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jwgorman

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Posts posted by jwgorman

    Bob Crites CT120 tweeters

    in Technical/Restorations

    Posted

    Order placed. I will post after I've installed them and listened to them for a while. Spent about 3 hours spinning vinyl today and I guess I always considered the K77s to be OK but I also always considered them to be one part of my Khorns that I'd need to improve one day. It only too my 18 years  :)

    Anyone time align their Khorns with active over/delay and then go back to passive covers?

    in 2-Channel Home Audio

    Posted

    I was just thinking that the audible characteristics of time alignment and tighter system equalization can be heard with something entry level like the Driverack. Sure, other aspects of the sound are getting sacrificed in the process, but you can isolate those by listening to a bypassed processor through your passive xover. Once you know what your gear is doing to the sound, then you can remove the passive xover and implement an active solution. You can even toggle the time-alignment in/out to see how much that matters compared to the other EQ aspects. It's a free experiment since you already have the Driverack...just go into it trying to understand what can be adjusted, rather than hoping for an ideal audiophile solution right off the bat.

     

    If you hear things you like and are willing to chase them, then it's just a matter of picking a better sounding active solution....but maybe you're one of them hardcore analog types that can't stand the sound of digital anything in the signal path. We all have different tastes when it comes to the artifacts that bother us. It's not like the active xover is a billion times better - it's one of those more subtle things that I personally only notice during dedicated listening. With background music I don't think I've ever noticed. The one instrument that sticks out the most to me is the snare drum. Lack of alignment has a blurry, less crisp sound to it. When aligned, there's a lifelike crispness that just clicks into place. A similar thing happens to busier passages of music - things just sound a bit more congested / vague when unaligned, and then a soft clarity snaps into place when aligned. One other thought - you're only going to notice it on source material with dominant frequency content that spans across the xover frequency.

     

    I will have my son help me lug my rack downstairs and experiment with it. I've noticed the snare in live music too as far as dialing in the FOH. I appreciate the advice. 

    Anyone time align their Khorns with active over/delay and then go back to passive covers?

    in 2-Channel Home Audio

    Posted

     

    Dave, I see. So ALK has a few flavors of crossovers, which flavor are you using for your khorns?

     

    I used AP12-350 + ES5800s, before that Universals. I like them both.

     

    Are your KHorns all original?

     

    Dave

     

     

     

    Dave, 

     

    I just noticed the picture you posted. So I opened it and saw that you restored some older Khorns! Very impressive before/after pics. You've changed the squawker horn and it looks like you have a different tweeter driver/horn in there as well. Very nice. 

    Yes, I bought my Khorns new in '98 and they are mostly original with the exception of replacing the ceramic squawker driver with the alnico version, like the ones you're using and a very slightly modified AK-3 network. 

    Anyone time align their Khorns with active over/delay and then go back to passive covers?

    in 2-Channel Home Audio

    Posted

     

    I'm a bit hesitant to go down that rabbit hole for two reasons: I might actually lose sleep and my experiences with sticking digital gizmos in the signal chain in the past have not been positive. The dbx is no audiophile piece of gear, but it works great for pro sound applications. Anyway, if you've already been there, done that and came back to good old inductors and caps and preferred to live with the bumps and warts of time smearing I'd be interested in hearing from you.

     

     

     

    Thanks Dave, what type passives do you have. Oh, and my sanity thanks you

     

     

     

    jwgorman I mean no disrespect but based on this paragraph I really don't understand why you even started this thread. If all it was going to take for you not to want to do active was one person saying they went back...???

     

    There are good reasons to go active and good reasons to go passive and the end goals help to determine which is best for the individual.

