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I can see that an active could add some noise to the system. But I can also see how the passive wastes some of the amps power as heat. I am thinking that is the amps power is delivered to the driver alone and dosen't have to contend with the typical impedence dips that it would be a fair trade off. I would expect a more dynamic sound, and that is one reason that I have been a fan of Klipsch. And I would expect that you could spend more than $80 on the active crossover!

"why not just not leave it passive and enjoy it?" Fair question but once you have decided to tweak why not go active. It would seem to me that there are positives in going that way as well. You would be removing any power loss that the passive might absorb, no need to worry about which capacitor is better and depending on which active crossover is used level, phase and frequency controls would be at your finger tips. I do see the additional cost for amplification but when most off us own enough gear for multiple systems....... "lowest common denominator is NOT always the correct answer." I can't say that I understand that comment.

For the camp that falls into the highend crossover are worth it I would ask the question why not remove the passive and go to active crossovers?

I was using a "top of the" Marantz sr 8500 avr rated at 125 wpc. I added an Emotiva XPA-5 rated at 200 wpc but when run at 2 ch comes in closer to 300 wpc. The specs on the Emotiva state that the power supply has a 1200VA toroidal transformer and 60k worth of cap storage. The Emo rep stated to me that in laymans terms that the toridal was power on demand and the caps were for reserve. The bottom line for me is a night and day difference in the bass. It is more present and punchier(?) at all volume levels. Living in a townhouse, I appreciate the tactile bass at late night volume levels.

They look nice Michael, I would be in the market but I just picked up some KLF 30s. Good Luck with the sale.

The cabinets do look good. With the common KLF loose panel issue you are probably ahead of the game. What finish are you going to put on them? Interesting to have the KLF 30s mentioned. Although in the same series of speaker I would say it has a totally different sonic signiture. The 20/30s have a much stronger midrange presence which with the dedicated mid makes sense. The 10s are however do offer good mids but side by side might appear on the thin side. I do prefer the 10s balance myself and feel that they are more solid in the bass/midbass department. I would say that I am in the minority on the 10 preference over the 20/30s but the 10s will not be accused of being harsh. Good luck with your project!

Makes perfect sense to me.

PT, with all due respect, I 100% agree with your words of wisdom...... It does appear the OP is already making modifications by having new cabinets built. It is my guess that he has already listened to them in stock form and for some reason got the upgrade/modification bug as he has inquired about alternate drivers. Stock or modified, I hope for his favorable results!

Well it sounds like you have the cabinet part all sorted out. As far as the tweeter I as well as many on this forum have gone to the Bob Crites Ti tweeter diaphram. For me it seems to have increased detail with extended highs. For around $65 I would recommend giving them a try. I have 3 sets of the 10s. One set stock(loose backs too be repaired), one set with the BC cap refresh and the third set internally braced, higher end caps, BC ti diaphrams and a large guage air coil inductor on the woofer. The latter set being by far the best. I would attribute it mostly to the bracing and ti diaphram. The horn on the 10 does not kick in near as low as the mid does on the 20 and then it also extends to cover all of the highs. Certainly different animals. Good luck on the build!

I am curious to what you are trying to acomplish with the driver replacement. I would certainly research the difference in the specs between the 10 and 20 drivers. The 20s crossover at 750 hz while the 10s crossover above 2 khz. Different cabinet size and ports may also impact the results. Before I would do anything make sure that the cabinet backs are not loose as this is a common problem with the KLF series.

I had a set of the Omen Defs with the matching center and recently sold them. IMHO the mids were awesome. The dialog from the center was the best that I have heard. That being said I am comparing the mids to the likes of the Chorus II and Quartet of which I like. The lows were punchy but did not seem to match the Klipsch in that department. One afternoon I put my modified KLF 10s into the rotation and the Zu's never made it back in due to the fun factor.

I have the 5004 and I use it before my Oppo 93 when listening to cds. Nice unit.

Prayers and blessings to your wife and you....

IMHO you need something with some omph to get the woofers moving. I have had a few sets with the same results on all of them. My Marantz rated at 125wpc didn't get the job done. An Emotiva that runs in 2 channel at approx 300 wpc made a big difference. Congrats on the speakers!

Well just an update on the project. It did not get off of the ground due to a design change. I had an oppurtunity from a local forum member to get 2 Cornwall II cabinets for free. He also had 2 of the BC cast woofers that he sold to me. While originally thinking rebuild or cornscala, I got the idea to install the woofers, block the mid-tweeter openings and give it a listen. I powered them up using 2 spare channels on an Emotiva amp and running it through a Rolls crossover @150 hz and down. The cabinets are laying on their sides with the woofers firing right into the couch. Well they certainly provide the midbass punch I was looling for! I have a HSU sub next to them and the effects are quite different. The cornwalls give the punch and the sub is more of rumble. The next part of the project will to add some bracing to the Cornwalls and then design/build a console style table around them.

Thank you to FGMH for the Cornwall cabinets. Not only did he give them away but included delivery as well! A deal was also offered and accepted on some BC woofers. Michael, it was very nice to meet you. I will give you the heads up first if I move the KLFs, Thanks again, Mike

Thank you DrWho!

If they are still avalable I'm interested. I just down the road a bit in Boynton Beach. Thanks, Mike

Gentlemen, thank you for all of the input! I feel empowered to complete the project. Pics and details will follow next week. I do have one more line of questioning that I hope to have help with. The stock KLF-10 has a feq responce listed down to 32 hz. I would expect that to be the -3db point. I have no idea how to figure out what the 0 db point is or what the cabinet is really tuned to, just that is how Klipsch designed it. I am looking for the most bang for the buck between 50-150 hz. The stock port may support that as it is now. If I choose to go with the 2 inch round port, I would think that changing the length would change the tuning of the box and thus maybe output at my target freq range. Am I right on this? I had read in a chorus 1 thread that if tubes were installed in the front ports that a deeper bass responce was possible. So I guess my second question would be again a rule of thumb. Is a shorter port or less port volume going to raise the box tuned freq? As always, thank you!

Alright, another question! I like the idea of the slot for a port and just want to verify the size. The recommended size is 1" x 2 1/8". It states that the lengthould be the same as the original 3" port. The original port is approx 5" in length. So the true slot size is??? I have looked at the formulas from the links but am but a deer among headlights. Thanks again!

Gentlemen, again thank you for all of the info! mustang guy, I like the idea of the slot vs. port. Free! Dean G, no issue on the slow typing. I read rather slow.

Thanks for the input guys. I had hoped that it was as simple as half the box size, half the drivers so half the port size! I do not not any of the specs on the woofers so maybe I will just start from scratch. Thanks again!

I am considering a project that would have taking a KLF-10 apart and building two smaller "mid woofers" for under the couch. Just an experiment as I have the speakers and wood on hand. The speaker currently has a single port approx 3" in diameter and 5" in length. Is there a rule of thumb of any type that would dictate what size the port should be if the new box is half the size and containes only one woofer? Thank you!

Interesting thought on the tweeter vertical vs horizontal. I can say at about 12' from the speaker horizontal is my preference. I now give my kids the center of the couch and I am about 5' off of center, no complaints. As far as cutting into the Academy, I wasn't crazy about doing that. centainly not going to help resale. Hindsight says I should have just built a new cabinet.

Here is a picture of an Academy with a reworked motorboard to turn the tweeter horizontal. Much improved off axis responce. I kept the tweeter a bit higher to help with the comb filtering although I can't say that I noticed it before the change. I did the same thing to a KLF-10 with favorible results. I do like the idea of the shorter cabinet as well.