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first time KG4 owner - observations and crossover frequency question


chefhenry

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A few weeks ago, I lucked out a garage sale: a pair of fully functional KG4s for $40. The grills were perfect. The black veneer was scuffed here and there, but a little 000 steel wool and a fresh coat of black stain made them look almost new. Almost needless to say, the domes on the passives were pushed in some, but some TLC with a shop vac and some duct tape made them look much better, if not perfect.

It's hard to say without radiometric dating, but I calculate that I've been what my long-suffering wife calls an 'audio ******' for at least fifty-five years. During that time, I have owned a great deal of fancy equipment - Acoustats, Beveridge 2SWs, JBL Oympuses, my current Tannoy GRF Memories, etc. But in the thirty-eight years that my wife and I have been together, she has made exactly three utterances of approval regarding speakers: Quad 57s ("Those sound really nice. Can we keep them?"); University Classic 3-way corner horns ("Wow! That band sounds just like it's in the room! Can we keep them?); and Klipsch KG4s. She said of these "They are the best-sounding speakers I have ever heard. We're keeping them"

While she may have gone a bit far, I knew what she meant as soon as she said it. In our bedroom, they are remarkably smooth and balanced, with a sweetness to the midrange and treble that came as a complete surprise. Then, when I disconnected the early '80s Nakamichi receiver and substituted a Marantz 7T and Ace Audio 35X2, they really started to make music.

I was tempted to drag one of my unused Pioneer SX-850s (sick bastard that I am, I have two of them) up from the basement, disconnect the stock crossovers, and biamp them. Then I looked at the way the two eights are arranged, and thought "Hmmmm . . . what if I turned the boxes upside down, and substituted my currently unused Heil Air Motion Transformers for the Klipsch horn tweeters . . . "

My wife looked at me and said "You're having hi-fi thoughts, aren't you?" She always knows. "Of course not," I snapped defensively. But I couldn't stop the thoughts that were racing feverishly through my sixty-seven year old brain: "What if," I mused, "I substituted four Audax Aerogels for the four Klipsch eight-inchers? Biamp them with the Heils on top? Add a sub? That could be a pretty big time rig." Then again, all that expense (I'd have to buy the Audaxes, which are discontinued, but still available) and trouble, and to what end? Whatever I might stand to gain, the magic of the KG4s would be lost. And my wife would hate it, though not nearly as much as she despised my Beveridge 2SWs. One thing's for sure, though - there's no fool like an old fool.

So, to get to my question: what is the crossover frequency of my KG4s? I couldn't find it published anywhere.

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Brings back memories. Wife and I were on a trip returning along the coast from San Francisco to SoCal and stopped in a Santa Cruz for lunch in the pre earthquake outdoor mall. We found a used audio store with a pair of bronze ESL57's being played through Marantz tube gear (which wasn't for sale) and brought the Quads home. Some good times.

I suggest you find someone to build some boxes for you and experiment with those and compare the results to the stock Klipsches.

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