idahodewitt

Nevermind. I got them yesterday, pulled the speaker connector on the back, and found out for myself. Quite an elaborate crossover for a 2-way speaker. 3 caps, 2 inductors and a resistor. They sound good for a Chinese made speaker. These will work well in my workshop. Larry D.

I have a set of Klipsch Synergy B3 bookshelf speakers on their way to me and I was wondering what the cap & inductor values were in the speaker's crossover and what type of cap & inductor Klipsch used. I'd upgraded a couple pairs of Klipsch crossovers and had very pleasing results. Also, has anyone upgraded one of the B3's crossovers? Larry D.

I called B&K and they will not sell a service manual to anyone who is not an electronics repair shop due to possible litigation (if I were to hurt myself while adjusting the amp). Sounds totally lame to me, but that's where the skewed legal system has gone......thanks to greedy lawyers and judges with an agenda. Larry

djk, Yes, I read your response, but I missed the short sentence "The top pot is bias", at the top of your reply to my question. If I had seen that then I would have totally understood all that you had said. I wouldn't still be asking the question if I'd seen that you'd already answered it. Too early, not enough coffee, and glasses in the bedroom don't make for a productive morning. Thank you so much for the information and putting up with the mistakes some of us ocasionally make.

Anyone here know how to set the DC offset and bias on a B&K EX442? I need to know which pot is used to adjust the DC and which is the bias pot and the proper setting and procedure for setting the bias. Yeah, that's alot to ask, but I'm having trouble finding any info on the web so I thought I'd give this forum a try. I found that my DC offset is way out of spec (around -200mv, both channels) and figured it would be best to check the bias while I'm at it and adjust if necessary. I know this forum is mainly for speakers, but I thought I'd try. Thanks.

You could get some large maple dowels, sand them down & paint to match the other feet on your other speakers, drill out the centers (almost all the way through), then epoxy in some threaded bolt stock into the hole (that matches the spike's thread & leave about an inch sticking out the top of the hole), and just screw them in place after the epoxy sets up. Maple is pretty tough and should hold up very well as long as you completely fill the hole with epoxy and leave no voids. This is just a suggestion and would be what I'd do if I were in your situation.

You may have to contact Klipsch for these. I have not seen them anywhere else. I have a couple damaged ones on one of my KLF-20s which I just purchased. I'd be interested in a set myself.

As I said before, I think I may just improve upon the existing crossover and keep it simple for now by putting together an 3-way outboard using the same values of caps & coils used in the stock x-over, but using better quality parts, some of which I'd have to wait a short while to afford. I may try an active crossover later on, but for now I'm just wanting to get the best sound out of a single low powered tube amplifier. Right now I'm running a single ended Magnavox 6BQ5 amp, AES AE-3 preamp w/Tung-Sol roundplate 6SN7, and an Arcam CD192 player. I have about a dozen other tube amps boxed up in my garage that I haven't tried yet, almost all of which need a recap, so I am not in need of things to do at the moment, even though I'm intrigued with making my own inductors. The inductor winding seems simple to me, but I wanted some input from experienced people here in this forum so that I do not waste my time or money, especially the time since it is irreplaceable.....I can always get more money, but not more time. I have an idea to build an inductor winder with the wire ties built in so that I can cinch the coils up once they're fully wound. I also plan to seal the layers together with silicone as I wind them so as to eliminate any chance of looseness & vibration. This would be a fun winter project, along with all my other projects. If I can't find the time to build my winder, then its 'hello NorthCreek, send me some of those circular coily copper things that you make". I know what a 'night & day' difference it made when I upgraded the parts in a pair of Klipsch Tangent 500 crossovers. I can only imagine how much better the already very good sounding KLF-20s will be.

Dave, I know nothing about an active crossover. They're definitely less expensive than rebuilding the stock x-over with high quality parts, but does ALL the sound get through without being distorted/diminished in any way?

A single 1.6mH inductor using 10AWG will almost take 100ft of wire.....whoa! That's a lot of wire! I may shop around for a really good price on the 10 gauge before I'd try winding my own. There are a few decent deals on eBay, but I'll keep checking around to see where I can find the best price. 8 AWG is hard to find and may be a bit too heavy to wind without the proper machinery. I have till the end of the month to buy some things from partsconnexion at a discount, but I can wait on the inductors as I gather information on this subject of winding them for a while longer.

There is an inductor calculator which should get me close (wire lengthwise) to where I need to wind an inductor, then I could just overwind it a few turns and cut the wire, then measure back (unwind) to the desired mH reading if I have overshot it. The calculator is at: www.diyaudioandvideo.com/Calculator/Inductor/ . This calculator should do the trick shouldn't it? I'm good at building/designing things so it should not be a problem to build a precise jig to wind these on. I've developed an attention to detail from the years I'd spent in gemcutting (as a hobby) and 20+ years assembling, maintaining, and working with machinery. My electrical background is not one of much depth, so I appreciate everyones input so that I can make an educated decision on what to do that saves me time and/or money. Also, thanks to the forum member that sent this website to me. I Googled 'winding inductors, parameters, specifications, etc,etc' and could not find it. That was what I was searching for. You saved me additional hours of searching. This forum is great!

The two values are 1.6mH and .16mH for the KLF-20. The crossover frequencies are 750 Hz and 7 kHz. Since you have tried it, why would you not recommend doing it?

