tastyratz

I just completed my upgrade today. The C2 does NOT have the clearance internally for the eminence driver and bracket because it hits the crossover. I had to remove the crossover from it's brackets and offset it to 1 side, flip it upside down, and hot glue it to the back of the plastic housing. Afterwards I just barely fit and had to torque the bolts because the back hit some plastic bracing. All 3 fronts are done though and WOW what a difference! it's like a blanket was lifted. I did some before and after measurements in REW and was surprised to see that the general character was not really changed. The profile was very similar. over 10k was around 3-4db hotter or so but it did very well. I'll post the nearfields and pictures when I get a chance. hopefully it helps paint a picture to anyone else considering the same.

so, I have hemmed and hawed over this because I was really interested in the bigger prv 280 driver, but these speakers are just not the medium for it. I couldn't lower the horn because it's part of the plastic faceplate touching the first driver below it. I couldn't get rid of the faceplate with a new horn because of the plastic top piece glued to the cabinet, and I couldn't get rid of that plastic top piece because the speaker grill would extend above and look funny. I would have had to notch the inside of the MDF up top a little and I didn't want to deal with it. I ordered the asd1001's to do my fronts and matching center channel. Picked up some dayton resistors in case I decided I wanted to use them. Now to see how well it all blends when it arrives. I have a lot more foam in mine than you started with so I probably won't mess with that at all to start. I also ordered a umik-1 from cross spectrum labs to see what changes.

Maybe yes, maybe no. Klipsch speakers the further up the chain you go retain their value pretty darn well. RF-7 II's are still widespread at $2,500 - as an example. RF-5's are still between $500 and $900. Mods can add value, or they can detract. It depends on what the modification is, and if it's the kind of mod that the buyer is interested in. There are many cases where someone would prefer the stock over the mod. Indeed true, but I was not talking about my mods adding resale value. I doubt I will get my investment back and don't care to. I'm saying it's a lot cheaper for me to sink $100 into upgrading these speakers to sound like something I paid 3x the money for, than to sell them for a loss and spend thousands doing it. Someday when they don't cut it for me I might get into something a little more custom and intense, like building statement II's or maybe replicate a 3 way volti with bms drivers and some crites guts, etc. I'll get the itch again, or maybe not. The synergies have held me over 10+ years as they were.

Oh I got my synergy line brand new from someone who worked at best buy and their employee discount. I easily paid about the same for mine at the time. But really it's what is my time worth and what's my return on investment. I don't think spending gobs on other speakers and trying to hock all of these is going to net me the best return compared to modding. I think the d230 is out compared to the asd1001 because of that resonant hysteresis between 1-2k, which is right in the crossover spot. I think it would make for some odd blending and that one really needs to be crossed at 2k. I have no idea how much woofer breakup these drivers have and how high they go so I don't know if bumping up the cross is a good or bad idea without data. I took a stab at e-mailing tech support to see if they were willing to release any data. I figure 50/50 shot since the speakers are old but the drivers might still be current tech.

I think you're right. I have 4 1/8in to play with in the f2, plenty more room in the c2 center. DAMN! oh that has me bummed because I perked up when I saw that spec sheet. The weight wasn't worrying me these horns have ribbing and would be prob fine with 3lbs vs 2lbs. 3/16 clearance issue SO CLOSE! These cabinets look like 1/2in mdf. I'm up in the air if I am willing to cut a stripe down the center to notch and fit the better tweeter. D230TI is definitely not as flat or nice looking as the D280TI. I looked at every other drivers chart and the only one close was the 5+in dayton and that is just not happening. I started an album with my pictures I took earlier. I have a good amount of foam in these although it's just loose packed on 2 sides.

ya know, I'm looking at the response charts of the PRV D280TI-S and they look a lot flatter compared to the eminence. It's bigger, but I wonder if I put it in at an angle first if I can stuff that in the cabinet. I'm going to have to do some close measuring later. It's only $10 more than the eminence...

I'm in the same boat. I feel like I would need to spend a LOT to make a measurable jump, but this tweeter likely classes with much more expensive Klipsch speakers. Since my synergy woofers are just on mid duty and I have great sub's handling extension I think the return on investment of going rfII over a high quality titanium replacement is probably much harder to justify. The smaller woofer working low stress as a mid is probably in my favor here. Eminence makes nice stuff and I see people dropping this same tweeter as upgrades into their heresy's or cornwalls... Maybe after some point a more refined crossover network would be worth a thought as well.

