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Klipsch Epic Owners Group


kapsnb01

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You are the club Moray. You carried the torch for the Epics long before most of us owned ours.

No no The Chief Bone Head is the club. He is the very clever man who made it all possible. I like those crossovers so much I bought three sets. Wish I had the physical space for a speaker the size of a CF4 or larger.

Edited by moray james
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The CF-2's were the first Klipsch speakers I heard and I was blown away! My quest began! I started with RF-3's, then went to the KLF-30's and 20's. I never was really satisfied with those speakers, great rock speakers but they were too bass shy. I eventually found some CF-4's in the local paper for sale, and I was anxious to see what version they were. I called the owner and asked him what length the ports were, and he told me 5", and I was immediately excited to get over and audition them!!! I was blown away when I auditioned them. I purchased the pair that day. I spoke with Roy about the history of the epics and about some mods I was thinking of doing to the horns with dampening. He suggested that I look into getting the newer version horns that have glass in the material make up vs the all plastic material used in the 1st versions. So I did and I applied acoustic dampening spray that I purchased from parts express followed by applying lots of rope caulk to the complete outer area of the horns. Those mods removed a lot of the "hollow tap" sound. That was back in 2005 and I have been happy them ever since. Last winter I decided to upgrade the crossover caps and resistors. That mod was probably the best mod I had ever done to the speakers. I have them paired with a McIntosh MC352 and find them extremely smooth and transparent sounding, with plenty of bass that is not over emphasized. It's really good to see a thread for the epic speakers because they truly are Epic!!!

Edited by marems
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it's going on 6 years having my epic cf 4 speakers, I always wanted a pair, I was set to buy a pair back in 97 as a teenager, went into the audio store and the salesman said they had been discontinued, so he ended up selling me the Klf-30s and I was happy at the time, the Legend speakers provided many years of sonic bliss and the woofers never blew and I pushed those speakers to the max, so jumping forward to 2009 I heard about craigslist  and so I searched for a pair of Epic cf4 near where I live, and low and behold someone was selling a pair, I knew nothing of the different versions, bought them,(they were v3) hooked them up to a B&k amp, rocked out a little and ended up feeling underwhelmed by the sound they produced. I didn't mind them for HT use, it just happened when listening to music, so, six months go by and I learn of this forum and i read a post by ka7qau and that sent me on my cf4 journey to find the version 1s, within a year I found a pair in Chicago, bought them, I had b&k mono amps this time at 250 watts, played them and still walked away disappointed. I didn't give up, i kept telling myself, the cfs need more power, if they get more power it will make the difference!, saved up and bought the Marantz reference Ma-9s2 mono amps, and they instantly made a huge difference in overall sound, i have said it before in other forum posts, the Marantz mono amps took control of the speakers. so now its around 2013 and having listened to epic cf4s with the Marantz for a few months i realize that every time i  start to push the speaker at higher volumes, the Highs seemed to start faultering, they sounded good at half volume but the louder it got the Highs just became less clear and muddy sounding. THIS is where Moray James stepped in, he e-mailed me a few years back, i took his advice for the modifications and it took the speakers to that level of sonic satisfaction that i was always searching for out of these speakers. i have been listening to the current modified cfs for about 2 years now and have no desire to upgrade. just a little story of my Epic Journey!

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Next to the R-115sw

Love the look of your setup, The Epic, looking great with its blackened horn by the sub and quality Mac gear. Excellent!  This is the first time hearing about getting the horn from the later version for the older one. But,coming from Roy, I may also do the same.

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Thanks everyone! I find Mac and Klipsch match very very well. And I do recommend the horn upgrade. I do wish Klipsch offered a 2" titanium replacement, or something that would work. I've read here on the forums that those EV drivers make a fantastic upgrade, what are they made of?

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Thanks everyone! I find Mac and Klipsch match very very well. And I do recommend the horn upgrade. I do wish Klipsch offered a 2" titanium replacement, or something that would work. I've read here on the forums that those EV drivers make a fantastic upgrade, what are they made of?

 

I'm not sure what you are asking.  The diaphragm is an aluminum dome with polyimide surround (check the PDF link in the next post).  It has a standard magnet (not neodymium).  The stock K-63-KN has a neo magnet and is much smaller and lighter, and only slightly less efficient (to my ears) than the 1506.

 

See the next post directly downstream for the PDF file for the DH1506.

