Maz4bz

Hi Barcade. I have reported on my experience of the Crites Ti in my KG 5.5 thread linked in my last post here...

I like PVA. Any brand will do. Non toxic, no smell, water based, dries clear, forms a bond with timber that is often stronger than MDF or particle board you've joined, fills gaps and is cheap as chips. The bracing in my KG 5.5's is glued in with PVA. I've built several subs using just PVA. No screws or nails, just plain PVA. 👍

Thankfully my KG woofers are still going strong. KG 5.5's are huge boxes with zero bracing built down to a price with known baffle glue problems that results in rattles. My KG 5.5's definitely benefited from some bracing. Perhaps yours might have a rattle eminating from the box that some treatment might help? Having said that I've also had some nice high end celestion subwoofers develop a nasty rattle from the dust caps gradually letting go. Carefully removing these and then reseating with hot glue fixed the rattle and they are still going strong 20 years later. More recently I repaired a terminally rattling Alpine SWR-1540. $10 in glue and some time cleaning and setting up and she plays flat down to 13hz pushed to the limiters on a crown xls-2500 without a murmur. Worst case scenario you might try a fix yourself or professionally before they go in the trash? Good luck.

Measured from my listening position my KG 5.5's play down to 20hz with authority. I posted some REW graphs at the end of that thread. These are really very special speakers IMHO. Hope this helps.

I recapped my KG 5.5's. There was zero difference to mine and my 13 yr old daughters ears.

Nice, looks pricey though. The cost of shipping kills a lot of options for us that live outside the USA. 😥

Hi Tom, No chance of offence using what is everyday language down here. Certainly don't want to be too serious about anything on line these days. Not with the Russians egging us all on at each other, eh! 😉 The beaut thing about damping your speakers, as I see it is that it is: cheap; easy; infinitely adjustable; and completely reversible! In my case, once I had pulled my drivers and looked into those big old empty boxes I muttered to myself something along the lines of "wow, that's a big old box to not have any bracing". It was like an echo chamber in there! I really can't imagine an essentially empty box being a great basis for a fine speaker. A "loud" speaker? Yes! So I'd say give it a try, it definitely, in my mind, helped my speakers sound more refined, but likely reduced their efficiency. There's no free lunches. I'm no expert however, but this bloke seems like he knows what he's on about.... I've built a few subwoofers in my time using the freeware WinISD which is easy to use. You can vary the box volume and port specifications at will and see the resulting response changes instantly. In my experience it shows that quite substantial changes to box volume have quite a small impact on simulated bass performance.

Gday Tom, Being a "sparkie" you're already ahead of the game mate! I just operate a keyboard for a living so those lpads will be a breeze for you. Really glad you've found some value there, that was 90% of the objective of posting my experience. I got 99% of my ideas from fragments others had scattered around the web. Thought I'd bring all that together into one fulsome KG 5.5 thread. I won't deny the balance was probably just an opportunity for a little self promotion 😂 ! Hope you make it down-under soon and if you do make it this far you must get over the ditch to NZ, fair dinkum its God's own country our Kiwi cousins have over there. Cheers, Maz.

Hi Tom, I went back to the -4db Lpads and I've settled on these now after many months of music and movie watching. That's just my taste however. Yours might be quite different. I'd say experiment to see what sounds best to you. Of course the KG4 is a very different speaker to the KG 5.5 and it gets some glowing reviews. Perhaps it needs no attenuation on the top end? I've never heard them, would very much like to. But if you feel the top end is tiring then pls don't write them off. Give the lpad approach a chance. You might be pleased with the results. I've been working my way through the Econowave threads on PE and Audio Karma and all these accomplished designs specify a variable Lpad. Enjoy the journey!

You may find something of interest here...

