klipsch speakers,be honest

Exertfluffer:

In particular I wished to address your question about crossover upgrades. A bit of background...

I have a home theater setup using all Klipsch heritage speakers, Forte's L/R & surround, Academy center, KG2 rear (these are not heritage, never mind on these)...you get the idea.

Visiting the Klipsch website for over a year I realized that there was MUCH debate and conjecture regarding crossover upgrades, and I decided to investigate. Over the last few months I designed and manufactured a new, better quality crossover network using two cojoined PCBS, and components from manufacturers such as Madisound, Auiricap, Solen, Dayton, and Mills.

Just this past weekend I had the opportunity to install my networks into the front Forte's. Mind you, like most I was skeptical about the results. I listened to a variety of DVD's with different types of music in the soundtrack - jazz, orchestration, big band, rock.

My immediate response to the network swap out was one of:
a) Improved clarity - it was like "removing the hiss" from
a cassette tape; there was no more noise in the high end.
b) Better dynamics - the better S/N ratio allowed me to
bring up the volume about 5dB, without any of the
harshness I was accustomed to.
c) Sound stage - the sound stage deepened appreciably, so
much that it seemed to improve my unmodified speaker
(the center channel).

Conclusion: I DO believe in the merits of crossover upgrades, and in fact am planning to market these boards as kits or full assemblies. I very much enjoy my Klipsch speakers and did not believe I could improve on them, but I did.

Chris

I've posted this elsewhere, but one of the most entertaining sessions of the Acoustical Society of America I attended was a debate between Paul Klipsch and Edgar Villcher (of AR fame). At issue, of course, was a large speaker driven through small excursions vs. a small speaker driven through large excursions, and controlling distortions with large excursions. Klipsch said something like, I don't care if you push it with a broom handle, you still have to move the air.

I assume stereo reduced the popularity of corner loaded horns, given that an integral part of the design was incorporating the walls extending from the corner of a room as an extension of the horn. Not many rooms lend themselves to two horns placed in the corners.

db

It's too bad that Villchur and Klipsch didn't work together and solve their differences. We would have had a highly linear speaker that was phenomenally efficient with great dynamics.

I've got both "vintage" Klipsch and "vintage" AR's that are both highly modified. Using the OEM drivers, the AR's are far superior speakers. It is not even close, even though the AR's need gobs more power. If you build new cabinets for the Klipsch, as they should have been from the factory ( front mounted horns with larger bass chambers and radiused corners in the bass horn itself ), upgrade the tweeters to something that extends beyond 12 KHz without major break-up and "fix" the problems in the crossover and internal wiring, they are FAR superior to the factory designs. It is at that point that the playing field levels off and may actually favour the Klipsch. It is at this point that the Klipsch are no longer Klipsch though and have become a custom built product : ) Sean
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Sean, you are referring to the K-horns I suppose? I'd be interested in any refs you have regarding these moifications... Cheers

I was refering to La Scala's primarily, but the comments apply to any of the "vintage" series Klipsch units in one way, shape or form. Obviously, the smaller non-horn woofer designed Heresy's and Cornwall's would have to be handled differently, but they too can be drastically improved.

All of my detailed Klipsch notes were lost in a computer crash. If you've got specific questions, i can remember quite a bit of it in my head. Drop me an email and i'll do what i can to "reproduce the data" : ) Sean
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