kswitzer

I just purchased a pair of Forte II's. I see people talking about recapping and upgrading. How do I know if that needs to be done? I don't have any frame of reference to say these Forte II's don't sound as good as they should...

Realized I needed a better right speaker stand, so whipped up this distressed beauty from an old barn beam... And the final product...

So the final product turned out fantastic. Not as red as I hoped they'd be, but the ash looks really nice with a wood finish. Not a scratch to be seen after refinishing that buggered up top.

For those other geeks in these forums that want to see innards, here they are. Empty box. Very heavy even without the components. Note the matching speaker tag with serial number inside the box. Crossover: Driver with huge magnets... And speaking of huge magnets, look at that horn (with ink pen for scale). Inside for dampening there's just one layer of loose foam. On the front, the driver goes direct against the wood, then a thin foam layer under the horn/faceplate:

Me too. I will get to that shortly. At this stage I was just trying to open up the grain and get more of the black paint out of the ash grain. The fine soft brass brush worked really well for that. Basically I kept at it until no more color was coming off with my mineral spirit scrub. I have a cherry R-112SW and cherry RP-440C, so I wanted to get some red into these cabinets. I had some minwax Red Oak stain, so I slathered it on. Man it looked pretty. I let the stain soak in until it was tacky, almost dry and then wiped off as much as I could. Unfortunately that was almost all of it. The stain just did not want to take. After letting it dry overnight, I started with 100% tung oil diluted with mineral spirits. The next day it was 0000 steel wool followed by 100% tung oil. Same thing the day after that, and the day after that. Then it was time for reassembly.

Unlike other stripped finishes, the Klipsch black doesn't bubble up, and it strips fast. It almost wipes off, although I scraped it. After all sides were stripped and wiped down and soft brass brushed with mineral spirits:

Because I didn't know how thick the ash veneer was, no way I was gonna hit these with an electric sander. I'm already done with refinishing them but hit my daily upload limit on the second post. I'll resume tomorrow with smaller images...

Someone somewhere said the black Klipsch paint comes off well with the orange citrus stripper. I'm a fan and have used it many times on other products, so I had a jug lying around. The rubber feet pried off easy enough and I did a test patch on the bottom.

Well, the RB-76 crack is a nod to the fact these were listed as such on e-bay for $325 for the PAIR. $80 shipping and 20 in tax, and I have my very own pair. Both had superficial scratches, one pretty badly on the top, but I didn't want them black anyway.

Ran across this deal at Adorama last night and scored a new sub for $300 with free shipping. Normally $649. Thought I'd share... https://slickdeals.net/f/14322167-klipsch-r-112sw-12-600w-reference-series-powered-subwoofer-cherry-300-free-shipping Adorama is a legit site. Been around forever (in internet years). A popup will tell you the deal has ended, but hit the "Show Deal" button and there it is. Funny that if you go direct to Adorama and search this sub, there is no deal to be found.

Cuz I'm a noob and posted in the wrong area? Is there a way to move this to a different thread? Otherwise I'll start it over in a more appropriate section.

Inside the cabinet as I started to post before. One cross brace, but everything bonded with copious amounts of glue... I cut and then pried the rubber feet off the bottom. All came off intact which is cool. Some scratches on the bottom too. This is where I did my stripping test... I though the wood veneer type was pretty obvious. Anyone want to guess?

That is correct. Just a pen for scale.

Hi All: I bought the mysterious RB-76 speakers from ebay last week. No mystery after all, as it was just a typo. Both arrived in Illinois from Florida in perfect shape (as in no shipping damage). As the ebay pictures showed, one of the speakers had some potentially severe scratches on the top. Since I didn't want black cabinets anyway and planned to refinish, the first action was to take everything apart. Grills are in 95% perfect shape, so don't have to worry about them. Horns and front piece also blemish free. That's a serious tweeter. All the tags on the inside parts match the OEM parts for RB-75's. Inside the cabinet, there's a second tag. Here's the inside in case you wondered what it looked like. Seriously heavy construction. Oops, said I have maxed my upload. More on this later.

Those following this thread that care to know....the second speaker arrived yesterday in great shape. The horn on this one was also intact, and scratches on the top and sides have almost no depth. I started stripping last night and will start a separate thread to document that progress.