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EV 15wk - only horn loaded?


ned

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I agree on the Alnico, but why did EV continue 15W-K production of ceramic drivers well into the 1960s??

Darned if I know. Klipsch sent me one because I begged for a 15WK to match the alnico I had. It was pathetic by comparison. Maybe they thought they had a continuing market to supply before they gave up?

Larry,

That or maybe the 15 inch version of the Georgian which Paul had a hand on designing maybe?

Roger

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Thank you all for the responses. I need to read through a bit more carefully -right now I am having a bit of trouble with photo bucket.

Based upon the comments above, I think I have a first generation with the 2 screws and no pinch welds. the serial number is 137.

I will continue struggling to get pictures up. You will agree that it is in very good condition, there is a tiny bit of scuffing on the magnet from being handled, and you can see that it has been mounted, but no real scratches anywhere.

I'll be back......

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It's dinner time so I took the easy way and posted pictures to craigslist. no price, no contact info. not a sale at all, just easy picture posting. I would be grateful for your seasoned opinions. http://santafe.craigslist.org/ele/1816352075.html

Ned,

That is indeed a first generation Alnico EV 15W-K, it is in nice shape, however, it has been reconed, and that is not an orriginal EV recone kit either, which explains the 3.0 Ohm reading instead of 3.4 to 3.6. Because of the low 3.0 Ohm readout, it probably has a round copper wire voice coil. Orriginally, these had flat Aluminum wire voice coils. You can probably get $200 all day long on eBay for it in it's present condition. I will offer you $150 and save you from listing if you are interested, but you should really considder kkeeping it. Finding a second first generation will be harder than finding a second generation, and I would recomend listening to them both as I suspect you will need to recone to correct specs for a propper match. It is a neat piece, and a good find.

Roger

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thanks roger. If you send me your email, I can send you a shot with the number printed on the cone - 7270

I trust your knowledge on the topic, but I am pretty confident that I was the first to open the enclosure. It was assembled with upwards of 40 flat head screws, and not one showed a burr. I felt like Howard Carter.

I agree that it is a fine piece. The mid and tweeter are university. the tweeter is a ganged two driver and the mid is a folded horn with two openings. I will get the deal worked out with photobucket and post the whole shmabang. the crossover is a work of elecrical engineering run amok.

A fellow can learn more here in a day......

Interestingly, at this site

http://archives.telex.com/archives/EV/Drivers/EDS/15W,%2015BW,%2015WK,%2015BWK%20EDS.pdf

the voicecoil is listed at 3.2 ohm, and my grocery store VOM also rests at 3.1. it is all a mystery to me.

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For what it is worth.

It is interesting that these drivers from the old days have a reputation for excellent performance in the K-Horn -- better than the later ones. Yet Klipsch Inc. has never published the actual mechanical-electrical specs on these. And the original manufacturers have not either.

It would be a magnificent project to test the several surviving drivers in the hands of our friends here. OTOH, there is no assurance that magnet strength and surround compliance has not changed in 40 or 50 years.

Wm McD

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For what it is worth.

It is interesting that these drivers from the old days have a reputation for excellent performance in the K-Horn -- better than the later ones. Yet Klipsch Inc. has never published the actual mechanical-electrical specs on these. And the original manufacturers have not either.

It would be a magnificent project to test the several surviving drivers in the hands of our friends here. OTOH, there is no assurance that magnet strength and surround compliance has not changed in 40 or 50 years.

Wm McD

William,

If you want to come to Ohio and test one of mine you can. I own EV 15W-Ks, K-33E squares, K-33E Rounds, K-43s, K-44s and these sound the best to me. I also have three different kinds of K-46s and K-48 wich are none Klipschorn La Scala 15s. The best sounding of those for the Klipschorn that I have are the EV 15W-Ks and I have demonstrated that for others before.

Roger

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thanks roger. If you send me your email, I can send you a shot with the number printed on the cone - 7270 I trust your knowledge on the topic, but I am pretty confident that I was the first to open the enclosure. It was assembled with upwards of 40 flat head screws, and not one showed a burr. I felt like Howard Carter. I agree that it is a fine piece. The mid and tweeter are university. the tweeter is a ganged two driver and the mid is a folded horn with two openings. I will get the deal worked out with photobucket and post the whole shmabang. the crossover is a work of elecrical engineering run amok. A fellow can learn more here in a day...... Interestingly, at this site http://archives.telex.com/archives/EV/Drivers/EDS/15W,%2015BW,%2015WK,%2015BWK%20EDS.pdf the voicecoil is listed at 3.2 ohm, and my grocery store VOM also rests at 3.1. it is all a mystery to me.

Ned,

My email is rgordon@watchtc.net

Roger

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Roger, Would you have a mate to my speaker available for purchase? thanks Ned

Ned,

Good man! I would keep it as well... I presently own two of the second generation, and did own a third. My third was I believe in the 1700s serial number wise I believe, so they did not make alot of these first generation models. My main interest in a pair of first generation models is that with the unsealed / welded shut magnet structure, I would order a pair of custom made neodinium magnets to make them even more efficient of a motor unit then they already are, but that is just me.