Dear all, I'm back to say I'm delighted to report that my Crites upgrade has gone very well indeed. Billybob and Steve C. thanks for your encouragement. I really appreciate your support and am glad you found some value in my ramblings! In the significant time since my last post I went ahead and had Mr Crites ship me a pair of his nice diaphragms all the way across the globe to Australia. They came very well packaged. Each diaphragm comes in its own strong plastic box... Upon opening you are welcomed by a gleaming lovely metal dome... Naturally these are identical to the original and fit over my existing felts... I measured the new diaphrams resistance out of curiosity... And for some inextricable reason was taken with terror at the way the process of mating the wave guide to the magnet assembly, I really thought the phase plug was going to dent the fragile Ti, but it didn't, of course!.... I've had some fun recently using my Audyssey mic to measure my subwoofers. The results of this have been outstanding for my setup. So I figured that I'd try measuring my KG's too. Now you need to know the Audyssey mic is great for measuring subs. But, if you read that microphone shoot out thread what I have done here is not recommended for full range. Notwithstanding I figured I'd post what I found but take all this with a hefty grain of salt, it's not an accurate way to measure full range. To do that you need a calibrated microphone.... Here is the two KG's measured at the main listening position. Its a bit ragged, but if you mentally smooth this then you can see they have a nice downward tilting "house curve", I believe. I forgot to mention earlier that I'd gone back to the -4db Lpad modules and returned to these post my Crites upgrade. Ie, this measurement is with the horn attenuated 4db. For anyone interested the 4db modules look like this. Note black marking denotes negative. In regards to bass extension you can see that in my room the KG's play down to 20hz with authority! The big peaks and suck outs below 200hz are room modes and therefore are not what the speakers would measure like outside - ignore these then.... Here are a few limited to the 1k - 20k Hz range... At 1'... At 2'... At 3'... At 4'... BTW, these are all taken with 1/24th octave smoothing applied in REW. So how do they sound? They sound terrific! If you have heard Ti horns before then these will sound similar. In my workshop I now have a pair of very nice EV ZX1 that have Ti loaded horns and I love these speakers. My KG's now have the same sound signature, or at least a very similar high frequency sound. I like this sound. It has more sparkle than the originals. More air. They don't seem to be any less efficient as I hypothesized previously so I can't use them without the 4db Lpad modules. I did try them without the Lpads, but not for long, too much top end for me, like that. So is this a must have update to these epic speakers? No, not really. As I've explained previously these are very refined speakers, to my old ears. They really are quite astonishing. The individual parts aren't high-end by any means. But the sum of those parts is something much, much more. If you're satisfied with the original diaphragms then be happy. For me though this has been a journey I'd wanted to take all the way I possibly could. Now that I have the Ti's installed I won't be going back. But in the same token I don't see the Ti's as an upgrade as such. More like a different flavour. Some people don't like the sound of Titanium loaded speakers. I've read many posts commenting on Ti's being harsh, shrill, ringing, piercing etc. But I happen to not agree with these generalisations. That's just me I guess. What I would say is that the original diaphragms now seemed somewhat dark in comparison. Perhaps veiled in the uppermost frequencies. But therein lies the double edged sword of knowledge. It's why I refused to be shown the 4k TV when I went to purchase a new set. Not knowing the difference is bliss, as they say, 1080p is glorious to my eyes compared to the tubes we used to watch. Not that I'm saying you're only getting 480i with the original diaphragms. It's not that kind of difference. It's more like 720p vs 1080p at five meters. The eye has very limited resolution at distance. Can you spot the difference at that distance? Maybe, maybe not. To me the original diaphragms are great, the Ti's give just a little more air and sparkle, it seems to me. I guess I'm just being cautious to not build unwarranted expectation that this is a night and day, must have upgrade. Because it's not really. For me however it has been worthwhile. It's all part of a process. This audio addiction is exploration, trying the Crites diaphragms has been like a speaker holiday, that I get to enjoy everyday that I listen to my fantastic KG's.