     

    miketn

     

    Mike, I simply wondered if anyone had gone down the active path only to return to a passive crossover. And the one guy who responded in the affirmative has nearly 3k posts, so I yes, I give his opinion some weight. Like I said in my original post, I have the gear to do it, but it's pro audio gear and I am by nature a guy who never does anything half-hearted. I could totally see me getting frustrated with the pursuit of curing the Khorns of their bumps and warts rather than just living with them. Before I set off to pursue the holy grail, I thought I'd ask the question. No more/no less. And I mean no disrespect either to those who actively crossover/delay their khorns. I know there is a significant benefit to time alignment as I've experienced it in the pro audio world.  

    Anyone time align their Khorns with active over/delay and then go back to passive covers?

    in 2-Channel Home Audio

    Posted

    So, I've read some older posts about people going the full monty and actively delaying the squawker and tweet to time align their khorns. I have some pro audio gear, including a dbx drive rack and yamaha pro amps and I could try it, but given my personality, I am afraid I'd go off the deep end with respect to tweeking etc. 

     

    In the interest of saving my sanity, I thought I might first ask the question if any of you guys went down the path of time aligned khorns and for whatever reason, decided to go back. I have a luxman sq38u that I could power the mids with if I send the preout to the dbx and send the mid output back into the luxman power amp input. The dbx would provide xlrs for the bass  and the tweets. So I could fine tune the xover points, I could in theory eq them very precisely and of course dial in appropriate delay. 

     

    I'm a bit hesitant to go down that rabbit hole for two reasons: I might actually lose sleep and my experiences with sticking digital gizmos in the signal chain in the past have not been positive. The dbx is no audiophile piece of gear, but it works great for pro sound applications. 

    Anyway, if you've already been there, done that and came back to good old inductors and caps and preferred to live with the bumps and warts of time smearing I'd be interested in hearing from you. 

    Anyone know what's going on with this K55M?

    in Technical/Restorations

    Posted

    Thanks guys!!!

     

     

    DJK, I'm glad to hear it's not a catastrophic failure. No longer at the Rock, I left 3 years ago and work for Wabtec, it's a railway electronics company in Cedar. What about you, still at the Rock?

     

    You know, just the other day I had a random memory of you, me and Jackson at the A.R. playing the Sheffield Drum Record on Khorns at SPLs waaay passed all human reasonableness. Good days...I still have that record BTW. 

    Klipschorns with AK3, simple mods.

    in Technical/Restorations

    Posted · Edited by jwgorman

    So my '98 khorns have only hadsuper easy mods done to them, I removed the coil and the cap in parallel with the tweeter when recapping the crossovers (did this to the original xovers back in '98 btw) and I removed the K55ms and stuck in the atlas alnico PD-5VHs, and when I was in there I soldered the leads to the drivers.

     

    I was geting some funky imaging and realised one of the tweeter leads was intermittently failing as the wire had come loose from the connector. I soldered those leads up as well. I heat sinked the connection tabs on the drivers before soldering, not sure if that was necessary.  

     

    Taking out the coil/cap in parallel with the tweet was sort of a subtle thing, not night and day by any means, but I prefer this filter out. The atlas driver to my ear anyway, sounds a lot better than the K55m. The tonal balance seems a lot less mid-centric, if that makes sense. Seems a bit smoother, maybe a db or two down from the K55m? or maybe I just really prefer the tone of the Atlas driver?

    Anyway, I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with the Luxman SQ38U and spin some vinyl this past weekend. I think it's all good. Khorns rule :)

    Modding a Khorn just to go back to stock. Anybody got a story?

    in Technical/Restorations

    Posted

    Anyone know of someone who has gone to great lengths to mod their khorns with different drivers/xovers etc, only to put them back to stock? Just curious. I'm a guitar player and I get mods. But sometimes, after awhile, regret sinks in.

    I have my stock 98 khorns that I recently recapped and coiled per the AK-3 schematic. Speaking as a guy who's had 3 pairs of maggies, ARs, Vandersteens, Belles and Khorns I get there is no perfect speaker, it all depends on what is most important.

    I'm still working on getting a luxman sq38 or maybe a triode 300b integrated. But I think these khorns with AK-3s sound pretty darn good even with mac SS stuff running them.

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