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Klipsch Stage Monitors


colterphoto1

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I"m going to start a little series of techie articles, picking up where I left off when working for Klipsch. There's nothing like sharing some info, history, and photos of a restoration project. Perhaps this will call more attention to our Klipsch brother dressed all in black. My hope is that this will help those of you who are purchasing and putting Klipsch Professional/Industrial speakers into use.

This borrows on the idea of PWK's DOPE FROM HOPE and Chuck Mulhearn's FREQUENCY RESPONSE papers. I called my little papers 'Tech Talk' while sharing with fellow Klipsch Tech team members over the past few months. There's a wealth of info in the Customer Service research section that was compiled in this manner.

This new series will be entitled: KLIPSCH PRO PROJECT

I thought I'd start a little series of bringing some Klispch Pro gear up to snuff for you rock stars out there. They will appear sporadically as projects come to The House of Klipsch. This week I picked up a KSM 2 II stage monitor in Cincinnati courtesy of a tip from Bill Hendris. It's going
to be a brother to my other two KSM 2 monitors as soon as I get it in shape.

A brief history on the KSM 2 monitors. They're the bigger Klipsch slant monitors, much larger than the original HSM Heresy Slant Monitor. There was a 12 and 15 version and a II version of each of those. The KSM 2 was kind of a Industrial Cornwall monitor in that it has the K43 heavy duty woofer as used in LSI and CP-1 (Cornwall Professional). The horn is the K601, which is the composite CW horn as used on the CW II. The driver should be a K58 which is a very nice driver that handles the mids and highs very well. It almost sounds like a 3-way. Another feature that gives a Cornwall-like sound and appearance is of
the 'shelf' slot port, which faces the listener on stage. These were sold in mirrored image pairs so the horns and input terminals would be on opposite sides of each speaker, this is useful when splaying two in front of a single performer. Trey Cannon calls these the 'Drummers Dream' and I'm inclined to agree- talk about some serious thump and output!

There is a special crossover built for these speakers and like Klipsch Heritage, this is built on a 3/4 birch plywood slab and attached to the rear side of the cabinet. Mine are labeled KSM1/2 which might mean that the same network was used for the 12" version of this series. Caps, autoformers, resistors, and air coil chokes make up the elements. There is a standard Heritage barrier strip that is simlarly labeled. The jack cup features two standard metal 1/4" jacks wired in parallel for easy daisy-chaining on stage, and there are two fuse holders labeled HF 1amp and LF 3 amp. Like all Klipsch Professional speakers, these were shipped with 20 amp fuse for testing purposes, and the instructions that the correct values should be inserted by the user. Decades later I still find the original 20 amp fuses intact- so it's possible that the mid drivers have sacrificed themselves to save these monster fuses! So much reading the friggin manual, eh?

Electrically the II versions used the locking 1/4 jacks and added two dual banana jacks for the speaker termination system favored in that era. It appears from my single sample as though the new networks were of the smaller PC board variety and mounted directly to 4 standoffs on the jack cup.

Original hardware was recessed handles on each end for carrying, only 4 small rubber footies and no corner bumper guards. Note that the II version substituted a pole socket mount for one handle, so these could be elevated for drum monitors or presumably used as mains (yes they're that good).

I'll get to the photos of the interior and rebuild later this weekend, have to go pickup the shop now.

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Cool info and much appreciated. As a long time Klipsch fan, I wish more of this type of info was available directly from Klipsch, and certainly applaud you taking the time to not only document this for us, but also you constantly taking the time to answer so many questions from those of us with questions and problems.

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I have recently come across five ksm 15 wedges along with four kp250's, and two kp450's from a club in pittsburgh called "nicks fat city". They closed down and when "diesel" opened they took all the speakers and put them in the basement. About 2 weeks ago I answered an ad on craigslist for "free klipsch speakers". I was the first of 30 emails. The kp250's are minty underneath the grill, I kept 2 and gave 2 to a friend. I believe they were the PA version of cornwall. They are the ones with no handles or corner protectors, mine will soon have both.

