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Toz

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Posts posted by Toz

  1. My experience is that when first coming over to Klipsch Heritage from the "normal hifi world" any of the Cornwall variants will be your best bet. I have found the Cornwall to be an excellent gateway. The other heritage speakers, some people find to be so different from what they're used to and consequently don't always hear what makes them special. 

    My Klipsch journey started with Chorus II, then Forte's, then Klipschorns, Heresy's and Cornwalls. I sold off everything except the corner horns and Cornwalls. Your going to need a good source and amp, more so than with your direct radiators.

  2. It's my understanding that what will cause the magnets to lose gauss is a sharp impact such as would happen if dropped or smacked. I've also read that the natural decay is insignificantly small. I have plenty of old alnico that still performs as I would expect it to. Just be careful not to knock the old drivers around. If they've lived in their original cabinets, and output sound, they are probably fine.

  3. I have Klipschorns with AK-2 crossovers. I've had them for nearly thirty years. I use all kinds of amps to drive them and they always sound good. Many here will tell you to upgrade to AK-3 crossover. I did that with factory parts over twenty years ago. I have gone back to AK-2 because it is my preference. The only real difference is the AK-2 has a slightly lower mid horn level, -2db relative to that of the AK-3.

  4. I think what you have there is fantastic! Nice work on the risers too. Those are all great components, I wouldn't consider changing them at all.

      The lack of bass output could come down to damping. That driver looks to have pretty good mechanical damping, it's how things were in the era of amps with low damping factor. You could try to lower the damping, which will give a fuller bass note. Either a different amp, a tube amp, or insertion of a small resistance in series with the speaker wires can accomplish this.     Modern speakers with very compliant suspensions need a high damping factor or they sound round and boomy. It's not hard to experiment and see if this is the case.

  5. Make sure the throat of the metal horn is free of casting irregularities such as mismatches or lumpy restrictions. Mine were pretty bad and required a little handwork to smooth out the transition between driver and horn. Also, new gaskets wouldn't hurt. And tighten horn to baffle interface evenly and snuggly. 

    If you have K55m drivers, you probably  don't, reglue the back cap, they can buzz after years in service.

    • Like 1
  6. ODS, I respect your opinion, it's clear that for you this subject is settled science. But for others, it's helpful to read up a bit about the Richard Clark Challenge before forming an opinion. First off, the guy is a car audio dealer and not specifically a high end audio person. Second, the test parameters are such that it has little bearing on how you would use two different amps in your own set up. How an amplifier drives a reactive load, one where the impedance curve moves around a lot, will vary from one amp to the next. The frequency  response of the amp/speaker combination will be different with different amps. He adjusts for this variation!  You don't adjust for this at home, which is why many of us can easily hear differences when we try different amplifiers with our Klipsch gear. It's pretty simple, he's adding EQ to compensate impedance curve induced frequency response nonlinearities. Yeah, that's gonna make it darn hard to tell a difference 24 out of 24 times to win the prize.

    • Like 2
  7. That problem sounds like the classic dirty or arced speaker protection switches in the amplifier or receiver. When you turn the volume up high that sends some voltage through the dirty switch and it jumps the carbon buildup and makes contact, until next time you use the amp. I have cleaned and replaced these switches on several units over the years. I think the high efficiency of the K horn means you don't put much voltage across the switch and it makes the problem more noticeable. People with 82db/W/M speakers are always cranking it up and may never notice your dirty switches. Turning the amps on and off while a source is playing music with the volume above zero will cause the switches to arc and lead to carbon and pitting over time.

  8. Common internet advice is to convert AK-2 to AK-3. I did that on Klipsch's advice back in the mid '90's. I have since gone back somewhat to what I call the AK-2.5. 

     What the 2 does is knock down the mid horn by 2db relative to the bass and tweeter horns. The 3 corrects this. Both crossovers use the same caps for mid and tweeter so replace those in any case. Where the networks differ is in the shunt cap, caps on the woofer and the auto former and inductor on the mid. I like the mid 2db down. I padded down the tweeters 1.5 db for a better match to the mid and I like it. 

     I think old capacitors would be the number one thing. My K55m black plastic rear covers did start to buzz a few years ago, I reglued them. I also found chunks of sand cast crud in the K400 horn throats! Rat tail file and repaint. 

    I did poly caps and hated them, it was too clinical and thin sounding and eventually I went with Russian MBGO and K75.

    That is my stream of consciousness concerning my 30 year run with your same speakers. When all is right, they make a reference system you'll be proud of. They also show every upstream change easily, and are just plain fun to own. My 21yo musician son comes over once a week to school me in alternative styles of rock and jazz, he loves the Klipschorns.

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