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Industrial Conversion for Quartets - Brain Storming First


Outrider 6

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Not sure whether this best belongs here or in the Industrial Section...

 

My recent purchase of KP-301s has opened a new chapter of my Klipsch audyssey (pun intentional) and got me thinking about some Quartet parts I picked up.  Here are some preliminary thoughts about building a ruggedized but musical cabinet for such a beast.

 

  • I assume there is no Industrial Klipsch that uses Quartet tweeters, squawkers, and woofers
  • I know that KP-250s have some commonality with Heresy
  • I know that KP-201s have some commonality with Heresy II
  • I assume passive radiators are a no go for this style of speaker
  • I assume that 4 inch diameter front facing ports similar to the KP-301 and 250 are both desirable and, potentially, tunable for a bass extension
  • I assume that I could opt in to a different woofer as Moray James did with his (nicely braced) Quartets
  • I assume that I should be using the thicker plywood common to industrial model cabinets and that the additional stiffness in the cabinet shell would  reduce the need for cross bracing
  • I assume I should be trying to achieve the same interior volume as the standard quartet
  • I assume that I would need beefed up crossovers should I want to go to 11.  These should be optimized to protect the tweeter from over current

 

Even though I’ve lots of assumptions, I’m sure I missed a few things.  I’d love to get the wisdom of the crowd here.  What are your thoughts about a project like this?

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2 hours ago, Outrider 6 said:
  • I assume there is no Industrial Klipsch that uses Quartet tweeters, squawkers, and woofers
  • I know that KP-250s have some commonality with Heresy
  • I know that KP-201s have some commonality with Heresy II
  • I assume passive radiators are a no go for this style of speaker
  • I assume that 4 inch diameter front facing ports similar to the KP-301 and 250 are both desirable and, potentially, tunable for a bass extension
  • I assume that I could opt in to a different woofer as Moray James did with his (nicely braced) Quartets
  • I assume that I should be using the thicker plywood common to industrial model cabinets and that the additional stiffness in the cabinet shell would  reduce the need for cross bracing
  • I assume I should be trying to achieve the same interior volume as the standard quartet
  • I assume that I would need beefed up crossovers should I want to go to 11.  These should be optimized to protect the tweeter from over current

 

Even though I’ve lots of assumptions, I’m sure I missed a few things.  I’d love to get the wisdom of the crowd here.  What are your thoughts about a project like this?

I think you'd be better off going with Claude style Super Heresy like these:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Klipsch-Super-Heresy-Speakers/174683047627

 

Rear ported with a pro 12" driver very similar to the 301's 15 can really take a beating they are pulled from 250's and with Claude's formula you actually get lower extention than a Quartet.

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So I’ll have to look for a write up on the Super Heresy.  The one on that e-Bay ad looks great.

 

That said, I already own the guts of the Quartets.  I’d like to do something fun with them.

 

I am beginning to see how the search for something a little better could lead to addiction.

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Moray... thanks for the bracing photos. I’m assuming that the thicker plywood used in the industrial line would add to cabinet shell stiffness, which, in turn, would make bracing something between less necessary and more effective. 
 

Any thoughts about swapping out the woofer and about ports vs. passive radiators in an industrial style cabinet?

 

In addition to the comments he makes in the next post in this thread, Moray made these remarks in a similar thread on upgrading Quartets.  I’m including them here to make the discussion easier to follow.

 

“I dropped a set of KLF20 woofers into my Quartet added weight to the passive and added some damping to the cabinet in the form of high density fiberglass on the struts only and put them on four post stands which placed the centre of the mid horn at my seated ear level around 40" up off the floor. Best Bass I have achieved from any Klipsch I have owned and modified. See brace work [photos].”

Edited by Outrider 6
Added some extra info from another thread
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you need brace work n matter what you build the only tine you don't is when you are making a very small cabinet and you use thick rigid wall material. Brace material should be rectangular a good ratio is 1:1.5 always fix the brace on the narrow edge so if you were using 1: thick material you would cut it 1.5" wide.

I told you what I did with my Quartet re the woofers. As for ports you have no room on the front for ports with a Quartet and ports on the back are much more problematic than are passive radiators.If you want to you can re tune your Quartet passives by adding 2 - 2.5 ounces of dead weight to the inside centre (cone apex) of the passive used large flat washers to keep the centre of gravity low and centre the weights to keep the passive stable. Hope this helps.

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3 hours ago, Outrider 6 said:

Thanks for all of this, but especially for the dialogue on ports vs passive radiators. I just assumed if the choice was for an industrial style cabinet, then it was also a choice for ports rather than passive radiators.  

ports are obviously a lot cheaper than passive radiators are and with a pro cabinet there is usually room for ports on the back side of the cabinet if the front baffle is taken up with woofers and horns. Pro rigs generally have more available space so vent location is less of an issue unless you are talking small clubs so you will find small pro cabinets with front mounted vents. I like to have vents on the rear of the cabinet where possible but this will depend on the individual room. Rear vents do a better job of hiding upper bass frequencies which may escape via vents and it also covers vent chuffing better than front placement. I had one pair of KLF20 I upgraded for my daughter during her university days living in smaller rental accommodations I placed the vents on the front of the cabinet so placement would be easier and open up more available floor space since the speaker could be placed close to the front wall if necessary. On my other two sets of KLF20 I left the vents on the rear of the cabinet. It all comes down to trade offs and your priorities.

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I own the passive radiators, so including them should be as economical as bass ports for me. It’s just a question of what works best for placement flexibility and for performance. 
 

As I’m thinking about doing an industrial style speaker, I’m wondering weather it makes sense to do industrial style crossovers like the KP-250 or KP-301.  Those industrials have higher power handling properties than the consumer equivalents have.


I’m assuming that my Quartet based industrial cross over would be different from the 301 or the 301 v2, since all the drivers are different.  For example, the Quartet tractrix horn uses a K61K squawker driver and a 301 uses either a KP-66E (v2)  or a K-57K (original).  The woofers are obviously different based on size. Even the tweeters don’t match up.  Quartet has K76K, 301 is either K792-KP (v3) or K-79K (v1).

 

Is it worth exploring heavy duty crossovers or should I just go with a stock crossover with factory spec caps?

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