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Better sounding Chorus 11


Scott marek

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A couple of easy and relatively inexpensive things I've done is add acoustic foam panels to the insides of the cabinets and add gasket tape to all drivers / horns and input cups to ensure a good seal as the stock gaskets are 25 years old and paper thin. Other than that I'd look into possible room treatments, positioning of the speakers themselves, equipment updates changes and source / source material. The Chorus II's are very nice speakers but they aren't very forgiving basically garbage in / garbage out and your room itself is a huge factor. 

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6 hours ago, jjptkd said:

A couple of easy and relatively inexpensive things I've done is add acoustic foam panels to the insides of the cabinets and add gasket tape to all drivers / horns and input cups to ensure a good seal as the stock gaskets are 25 years old and paper thin.

That's a great idea that's hardly ever thought of, I have heard this make a nice difference with a Heresy. With some cabinets even a bead of some kind of sealant on all inside cabinet joints couldn't hurt either, especially if really old.

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Scott,

 

Welcome!

 

The first question needs to be, "what is wrong that needs fixing?"  Fix only what you hear, and fix the speaker LAST.   Almost every room used for listening needs some work on reflective surfaces in particular and standing waves (room modes) very often.  Rugs, curtains, soft furniture can help with both issues.  

 

If you want to replace the original foam or damping with a like volume of new, go ahead.  Don't add more, or don't add if there wasn't any from the factory.  Internal damping material actually adds "give" to the internal volume and makes the cabinet behave as though the interior volume was larger.  Just like a larger organ pipe, the new damping material makes the cabinet resonate at a lower frequency.  Would that be better?  Doubtful. 

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a member here names moray james has lots of mods hes tried & says are improvements for the chorus 2.  he may chime in soon.  but heres a short list of some things you can do.

 

add 1-2 oz of weight to the passive radiator to lower the bass freq a little.

add bracing to the cabinets to stiffen them up some & experiment with some acoustic foam.

also wrap the backs of the horns & woofer baskets with some type of product to dampen them, some use rope caulk on the horns others use dynamat type material.

 

& another thing for these speakers is they like clean high power, they sound fine on normal reveivers or 50-100 watts, but they have a peak rating of like 1000w & really come to life when you have closer to 200watts per ch.  i like mine on my onkyo 100wpc receiver, but when i hooked them to an adcom 200wpc amp &pre they were at a whole nother level.  & yes, good recordings! 

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On 1/24/2018 at 4:00 PM, JohnA said:

The first question needs to be, "what is wrong that needs fixing?"  Fix only what you hear, and fix the speaker LAST.

A big "+1" to this idea.  Too often I read "I just bought Speaker X, what do I need to change?"  There are some speakers with known issues such as 20 year-old capacitors which are out of spec so that's really OK.

 

Even with known issues, I much prefer to just listen and enjoy for at least a month.  After that if you say "I really miss the  X (bass, clarity, highs, etc) only then should you start to find the upgrade threads for your speaker or post a new thread on fixing a perceived problem.

 

I modded my CF-4's because there was a high frequency harshness that I HEARD I wanted to get rid of.  The process of dealing with that improved my speakers a LOT.  FYI I damped the mid-horn with silicon seal, braced the box, added a small amount of polyfil and swapped out the OEM K-63-N mid-driver for an Electro Voice 1506 compression driver. 

 

I think it was the cumulative effect of small changes that led to a significant overall improvement in the accuracy of the sound.

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Tread lightly.  Many tweaks made are placebo effects, of the originator but not truly better, just different.

 

Harshness in the horns, that's a different story.  I've found a thin layer of foam to reduce reflections on the inside of the horn and dampening outside of it helps cut some of the "Ca"  and "cha" grit in the smaller mid and treble horns.  (Sorry don't know how to better say that)

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Has anyone installed a pair of B&C DE120 Tweeters in the chorus II speakers there is a guy on ebay that states they sound a lot better then the K79s He has a pair installed in a pair of chorus I Speakers

Bob crites says they will be 4db to loud and the cross over would need to be changed, any info on this

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@Scott marek I've never owned Ch2's so I don't have any useful information about swapping tweeters.

 

Bob Crites is a member here and anytime I've read his comments he has been very helpful and straightforward with his advice.  Since he's told you the DE120's are 4 db too hot I would certainly trust his judgement.

 

My instinct would be to somehow put a resistor to damp the tweeters a bit but I am really out of my element here.  It might be that other changes to the XO are needed to balance the changes to the tweeter, I don't know.

 

You might find other knowledgeable Klipschites who have experience with this and can advise you but if it were me I'd go with Bob's advice.

