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Speakerlab 7?


hsant

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On 2/2/2017 at 1:41 PM, hsosdrummer said:

 

 

In 1979 I sent PWK a letter alerting him that Speakerlab was still claiming in their catalogs that their HT3500 was an exact replacement for a Klipschorn tweeter (it was not), and he sent me a letter in return thanking me and letting me know that he was going to have to put Speakerlab on notice "again" for the factual error and for their illegal use of Klipsch trademarks. Of course I still have his letter.

I assumed the HT3500 was an EV T35 of the old round magnet kind, since it looked like it.  What was it?  I think the Klipsch K77 was a T35 selected after Klipsch testing.

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EV T35, HT3500 and K77 were the same.  Klipsch tested the T35s and rejected some before putting Klipsch on the keepers and calling them K77s, but they were all made by Electro Voice at 600 Cecil St., Buchanan, Michigan.  The parts, including the diaphragms, were interchangeable.

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3 hours ago, DizRotus said:

Other than cost savings, what advantages are there to combining a 12" woofer with a 10" woofer, rather than using two 12" woofers or a single 15" woofer?

I think it was design for two different frequencies(Qts) thats why two different size of woofers.

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On ‎2‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 8:49 PM, garyrc said:

I assumed the HT3500 was an EV T35 of the old round magnet kind, since it looked like it.  What was it?  I think the Klipsch K77 was a T35 selected after Klipsch testing.

 

According to what Bob Moers and Ron Turpin told me at the time (1978-79), the K77 had a re-designed phase plug that was not used in the non-Klipsch versions. That could have been a marketing "exaggeration" (I don't feel quite right calling "BS" on Klipsch), but it's just as (or more) likely that I conflated a couple of unrelated statements at the time. Whenever I got around any of the Klipsch folks I tried to become as much of a knowledge sponge as I could (this sort of info was harder to come by in the pre-Internet days), and it's certainly possible that a few of my 'Info Pores' became mistakenly intermingled.

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47 minutes ago, hsosdrummer said:

 

According to what Bob Moers and Ron Turpin told me at the time (1978-79), the K77 had a re-designed phase plug that was not used in the non-Klipsch versions. That could have been a marketing "exaggeration" (I don't feel quite right calling "BS" on Klipsch), but it's just as (or more) likely that I conflated a couple of unrelated statements at the time. Whenever I got around any of the Klipsch folks I tried to become as much of a knowledge sponge as I could (this sort of info was harder to come by in the pre-Internet days), and it's certainly possible that a few of my 'Info Pores' became mistakenly intermingled.

The midrange driver for the Khorn, Belle, La Scala, and earlier Cornwalls & Heresy (K55) definitely had a re-designed phase plug for a while (perhaps starting in about 1980).  I didn't hear that the K77 did, although there was some kind of improvement from EV (also used by Klipsch) called something like Venturi, that (I think) made the 8K peak less severe.  I think I read that in an old interview with PWK in Speaker Builder magazine.

 

EDIT:  Maybe not something like Venturi, but something like Avedon?  Can someone clear this up?

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4 minutes ago, garyrc said:

The midrange driver for the Khorn, Belle, La Scala, and earlier Cornwalls & Heresy (K55) definitely had a re-designed phase plug for a while (perhaps starting in about 1980).  I didn't hear that the K77 did, although there was some kind of improvement from EV (also used by Klipsch) called something like Venturi, that (I think) made the 8K peak less severe.  I think I read that in an old interview with PWK in Speaker Builder magazine.

 

And there it is. At the time I heard K55 phase plug re-design and mistakenly I also conflated it to the K77. Thanks for setting me straight on that!

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  • 1 year later...

Also, you best check the 10 woofer; if it was the ones with the numbers 7819 stamped on the back of the driver, they were wound backwards and the red mark is on the wrong terminal. They will be out of phase with the 12's if you hook them up normally. I know because mine are 7819's.

 

I'm in the process of rebuilding mine, replaced the caps (from Crites) and changed to the Crites tweeters, CT120, and midrange drivers, the Crites A-55G, kept the woofers because they were fine. There was no rubber gasket installed for the midrange drivers and they need that gasket so you can tighten the driver to the horn, my drivers were lose.

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I was a Speakerlab fan for years. I discovered Klipsch first and that I couldn't afford them second. Speakerlab offered "klipsch-like" speakers in kit form that I could actually afford. I probably built a dozen pairs. My first pair were the 6's in 1980. Much like the drivers you see in yours but with just the 12". They had also modified their horns to be "Wave Apertures" which I can't explain fully. The next year, I wanted to build the 7's but they had switched to a 6.5" cone mid and a leaf tweeter (the 10" woofer also switched to poly cone). Still built a pair and loved them. Later on I added a pair of Cornwalls that I ended up selling to a friend and kept the 7's. Probably favored them simply cuz I built the cabinets. The sixes are still rocking, with a few repairs. I have 4 of the 12" woofers (W1208R) and two of the 10" (W1008R) just sitting around if anyone is interested. Some might still work.

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1 hour ago, MookieStl said:

I was a Speakerlab fan for years

 

Mike -

 

I too was a fan of Speakerlab.  I built several pairs for friends.  The 4 SKhorns used in my DJ biz were factory built, plywood with aluminum squawkers and T-35s.  I was going to buy a pair of Khorn decorators at HI-Fi Workshop -- remember that place @ClaudeJ1, until I discovered I could get 4 SKhorns for the same price.

 

My best Speakerlab experience was building 7s for my friend Johnny (old enough to be my father).  Listening to those 7s powered by a Dynaco 150 -- which I also assembled -- in Johnny's Detroit basement was my education in Jazz, Blues, and R&B.  I've never gotten over the fact that no one contacted me when Johnny was admitted to the hospital.  It was a shock to call and be informed that Johnny had passed weeks earlier. 

 

I wonder what became of the 7s.  They were great speakers.  Johnny loved the horn sound, although I'm not sure how much he could hear after working for decades in a foundry..

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1 minute ago, DizRotus said:

 

Correct.  In a vertical orientation.  They looked like this.

 

download (1).jpg

I remember, other than the SK, they were the top of the line. I built one of their 3-way's for my Mom, but I insisted that the Philips Tweeter they sold separately was much better than the soft dome one sold with the kit. As a result, they changed to the Philips as the standard for their kit. Also that same Philips tweeter was used in Stever Eberbach's DCM Time Windows (from Ann Arbor) the were an Audiophile Favorite at the time.

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