TRiv

Will be interested to hear your opinion of the 203b horns with the Khorns. Doing the search, there has been little to no experimenting with the 203b on Khorns here. I have them on top of Speakerlab plan built bins (constructed by forum member "Bluesboy") using all Klipsch drivers (excellent condition)from a pair of beat up 1977 Cornwalls, and Crites khorn crossovers. I will try to post pictures later in the week, better than trying to describe them. As you know or will find out the 203 does have to hang over the front or rear of the bass bin, if the front of the horns are even with the front surface of the bass bin, the driver assembly will not fit into the corner, I went this way and used false corners for that and other reasons. Also, my K77's are mounted co-axial with the 203 in the center, again pictures will help here. Except that they are a bit big, I really like the 203b's and will be keeping them and the rest of the components as is, my opinion, these horns sound great at any distance close or far, and do not add anything that is not supposed to be there, not scientific, but I like them. Again I will post some pics, and do keep us posted on your results.

The narrow one could be the Electro-Voice KD-2 construction plan version ( plans sold by Electro-Voice in the 1950's-60"s) also sold built by Electro-Voice as "The Georgian". They both used a 15" Electro Voice woofer, would have to check, the EV woofers used the 13"x6" slot rather than the K-horn 13"x3" slot.

Probably best to find another. Welding not a cost effective or easy, I TIG weld aluminum usually 6061-T6 and some cast, which the 600 horn is and I wouldn't try it, to small a piece to weld on, welding aluminum takes a lot of heating on the parts and must be free of paint and very clean, tough on the horn casting, further, the tap size for threads is not common. You could try JB Weld , available at auto and harware stores, a two part epoxy used with a lot of success for automotive casting repairs. If you sparingly put a little on the cracked surfaces of the two parts and "glue" them back together being carefull not to get any on the threads, making sure to hold them together tight until epoxy sets up. When set, rough up the outside edges of the repaired crack with file or sandpaper, then add more JB Weld to the outside of the crack repair to build up more thickness to the repair. After that sets up you could add a hose clamp to the outside to add even more strength to the repair, reinstall KV-55 driver and dont over tighten. This is just a repair option, another horn would still be better, but a repair just may work. Good luck!

Thanks Don, as you see I have not done any cosmetics yet, though they get everyday use! System is SAE 2200 amp, 3100 pre-amp, sony DVP-S9000ES dvd player, Nikko FAM-800 tuner, and Sansui SR-838 turntable. My car hobby is taking most of my spare time and money right now, but will still put a finish on the speakers in near future, and I have considered the 902's, just on the back burner for now. As to the original post, I again have no experience with the 803b though according to the Altec dimensions, the 803b will fit better and not as deep as the 203b, the 311-90 would be my second choice, but I am really happy with the 203b.

Don, still checking out the forum here, reading. The bass bins are still in the same condition unfinished wise, though set up as I plan to keep them sound wise. I still owe you pictures of the set up as-is, so I better borrow GFs digital camera and post some here. The horns I am using are actually the Altec 203B two cell 300hz recommended by an Altec/lansing forum member as being thee 300hz Altec horn to use for home use, and I am totally happy with it. He claimed it to be best choice over the 311-90, 803b, 1003b horns, though I haven't tried the others, going to stay with thew 203b. The 203b is same width as the K-horn bass bin and 17" tall, so it looks like it belongs on top of the K-horn bass bin in its raw state (low WAF pending ones W or say so in the house), though they are rather deep requiring false corners for the tail end of horn with driver to stick through (extra 8" in corner). I will really have to post a picture of this for best explanation, the K-77 tweeters are mounted to the 203b in the center where the two cells meet. this required some sheet metal fabrication for the right fit, function, and look, long story short, the k-77 is vertical and coaxial to the horn, which uses the k-55 driver, I really really am happy with it! just like the original K-horns, the 203b really....smooth, no added sound effects or ringing or anything. The only upgrade maybe will be the BEC tweeters in the center, and maybe an upgrade from the BEC type A crossover, for now I like them just the way they are, just need to do cosmetic work. Will try to post some pics here soon.

Excellent post, there sure seems to be a lot of truth to the above, though there are some well recorded and true sounding cd/sacds out there. One of my solutions to the above was to buy a real instrument (non electronic) and learning how to play it, no cd/ipod/mp3,digital,etc.interference!

Hi all, since this thread is about modified Klones, would like to get any thoughts on a bass bin mod. Considering only the bass bin itself is a clone ( mid horn is Altec 203B) and speaker components are Klipsch,K33E,K55V,K77, BEC typeA crossover, would like to know if the the Khorn (for K33) driver back chamber size was/is a compromise volume due to available space? and if so, is there a prefered back volume (more than the 3 cubic ft as is), and if that volume could be added (+ 3-5 cubic feet?), would there be any performance advantage? would this also require the change of slot size? This volume would be added at the front panel of the bin by adding and extending forward (6-8 inches)to get desired cubic feet / inches, and would be conected to the back chamber with slots cut by both sides of the bin at the front corners where the original design used that extra bit of corner space for volume. The hope is to optimize the performance of the K33E (if not already there) with the prefered back chamber volume, and with the added volume (structure)provide a more tapered output at inner sides of the horn mouth opposed to just dropping off sharply, also, the 203B horns won't have to hang out the back so much (have to use false walls to accomodated).

