from Staff Reports and Interviews

Last March, Hard Rock Cafe International designated Klipsch as the official loudspeaker brand for Hard Rock Cafes around the world. Hard Rock Cafe CEO Peter Beaudrault offered a very simple explanation for choosing Klipsch: "We're telling our guests that we are serious about offering visitors the most dynamic entertainment experience available."

Dynamic entertainment is exactly what Klipsch has always been about. Every Klipsch speaker ever made has been designed to produce natural, concert-level sound without distortion or coloration, primarily through the application of advanced horn driver technology. The company's professional loudspeakers embody this principle in ruggedized configurations that allow enormous installation flexibility at extremely competitive prices. It's a winning combination. Today, Klipsch loudspeakers are a favorite among sound contractors and a leading brand in the market for movie theater and auditorium sound systems.

In fact, a good example of what makes Klipsch so popular with the pros can be found in last year's renovation of the original Hard Rock Cafe in London, undertaken as part of the restaurant's 30th anniversary celebration. Located across the street from Buckingham Palace, the London Hard Rock is a legend in its own right. As the story's told, the restaurant became a favorite of Eric Clapton soon after it opened. Eventually, he asked if he could hang his burgundy Fender Lead II guitar on the wall to mark the position of his favorite barstool. A week after the Fender went up, a package arrived from The Who's Pete Townsend containing a guitar and a note reading: "Mine's as good as his! Love, Pete." And from there, the train just kept a-rollin'.

Hard Rock contracted Showorks Entertainment Group to design and install a new, state-of-the-art sound system in the revamped London Cafe. Before starting the actual work, design engineer Howard Schlieper put together a speaker comparison for Hard Rock executives, so they could choose the sound they wanted. The acoustical environment for the face-off was similar to the restaurant's, and to keep the comparison as objective as possible, there was no discussion of prices beforehand.

"Just about every speaker manufacturer you could think of was represented by one or two models," says Schlieper, "sometimes three or four, and it was very interesting to see. Hard Rock was very pleased with the sound of the Klipsch. We were playing everything from Tom Petty and Leonard Skynard and old Rolling Stones to Steely Dan and Tool or Metallica - just about everything we could think of with different production values and qualities and approaches. It turned out that the Klipsch KI-102 was one of their top choices, and then when they looked at the prices, it was a no-brainer. 'If I like that speaker as much as any of them,' one of the guys says, 'in fact maybe a little better than most of them and I'm paying this much less - let me do the math over however many sites.' He looks back up and says, 'Wow, that's an easy choice.' From then all the way to now, after we've done retrofits for them all over the world, the Hard Rock people have been extremely happy with the Klipsch product."

One thing Schlieper finds particularly impressive is how big an improvement they get just replacing the old speakers with the new Klipsches. "Before we even put in a Media Matrix or re-EQ'd everything or tweaked anything, all of a sudden people turned around and went, 'Man, that sounds great, what did you do?' You know you're going in the right direction when all you do is pop the speakers in and already you've got a quantum leap forward in sound quality and everybody is happy with it."

For the record, the Hard Rock London and an accompanying store across the street now contain 70 Klipsch KI-102s, six KI-362s, two KI-262s, and six SCW-2s. The KI-102 is a compact speaker in a trapezoidal enclosure, designed for permanent installation. It uses an 8-inch woofer and Tractrix horn tweeter with a 1-inch titanium-diaphragm driver. KI-102s are distributed throughout the restaurant and store to deliver high-quality background music. (In the store, SCW-2 in-wall speakers supplement the KI-102s. The SCW-2 has a 6½-inch woofer and a Tractrix horn tweeter.) The stage speakers are KI-362s. This is a large three-way system using a 15-inch woofer, a Tractrix horn midrange with a 1½-inch compression driver, and a Tractrix horn tweeter. Rated at 102 dB sensitivity and 126 dB maximum output, just one KI-362, all by itself, can pump out a lot of sound. The six KI-262s - compact speakers built around 12-inch woofers and Tractrix horn tweeters with 1½-inch titanium-diaphragm drivers - are used downstairs in the bar area.

So if you're in London, or any of the other cities that host Hard Rock Cafes, drop in to hear just how great Klipsch can make a club, bar, or restaurant sound. The food's great, too.

Learn More About Hard Rock Cafe International

Since its 1971 opening in London, Hard Rock Cafe has become a global phenomenon. Currently there are 108 Hard Rock Cafes in 41 countries, combining the spirit of rock music, memorabilia (valued at $32 million) from the hottest musical artists of the last 50 years, classic American food, and a commitment to widespread humanitarian causes, such as feeding New York workers in the September 11 rescue effort.

At Hard Rock, music is truly the universal language. In recent years, Hard Rock has expanded its cafe boundaries by reinforcing its "music connection" through music-related products and programs such as collectible and fashionable HRC merchandise, the Hard Rock Records music label, www.hardrock.com, Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos, and Hard Rock Live music venues. Artists who have appeared at Hard Rock Live include Godsmack, Sugar Ray, the Moody Blues, Pantera, EryKah Badu, and the Go-Go's. Not only can we rock hard, we know how to throw a party. Opening celebrations for each new Hard Rock Cafe all around the world are headlined by live musical performances. So, keep your eye out as HRC continues to take music into the next millennium.

As the world changes and tastes shift and twist, Hard Rock has always been at the top of the hottest trends. Still, Hard Rock Cafe remains conscious to its founding objectives: delicious food, awesome music, a high-energy atmosphere and creating a rock 'n' roll experience their guests will never forget.

Hard Rock Cafe International, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of London-based The Rank Group Plc (NASDAQ: RANKY).