DVDMike

I was using the minidsp hd for bi-amping the klipschorns with tube amp powering the mid/high and SS the bass bin. It worked OK now, I’ve move to the 4x10 miniDSP and am tri-amping. The tube only powers the squawker and all passives are out of the stream. I have a SS powering the tweeter. There was a noticeable improvement after several iterations of setting crossover points and modifying peq. still, I did all modifications by ear and looking at levels in the software. I’m sure it would be even better using additional software and a microphone to measure. But the speakers sound the best I’ve ever heard as it is right now.

aren’t you both helpful and mature!

I thank everyone for helping. I've got my initial tri-amp setup working now. I'm using the miniDSP 4x10 unit to as my active crossover. The included software doesn't have all of the same features as the 2x4 HD unit, which is a bit of a disappointment. But it does work. I wont bore anyone with the details unless someone is interested. I am still considering changing out the horn and or mid driver. But what I have now is better than before with the passive crossovers. I only have 5 PEQ settings per driver in this software. I am missing something in the low mid or high bass area that I should be able to fix with crossover changes and or EQ fine tuning. Attahed is a screen shot of the software that comes with the 2x10 miniDSP unit.

This photo is after me spending 2 hours trying to get the nuts off. So the bubba job you see here was me using a lot of force trying to get it off. I used wrenches, pliers, screw drivers, wire cutters and such. I wasn’t try to salvage the posts so I couldn’t have cared less about the wire or post.

Yes, that’s what I’ve ordered. And I salvaged the plastic housing.

so your assertion hear is that a previous owner went to the trouble to open up the panel and do nothing but solder connections? And they did not do anything to the upper crossover which is much easier to access? Any reason why they might do that other than connections and the speaker were loose from the factory install and malfunctioning? I can tell you there was corrosion, or at least a lot of reddish buildup around those nuts. It cannot be seen in that photo because I removed it trying to get the wire out so I could try to get the nut off. As I stated, I’m not sure anything was soldered on those terminals. But this picture is after quite some time trying to get the nut off with wrenches and pliers. I could have easily damaged the soft plastic in my attempt to get those nuts off following the corrosion that occurred. I don’t have a “before” photo. And I did not claim this photo was a “before” photo. In fact I believe I said I was struggling trying to get the nut off. I thought that made it clear that I had used a lot of force on these posts. Is their a reason why you think I’m purposely trying to spread misinformation here? I’m making observations about what I believe based on what I know. I resent the implication that I have some general beef with klipsch and am purposely trying to falsely smear klipsch or something like that. You are free to counter my statements with what you believe to be the truth. That’s acceptable. But making an implication that I’m purposely not telling the true is something quite different and I will not tolerate it from anyone. im as big a fan of klipsch as anyone. I’ve got something like 28 klipsch speakers plus 7 klipsch subs hooked up and working in my home. I don’t have a reason to begrudge klipsch. I’m a huge advocate of the brand. But I try to tell the truth about what I see and I make opinions based on what I see to the level of knowledge I have. I resent any implication to the contrary.

I’m the 3rd owner of these. When I purchased them, there was no signs of any owner modification. Everything looks “original”. In fact, based on the difficulty in getting the back panel removed, I’m pretty sure it has never been taken off by anyone before I did it. There is no sign of being in a high humidity environment. The cabinets are all in excellent shape. So I’m not sure where the corrosion around the terminals came from? But the wiring seemed chemically attached to the posts through oxidation. I’m not sure there was solder even used on those 4 terminal connections. Everywhere else speaker wire was attached to something there is solder. the good news is that I was eventually able to get the speaker terminals removed from the plastic housing. I used a little hand hack saw on the speaker wire between the 2 nuts. I was able to cut all the way through one post and cut enough of the melded wire from the others where I could use 2 wrenches on opposite sides to get enough torque to turn the plastic outside out from the nuts inside. now I have the banana connectors out and I can put new ones in. But in order to get the back off to get access and to then remove the plastic box, I had to cut wires. I took a “before” photo. So hopefully I can get everything rewired back the same as it was. Honestly, I think bypassing the crossovers altogether and tramping with an active DSP is the way to go for me. I’d just like to have the crossover in tact should I ever wish to sell.

i think I’m screwed here. I cannot get the banana connectors out of the box. The wire is fused onto the post. Either they designed these connectors never to be taken apart or the design is poor to allow this level of corrosion after 30 years. Idk but I’m a bit miffed that I cannot fix something so basic as a banana plug. I suppose I can’t buy a replacement plastic box that fits. At this point I’m considering cutting a piece of wood to replace the plastic cover and buying new banana connectors. A dremmil saw tool would work to cut the old plugs and take them out. UPDATE I got the plugs out off the case using a hack saw! i think I need to make it crystal clear that these posts did not look like this before I started working on them to remove the posts that had corrosion on them. The corrosion was there. There was a lot of red dust around the post. This photo is after me spending 2 hours trying to get the nuts off. So what you see here was me using a lot of force trying to get it off. I used wrenches, pliers, screw drivers, wire cutters and such. I wasn’t try to salvage the posts so I couldn’t have cared less about the wire or post. The purpose of the photo was to show you where I was in the process, not to show how it looked from the factory. I thought that was quite obvious. Apparently not.