Is 3800 cu. inches the known approximate volume of the Khorn rear chamber?

Actually, the prisms "could" be a substantial increase in total chamber volume (at least compared to the main chamber) only guessing, not doing the math, about 3/4 cubic foot each prism, the problem I see after looking at the cutaways awhile is the notches or 45 degree cuts only provide (two to each prism) provide, at best a 1 1/2 inch square opening to each prism. In pnuematics or hydraulics this would be an orifice, and flow would be restricted quit a bit, in this situation, actually, a pressure differential between main chamber and prism chambers, and it's hard to imagine seeing much "spring" effect from main chamber volume to the prisms through a 1 1/2 inch square hole, unlike the added volume on the sides of the Khorn interior which have large passages. I don't mean to debate the design, it is a clever attempt to add chamber volume using the available space of the original Khorn, and maybe it helps somewhat, but is that audibly noticable? I am going to leave my bins alone for now, "sound" great to me as is, a bit of work for unknown performance increase, unless someone can convince me otherwise. PWK obviosly had the back chamber volume needed calculated for desired system resonance and used the only available space to come closer to it without adding to the cabinet elsewhere, is that volume known? and what about the volume of the Khorn chamber as is? Must have been some math to figure the existing volume unless doing it like automotive engine head combustion chamber volume, fill it up (cc-ing)with liquid and measure amount needed to fill the cavity.

I have a pair of Speakerlab bins that don't have the notches, and have a way to modify them to add the path to the sky slope area, a bit of a job ( they are not finished off yet) but do-able, question, will the extra volume be worth the effort in audible performance or by measuring with instrumentation only? I am using K33-P's and BEC type A crossovers, and do listen to some pipe organ stuff, maybe I'll mod one and compare to the other, though that is subjective to opinion and guess.

Selling audio equiptment was a fun but short part of my working years to date, and I was lucky to be selling during some hot years for the big recievers, 1979-1981. Just a local 2 store place in Cleveland Ohio, we sold the entire Pioneer, Kenwood, Akai, and Sansui lines along with SAE, Soundcraftsmen, AR, Epicure,DBX and others I forgot, anyway, sold a lot of Kenwood KR-9600's, was actually our best selling "big" reciever, the Pioneer SX1250 and SX-1280 were second, but the biggest we had was the Sansui G-33000 @ 330 watts per ch, and this reciever along with a smaller 220 watts per ch G-22000 actually came in two sections, the pre amp/tuner section, and the pwer amp section. Both sections could be bolted together to make one very large reciever, or stacked one on top the other or even separated a distance as options. I have no pics to offer nor have looked to see if any are for sale on ebay for pics, but they looked just like the Sanui G-8000? posted on the first page of this thread. The only speaker we sold at the time that could handle the power of the 33000 was the Acoustic research AR-9. It was a fun job at the time!

Nice pictures, have to save that link for reference. Separate photo groups showing veneering pair of Cornwals (in Zebrawood) , pair of Khorns ( in Rosewood), 3 pairs of LaScalas (real interesting photos there), Heresies, and Shorthorns. Worth a look, thanks for posting.

I think these are the same gems up for sale again, poorer pictures this time around for sure http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=9732267821&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1 just a heads up...

To anyone interested, the bass bins Don ( bluesboy) has offer are top notch quality from a construction and performance perspective. Having used these for a few months now, the price with shipping was well worth it. Having used and experimented with a pair of 1977 Cornwalls I purchased on ebay ( a bit rough @ $425) I wanted to upghrade to Khorns, and at the time mostly junk was available or sellers would not ship or I was outbid, I posted on the forum here looking for Khorn bins, and Don had a pair he built for sale. As others, I preffered a pair of factory built cabinets, but no longer wanted to look at cabinets from non shipping sellers, or cigarette smoke/ animal dander/ water damaged examples. so I bought these from Don. As a tradesman/technician myself, I see the Klipsch/Speakerlab-K/ Electro- Voice KD-2 cabinets as very labor intensive to build, and why Klipsch may no longer sell a bare Khorn bin, costs too much labor time. I think his price is worth the quality of build and performance once assembled. I have done machining work to .0005" and am impressed with how close the panel fits are on these bins, as for nails on the cabinets, you can not see them hardly them, as they are from some fancy nail gun, and they are there simply to hold the panels together till the glue dries, unlike the big screws used in factory bins, or big nails used in factory EV Georgian/106 bins. My 77 fair condition Cornwalls components K-33P, K55V. K77 along with a pair of Altec 511B's ( soon to be 203B's) and BEC typeA crossovers have a great home in these bins, and in my opinion are now far superior to the Cornwalls they came from, thanks to the K type bin. P.S. these bins are new , and smell new