Crites midrange diaphragms

[pzannucci]

I am somewhat baffled. The K-52 and K-53 drivers were supposed to be the same except for the mounting. The specs say the K-52 is a 1.5" and the K-53 is a 1.75" diaphragm. Are they the same size?

[mastertech01]

I dont have the answer to that one but my sheets for the Chorus II show a K-61-K has 1.5 inch phenolic daaphram if that helps

[John Chi-town]

I am somewhat baffled. The K-52 and K-53 drivers were supposed to be the same except for the mounting. The specs say the K-52 is a 1.5" and the K-53 is a 1.75" diaphragm. Are they the same size?

I have run into many inconsistincies posted on th Klipsch website as to the spec's on the Series 1&2 Heritage and Extended Heritage line. IE; misquoted diaphragms phenolic vs. polymer, etc. IE; forte II & Chorus II states that the mids are phenolic diaphragms when in reality they are polymer just like the tweets.

I would suggest checking with Steve Philips at Klipsch parts.

Sorry meant to say that the tweets are phenolic and not polymer! Forget about my misquote on the mids!

[SET12]

I am somewhat baffled. The K-52 and K-53 drivers were supposed to be the same except for the mounting. The specs say the K-52 is a 1.5" and the K-53 is a 1.75" diaphragm. Are they the same size?

Yes that baffled me to, I just measured the coil dia. on the Crites and its 1.5in so was the Titanium as it had to be to fit. All I thought was the coil diameter could be smaller than Ti driver spec of 1.75in and still have the same 1.75in surface dia of the driver possibly and thats why it would work, I should of took some other measurements.

But anyway I'm very pleased with what I heard, especially in combination of the components I'm using namely the Duelund coupling caps and the German C-Core Autotransformers purchased on e-bay.

The sound is nothing short of amazing.

SET12

[John Chi-town]

Curious if anyone else has yet upgraded to the K53 TI diaphragm other than myself, Extreme 4099, and Set 12?

I now have close to 80+ hours on them since the upgrade and they are nothing short of 'Nirvana"!

Looking forward to others impressions![Y]

[SET12]

Curious if anyone else has yet upgraded to the K53 TI diaphragm other than myself, Extreme 4099, and Set 12?

I now have close to 80+ hours on them since the upgrade and they are nothing short of 'Nirvana"!

Looking forward to others impressions!

Is it just the 3 of us!

Man this past weekend I put in a lot of hrs on my system.

A couple of things are pretty apparent to me.

One is the Titanium diaphragm is one low distortion diaphragm.

I say this cause I noticed how much higher level volume can be had from it. It just has so much control that when my 10 watt SET amp clips its much less noticeable especially the onset clipping, I really have to push the amps really hard far harder than with the Crites which is all ready substantially better than stock. The Crites also has considerably more control than stock and this is very noticeable with piano. The Titanium goes well beyond the Crites in this regard but for those contemplating the Titanium the Crites is a sheer bargin especially after it has 40-50hrs on it IMO.

The Titanium is nearly at best out of the box, but I have noticed bloom and development of body and better dynamics and even more detail retrieval with the 15hrs I now have on them. In short they are simply wonderful in my system I suspect they will continue to develop some.

But the coolest thing about the Titanium's is how they handle stress in the busier arrangements of music, and for SET owners such as myself the Titanium has such extremely good recovery from a SET amps clipping. I use to think it was just my SET's clipping I would occasionally hear, but in reality it was the diaphragm it self not able to follow the amplifier.

I'm very happy to be a part of the Titanium crowd, and one of the few Titanium Forte owners.

I thank all that encouraged this mod!

SET12

[John Chi-town]

Set12

Can you believe that this discovery came about by me losing an original driver while trying to install BC's phenolics? Since the original driver was not repairable I spoke with Bob and Klipsch parts and ordered two new K53TI drivers. I was so impressed with the titaniums that I never gave Bob's a "fair" audition. I am just surprised that it took a "snafu" in order to discover! I suppose that is how most good discoveries come about, by accident! After all these drivers and diaphragms have been available since the release of the Heresy III & Cornwall III.

It is amazing how much power they will take from my Adcom 5802 @ 300 WPC, continuous!

[SET12]

Set12

Can you believe that this discovery came about by me losing an original driver while trying to install BC's phenolics? Since the original driver was not repairable I spoke with Bob and Klipsch parts and ordered two new K53TI drivers. I was so impressed with the titaniums that I never gave Bob's a "fair" audition. I am just surprised that it took a "snafu" in order to discover! I suppose that is how most good discoveries come about, by accident! After all these drivers and diaphragms have been available since the release of the Heresy III & Cornwall III.

