Speaker upgrade

@johnss

You’re presuming the most expensive parts result in the best performance. This is often not the case. I’ve heard speakers that used iron-core inductors and electrolytic caps on the woofer section outperform speakers employing air-core inductors/and high end poly caps. If the drivers used in the former are better than those of the latter, that will far exceed the quality difference in crossover parts. The vast majority of speaker distortion comes from the drivers and cabinet design, not the crossover parts. There is as much voodoo BS in the crossover part industry as there is in cables—many lofty claims with little or zero data to back it up.

Maybe you should mention some specific speaker models that you claim outperform the likes of Rockport Aviors. We’d all like to know just what we need to audition to hear what we’re missing. 😆

@doyle3433

The fact that you have Klipsch on your prefered list indicates to me (at least), that you value high efficiency and, perhaps, have some level emotiional attachment to the brand and/or vintage American nameplates. All valid reasons for choosing what to place in front of you in your listening space.

I’m not sure how adventurous you are, but if you’re leaning in the direction of Klipsch, please note there are significant sonic improvements to be gained with some simple upgrades/tweaks. If you love the Klipsch, but would like a bit more "polite British loudspeaker" flavor to them, you can have both. There’s plenty of info out there if you are interested. We’ve been doing Klipsch mods for decades and the gains can be pretty spectacular.

I agree with @glennewdick that it’s hard to beat the sound quality of high efficiency speakers at lower volume levels. Having some simblance of dynamic range, detail, and bandwidth at levels just above the threshold of hearing is sight to behold. Just substitute ears for eyeballs and you’ll get the idea.

Related to the internals: We’ve drilled down pretty deep into speaker guts for a while now. Admiittedly, our experience gets off a few exits before six figure monoliths, but we’ve universally found that when more money is invested in parts (including cabling), sound quality improvements range from incremental to <insert expletive here>. I’d also like to note that there are other factors, such as cable termination methods, that matter -- a lot. Applying "tweaks" to a speaker that you consider a masterpiece in it’s factory form may result in the speaker more endearing to you. Or, it may not. It will sound "different". Whether you’ve made it sound "better" or just painted a mustache on the Mona Lisa is highly subjective.

@waytoomuchstuff 

seriously ? Did he say that as soon as they arrived, he wanted to rip the speaker into pieces, replace parts and put them back together?

@grislybutter 

At the end of OPs opening comments was a request inviting comments and suggestions.  I was responding to that request.

My "comment" was that IF the OP was leaning towards the Klipsch but wanted a little different sonic character, then there is a pathway to get there.  For starters, $10 worth of Dynamat on horn bodies goes a long way to improve the warmth, focus, and detail of the speakers.  Sonic gains can be made while keeping all major factory installed components intact with other simple "mods."  Selectively replacing factory crossover components is actually #4 on our list of recommended upgrades.  Custom, hand-built crossovers is pretty far down our list, but highly recommended if there's enough headroom in the budget for them.

@waytoomuchstuff 

I know little about the engineering part but why wouldn't Klipsch implement your $10 magic for such a huge gain?