How to make the RP-160M come alive!

[speedmadness]

After living with my stock RP600Ms for a while, I still wasn't convinced I was keeping them.  $200+ to try the GR research crossover was also more than I wanted to spend, seemed like I would be better off selling the speakers and putting the extra cash towards some Heresy or KLF20s.  Anyway, I finally decided I would try some of my own crossover mods after educating myself a bit of the stock vs GR Research crossovers and corresponding response curves.  There were really 2 issues to me, the dip in response at the crossover, and the slightly too much output of the tweeter.  What I ended up doing, was much simpler than the full new crossover.  I replaced the stock tweeter 9 ohm sand resistor and unknown 3.9uF cap, with a Jantzen Superes 10 ohm resistor and a Clarity Cap PX 3.9uF with a Vishay 1837 0.01uF bypass cap.  I also reversed polarity of the tweeter as Danny had done.  That seemed to help out the second issue.  The first I went at much more simply.  I removed the stock 1.4mh iron core inductor, and removed 2 windings to drop the inductance a bit, which would slightly raise the crossover point.  The online calculator I used seemed to put the inductor at about 1.36mh now, and the crossover should have moved up from 1500hz to about 1650hz.  That seems to have filled in the dip and along with the tweeter circuit changes, have made these, to my ears, much better sounding.  I had already added damping to the back of the horns and the woofer baskets, as well as adding some cabinet bracing front to back and side to side.  I've got $22 in parts, including the shipping from partsconnexion, and couldn't be happier.  The ClarityCap PX is not a high end cap by any means, but there were a limited selection of in-stock caps in the 3.9uF value.  I wanted to use ClarityCap 250V CSA, but they are back ordered.  Most of the lower cost options in 3.9uF were sold out at partsconnexion.  Humblehomadehifi highly recommended the tiny Vishay 1837 bypass caps, and they are less than $1, so that was a no brainer.  For a small investment in money, I'm very happy.

[speedmadness]

One other thing to add.  I use my RP600Ms paired with a HSU STF2 sub fed from my second set of speaker level outputs.  The klipsch run full range.  It is amazing how much bigger and more real a small pair of speakers can be with some quality, as opposed to booming, bass added in.  If you have some small Klipsch bookshelf speakers, you owe it to yourself to try them with a quality sub.

[sandm0n]

On 12/22/2020 at 11:43 PM, dtossan said:

Klipsch RP-600M Upgrade

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi,

What crossover points are you using?

Is the tweeter crossover 6db/octave slope type?

 

Does anyone knows why there is a 43uF capacitor in parallel with the woofer in the original crossover? according to Klipsch spec sheet the crossover point is 1500hz, I tried few online crossovers calculator but non of them gave me 1500hz crossover point with 1.4mH and 43uF components.

 

Thanks

 

[sandm0n]

On 1/3/2021 at 1:01 AM, speedmadness said:

 I also reversed polarity of the tweeter as Danny had done.  That seemed to help out the second issue. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to Jhon Atkinson inverting the polarity of the tweeter will make the the dip in the crossover point much deeper.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/klipsch-rp-600m-speaker-review.12138/page-10

#185

 

Danny re-designed the origial crossover and used first order crossover in his design.

Edited February 25, 2021 by sandm0n

[DarthVader]

On 2/13/2021 at 7:42 PM, sandm0n said:

 

 

 

Hi,

What crossover points are you using?

Is the tweeter crossover 6db/octave slope type?

 

Does anyone knows why there is a 43uF capacitor in parallel with the woofer in the original crossover? according to Klipsch spec sheet the crossover point is 1500hz, I tried few online crossovers calculator but non of them gave me 1500hz crossover point with 1.4mH and 43uF components.

 

Thanks

 

 

Hi all, 

I appreciate all the info here on the RP600/160 crossover.

I am also curious about this point.
How does the combination of 1.4mH and 43uF give a crossover of 1500Hz?

Thanks.

[Juysocal]

Just found this thread. Thanks for this forum I learned by researching online how to upgrade the crossovers. I got a good deal

with a pair of 600M's from a friend. He blew the woofers and gave it to me in exchange for a pair of 25 ft. canare diy speaker cables I make on the side.  He has an 11.2 setup with all Klipsch and told him to try the canare's and the first pair for his front RP-8000 

made a difference, he said it sound louder and clearer so his happy. I'm making all his cables now.

So back to xover's. I ordered Clarity Caps 3.9uf, Axon 43uf, they are all from partsconexxion.  The Axon are made at the same french factory where Solen's are made. The Axon are 1.45 x 1.88" and the 3.9uf 1.3" x 1.1" and they should fit the board.  So my question do I need to change the resistors to Jantzen or Mills, will they make any difference?

 

TIA

 

Joey

[Deets]

Hello everyone 

really love the knowledge in this forum and I myself are very intrigued, I was wondering if anyone had the time to make a detailed parts list with links to parts express and schematic with values for someone to download to make it easier for someone to do this upgrade on their own, 

 

I would be able to do the labor in this upgrade but have literally zero know on building Custom crossovers so that’s the reason I ask for the value and parts list

 

regards

 

Edited July 24, 2021 by Deets

[habo66]

Hi guys. Thanks for all your posts with knowledge regarding Klipsch rp600m upgrade. Thanks to #dtossan for posting the schematics. I decided to dig into and to built separate crossover with good parts and to add damp material for the internal of the cabinet.

 

For the damping I used 4mm CTK premium antivribrating mat, which is used often in car audio (this is where a bought it - in a car audio shop). After that the cabinets felt more heavy and more solid. I even put the material around the bass reflex tube. Then I added a "acoustilux", which is kinda similar as it was already inside by default, but this new one is more densed and it feels much better. It's made by Jantzen Denmark.

 

For the crossover I used a Jantzen air core coils, a Jantzen superior capacitor for the tweeter and a Clarity Cap CSA for bass driver. Oh and the internal wiring was with Jantzen copper/silver wire.

 

The total cost of the material was around 150 USD.

 

And the sound  Well, I didn't expect too much, because I didn't want to be disapointed. But, it's quite a night and day difference. It's very pleasing to listen to them, more linear, more refined, bass is compact and punchier. They are in different league now for sure.

 

Best, Gasper

Edited April 22, 2022 by habo66

[Jim smith]

The factory 43uf woofer cap is going remove most of it's midrange production  🙃 some like this , some don't , 25ish is more normal for a 2way , imho bypass caps is a waste , your better off with the actual capacitor that suits your needs 😀😀

Edited January 13 by Jim smith