moray james

You have a pair of Forte with the 12" passive in oiled oak. The Forte ll has an upgraded mid horn and a 15" passive. There are date codes available sorry I don't have that on my computer I think there is a sticky for the manufacture dates. Someone will have it.

I understand your situation. You know lots of guys take rough cabinets and re finish them with 1/4", 3/8" or even 1/2" pre veneered plywood. Yields a perfect veneer job and stiffens the cabinet at the same time. Enjoy your projects and have fun.

Altec 811b and 511b have a very well known and much documented history of ringing inherent to the horn design itself which is virtually impossible to eliminate. This dates back decades and decades and is all over the internet if you care to search for it. You name it and it has been tried to eliminate the ring. It is still for the most part a satisfying horn to listen to so as long the ring does not get under your skin and some guys are fine with it life is good. I only mention it so you can better decide to what length you will choose to work with it as a project. There are better horns with wider bandwidth available. In the seventies I badly wanted a two way Altec with the 511b horn but by the 80's I had totally lost interest in the horn. If the price is right and you are happy then no worries.

Yes I do prefer the Tannoy as they present the best of both worlds when set up properly. I have listened to the full Revolution Series the dual 8" floor stand the dual 6" floor stand the single 6" stand mount XT6 and the XT Mini. As they get smaller they integrate better which is to be expected. The Mini is to me not unlike a ProAc Signature Super Tablette so far as the bass goes but surpasses it in stage image and overall size of the 3D sound field. Mine took a good long while to burn in 5 - 6 weeks before they really started to shine. I also extended my reflex vents in the Mini by 1/4" which cleans up the mid bass range a little.

horns ribbons and electrostats are the only true way to get dynamics and low distortion. Are those 6 or 6.5" woofers in the two way Klipsch? Tannoy's Revolution Series XT6 is a true single magnet dual motor DC driver with a 1" horn loaded tweeter they are from a technology point of view the best DC driver Tannoy has ever produced. They also make a smaller version the XT Mini with what they call a 4" woofer (actually 3.25" in dia.) and a concentric 3/4" horn loaded tweeter diaphragm which sound very much like an electrostat. You would be more than surprised should you give them a listen ESL sound quality with much better dispersion than a stat panel. I ran stat for over 20 years and have owned a good number of Tannoys and can say the XT Mini is amazing (I own both the XT6 and the XT Mini) the most coherent Tannoy ever made . My Klipsch days are over now.

it's all fun and games until you slip your grip and kiss a blade and get a two lip tattoo. those were very difficult to explain away and hurt like hell. after than you got a pipe or got inventive. A bud used a car cigarette lighter attached to a 12 v battery (via a switch) mounted facing up on a piece of plywood covered by a glass vacuum bell jar. Full ignition turn off the heat lift the jar a bit and suck on the top of the bell jar. wam bam, bam bam bam like Bamm-bamm Rubble would say.

we used to torch a pair of bread and butter knives but they were used for compression ignition back in the early 70's. Somebody's mom would always ask "hey what happened to these knives?" and get mad so if you were smart you borrowed a pair from the cafeteria to make sure your did not bring on any unwanted attention. as an aside you can bring on nice hues of blue and gray if you are using a high carbon steel applying slices of strawberry to the blade surface and wrapping it with plastic wrap for the day. this sort of forced patine has zero impact on the hardness or temper of the blade and will help keep the blade from rusting. This can work on some SS but not as well and to on very many types of SS blades. Lots of acidic foods will colour a blade but most turn it black or very dark. You can experiment with as many types of acidic food as you want and if you don't like the results you can sand off the unwanted patina and then force another one using something new. If you want a black blade pickling vinegar will turn 1095 high carbon steel a totally mat black. Make sure you use alcohol to 100% clean the steel prior to treating as even light finger touches will leave enough finger oil to block oxidation of the steel.

I hope he is not torching the blades, it may look good but you can kiss your heat treat and edge retention goodbye.

to add to this I have installed a specific brand of cap I use for bypass caps on main filter caps in amps and they can take over a month to burn in. For the first 20 minutes they sounded wonderful then like crap for almost 5 weeks I was ready to take them out thinking they were bad and then one morning they came around and now sound excellent. Not all caps are this extreme but if you just took them out you would miss how good they sound after full burn in. Everything has some period of burn in.

some of us don't missus the Missus!

no but I know they like dog, we have the same sort of issue here with horses.

