SPEC2man
Are we there yet?
Hello,
My brother and I did the crossover and tweeter upgrades on his LaScala's and I thought it smoothed them out a ton. His crossovers were from the early 70's and really looked like hell. By my calculations, 40+ years and countless moving and banging around had taken it's toll. He was tired of the sound and had already upgraded to a set of Dynaudio but just couldn't bring himself to sell his first real set of speakers. I turned him onto Crites and he gave him a call. After some time on the phone, he figured he would take a chance. We blew a Saturday and performed the upgrades.
We did an hour of listening before and several hours after the upgrades, the difference seemed quite noticeable to both of us. The mids were brought a bit forward and the crossovers seemed cut the brightness significantly. I see my brother fairly often and the Klipsch are typically playing now. He claims the sound improved a bit more after some break-in and he's back to listening to them on a daily basis.
I purchased a set of Belle's about 3 years ago and they had the Crites upgrades ... not sure about the diaphragms but I couldn't get them to sound right in my sound room (20 X 22). The mids were somewhat "out of whack" and it seemed to me to be crossover related. I checked the model, and they were the correct Crites replacements. They just didnt have a good vocal presentation, at least not for rock music. I ended up selling the Belles but through that process, I discovered that an old Dynaco ST-70 mated up with them almost perfectly. Klipsch are very tricky speakers to get right, especially the Heritage series. When you do it's magical. I always chuckle to myself when I get on a thread were folks are critical of them because I have been there - many times. Once you hear a set of Klipsch that are dialed in ... you never forget it.
I was just given a trashed set of Heresies (my 4th pair over the years) that were headed to Goodwill; I intervened. I had nothing to loose, so I opened them up last Saturday. The insides look mint, it's the cleanest set I have ever seen. I am stripping the finish and will likely pick up a set of Crites crossovers, rewire and dampen the box. Frankenstein? maybe but I have found some tricks over the years that seem to improve the overall sound of certain Klipsch models. I kept the ST-70 amp and I'm getting excited. I will definitely A/B them with the original setup and then do the treatments to see what (if any) improvements were made.
I agree with Frank ... there is no single magic bullet. You need to be the the right room and proper placement is critical. To this I would add, they are amp dependent - the right components can be huge. I like the vintage tube/Klipsch combo.
My brother and I did the crossover and tweeter upgrades on his LaScala's and I thought it smoothed them out a ton. His crossovers were from the early 70's and really looked like hell. By my calculations, 40+ years and countless moving and banging around had taken it's toll. He was tired of the sound and had already upgraded to a set of Dynaudio but just couldn't bring himself to sell his first real set of speakers. I turned him onto Crites and he gave him a call. After some time on the phone, he figured he would take a chance. We blew a Saturday and performed the upgrades.
We did an hour of listening before and several hours after the upgrades, the difference seemed quite noticeable to both of us. The mids were brought a bit forward and the crossovers seemed cut the brightness significantly. I see my brother fairly often and the Klipsch are typically playing now. He claims the sound improved a bit more after some break-in and he's back to listening to them on a daily basis.
I purchased a set of Belle's about 3 years ago and they had the Crites upgrades ... not sure about the diaphragms but I couldn't get them to sound right in my sound room (20 X 22). The mids were somewhat "out of whack" and it seemed to me to be crossover related. I checked the model, and they were the correct Crites replacements. They just didnt have a good vocal presentation, at least not for rock music. I ended up selling the Belles but through that process, I discovered that an old Dynaco ST-70 mated up with them almost perfectly. Klipsch are very tricky speakers to get right, especially the Heritage series. When you do it's magical. I always chuckle to myself when I get on a thread were folks are critical of them because I have been there - many times. Once you hear a set of Klipsch that are dialed in ... you never forget it.
I was just given a trashed set of Heresies (my 4th pair over the years) that were headed to Goodwill; I intervened. I had nothing to loose, so I opened them up last Saturday. The insides look mint, it's the cleanest set I have ever seen. I am stripping the finish and will likely pick up a set of Crites crossovers, rewire and dampen the box. Frankenstein? maybe but I have found some tricks over the years that seem to improve the overall sound of certain Klipsch models. I kept the ST-70 amp and I'm getting excited. I will definitely A/B them with the original setup and then do the treatments to see what (if any) improvements were made.
I agree with Frank ... there is no single magic bullet. You need to be the the right room and proper placement is critical. To this I would add, they are amp dependent - the right components can be huge. I like the vintage tube/Klipsch combo.
