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1972 Heritage woofer connection


Berkeley

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I'm a total newbie to the Klipsch world but just inherited a beautiful pair of 1972 Klipschorn Heritage speakers. I'd never heard them before inheriting them, so I'm unsure of their previous condition, though they look beautifully maintained. I connected them up to the Front speaker outputs of my Pioneer Elite VSX-43 Receiver but am getting nothing out of the woofers. Is this a compatibility problem or a problem with the speakers that needs attention?

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welcome to the forum. where are you located maybe a forum member lives close and can assist you. 72's will have the letter K in the serial number

could be as simple as the 2 wires that come from the bass bin up to the crossovers is not there. when you move or ship k-horns the tops come apart from the bottoms and you have to remove the bass bin wires at the crossovers or at the bass bins. look at your crossovers and count how many wires there are. is there 2 wires hooked to the spot where it says woofers. 2 for the tweeters / 2 for the midrange / 2 for the woofers / and finally 2 for the input. should be 8 wires total. the woofer sound comes out the back of the speaker you should be able to hear sound back there. also take a screw driver and loosen and retighted all the screws on the crossovers.

post some pictures, we all want pictures!!!!!

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Are they in corners? If not, you just may not be hearing the woofers. It's important to "seal" them into corners, so it forms a horn.

Do a search on "pipe insulation" and you'll find many threads on sealing the khorns to the wall.


BTW, congrations on the Khorns. Not everyone gets to start out at the top of the line. [<:o)]


Dennie clap.gif

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If it is an AVR unit make sure speakers are set to REAL large. lol. Also make sure the woofers are hooked up some where on forum is a pic of the side of a k-horn I bet. The wires go through the woofer acess panel.You got pic of your acess door that would help. You should be able to hear woofers even when not in a corner but they do need to be sealed into corner. Rick

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Thanks for all the quick and helpful responses! Makes a new guy feel welcome. I posted my question then was gone for 24 hours, so I'm just now getting back to this and was pleased to find all the advice.

In response to your suggestions:

- We are just moving into our house and having work done, so the speakers are not yet in their corners. But I wanted to hook them up to hear them. I've put my ear down by the bass bins when they are playing, and there is definitely no sound from the woofers.

- All wires are present and tightly connected.

I'd love to post some pics of the crossover and of these beautiful speakers, but I don't see how one adds photos to the posts.

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Well if no sound out of back of the k-horn see if you can get an OHM meter to test the woofer connections on the acess door.Unhook the wires going to the door and put the leads on the door terminals.Thats a pretty tough woofer so odds are it is ok. I still think it is a wiring problem. Need pics. Rick

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posting pictures is pretty easy. one picture per post.

#1 you have to reply to the post and then you have to say something in the post like pic #1

#2 click the options tab at the top of the page.

#3 click Add/Update and then click browse

#4 get your pictures

#5 scroll all the way to the right and click save

#6 click post

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One of the speakers.

It seems I can only post one photo per message, so I won't inundate you with other shots.

I'll get an ohm-meter. Seems like I'll have some electrical sleuthing to do. Thankfully, my dad's good at that stuff. It seems odd to me that BOTH speakers have no signal to the woofer. I'd think a loose connection would randomly afflict one or the other.

post-59369-13819858174688_thumb.jpg

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I won't inundate you with other shots.

Please feel free to post as many pictures as you want.....I know it feels a little ridiculous posting a lot of pictures when you have to do it one at a time, but WE LOVE PICTURES!!!!..[8-|]....And in the end they might help you and everyone on the forum figure out whats wrong.
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One easy way to test woofer is connect amp it directly to woofer inputs on acess door. If no sound then open acess door check wiring in there ...one of 3 things would be wrong. Bad wiring,,bad woofer...no woofer....if acess door has never been off it is a bear to get off make sure you hold onto it as the wires inside are short. Best way is to use putty knife and work your way around the edge till it comes off.

You will have to clean all the gunk off and apply new seal.Also that old crossover needs a rebuild for sure. Check your in box on the forum sent you a PM Rick

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  • 1 month later...

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of an update. I inherited these wonderful speakers in the midst of moving internationally, getting a kid off to college, doing major home repairs and starting a new job. Chaos and stress . . . I was gunning early in the process to get these speakers working, knowing that enjoying them would help get me through these hectic days. And they have!

In the end, the problem was the auto-calibration of my new Pioneer Elite receiver. Once I got the speakers into their corners and ran the MCACC calibration tune-up on the receiver, the woofers suddenly came in fabulously. I'm sure there is more refinement to be done to perfect these beauties, but for now they are plenty awesome.

When I first had them working properly, I had the satisfaction of seeing a literal jaw-dropping "Wow!" from my wife, when she walked in. She is a musician and has a much better ear than me. She didn't move for a long time. Then she said people would talk about her saying that she used to work and cook and help with homework, but since she got those speakers she never leaves the couch.

All the best,

Bruce

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I'm sure there is more refinement to be done to perfect these beauties, but for now they are plenty awesome. When I first had them working properly, I had the satisfaction of seeing a literal jaw-dropping "Wow!" from my wife, when she walked in. She is a musician and has a much better ear than me. She didn't move for a long time. Then she said people would talk about her saying that she used to work and cook and help with homework, but since she got those speakers she never leaves the couch. All the best, Bruce

That's what we love to hear! [Y][:D][Y]

The speakers will likely benefit from fresh caps in the crossovers, but you could put that off for months or longer. It sounds like you and your wife are really pleased with them right now. With good recordings, you'll be surprised at how you can sort of hear "through" the speakers to the musicians, like real live people are just on the other side of the grille cloth. I got my La Scalas in 2006 and I still get a big smile every time I notice that.

Happy listening!

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  • 2 months later...

@ ricktate: No sub and no other channels. Just a simple, two-speaker set-up. Yes, they are set to Front Large.

Would you recommend a sub or any other channels with these? I've assumed and experienced they are more than enough by themselves.

I'm now finally getting to cleaning the crossover panel. Will report on what difference, if any, that makes.

Right side woofer has been going out intermittently, so I may have more sleuthing to do. I'm starting with cleaning all the connections to eliminate that as the problem. After that I'll connect the receiver/amp directly to the woofer leads to better diagnose. Might then need to open the woofer chamber panel to check wiring.

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A thorough cleaning of all connections on the crossover panels made a noticeable difference. The intermittent woofer problem in the right speaker has vanished and the bass has come in even more robustly. So far easy improvements with quick and simple fixes. I'm glad I haven't yet had to open up the bass chamber.

Initially, I wired the right woofer directly to the right channel output from the amp and it was very weak. After the thorough cleaning it was strong. It was simply bad electrical contact.

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