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ALK Engineering crossovers in Gen 3 Conwal


Tutor Turtle

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I have dabbled in speaker design the better part of 40 years, I've found crossover design equal parts of math, quality components and black art.

I loved my CW3's right out of the box, but quickly found high powered transistor amps and horns do not make a good mix. As nice as my McIntosh MA6600 is, I discovered it (200 watts) quickly over-drove the horns, luckily I kept my Luxman MB3045 mono block tube amps (45 watts), using the Mac as a pre-amp, that made all the difference in the world. Those who know me will tell you, I never leave well enough alone. Soon I started researching crossover networks and the name ALK Engineering kept popping up. After a few emails with Al I settled on a gentle slope woofer to squawker network (AP12-600) and an extreme slope squawker to, tweeter network (ES5800). Where I'm at: the attenuation that is right for quite music is too much midrange for loud music. I think the gentle slop is over lapping in the mid range too much. So do I take the plunge and get the ES600? (at $960) If I do, is there any market for a used AP12-600? (list is $350) I am entertaining offers and advice.

Thank you in advance. - TT

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I had this issues when I switched between AP12-500 and the ES500's on my Cornscalas. Night and day difference in terms of image and clarity. I think the overlap was a big factor.

 

There is always a market for used ALK crossovers. Probably not the price of new though.

Edited by Gorm
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Gorm,

 

 You're saying you went from the AP12-600 to the ES500's?

 

If that's so, that's great news. Did you pick 500hz for the x-over point? or did Al? When I ordered my system, Al picked the 600hz frequency. I have to wonder, does a gentle slope cross point have to be different from an extreme point cross over? In emails with Al, I'm getting very vague answers, he just says: "yeah, they're compatible." 

 

The Gen 3's woofer is about an inch from the squawker, there's no way to fit a horn any bigger than that stock horn, further I can't even fit any B&C driver in that hole opening (4-1/2"), Short of manufacturing a new motor board, I'm stuck with stock parts,

 

The Gen 3's are using the K53ti squawker, I just worry there hasn't been enough time and people experimenting with the K53ti driver to establish a foundation of what's the best x-over point for extreme crossovers for this particular driver. 

 

I defiantly want to make the move towards more clarity, but before I drop another $1K, in crossovers, I'd like more specific information.

Edited by Tutor Turtle
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Gorm,

 

 You're saying you went from the AP12-600 to the ES500's?

 

If that's so, that's great news. Did you pick 500hz for the x-over point? or did Al? When I ordered my system, Al picked the 600hz frequency. I have to wonder, does a gentle slope cross point have to be different from an extreme point cross over? In emails with Al, I'm getting very vague answers, he just says: "yeah, they're compatible." 

 

The Gen 3's woofer is about an inch from the squawker, there's no way to fit a horn any bigger than that stock horn, further I can't even fit any B&C driver in that hole opening (4-1/2"), Short of manufacturing a new motor board, I'm stuck with stock parts,

 

The Gen 3's are using the K53ti squawker, I just worry there hasn't been enough time and people experimenting with the K53ti driver to establish a foundation of what's the best x-over point for extreme crossovers for this particular driver. 

 

I defiantly want to make the move towards more clarity, but before I drop another $1K, in crossovers, I'd like more specific information.

 

Well, I don't have "stock" Cornwalls. if I was using the K-55 and the Cornwall horn, I would have chosen 600 instead of 500. I chose 500 because it was a good place to crossover with the components I chose to use. The crossovers points can be the same. The only difference between the gentle slope and the extereme slope is how quickly the sound drops off after it crosses over.

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  I'm interested.

Excuse me if I am duplicating this message. I placed my order with ALK for the ES600. Delivery looks to be Early March, If you can wait, we'll make a deal we can both live with.

 

Off topic: the cheap squawker horn Klipsch chose for the CW3's has unpleasant resonances, the louder you play them, the harshness grows exponentially. Unless I wanted to remanufacture the whole motor board I'm stuck with the stock horns.

So after searching the net for similar complaints, I found the basis for the solution. I watched this guy cut dynamat into form-fit pieces that he stuck in-between the ribs of horn, so practically every inch of the out side of the horn had some sound deadening matting. I took that concept to the next level. first I masked off the ends of the horn, then spayed a thin layer of automotive under coating, let it dry. I didn't have any dynamat, so I used 1/8" sticky-backed closed cell foam, form fitted just like the dynamat video I saw. The thing that really did the trick was giving it a final coat of undercoat that sealed up all the little crevices. It really made a night to day improvement in reducing ringing and resonances. And it was a cheap fix.

 

  I'm interested.

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