Sorry I goofed up the link to the revised Second generation crossover schematics here is a proper link
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
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The third generation SK was only out for one year from speaker lab and that is the one that had the cone mid range on the front of the bass bin. I saw and heard them in person and they were just as amazing as the ones with the aluminum midrange. But because they had lost the top Hat they were much smaller form factor
It’s super easy it’s not very hard at all. Basically you unscrew the magnetic structure on the back of the horn and carefully pry off the magnet assembly and expose the front plate of magnet assembly Which has the groove in it for the Voice coil. Use a business card with some packing tape sticky side out to clean out the voice coil gap and then I additionally used some electrical contact cleaner to wash the gap out and very carefully take some alcohol on a Q-tip and clean off the voice coil itself but be careful not to bendThe voice coil or damage it. Also mark the magnet and the voice coil front cover before you take it off so they all go in the exact same way so they’re lined the way they came out. What’s the gap is cleaned out you can buy packets of ferrofluid from simply speakers and they’re designed for one or 2 inch or 3 inch voice Coil’s.
It’s amazing when you stick the ferrofluid in it’s magnetic you cut the tip off the packet and will gently squeeze the packet and the ferrofluid literally sucks it self into the gap on the magnet. you want to fill the gap about 3/4 full of ferrofluid.
Then you simply just put the magnet back on the horn and screw it back together and you’re done it took me all of about a half hour to do both of my WA4000 tweeters Which use Klipsch K 77 Diaphragms at about the same To do the mid range drivers from Atlas the PD 5VH.
It made a huge difference because what are the mid range drivers was almost tar and one of the tweeters was almost tore as well after changing the ferrofluid it Woke speakers right up.
Simply speakers has videos on how to do it and just do a search for replacing ferrofluid and speakers and you can find a ton of YouTube videos on how to do it some good and some bad. The ferrofluid itself is fairly expensive it’s about six dollars a pack for 1 inch voice coil and nine dollars a pack for a 2” voice coil which the mid range is 2 inch. All my drivers were 40 years old and the voice coil in each of them was still in very good shape just replace the ferrofluid and it made a world of difference. They sound like brand new again.
And by the way the WA4000 Tweeters are not quiet. They are very powerful. If yours are quiet you may want to check the 9.1 V 1 W Zeaner diode’s which are protection for the tweeters to see if they are blown. I would bet money they are. Replace those and your tweeters will come back to life and replace the ferrofluid and they will sound even better.
Mech58. I really covet that schematic...
And any reasoning behind your choice of caps?
Anybody-
I’m thinking about swapping an autoformer into it. I have one out of a cornwall. Or i should break down an buy one of bob crites’? I’m guessing that would be time/$ well spent. Thoughts?
And remember, I’m eventually going to bi-amp them, tho i could see myself using the crossover also depending on what amp i might drive them with (i have a few (sensitive subject)).
And any reasoning behind your choice of caps?
Anybody-
I’m thinking about swapping an autoformer into it. I have one out of a cornwall. Or i should break down an buy one of bob crites’? I’m guessing that would be time/$ well spent. Thoughts?
And remember, I’m eventually going to bi-amp them, tho i could see myself using the crossover also depending on what amp i might drive them with (i have a few (sensitive subject)).
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Autotransformer great concept if pricey. If just for short-term, might as well just make and ad-hoc fixed T-pad from a couple of resistors.
Bi-amping makes great sense and not other way when the crossover is low. A sub-woofer needs to handle just one 8ave - like 20-40Hz, but adding just a bit below horn cut-off to 32 Hz helps with organ pedals. But the Klipsch makes much better room-filling organ sound even without a sub than the struggling sound from tuned boxes.
Helps to add non-breathing weather stripping around the edges of the K bass horn (just ask any Canadian about weatherstripping).
I kept a wine rack or a large cinderblock on top of my corner horn.
B.
I hand measured all those Capacitors coils and resistors and that schematic and I know that that they’re accurate.I’ve also done the calculations on how they control the band pass for the mid range and the 12 Db octave second order Crossover for the Tweeter. The woofer crosses at 500 Hz in the tweeter cross is at 5000.
These crossovers are specifically tuned for speaker labs woofer and for their mid range and Tweeter. They are for the. Time They came out very sophisticated crossovers the reason I chose the capacitors that I did It’s because they’re very neutral and they are extremely good caps. They are recommended by humble home hi-fi in their Rating chart there’s very good information about them. The Jantzen superior Z Caps are wonderful and very open for the midrange, the Jantzen alumen z caps are amazing for the tweeter and not to bright. I did a lot of research on capacitors before I bought these I also tried a lot of different brands and these were the best that I found for my k’s.
Wow mech! The news i was hoping for - you did my homework for me. Yes, someone will chime in and say everyone hears/wants different things, so one person’s preferences doesn’t mean everyone will like it too, but you’ve given me a starting point. Not to mention, I’ve been doing some research and based on that, i think you made good choices and will now duplicate your choices. We have the exact same speakers, so it seems a good idea.
Hopefully my last question; where did you buy them from? Parts express doesn’t seem to have jantzens Z’s.
Hopefully my last question; where did you buy them from? Parts express doesn’t seem to have jantzens Z’s.
I thought I might add some stuff from personal experience:
1) that ALK Universal crossover really is a GEM. you won't believe your ears once you try it, combined with variable midrange output it's difficult to find anything better
2) going active isn't the "universal solution" and it comes with its own set of issues; mainly: loss of that magical bloom and delicacy of your expensive tube preamp (for example) if your crossover isn't absolutely top-flight. It can be very good, but some people can't stand it (I suspect you already familiar with it but if not: it's not for everybody). I understand you might want to use a digital crossover and fix the timing issues inherent to the klipschorn design but it's not without drawbacks.
3) As you probably know, the Atlas driver comes in two versions: the one with soldered terminals and the one with push-on terminals. the one with solder terminal has a different phase plug and is smoother. BEC speakers, aka Bob Crites, sells an improved version of the "best" Atlas driver, made by John Allen/SuperStereo: it's called A55G. It's basically a K55 with tighter tolerance: smoother response, half the distortion. I use them, they are well worth the price.
Apologises if you already know all this; it might be useful to some readers tho...
1) that ALK Universal crossover really is a GEM. you won't believe your ears once you try it, combined with variable midrange output it's difficult to find anything better
2) going active isn't the "universal solution" and it comes with its own set of issues; mainly: loss of that magical bloom and delicacy of your expensive tube preamp (for example) if your crossover isn't absolutely top-flight. It can be very good, but some people can't stand it (I suspect you already familiar with it but if not: it's not for everybody). I understand you might want to use a digital crossover and fix the timing issues inherent to the klipschorn design but it's not without drawbacks.
3) As you probably know, the Atlas driver comes in two versions: the one with soldered terminals and the one with push-on terminals. the one with solder terminal has a different phase plug and is smoother. BEC speakers, aka Bob Crites, sells an improved version of the "best" Atlas driver, made by John Allen/SuperStereo: it's called A55G. It's basically a K55 with tighter tolerance: smoother response, half the distortion. I use them, they are well worth the price.
Apologises if you already know all this; it might be useful to some readers tho...
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