It is amazing how much power they will take from my Adcom 5802 @ 300 WPC, continuous!

And thank you John!

Yes the Crites IMO do need some hrs on them, but for the price they are a step up from the stock and at such a reasonable price!

While the Titanium's are expensive, for the very serious audio buffs they are a godsend IMO and more than worth their price from the sheer performance.

As an amplifier designer I have had discovery moments that where discovered purely by accident or even just unknowingly discovered even, its a cool experience.

So, you to noticed how the Titanium handles power with grace and ease as well. I had to go back and purposely induce clipping because I could hardly believe my ears, Its amazing just how far I can push my 10 watt amps with the burst power they have and the Titanium's staying intact, and even if I hear clipping the recovery of the Titanium from the amps clipping is absolutely amazing.

Thanks Again John!

SET12

[davis419b]

Set12

Can you believe that this discovery came about by me losing an original driver while trying to install BC's phenolics? Since the original driver was not repairable I spoke with Bob and Klipsch parts and ordered two new K53TI drivers. I was so impressed with the titaniums that I never gave Bob's a "fair" audition. I am just surprised that it took a "snafu" in order to discover! I suppose that is how most good discoveries come about, by accident! After all these drivers and diaphragms have been available since the release of the Heresy III & Cornwall III.

It is amazing how much power they will take from my Adcom 5802 @ 300 WPC, continuous!

Hey John, I noticed your sig, have you tried a gtp-500 with your 5802 ?

[John Chi-town]

Set 12

Hope you or no one else took the wrong way. I was noot looking for "Kudos" only thought it was somewhat funny how "things" are discovered!

Yes, the power these forte II's can now handle is nothing short of amazing. Especially in the midrange, which always is or appears to be the "weakest link" in speaker design. Perhaps that is because 60% or so of "music" is in the mid frequency range.

Any way, could not be happier with the end result!

Take care,

John

[John Chi-town]

david419b;

I have heard very good things about the GTP500, although I have never heard/auditioned. From what I have heard from various circles is that folks are very passionate on the GTP 500 vs. GTP 500II. Kind of like the debate of which is better the forte or forte II? Both are very good speakers with equal highs/lows "INMHO".

All of my equipment was purchased new in 1992, other than the Adcom 5802. I originally purchased the Adcom GFA 555II, then sold to a friend and went to the Adcom GFA 5500, parted with that and have had the 5802 for the last 3 years or so. Would love to move up to a MAC someday but I have been very happy with the various Adcom amps owned especially when you consider the performance to price ratio. I picked up my pristine 5802 from a friend of a friend with very low hours for $750.00

What is your impression on the GTP 500? Does it have a phono stage like the GTP 500II?

[jerryd]

To those who have switched to titaniums . can the difference be heard at low volumes?

[SET12]

To those who have switched to titaniums . can the difference be heard at low volumes?

Low to moderate, I would say sure. After my listening session yesterday I heard another development of the Titanium's, my first impression was that right out of the box I felt the Crites to be more dynamic but that maybe understandable as the Ti are so new and stiff. After 10hrs or so at moderate to high volume levels they opened up dynamically more. I noticed this with piano.And after another 5 to 10hrs and yesterday I listened to 5 reference cuts of mine and I'd swear I heard more detail and more bloom with even greater dynamic authority.

The resolve of the Ti just bows me over, I'd swear I was hearing the depth of the grain on an analog master tape, it was spooky good. The cool thing about the Ti is its capacity to play substantially louder than a Phenolic. While Bob Crites mids are better than stock the Ti's are in another league.

Granted I have some very expensive components coupling the Ti's so YMMV I also think they will require more hrs to get where I have mine at but thats just my opinion. I have just 10 watts of course but people might say what can you do with that? My response would be, Plenty!

BTW I'm into Jazz at late night so volumes are low to moderate then if that helps you!

Just absolute heaven from my perspective.

SET12

[SET12]

Hi,

To all even remotely considering the Titanium diaphragm or whole Titanium driver upgrade which is only a dollar more if you have or want the Tractrix Horns.

I had an observation in my listening session this morning and as I was sending an e-mail to a friend I thought I should post my comment to him hear as well. I formerly had Bob's new mids in place and really liked what they did for me but these Titaniums are just something else dynamicly.

You should also know that my SET amplifiers are pretty powerful running with a massive power supply, thats over 400 Joules of energy for the pair of mono's thats some 4,000uf's @500VDC also I use the massive 28lb Hammond 1642SE's rated at 75watts for my 10 watt/channel SET amplifiers. Recently I had a friend here that we compared some rather pretty James OPT's to my Hammonds the James are rated for 20 watts and they are Potted and maybe 8-9lbs. In our comparison we found the Hammonds to have just as good of bandwidth but with the Hammonds they had a solidy that the James just couldn't touch, needless to say I was happy.

