Modify or leave standard?

[flappycars]

Here's a good question.

I have a pair of 1989 Chorus 1 and as you probably know they are big boxes with no damping material in them . My question is this. Is there any advantage to applying some damping inside and also fixing some bracing inside the cabinets? Also, I have nice expensive speaker cable from amp to speaker and it looks very ordinary and cheap stuff used inside.

Are there any other mods I can do?

System is:

Tube Technology CD player (64 bit)

Single ended Unison Research Simply Four Amp

Chorus 1 Speakers.

Mains cables are Kimber with Kimber Silencer block,

Speaker cable Exposure

Phono lead Arcam ruby

Your thoughts most welcome.

JOhn C

[Mike Lindsey]

Here is one to tighten up the bass from a gentleman that posted about a year ago...

In and effort to tighten the bass on the Fortes (these mods can be performed on the Chorus as well) but the measurements may be different), I placed sand in the riser bases and created a new bottom. Some people use spikes, but I have beautiful hardwood floors that I didnt want to mar.

Materials All materials were purchased at a local Home Depot.

1. Clear Silicon for caulking gun

2. 36 - 1 1/2 wood screws

3. 36 ¾ wood screws

4. 7 ½ of oak 2 X 1 wood

5. 2X4X1/4 Red oak plywood (Home Depot lists this as ¼ B-4 Rot Red Oak 2X4 CFP)

6. 20lb bag of horticultural grade sand (playground sand)

Instructions:

Note: After reading through instructions please recheck measurements. This was written down from memory, although I have performed this mod on seven different sets of Fortes.

1. Flip the Fortes over so that the riser bases are facing up and you can see inside them.

2. Cut the 7 ½ of oak wood into eight pieces (Four that are 13 and four that are 8 ½ long) Use the 1 ½ screws to secure these pieces of wood one at a time into the interior walls of the riser bases making sure that the 2 side is flush against the riser wall.

3. So, looking down into the riser bases you will see the 1 side facing up toward you make sure that this side is flush with the top of the plastic corner braces of the riser base. This is done so that the plywood you are going to use, as a bottom will sit level on both the plastic corner pieces and the rails you have created. You are securing the rails through the 2 sides into the riser base walls.

4. Silicon the interior cracks where the riser base meets the speaker and the riser base corners. Smooth with finger.

5. Cut the plywood to make two pieces that measure 15 X 10 ½. The 2 X 4 plywood will make four of these bottoms, so go buy more Fortes to modify.

6. Fill riser bases with sand and level with a ruler so that the top of the sand is level with the top of the rails and corner joints.

7. Place plywood piece in place and use smaller screws to secure in place. Secure plywood piece into the rails that you have created. This creates a bottom that should be completely flush with the Forte riser bottom.

8. If you are a real anal retentive, obsessive compulsive Klipsch freak like me, you can even stain the plywood bottom so that it matches your speaker cabinets - although no one will ever see it.

9. Silicon the cracks between the riser base walls and the plywood bottom to keep the sand from leaking.

10. Let dry. Turn the speakers over and enjoy until the next rainy day when you can tackle the next mod.

I am also attaching the Crossover schematic for the Chorus II as well as an upgrade configuration for the same speaker by Mike Stehr (a board member) in the next post. You may want to check with Klipsch (1-800-KLIPSCH) if the schematic is the same...

Mike

[Mike Lindsey]

Here is the upgrade to the crossover...

Mike

[NOSValves]

Holy moly Mike nice post !!!!!!! We need to get together on what I should do with my Lascala crossover and upgrades you might want to do with the Scott.

Craig

[mike stehr]

My drawing!

Not my best work, by no means.....

I sold my Chorus II's last summer to get CORNWALLS.

I still have the networks minus the autoformers.

This was my DIY attempt at a upgraded Chorus network, and I don't know sh*t about filters, I just upgraded with the stock crossover design.

