Ok, just wanted to bring everything up to date. I ordered the K-18 woofers through the local repair center. They are direct drop in replacements for the stock k-10-k, though they do have 8 screw holes vs. 4 on the original. I also went ahead and ordered the Crites Mid Diaphragms with extra titanium (sorry, couldn't help myself! ). Both items came in on the same day, but had to wait a day to install them. I've had about a week to listen and figured I would share my thoughts. Please bear in mind, I am still pretty new at all this, so if I say somthing ignorant, it's not just because I'm ignorant; I'm new and ignorant...
K-18's: These sound really good. The only way I can really describe it is "more". I don't know if they more efficient or what, but you get and feel more bass with these woofers. I would say they are slightly boomier(?), but for my applications (mostly rock), this is actually a bit of an improvement to me. Before, you would hear the kick drum strike, but it wouldn't resonate very much. Now, the same drum note has more prescence and feels more substantial without blurring to much and sounding like a cheap car subwoofer. I don't feel like the range is digging any deeper, but there is a noticable change in the sound that has been all positive so far. Very happy with the purchase. It's hard to tell completely if the old damaged woofer (prior to being obviously noticable) was impacting the speaker's performance, but I still get the sense that the K-18's perform better than the stock K-10-K's. They ran me about $90 per speaker, and didn't have to pay shipping to the local service center hear in Tampa. Overall, very happy I got these.
Crites Midrange Diaphragms: These sound really good. I would go so far as to say I noticed a bigger change from these than I did the Titanium tweeter diaphragms. I know that is a pretty bold statement, but I really could hear a big difference. I guess I had been conditioned to believe that you had to change materials to get a big change in sound, but that is clear not the case. Ok, to describe it... I would say it took the "edge" off of the effected range. Quieter isn't exactly right, but it is easier on the ears and you are able to turn the overall volume up without fatigue on the ears. It seems to create a better "blend" with the tweeter and woofer. Vocals are still very clear, and I don't want to give the impression that the sound is compressed or muffled, as that would be a gross mistatement. Overall, very happy I got these.
Sorry if I butchered that completely. I just wanted to share my experience as best I could should anyone else be interested in these particular products. For the record, my Quartets already had the Crites TI Diaphragms and full Crites crossovers (not rebuilt stock). I also just switched to seperates for power and signal and these speakers sound incredible! Note, I don't have much experience as a basis for comparison, but I am very happy with them!
