prodj101 Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 so, how do you do it and how noticeable are the results? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dflip Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 Most of the experience in this area is with Cornwalls, Heresys and other Heritage line speakers. It is usually attempted by people who can no longer tolerate the midrange piercing that Klipsches are capable of. I sort of sound that leads to migranes. If this is you, then rope caulk from Home Depot does the trick. Wrap it around part of all of the outside of the squawker or horn, starting at the magnet and moving towards the mouth of the speaker. How much you add is a trial and error process. It can go anywhere from my 3" to some people double coating their horns. I find it helps. The good thing about the fix, if it doesn't work, you are out $8-20 and it is easy to remove. Dean may be better able to comment if he has done this to his RF-7's since they are more like your Klipsches than my Cornwalls. He can also give you advice on changing/upgrading the crossover network (capacitors and inductors) with better quality parts. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 I never felt the need to do it to my RF-7's. I did use about 20 rolls on those Cornwall squawkers though. What's going on Prod? You got a nice setup -- it should sound fabulous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodj101 Posted July 20, 2003 Author Share Posted July 20, 2003 oh, yeah, it sounds great, I'm just always looking for little tiny budget tweaks I can do to my system to improve it, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 I don't think this one is going to net you anything. The lenses are a hard polymer resin, and ribbed as well (if you pull one out you'll see what I'm talking about). The caulking is reserved for the metal squawker lenses that ring like the Liberty Bell. Practice some soldering. Upgrade the caps in your crossover. It will pay huge dividends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 The following quote is not correct ! I suspect that the writer has made an a simple but potentially damaging typo. "If this is you, then rope caulk from Home Depot does the trick. Wrap it around part of all of the inside of the squawker or horn, starting at the magnet and moving towards the mouth of the speaker. How much you add is a trial and error process. It can go anywhere from my 3" to some people double coating their horns. I find it helps." When caulking a midrange horn Never Ever apply caulking to the inside of the horn. Any caulking must be applied to the outside of the horn. The purpose of that tweak is to reduce resonances that may or may not be caused by the materials employed in creating the horn. The shape of the interior of the horn flare has been calculated to tolerances that are in the range of a few thousandths of an inch and are based not only upon engineering theory but also upon many hours of listening by real experts. Trust me ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 ---------------- On 7/20/2003 10:40:46 PM DeanG wrote: I don't think this one is going to net you anything. The lenses are a hard polymer resin, and ribbed as well (if you pull one out you'll see what I'm talking about). The caulking is reserved for the metal squawker lenses that ring like the Liberty Bell. Practice some soldering. Upgrade the caps in your crossover. It will pay huge dividends. Dean, This is a crossover you built for what speaker? Dee http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/download.asp?mode=download&fileID=27778&sessionID={C509A03F-6173-45AF-8EE7-67EBA8AEE57A}" border=0> ---------------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodj101 Posted July 21, 2003 Author Share Posted July 21, 2003 hey dean, what brand of caps do you reccomend? my soldering skills are already pretty decent from working on/building tube amps. is the difference like night and day or is it something you really have to listen to to notice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 If you are more than just a casual listener to your system -- it's night and day. AudioCap Thetas rule over here. If you are on a budget, go with the Auricap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dflip Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 Lynnm: Thanks for pointing out the typo. I will go back and correct the previous post. I guess I was thinking about the horn being inside the cabinet, instead of applying the rope caulk to the outside of the horn. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 Dean, I'm curious about something. Have you ever did a side by side comparision or the AudioCap Thetas to the Auricaps. I just wonder how you can say one is better then the other unless you built 2 sets of crossovers and listen to both for weeks ? I'm not saying your right or wrong just wondering how you could come to such a conclusion. Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKubicki Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 When I did my KHorns, I used Dynamat on the larger flat surfaces and filled the rest in with rope caulk. Do a search in the Restoring older speakers section and you'll find more info there. I did mine over a year ago, so I don't remember exactly, but I believe the squawckers have been tamed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted July 22, 2003 Share Posted July 22, 2003 Craig, well -- I really did do that, and I did it with this last spinoff. This is the first set I built. I had the Auricaps in the HF part of the circuit. The two caps run in series with the tweeter, and this is the critical part of the circuit. This was the set I originally compared to stock, but I made the mistake of not doing one speaker at a time to compare -- I just loaded both RF-7's with these and fired away. I tried three different resistor values in the LCR parallel notch circuit. 2 ohm, which is stock, 1.66, and then 1.75) I settled on 1.75. I believe Leo is still running 1.66. My horn runs a little hotter than his (raising the value, raises the output -- contrary to what one would normally think). Running the stock 2 ohm value with the Auricaps sounded great, and compared to the stock boards the treble was just so much cleaner all the way around (not subtle). I would characterize the Auricap as a rich, warm sounding cap in the upper midrange -- and I'm sure not going to complain about that. I found that when playing loud however, I had the same problem as the stock boards -- just too much HF energy for my small room. I tried Leo's 1.66 and I thought it just sounded too recessed. I went to 1.75 and that worked out pretty much the way I expected. Don't get me wrong. The Auricap is a great cap -- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted July 22, 2003 Share Posted July 22, 2003 This is the second set I built. Notice my beautiful botch job on the bass section. Well, I thought bigger might be better. At any rate. Looking the HF part of the circuit again, you can see the Auricaps are gone, replaced by the Thetas. Though the layout is a little different, the parts are identical with the exception of the two caps in series with the tweeter (and inductor for the bass). I started with the 2 ohm stock value in the LCR, and then compared the sound of this crossover with the set still in the other speaker (still running the 1.75 ohm value in the LCR with the Auricaps). The bass and lower midrange was obviously much different because of that damn truck wheel on the board -- so I concentrated on what the horns were doing. Not really that hard to do -- even with my short attention span. At lower volume levels, I couldn't tell a difference. This bothered me because one speaker supposedly had attenuated tweeter output since it was running the 1.75 resistor. Of course, this may have been due to room acoustics, but I don't think so. I just couldn't tell a difference. I remember certainly being able to tell a difference when I was trying the different resistor values while fiddling with the first set of boards. So, I turned it up. This is where I could tell the difference in the resistors values, so I shut everything down and put 1.75's in the LCR. The next day I powered everything back up, and after a short warming up period -- put the juice to both speakers and went back and forth using Rush Moving Pictures. The Auricaps just didn't sound as natural with cymbals. It's something you almost just have to hear, because it's really hard to describe -- but I could hear the difference pretty easily. The Auricaps didn't sound as open, and the cymbals were trailing away faster than with the Thetas. Transients were a little more pronounced with the Thetas as well -- and sound just seemed more "Klipsch-like". I also noticed the Thetas were a little easier on my ears at high SPLs, in spite of sounding a little "brighter" and "livelier". At this point I thought maybe the Auricaps were sacrificing some detail compared to the Thetas, but the Thetas never made me feel like I had too much going on top. Plainly speaking, the Auricaps just didn't sound as "good" to me with the speakers cranked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted July 22, 2003 Share Posted July 22, 2003 Third time's the charm. Reverted back to the original DCR value in the bass, and got to use a nifty CFAC which I'm really high on. These things are the bomb. While doing Rush Moving Pictures again, in the song "Witch Hunt" -- I thought the drivers were going to jump out of the box and land on my lap. I emailed Leo after the change, and told him it actually startled me when it happened. Simply an unbelieveable amount of transient energy with these things. Auricaps from the original crossovers were paralled up and moved to this set in the LCR circuit (values conveniently worked out to allow this -- well within tolerance). Inductors were changed again with better quality units, and I was able to tweak the LCR resistance to where I wanted it using a coil instead of changing the resistor value. In short, I feel that considering the exceptional detail of the Theta, while at the same time sounding cleaner at the very top, and comparing the price difference between an Auricap and a Theta -- why not go with a good film and foil instead of a metallized polypropylene? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tillmbil Posted July 22, 2003 Share Posted July 22, 2003 Sounds great. Where do you buy your caps? I am thinking about working on my CW crossovers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted July 22, 2003 Share Posted July 22, 2003 www.partsexpress.com for the AudioCap Thetas www.percyaudio.com for the Auricaps (near the bottom of the catalog) www.diycable.com for the ICW's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.