EpicKlipschFan

when does the crackling happen? on loud bass heavy music or at any volume with normal music? if its on bass heavy music it could be the cabinet vibrating, but usually epics dont have that problem. could also be a partially blown woofer, gently push in on the woofer with your fingers centered around the dust cap, not on the dust cap, & see if there is a "scratchy" feeling. also gently tap on the dust cap to see if it makes a noise. it could be a crossover issue but that is unlikely, ive never heard a crossover cause a crackling issue, usually bad capacitors just make the mids & highs sound muddy or muffled. if the mids & highs are still crisp & clean the x-overs are probably fine, for now.

crackling can be a partially blown woofer as well. ive had woofers still work but a "scratchy" feeling when pushed in by hand, then at higher volumes or bass heavy music they would crackle &/or pop. a loose dust cap you can sometimes feel by hand when tapping on the cap.

not sure what youre offering but i sent you a PM.

i fully agree with the recent posts about v1 vs 2 or 3... its like most things on the internet, one guy says something & everyone hops on the bandwagon & repeats the opinion like they have first hand knowledge of it. i would love to participate in a blind a/b test of things like this, back to back tests would likely show nobody could consistently tell the difference. or to let people listen to any given version & identify it or say, "yep, those are v3 & they sound terrible."

thanks for the link, i didnt see the specs when i searched "cf4" on the home page. 34hz! that supports what i was saying, they go as low or lower than many of the bigger klipsch models. something else is going on with the room, speaker position or gear if people cant get good quality low bass out of thier cf-3 or 4.

let us know your opinion of them, especially compared to the fortes. theres a recent thread saying they dont have good bass, bass on all epics ive heard is very good. i've heard v3 & recently sold my v2 cf4, even with the stated changes between the 2, they both sounded excellent & very similiar.

my v2 cf4's had excellent bass on even a 100 watt receiver & even better on a seperate 200 watt amp. lots of things determine a speakers bass reproduction level, room, gear, music/recording etc... but the epics bass is really strong & they dig as low as any other same size speaker ive owned or heard, as good as kg5.5, forte, & other brands known for good bass. klipsch doesn't currently publish the specs for the cf3/4 so im not sure what the actual freq response is but in my experience they had very good bass that hit hard, even almost subwoofer quality bass on movies & modern music etc. no, they dont hit you in the chest like a k-horn will in the upper kick drum bass freq, but mine definitely had a low freq hit & rumble you could feel & would vibrate pics on the wall at loud volumes. to say the 12's are just big mids is not at all what i experienced with my cf4's or friends cf3's ive heard. i did let my former brother in law borrow my cf4s for a while when they weren't in use & he made the same "no bass" comment... but like ive seen happen before more than once with digital receivers, he had his subwoofer set to "yes", but no sub hooked up, that cuts bass below usually 80hz to the main speakers on many modern receivers. i came over & knew right away they sounded wrong, i turned the sub setting off & set main speakers to large & he was blown away at the change.

ALL versions of epic cf3 & cf4 are known for their clear sound & excellent articulation, IMO.

nice find & great price! they were made in mid sept of 94 so they could be v1 or v2, pics definitely show longer ports & grey horn. check to be sure the driver is screwed on tight to the horn, i had one come loose on one of my cf-4. as for power, these are very efficient speakers, meaning they play very loud with little power, so if your receiver is even 50 watts per channel it will likely power them to very loud levels. if you want to add an amplifier the receiver needs to have rca pre outputs to send a signal to the amp, most low power receivers dont have outputs. if your just listening to music at a non "audiophile" level you will be fine with your current set up, but you can look for a used receiver with 100 watts per channel to make a big improvement... brands like onkyo, yamaha, denon, h/k etc can be had for $100 & will usually have pre amp outputs for a seperate amp if you want down the road. congrats on the epics, you will love them!

there was a forte & cornwall back in the day with ROOM FOR CHORUS... so why not now? i agree it probably wont ever happen today because klipsch doesnt really listen to peons like us on a forum, profit drives their products... but they did it back then, why not now... KLIPSCH?

there are x-over, woofer material & port length differences between v1 & v3... but overall all versions are great sounding speakers. if there was only the v3 made or someone heard v3 for the first time & didint know of other versions... they would rave about how good the v3s sound & they would still have the same great reviews! if you're looking to own a set of cf3 or cf4 epics, dont get too hung up on versions, yes v1 & v2 would be nice, just dont pass up a good deal on v3's.

kind of a subjective opinion question... one guy might hear something while the next guy wont. the differences are very subtle between versions. i have heard a couple pairs of cf4 v1 & owned v2 for 15 years & i could not hear or notice any difference. also heard cf4 v3 that a friend owned & they sounded excellent. while im sure a direct A/B test would reveal some differences, all versions of epics are great speakers IMO.

if you had chorus & heresys in your car before, these chorus 2 & quartets will fit, the chorus 1 & 2 are the same size & the quartets are very close to heresys size. then the acedemy will fit on the front seat or floor or in your lap! just a suggestion...

Best positioning is just how the factory did it on the stock boards, with the daytons & other brands they are small & similar in size to the stock caps, no need to reposition them, they fall into place just like factory. Basic soldering skills is all thats needed, or even a newbie can do it with some practice... Soldering is very easy to do!

Actually I was speaking of other brand capacitors that are much less money & smaller in size, but for most guys will sound just as good as more expensive brands. Check parts express or other companies selling caps, Dayton or Solen are some decent brands that are smaller physically & easier to install on the factory boards. & "cap" is short for capacitor, you only need to replace the caps, the resistor will have very little if any noticeable sound improvement for the average system. The benefit of new caps is replacing 25+ year old cheap low quality caps, unless you want absolute top of the line you do not need to buy sonicaps or other over priced brand caps. Klipsch used very cheap caps in these speakers, simply upgrading to new poly caps will make a big improvement & I would bet 99% of people can't tell the difference between a sonicap & dayton, solen, erse etc in the average system. Heres a link to some good entry level caps that will be a big improvement over the stock capacitors, just match the values of your caps or look at the crossover thread for what the chorus 2 take. https://www.parts-express.com/cat/crossover-capacitors/292?N=19841+4294967118+4294967060&Ne=10166&Nrs=collection()%2Frecord[endeca%3Amatches(.%2C"P_PortalID"%2C"1")+and+endeca%3Amatches(.%2C"P_Searchable"%2C"1")]&PortalID=1