That's because it really is Mac, the dog!

make sure you leave a large open volume of air inside the cabinet which directly couples the vent to the woofer, this volume of air is necessary and it must be open and free to resonate as it is this resonant energy of the air which lets the woofer drive the vent into sympathetic reflex action. If you were to fully stuff the cabinet the reflex action would diminish dramatically and you would lose bass weight. Back in the seventies I had a pair of Altec A7-800 and I really wanted to switch up to the 511b horn but just did not have the funds to cover the expense of all the components necessary. I had spent some time listening to the 511b and much preferred it to the 811b. That was a long time ago and today's modern horns are so much better in every way.

have you checked with The Speaker Exchange? they sell factory parts for Klipsch.

by using a stereo amp for each speaker the gain of the amp driving the woofer and the tweeter of each speaker matches. By all means do what ever you like this is a learning experience.

if your amps are stereo blocks then simply use one stereo block per speaker, right channel woofer left channel tweeter problem solved (vertical biamping) adjust any left to right speaker output level difference with the active xover. done.

go to an art supply store where you can get black markers which are actually black and not dark purple as most of them are. You can also get furniture touch up markers to match color and sheen but they are expensive. A real black marker will do the job while you consider a fresh paint job (lots of colors to choose from or combinations) or you can veneer them. Great deal you got on those luck you! Enjoy.

you can buy these from Bob Crites if you don't feel like a project, he stocks them.

crossover point is not the issue the slope is the issue (not saying it is the best point but it's not a bad choice for your driver). Trouble is that at 1800 Hz. your woofer output is only 6 db down in level from the xover point of 900Hz., at 3600Hz it is only 12 db down do you think you really want o be listening to this? along with the scattered dispersion from such a large woofer with waves that cancel and those which couple you are going to have a loudspeaker which will not disappear. Using an active xover will let you easily find the best crossover point and slope as well as the crossover filter type, you will need four channels of amplification and it does not matter if they are SS or tube matching gain of all the channels is a good idea which is why I suggested two stereo block amps same brand/model will work well. You should be able to come up with a nice two way, I like two ways have fun. I hope this helps.

a fifteen inch woofer with a 900Hz. xover point and a 6db/octave roll off? not much of a plan. you could slap an acoustic filter over the woofer that wold help a little. time for an active xover and a couple of inexpensive stereo block amplifiers.

it happens, never the less Joe thanks for your help and your comments they are valid to others who read the thread now or in the future.

There are no sub woofers in a Cornwall only woofers these speakers only reproduce well to about 39 - 40 Hz. then roll of at 24 db per octave. So far as I am aware the stock woofer (K33) was not fitted with a vented dust cap and doing so will throw the tuning a little off as it lets air leak out of the cabinet. Not going to be a huge deal but probably noticeable if you could do an A/B comparison. Never the less a very nice looking set of upgraded Cornwall loudspeakers. Enjoy.

agreement in the audio world hmmmm? see if you can find any coaxial speaker or better a DC Tannoy to listen to though the Revolution Series XT is on another level compared to all the Tannoy I have owned. The XT Mini is more relaxed and at ease compared to a stock Klipsch but I do not mean they are soft of dull, they are closer to a JBL more like the sound of my L200B than my H3 or KLF20. I would say that Tannoy are more refined than a Klipsch. That said you are the only one who can make the decision if they are right for you or not. Ask around if they are any Tannoy owners in your local and visit for a listen that will get you into the ball park. Lets put it another way Tannoy is one of the most widely used studio monitors in the world with many of your favorite recordings made on them Klipsch does not even come close in that department. I think it would be reasonable to suggest there is a very good chance you will like them very much. As always remember YMMV.

I think if you look you will find the ZDP-189 on the used market. If you want the ultimate steel in edge retention buy a Spyderco in Maxamet this is my favorite steel period. Easy to sharpen with a diamond stone and almost as hard as tungsten.