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jwc

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    Sold: Klipsch Forte II

    in Garage Sale

    Posted

    12 hours ago, John Chi-town said:

    What do the cones look like on the passive radiators?

     

    Thanks,

    John

    Gosh, I thought I uploaded pics of those.

     

    Both intact w/o tear.  One does have dust cap pushed in.  I'll upload more images.

     

    jc

    Sold: Klipsch Forte II

    in Garage Sale

    Posted

    Klipsch Forte II for sale

     

    I’ve had these a very long time.  I’m not the original owner.  They play just fine.  They were in my bedroom for over a decade and were “my wife’s” speakers hooked up to the Onkyo stereo that I’ve had forever.

     

    I’m not the original owner.  They guy I bought them from lived in Atlanta and he sold stereo stuff out of his house.  He said he made one mod….and that is filled the base with sand as it” greatly improved the bass”.  Well, I didn’t take that bottom cover off the risers to fool with.

     

    I haven’t done a single thing to them.  Never took out a driver to look at nothing.

     

    I really kept for nostalgia.  Wife wants them gone.

     

    I consider them in good shape for their age.  The grills are solid.  Those grills have collected dust over the years and I’m not going to attempt any cleaning.

     

    I’m in Carrollton GA.  Pick up $900.  Paypal Friends and Family.  No cash.

    Recommended SET 300B tube amp for Klipschorn speakers

    in Talkin' Tubes

    Posted

    On 1/19/2022 at 8:16 AM, erik2A3 said:

    Excellent information, and I would add that whether the crossover in his K-horns (which I also owned for years, along with a few pairs of La Scalas), is suitable for single ended 300Bs perhaps depends more on the crossover in question.  The lower order designs, such as the type A and/or AA actually are very suitable for SE 300Bs, 2A3s, 45s, PX4,s, and so on.  It's when the amplifier is forced to contend with higher-order designs, such as the type AL (rather infamous on this forum, but actually sounds quite good with enough power in front of it -- IMO), that lower output amplifiers (eg most single-ended triodes) start to run out of steam -- not so much from wild impedance swings, but rather the insertion losses associated with higher order crossover slopes.  When one's amplifier is able to squeeze out only 1.5 - 8 watts or so, the greater number of passive components required by higher-order crossovers, the more the situation becomes like a 4 cylinder, 2-wheel-drive sedan trying to navigate through deep, soft sand, mud, etc.  In other words, the fewer the number of chokes (aka inductors), capacitors, and resistors (as in fixed or variable L-pads), the more single-ended-amplifier-friendly a crossover tends to be.  And when a network starts adding even greater complexity in the form of resonant peak filters, Zobel equalization networks, and so on, things just get worse.  I've worked with all of those in the past, and what one ends up with, particularly with such tiny amplifier wattage, is a linear response that sounds like a thick felt pad was draped over what would otherwise be crystal clear sound.

     

    This is one of the reasons that there are those (and I include myself among them) that really like the sound of very high quality single, full-range drivers that don't use crossovers -- except sometimes for the parts required (or more accurately, desired....I don't care for them) for baffle-step compensation.

     

    To the OP:  That's really neat you've corresponded with PWK in the past!  Very special indeed.  We might remember, as well, one of this illustrious gentleman's comments regarding amplifier output.  "What the world needs is a good 5-watt amplifier."  I hope I have that at least mostly correct.

     

    I used single ended triodes with our K-horns and La Scalas (and Heresies) alike for decades, and was able to get extremely high, undistorted volume levels from all of them.  However, what's loud to one person might not be the case for someone else; so one can't discount the importance of  listening tastes and priorities.  In general, though, and in my own experience (which is unique to me, as well as some other old timers here who enjoyed the same speakers with low power amplification), I am absolutely comfortable saying it's possible to obtain very, very good sound quality from single-ended amplifiers and Klipschorns.   I would agree that a constant reflected impedance can be beneficial, but I would humbly submit it's most certainly not mandatory.  If it were, Klipsch would have been more aware of that characteristic than we during those earlier years.  I built my own 6db/octave crossovers for my k-horns and la scales, often with a true band-pass for the midrange. Moreover, I found I actually preferred a variable L-pad to the autoformer, the latter of which (just for me, mind you) seemed to sound veiled in comparison.  Moreover, one did not have to change values of input capacitance to the mid-range horn as one does with the changing of taps (in order to attenuate) on the autoformer in order to maintain original crossover frequencies.

     

    Despite the fact that (I think) Klipsch is now using another vendor for crossover repairs and upgrades (rather sad and unfortunate in my personal view just in a historic sense as it relates to this forum), I could not give the Crites family http://critesspeakers.com a higher or stronger recommendation for their understanding-of and experience-with Klipsch crossovers.  The same can most certainly said for ALK Engineering, and Dean (although I think he may not be doing crossover work any longer).  All three of the above have spent decades offering upgrades and repairs...and kits...of extraordinarily high quality.

     

    I've used my own 300B amplifiers with both the type A and AA networks, and they absolutely sang through the monster heritage horns.  Good luck in your search!

    Great post.  Agree with a lot of that.

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