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Do You Have Epic CF-4? What to Look For?


Jim Naseum

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On 9/11/2015 at 10:21 AM, gmjungbluth said:

 

 

But replacement parts are much harder to come by - the tweeters and woofers are no longer being made and to my knowledge there is no substitute for the woofers. 

 

 

I have a set of Epic 2's. Bob recently recapped the crossovers for me and just for grins I called Klipsch about acquiring a replacement driver. They shipped me a direct replacement with a different part number but side by side in looks and sound it was identical to the original. The tweeter I had to buy used from a member here and couldn't be happier with the purchase.  Don't ask, I had a catastrophic pre amp failure that took out one channel. You're right though, parts for the Epic line are becoming harder to find but if you're in need try the boys at Klipsch. They might surprise you like they did me. 

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  • 3 years later...

Hey all! So judging by the research I’ve been reading tonight on the interwebs, I’ve come across a good find. Bit of backstory: a friend of my mom’s husband gave these CF-4s to said husband, free. Reason? Too big and too loud for him. Ok...

 

Anyway, they proceeded to sit in a basement for quite a while before they were presented to me. I was just talking casually about how my buddy was cutting me a good deal on some Martin Logan bookshelfs when he said he had some speakers I could have. 

He’s a musician and regularly blows out speakers and figured he’d just be showing me some junkers that I’d shrug off. Basement’s dark and I can’t even make out the brand until I work my way around it to the S/N tag with inspector/ tester signatures on it. Klipsch. Ok, now we’re cooking with gas. 
 

What do you want for ‘em? “Take’um.” And mind you, he’s never had the chance to use or abuse them. 
 

So, I guess I’m just looking for tips as a casual audio guy who seems to have stumbled onto something pretty cool, on how to proceed. Best cleaning methods top to bottom, such as the wood (satin black), woofers, speaker grill fabric. What else to look for as far as when I power them up? I’m initially going to just run them bi-amp’d with a Denon AVR 7.1. I know these are absolute beasts that can take a whole world more of power but I’ve also come to understand klipsch is very efficient and will get loud with less than the 90w this receiver is pushing per channel. 
 

My uncle who is an audiophile talked shortly about maybe wanting to replace the capacitor in the crossover, or something to that effect. But anything else you guys can recommend for cleaning and overall care of these gems would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

 

P.S. would it be best if I started a new thread on this, or is it fine here with the necrobump?

 

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Take them home, wipe the wood down with Lemon Oil, plug in, and go. 

They really don't need much attention, especially if you're going to bi-amp.

 

If you have a bristle brush attachment for the vacuum cleaner, that might be good in the grilles.

 

Piano and acoustic guitars will blow you away.

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Apologies for these pics posting sideways. I took them in portrait without the phone accidentally leaned into landscape and I wasn’t able to fix them here. Probably if I flip them around in my photo editor but.. eh. 
 

Aside from that bezel veneer peeling back, the wood itself is in pretty nice shape and will probably be passable with a good cleaning. Someday I might refinish/ restore but, not right away. 
 

Suggestions on cleaning the woofers and horns? And that filth on the grilles?

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22 minutes ago, Micklipsch said:

And that filth on the grilles?

You can just bathe the grills in warm water and cleaning detergent, maybe gently brush them down. I don´t know how the fabric would react to water diluted DanClorix or something, will it loose colour?

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27 minutes ago, AndreG. said:

You can just bathe the grills in warm water and cleaning detergent, maybe gently brush them down. I don´t know how the fabric would react to water diluted DanClorix or something, will it loose colour?

I was thinking something similar to all of the above. 

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1 hour ago, Micklipsch said:

Are they needed to function? Or what are their purpose? I’m pretty ignorant in a lot of areas here—apologies. 

Yes,  they are needed. They look like whats in the picture. There are work arounds however.

 

81DH2DZ0YBL._AC_SS350_.jpg

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16 hours ago, Micklipsch said:

What else to look for as far as when I power them up? I’m initially going to just run them bi-amp’d with a Denon AVR 7.1. I know these are absolute beasts that can take a whole world more of power but I’ve also come to understand klipsch is very efficient and will get loud with less than the 90w this receiver is pushing per channel. 

CF-3 version 1 here with dual 10's.  You might require more power for these CF-4's. They're not as efficient as their listed rating apparently.  I've never bi-amped them myself, but i can barely get the drivers moving and the bass sounds really weak with the 100wpc i use on my McIntosh amp. It's not until i bridge my amp to 320wpc that i really get those drivers moving and the bass comes in.  I did first have these set up in corners and the bass was overwhelming and that was just using a Marantz SR7007 back then...might have bi amped come to think of it and blew my Marantz amps, but now i have a 6ch MC7106 that can be bridged to 3x 320wpc or 2x 320wpc + 2x 100wpc or 1x 320wpc +4x 100wpc.  I'm now experimenting with using 100wpc to my mains and surrounds and 320wpc to my center and using my RSW-15 to fill in the bass for 2ch. I've always found it difficult to integrate a sub into your 2ch set up, but a basic 80hz crossover and the RSW-15 is blending in nicely. 
Point is, don't give up if you can't really get those drivers moving with the Denon. Even if it's a version 2 or 3, they're really great all around speakers. 

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4 minutes ago, Maximus89 said:

Even preferable using wire. I took my stock jumpers and use thick guage speaker wire. I'm really interested in bi-amping soon though to see if that does anything for me.

I was told I wouldn’t really notice a difference. In theory, though, sending more power to these speakers only make them shine more, which is what bi-amping looks to accomplish.
 

Nothing to lose, at least! Other than some wire...

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16 minutes ago, Maximus89 said:

CF-3 version 1 here with dual 10's.  You might require more power for these CF-4's. They're not as efficient as their listed rating apparently.  I've never bi-amped them myself, but i can barely get the drivers moving and the bass sounds really weak with the 100wpc i use on my McIntosh amp. It's not until i bridge my amp to 320wpc that i really get those drivers moving and the bass comes in.  I did first have these set up in corners and the bass was overwhelming and that was just using a Marantz SR7007 back then...might have bi amped come to think of it and blew my Marantz amps, but now i have a 6ch MC7106 that can be bridged to 3x 320wpc or 2x 320wpc + 2x 100wpc or 1x 320wpc +4x 100wpc.  I'm now experimenting with using 100wpc to my mains and surrounds and 320wpc to my center and using my RSW-15 to fill in the bass for 2ch. I've always found it difficult to integrate a sub into your 2ch set up, but a basic 80hz crossover and the RSW-15 is blending in nicely. 
Point is, don't give up if you can't really get those drivers moving with the Denon. Even if it's a version 2 or 3, they're really great all around speakers. 

Oh for sure; my existing receiver won’t be the downfall of these speakers. I’ll buy a suitable amp if anything!

 

 You mention blowing your amp. Is there something I should not do as to avoid any equipment damage?

 

I also may have to read into bi-amp intricacies. You just mentioned a bunch of different setups and I thought it was basically a one way road (hook right channel to one post set, hook right rear surround to other post set, and so on).

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3 hours ago, AndreG. said:

You can just bathe the grills in warm water and cleaning detergent, maybe gently brush them down. I don´t know how the fabric would react to water diluted DanClorix or something, will it loose colour?

And if the grill frames are made of glued sawdust, they will fall apart beyond repair. 

It's been a minute since I have owned Epics. Are the grill frames plastic or wood?

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