SET12
Super Member
Hello All,
Bob Crites new CD53P Midrange Diaphragms are for Klipsch Heresy II, Cornwall II, Quartet, Forte, Forte II, Chorus, Chorus II, and KLF Series speakers.
While visiting Bob's website I happened on his new midrange diaphragms which I was told are just a couple of weeks into his offering under Other Klipsch Midrange Drivers here
http://www.critesspeakers.com/klipsch_midrange.html
What really caught my interest is when Bob said,
"This is a high quality replacement diaphragm developed for us. It tests very good in comparison to an original Klipsch diaphragm and better in a couple of ways. It, has slightly smoother frequency response, it extends a bit higher and it rolls off smoother without a bounce back at higher frequencies."
Just how good are they?
They get my :thmbsp: and are highly recommended.
In a short initial impression after having about 10 hrs of listening on them.
"They are very, very smooth, articulate, a full sound, transit attack is nice with no hardness at all, especially with piano which is very clean giving a dynamic and balanced presentation."
Some of my notes during listening.
Shirley Horn, "Here's to Life" Cut 1, Very deep and wide
Titanic Soundtrack, Cut 10 Death of the Titanic. Very good resolve, fine focus and good coherency under high dynamic levels, impressive!
Jimi Hendrix, "Electric Lady" Cut 12 Moon Turn The Tides Gently, Gently Away. Rounder and much more believable. Special effects are put into a new light.
Patricia Barber's "Night Club" Cut 7 Detail of the Bass players fingers on the strings nothing short of amazing. Piano is just impressive.
I was very fortunate and very thankful to have my friend Don available for a listening session. Don was a formally trained musician that played Trombone, music runs in his family. His brother is a music teacher at a local high school and has played in some of the best big bands in the country. Myself I know of few people that have both his live and audio gear listening experience.
Some of his listening comments.
Very Articulate.
A very full sound.
Very fast.
Transit attack is very nice.
From Patricia Barber's "Night Club"
Hardness is gone from his previous visit. The piano sounds clean, keys are down to the real meat and potatoes. Incredible detail of the brush's on drums, cymbals are nice. The system is very dynamic and balanced from top to bottom.
Jenifer Warns, "Hunter" Cut 5 Just a wall of sound. Cut 10 simply huge!
Soundtrack "Master Commander" Cut 1 and 2 Impressive dynamics.
So in conclusion
With the 10 hrs or so on them they are just likely going to get better yet!
I want to add that initially it took about 4 hrs of hard playing before they opened up.
What I mean is the sound stage sounded narrower to me initially and the presentation was leaner as well. If you chose to upgrade to these you should realize that you likely have 100's if not 1000's of hours on your original diaphragms so they are well broke in. I surprise how much they opened up after a few hrs on them with spl's in the mid 90's at my chair as I listened. I did a number of investigations such as high level dynamic response, amplifier clipping, special effects reproduction and so on. Then I thought I noticed the same wide presentation on a recording that the previous diaphragms reproduced. So I went back to some earlier reference recordings and found myself saying "I'll be"
So below is a little info on my installation along with some of my system information.
Bob Crites new CD53P Midrange Diaphragms are for Klipsch Heresy II, Cornwall II, Quartet, Forte, Forte II, Chorus, Chorus II, and KLF Series speakers.
This includes the following Klipsch midrange drivers:
K-53-K, K-52-K, K-52H, K-57-K, K-58-K, K-59-K, K-61-K, and K-62-K.
Notice the metal phase plug.
Well mine did not have the metal plug so I contacted Bob and here's what he told me.
Dan,
Klipsch bought the original driver tooling from Heppner. I think Klipsch made the decision pretty early to go with the integrated phase plug and eliminate the separate metal one. Anyway, if the driver is labeled as the K-XX-K, then it probably always had the integrated phase plug. If it says K-XX-H, probably would be an original Heppner driver and would have the metal phase plug.
Thanks,
Bob Crites
While the new and old diaphragms look similar they are constructed differently with a different material used for the coils former along with larger holes in the the phase plug.
The new diaphragm is pictured on the right.
From the back side the new one is on the right.
Installation was breeze
http://www.critesspeakers.com/k-53_diaphragm_replacement.html
But I was a little apprehensive as my two location pins did not allow a simple slip on.
So be careful!!! Mine literally snapped into place, with no other issues.
My system is a rather simple one in some regards but not in others.
I am using a highly modified Eric Barbour 811-10 DIY amplifier in monoblock form.These are very powerful amplifiers with 240 Joules/monoblock of energy storage. Translated this 1920uf's @500VDC/mono. They are very fast and use a unique approach in power supply design.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=274002
My CDP which I use direct via its variable outputs is a Sony X77ES it to is highly modified. It is using 150,000ufs, Panasonic and Muse, Burson Op Amps.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=185971
Next are the Fortes which are highly modified with outboard networks allowing me to try out new passive parts in a matter of minutes.
For more information see my Thread here
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=159340
Coupling to the CD53P Midrange Diaphragms is done with Bobs T3636 Autotransformer and a Duelund Copper VSF (Virtual Stacked Foil) capacitor on the right side with the Blue wire connected to the green terminal post.
Tweeters are Bob's Titanium diaphragms coupled with Mundorf Silver/Oil Caps and a Duelund 39 ohm Graphite Resistor, North Creek 8AWG .16mh Inductors.
Woofers are coupled with North Creek 8AWG 3mh Inductors, Solen and a Mundorf bypass.
Wire is Audio Quest Midnight, Indigo internal and external and Clear to the amplifiers.
So my hats of to Bob Crites for all his efforts and I'd like to say.
Thanks Bob!
