp, so the 125 Watts/Channel of the 80th Anniversary Onkyo Muse Y-50 integrated amp was more than enough to push these speakers to 110 dB+ reference levels with tight, extended bass and effortless detail. The speaker will be available for $25,000-$27,000/pair depending on finish options.
The Klipsch/OJAS kO-R2 pushes in a different direction, taking horn-loaded audio into the design and culture space without abandoning the efficiency and immediacy that made Klipsch famous in the first place. Designed in partnership with artist and noted audio DIYer, OJAS (Devon Turnbull), the kO-R2 was set up in Vienna outside the convention center in its own listening room, built into a storage container. Although that sounds spartan, it was actually a nicely air-conditioned storage container, treated quite effectively with comfy seats and sound treatments to keep outside sounds out (and inside sounds in).
The Klipsch/OJAS kO-R2 is a passive 2-way loudspeaker, featuring the OJAS 1506 Multisectoral horn. The speaker is handcrafted in Hope, Arkansas, by Klipsch artisans, and designed in collaboration with OJAS. The cabinet is built from 13-ply Grade A Baltic birch plywood. It houses the company’s K-33-E 15-inch woofer in a vented enclosure, crossed over at 760Hz to the K-706 high frequency compression driver, which is loaded on an exposed sand cast aluminum multi-sectoral horn. Features of the kO-R2 include anodized aluminum binding posts, anti-vibration rubber feet, an elegant engraved metal ID plate with serial number, and a five-step high-frequency high frequency gain attenuator.
The room had a cool, relaxed vibe as Devon himself spun some of his favorite tunes on vinyl and reel-to-reel tape with mostly home-made amplification gear powering a pair of the kO-R2 speakers. As with any great horn speaker, the kO-R2 produced dynamic, punchy sound that was particularly effective on drums and percussion, but also possessed the finesse to reproduce the delicacy of stringed instruments and human vocals.
The Klipsch/OJAS kO-R2 is available for sale exclusively on ojas.nyc at $11,995.pair. They are taking pre-orders now and expect to beginning shipping the speakers in August or September of this year.
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