The ksm15's have the k43k 15's, one handle, no speakerstand hole and dual banana/ 1/4" inputs. I have stolen the k43k's and put them into 2 dual15 cabs, the kp-450's. Were the kp-450's a full range cabinet used with an external horn? I cannot find any info on these. In my case they now posess some extra bracing inside and I have removed the crossover. I read somewhere the k43k's can handle 400watts. What is their peak? I plan on putting around 1500 watts into each cabinet. I do sound for drum'n'bass shows, the kids these days like a lot of bass.

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The K47 was the driver used in the KP450 bin. Note that this is a 4 ohm cabinet comprised of two 8 ohm speakers.

You've created a dual 4 bin. Depending on whether it's wired in series, you have either an 8 ohm cabinet (less efficient) or a 2 ohm cabinet (amp killer unless you have ample Crown power). Your cabinet is also possibly tuned incorrectly.

I suggest getting the proper K47 woofers from Klipsch and returning the K43's to their original monitors. The networks in the KP450's would be useful even in a bi-amp situation- put them back. At worst they're filtering the HF from your bass bins. I hope you arene't using them full range.

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colter- I believe I have created another 4ohm cabinet...the k43 are 8ohm...wired in parallel creates a 4 ohm cab.

The stage monitors are now gone, along with the k47s.

The neworks rattled like a sonof-agun when the cabs were tested with the k43s. They will only be getting the low range out of my xover.

As for the tuning, I am currently looking for the ts paramaters for the k43's..............

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Did you happen to take the handles and pole holders off the KSM cabinets? What happend to those boxes?

The KP250 is an industrial heavy duty version of H II.

I'll double check the impedance info. 1500 per dual K43 bin should be fine so long as it's just for peaks. Do not even think about clipping that amp.

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Here's photos as promised. This is my 3rd KSM2 monitor, a single picked up from Dayton OH in mid August 2008. At least this one has a grille I can copy from. My other two did not. Looks like all is solid and possibly in order.

But more will be revealed...

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Note the routed insets for woofer clamps (missing on this unit). These and the slightly larger woofer inset are clues that this is the KSM2 II, which would fit the cast frame K43 woofer. The original KSM2 needs the smaller steel frame woofer to fit the inset.

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Another surprise, check the network! It's badly wired to the slightly mangled jack plate and held to the cabinet with one screw. A KSM2 would have had a Heritage style network and a KSM2 II would have been screwed to the 4 standoff posts on the jack cup itself.

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Horn/driver appears to be original and sounds good. Here's the little notch they cut in the throat vane so it can be inserted with driver attached during assembly.

When re-attaching be sure to securely bolt down the throat support so you don't snap the horn during a cabinet drop. The driver is heavy and plastic horn can't support it on it's own.

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K58K mid driver, OEM

Folks, this is a killer driver. It goes up so high and is so smooth that this monitor almost kills a KP301 (3 way pro Chorus I) and sounds great with KP362's.

If I didn't mention it earlier, Trey calls this monitor the 'Drummer's Dream' because of it's very high SPL and full range SLAM! Biggest stage monitor Klipsch ever made, unless you count the Little Bistard (which we used to use for side fills)

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Pole cup on the end for 'speaker on a stick'. Imagine yourself at a drum throne. Imagine this on a stand at ear level. Imagine the bludgoning you would receive!

My KSM2 original models do not have this but have handles on both sides. The II has one handle, one pole cup. Kinda handy, doncha think?

Oh, the rubber footies are my addition. I do this to all my pro speakers, saves wear and tear on floors and each other when you stack em. Parts Express number 260-770 is the exact Penn-Elcom rubber foot with steel insert as used on MCM mid horns and LSI split bins. Use a #10 x 3/4 screw with pilot hole. I put 4 on the bottom side of the slant monitor (the slotted port and jack cup goes toward the performer), and 3 on the non-handle end for stacking the cabinets or setting on end for use as mains or pro-HT center speaker (like Trey does)

While we're on parts, 260-708 is an exact replacment for plastic stackable corners as found on KP250 cabinets and others.

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