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Got ripped off on RF-35 Towers now i need help please!


Jintegra

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So for my birthday my brother bought me a set of Klipsch rf-35 Towers off of craigslist.  We paid 300 which I thought was fair.  Had a listen, all seemed ok, but i guess im going deaf, and we bought them.  Yesterday i noticed that one sounded a lot louder than the other and so i did some diagnosing and found out that i believe my crossover is bad in one speaker.  i say this because the tweeter in the bad speaker is really muffled and sounds like mud when compared to the working one.  I originally thought this was a blown tweeter, but after disassembly and bypassing the crossover, the suspect tweeter sounds lovely.  So im fairly certain the crossover is malfunctioning.  So here are my questions-

 

1.  Are there replacement crossovers available?  I doubt so but doesnt hurt to ask...

 

2.  My tweeter is 3 ohm, and the two woofers are 6 ohm svc each.  How does klipsch wire the three speakers to acheive the advertised 8ohms?

 

3.  I was thinking of replacing crossover with this one

 

http://www.mavin.com/store.php/products/boston-acoustics-dual-woofer-crossover-pair

 

Its 200hz higher crossover but the only one i could find with one tweeter and dual woofer output.  It says the crossover wires the woofers in series when connected.  Can two six ohm subs in series connect with a 3 ohm tweeter to give 8 ohms?  Ive been reading till my eyes bleed about ohms but can seem to find out how to get 8ohms out of my configuration.  Thanks!

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I certainly wouldn't use an aftermarket network with different frequencies.  You can call the Klipsch parts department and check on parts.  You might also contact Bob and see if this is something he'd work on for you.  it might be your cheapest option.

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I have an older set of RF 35's. I had trouble with the jumpers on the back where you attach your speaker wires. Check to be sure you have good, tight connections there. It may not apply to you, but it is an easy check/fix.

 

 

Great advice.

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Great suggestion Klipschfish. More great advice is to question why you bought them and then you opened them up? Can't blame the Seller! Use nothing other than Original equipment. Did you open up your electronic stuff first to be sure that is not the problem? Sure it all works? I recently bought a vintage amplifier dirt cheap. Put a CD in my player and the right speaker made horrid high frequency noise along with music so I went to bed pssed off thinking I got ripped off. Woke next day unhooked CD Player used Turntable and heard nothing but beautiful music. If it had not worked after first week I'd have sent it back not opened it up...

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So i dont think its my amp ( a counterpoint solid 1A) because you can hook up the other speaker to the same channel and its bright and sounds correct.  Its definitely in the speaker somewhere and i think its the crossover.  Another thought i had was to use two crossover boards,the half working klipsch one for the mids, and the tweeter half of the one i linked above.  Seems like my easiest option to get back to listening to these speakers.  Im still looking for any explanation as to how these are rated at 8 ohms with two SVC 6 ohm speakers and a 3 ohm tweeter.  I keep getting like either 15-16 ohms or 2 ohms thanks.  Also when i demoed them he was running them off of a tv! somehow and so we didnt really crank it and also they were kind of close together so it was hard for me to hear the bad highs on one...why not take it apart and fix stuff?  I dont see the harm in using aftermarket components either....

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yea i had all the mids and tweeter hooked up outside of the enclosure and wired up.  The connections there are solid and not defective.  I bypassed the terminal cup to make sure as well.  With the tweeter installed on the X/O and a multimeter, you can get the 3 ohm reading at the solder terminal where the tweeter goes into the board but not where the wires are soldered that go to the terminal cup.  Its looking like i might just replace both crossovers in the set with dayton audio ones http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-xo2w-25k-2-way-speaker-crossover-2500-hz--260-142%C2'> any way i could wire the two six ohm subs with the 3 ohm tweeter to that crossover?

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OK so this is weird- my matching tower speakers have different tweeters completely, and one is 3 ohm and one is six ohm.  The six ohm tweet makes more sense because then you can wire the woofers in parallel and the tweet in series for 9 ohms, closest to 8 i could get, which makes sense.  I am therefore going to order the matching tweeter and the dayton crossovers and see how it works out.  But i could only find the matching tweeter part number in 8 ohms which is odd. 

