hel-stampes Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Suddenly, one of my two K-Horn (bought new in feb. 2003 - built in october 2002) suffers distortion clearly audible especially with piano (Beethoven). Typical "cracked" sound in the upper range. Why is that ? How this could occur ? I called my dealer and he should be able to sell me a new diaphragm. Any insight from someone here ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigCliff Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 My two guesses would be: 1. You over powered them or sent a clipped signal to them 2. The distortion is coming from somewhere else in your system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrestonTom Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Certainly a bad diaphragm is a possibility. It is probably best to make certain which driver is the culprit. Do you have a way of burning some test tones on to a CD? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hel-stampes Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 BigCliff. Overpowered : no. They're driven since day 1 by the same tube Preamp and Amp custom made for the K-Horn by Yves COhet, one of the best french sound engineers. The amp is 22 watts. I switched the L/R cables on the amp : the distortion is still in the left K-Horn. I changed all the tubes : no avail either. Clipped signal : no. Beethoven/Serkin and Chopin/Arrau don't send clipped signal… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hel-stampes Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 Certainly a bad diaphragm is a possibility. It is probably best to make certain which driver is the culprit. Do you have a way of burning some test tones on to a CD? No test available, but to my ear, the distortion comes clearly from the center of the medium horn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigCliff Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 [:S] Then must have been a defective diaphram to begin with, or if the cross over is somehow faulty and delivering to low of a frequency to the mid maybe that caused it. It sure is hard to overpower Klipsch speakers believe me I should know seeing I use a 220 watts per channel amp. I have tested the limits of many klipsch speakers with out frying one yet(KNOCK ON WOOD). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hel-stampes Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 Defective since day one, no. I would have hear it [] and Cochet too. He's been doing the placement of these in two different homes since 2003. Distortion occurs since about 2 weeks. Unexpectedly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigCliff Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Defective since day one, no. I would have hear it and Cochet too. He's been doing the placement of these in two different homes since 2003. Distortion occurs since about 2 weeks. Unexpectedly. I meant they were defective when new, and that is why they failed now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hel-stampes Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 Yes, this is possible. Anyway, not a costly repair. [8-|] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyDover Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 I had a simular problem with my Klipschorn. What I found was that I had the version crossovers before it was changed to parts on a circuit board. The glue failed on one of the parts and it let go and was touching another part on the crossovers and giving me the distortion sound. After I opened the bass bin up and took a look at the crossovers, I quickly figured out what happened and had to re-glue all the parts, plus used tie downs to make sure if the glue gives way that this wouldn't happen again. So you might want to check and make sure your crossovers are still in place, I believe your version of the crossovers are the same as mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 You can simply unscrew the K55midrange driver from the horn and swap to the other khorn. Then the distortion should follow if it is a bad diaphragm (sounds like a likely culprit). Just make sure you get the leads plugged back on the drivers correctly so they are still in phase. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hel-stampes Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 I had a simular problem with my Klipschorn. What I found was that I had the version crossovers before it was changed to parts on a circuit board. The glue failed on one of the parts and it let go and was touching another part on the crossovers and giving me the distortion sound. After I opened the bass bin up and took a look at the crossovers, I quickly figured out what happened and had to re-glue all the parts, plus used tie downs to make sure if the glue gives way that this wouldn't happen again. So you might want to check and make sure your crossovers are still in place, I believe your version of the crossovers are the same as mine. How do you open it and dismount the crossover ? Screw on the side are pretty difficult to reach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyDover Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Mine have wing nuts that hold the side panels in place on the L brackets, all you need to do is only unscrew the side that holds the panel, reach your hand in and unscrew it, remove the panel and you'll have full access to the bass bin door. The crossover is mounted on the door, when you unscrew the screws on the bass bin panel door and open it, you will see the crossover mounted on the door. Just make sure you set the door on something that allows you not to pull on the woofer wire, it's soldered onto the woofer terminals so you don't want to pull that wire off by accident. It has a seal around the door so it took me a little effort to get it to let the door go by gently working around it with my fingers until it opened, it's kind of heavy from the crossover weight so make sure you don't let it fall down while trying to get it open. For me it was simple to do, so it should be fairly easy if you are being careful while your doing it. The crossover parts are all mounted on a board on the door, no circuit board, we got the prototypes before the circuit boards came later. I'm assuming yours has the wing nuts too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyDover Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Once you get the door open, you can inspect the crossover parts on the door, all the parts are glued to the wood on the door so you will be able to tell if any part has come off from where it should be. I could see the glue in the shape of the capacitor that came off mine and was hanging down touching another part, slightly touching another part on the crossover and was making the distortion sound I was hearing. Once I glued the part back in place, the sound was back to normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 "Any insight from someone here ? " Swap the mids from side to side. Sometimes the back cover on the K55M needs to re re-glued. Sometimes the banana plugs that go from the input panel to the crossover in the top section lose their tension and it sounds like the midrange is distorting (replace with spades). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyDover Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 The K55 version this one has is the gray all metal one. Looks like this: http://www.atlassound.com/pn/PD-5VH Looking at the K-55-X (Atlas PD-5VH) in mine, it looks like it is encapsulated in an all metal housing, with screws holding it together. Doesn't look like the back is glued? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hel-stampes Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 Same with mine. When unscrewing and dismounting the circuit bin, should I be extra careful of something as to not damage anything ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.