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Opinions for KLF-20 Upgrades


Jehowlind

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Hello,

New member to the Klipsch community, but not to their products. I purchased a pair of KLF-20 speakers brand new in spring, 2001.

I still have them and enjoy them very much. I am upgrading my stereo equipment, and would like to upgrade my KLF-20's.

I have heard lots of good things about Bob Crites- and had a great discussion with his son, Mike. He recommended I replace the diaphragms in the K-79

tweeters, and replace the horn drivers and crossover. Sounds good- however- one of the K-79 tweeters stopped working a few yrs. back. I had a K-84 tweeter available, so I simply replaced it with that one. It fit perfectly into the cabinet and still works now. I no longer have the old K-79 that stopped working. Rather than replace diaphragms in 2 different tweeters, I was thinking it might be

a better idea to buy new replacement tweeters that I could simply plug in and replace in the cabinet. Any recommendations for this? Are there Crites tweeters that would fit the bill?

What about the new B&C MAHL Tweeters instead of Crites? Would they be compatible with the new Crites Horn Driver and crossover? I'm happy to spend my money to get a great update on

speakers that I have very much enjoyed nearly 20 yrs. I'm also looking for some new grilles and feet. I listen to mainly classic rock- Lynyrd Skynyrd-Beatles-Deep Purple- etc. thru a fully restored

vintage Marantz 2325 receiver and a KAB modded Technics SL-1200 MK5 turntable and TEAC Reel to Reel. I like lots of puncy, clean bottom end, with clean mids/highs.

I'm a bit of a layman when it comes to technical terms, but I can certainly do my own work to replace/upgrade the speakers.

Any help on this would be most appreciated!!

K-79.jpg

K-84.jpg

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What about the new B&C MAHL Tweeters instead of Crites?


I use the B&C DE10 drivers with DaveA's MAHL K-79 drop-ins in both pairs of my KLF-30's for about a year(?) now. Absolutely love them.

Previously I had the stock drivers with titanium tweeter diaphragms. Dave's tweeters destroyed em.



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Tweeter upgrade...
 
The 10" woofers are VERY hard to beat. 
 
The 30's SWL mentions above are 12" woofers and they are not compatible with the 20s box.
I never mentioned anything about the woofers......but the tweeters (K-79) are the same in both models, correct?

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15 minutes ago, SWL said:

I never mentioned anything about the woofers......but the tweeters (K-79) are the same in both models, correct?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 

Yes, the tweeters are the same.

 

I threw that in since I wanted to make sure Jehowlind didn't go to your other thread on the KLF-30s and think that other parts could be used like the woofers.  Those couple of threads took on a life of their own and still have me thinking too much about my 30's upgrade.  Probably another reason I mentioned it 😕 

 

Removed the reference so there is no confusion.

 

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Yes, the tweeters are the same.
 
I threw that in since I wanted to make sure Jehowlind didn't go to your other thread on the KLF-30s and think that other parts could be used like the woofers.  Those couple of threads took on a life of their own and still have me thinking too much about my 30's upgrade.  Probably another reason I mentioned it [emoji53] 
 
 
Yeah, I owned 20's at one time and I wouldn't change from the original woofers. They had great sounding bass.



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Thanks for the great advice! I agree, the KLF 20 Woofers are awesome, and I don't expect to make any changes there. My thinking was I'd buy the DaveA's LMAHL Tweeters w/ B&C DE10 drivers. I'll probably get the Bob Crites Mid-horn drivers and brand new crossovers as well. Thoughts?

One more thing- I tossed my speaker grills away probably 17-18 years ago- My cat thought they were great scratching posts and shreddded them- no damage to speakers though.

Well, lo and behold, Klipsch actually had brand new "old stock" grills in their warehouse! Yeah! I ordered 2 new grills and some Jubilee logos today- only 8 bucks shipping to Florida.

I also ordered new feet from parts express. So between the new tweeters and speaker updates, grills/logo and feet- I expect to end up with a better than new sound!

One more question- what are your thoughts around bi-amping? I was thinking I would get some new Bi-amp speaker cables.

Thanks for your thoughts and experience!

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9 hours ago, Jehowlind said:

Thanks for the great advice! I agree, the KLF 20 Woofers are awesome, and I don't expect to make any changes there. My thinking was I'd buy the DaveA's LMAHL Tweeters w/ B&C DE10 drivers. I'll probably get the Bob Crites Mid-horn drivers and brand new crossovers as well. Thoughts?

One more thing- I tossed my speaker grills away probably 17-18 years ago- My cat thought they were great scratching posts and shreddded them- no damage to speakers though.

Well, lo and behold, Klipsch actually had brand new "old stock" grills in their warehouse! Yeah! I ordered 2 new grills and some Jubilee logos today- only 8 bucks shipping to Florida.

I also ordered new feet from parts express. So between the new tweeters and speaker updates, grills/logo and feet- I expect to end up with a better than new sound!

One more question- what are your thoughts around bi-amping? I was thinking I would get some new Bi-amp speaker cables.

Thanks for your thoughts and experience!

 

I would stay with the mid drivers from Klipsch.  They are actually very good and the same drivers used across the Heritage line (Forte, Chorus II). 

 

Ti might not suit you plus will require other modifications in the crossover.  If I were to do Ti in the mids, I would also change all the mid driver components in the crossover to get a steeper slope though I don't like the sound of Ti in the mids as much as phenolic.

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I agree with the MAHL's, wouldn't doubt the Crites mid will yield improvement, but if you're serious about keeping them, I'd look into a crossover made with PIO, film and foil, and/or high end metalized film capacitors, and Mills resistors. Properly designed, they will yield an improvement in definition, soundstage, and warmth. 

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1 hour ago, Jehowlind said:

Thanks for the info. MechEngVic- where would I find crossovers like that? I can do the replacements, but i'm not savvy enough to make or modify them.

Deang is the resident crossover builder. I'm not sure if he does KLF's, I would message him. There are two tricky aspects: One, designing a crossover that has the same measurements as the original but with better parts, and two, installing it. Some try to build onto the existing crossover, while others build entirely new units (which require extra modification) . I've been designing, testing and building my own crossovers for many years, and have found that measuring the mutual inductance of coils, and ESR (equivalent series resistance) of capacitors to within 10% of original values yields excellent results. I'm including an images of the crossovers I built for my KLF-10's using paper-in-oil and the best metalized film caps available, Dale wirewound resistors, wound air-core inductors, and mil-spec silver clad pure copper wire. This gives an idea of what's involved even after the crossover is designed and built.

614645378_2019-08-0901_58_33a.thumb.jpg.fe95725e0fee6c99d38a8f701c1a4c17.jpg1487073777_2019-08-1217_51_04.thumb.jpg.43e7e0f1d1e22147c3b3a838debd39b2.jpg1817273694_2019-08-1220_57_04.thumb.jpg.150d57c58f4a997bb4ca48a28b5d4508.jpg

 

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