 

http://reconingspeakers.com/product/klipsch-rb-35-rf-35-tweeter/#prettyPhoto

 

My one tower had a k-137 and my other had a k-134.

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OK so this is weird- my matching tower speakers have different tweeters completely, and one is 3 ohm and one is six ohm.  The six ohm tweet makes more sense because then you can wire the woofers in parallel and the tweet in series for 9 ohms, closest to 8 i could get, which makes sense.  I am therefore going to order the matching tweeter and the dayton crossovers and see how it works out.  But i could only find the matching tweeter part number in 8 ohms which is odd. 

 

http://reconingspeakers.com/product/klipsch-rb-35-rf-35-tweeter/#prettyPhoto

 

My one tower had a k-137 and my other had a k-134.

your problem sounds simple. call klipsch. they may have stock crossovers and they can tell you which tweeter you should have and which shouldn't be there. 

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yea i had all the mids and tweeter hooked up outside of the enclosure and wired up. The connections there are solid and not defective. I bypassed the terminal cup to make sure as well. With the tweeter installed on the X/O and a multimeter, you can get the 3 ohm reading at the solder terminal where the tweeter goes into the board but not where the wires are soldered that go to the terminal cup. Its looking like i might just replace both crossovers in the set with dayton audio ones any way i could wire the two six ohm subs with the 3 ohm tweeter to that crossover?

 

You don't understand how crossovers work. The other components in a crossover (besides the speakers themselves), all work together to provide a nominal impedance to your amplifier. It's part of the design... When you measure the inputs terminals of a speaker system, you are measuring DCR, the DC resistance of the entire network as designed. The impedance listed, let's say 8 ohms, will actually vary depending on the frequency of the signal being fed to it from your amplifier. Some speakers can drop down to 2 ohms. This is why many amps can't be used with two pairs of speaker systems at the same time, as the load (impedance) drops too low, and the amp can't provide enough current.

 

As was stated above, the best thing is to call Klipsch and find out what is supposed to be in those cabinets and see what the cost to replace/fix with correct parts will cost you. There are some knowledgeable people on here, who might be able to help, if you live close to one of them.

 

ruce

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yea i had all the mids and tweeter hooked up outside of the enclosure and wired up. The connections there are solid and not defective. I bypassed the terminal cup to make sure as well. With the tweeter installed on the X/O and a multimeter, you can get the 3 ohm reading at the solder terminal where the tweeter goes into the board but not where the wires are soldered that go to the terminal cup. Its looking like i might just replace both crossovers in the set with dayton audio ones any way i could wire the two six ohm subs with the 3 ohm tweeter to that crossover?

 

You don't understand how crossovers work. The other components in a crossover (besides the speakers themselves), all work together to provide a nominal impedance to your amplifier. It's part of the design... When you measure the inputs terminals of a speaker system, you are measuring DCR, the DC resistance of the entire network as designed. The impedance listed, let's say 8 ohms, will actually vary depending on the frequency of the signal being fed to it from your amplifier. Some speakers can drop down to 2 ohms. This is why many amps can't be used with two pairs of speaker systems at the same time, as the load (impedance) drops too low, and the amp can't provide enough current.

 

As was stated above, the best thing is to call Klipsch and find out what is supposed to be in those cabinets and see what the cost to replace/fix with correct parts will cost you. There are some knowledgeable people on here, who might be able to help, if you live close to one of them.

 

ruce

 

Hey man i appreciate your advice here.  I do know how crossovers work. they split a full spectrum signal into appropriate frequencies for a given speaker.  What did i write above that made me seem ignorant? I was referring to the fact that yes, eventhough a X/O may change the Ohms, my tweeter is stamped 3 ohm and it will read three ohm at one side of the X/O and an open circuit on the other end where it should be giving some SOME measure of ohms, eventhough maybe not three ohms, there isnt continuity in the crossover board.  Hope that explains it better and thanks for your help

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Even if you're not familiar with how a crossover works (I am not implying that however) you can take the parts from your known good speaker and use points along the signal path to measure to use for correct values when comparing with your defective speaker.

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It's ok, not meaning to offend. Measuring things in circuit doesn't always get you what you want to know. Since we don't have the schematic for the speakers, it's hard to tell just what should be happening.

 

Bruce

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