Dear all, I recently came by a mint condition Synergy Sub 12 at a throw away price because its amp was blowing fuses. These seem to have a manufacturing fault by the number of reports I've read on the net, and by how perfectly untouched my example looks. I imagine the original owner was not impressed! It would be a shame to throw out a sub like this, simply because replacing the original, and seemingly fragile power amp, is too costly (and risky) compared to new. As I'm in the process of following Dr Earl Geddes guide to better bass I figured that I could re-purpose this sub from active to passive and drive it with one channel of my Crown XLS 2500's. Perhaps if you have one lying around this can mean that your nice blown active sub can find new life too, as an equally nice passive sub, just with better power, depending on what you can power it with. As I'm prone to do, but was actually necessary in this case, I opened up this sub to have a look around.... Like new exterior: The dead amp... The 12" woofer is likely worth more than I paid for the complete unit.... I'd call it better than average quality, really I was surprised at how hefty the driver was when it came out. I noticed that the terminals seemed unmarked for +ve and -ve so added some markings of my own before disconnecting it... I'll bet the Klipsch punched basket is heaps more rigid than the traditional spoke design steel versions. Solid sized magnet, plenty of venting too..... Not a very solid box however, rather average MDF with zero bracing... No to worry, I love a little wood working. Holes cut to reduce internal volume displaced and reduce weight gain.... Two scrap pieces of pine glued across the top, held down with my low tech clamps while the glue dries... A closer look now that the glue has set up.... Much more solid now, distinctly different sound from the box when giving the "knuckle rap test".... Stuffing back in place... I didn't want to remove the amp and then have a make up a blanking board for its hole. So I pulled out my soldering iron, removed the wires and the shorting resister from a pair of the amps speaker level input posts (which are gold plated and really nice looking) and re-used the original wiring to connect the woofer to these two input posts.... Wired up as a test (before bracing went in) ... So now she's all back together and in my system as one of my four passive subs. Impressions: Its a really nice sounding sub for what it is, not as authoritative as my HiSAF's in terms of depth, but really smooth, not at all boomy in my room (near-field just behind my couch against the back wall), sounds plenty deep and is quite efficient too. With the grunty Crown behind it it's a great sub, reborn. One man's trash, is another's treasure...

Thanks for the encouragement gents. Time for a little update. In the time that has past since my last ramblings I've had the chance to update my crossovers with new capacitors as suggested elsewhere as a logical area to address due to the affects of age. We are nowhere near as lucky in Australia as those in the Americas with cheap or free shipping so I try to source locally where possible. For new capacitors I went to The Loudspeaker Kit who stock Dayton products. For capacitors that are in the direct signal path with the tweeter I used their precision caps. For bypass duties on the woofers I used their regular caps. An affordable update project. Some pictures are attached for your enjoyment. Crossovers, before and after looking at the back side..... I had to add the woofer bypass capacitor to the backside due to space restrictions on the front side where it was originally located. I did this by inserting a jumper to an unused section of the crossover board which allowed the new caps' leads to reach. This is the placement of the jumper to the unused area on the board ... Now soldered in place... Now with the big 25uf cap in place.... Here is the front side of the board - before and after. Notice the "C1" circle where the old green woofer bypass cap went, just visible are the new legs..... Just for giggles here are the old and new components side by side. I parallel wired the 2uf and 0.47 to get as close as possible to the original spec.... Here is the face of the terminal, just in case these fine gents happen to stumble upon their good work here... So I reassembled my KG's and moved them side by side for a listening session of stock versus updated crossovers.... Mmmmm, KG porn! So what did I find - sorry, but there was no discernible difference in sound between updated and original. Not to my ears, in my system, in my room. I really tried hard to hear something. My 12 year old daughter, who helped with the balance switching agreed. Not to worry, I really enjoy the tinkering, and besides you'll never know if you never go there. I just kind of feel better for knowing that I've updated my lovely ladies networks and it was fun too. I am intrigued to perhaps try and update the inductors to air cores perhaps..... On the subject of what did make a difference in sound quality.... In the time since my last post about the nice Yamaha AX-450 I was gifted, which I've now switched into my system as my KG's amp, I've been really enjoying their combined sound. Warm, rich, lush, heaps of bass, smooth treble. Simply awesome all round. In my system I use the Onkyo PR-SC5509 pre-processor as volume controller for home theater and anytime I want to invoke my sub woofers. The Onkyo feeds the Yamaha's AUX input and I set the volume on it at -10 for a good match with the other amps in my system. For critical listening from my SACD player, I have its analogue output plumbed straight into the Yamaha's CD input. This way all the rest of my system is out of the loop and can remain powered down. But, the lack of remote on the AX-450 was putting me off a bit.... So in this intervening period between posts I've been lucky enough to stumble across the legendary DSP-A1 and then a few months later the previous model DSP-A3090. Both of these amps are big at over 20 kgs. They are beautifully built and feel great to operate. I was really excited when I got the DSP-A1 home. It's a legend and was Yamaha's first amp with DTS. But to me it was immediately a step backward from the AX-450. Yes it has a remote and that was handy, but the sound was hard and cold through the digital input, worse through the analogue inputs. It lasted all of one night hooked up to the KG's. The difference was just so stark to the AX-450. We are not talking subtle differences. A really captivating strength of the AX-450 is its ability to allow my KG's to give a three dimensionality to the instruments in a track. On well recorded music, everything has a position in space with height and depth. The KG's are "airy" in their presentation, and you get the sense of all the different instruments having a position that you might be able to reach out and touch if they were really there in the room. The DSP-A1 on the other hand transformed their presentation into a flat wall of sound, no air, no depth. No soul, perhaps. It was back on the market and gone the next day (at a handy profit ). The DSP-A1 was in my home for so little time I have no pics of it.... Then came the DSP-A3090, the predecessor to the DSP-A1 and Yamaha's first amp with Dolby Digital (AC-3 - remember that!) .... Now I got this for a price that was just too good to pass on, despite my experience with the A1, I jumped in. Looking internally they are almost identical. I had to do some work on the 3090. Its memory capacitor was gone ($3 part, 30 mins to replace) and the input select was playing up (common problem, is there nothing contract related Deoxit can't fix?). But once it was cleaned up and in my system I was shocked at how different it sounded to the newer series DSP-A1! All I can put this down to is a different AD-DA section. But oh my its a very nice sounding amp in combination with my KG's. The difference between analogue and digital inputs this time was reversed, digital had a much larger sound stage, taller and wider, with extra treble output to boot. Both sounded nice, analogue inputs gave a smoother sound, digital bigger and brighter. A bit like some dac's I've experienced that have different filter options. Switching between each input was easy with the remote and the difference very noticeable. Overall the 3090's sound is very much like the AX-450 - not completely like it mind you - not as three dimensional, not as much air, but still warm, rich, lush and with boundless headroom. Its power supply is massive in comparison. And with remote. But still not quite the match for the AX.... Intrigued by how good the 3090 sounded for two channel I re-plugged all my HT speakers and BD player into the Yamaha, moved my HDMI directly plugged in to my monitor and played some selected favorite movie moments. And boy, the old girl can really do HT too. Now sure, it has no room correction - the PR-SC5509 has Audessy MultEQ XT32 and this really makes a huge difference in my room. For sub woofer integration particularly it is outstanding, really, I would never consider an upgrade to anything with less then the top rung XT32 or equivalent by another. But the Yamaha I would happily swap in and put up with vanilla Dolby Digital and no room correction happy with the lovely sounds this old girl can put out. So the DSP-A3090 is staying with me, now doing back yard duties/standby for when my Onkyo dies. And the AX-450 lives on as my main stay amp for driving my lovely KG 5.5's. They are a wonderful combination. Next stop, Crites diaphragms.....

