Klipschorn Woofers

[yamahaSHO]

The beauty of a good horn is that it needs to do little work, by comparison. The K-33 isn't all that nice of a driver, but it works well in these enclosures. 

[BeFuddledinMn]

Having spent some time on this issue myself, I’ll share my two cents: 

 

Seeking the Klipschorn nirvana in the bass department is all a matter of your time, effort and money - for relatively small differences. And the performance differences between woofers are highly “personal preference” based, with both the slot size and woofer crossover design key to optimization.

 

Having tried and measured a lot of woofers, crossovers and slot sizes in the Klipschorn, my personal preference is for the original Stephens or EV 15wk, using an ak-3 like 2nd order woofer crossover. Second choice would be either woofer with a tailored first order inductor. Third choice, and nearly as satisfying to me, would be the Crites cast woofer (and yes, Bob Crites knows what he’s doing) with either the 3” or 6” slot and proper woofer crossover. There are differences in the 100 - 500hz range, which you can tailor to your liking.

 

Keep in mind that those old, original woofers from the 50’s are fragile - shipping is risky, they don’t take much power (abuse), and once damaged, they’re basically done. 
 

Today I run older 6” slot Klipschorns with Both EV wk15’s and Crites cast woofers. Only a very few visitors can distinguish any difference at all - good or bad. 
 

Enjoy the hobby!