Chorus II Upgrade Question

[Beatlebum]

Hello and good day everyone,

After some pretty thorough research I've decided to order some Ti diaphragms for my K-61-K midranges from Simply Speakers. I've already done the tweeter and crossover upgrades courtesy of Bob Crites' fine handywork.

I'd welcome anyone's experiences with their Chorus II's after doing the midrange with the Ti diaphragms or with Bob's phenolic diaphragms. My C2's sound great now just trying to get that last bit of refinement if it is truly there to get?

Thanks in advance to anyone that may have something to offer here!

Regards,

Tim

 

[moray james]

If you have not done a re cap you should. If you purchase a kit from Bob Crites you will get the right values size and much improved performance and pay only on postage fee vs buying parts from assorted vendors. You night also consider raising up your Chorus on a platform (some have uses sand filled boxes), so that the centre of the mid horn is at your seated ear level.
I have used all of the available mid diaphragms the Hepner in both a Hepner driver and in the Klipsch driver and the Klipsch phenolic and Bob's phenolic and the Klipsch Titanium diaphragm which I believe is the very best by a wide margin. The ti diaphragms raise the speakers performance up beyond where any of the others are able to go to.

 

[Beatlebum]

Moray James,

I have replaced the entire crossover with Crites crossovers already (that includes the caps you were referring too I presume). Do you recommend anything additional required by going to the Ti diaphragms in the mids? Tweeters are already switched out with titanium diaphragms.

 

[silversport]

I believe Bob Crites does...

Bill

 

[moray james]

Bob will tell you to use the additional filter section. I don't care for the way it is done and I don't use it myself. I own speakers with this additional filter so I know what it sounds like and it sounds ok. I choose rather to modify my drives/horns and go without the extra filter section. No reason for you not to listen first without and evaluate yourself first. The additional filter section impacts the very tail end of the mid driver just as it hits the crossover point to the tweeter so this is all in the range of harmonics and not fundamentals.

 

[moray james]

Moray James,

I have replaced the entire crossover with Crites crossovers already (that includes the caps you were referring too I presume). Do you recommend anything additional required by going to the Ti diaphragms in the mids? Tweeters are already switched out with titanium diaphragms.

The Chorus can use some brace work. The rear baffle in particular is very weak and moves a lot. I would place a horizontal brace below and above the passive and two vertical braces on either side of the mid horn driver (on the rear baffle) and tie those to either the sides or front baffle where I would also horizontally brace below and above the woofer. A horizontal brace above the mid horn would not hurt at all either. That's a good start.
make sure the cabinet is air tight.

 

[Beatlebum]

Regarding my questions about the Ti diaphragms for the midrange horns, it's worth mentioning that I do not listen at loud levels at all. I'd say somewhere in the 70 db to 80 db range at a listening distance of 10' plus or minus.

 

[moray james]

Regarding my questions about the Ti diaphragms for the midrange horns, it's worth mentioning that I do not listen at loud levels at all. I'd say somewhere in the 70 db to 80 db range at a listening distance of 10' plus or minus.

Lower level will also show the benefits of the ti diaphragms. While you can play louder with the ti skins you also benefit from higher resolution low level detail and dynamics so low volume playback is improved as well. Well worth the investment in my opinion. This does lead to improving your front end (if you want to) but you don't have to do if you don't want to. The point is if you do you will hear the improvement easily.

 

[Ross6860]

How do you purchase the Klipsch Ti Mid diaphragms? Call their support center?

I don't see any links for parts on their web site.

 

[moray james]

Genuine Klipsch factory titanium mid diaphragms are only available from Simply Speakers.

 

[njcanuck]

I’ll offer a somewhat contrary opinion here. I upgraded my CIIs with the Ti mid diaphragms and didn’t like them much. To me they sound very brittle and harsh in the relatively small room that I had them in. They did sound much better in a very large room. I ultimately preferred the smoothness of the phenolics over the detail of the Tis. The Ti tweeter diaphragms, on the other hand, are wonderful!

I was able to obtain the Ti mid diaphragms directly from Klipsch as “repair” parts. This was a few years ago, tho.

Experiment and have fun.

 

[Beatlebum]

Thanks to everyone for your responses. Very informative.

The new Ti diaphragms don't have positive or negative markings. How do I know which is which? The connecting tabs are different sizes.

Also, if the Ti diaphragms are not to my liking, is it worthwhile to install new phenolic ones?

 

[fernarias]

Thanks to everyone for your responses. Very informative.

