Cohoangler

The link is for a BBC/David Attenborough documentary on African lions. So what does that have to do with Klipsch speakers?! Run the video in the link below until the 18-second mark. Then hit pause (paws?) at exactly 18 seconds. Tell me what you see. And then run the video to the 40-second mark. What is your response? Here's mine: Mr. Klipsch, your product failed the "Lion Test". You need more base response! LOL! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQHwkN_VQQM

If I were to guess, I'd say it's white ash. White ash is known for a very straight grain, which makes it great for baseball bats and tennis rackets. The straight grain on those cabinets look like ash to me.

It is hearing fatigue or is it acute irritation? I ask because I was having issues with the mid-range on my Heresy II's being too "bright",which caused hearing fatigue if I listened to them for too long. A friend suggested removing the grills and taping a single piece of paper towel over the front of the mid-range, and then replacing the grills. I did, and wow what a difference! The brightness was gone, and so was the hearing fatigue. I can now listen to my Heresy II's for hours without any problems. Give it a try.... Can't hurt, it's a really cheap fix, and it's easily reversed if it doesn't work.

Thanks for the pics. A couple observations….. They cleaned up beautifully! Nicely done. The pic of the bottom panel indicates it’s oak. As I see it, the grain and the pores say ‘oak’, but you might get other opinions. But if I’m right, the remainder of the cabinet is also oak. But the riser is not. I’m not sure what it is, but if you can push your fingernail into it, and leave an indent, it’s likely pine or other softwood. My guess is the risers are pine. The passive woofer might rebound if you just remove it, and gently press it back into shape from the back side. I’ve done this with other woofers. But I’m not sure if you can get to it. Just be careful if you do. If all else fails, passive woofers aren’t that expensive to replace. The crossover looks to be in great shape. But I would still recommend replacing the capacitors (the three yellow things plus the round green thing). Check with Bob. While you’re at it, consider upgrading the wiring to the components. 18 gauge speaker wire works great! Easy stuff all around. Good luck!

Thanks for the responses. However, I'm rather surprised that some Klipsch speakers (kg's) could have oak, walnut or cherry under the black paint. Any of those types of wood would still look terrific even with an imperfection (especially walnut!). I would NEVER consider painting over walnut veneer. Perhaps I'm just partial to wood grain, even if it's not perfect. Next time, I will take note of the labels to see if it indicates the type of wood under the black paint. Thanks for the tip!

Count your many blessings. My wife is not at all impressed with my high end stereo stuff. She doesn't like those big, boxy speakers. When I was working on my Hersey II's last week, she remarked "Why don't you just get a pair of little Bose speakers? They're easier to handle....". The resulting heart attack rendered me helpless for several hours. I have since recovered, but life at home may never be the same. But I'll forgive her......

As we all know, some of the cabinets on vintage Klipsch speakers were painted black. I know PWK didn’t use cheap wood, so presumably the wood underneath the paint was reasonably high quality (although perhaps not mahogany or walnut or zebrawood). So why didn’t they just leave them unfinished? (I realized some were unfinished. In fact, my Hersey II cabinets were unfinished birch when I bought them new in 1989). The reason I ask is because I found a pair of kg 4’s a few months back for really cheap. I didn’t buy them because the cabinets were in poor shape. They were black, but the finish was chipped, scratched, faded, and water-stained. It was only after seeing several speaker rehab projects on this website did I realize that by stripping off the black paint, the underlying wood might be quite good. (Perhaps unfinished birch!) So even if the finish is poor, an old pair of vintage Klipsch speakers might be rehabbed back to respectability. So if I were to strip off the black paint from a pair of vintage Klipsch speakers, what type of wood am I most likely to find?

Another set of Klipsch speakers found at a Goodwill store! That's my favorite place to find great stuff at a bargain. And for just $20!!! Well played! It gives me hope that I can someday find something like Forte's, or Chorus, or Quartet's. I've only found a couple pair of kg's (kg 4 and kg 3.2). From your pics, it appears you're in Texas. That would explain the mold. Anytime I've been in the Lone Star State, the heat and humidity were impressive. And oppressive..... Best of luck cleaning and rebuilding those. I would recommend new crossovers, and likely new titanium diaphragms on the tweeter. Bob Crites website can help with that. I'm anxious to see the pics, as you go along. Best of luck, and thanks for sharing!

Budman - Klipsch did put date stamps on their crossovers. See the pic of my Heresy II crossover (rebuilt). In the upper left corner, the date stamps reads APR 04 1988. I bought these speakers (new) in mid 1989.

Sorry for your loss. Great story though. I had to chuckle at the thought of a single-wide with four KHorns. Wow! That's dedication, and a little bit crazy. But in a good way....