SET12
Bob Crites new CD53P Midrange Diaphragms are for Klipsch Heresy II, Cornwall II, Quartet, Forte, Forte II, Chorus, Chorus II, and KLF Series speakers.
While visiting Bob's website I happened on his new midrange diaphragms which I was told are just a couple of weeks into his offering under Other Klipsch Midrange Drivers here
http://www.critesspeakers.com/klipsch_midrange.html
What really caught my interest is when Bob said,
"This is a high quality replacement diaphragm developed for us. It tests very good in comparison to an original Klipsch diaphragm and better in a couple of ways. It, has slightly smoother frequency response, it extends a bit higher and it rolls off smoother without a bounce back at higher frequencies."
Just how good are they?
They get my :thmbsp: and are highly recommended.
In a short initial impression after having about 10 hrs of listening on them.
"They are very, very smooth, articulate, a full sound, transit attack is nice with no hardness at all, especially with piano which is very clean giving a dynamic and balanced presentation."
Some of my notes during listening.
Shirley Horn, "Here's to Life" Cut 1, Very deep and wide
Titanic Soundtrack, Cut 10 Death of the Titanic. Very good resolve, fine focus and good coherency under high dynamic levels, impressive!
Jimi Hendrix, "Electric Lady" Cut 12 Moon Turn The Tides Gently, Gently Away. Rounder and much more believable. Special effects are put into a new light.
Patricia Barber's "Night Club" Cut 7 Detail of the Bass players fingers on the strings nothing short of amazing. Piano is just impressive.
I was very fortunate and very thankful to have my friend Don available for a listening session. Don was a formally trained musician that played Trombone, music runs in his family. His brother is a music teacher at a local high school and has played in some of the best big bands in the country. Myself I know of few people that have both his live and audio gear listening experience.
Some of his listening comments.
Very Articulate.
A very full sound.
Very fast.
Transit attack is very nice.
From Patricia Barber's "Night Club"
Hardness is gone from his previous visit. The piano sounds clean, keys are down to the real meat and potatoes. Incredible detail of the brush's on drums, cymbals are nice. The system is very dynamic and balanced from top to bottom.
Jenifer Warns, "Hunter" Cut 5 Just a wall of sound. Cut 10 simply huge!
Soundtrack "Master Commander" Cut 1 and 2 Impressive dynamics.
So in conclusion
With the 10 hrs or so on them they are just likely going to get better yet!
I want to add that initially it took about 4 hrs of hard playing before they opened up.
What I mean is the sound stage sounded narrower to me initially and the presentation was leaner as well. If you chose to upgrade to these you should realize that you likely have 100's if not 1000's of hours on your original diaphragms so they are well broke in. I surprise how much they opened up after a few hrs on them with spl's in the mid 90's at my chair as I listened. I did a number of investigations such as high level dynamic response, amplifier clipping, special effects reproduction and so on. Then I thought I noticed the same wide presentation on a recording that the previous diaphragms reproduced. So I went back to some earlier reference recordings and found myself saying "I'll be"
So below is a little info on my installation along with some of my system information.
Bob Crites new CD53P Midrange Diaphragms are for Klipsch Heresy II, Cornwall II, Quartet, Forte, Forte II, Chorus, Chorus II, and KLF Series speakers.
This includes the following Klipsch midrange drivers:
K-53-K, K-52-K, K-52H, K-57-K, K-58-K, K-59-K, K-61-K, and K-62-K.
Notice the metal phase plug.
Well mine did not have the metal plug so I contacted Bob and here's what he told me.
Dan,
Klipsch bought the original driver tooling from Heppner. I think Klipsch made the decision pretty early to go with the integrated phase plug and eliminate the separate metal one. Anyway, if the driver is labeled as the K-XX-K, then it probably always had the integrated phase plug. If it says K-XX-H, probably would be an original Heppner driver and would have the metal phase plug.
Thanks,
Bob Crites
While the new and old diaphragms look similar they are constructed differently with a different material used for the coils former along with larger holes in the the phase plug.
The new diaphragm is pictured on the right.
From the back side the new one is on the right.
Installation was breeze
http://www.critesspeakers.com/k-53_diaphragm_replacement.html
But I was a little apprehensive as my two location pins did not allow a simple slip on.
So be careful!!! Mine literally snapped into place, with no other issues.
My system is a rather simple one in some regards but not in others.
I am using a highly modified Eric Barbour 811-10 DIY amplifier in monoblock form.These are very powerful amplifiers with 240 Joules/monoblock of energy storage. Translated this 1920uf's @500VDC/mono. They are very fast and use a unique approach in power supply design.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=274002
My CDP which I use direct via its variable outputs is a Sony X77ES it to is highly modified. It is using 150,000ufs, Panasonic and Muse, Burson Op Amps.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=185971
Next are the Fortes which are highly modified with outboard networks allowing me to try out new passive parts in a matter of minutes.
For more information see my Thread here
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=159340
Coupling to the CD53P Midrange Diaphragms is done with Bobs T3636 Autotransformer and a Duelund Copper VSF (Virtual Stacked Foil) capacitor on the right side with the Blue wire connected to the green terminal post.
Tweeters are Bob's Titanium diaphragms coupled with Mundorf Silver/Oil Caps and a Duelund 39 ohm Graphite Resistor, North Creek 8AWG .16mh Inductors.
Woofers are coupled with North Creek 8AWG 3mh Inductors, Solen and a Mundorf bypass.
Wire is Audio Quest Midnight, Indigo internal and external and Clear to the amplifiers.
So my hats of to Bob Crites for all his efforts and I'd like to say.
Thanks Bob!
SET12
Last edited:
...but I bet it will be worth it...okay, so I don't HAVE to do it to every pair...today...
to my ears.