Before I did any work on my KG 5.5's I was surprised at how such a large cabinet could have zero cross bracing. At higher volumes you would feel the cabinets vibrating, and rapping ones knuckles on the box resulted in a very hollow resonant sound. Upon opening up these beauties on my workshop bench I remarked out loud in the privacy of my man-cave at how large the interior was. At this it was clear they were like a hard echo chamber and it occurred to me that a putting a speaker into a large echo chamber might not be the greatest basis for a fine sounding speaker system. At the time I was building sound treatments for our new home and figured the semi-rigid fibreglass batting made for this purpose might also be good for cutting the reverb in the empty box. Now with the fibreglass installed I tried the same talk to my self in the box routine and was pleasantly rewarded with a very dead sounding voice, and what I feel is a better sounding speaker too.

I used semi rigid fibreglass called Sound Screen in my KG 5.5's thats designed specifically for sound absorption. I've read it's the second best sound absorption material, but seeing as asbestos is somewhat hazardous, second best will do! To me the damping made the speakers sound cleaner and perhaps less boxy if that makes any sense.

I used semi rigid fibreglass called Sound Screen in my KG 5.5's thats designed specifically for sound absorption. I've read it's the second best sound absorption material, but seeing as asbestos is somewhat hazardous, second best will do! To me the damping made the speakers sound cleaner and perhaps less boxy if that makes any sense.

Superb!