 

The horn has 11 oz of clear silicon caulk applied asymmetrically to dampen it.  The K-63 weighs about 4 pounds, the 1506 is about 11 pounds.  Both have standard 1 3/8" 18 tpi  screw-on mounts.  I recommend if you use the 1506 use a brace or shelf to support the weight so the horn doesn't crack.  The stock K-63 does not use either.

 

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Edited by wvu80
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Thanks everyone! I find Mac and Klipsch match very very well. And I do recommend the horn upgrade. I do wish Klipsch offered a 2" titanium replacement, or something that would work. I've read here on the forums that those EV drivers make a fantastic upgrade, what are they made of?

the EV DH1506 is a one piece aluminum diaphragm/former with a polyimide suspension very high tech. aluminum is a superior diaphragm material to titanium by the way. The DH1506 is a monster.

EV DH1506 EDS.pdf

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I do want to add, If I had purchased the Epic CF 4s back in 97 I probably would have gotten rid of them, I was just an 18 year old with a Denon 140 watt receiver who loved to crank music as loud as possible, so I would have burnt the Denon up a few times, I had already done it once with the KLF-30s, and I had no money for separate amps at the time. if I didn't find this forum I don't think I would still have the Epic speakers also, if Moray had not told me about the EV dh1506 compression driver I probably would have moved on to something else. looking back at the trials and tribulations of trying to get the cf4s to sound their best really makes me appreciate them even more, The only analogy I can think of is that of a sports car, the cf4 is a sports car with a limit computer chip in it (the original compression driver) it only tops out at 120 mph, replace that limit chip with a high performance chip (ev compression driver) and its off to the races, give it some high octane fuel (more wattage) and you have a le-mans race car ready to race for hours!

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  • 1 month later...
  • 6 months later...

Dear all!

I'm from France and I just purchased a pair of Epic CF3. I love them but I'm sure there is a lot of possible modifications :D

This model is very rare in my country and it's was very difficult to find it and to have informations!

My serial number is 264590002 so from what I understand it's september 21, 1995 . So rev3?... The horn is black... I have to measure the port tube.

I read that you are all looking for rev1. Is there really a huge difference between those versions?

Is there a way to transform my rev3 into rev1?

I will damp the horn and the cabinet. Do you have some informations regarding the caps?

 

I know it's a lot of questions... But the Epic serie is very popular in your country and you seem to know all the secrets of this speakers!

Your photos and mods makes me want to go further!

I bought it this weekend after a friend of mine listened the CF4 version and told me it was totally amazed... Maybe rev 1, I don't know.

 

Thanks for all your precious advices!!

 

François

 

Quote

Rev.1 – Start of Production in Spring of 1994

These models had 5" long port tubes
Networks used OFC (monster cable looking) clear jacket wiring.
Horns in these models were gray in color.

Rev.2 – Fall of 1994

These models had shorter 2.5" long port tubes (to raise the box tuning)
Networks had a component / value change to correct for the new ports. (The network wire was still the OFC used in Rev.1.)

Rev.3 – Summer of 1995 to end of production in 1996

These models had new lighter cone woofers (new vendor) (these cones aren’t nearly as stiff as the originals and can be deformed much easier by pressing on them)
Networks were changed to compensate for the new woofers
Change in network wiring to colored 16ga. like what is used in Legend KLF networks
New horn material that was 20% glass and was painted black.

 

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Hello Shiva!

despite it's a CF-3 Rev3, the sound is really good! The best speakers I had for the moment!

I already bought dynamat for redamp the horn and the cabinet. Just waiting for the delivery :D

 

My speaker cable is now Atlas Equator 2.0. It works very good with my setup. And it famous with Klipsch (and not expensive at all).

I own a small amplifier (NAD C320 BEE). Nevertheless, it works very well!

My cd player is a Marantz CD-63 Ki signature with Van Den Hul - The second, modulation cables.

 

My next upgrades will be a new amplifier (if you have some advices?) and a good DAC (Gustard X20U I think).

 

I removed the gold jumper and I found that the sound is better. Maybe it's placebo but I ear a difference.

The speaker cable on my first photo was homemade and gave me to too much details in high frequency and a lack of bass . Not enough bass, the music was shrill. With the Atlas it's really better, It's better balanced.

 

Do you think it is necessary to apply dynamat everywhere in the cabinet? Or just the horn?

 

 

 

 

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