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A mighty woofer indeed, with a very clear MR well up to over 1000 Hz.  Probably one of the best woofers ever made.  Klipsch used it across the Heritage line, in K-horns, Cornwalls, and 15" Shorthorns, and sold it in the "K-Ortho-15" kits of woof, MR, tweeter, and crossover to DIYers of the time.

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I have a pair that I had completely restored and are in much better condition than these!

My brother in law and I switched out a K-33E round magnet, a K-33E square magnet, a K-43E steel frame, a K-43E cast frame, a K-44E, and one of these all in a LaScala, all in the same afternoon, and these clearly sound the best!

 

Roger

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A mighty woofer indeed, with a very clear MR well up to over 1000 Hz.  Probably one of the best woofers ever made.  Klipsch used it across the Heritage line, in K-horns, Cornwalls, and 15" Shorthorns, and sold it in the "K-Ortho-15" kits of woof, MR, tweeter, and crossover to DIYers of the time.

I'm not sold on the supposed "superiority" of old drivers. I think it's 99% romance and 0% actual measurements. Alnico magnets had their day. For this kind of cash, I'd rather have Neodymium magnets so I wouldn't lose the low frequency resonance of the Khorn back chamber by giving up so much volume.

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I have a pair that I had completely restored and are in much better condition than these!

My brother in law and I switched out a K-33E round magnet, a K-33E square magnet, a K-43E steel frame, a K-43E cast frame, a K-44E, and one of these all in a LaScala, all in the same afternoon, and these clearly sound the best!

 

Roger

I'd want to see data before I went through this kind of expense rather than a modern driver. Sorry, but I ain't buying this.

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I'm not sold on the supposed "superiority" of old drivers. I think it's 99% romance and 0% actual measurements. Alnico magnets had their day. For this kind of cash, I'd rather have Neodymium magnets so I wouldn't lose the low frequency resonance of the Khorn back chamber by giving up so much volume.
I'm not really trying to "sell."  I had an opportunity just a few years ago to listen again to a 15WK pair, and know very well what I heard -- no comparison in clarity and realistic musicality in just the MR tones produced by the bare 15WK.  Data and theory won't fill in that kind of info. 

 

However, they were very poorly matched to the AK-4 system and xovers, and would need a ton on engineering to make them a sonic fit.  So, I sold them.

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I'm not sold on the supposed "superiority" of old drivers. I think it's 99% romance and 0% actual measurements. Alnico magnets had their day. For this kind of cash, I'd rather have Neodymium magnets so I wouldn't lose the low frequency resonance of the Khorn back chamber by giving up so much volume.
I'm not really trying to "sell."  I had an opportunity just a few years ago to listen again to a 15WK pair, and know very well what I heard -- no comparison in clarity and realistic musicality in just the MR tones produced by the bare 15WK.  Data and theory won't fill in that kind of info. 

 

However, they were very poorly matched to the AK-4 system and xovers, and would need a ton on engineering to make them a sonic fit.  So, I sold them.

 

I wasn't trying to take away anyone's thunder. I'm sure they were a good woofer in their heyday. With today's advancing technology (mostly in materials and NOT principles), moving coil drivers are a long term investment and they payoff is far greater than their initial expense. I just don't understand the high priced nostalgia of it all, when for the same money with BRAND NEW devices, which will last a different lifetime of service, you can get similar or even better performance. You can get some terrific Eminence, B&C, Faital Pro, or even the overpriced JBL's that will outperform a 60 year old EV. I also do not sign up to the expensive, now esoteric electromagnet crowd either.

 

There were no Thiele/Small parameters before the the 1971 AES publication (Thiele wrote his paper in 1961 for academia, but was commercially unknown for 10 years). PWK had the 4th order filter analogy for Bass Reflex in 1958 and was amazed when I told him I had recognized that fact, but I digress.

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I have a pair that I had completely restored and are in much better condition than these!

My brother in law and I switched out a K-33E round magnet, a K-33E square magnet, a K-43E steel frame, a K-43E cast frame, a K-44E, and one of these all in a LaScala, all in the same afternoon, and these clearly sound the best!

 

Roger

I'd want to see data before I went through this kind of expense rather than a modern driver. Sorry, but I ain't buying this.