Hi Dave! Again, really appreciate the feedback. Thank you! Dear all, just a minor update on my KG 5.5 love affair! I was recently gifted a lovely early 90's system by a friend who's gone all modern and minimalist streaming. How boring! Anyway the system comprises virtually mint Bose Interaudio 4000xl speakers, Yamaha AX-450 integrated amp and CDX-530 CD player. Minimalism 90's two channel hifi at its best, well nearly. Now I have a soft spot for Bose as my first hifi experience included a pair of original 301's. I reckoned they sounded great and that adjustable tweeter vein was the bomb. Suffice to say my workshop system includes a mint pair of these I rescued from a curb side throw out and they really do sound the bomb - for background listening . So first up I unplugged the KG's and gave the 4000xl's a run in my main system. Generally very pleasing, but clearly these are not for critical listening. Shut in top end, not much bass extension. They lasted about 15 minutes before they got relegated. The KG's are so clear and spacious in comparison. Midrange is open and actually there. Bass bears no comparison. Next I cleaned up the CD and amp. Blew out 27 years of dust from the inside of the amp and cleaned up all the pots with a few squirts of Deoxit. I set these two handsome units on my cabinet and connected them to my KG's, but the CD player won't recognise anything. Problem! So back to the workshop, off with the lid and it seems the disk is not spinning up. So I pull the laser mechanism from the unit and Deoxit the spindle motor. Reassemble the mechanism and pop in a CD. Now we have spin and the laser is tracking, joy! So now that we have life in the old girl and she's hooked back in I introduce these three classic pieces of 90's gear to each other with some Dire Straights for maximum dynamic range, and I'm instantly in heaven. This is a beautifully matched system. As I type this I've a huge smile on my dial, I'm in audio nirvana. The KG's just keep on giving, despite this modest and aging front end, it really does make me wonder why I bother with all my obsession for power amps, pre/pro's and surround sound.... There's something refreshing in this minimalist system. It just sounds so right - to me - and it took all of 3 minutes to hook up and enjoy. A comment about the AX-450 - it has a variable loudness function, operated by a knob. It's a remarkable feature in that as you turn, it gradually adds emphasis in much the same way as a loudness button does but in this case you get to choose how much contour you want, and it delivers a really nice warmth that I have adjusted as I change CD's. I love it! And I love the KG's efficiency. As I listen now at 10pm at the loudest I dare for fear of my daughter doing her storm in routine, the volume knob on the little AX-450 sits at about the 8 o'clock position. Modestly powered amps just get to idle along delivering clean power with plenty in reserve for dynamic peaks allowing them to give and sound their best. Thank you Klipsch!

Some minor updates on my KG adventure. I tidied up my 5db lpad's with some heat shrink wrapping and in the process it dawned on me that I'd used a slightly higher value series resister than I should have. I estimate that the 3.9ohm series resister is giving approximately 5.8db attenuation to the tweeter horn, not the 5db previously mentioned. I may go and build myself some truly 5db modules for a try at some stage but I'm guessing the difference is not going to be too significant or noticeable. I wanted to go as far as I could with the tweeter felts in the diaphragm chamber. I decided to add an extra felt to the tweeters that was roughly half the diameter of the full size felts I originally used. I purchased these in the next smallest size and added them on top of the existing felts to really fill up the air space in behind the tweeter diaphragm. I shone a bright light through the side of the diaphragm to check that the additional felt wasn't touching the diaphragm and could see light all around the felts indicating I hadn't over filled the chamber. I also took the chance to heat shrink wrap the tweeter female wire clips as I was worried about the legs of the lpad modules coming together too much and creating a short. Probably not much of a risk but the piece of mind is worth the small effort involved. Finally I wanted to give an update on my listening experiences over the last few days. I have to say that I'm absolutely in love with the sound of the KG's. It is no exaggeration to say that a subwoofer is not needed with these speakers for music. They really have prodigious amounts of bass that is simultaneously tight and clear. Bass and midbass clarity is first class. These speakers are really able to convey the varied nature of the lower octaves in a way that I've not experienced previously in my home. No subwoofer I've yet heard has been able to compliment the less bass capable mains I've used over the years for music listening to achieve a result that is as integrated like the KG's are capable of. It's for this reason that I generally prefer to not use subs for music and was drawn to the KG's for their potential for great, truely full range music reproduction. Over the last week I've worked from home on a couple of days with some music playing in the back ground. On a few occasions whilst absorbed in my work, tapping away on my pc at the dining room table, I was distracted by the amazing tunefulness of my KG's playing in the lounge, which is semi detached from the dining room. On these occasions I was compelled to get up and put myself on the lounge in front of my KG's to take in the moment and marvel at how refined these old ladies are sounding. Naturally enough these speakers sound awesome with home theater also. For giggles I moved my pair of Behringer VP1800s subwoofers into the lounge to see if these would be any good at home theater duties. I purchased these a few years ago for my back yard system that plays out over my patio and pool area. These subs sound absolutely fabulous playing music outdoors, but you'd want to be on good terms with your neighbors before trying this at home yourself. Now I know these are about as cheap as you can go for passive PA subs, but for my outdoor application I am not very demanding in my requirements. Suffice to say they completely exceeded my expectations (and needs!) by being really efficient and having that great PA speaker tendency of having great midbass punch even at back ground listening levels. So I figured they might work well in the lounge too! These are being driven with a Crown XLS 2500 (same as my KG's at the moment as I have a pair of these great amps) so they are getting about 440wrms each. So sure, they do not have extension much past the mid 30's in room I'd guess, but oh my, do they simply create a complete wall of sound up front that is frightening at reference levels and can shake the house in ways that does not seem structurally sustainable. Naturally the wife has said these can't be a long term fixture, but I do believe I'm going to enjoy them with my KG's for a few weeks to come. Extra layer of felt applied. Looks off center in the pic but this is an illusion ... Dressed 5.8db lpads.... heat shrunk tweeter clips.... Behringer VP1800s in my lounge, only the sub up front is visable here. The second is against the back wall behind the lounge....

