Erland

Interesting thought! Are you dissatisfied with your treble responce, or is it just something you like to try out. Please keep us posted on the results. note: There is also a possibillity to go Horn all the way, by adding for example a set of GOTO tweeter horns. But they are very prizy!

Gents I read a lot of strong pro's and con's on SET amps. No wonder! The resent years I have tried plenty of them, and compard them with my 30 W push/pull amp. Conclution! It is more to the picture than just the capabillity of sending out some Watts! If it was'nt, how can some manufactorers justify their massive prizetag (and find someone willing to pay it) when you can get the same tube and same watt's from China by deviding the prize by 5 or even 10! Two different 7W 300B amp can not automatically be compared, and you can definately not judge the whole "breed" of SET 300B by just hearing one of them! The first one I hooked up, was a super nice looking Chineese manufactored thing. In fact it looked so good that a really wanted it to perform. In despite of my hoped and desires, It did'nt. It sounded like shit! (not judging all Chineese amps by this thow). It sounded like grasping for air already at low volumes. It made me conclude that SET did'nt work for me. Later I tried a AudioNote Kit1 (std. 300B version ) and it completely changed my view. How this rather cheap DIY-kit perform so differently? It had almost the same circuit, but it sounded like it never would run out of power! Probably by closely selected high quality parts, a lot better powersupply and output transformers! Lately I hooked up the AN kit2 SET amp that runs someting so unusual as the KT88 in SE configuration. Definately different! I think I prefer the 300B, but the KT88 have a punch in the bass range that is hard to believe a 10W SE amp can deliver. At a friends house I got the listen to his "maxed out" 300B monoblocks with a custom powersupply that was hard to believe to have the purpose of running a single 300B tube and its 6c45pi driver. The 7W amps delivered a sense of power I have neve experienced before, but it still was delivered with the kind of grace that you must hear to understand. So' why am I telling you this? Because to place judgement of a whole group or type of amps from the experience of one or two meidocre units, is like reviewing a movie by the poster outside the cinema. If you like to know what SET can be, start at something like the SUNaudio 300B or 2A3, or the AudioNote Kit1 (preferabely the PQ version) imho Erland

For about three years ago I built a dual mono preamp from scratch. The schematics is drawn by one of the really great designers, and the design at about the same as one of the really serious highend linestages on the market today. Simple design, but sounds great. Uses the one EZ80 rectifier (a undervalued tube by the most, but the few who knows it, prefers it!) and dual chokes pr channel. You can use a 13D3 or 6h30pi for the signal in the original circuit. I found that I gave a litle to much gain, and rewired and changed to the 5687 tube. Plays great! Note that the 5687 are a quite hard tube to "heat". It pulls a lot of power, so you need some good transformer(s) Also note that you change the sonic caracteristic of the 5687 quite drasticly with or without bypassing the cathode resistance bypassed with a capacitor. With the cap, you add a litle "sparkle and shine" to the music, without you get a more "laydback" performance. The preamp I mentioned can be built I a large prize and quality ranges. Mine are more or less maxed out, with S&B transformer volume controls and all BlackGate caps, Tantalum resistors ea. with a total parts cost of more than $3000. But I also knows a guy who built the same design with cheaper parts and still got amasingly good results. If you are interested, send me an email and I will forward the schematics to you. Erland

When building my Khorns my wife had some concerns about the size. When I got them located in the living room, she looked at them and expressed: "These speakers are actually very cool and classy" I could have married her once more that day! But if she had a problem with the horns, it would be her problem! She can decorate the rest of the house except for the hifi wall, that's my territory. Unless she really got you by the "b...." for other issues like chasing other wimen, gambling, drinking and fighting ea, I think you should allow yourself the pleasure of having your favourite speakers where you prefer!

I have installed other spikes ona pair of RF5 I had. The threads was 1/4" The RF3II and RF7 also have these threads. It should be the same on the 83. I used Soudcare superspikes. Does a lot of good for the sound, aswell as they protects flooring against scratching and holes.

A guy I know of have these highend vintage spakers that burns a mixture oxygen and helium. He and his speakers appears on a documentary called "freaks & geeks" that is downloadable from Norwegian National TV (www.nrk.no) As he expresses in the documentary "these kind of speakers is not for the faint hearted"

Just a "note" from what supposed to be a quiet dinner party on Saturday afternoon; When grown men cry and dance with the remotecontrol, and one of the towns "interiour-pushers" expresses that "these kind of loudspeakers are actually very cool" Then they're all KLIPSCH'd[]

How do I get in toch with Dean? I sent him a pm from the forum with no reply, and my friend sent him an email at deang@crossoverupgrades.com that came in return. Thanks Erland

he-he You get's a much deeper understanding of the phrase "shakes the hose" Luckily mine is over 100years old and of built out of solid lumber. It does not shake much! But as mentioned, you soon enough find out what cabinets and interior details that needs to be bolted firmly to surroundings.

I have a friend who own a pair of RF5's, and he asked me some question regarding the possibillity and potential of upgrading the crossovers. I've had a pair and liked them, but I never opened them, so I do not even know what parts the crossover consists of. Do anyone of you have any experiences? Modificatons? Component upgrades? Thank you Erland

Hooked up, and ready for many years of musical pleasure If anyone like to use some of my ideas and need advise, pictures or guidance, please ask. I will be happy to share my experiences.