I am always looking to save a few bucks, so I'm considering to take a stab at winding my own inductors instead of purchasing a finished product. Has anyone here done that? Just wondering if its worth the effort. I was looking at using 10 gauge enameled motor winding wire. Looks as if I may be able to save around $180 on just my two woofer inductors over buying a finished product. I haven't found a formula (that I can understand) that calculates the amount of windings it takes to reach a specific mH value. (I'm challenged in the advanced math arena.) Is there another way to do this or could someone explain the math in simpler terms? Question.....Could I use a meter that measures mH and with needle pointed probes just pierce through the skin of the wire and measure from the inner end of the coil to the proposed end of coil. The remaining coil of wire I'm feeding off of should not affect the readings should it? I have alot of other inductors I could wind for other speaker crossover upgrades, so I'd like to be able to figure out how to do this. I'm trying to see if its feasible to try this or just pay for the someone else's finished product. Its just doesn't seem right to pay as much for four inductors as I'd paid for my KLF-20s.

Bob, Do you have a heavier gauge autoformer for the KLF-20? Larry

SET12, Still trying to figure out how to replace the 80uf cap. Looks like I may have to use a 82uf Solen. That should still be within tolerances......and affordable. The 1.25uf midrange cap is rated at 250VDC. I wonder if it needed to be rated that high (VDC) or if that rating was what was available at the best price to Klipsch at that time. I'd like to try the Duelund VSF copper 200VDC (because the price of the 400VDC jumps up to almost $60 more each). I can get the 1.25uf 200VDC Duelund for $119 apiece right now. I hate to pay that kind of money for caps, but the midrange is 'meat' of the music to me, so I want to get the most out of it. The 400V copper would be somewhere around $180 each till the end of November sale through Partsconnexion. The tweeter caps have me perplexed a bit also. I wanted 2uf Mundorf Silver In Oils, but they're only available in 1.8uf & 2.2uf. Should be okay to use those shouldn't it? If you have some good suggestions, I'd like to hear them. I'm still doing my homework before I do any purchasing. Larry

Bob has great stuff for sure, but I was just wanting to build my own. I want to tinker around and try different caps to hear the differences. Looks like I may stick with these KLF-20 beasts for a while....they're not bad at all, even with no modifications. Larry

Whoa! That thread went on forever............. Lots of good information though. I've used North Creek before......good stuff and good people to work with. I'll see about getting the Duelund resistors for the highs and their caps for the mids. Then the heavy gauge wire inductors from North Creek if they're still available. Plus, get the 80uf electrolytic out of there. I'll experiment around with the 2uf caps to hear what sounds best and see what I can do to get a better autoformer. I've dealt with Bob Crites before......great guy & very helpful. Thanks for all the info. Larry DeWitt

Bob, Thanks so much for the schematic! That's just what I needed. Now I can figure out how to put a new x-over together. I may do an outboard one that I can change out different types of caps on for capacitor auditioning purposes. Another question...... Is there any reason that I should not use a different type of inductor to replace the iron core one? I was thinking of using the Alpha Core ribbon type of inductor. Would that work well for this application? Thanks . Larry DeWitt

Where can I find the information on the values of the components (inductors, capacitors, & resistor) used in a KLF-20 crossover? I can read some of the caps and the resistor. I'd like to upgrade the whole thing if possible and not knowing the values of what I want to replace makes a complete upgrade rather difficult. I picked up the KLF20s last week, got them hooked up Sunday night, and I'm definitely happy with their sound. I just know that there's room for improvement by at least replacing the caps. I'd like to replace the inductors too, but I have no idea what their values are. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! L.D.

I guess I did not answer your question and I really can't since I have not worked with the KLF-20, but when I did upgrade the crossovers in my Tangents, the bass did become more pronounced......definitely louder. I think it was due to the better quality parts allowing more of the signal/power to pass through to the woofer. I forgot to mention that I did install 14 gauge air core copper coils and replaced all the wiring with heavier OFC wire. ALL the crossover parts were replaced with higher quality components and it made a shocking difference. L.D.

I'm picking up a pair of KLF-20s this weekend and I'll be rebuilding the crossover to original specs, but I will be using higher quality parts. I rebuilt the crossovers on a pair of Tangent 500s and the difference was immediately noticeable with better clarity and tighter/well controlled bass. I only used Solen and ERO caps which I consider lower-high end caps. I also braced up the cabinets and lined the cabs and braces with carpeting foam. The cabinets were totally dead when you slapped them on the sides instead of sounding like a drum as they did before. I got alot of positive comments from that pair of speakers. I'd like to know what others have done with the KLF-20s that has worked well for them also. Thanks. Larry D.

Yeah, I've scoured the postings for one of these and have not found one. If you had a two inch driver there is a great one which has the side to side measurements (in one inch increments) down the center of the horns throat. I could build that, but that's 2", not 1". If you get the figures, let me know. I'd like to build one too. Larry D.

Check on page 2 of Updates & Modifications and read through the thread on KG-5.5 Rattle. There's plenty of good information in that thread to fix those 30s right. Larry

Glad to see it worked out for you. They should sound great and never give you a rattling problem again. Larry D.

I had a similar problem with a pair of Tangent 500s. I took out the speakers and batting and then pushed out on the sides to verify that they were loose. Yep, it was obvious......at least two of the four corners were unglued and were rattling when the speakers played. I then used Elmers polyurethane glue (like Gorilla Glue) and glued two corners together at a time while the speakers were laying on their sides. I'd glue one front corner and one back corner (obviously the bottom corners) let it set overnight, then flip it over on the other side and glue the other front & back corner the next day. Once the glue was all cured up I also installed some cross-braces using the poly glue. I cut them for a tight fit and only used glue......no nails or screws. I also glued and stapled carpet pad to the inside walls & braces. This worked out very well to deaden the cabinets and they sound great when played. The guy I sold them to still compliments me on their sound. The carpet pad is your call, but glueing the corners will stop the cabinet from rattling for sure. You could also make some 90 degree wedges and glue them in the corners when you're glueing the corners together for extra bracing (I did that too). Those are some ideas you can try out if you'd like. They worked for me. Regards, Larry