KLIPSCH MILESTONES
For over 80 years, Klipsch has designed and engineered its products in-house with the most talented, skilled, and passionate people in the industry - starting with our founder, Paul W. Klipsch. See below how this pioneer and maverick launched a company that is still changing the face of hi-fi today.
1904 - IT STARTED WITH PWK
Born March 9, 1904, in Elkhart, Indiana, Paul W. Klipsch (PWK) grew up in El Paso, Texas, where he built his first radios (becoming a HAM operator), conducted experiments with headphones, fell in love with locomotives, and played cornet in the band. Though he joked he graduated last in his high school class, he made the honor roll all four years at New Mexico State University, now home to the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Each year on his birthday, fans and Hope, Arkansas residents celebrate his legacy at the Klipsch Pilgrimage and PWK Birthday Bash with the Klipsch Museum of Audio History.
1930s - THE SEEDS OF AN IDEA
After leaving New Mexico State University, PWK designed radios at General Electric, then left to work as a junior electrical engineer for the Anglo-Chilean Consolidated Nitrate Corporation in Tocopilla, Chile. There, he compared his horn-shaped radio speaker to a friend’s cone speaker and recognized the horn’s superior efficiency. Back in the U.S. for graduate school, a Stanford colleague’s 1933 remark that “all speakers sound better in a corner” sparked his deeper thinking on speaker design.
1941 - WAR AND HOPE
Anticipating U.S. involvement in World War II, the government opened a munitions proving ground in Hope, Arkansas, where ROTC-trained Major Paul W. Klipsch was sent as chief engineer and second in command. Over 50,000 acres, he led thousands of troops in testing more than 3 million rounds and building 242 structures — including buildings that later became the Klipsch factory and Klipsch Museum of Audio History. Despite 70–90-hour workweeks, PWK manages to find the time to finish the design for his legendary speaker – the Klipschorn®. Visitors to his officer's quarters were amazed by the lifelike reproduction and encouraged PWK to start his own manufacturing business.
1946 – OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Using the idea that horn speakers are more efficient and less distorted, Paul W. Klipsch developed a crude prototype of the Klipschorn. He received a patent on his speaker design and virtually kickstarted the hi-fi era. In 1946, PWK established the name Klipsch & Associates and began producing his hi-frequency horns out of a tin shed in Hope, Arkansas. A local cabinetmaker and the Baldwin Piano Company assisted Paul in building the low-frequency cabinets for his first 20 Klipschorn speakers.