A bit of an update, again! Over the weekend I visited my local Jaycar store to grab additional resisters to make up some L-pad modules at -4db, -5db and -6db. I figured that I would like to see at what point I'd gone too far in attenuating my tweeter (to my own personal taste) and thought -6db should be far enough. Trying to be systematic I first popped in my -4db modules and really enjoyed what I heard, running through my battery of reference disks which by this point I'd become quite familiar with on my lovely KG's.... I did notice however, the slightest, occasional emphasis on the treble and so after a day moved on to the -5db modules. These are really quite small steps in attenuation so moving one db at a time brings subtle changes that require some reasonably close back to back trial to notice. Suffice to say the -5db modules also sounded great and I enjoyed these for a day playing a wide range of music styles.... Moving to the -6db modules on Sunday afternoon it really only took me perhaps a handful of my reference tracks to get a sense of the darkness that had emerged at this point in the overall balance and that the sparkle had been taken down just a bit too far that I reverted back to my -5bd modules which restored the previous balance of mid/bass to treble I had been enjoying up to this point. On the way down to -6db it started to occur to me that perhaps I was beginning to become aware of the lack of extension the stock tweeter diaphragms. Bob and others have commented that the Crites titanium replacements bring increased top end extension. It seems to me that as the stock tweeter diaphragm has been attenuated in outright loudness its lack of extension has become more apparent as the overall refinement of my KG's (achieved by balancing the tweeter with the rest of the spectrum) has been increased. My previous speakers (now relegated to the workshop) are Dynaudio Audience floor stand speakers that have a very nicely extended high end. The KG's absolutely leave the Dyn's for dead in all respects I feel, however the Dyn's high end extension is certainly noticeable in comparison. Another idea occurred to me in my listening over the weekend. Many people comment that the Crites Ti diaphragms result in a smoother, less fatiguing top end. I wondered if in part this is achieved by these diaphragms being a little less sensitive (efficient) and therefore achieving a similar result I have experienced by stepping down the level of my tweeters? Either way I feel I've exhausted my process of stepping down my KG's tweeters. For me 5db (or thereabouts) seems the ideal level - with stock diaphragms. Next step in the process now looks like making the investment in Crites diaphragms and replacement crossover capacitors. Cheers!

Hi Dinesh, I recently acquired some KG 5.5's and have been trying to make as many improvements as I can with minimal outlay before I move to the Crites diaphragms and crossover upgrades which for me will cost $200+. From what I can tell by reading about the KLF's, these have many of the same potential improvements that my KG's have benefited from. Of all the changes I have made I'd say adding L-pad modules have had an enormously beneficial impact with almost negligible cost. Looking back up at this old thread I notice the same harshness issue raised here in relation to the KLF's that I too experienced with my KG's. Adding simple L-pads have completely solved this issue for about $1.50 per speaker. My experiences are documented here. Hope this helps.

