Joepie

Hi, Great exchange of knowledge! @ Quiet_Hollow : Good you consider this positioning option. It is a point that I am aware of too. However I am positioned in the blue area of your triangle, whereas the distance from me to the loudspeakers is even less then the distance between the loudspeakers themselves. I like this position due to great soundstage, direction precision and great dynamics :-) But moreover: I do not hear any harshnesh left after the DeanG mod and then the bitumex. I am really happy at current. But also further in my room I am hardly troubled by the walls as there is plenty stuff on the wall catching the indirect waves. Anyhow, good to take this in consideration. @ Vital and UH1dg337 : Thanks for sharing your good experiences too. It is good to see such confirmation and I am sure it will help other people to consider this. @ AletheiaAudio : Hi Dean, Interesting about the breakup. When I modded the filter according to your partslist and specs, did I take my cone also away from the breakup frequency? Is that what happens with the DeanG mod? Great knowledge anyhow and thanks for the document showing all differences. @ pzannucci: I guess we can hear the resonance / ringing frequency when ticking on the woofer cone material. It does sound relatively high indeed due to the stiffness. Anyhow I am always very happy with this stiffness indeed as there is lots of detail in the bass. All wave shapes seem to present very well. Fast stuff! There is just one thing that remains to puzzle me as a next mod. Although my RF-7 speakers do sound very smooth now (so all harshness gone), I do still hear some slight colouring. I suspect this is due to the absence of a phase plug in the tweeter. Now we know Klipsch has introduced that in several other loudspeakers, but this is missing for the RF-7 right? I have heard the effect on the RB51 but also the Palladium series use this. I have the feeling that this could perhaps also benefit the RF-7. Does anyone know, would there be any option to make an own mod in order to play around and test such phase plug in the RF-7 tweeter? Did anyone try already with RF-7? I guess this could also have other side effects that are perhaps not desirable, but I do not yet know what. Anyhow, I have the loudspeakers now since 2009, and each day I start to love them more, also after hearing quite some other stuff around. Last week I bought the new Pat Metheny CD called "Tap". What a revelation through the RF-7! Fantastic dynamics and musical adventure. All following this posts, have a great day! [8]

Thanks! This sounds as a good option too, with the ability to add a good amount of mass. My concern would be whether the modeling clay would be sticky enough, but apparently that went well. Have you ever checked whether it stayed well put on the horn?

Thanks for the tip. That deadener spray could indeed be interesting too. Do you know if that easily sprays to a thick layer like the 4 mm Bitumex? And will it be equally heavy? And, just to know, is it removable in case desired for some reason? I will check around to get to know that sticky stuff :-)

For all Klipsch RF-7 loudspeaker owners, I would like to share a fine and easy ‘do it your selves’ modification that brings your RF-7 loudspeakers to the next level! This concerns a modification of the speaker’s horn and reduces a strain that many people continue to experience in the higher frequencies. Other people call this ‘stress’, ‘harshness’ or ‘listening fatigue’. Again other people refer to this as ‘sibilance’. Well, whatever we call it; to me there it was clear that there was some harshness in the highs that caused me a degree of tiredness after a period of listening to the RF-7’s. Although it always remained a sheer pleasure to listen to these fantastic loudspeakers, I kept thinking what could cause this harshness in the highs. And whatever the system I used in the front, it always kept coming back, so I concluded that it had to be in the speakers themselves. A while ago I already applied the DeanG filter, which was absolutely a wonderful step in the right direction, but still… I kept hearing some harshness… Then I considered the mechanical properties of the horn and recently I concluded that there must be a resonance from its housing. When knocking on the tweeter enclosure, I judged that the horn had too much of an own resonating frequency which surely would be excited by the vibrations coming from the tweeter it selves. Also when feeling the tweeter enclosure with the hand whilst playing music, I clearly felt structure vibration. So what to do about it? Build a completely new enclosure from solid wood was one option, but surely not an easy one as it will require a time consuming and very precise handwork. So something else should be possible to test this. And then I found out about the option to dampen vibrations with the use of Bitumex sheets, a technique usually applied in cars. This would be a great thing to try. It would be relatively easy to apply and without risks I could know the effect. So I bought two sheets of 4mm Bitumex FG4SK for the minimal cost of 16€ including the postage cost (I would not advise 2 or 3 mm as it is the mass that makes the difference in this elastic system). Applied this and arrived in a different world, the next level of performance for the RF-7, a ‘must do’ mod for every RF-7 owner I would say now. Listening fatigue is gone, depth improved, focus improved and the highs finally sound smooth now! Initially it feels as if there are fewer highs, and as a matter of fact that is correct, the distortion caused by the resonance of the horn is just gone now. Try this and listen. Your next pleasure is there! And that for only a few bucks! Just make sure you fit the Bitumex at the outer side of the tweeter, not the inside of the horn, which would destroy the horn acoustic properties [] At YouTube I have placed a mini movie how this is done (See ). Try it and let me know your experience. I would be happy to hear your story. Success and I wish you added listening pleasure in the next level of RF-7 potential.

Although I am not completely sure how much similar is the RF-7 II to the first make, I have the RF-7 since 2008. Initially I used an emergency amplifier from Yamaha (AX-570) which made the RF-7 sound very harsh and flat. But then after a few tests with some other amps, amongst others some valve amp that I do not recall the name and the Arcam FMJ A38, I stopped testing after having tried the LFD integrated LE Mk III. I bought that one as it is a perfect match for my RF-7's!! The sound is very musical and liquid, to me meaning that it does not stick to the loudspeakers, but really comes into my living space. I even had people asking me whether I have a surround system hidden somewhere. Also it provides me a fabulous deep and fast base that surely pumps my stomage like in a live concert (yes, I do live concerts frequently). And the beauty of the combination is, that with the RF-7 you do not need all that heavy weighting power, just muscle speed will be mere than enough to get all the soundpressure going. When my volume dial starts at 7 o 'clock, I hardly need to run above 9 o'clock. Once, OK maybe twice :-), I tried 12 o'clock position where my windows almost seize and all stuff in the room comes down. But OK, that is occasional fun. The beauty usually remains in the way the music is converted. That is just awesome! I am pretty sure this amp from LFD will also be a good match for the RF-7 Mk II. Just try to find your nearest dealer and ask for a home demo of the LFD, just like I did. Pretty sure you will enjoy that. P.S.: recently also tried a Trigon Energy on the RF-7s. Really nice, but missing that fluid space that feels like tube amps and the base did not go that deep with so much pressure either... LFD wins again.