The stock 1995 Chorus II's have a network made on a printed circuit board and rather thin at that.

The network is attached to the binder cup on the back of the speaker.

(One of them had a broken trace when I bought them, I fixed it and sold the speakers with the stock networks.)

This network has two electrolytic bipolar radials for 68 Uf woofer and the 6 uf mid sections.

And blue film and foils or mylar or something for the 2 uf tweeter. (These probably would be better than Solens, if want my opinion now.)

The giant 68 uf Solen I used for the bass section, I don't know....I think it was way too big, the bass was tight, but almost non exsistent as well.

(I was wondering if using two 33 uf caps for the woofer section may have helped here???)

The inductor for the woofer stock is 3.5 mh, the Solens used were 3.6 mh, they only had/have this value.

I pretty sure the DCR was REAL close, but not certain, now.

And I mucked with a passive radiator design, so Caveat Emptor!

And the inductor for the midhorn was 1.75 mh, and all I could get was 1.8 mh, so I'm not sure if this mattered much,

The midhorn did sound pretty good with the Crescendo 6 uf and the Harmony 0.22 bypass.

But this comes out to 6.22 uf for the mid, again, YMMV.

The tweeter inductor is right on value, but that is a Typo on that drawing, it should be .16 Millihenries, not .16 Microhenries.

(That would be 160 Microhenries like the stock Klipsch network shows.)

My crossovers did rather well with the Yamaha SS gear I had, I just had to hike up the bass a little.

But once I tried a single-ended RCA 6BQ5 amp on them, forget it. The bass was barely there, but the high end was nice.

Same problem with the Eico HF-12's, just louder.

Before I sold them I Bi-amped off my CD player, using the Eico's configured as power amps from the volume pot to the bass, and the RCA SE amp with it's own Volume pot for the high end.

This wasn't bad, but my Eico's are problematic at the moment, they are shut down and need to be rebuilt like stock.

The network I built may not be the greatest load for tube amplifiers, I don't know.

I think one could improve on the stock network alone by just on the midhorn capacitor itself, for a cheap outee.

Your on your own with the bass cap.

I guess I'm trying to explain that I didn't I didn't beat the Klipsch crossover network designers!!

At the moment I geuss I'm kinda the Klipsch bastard poster here, listening to SE 6BQ5 on 12" full-range speakers for the time being.

But when I get my CORNWALLS, I'm not going to mess with the crossovers........uh........maybe..

[WMcD]

I'm of the mind set that if it doesn't show up on the curve with measurement equipment, it is not there. Others may disagree.

I say that there is nothing to be gained or changed by stuffing.

I built a corner horn and measured it with a LMS system by Linear X. Then added two pillows worth of stuffing to the back chamber and ran the test again. The change was basically nothing. Naturally, this can not describe everyone's situation with all hardware.

I can't speak for bracing of a box. There was an article in Audioexpress where a fellow was expecting wonderful change, and found little change. It was just another situation where a guy put a lot of effort into a modification; yet the results were not significant.

In wire too. Using the LMS system, there is no significant change between the the output of the amplifier and what reaches the speaker, with zip cord.

If I thought there was any significant advantage to stuffing, wire, or bracing, I'd go for it. But this does not seem to be the case.

I'd love to see a controlled, well measured test where someone can say, I started with X and wound up with Y; based on stuffing or bracing, or wiring. If they did, I'd sign on.

Gil

[flappycars]

Thanks Mike, Gil and Craig too,

I think I shall shy away from electronic changes(eg crossovers) as Electronics is pure alchemy to me..

I asm surprised nobody has suggested re wiring with better cables. As for damping, it would seem the Klipsches simply do not need it, unless anybody can ell me otherwise?

Mine are on there standard riser plynths and on spikes. Spikes make a huge difference and really tighten things up. The bass is one area which does not need any attention!

Main thing I will be upgrading is my house as the listening room is only 17' x 11'. A bit too small for the Chorus to "breathe"