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Ringing K400 horns!!!!


Shock-Late

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After reading several posts about ringing mids, and dynamat, and so on, I have to say that I'm a little confused. Let me tell you what disturbs me...

First, I can't believe some folks here actually don't hear the midrange ring!!! have you ever tried to play something like a single TALKING voice, like an humorist or something, doing a one-man-show, at even moderately high volumes? on my K400 you can actually hear the metallic decay after the end of each word, and it's not subtle! Of course, in music you won't hear it by itself, because it gets mixed with the rest, but it's stil there! Hence the headaches!!!

Secondly, we're talking METALLIC midrange horns here... I just saw a post about some folk here saying that "he found the ringing in his 1993 K-horns wasn't disturbing"...well, tell me if I'm wrong, but I suspect 1993 K-horns to have plastic horns, and I suspect plastic horns don't "ring", they may have their own resonance maybe, but at a much lower, less agressive frequency than a metallic horn!! Why do you think bells are made fom metal and not plastic???

Third, I'm not sure that resonance in horn midrange may be a good thing, whatever the case. I'm not sure I like my Scalas because they sound agressive and metallic at high volumes; I like them because of their speed, dynamics, bass articulation and of course because of their very low power requirements. Now, if my Scalas could have B&W 801-style neutrality, while retaining speed, attack, and output level, I'm not sure i would hate it...

All that said, I never tried dynamat yet. I want to do it. But I was already thinking about something.

Let's just assume for a moment that horn ringing has been taken into account when PWK created the vintage speakers. it would explain why some folks here find their dynamated horns a bit too laidback and lacking "air". The annoying part is that we want our big klipsches to stop ringing, but we don't want the resulting mids to be really quieter than before, do we? we wanna stop the "honk".

So, maybe removing the buzz screen from the midrange drivers would re-equilibrate the sound the way we like it. On my LS, removing the buzz screen actually made the mids sound LOUDER, and it was TOO MUCH, so i put it back after a few hours listening tests. But, whit dynamated horns, maybe it would be a good thing...

I don't know, of course, these are just suppositions.

Does anybody have tried both mods, dynamat+buzz screen off?

Frans

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I pulled the bug screens at the same time that I Dynamatted the horns. I like it to much to ever think of going back. I find that the ALK xovers give good adjustment on the mid range relative output. However, there are some pretty bad response peaks in that K400 horn.

J Norvell

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mdeneen,

I find it incredulous that PWK was "taking into account the ringing..." likewise the same idea has been posited that he took into account the resonating cabinets, etc. I have to assume that is pure hogwash. Engineers don't work that way and don't think that way.

RIGHT ON!!!!! This board needed to hear that.

And while I am at it.....

The same thing applies to tube / solid state designs.

I know people design things to sound "the way they think is right (or preferable to them)" -- Remember the East coast sound, West coast sound, etc?

There is nothing wrong with that as long as it is recognized and not touted as "gospel".

I like some tube designs. I love my old Nakamichi receiver. To me (meaning my opinion) tubes are not inherently better, and neither is solid state. They just sound different (and sometimes very different).

Some people see the color red as orange. So?

Sorry for rambling but feel better now.

------------------

John P

St Paul, MN

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Klewless- What Nakamichi receiver do you have? I'm using an SR-3A with my Cornwalls, and have a few questions if you're familiar with this model. PM or email me, if that's better.

fini

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