You are correct. When I took the pic, I wasn't quite finished with the project. I wasn't confident my re-built crossovers were going to function properly (due to my lack of soldering skills), so I did not re-solder the input posts or re-glue the caps, until I re-installed the crossover and tested it. If it didn't work correctly, I wanted to be able to disassemble it fairly easily. I took the pic before I did the final testing. Fortunately, everything works great! In fact, the speakers sound unbelievable. Over the weekend, I listened to some CD's that I've played hundreds of times, and I was hearing things I've never heard before. The level of "detail" in the sound is beyond anything I would have thought possible. Even my teenagers noticed a huge jump in sound quality (but my wife is still unimpressed with my high-end stereo equipment, but that's another story.......). My Heresy II's were terrific speakers before the re-build, but now they're phenomenal! Thanks again for the folks on this BB for their advice and encouragement.

I'm trying to squeeze as much information as I can from the back label on my Heresy II's. From the information I've gleaned from this website, it appears that my speakers are Heresy (although they are in fact Hersey II's), they are unfinished birch, the serial numbers are sequential, they were made in 1988, and were tested by Judy Clayton. Can anyone else tell me what other information can be obtained from the label?

Thanks to all who helped with advice and guidance on my crossover rebuild project for my Heresy II's. I'm not sure I could have done this without the advice and encouragement from the folks on this BB, including Bob Crites. And to top it all off, the new crossovers work perfectly! Miracles never cease! And my speakers sound better than brand new. Thanks again. Here is the old (top) and the new (bottom). New caps plus new wiring to the speaker components (18 gauge speaker wire from Monster cable)

You now what they are. Here's is a bit more background. Hersey I's were made in the late 1970's to the mid 1980's. There is also Heresy II (late 1980's to mid 1990's, and Hersey III (mid 1990's to the present). The differences between models is primarily the quality of the components, including the crossovers. As many folks have already stated, you should consider upgrading the crossovers and the tweeter diaphragms. I'm in the process of upgrading my Heresy II's with both components. The improved performance of the speakers is startling. You will be impressed. For more information on crossover replacement for a Heresy II, check out the technical/modification forum on this BB, specifically this thread (shameless): Good luck!

Thanks again Bob. I presume you mean those two wires that are soldered to the board, and are directly below the red/orange capacitor in your pic (crossover on the left).

Thanks everyone for the great responses, including the guest appearance from Bob! This answers my questions. It appears I need to unscrew the circuit board from the input plate, flip it over, un-solder the old caps by melting and removing the old solder, and then pulling the old caps up and out. The wires for the new caps are inserted into the holes from the old caps. The new caps are then soldered directly onto the circuit board. Just clip the excess wire and it's good to go! This also clears up why the rebuild kit did not include zip ties and mounting tabs. I won’t need them since the new caps are soldered directly onto the circuit board. Thanks again.

I need some help rebuilding the crossovers for my Heresy II’s. I bought the speakers in the late 1980’s, so they’re 25+ years old. Everything I’ve read indicates the capacitors are at the end of their useful life, even though I cannot detect a loss of speaker performance. But I’m 25+ years older too, so my hearing probably isn’t what it once was. Nevertheless, after reading a lot of information on this BB, and looking at videos on YouTube, I decided to place an order to Bob Crites for a DIY crossover rebuild kit. Everything I’ve seen suggests the following steps for a crossover rebuild: 1) Remove the crossover from the speaker, 2) identify the capacitors, 3) clip the wires to the caps, 4) unscrew and remove the old caps, 5) attach the mounting tabs, 6) zip tie the new caps to the mounting tabs, and finally 7) solder the wires to the new caps. Seems simple enough. When my order arrived from Bob, I pulled one of the Heresy II crossovers, and I got a surprise. They did not resemble the “tired, old crossovers” on Bob’s website or in any of the videos I’ve seen. In fact, the crossover looked almost brand new. Fresh as a daisy. Plus, I could not positively identify the capacitors, there are no wires in which to clip, and no place to re-solder anything. The caps appear to be attached directly to a circuit board. See the pics. Also, if you look closely you’ll see a date stamp on the circuit board (Apr 04 1988). I believe the caps are the four blue things. If not, where are they? Notice there are no wires going into or out of the caps. The large cap in the lower right corner does have two bare wires that could be clipped and re-soldered, but the new sonic caps won’t fit there. The sonic caps have one wire at each end. But I need a cap with two wires at one end. If I solder in one of the sonic caps, the wire on the far side won’t reach. And I have no idea how to replace the three other caps, given that there are no wires to clip and re-solder. Plus, I’m not convinced the new caps will fit into the same space. The sonic caps are only slightly smaller than the large capacitor in the lower right corner of the crossover. Not sure how I can fit three in the same space. also, when my order arrived, the only thing I got was eight caps (four for each speaker). No zip ties and no mounting tabs. I was under the impression the DIY kits came with those items. Mine did not. I can probably find zip ties in my garage. But I don’t know where to get those mounting tabs. It seems like for a few more nickels, Bob could have included them in the order. Or at least tell me they were optional. I would gladly paid extra for them. At this point, I may just return the kit to Bob. Although the capacitors probably need to be replaced, I’m not sure the risk of destroying the entire crossover is worth the potential performance improvements this rebuild is supposed to provide. Although I haven’t reached that point yet, I am at a standstill. Any ideas or advice would be great. Thanks.