Excellent. I'll order the same adapter. Looking at your crossover compared to mine (at least in the c2) I am going to have to share the picture when I get a chance. I have what looks like 1 electrolytic and maybe even 1x poly from the factory. I wonder if the 2 series had a poly cap and the 20 series went to electrolytic. If that's the case maybe I just dump the sand cast resistor when it comes to crossover time and leave the caps alone.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing that. That looks just like stock with upgraded parts. It's cheap and easy enough to do I might just do it myself for completion and the $20 parts investment. I see a few adapter plates people mentioned on the forum and I also see Eminence makes their own. Do you happen to remember which ones you went with on those pictures? Is it this one? http://www.parts-express.com/selenium-adf25-25-horn-adapter--264-322 I went home at lunch and did some deconstruction for good measure as well as take a slew of pictures to collect for later. The B2 uses a 3/4 instead of 1in and totally different horn with different bolt pattern, not easily exchanged. Unfortunately that's probably going to limit me from doing anything to those, I might just hock them and find another used pair of f2's on CL to mod later if I find myself particularly moved by the changes. 3/4 selection shrinks significantly. The C2 housing is entirely cast ABS plastic, packed pretty full with foam, and the drivers in it have a plastic basket. Pretty thin plastic, might benefit from some mass (like a spray undercoat or something like that) The crossover is attached on the back, marked C2 and part #11665. The tweeter is # k-138 160748 and looks like it's confirmed used in the F2, F3, B3, C2, C3, SLX. It's mounted with 3 screws to the horn throat. The horns have a foam gasket and they are all held on with M3 hex cap screws. The F2 base has some egg crate foam in them on the bottom. I havent gotten fully into them to see if there is any more or not... I'll have to keep getting more into it and start placing orders...

See that's exactly what I am trying to improve, the high end fidelity. It's what got me so sold on klipsch so many years ago. I was a lot more limited and less experienced when I got them, and now these speakers have probably 13 years under their belt. The f2 is almost exactly the same as the f20 from what I can find minus an improved crossover that slightly increases sensitivity. The f20 was the replacement for the f2 in the later generation. I'm not afraid of "bright". I love the full range singing accurately where others might call it harsh on the ears. I recently replaced my old sub10 with a pair of rythmic f12's which tightened things up massively and rejuvinated the old audiophile hunger quest. What I have been picking out lately and wanting to improve has been the clarity of dialog, that momentary shhhh sound in place of an S that almost sounds like the microphone is held too close to the mouth. I do well for auditory tests and have trained my hearing to really pick at the highs so the upper range nuances actually jump at me (while anyone else who visits thinks I'm crazy). So if I take it right, you did not do the crossover work yourself but just sent off to dean, but you did exactly what I was thinking which was dayton 1%'s and mills resistors. I was also looking to see if more elaborate crossover networks for other high end klipsch speakers had a similar cross point which might be buildable from scratch on a board for cheap as well. I saw your selection process and some of the things you went through, too bad you didn't do a build thread! I'm in similar shoes as you. I thought about jumping to some references but another aluminum lts tweeter feels like a lateral move for what I'm looking to improve and the copper spun doesn't seem like it's bringing anything to the table over the IMG woofers... I probably benefit from the smaller woofers -especially since I'm not going full range with these and let my new sub's handle anything low. Any gotchas with design/disassembly? What was your labor time investment (especially just to swap the tweeter)? Did you ever find any information on the old tweeters? did you do or find any measurements? Did you have to buy one of their adapters to fit it to your horn? I saw people did on other klipsch models. Did you end up doing an Lpad on them or straight swap? When you said you had the crossovers modified, did you change the cross frequency? I know you were looking at reference RF3 crossovers and it sounded like you did a straight swap but I just wanted to double check. The eminence is only power rated down to 2.5khz. The frequency response chart nosedives 10db around 1400 so it's in range of faithful reproduction... more that driving them from 1600 up is asking for a lot more from them. I'm still trying to do more reading on DIY audio. I only ever spent time looking into building subwoofers. those tweeters look like they will be fine driven on a 120w amplifier at or slightly above reference levels. Your right 50w is a lot in speaker design for a tweeter. At 30 bucks a pop if it's a quick exchange maybe I just won't care either way. Did you have more progress pictures of your changes that would do well in this thread? I know it's heresy (cue drums) to be modding our inexpensive speakers here in general but there may be more people than I who have seen this thread and found themselves interested. If I do this though, I'll pick up a umik-1 and do some before and afters. I was already planning to use REW and a minidsp to balance my 2 subs and my transducer. I'll try to find another measurement program that can pick up distortion from reference. Obviously what your ear prefers is king but scientific data makes for measurable change. Thanks so much for sharing, you might have saved me some real money and I'll get some satisfaction for the change. Hell, if these work out and it's works out enough maybe I will just do the same thing to my f2's as my c2 & b2's for my full system (provided the horns are similar and I am even able to of course).

OK I hate to say, but I spent the last few hours reading your threads and history trying to find more information on your buildout and choices. A am I glossing over something @rebuy? Did you share information and diagrams anywhere, or find them anywhere? Did you get assistance in designing or did you actually pay for a kit? The other concern I have is the Eminence tweeters are rated for 50w rms... how does that compare to the stock fs3? I don't want to crank things up and end up worse than I started if these are underpowereed in comparison. I like to play back loud when I'm not in the room.

This is fantastic to hear. I have some f2's. They have kept me pretty happy for years but I am getting a little itch. (Maybe even the C2 if there is value and similarity in modding) I hate to lose my shirt on these when I can just sink a few bucks in and take it up a notch. Looks like I am going to be hunting through your old threads rebuy to see what I can find if it applies to me. I hope I can gather enough in some searches without repeating and bugging you.