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2 hours ago, Scott marek said:

Has anyone installed a pair of B&C DE120 Tweeters in the chorus II speakers there is a guy on ebay that states they sound a lot better then the K79s He has a pair installed in a pair of chorus I Speakers

Bob crites says they will be 4db to loud and the cross over would need to be changed, any info on this

No clue , but wanted to put in my 2 cents :D If you like horns, +4dB IMHO is "nothing." Have a pair of (cinema) KPT-904's ... horns are +6dB too loud (since they are not behind a cinema screen); but I love them this "loud." :D 

Cheers, Emile

 

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Long ol' story, but as I was waiting for my "special order" Forte iii's from @MetropolisLakeOutfitters, I found a local (well, 2.5 hr drive which was close enough to not pass up) pair of Chorus ii's, and couldn't resist them for $600 for my basement. I'm smack dab in the middle of pulling the crossovers to send to Crites. I'll attach a pic of the Ch2 inside, and can verify that there are in fact acoustical panels on both sides of the inside. My F3's arrived yesterday --- and thanks to Cory @MetropolisLakeOutfitters they not only sound but look supertacular. (he ordered cherry with the lambswool grills --- PM me if you want to see what those look like). Thanks!

 

Back to the Ch2's --- the seller of the ones I picked up added washers/weights on the passives, to improve the bass. He indicated communicating with Moray James, weighing the washers to be about 2.5 ounces, and said they improved the bass considerably, so if that is an issue it might be worth trying. When I opened up the cabs, one of the weights had fallen off, so I'm intending to epoxy it back on. I'd also be interested in other tweaks on this thread, but haven't done the Crites crossover rebuild/titanium tweeter replacement yet. Maybe I can do an a/b test with F3/modded Ch2's, assuming I can lug the Ch2's back upstairs without injury. I've already had hernia surgery on both sides, so I'm covered.

CH2 inside.jpg

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Hi I was hoping for some help on my Chorus 11 speakers. I upgraded with Crites crossovers & titanium tweeter diaphragms. is there anything else I can do to make them sound better
Thanks for any help any one can give me,
 
 
 

IMO if a person buys speakers because he likes the sound, why tinker with them? If you don’t like the way they sound get some other speaker. I’m not one to second guess audio engineers.


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3 hours ago, Tony Whitlow said:

IMO if a person buys speakers because he likes the sound, why tinker with them?  I’m not one to second guess audio engineers.

Cause some people want to and like to.😁  I never owned Chorus ii and when I bought them of Craigslist did not dislike them but felt the Fortes I had just sold to a good friend sounded better.  So I tinkered with the Chorus ii and now have them sounding much better to me. 

 

 audio engineers, if what sounds good to them does not sound good to me then I will tinker.  I will tinker cause I like to and maybe improve the sound of the speaker or system to me.  What everyone else does to their speakers and system is up to them.

 

 

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On 8/24/2018 at 2:51 PM, Scott marek said:

Has anyone installed a pair of B&C DE120 Tweeters in the chorus II speakers there is a guy on ebay that states they sound a lot better then the K79s He has a pair installed in a pair of chorus I Speakers

Bob crites says they will be 4db to loud and the cross over would need to be changed, any info on this

That would be me and mine sound great. There is a very easy solution and you can add an Lpad in there and adjust the tweeter to be what you want. I am seriously thinking of letting people be the judge and send a set of loaners out to anyone interested they pick up shipping and send them to the next person in line.

 

Personally I like what I have and would not change a thing. It is like this for me. If you cup your hands over your ears you hear the higher notes and cymbals and little subtle acoustic things and when you remove your hands they go away. This new setup does exactly that for me and with my somewhat lacking hearing  provided things that were lacking before.

 

 I don't know why Bob insists rebuilding the crossover is needed when there are threads on just this with adding resistors or LPads to the tweeter circuit. Claude pointed out to me how many speakers had LPads on them for that adjust to taste reason and sure enough two old Altecs I am rebuilding have just that as do a set of EAW's I have just rebuilt

 You PM me your address and I will send you a pair to try and you forward them to the next guy on the list or back to me. You hear these things you might hire Bob to do something later but it will be after you stick these in and I figure you might just stop right there. I have a set of La Scalas here right now with K-55-V soldered lug mid drivers, one of my tweeter lenses with DE120's on them and recapped AA's and I prefer the Chorus in direct side by side comparisons.

 

  I will say though that crossovers that old will sound better rebuilt and I do so to every set I get.

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I have a set of La Scalas here right now with K-55-V soldered lug mid drivers, one of my tweeter lenses with DE120's on them and recapped AA's and I prefer the Chorus in direct side by side comparisons.

Interesting! What modifications have you done to your Chorus II other than the tweeter with lpad? Full crossover rebuild? Did you do anything else? Using stock phenolic mid diaphragms?


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