 

Nobody asked you to buy anything Claude,

 

I owned all of those speakers and the LaScala. At one time, I owned about 43 Klipsch 15 inch drivers. My brother in Law has ownd Khorns with 24 feet between them for over a decade and that pair of LaScala was on lone to him at the time. We both agreed that the EV sounded best, it was clearly a noticeable difference. Another thought hear Claude, why would you think you would loose your resonance in your K-Horn when very clearly Paul originally designed that horn around much bulkier drivers just like these, from the Klipschorns inception. Be a doubting Thomas if you will, I'll bet it will be a long time before someone else has all those Klipsch drivers in their possession to plot them out, and those graphs still won't tell you what they will sound like to your ears. As for the EV-15W-Ks on ebay, in my eyes they aren't the real deal without the original plackards that go on the back that are hand stamped. EV made a lot of drivers with this same motor and basket that can be bought ALOT cheaper and reconed. I wouldn't pay $500 without the plaques.

 

Roger

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EV made a lot of drivers with this same motor and basket that can be bought ALOT cheaper and reconed

 

Did that back in High School. Had lots of the big pot frames. It's a better cheaper/way to go to get the same thing, I agree. But are the EV recone kits available 60 years later? I'm not doubting how good they sound, I measure, but it's the listening under real world conditions that determines this, so we agree on that. I just like to filter out nostalgia out of the price tag is all. 

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As for the EV-15W-Ks on ebay, in my eyes they aren't the real deal without the original plackards that go on the back that are hand stamped. EV made a lot of drivers with this same motor and basket that can be bought ALOT cheaper and reconed. I wouldn't pay $500 without the plaques.

 

Roger

 

 

 

Every so often, I'll see a single with the Klipsch 'tested and approved' sticker; however, I rarely see a pair come up for sale with the sticker.  This one sold back in November for about $270.  It seems that the plaques with the stamped 'k' will come up for sale a few times a year.

 

 

Electro Voice 15WK (PWK approved).jpg

 

 

 

Electro Voice 15WK (PWK approved) 2.jpg

post-36163-0-16200000-1420251645_thumb.j

post-36163-0-38880000-1420251669_thumb.j

Edited by Fjd
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EV made a lot of drivers with this same motor and basket that can be bought ALOT cheaper and reconed

 

Did that back in High School. Had lots of the big pot frames. It's a better cheaper/way to go to get the same thing, I agree. But are the EV recone kits available 60 years later? I'm not doubting how good they sound, I measure, but it's the listening under real world conditions that determines this, so we agree on that. I just like to filter out nostalgia out of the price tag is all. 

 

 

Claude,

 

I'm sure there are some recone kits sitting dusty on a shelf somewhere, but no, they are not available directly from EV anymore. I am lucky in that I called EV in Michigan to track down a reconer for my EV 15W-Ks and they told me that they only have one official EV reconer who is authorized and does all of their vintage recone jobs and he just happens to be an hour from me in Ft Wayne Indiana. I have him on my phones speed dial and he has done several different sets of speakers for me. When I had him redo my EV 15W-Ks, he sent my baskets off to Chrome Masters in Florida. They are the ones that did the copper plating with original Copper pieces from the Statue of Liberty for the OCC statue of Liberty tribute bike. He weighed the original cones and came up with an EV paper cone that was within a Gram of the original's weight. The original EV 15W-ks had an Aluminum flat wire wound voice coil, and he even got those custom wound up for me. They are pieces of art now.

 

Roger

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As for the EV-15W-Ks on ebay, in my eyes they aren't the real deal without the original plackards that go on the back that are hand stamped. EV made a lot of drivers with this same motor and basket that can be bought ALOT cheaper and reconed. I wouldn't pay $500 without the plaques.

 

Roger

 

 

 

Every so often, I'll see a single with the Klipsch 'tested and approved' sticker; however, I rarely see a pair come up for sale with the sticker.  This one sold back in November for about $270.  It seems that the plaques with the stamped 'k' will come up for sale a few times a year.

 

 

Electro Voice 15WK (PWK approved).jpg

 

 

 

Electro Voice 15WK (PWK approved) 2.jpg

 

 

 

Fjd,

 

The EV 15W-Ks you have pictured are from the 60's and have Ceramic Magnets unlike the Alnico Magnet in the Early ones on EBay and are less desirable. The surrounds on the ones in your picture are the originals though and the cone shown on the earlier driver is a factory replacement / those have been reconed. One of my Early ones that I had redone had the original orange surrounds and the other had the same cone as shown on those in the eBay add.

 

Roger

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