You will need to keep at least an every 2-3 day search on electro voice on ebay. I reset the parameters of the search to most recently listed and 200 items per page, in this manner, you only have to look until you start seeing items you remember from your previous search before quiting for the day. The series two are sporatic, and you will see alot of SROs and others that can be reconed into a useable configuration, but the money is in that badge you have. I would say that 3 months is an honest guess at what you will have to look to find one of the first generation with the EV 15W-K badge. You might get lucky and find one right away, and you may have to look for 6 months. I used to watch nightly or every other day as I do this with Klipsch and nakamichi as well. There is a high satisfaction in when you finally locate one, and often times about 40 to 50% I would say, that the K is not in the listing as the sellers have no clue to the significance. Recently there was a buy it now on a speaker listed as a 15W, but the pictures showed the K and I left it as I really don't need one, but changed my mind after 2 days when I came back. The listing had changed to $175. I emailed the guy, and the first one had sold, then the buyer had told him the signifiacance of the K, and he had a second that he had not listed yet. Always look for badge pictures, and if they don't show them, ask for them. If they say it is a 15W-K and the badge is missing, it is just another alnico EV, that badge means everything in the value of that speaker. We have kind of a brotherhood here on the Klipsch forum, and we help each other out, but I would not volunteer this kind of information to a seller on eBay. If you send me your email and phone number, I will notify you if I run across one. I also personally know the reconer that Electro Voice recomends to send all obsolete drivers such as this for reconing personally, his name is Tom out of Fort Wayne, Indianna and his buiseness is called Speaker Workshop. His phone number is (260)-426-8742, I have him on my speed dial in my phone. [:P][Y]

If you send anything to Tom, tell him Lima, Ohio Roger told you about him... Roger

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The reason ALNICO was discontinued was because Cobalt from the Congo was not exported Due to the unrest in that region of the country,,,Prices jumped considerably,,,ALuminum..Nickal,,Cobalt,,,Every one scrambled to find a replacement...".Mudmagnets" ceramic then were introduced,,, Dibutyphalite was introduced to lower free air resonence to 30uz or less,,,because the speaker manufacturs at that time used 40 hz ar above,,,It was Ashworth from Monsanto that introduced the DBP,, and later,It wasnt till Stephens helped PWK with a better Fe cone design...

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  • 2 months later...

I need to read through this thread more carefully, but I have a guy locally that has these laying around 15w or 15wk, I don't quite know what the difference is, except that I thought the k was for Klipsch I am probably wrong with that. But what I am getting to is that I will have to pick his brain but I swear he said they have the alnico mags, this is guy also is a ev dealer who likes to buy up all old stock when stuff is discontinued. He also explains that if they have been redone with the flat wound voice coils, not the cheaper ones(any way to prove this).

They sale for around 250.00 I am sure he will make a deal with me. Also while I am jumping on this thread is there any problems with using the ev dl15w our are these the ones in the toilet.

nick

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  • 7 years later...

Hi everyone,

 

It's only been a dog year since I posted this question. 

 

I received good advice which I followed. In summary, I put the 1959 EV-15WK into one of my 1979 Klipshorns. I am delighted, my neighbors less so. 

 

There is a story about not noticing that the terminal block at the dog house door was loose......but the swap is more interesting. 

 

Here is a picture of the stock 1979 k-33

 

image.thumb.png.e5501ea13f0fc1251f72f777bf3afc97.png

 

Here is a picture of the more robust ElectroVoice 15kw back in service after decades of quiescence. 

 

image.thumb.png.c254e8cf1c9242bdf32a08d4820194b2.png

 

The ElectroVoice weighs 45 pounds. Once I thought of it as the equivalent of a case of wine, it was much easier to manouver. The fastening to the motor board is done with machine screws into some sort of threaded insert. This is one of the many signs of quality. These were built to be maintained. Thank you Paul. 

 

The amperage of the k-33 and the EV 15 were the same. My casual internet search showed that the A crossover was correct for the EV and the AA is correct for the K-33. I think that the A and the AA are equivalent in the important ways and so I considered the EV as a drop in replacement. It may be louder than the other channel with the stock speaker. Who knows? I am the only one who might suspect a difference. 

 

I will credit psychoacoustics with all noted improvements, but music in my house sounds great right now. 

 

I hope you all have it cranked up too.

 

(Coltrane Lush Life is my jam)

 

 

 

 

 

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On ‎6‎/‎28‎/‎2010 at 3:02 PM, twistedcrankcammer said:

the 15 inch version of the Georgian which Paul had a hand on designing

 

The earliest version of the Georgian used the same bass horn, licensed by Klipsch, as the Khorns of that time. This bass cabinet did not have the back chamber opened up into the "sinus" cavities, so the EV 15WK was designed for the smaller back chamber volume. I don't know what effect that would have when using the 15WK in a vented enclosure because complete  factory specs are not available.

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Thanks Don,

 

I pulled the speaker out of a vented reflex cabinet and so someone, long ago, thought it was a good idea. 

 

I was without a bass driver for a while (probably a loose wire at the terminal block on the dog house) and so I didn't do an A/B. 

 

The sound now is making me very happy. There may a bit more bass, or defined bass, from the EV but If so, it is really non directional and so the both channels benefit. Brookmeyer? very clean and articulate. Mulligan? Like he is in the room. I'll run them mismatched for a while and hear where I notice a difference. Paul Chambers and Charles Mingus won't mind. 

 

I have monoblocks with adjustable dampening factor and so I can do some sort of comparison when I put them back in service. Increased dampening might start to account for a vented cabinet. This is all good fun. 

 

Thank you for picking up this 8 year old topic.

 

Here is a shot of the crossover as built by a Los Alamos scientist c. 1959. For scale, the round beams are on 24" centers. I can take a better picture if anyone is curious. some of the oilcans stand 5 1/2" tall. It is something else. The mass of resistors (?) (right center) are on a rotary selector.....reminds me a little of the filter circuits on an older Marantz...but rustic. Very rustic. I have not tried to pass signal through it. 

 

 

 

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anecdotally, I have meters on my amp (AudioSource - tubes are too warm in the summer) and it appears as though the channel with the EV is drawing a bit more wattage. The draw at a good listening volume is still in the .3 range. Is this anything?

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