Here's my comment to one of my friends who stopped in for a listen.

"Don, I'd swear those mids of mine have loosened up even more since you
heard them because when I listen to Patrica Barbers "Night Club" I'd
swear those piano keys are coming down harder then when I first heard
them freshly installed. I mean the lower registers of the piano seemed
less dynamic then the upper registers at first and now everything is
pretty even across the board, when those piano keys are hit there is a
solidly and body that I have never heard in this system with this
recording, I have owned the recording for a long time and you'd think I
would know it well. That piano Don is so well reproduced IMO it sounds
like it is there for real. God it doesn't get much better than that!"

SET12

[John Chi-town]

Set 12,

Yes, it does just keep getting better with hours/time. I believe that the K53 TI driver which includes the titanium diaphragm will fit either the exponential or tractrix ,midrange horn directly. The reason I say this, is that the K53 TI is used in the Cornwall III & Heresy III which are both exponential horns vs. the tractrix mid;'s in my forte II.

Let me know if you think/know different.

Thanks!

John

[wylymon]

Carbon Summit, were you able to contact Klipsch? Please post your experience if you did so.

Guys, anyone know if the Klipsch titanium mids will work with the new Forte 11 ALK crossovers? Are the crossover

points for the titanium mid the same as the original mid diaphram? I am interested, but want to make sure

that everything is compatable before pushing the "purchase" button.

James

[SET12]

Set 12,

Yes, it does just keep getting better with hours/time. I believe that the K53 TI driver which includes the titanium diaphragm will fit either the exponential or tractrix ,midrange horn directly. The reason I say this, is that the K53 TI is used in the Cornwall III & Heresy III which are both exponential horns vs. the tractrix mid;'s in my forte II.

Let me know if you think/know different.

Thanks!

John

I see what your saying, I was under the impression that the Ti came with a Tractrix horn and not the exponential. So I stand corrected!

BTW would that exponential drop into a Forte 1? Maybe not because the Forte 1 has a 12in woofer that the mid sort of contours with it mounting.

If it does I would of bought the whole driver of coarse.

Boy those Ti's are just awesome, vivid without being bright or analytical, dynamic and highly resolving. Of coarse my presentation may be different from others due to the exotic coupling capacitors and autotransformers I use. But it sounds as though your getting splendid results as well using Bob's networks. Thats good news to.

I am thoroughly pleased!

Thanks John

SET12

[John Chi-town]

Set 12;

The entire assembly only includes the driver itself and the titanium diaphragm. No horn is included. The driver with titanium diaphragm should/would mount directly to either the exponenetail or tractrix original horn in either a forte or forte II model. My forte II also has a 12" bass with 15" passive. Does the forte have a 12" or 15" passive? I forget.

Anyway, for $2.00 more If planning the upgrade well worth having a spare or replacing altogether INMHO. [Y]

John

[SET12]

Set 12;

The entire assembly only includes the driver itself and the titanium diaphragm. No horn is included. The driver with titanium diaphragm should/would mount directly to either the exponenetail or tractrix original horn in either a forte or forte II model. My forte II also has a 12" bass with 15" passive. Does the forte have a 12" or 15" passive? I forget.

Anyway, for $2.00 more If planning the upgrade well worth having a spare or replacing altogether INMHO.

John

Gotcha you John, thanks for the update, often people refer to the driver as the whole horn, magnet, diaphragm assembly that I have converse with but correct me if I'm wrong. And the magnet assembly as the motor.

The Forte 1 has a 12in passive using the K-23 active woofer and the 12in KD-13 passive. The Forte II uses the K-25 and the KD-15 passive.

You of course use the Tractrix midrange horn and we both use the same tweeter but yours uses the Polymer vs the Phenolic, if I remember correctly from Bob's tests the Phenolic has a flatter response but the Titanium Tweeter is better yet which is what I use. I was using the Crites Autotransformers but I prefer the German C-Cores that I use now much more which are about 50% larger than the Crites and sound much more at ease and more spacious. And being couple with a world class cap like the Duelund Copper VSF is making truly stunning midrange reproduction.

SET12

[John Chi-town]

Set 12

Actually the forte II also comes with a phenolic tweeter diaphragm and not polymer. I spoke with Klipsch and even though the website says polymer, they are phenolic originals.

I have yet to find any forte II owner with a polymer diaphragm in the tweeter.

Take care,

John