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Klipschorn driver impedance question


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I posted a question about this in the technical questions forum, but haven't gotten a reply, yet.

Does anyone happen to know the impedances of the individual drivers in the K-horns? What I would like to do is to try the system as an essentially two-way speaker with a dedicated amp (Moondog) on the woofer. The 'A' network is pretty straightforward in terms of dividing into separate Low and Mid/High branches, and I would install a volume control on the Moondogs in order to control the output and balance of the Klipschorn woofer.

Knowing the Klipschorns were a nominal 8 ohm impedance, I didn't bother to check the individual drivers when we refinished them.

The drivers in the 'AA' and 'A' networks look to me to be connected in parallel, so I'm wondering basically these two things:

1. What is the impedance of the woofer on its own?

2. What is the over-all impedance of the mid and tweeter horns connected in parallel?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

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Hey Erik: Man, I don't know impedence from impotence, but I can tell you what you are trying to do will work and you'll never go back to a single amp. As you suggest, the key is volume control on the bass amp(s). I use 300b monoblocks on the mids and highs and a 110 WPC SS amp with level controls on the bass horns. I also own a Creek OBH-10 passive pre amp which works great as a volume control. With this option, you would have remote control bass level, which might be pretty cool. You can also solder your cables directly to the crossovers, which eliminates some wiring, binding posts, etc. Good luck. John

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Thanks, John!

And Dean: "The two Electrical Engineers who frequent this forum think the idea is less than stellar."

I couldn't be further from the status of professional engineer. LeoK, Mark D., JFL, ALK, and I'm sure others leave me very far behind in that respect. I'm a weekend DIYer-type who attempts to think about things on obviously much more an an intuitive level -- which in electronics leaves considerable room for error.

Simply, based on your statement above, I couldn't have greater encouragement to at least try the idea of using two dedicated amplifiers on the K-horns. This is in no way slighting the knowledge or experience of those fellows to whom I've referred. It's a statement of my belief that audio circuitry design might be more than just the product of scientific analysis and calcuation. If what I want to attempt is a slap to the cold face of reason and theory (which it's not at all meant to be), so be it.

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Hey Erik: I certainly can't argue with the engineers--I haven't even won one with my wife in 20 years. However, when I bought my Khorns new in 97, I talked for several hours with the Klipsch regional rep, and he was absolutely convinced that bi-amping is the only way to go. I was never really happy with the "oomph" level generated with my ten-watt amps and I GUARANTEE you that relieving them of the bass-horn drag cured that problem. My SS amp has VU meters and it is amazing how many SS watts it takes to balance the bass with a couple of tube-generated watts. The Klipsch guy told me this would be the case. And BTW, I listen mostly to jazz and female vocals,not rock, do not like window-rattling bass, and hate powered subs. I just like natural and balanced bass, which is why I own Klipschorns. Best of luck with it---you're gonna like it. John

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  • 1 month later...

I use the passive bi-amp (with only a potentiometer for the bass) and this is the best sound that I have heard from my Khorn but the balance depends greatly by the value of the pot.

With the GTA SE-300B on mid-high and the CJ MV-50 on the bass the perfect value is 220Kohm but for the new DRD 2A3(extreme sensitive in this parameter)I haven't found the exact value (now I use a 10 K potentiometer but tomorrow I receive other values: 1 Kohm and 500 ohm).

Changing these value transforms TOTALLY the sound of the speaker like HEAVEN or like HELL.

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