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Atlas PD-5VH versus late production K55V


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Maron,

What I did a lot of measuring on is the old and new phenolic diaphragms. I agree with you that the old ones were very inconsistent in thickness. They vary from .001 to around .003 in thickness. The crazy part is that I have seen those two measurements on the same diaphragm and that has to effect the way the diphragm works. The new ones are a very consistent .002 in thickness all over them and between all batches. I think the process for coating the cloth changed around 20 or more years ago to a fully automated process that is very consistent in making the phenolic blanks.

Bad news is that, best I can tell, the far east manufacturer that Klipsch has had clone the K-77 to make the K-77F has gone back to what appears to be the old type of phenolic in those diaphragms and the very fragile leads like the old ones had. Right now, at least, the American made K-77 diaphragms are still available, but I don't know how long they will continue to be manufactured since Klipsch has quit buying them from the american manufacturer. That american manufacturer has told me that the only american manufacturer of the phenolic blanks is going out of business this year.

Bob

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Maron/Mike2A3 -- the mic was set up 1 meter away, situated between the squawker and tweeter. The side wall, back wall, and ceiling above the K-horn was lined with fiberglass batted insulation. With the particular network I was running at the time of the measurement, the horn had very little output at 9kHz. I know this from tests I had done earlier measuring the bass bin and squawker independantly with the other drivers terminated with resistors. I never did a separate measurement on the tweeter because I was only interested in what was going on between the bass bin and Trachorn.

Michael -- how many times do I have to post that the PD5 and original K-55-V with spring loaded terminals is the same driver? Quit worrying about this -- it's a non-issue. To make you feel even better, I can tell you that Klipsch has NEVER produced a network with a 6kHz crossover. With just about all of the Klipsch Heritage networks, the word "crossover" is almost a misnomer. All you need to care about is that with a PD5 on any of the Heritage horns -- there is good output well into the range where the tweeter is climbing in energy and reaching its zenith in output. Enjoy your PD5's!!

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On 8/21/2005 11:21:28 AM colterphoto1 wrote:

Bob, is there any way to stock up on the old Am diaphrams? How would one know one from the other? If I want to buy a couple of spares from you or Klipsch, would it still be the old style?

Michael

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Michael,

Klipsch doesn't have any american made K-77 diaphragms. I have them in both 8 and 16 ohm for now. I have orders in for more almost all the time and hope they continue building them at least until the phenolic blanks run out. Here is what the newest style of the diaphragms look like. They have looked like this for probably at least 20 years. You can read the date of manufacture right off the dome. These were made in April, 2005. The presence of the copper-beryllium flat leads also tell you they are "late model".

Bob

newdiap.jpg

post-9312-13819264758076_thumb.jpg

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On 8/21/2005 11:04:10 AM Maron Horonzak wrote:

BEC....Im going to slit my wrists. What is Klipsch Co thinking of? Have the bean counters taken over?

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Maron,

To late for wrist slitting now. I thank that take over was in the 80's.

Bob

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Hi Bob,

Are you saying that the current diaphrams used in the K77F are inferior the the older EV model? Is there any difference in sound or are we talking about quality and longevity? Guess I'll have to get a couple of replacements while they are in stock!

Thanks

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On 8/22/2005 7:47:12 AM consistent wrote:

Hi Bob,

Are you saying that the current diaphrams used in the K77F are inferior the the older EV model? Is there any difference in sound or are we talking about quality and longevity? Guess I'll have to get a couple of replacements while they are in stock!

Thanks

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I guess I should have said that they look like the older diaphragms before some of the improvements that EV did to them. I haven't actually tested the new ones that Klipsch sells for consistency of phenolic thickness and performance. I believe the price of the new ones from Klipsch is around $118.00 each, so playing with the new diaphragms to learn more about them could get expensive.

Bob

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