Heritage components

[chronometers]

Excuse me if the answer to this has already been covered. 

 

Are the mid and tweeter components of the heritage components all interchangeable?

 

I see some units have the same designation k-77-v but are ink stamped "K-horn" for example.  Did klipsch designate certain component to specific models based on actual measured performance?

 

[billybob]

Designate is a good word. Each heritage model typically uses a different crossover, with some exceptions in order to balance the network. Can get more into it but, may just ask what you may have in mind...if you want to there @chronometers

Someone will know.

[OO1]

  always  buy  pairs instead of singles  , whether drivers or crossovers

[chronometers]

Why in pairs?  Also, did Klipsch originally select specific driver units for each type of model?  From some of the older speakers I've seen, they appear to be ink stamped with the model they went into.  I wonder if Klipsch was more selective the higher you went up in the model line?  Does anyone know?

 

I saw where Paul Klipsch sent an owner a letter with two tweeters for a K-horn in the 1970s and stated that these were "matched".  

[OO1]

 drivers in a pair of klipsch speakers are matched at the factory with identical or very close DCR  ,  to sound as "  a matched  pair "  

[chronometers]

Are matched pairs only in vintage heritage speakers or does klipsch still install matched sets of components?

[OO1]

nothing has changed .

[JohnA]

On 6/24/2023 at 12:37 PM, chronometers said:

Why in pairs?  Also, did Klipsch originally select specific driver units for each type of model?  From some of the older speakers I've seen, they appear to be ink stamped with the model they went into.  I wonder if Klipsch was more selective the higher you went up in the model line?  Does anyone know?

 

I saw where Paul Klipsch sent an owner a letter with two tweeters for a K-horn in the 1970s and stated that these were "matched".  

 

 

Klipsch tests every component and/or speaker.  In the early days, particularly with the T-35/K-77, it has been said each one was tested and sorted and some sent back.  From that, we can infer the better performing drivers MAY have been installed in the more expensive models, like the Klipschorn.  There were also different crossovers in the " W" series that may have been an attempt to accommodate driver performance.  Only Jim Hunter and Wooly Mammoths were alive back then.  😆.

 

The short answer, now, is a K-77-? and a K-55-V/X and a K-33-? can be exchanged for any other, though there are some subtleties that may make you refrain from swapping some, particularly the woofers. 

 

Were you to have enough drivers and the test gear you could cull the lower performing examples, too.