The new Ti diaphragms don't have positive or negative markings. How do I know which is which? The connecting tabs are different sizes.

Also, if the Ti diaphragms are not to my liking, is it worthwhile to install new phenolic ones?

Thanks to everyone for your responses. Very informative.

The new Ti diaphragms don't have positive or negative markings. How do I know which is which? The connecting tabs are different sizes.

Also, if the Ti diaphragms are not to my liking, is it worthwhile to install new phenolic ones?

The size of the connections are different. The larger spade is positive and the smaller spade is negative. I replaced the female spade coming from the crossover (bought at lowes).

Original diaphragms are phenolic and I don't think they make them any more (replacement is not the same as original from what I've read). Crites says that his replacement are better than the original phenolic. Personally, I couldn't tell the difference between the titanium and the phenolic (I'm sure that my mids were performing fine before).

 

[Beatlebum]

Thanks everyone for the help.

Well I received and installed the Ti mid diaphragms from Simply Speakers. I'm hearing a bit more detail in the mids of the music but there also is a blurriness to the sound now that was not there before. Also, the highs seemed to be muted somewhat and less shimmery. I've ordered BC's low pass filter to see what effect they will have. My Chorus II's sounded really good with the Bob's Ti tweeters and crossovers before and I guess I was hoping for a touch more goodness with the Ti mid diaphragms. The jury is still out...

 

[njcanuck]

I also went down the path of BC’s low pass filter which did help with the crossover point. Ultimately, I settled on, and much preferred, BC’s phenolic mid diaphragms. Maybe not quite as detailed but smoother and more musical to my ears.

 

[RT Fan]

I also went down the path of BC’s low pass filter which did help with the crossover point. Ultimately, I settled on, and much preferred, BC’s phenolic mid diaphragms. Maybe not quite as detailed but smoother and more musical to my ears.

I did the ti diaphragms for the Tweater on my Chorus IIs as well as buying new Crossover form Bob and was happy with the results. My question is if I get new phenolic diaphragms from Bob or Ti ones from Simply Speakers for the midrange, will I need to do anything with the crossover? Thanks in advance.

 

[njcanuck]

I don’t know about the Simply Speakers version but the Crites phenolics are a straight drop in with no crossover mods needed. SS might be too, I just don’t know.

The oem Ti mids overlap the tweeters range hence the need for the added band pass filter to correct the “hump”.

 

[314carpenter]

I have not seen this mentioned, so I thought I should add it here. These threads come up time to time.



Quoting a member on another forum, *1
"The phenolic output drops like a stone at 6khz where the tweeter takes over. That allows the crossover to be pretty simple since there is no reason to roll off the midrange. But, the titanium diaphragm keeps on going, in fact heading for a peak at around 7.3khz before it drops off. So, if the titanium diaphragm is used in place of the phenolic without a crossover mod, you would have the midrange and tweeter both at full output at the same time around 7khz."

I have found the Klipsch K-53Ti to be beneficial in my setup, and I continue to endorse it for those willing to modifiy the crossover or add a bandpass. The cost is also a concern. IMHO, the Crites titanium tweeter diaphram has a better cost to performance ratio, and this upgrade would be for those looking to spend more money for any gain. Also equipment upstream, and room response will effect your outcome greatly. The transparency of these titanium components reveal more than just your music. Some rooms and systems just need to remain under the veil. In those cases, the Crites phenolic midrange can provide an upgrade path. I do not know what the output response curve is on that driver, so I do not know if crossover mods are necessary.

*1 link to quote https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/167651-midrange-titanium-diaphragm-question/

 

[Beatlebum]

So I installed Bob's bandpass filter and all is beautiful sounding! I love the extra air and detail that the Ti mid diaphragms provide, and now without the blurry confusing sound at the crossover point. I could clearly hear the hump in the presentation without the filter.

Thanks to everyone here for your guidance and thoughts! I've got alot of music to listen to!

 

[cavecat]

The Chorus can use some brace work. The rear baffle in particular is very weak and moves a lot. I would place a horizontal brace below and above the passive and two vertical braces on either side of the mid horn driver (on the rear baffle) and tie those to either the sides or front baffle where I would also horizontally brace below and above the woofer. A horizontal brace above the mid horn would not hurt at all either. That's a good start.
make sure the cabinet is air tight.

HI Moray, Thanks for all the Chorus ii mod suggestions. I'm having trouble visualizing this as you have explained it. Do you have any photos of chorus ii bracing? All of my drivers are out and now would be a good time for me to do some bracing. Thank you!
Nick