philly0116 Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 (edited) First of all, I am not trying to reinvent the wheel here. I purchased a pair of KLF-10 speakers that barely survived the recent tornado's in Arkansas. The components are all fine, however, the cabinets are beyond repair. I have two options....sell the parts or build cabinets. I've never really liked the fact that the KLF series was glued together and not screwed together and I feel like the wood is to thin. I'm kicking around rebuilding these with a sturdy 3/4 oak, all screwed together, not glued. Also, as opposed to a bass port in the rear I was thinking about a port in the front at the bottom with a bass bin, similar to a pair of Cornwalls. I thought too of adding a board to separate the horn from the woofers inside. Does all this sound crazy or overboard? I would be keeping the boxes the factory dimensions. Thanks for any input! Edited May 17, 2014 by philly0116 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cradeldorf Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 Build new boxes to the factory size. Screw and glue them together, keep the ports in the back. Just my .02 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philly0116 Posted May 17, 2014 Author Share Posted May 17, 2014 Build new boxes to the factory size. Screw and glue them together, keep the ports in the back. Just my .02 Thanks for the response! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 Totally agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philly0116 Posted May 17, 2014 Author Share Posted May 17, 2014 Build new boxes to the factory size. Screw and glue them together, keep the ports in the back. Just my .02 Thanks for the response! What about using the board separating the drivers and the tweeter? Go for it you think or leave it alone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cradeldorf Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 (edited) I wouldn't for 2 reasons, 1. the sound can't pass through the horns so theres no reason to isolate them from the woofers and 2. you will be cutting the cabinet size down that will throw everything off on the design. Ports in the front mean a lot shorter distance between the front and back of the speakers (ie) they will cancel out at a higher frequency. meaning they won't play as low a frequency as they would with the ports in the back. Edited May 17, 2014 by cradeldorf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moray james Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 if you decide to sell the parts I would like to have the horns, I do not need the drivers. Let me know via PM. Thanks and best regards Moray James. PS: nothing wrong with the vents on the front or a horn on the top of the box but don't make the cabinet smaller. ordinary PVA white wood glue is stronger than wood. the screws don't ad any extra strength to the joint. Plywood is a much better material than solid wood is. Good to hear you could salvage these old speakers and recycle them one way or another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cradeldorf Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 (edited) Sorry, I had to re-read what you said, your talking about a shelf inside just above the port in the front to lengthen the distance between the back and front of the woofers. I'd still stick with them in the back. on my KLF 30's I took out the port tubes and am just running the big 4 1/4 port tube holes on the back. They sound better to me. Again just my .02 Edited May 17, 2014 by cradeldorf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 (edited) I encourage you to follow your dream. As corny as it sounds. It will never be cost effective but you'll have a lot of fun. Addition by way of Edit. Back in the day, Heathkit made a lot of good devices often better than what could be bought. Most of my experience was ham radio gear. A buddy made their color TV which was very advanced. He went on to build a big electronics company. Regarding speakers, there was SpeakerLab and their SK version of the Klipschorn and also smaller speakers. And, of course, Thomas Edison took his father's watch apart to see how it worked. There is some primal drive in us to tinker and learn. Not all people have this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySpOuaYwLQU Smile, WMcD WMcD Edited May 18, 2014 by William F. Gil McDermott 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 If you've got the woodworking skills, I say build yourself some nice, heavily braced boxes, it sounds like fun! You can put the time and attention to detail into them that would not otherwise be practical in a commercially built box. I would suggest 3/4 MDF, then brace with hardwood. I bet some of the guys on one of the DIY sites like AVS.com could help you design a killer box which would make those drivers sing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cradeldorf Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 IDK if this is Taboo or not but seriously thinking of trying my KLF 30 parts in an open baffle setup... same width and height baffle with same length sides as the KLF except angled outwards 30 degrees. They sould pretty good except for the midrange seems to be lacking in some way. Opening up the backs of the woofers to the room might just bring up what I think I'm missing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 IDK if this is Taboo or not but seriously thinking of trying my KLF 30 parts in an open baffle setup... same width and height baffle with same length sides as the KLF except angled outwards 30 degrees. They sould pretty good except for the midrange seems to be lacking in some way. Opening up the backs of the woofers to the room might just bring up what I think I'm missing. Simply opening up the back of the KLF will effectively give you a U-frame open baffle. You will likely find a huge loss of bass relative to the KLF 30. I don't know the T/S parameters of those woofers, but they may work just fine in a well constructed open baffle. You might want to research open baffle design a bit before you do anything to your system. I love my open baffle setup, but just popping the back off your KLFs is not likely to work as you think it will. Generally a U-frame open baffle requires a lot of tuning due to the imbalance of the dipole. Linkwitz and several other folks have a lot of great information on open baffles. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1101 Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 I agree with the "rebuild as is" camp. Anything you change in the cabinet dimensions and volume (like adding braces),,,,,,,,,,changes the woofer loading, and bass response. I would rebuild with 3/4" plywood and make the internal dimentions exact to what they are now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cradeldorf Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Simply opening up the back of the KLF will effectively give you a U-frame open baffle. You will likely find a huge loss of bass relative to the KLF 30. I don't know the T/S parameters of those woofers, but they may work just fine in a well constructed open baffle. You might want to research open baffle design a bit before you do anything to your system. I love my open baffle setup, but just popping the back off your KLFs is not likely to work as you think it will. Generally a U-frame open baffle requires a lot of tuning due to the imbalance of the dipole. Linkwitz and several other folks have a lot of great information on open baffles. I tried it, It was not good...well it was different but nowhere near as good as keeping them boxed up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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