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Titanium Diaphrams...


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Klipsch has a titanium diaphragm that can be used in the KLF-30 midrange drivers. However, if you used it, you would need a crossover mod to limit how high the midrange goes. The way the crossover is set up now, the phenolic diaphragms just rolls off naturally and the tweeter pick up at that point. With a titanium diaphragm in the midrange, it would just keep going instead of rolling off naturally and would be playing along with the tweeter.

Bob Crites

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I'm not dissatisfied with the sound right now so maybe I'll just leave it alone. However, I'm curious if anyone here has done this mod for the 30's and how did you like it?

Thanks Bob. :emotion-21:

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I have done this to my KLF-30s including the band pass crossover mod mentioned... If you're happy leave them phenolic, I have yet to hear anything from them worth what I paid for the drivers and crossover mod. I am still wanting to remove them and go back to stock and see if I "lose"anything.

Not a worthwhile upgrade in my opinion.

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My one observation is that the Ti diaphragms may have a more immediate transient response than the phenolic, which to my ear would give a different character to transients than you'd get from the other drivers. This might result in an audible seam between the drivers. I experienced this once and went back to the phenolic.

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Mr.Crites I have a pair of Heresy ii's with rebuilt crossovers. I used some M caps, Jupiter wax caps and some Auricaps along with North Creek air core inductors for the tweeters, and some iron core inductors for the woofers.

Both the tweeters & mid's have new Titanium diaphragms. They sound great to me however I'm curious about your recommendation to "adjust" the mid crossover for the Ti diaphragm.

Thanks.

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I made this modification to my forte II about three years ago. Bob built me a "external" band pass roll off for the midrange horn as well. I beleieve that the titanium are much better sounding than the phenolic diaphragms. The current Heritage as well as Reference line use titanium diaphragms where applicable if I am not mistaken.

Best regards,

John

Edited by John Chi-town
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Although the response curve will vary from the attached forte II graph, the concept remains the same.

A bandpass limits the out put of the squawker driver. Please see detailed description from Bob Crites below:

I can provide a little technical information of using the Klipsch titanium midrange to replace the orignal phenolics. On the trace below, the red is an original K-53 phenolic diaphrgm and the green is the K-53TI titanium midrange diaphragm on the same 700 hz horn. We see slightly higher average output for the titanium than the phenolic. The phenolic output drops like a stone at 6khz where the tweeter takes over. That allows the crossover to be pretty simple since there is no reason to roll off the midrange. But, the titanium diaphragm keeps on going, in fact heading for a peak at around 7.3khz before it drops off. So, if the titanium diaphragm is used in place of the phenolic without a crossover mod, you would have the midrange and tweeter both at full output at the same time around 7khz.

Bob Crites

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Mr.Crites I have a pair of Heresy ii's with rebuilt crossovers. I used some M caps, Jupiter wax caps and some Auricaps along with North Creek air core inductors for the tweeters, and some iron core inductors for the woofers.

Both the tweeters & mid's have new Titanium diaphragms. They sound great to me however I'm curious about your recommendation to "adjust" the mid crossover for the Ti diaphragm.

Thanks.

Well, John came along and replied to you with words I wrote some time back.

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Hi all:

I'm new to this forum and kinda new to the whole audio thing (Sony boomboxes until a recent divorce, whole different story though). My question is: if I were to buy some titanium diaphragms for the Forte 2s, am I likely to hear a significant difference when I'm using a low power Marantz from the early to mid 70s?

My ex collects old stereo stuff and he just kinda gave this to me, probably to shut me up. It sounds pretty good now, but I wonder if I can make it better without spending a lot of time/money on it. I do know how to read schematics and solder etc so that will not hold me back much.

Anyway, thanks for any advice.

S

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Hi all:

I'm new to this forum and kinda new to the whole audio thing (Sony boomboxes until a recent divorce, whole different story though). My question is: if I were to buy some titanium diaphragms for the Forte 2s, am I likely to hear a significant difference when I'm using a low power Marantz from the early to mid 70s?

My ex collects old stereo stuff and he just kinda gave this to me, probably to shut me up. It sounds pretty good now, but I wonder if I can make it better without spending a lot of time/money on it. I do know how to read schematics and solder etc so that will not hold me back much.

Anyway, thanks for any advice.

S

Samantha,

Welcome to the Forum!

You would be looking at about a $275.00 upgrade. When I upgraded my forte II, 3 years ago I payed $175.00 to Klipsch for new drivers and diaphragms. Which was only $10.00 more than just the diaphragms without drivers. A no brainer decision in my mind. I think Bob Crites charged $75.00 or $100.00 for a pair of outboard squawker band pass at the time. INMO a much more noticeable improvement than when I repaced my tweeter diaphragms with titanium.

Best regards,

John

Edited by John Chi-town
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Samantha,

Assuming the fortes are still bone stock, first get the networks up to snuff with new caps. Or splurge for new everything. Build-it-yourself kits or fully assembled networks are available from Bob Crites (Crites Speakers dot com). This will get them back to factory spec. Maybe consider ti tweet diaphragms (also available from Mr. Crites, an easy and inexpensive mod).

They'll do great on the old Marantz, as long as it's functioning properly. Don't be bashful with the tone controls or loudness button (if it has one) for low level listening.

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I have done this to my KLF-30s including the band pass crossover mod mentioned... If you're happy leave them phenolic, I have yet to hear anything from them worth what I paid for the drivers and crossover mod. I am still wanting to remove them and go back to stock and see if I "lose"anything.

Not a worthwhile upgrade in my opinion.

I considered it at one time but have come to realize that the stock setup plays very nicely to my ears. were I to lose one I might go with the ti. For replacement but I see no need to do it for sound quality.

Edited by cradeldorf
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Hi, sorry I took so long to get back to this. Got a little busy with summer stuff ( :))

The price tag for the cross over and diaphragm upgrades is not too much of a surprise. These are stock speakers. we bought them new in 1989ish from Magnolia HIFi in the Seattle area. I wonder if they are even still around or if they got bought up by Best Buy or someone like that. I heard they did.

Due to the age of the speakers, I think I will start by replacing the old capacitors with equal value Solen or Jentzen?!?!?. I think Mr. Ex liked Solen best so I'll likely go with those.

Anybody have an opinion on how hard it will get if I attempt to do the same to the Marantz 2220B? For my comparison, I installed new capacitors in a 1948ish Philco floor model radio, a 1982 Furuno radar and a small B&K tube tester. They all worked when I was done and I had no parts left over. I'm pretty proud of that no parts left over thang! I also took about 2 years of evening electronics classes at a junior college.

Anyway, I think I can find the Crossover capacitors on Parts Express or,,,,well it's going to have to be Parts Express cuz I can't remember the name of the other company that carries Solen brand Capacitors. Dammit!, they also have a good line of coils too. Well, maybe it'll come to me.

Thanks so much for the nice comments and advice. Hope I don't become too much of a pest while doing this. And, if I need to start a new thread, lemme know, eh? Thanks again.

S

Edited by Samantha Coutoure
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A gal that likes actually messing with the electrical side...that's awesome! Madisound is one of the other places that carries Solen caps and also PartsConnexion out of Canada. They, PC, also carry Mills resistors of which both Solen and Mills have been my picks for over 25 years. I avoid PE whenever I can but sometimes it's a have to.

Yes, it's always good to have no left over parts!

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