I used Bostik that comes on an aerosol spraycan. 3M has the same product that I know others have used. It works well, but you need to make sure threat the surface first if you start with plain plywood without any varnish or coating. Alternatively use very much glue! I went for the spraycan solution to ensure I spread the glue evenly. You need aprox. one can pr. front of the basshorn. Spray the glue on both surfaces, and wait for about 15 mins. Be extreemely precise when laying the veneer to the horn! When the glueed surfaces gets in contact, there are no way to get them apart without destroying the veneer. For amatours like me, it did not mather how precise I was, small bumps or unevenness appeared on the surface. I had been advised to have a hot iron ready (the type you use for clothes)[if uit's a steam-type, make sure to drain the water]. By using that to flatten the surface, or make the wood subtract, you can flatten most unevenness. Please ask again, If I am unclear of anything. By the way, here are a picture of the top assembled with the bass XO to the left, with the tweeter XO standing next to it, hidden behind the trachorn. Midband XO to the right. All internal cable are 2mm 99.99% pure solidcore silver with exeption of the cables from the bass XO to the woofers. They are 1.5mm solidcre Cryotreated silver, with a layer of Palladium on the outside. I do not want to worry about the quality of my internal cables[] Top section are threaded in bottom, and Soundcare Superspikes are fitted

Intresting and very relevant thinking; As a Khorn "newbee" I asked the same question some months ago. I was informed that it was important NOT to introduce a gap under the horns! What I have done, is to glue a 2mm rubber mat under the horn. The result gives the horn a very solid and "nonslip" footprint. By doing so, it's take some jiggeling to get the horns all the way in to the corner, because the horn almost fixes itself to my wooden floor. But after all, that is not something I do every other day. Erland

When re-reading this post I see that I may confuse; What I was trying to say, was that it reduce bass-sound that does not come from the reccord, but are beeing created in that "hollow" space in the corner behind the speakers "backboard". This may be enough to reduce some resonance in your room aswell. In my room, it removed some "rumble" and left a firm nice bass.

This already sounds great! Tonight I have done some testing with angle and adjustment of the seperated top cabinet. It is very obvious that by spreading the angle from the corner, the soundstage and perspectve of the perfomers on the record, become more fixed. In general terms, the performers get released from the speakers and steps out on a virtitual stage between the horns. I have never heard a khorn do this to the same degree before! I strongly recomend khorn users to try this out!

I experienced that stuffing the "dead" void deep in the corner behind the back board of the horn(the space you seal off) with loudspeaker cotton, effectively reduced resonannces.

Finally done: And how do they sound? In total the horns have played music for 30hrs or so. Way to litle to soften the bass membrane, and have all to large caps "burnt" in. But it sounds very promising. Good soundstage, with a very wide but focused sweetspot. Thank you very much to all of you who have contributed with ideas and inspiration during the building process, and especcially Al Klappenberger for patiencely ansvering all my questions regarding crossover and building of them, and to Bob Crites for supplying the drivers. I will be back with another "picture-post" when I start to build monoblocks to go with the horns.

Uhhhh, just to unplug the speakers to do this was hard. I rather play music, but I realize that I have to do sometime anyway. Maybe this can be called veneering 1-2-3? The product, the glue and the woofer cabinet: The cabinet and the veneer sprayed with glue (waiting to dry): Finnished:

Listening experience after first days: Top and mid sound sweeter that any Khorn i have heard, but the "lifelike" resolution is still there. The woofer started off like "kicking an empty shoebox" but now it starts to soften some, and sounds really promising. Every time we leave the house, I put Eminem on replay to beat some life into the woofers. Another thing I have noticed, is the very wide sweetspot. I can move around in the room, but the musicians remains in their place between the speakers. Previously with the RF5, I could hardly move my head before the whole orchestra went into one speaker. I am very satisfied with my new horns!

Now it plays music - and how it plays[] The plan was to take the woofer-horns into the house last night, to stabilize temperature before i lay the veneer on them. Then I got the bright idea of "just testing" to hear if everthing was OK. Bad Idea. It took 9 hrs before I turned the music off around 4 in the morning. Not a study of design and wood finnish yet, but they sound really good. And before you drop some comments reagarding the lack of dusting and cleaning of my system. DON'T! I've been busy!

Now we are heading close to the more exlusive range...... There is a lot to "dig" out, if the rest of the system is able to cope with it. Sonicap Gen1 (the white one) are a very good cap. I am using the Black Sonicap Platinum in som other konfigurations. Far better, but also quite expenseve. At the far end, there is the Duelund handmade ones. If you got the money, and want to go there, I think you will be supprised. I investigated, but a complete Akeng ES400/5800 with Duelund caps would have become just to expensive. Maybe I litle by litle start putting them in..... For now, I stick with the Solen, bypassed with the Vishay Rodenstein 1834 0.01uF like Tony Gee recomend...

He-he u got me[] Even easier, the veneer are so flexible that you can bend it around a brush handle without cracking.

By looking through my external hard drive i found the "grille-pics" The frame! It is important that the frame fits exactly between the top and bottom, for good fit and still allow it to be removed. Note the round pin in the front. Without it, a sharp edge will appear towards the horn. Put it on a precut piece of loudspeaker cloth Pull around, tight evenly and fix with as many staples as you possibly can

Thank you very much for the friendly comments. It means a lot, especially when it comes from you guys!. Believe me, part of the reason for the slow progress are that a lot of thinking - looking and rethinking has been done before I started to cut and build. As said, I am offshore for work now, and a week will pass before I can build and post more pictures. I have a series of pictures on my home-desktop on how I made the "self supporting and detatchable" side grilles. If you are interested I can post them also.

Found another pic. on my server