On the bass bin, I see signs of corrosion at the back end of the input connections. I’m have a tough time even getting the nut off the back. On the bass cap, looks to be in spec for the uF value. ESR is .22 ohm. Is that high? on the crossover network, there are 2 uF 50’s listed. But on the one big cap itself it says 100uF

I received my esr meter and learned how to use it. But after getting into the AK-3 crossover, it seems impossible to be able to test without cutting and stripping wires and resoldering. Klipsch seems to have the wiring to from the caps sealed up pretty good, making it difficult / impossible to make a connection for testing as is. Everything than can be soldered appears to be soldered. Even the tabs connecting the drivers wired from the crossover are soldered together. The is a far different experience that what I found inside my cornwalls, fortes and quartets where things like the wiring to the drivers were not soldered, nor the speaker level inputs to the crossovers. Is it common for this generation of khorns with the “monster cable” wire to be buttoned up this much?

After adding a delay, things started sounding better to my ears. Then I made some crossover changes in the dsp. Then I tweaked some EQ settings and things are sounding much better for my setup. I’ve listened to a variety of 2 channel music, then I listened to some atmos music. That seems to be sounding exceptionally good. Things are looking up. thanks everyone for the ideas and such.

I found out that my current 2 by 4 miniDSP DOES have delay adjustments per driver available! If I were to go to the next model up, the 4 x 10, I can crossover all 3 drivers in the active dsp and have EQ and delay per driver. earlier I incorrectly responded it did NOT have delay abilities. In fact it allows for up to 9ms.

I can apply digital EQ at the preamp stage regardless of what type of signal processor is used or not used at all. This can only be done before the digital or analog signal processor splits by frequency. Do the AK3 passive crossovers have a delay in them? If horns need them, I’d assume this must be part of the klipsch active crossover design. I am using a miniDSP 2x4 HD. It offers 2 frequency separations per channel, parametric EQ per driver, a compressor per driver, and FIR filters per driver. I don’t understand FIR filters nor how to use them. This unit is pretty inexpensive. For more money you can upgrade the firmware and get more software for room correction EQ and maybe more features. I can do room correction by speaker at the preamp, but not down to the driver level. I have about another 10 days to return this miniDSP unit if I don’t want to keep it. They also make a larger model that would work for tri-amping. sometimes inexpensive means low quality. Sometimes it does not. just to be clear, previously in this thread have you identified the dsp crossover frequencies that should be used for a given speaker? Or have you listed actual processor units you recommend for consideration? I’d like to see both pieces of actually but it’ll be easier to find if I know what I’m looking for. I don’t believe my current sound is worse than before I was using the inexpensive DSP. But I’m not convinced it’s better either. It could be that if my crossovers are out of spec, I’m limited to their degraded quality and I’m not going to see any improvement or be able to judge anything until the crossovers are fixed or eliminated from the chain entirely. I should be able to test my crossovers by Wednesday or Thursday. So I’ll know soon enough. my feeling about upgrading electronics is that sometimes it’s best to go in stages and not wait until you can afford the best. In many cases, I’ll never be able to afford the best but I don’t think that has to limit me from getting something “better”. If you are saying an analog signal processor is not ever going to hear any improvement (or it would be worse) by using an analog signal processor even if I can do speaker EQ in the preamp stage, that’s one thing. But if you are saying don’t bother doing this because you should wait until you can afford the best or near best, that’s something entirely different and is simply a personal opinion. I appreciate your knowledge and insight even if i might disagree on items which are more subjective. So thank you for sharing.

Besides the possibility of re-capping, I’m also considering skipping the crossover altogether and tri-amping by using this. Any thoughts?

Has anyone used this (analog?) Signal processor to tri-amp? https://www.parts-express.com/Peavey-PV-35XO-Stereo-2-3-Way-Mono-4-5-Way-Crossover-248-8116?gclid=Cj0KCQjw9O6HBhCrARIsADx5qCSaYhzXqYFwaYEV8hFRAgEt-IUWMwuVHQRRzGKDT6PLlEta08TlivMaAo7OEALw_wcB Im currently using an active dsp but it only supports splitting 2 channels, not 3. Plus it offers no delay options. My understanding is this unit, while not computer enabled, can split the signal into 3 frequencies, has volume matching for each, and allows for delay by each (though I cannot see how yet). And it’s price is cheap. Does that mean this is not good enough quality to use as a 3 way crossover for a klipschorns?