Just out of interest, how do the speakers sound with those Vifa's? I've had great results from a few different vifa tweeters in replacement situations when I was younger and less careful with volume levels. Might want to check the previous owner didn't mod the crossover too?

Thanks for the encouragement Dave. I'm really enjoying my KG's as they are handsomely rewarding my efforts! A little update. After listening to the 2db Lpads for some weeks I've moved to the 3db Lpads and feel this has bought more of the mids into play. I am really enjoying their sound which has gotten smoother as I've stepped the tweeter output down. In searching the web for information about the use of Lpads I came across this really interesting thread written by a fellow Aussie on how to build crossovers without measuring equipment. Of particular interest was the comment at post 15 that: "Tweeter level: Playing a tweeter louder than it is meant to be played may sound good for a while, but can become tiring. If you find that some recordings sound a little harsh or bright, and annoying, start by reducing the level of the tweeter. When a tweeter blends, you should only just hear it, and not specifically…it shouldn't stand out." So this really resonated with me because: Firstly, I've read so many Klipsch owners describe a harsh or tiring top end; and Second, in my experience with my KG's I could hardly describe the tweeter as not standing out! So this made me feel that what I am doing here with my tweeter Lpad modules was ok, and that this was a valid way for me to tone down my tweeters and achieve a blend with the rest of the system that suited my ears. The other part of this for me was that, given so many comments about people experiencing a "harsh top end", it seems a shame that for such a cheap and simple mod too many people might be writing off their Klipsch when, with a little tweaking, can be an amazingly accomplished and enjoyable speaker. The side benefit of bringing down the tweeter relative to the woofers is that as I do this the speaker seems to become more authoritative and powerful across the board with all kinds of music and far more pleasing and listenable at the same time. It makes me think of the effect of running a subwoofer too hot and the negative effect this can have on the overall sound of the system. I often find less subwoofer volume is more (to a point), where impact and clarity is enhanced by turning down the subs. To me, the effect of turning down the tweeters seems to not only make the top end more balanced and easier on the ear, it also allows the mids and bass to play with more clarity and impact, with the speakers overall presentation and refinement improving as a consequence. The satisfaction I am having with this process is second to none in my hifi addiction experience - a few bucks on L-pad modules and a little work soldering - is really having an enormously beneficial effect on these grand old vintage speakers! At one point during the last two weeks after I had reassembled my left hand speakers woofers into their box I noticed that the this speaker sounded quieter, somehow, compared to the right speaker. I ignored this on the basis I was just imagining it. Within minutes however I started to feel fatigued and a strange headache coming on. I switched off at this point and went to bed. For the following few evenings of listening I experienced the same fatigue/headache phenomenon and became increasingly worried I'd done something to ruin my speakers somewhere along the way of all my mods. I initially tried to understand why the left hand speaker seemed lower in volume. I pulled the woofers and saw that I'd wired one with reversed polarity! Correcting this naturally resulted in a return of the speaker to normal levels and the fatigue was gone instantly! With the woofer cancellation effect gone I wondered if I'd been compensating for this lack of bass by using the Lpads? So I removed my 2 db Lpads and listened for an evening without them. The next night I put the 2db Lpads back in. The following night I made up my 3db Lpads and have been enjoying these since. Suffice to say I still think at this setting the tweeters are just a little hot and "noticeable" and so this weekend I plan on purchasing the parts for a pair of 4db modules. During my 3db module install I decided to add another layer of felt to the tweeter chamber. I first removed the original felts and trimmed these to fit the bottom of the chamber. I then stuck these back down and added a new full size felt over the top of these. I can't be definitive if this made much of a difference, but to me my tweeters are sounding really smooth and highly enjoyable to listen to. Some pics are attached for your enjoyment and information. Chamber empty: Trimmed felt in place: Second felt in place: I broke a tinsel lead and had to remove some glue with acetone to re-flow some solder to correct this. Caused by me being too rough removing a Lpad module And for giggles here's my KG's installed in their home:

