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Epic CF3 Bracing & Damping Project


kapsnb01

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As some of you already know, I recently bought a pair of used Klipsch Epic CF3 speakers. These are easily the best speakers that I've heard to date. Since I didn't know much about these speakers before I went to listen to them, I immediately asked a few members for advice and information. I got some great information and knew exactly what to look/listen for when I demoed them. Thus begins my journey with them...

After exchanging a ton of email with Moray James, I decided that I wanted to do some upgrading to them to make them sound at their peak. So, since they are nearly 20 years old, I took out the crossovers (with help from wuzzzer) and sent them to Bob Crites to have the caps replaced. I also embarked on a far more ambitious project (for me) to do some cabinet bracing and dampening. With a lot of guidance from Moray I got all of the materials that I needed and started the project this past weekend.

These are the before pictures (after removing the factory installed foam.

post-54723-13819830539912_thumb.jpg

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Thanks Mark! Been a fun project so far and really looking forward to putting everything back together and giving it a listen. Can certainly tell that the cabinets are both stiffer and heavier already. I think it'll be a worthwhile project for your Chorus'. Let me know if you want any help when you do it!

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I'm going to be bracing my CF-3s and hopefully my KLF-20s. I'd really appreciate info on what you guys did. Should I add more foam? I was thinking about lowerening the tuning on both of them, but I recently brought my subwoofer home and that will likely make the mid-bass worse.

I'm not sure how you're supposed to wedge the bracing in there, and how you're supposed to affix them to the walls.

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I've received a ton of advice and tips from Moray, so hopefully he can weigh in to help also. But, I would say that in a nutshell, he's laid out most of what I'm going to be doing on page 14 of the other CF3 thread in 2-channel. At the very top he talks about bracing.

As for the actual project, so far I've put in the back and side bracing. The back was a bit challenging, as you mentioned, due to the length of those braces and the internal bracing that is already in the cabinet. I actually removed the upper most factory brace in order to get the back braces into the cabinet. Once I had these in, then I put the factory brace back in it's original spot. All of my bracing is held in place with carpenter's wood glue. It sets relatively quickly and dries incredibly firm.

From a foam perspective, I took out all of the factory foam and I'm going to dampen with F11 acoustic felt and Dynamat. I'll be sure to post more and better pictures here as I go also. Hope this is helpful...

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One other thing on the back bracing, mine are too wide from the terminal cutout. You'd want those to be on either side of the cutout. I'm going to be adding some additional bracework to the back that you wouldn't need to add if you were to run the vertical braces tighter to the cutout than I did.

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Well, I got some time the last couple days to work on things and was able to brace the top and front baffle. Also added some additional bracing to stiffen up the back baffle, as my originals were too wide (ideally should've hugged the terminal cup). Here are a few more pictures:

post-54723-1381983071344_thumb.jpg

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Wow, that's really impressive! I'm going to try to brace my KLF-20s and CF-3s and I definitely to apply some material to the horns. I've never done anything with wood, and I'm pretty intimidated - it seems like a daunting task for a complete novice. What I don't understand it how you would be able to use a solid piece to brace from wall to wall without removing a panel, you wouldn't be able to angle it flush with the panels. Perhaps anyone in Las Vegas could lend me a hand?

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I've never done anything with wood, and I'm pretty intimidated - it seems like a daunting task for a complete novice. What I don't understand it how you would be able to use a solid piece to brace from wall to wall without removing a panel, you wouldn't be able to angle it flush with the panels. Perhaps anyone in Las Vegas could lend me a hand?

I'll give you my $0.02, for what it's worth. I can say that I am pretty green as well when it comes to woodworking, and it is a fair amount of work. That said, I asked a ton of questions before I cut a single board and actually drew out a plan for what I was going to do. I also taped inside the cabinet where I wanted to put the braces so that I could visually see what I was going to do.

As far as cutting, I only used a circular saw, architectural square, and a guide that I built for the saw to run on. The guide is a simple 1x4 mounted on a sheet of plywood (can easily google "straight cutting with circular saw" to find). I clamped the guide where I drew my cut lines and easily ran the saw right down it to make straight cuts.

All of the braces were put into the cabinet through the woofer/tweeter holes, so it is possible to get them in there. You will need to temporarily remove the upper factory brace though to get the back braces in.

I was certainly intimidated at the start, but you learn along the way and if you take it slow and easy, it does come together. Hope this helps!

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One thing about the Epics is that if you remove the grill and pull out the rubber inserts that the grill pegs slide into you will see screws beneath that hold the motor board to the cabinet. I don't know if they use glue as well. But if not, you should be able to take the whole front off.

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