Hey! I just went past this place over the weekend. We were headed from Vancouver WA, to Lynwood for my son's soccer game. Had I known about this shop, I would have stopped in to discuss upgrading a pair of kg 3.2's. Maybe next time..... Also, nice work on the Cornwalls.

Thank you! And thanks for the concise answer. That's clear. I'll give it a try, and report back.

I have a question on tweeter diaphragms for my Heresy II and kg series speakers. I’m starting the process of upgrading my HII with new crossovers and titanium diaphragms. However, there is nothing wrong with my HII’s. In fact, they sound just as good as they did 25 years ago when I bought them new. But since it’s been 25 years, the caps are likely at the end of their useful life. So I’m going to be replacing both the crossovers and the tweeter diaphragms, per the advice provided on this forum. However, I also have a set of kg 3.2’s that I bought recently at a second-hand thrift store. I don’t use them much, but they are functional. They sound okay, but there is distortion from the tweeters, particularly in some high notes. My sense is the tweeter diaphragms are bad. They need to be replaced. Bob’s website indicates the replacement tweeter diaphragms for the HII is the same as the kg series. So here is my question: If I replace the tweeter diaphragm on the HII with titanium, can I put the old HII diaphragms into the kg tweeter? I ask because there is nothing wrong with the existing HII diaphragms. If they are interchangeable, as Bob seems to indicate, can they be re-purposed for a kg speaker? I’ve never replaced a tweeter diaphragm, so I’m not sure if this can be done. Okay, okay….. I already know that I should just order two sets of titanium diaphragms from Bob. But I’m trying to improve my speakers with existing equipment before I buy more. Plus, I’m cheap (my wife tells me that every day…..).

Wait..... You got a pair of Quartets for $40 at a yard sale!? That's the deal of the century. On ebay, Quartets start at $400, and go up from there. Whoever sold you those speakers didn't know what they were worth. Well played! Even if the tweeters were working properly, you'd do well to replace them with titanium diaphragms. So nothing lost there. Best of luck on an incredible find!

All Klipsch speakers that I’ve seen have sequential serial numbers. However, I recently bought a used pair of kg 3.2’s from a second hand thrift shop. The serial numbers on one of the speakers ends with 240. The other ends with 254. The previous five numbers are identical. So, the serial numbers are not sequential. What does this mean? Were the speakers sold individually? And then matched up later. Or were they made with sequential numbers but were separated at birth (so to speak….). If so, there might another pair of kg 3.2’s with serial numbers that differ by one number from mine. I noticed the cabinets on my kg 3.2's somewhat different. Both cabinets are oak, but the color is slightly off, and the grain is very different. So the cabinets appear to have cut from wood from different oak trees. But that may not mean anything, in the context of speaker production. That is, any Klipsch speaker cabinet may be from a different stock of wood, although the tree species may be the same (e.g., oak, walnut, birch, etc). But given that the numbers are close (a difference of 14), and the limited production of kg 3.2’s (1992-1994), I would expect the speaker components to be the same. My apologies if this topic has already been discussed at length on this BB. If this has occurred, rather than belabor the issue, perhaps someone just direct me to the discussion.

Actually, I've come close to getting Carver stuff at GW twice. Once, I walked into GW, and a guy was standing in the check out line with a Carver CD player in his hands. I noticed the rack handles, and then looked closer. I saw the big CARVER logo on the front. I knew I was a few minutes too late. Another time, I walked past the drop off station outside. Sitting on the ground was a huge Carver amp. Somebody just donated it. They dropped it outside at the donation door and left! I could have picked it up and walked off with it. But I was honest. I walked inside to the front counter and asked if I could buy it. They said no. They had to catalog it, price it, and check the inventory. But it would likely be on the shelf within either two hours or two days. I went back several times over the next couple days but never saw it again. But I digress. This is a Klipsch forum, not a Carver forum. But I keep looking….