OK so a bit of an update. After reassembling my KG's I spent some time going back through my CD collection as you do with these kinds of changes and particularly I focused on any disk that got a high dynamic rating score as described here using the link to the database. As Dire Straits Brothers in Arms gets an almost perfect DR score I grabbed this disk out and popped it on first. I have to admit the KG's sounded thin with this disk. The extension was all there, it was just recessed in loudness and the overall balance was hot on the top end. Compared to the more modern music I'd been using with my KG's since purchase, from this recent Hottest 100 album from 2016, I was underwhelmed. A before and after comparison using this modern music, with mods outlined above, showed that the changes had bought a modest tightening and cleaning up of the bass and mids. I assume the less resonant box and damping of back radiated mid frequencies from the woofers by the fiberglass help achieve this? I kept working through my high DR collection (most of which are releases from prior to the mid 1990's) only to find this high end forwardness trait with most of these older disks. I'm assuming that older mixes generally have less bass content loudness? So this got me thinking about trying the some L-pads to reduce the output of the tweeter. I built three pairs of "L-pad modules", at 3db, 2db and 1db of attenuation, that can easily be swapped in and out for a relatively quick comparison of the effect. I used this calculator and this page helps explain their effect and use. For me this has been a great educational site. I popped in the 2db modules and did not change them out, yet! Each module cost around $1.50 in parts. The effect, to me, was highly pleasing! Dire Straits sounds balanced, mids are now all there but the high end sparkle of the KG's remains. The percussive attack evident in many of the tracks is in your chest now where as before things got too intense in the high freq's before this impact was achievable. Enya's Watermark has no upper limit on how loud I could listen in comfort - my 12 yr old daughter stormed in on me at 9pm however and proclaimed "I can't sleep with that on"! This disks' bass and mids gave me goosebumps. Reverting to my modern disk showed that the 2db change had the same positive effect here on bass and mids too. I like lots of bass, its a big part of why I got the KG's, but perhaps others might not? It would be great to hear if anyone thinks this approach is bad? I'm a complete novice and have zero electronics training, other than what I get on the web. Would also be great if anyone trying this might measure the effect and post some sweeps? Some pic's of my modules. Undressed.... Dressed... Designed for a quick install...

Hi there, I have built 10 subs over the years, some using plate amps. I don't use plates anymore and have switched to Crown XLS 2500's for my current HiSAF Sub pair I'm running. The reason for this is a bit of a journey. Bear with me... Initially I ran these subs from a Rotel RB-1092 using the crossover in my pre-pro. This amp is rated at 500w RMS into 8ohms, my subs are 4ohms so I figured plenty of headroom because the amp would be outputting up to double that theoretically into that load right? So after watching a review by Andrew Robinson I figured I'd try an XLS 2500 for my new subs. I inserted this into the place of the Rotel running one sub per channel, fired up one of my favorite extreme bass blurays - Tron Legacy's welcome to the grid chapter when Flynn first enters the grid and promptly gets arrested - only to find the Crown was immediately running its front lights up into the clipping zone on the front panel. I couldn't turn down the volume fast enough! Now the XLS 2500 puts out 775w rms into 4ohms per channel so its a bit less powerful than the Rotel, in that 200 watts extra output into my relatively inefficient subs is only going to reward you with a few extra db in volume/headroom. So in overall loudness there's marginal real benefit in the Rotel's theoretical extra output. At this point what dawned on me was that if I was able to hit the Crowns limits so easily then probably I was also doing so with the Rotel, just that I was unable to see the amp clipping when this was happening - a potentially dangerous situation for my expensive sub's voice coils. And it seems difficult for me to hear when my sub amps are clipping in loud passages. I assume I'm either deaf (I am) or that with all the other sounds and the distraction of whats happening on screen I just don't notice? So you may ask why have I stayed with the Crown? Well mainly because now I know when I'm over driving my subs visually and the pro amps have clipping limiters which I think is excellent insurance against over driving your subs amp. I also upped my available amp headroom by getting a second XLS 2500 and bridging these so I have one for each sub now - there is no such thing as too much clean power for transient headroom? The point being that no plate amp I know of has these features and so now I'm a passive sub/pro amp convert. Hope that helps. Oh and BTW the Crown's sound great on my KG 5.5's too.