klipsch cabinetry........duhhh

SWL · April 18, 2011

Bracing the cabinet and glueing the joints was a great idea because of the whole glue/mdf debacle. However, I would frown on the dampening of the horns and the polyfill. Time/money would be better spent on treating the room and experimenting with placement. KLF-30's are placement sensitive as are most Klipsch.

They engineered your speakers a certain way. Altering that engineering most likely will have a placebo effect. Altering your listening room will yield much better results.

dtel · April 18, 2011

If it hasn't been said already, the cabinet is an integral part of the design. If a designer was paying attention he/she would use the resonances to his advantage, if at all possible. I know of some designs that do just that.

Your exactly right Russ69, one company that does this to the extreme is SVS, I know there customers don't want to hear that but talk to an engineer who has tested them if you want the truth.

moray james · April 18, 2011

To me any lowering of structural resonance is a positive. Matters not if that is the cabinet or the drivers, internal standing waves are best damped. Any speaker company has serious cost constraints and that matters more than small improvements. You have to consider the materials and time to do things and it all adds up, you have to draw a line somewhere. Aftermarket mods are cost efective as they can provide enough improvements to give you a level of speaker performance you might not be able to afford on the retail market. If you look at most Klipsch loudspeakers they have done very little in the way of cabinet design engineering past calculating the correct volume and minimal internal damping. They are for the most part simple plywood boxes. They put their time and energy into beautiful veneer work which has a payback in sales. Nobody wants to pay for things they cannot see like internal braces and stiffening and damping which all cost in time, materials and extra packing and shipping expense.I believe that Klipsch have made wise design and marketing choices and that they deliver excellent performance beyond the competition in the market but that does not mean there is not room for improvement.The speaker is the heart of the system the room is the speakers support system and your gear has to provide the speakers with as much unaltered information that you can possibly extract from your source material. Improvement are cumulative and every little bit helps and contributes to the overall sound. A good room is a huge component to great sound but beyound the scope of most and then there is the often unspoken WAF that rules the day in most situations.

Better caps in the crossover. Better bigger air core inductors in the crossover. Better resistors in the crossover. New improver compression driver diaphragms (Crites and Klipsch Titanium). measuring woofer paramaters for T/S data and retuning vented cabinets based upon the measured values will all help make your speaker work better and sound better as will better cabinets or properly applied braces and stiffening of existing cabinets. These are all well established means of building a better speaker. This is in no way knocking what Klipsch have done, in fact if they had not done such a good job to begin with these types of mods would not be worth doing.I agree with you about the listening room but for most folks that is the last frontier and is most often never explored. Best regards Moray James.

SWL · April 18, 2011

I agree with you about the listening room but for most folks that is the last frontier and is most often never explored.

A good system in a bad room will always be lacking. A mediocre-good system in a correct room can sound fantastic.

Better caps in the crossover. Better bigger air core inductors in the crossover. Better resistors in the crossover. New improver compression driver diaphragms

I agree.....but again, compromised from an acoustically neglected room.

SWL · April 18, 2011

The original cabinets did NOT have any internal bracing.

I have two pairs of KLF-30's that I bought used from different owners and they are braced exactly the same......so I assumed they were done that way from the factory. [:^)]

The adhesive you used looks like the same PL Premium that I used. Good stuff. [Y]

motorcitym3 · April 18, 2011

Bracing the cabinet and glueing the joints was a great idea because of the whole glue/mdf debacle. However, I would frown on the dampening of the horns and the polyfill. Time/money would be better spent on treating the room and experimenting with placement. KLF-30's are placement sensitive as are most Klipsch.

They engineered your speakers a certain way. Altering that engineering most likely will have a placebo effect. Altering your listening room will yield much better results.

I have already started 2 large panels and bass traps for the front wall. The sides are going to be tricky due to the placement of the fireplace on one wall and a 8 x 4 foot mirror on the other. I'm in 100% agreement that the room treatment yields more benefits than the speaker tweaks!

SWL · April 18, 2011

I have already started 2 large panels and bass traps for the front wall.

Right on motorcity. [Y]

8 x 4 foot mirror

Glass is evil. [

]

motorcitym3 · April 18, 2011

Ha, no doubt! So is the wife when I told her about the decor changes I have in mind!

Mighty Favog · April 20, 2011

If the 30 cabinets are braced the same way my 20's are there is a single horizonal cross-brace that also acts as a shelf for the midrange driver. I found this out because I took my fist and pounded on the top of the cab only to hear a rattle inside. I took a small piece of felt and put it under the mid-driver so it so longer made contact with that shelf/brace. Works fine now and that was 10-years ago.