Klipsch Chorus II initial impressions

C

crunkarelli

Active Member
I wanted to share my initial listening impressions of the Chorus IIs and ask for some guidance.

My initial experience with the Chorus IIs was in my unfinishished basement connected to an Adcom 555. They did not perform well. Lack of bass and strident highs. Some other good speakers (but not all) have sounded poor in this room as well so I decided to try them elsewhere.

I moved them up to the family room and connected them to a Denon AVR receiver. Huge improvement (the family room is much warmer room and certain speakers get a big bass increase). Plenty of good bass now and the highs are far more tame. They do sound good now. Very lively with good solid bass kick.

However, they are still a bit bright but I suspect everyone's recommendation here will be:
A) Try some tubes which I will do in the next few weeks
B) Replace the tweeter diaphrams with Crites - not sure if I'll pursue this since it's extra money and I will probably eventually let them go since I have too many speakers in the stable already and these are BIG!! They make my AR-90s seem pretty slim and manageable

I know everyone also recommends a recap, but since I don't perceive them as veiled and already classify them as a bit bright, I'm not sure a recap will significantly improve things.

My primary question has to do with the mid-range. It currently sounds a bit thin. Vocals don't have the chestiness and weight that I think they should.

Is this a typical characteristic of Choruses?
Would tubes change this characteristic significantly?
I'm assuming caps and tweeter/mid diaphrams will not have a significant impact here, am I right?

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.

Just trying to get a good Klipsch Heritage experience without spending a bunch of extra money and time on upgrades when I will likely ultimately pass them along.
 
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Did you do the Moray/passive woofer weight upgrade?
Tubes would mellow out the highs and butter up the midrange a bit.
I found them to sound a little "hooty" in my current solid state amp system, even when hooked up to my tube preamps.
 
Chorus IIs only go down to 39hz and this isn't enough for some. If you think it's not that try different placement strategies. Start about 12 inches from the wall and near the corners but not exactly in the corners. They should point straight into the room. Then move them away and closer to the wall until it sounds good to you. Of course, these were made to sound best at high power. Turn up the volume and you'll feel the bass through your legs and the sound will go right through you. It's a great sensation.

I have two in mint (in a box for 14 years) condition that are used as mains in a 7.1 ht setup and they sound great. Of course they are being helped by an academy as center as well as two forte, two quartets and an SW-15 subwoofer. In a two channel system, they sounded best with a high powered solid state amp (used Yamaha Cr-2020 and Pioneer Sx-1250 to great success). I have a Denon AVR-2310 and it makes my speakers sound like crap in two channel (only good for HT).

F.
 
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Since you are not too invested in the Chorus from the get go I think placement is about what you had in mind. Try raising the speakers up so that the centre of the mid horn is at your ear level when seated. You might also try aiming the speakers (after you have the wall distance figured out) directly at your head so that you are looking directly down the throats of the horns. This might be a good time to remind you that the mid horn and the tweeter horn in your Chorus are identical to the Forte ll so they have the ability to sound every bit as good.
Just out of curiosity what are the speakers on your short list which are squeezing the Chorus ll out? If you like the Forte ll or the Chorus ll but you don't like the size you can get to exactly the same place with a much smaller Quartet Exact same horns. These will require some mods but you can make a Quartet make more and better bass than a stock Forte ll if you want it to. Play around and see what you think, I like to start with an equilateral triangle for placement. Best regards Moray James.
 
The bass is good so I haven't tried Moray's washer trick yet but I'm sure it will improve things.
I'm also thinking that placement will likely have more impact on bass response which is good than mid-range warmth and fullness. They sound thin in the mids, but are not lacking bass. I can certainly raise the mids up to ear level or lower myself down to their level but I'm still thinking it's going to be on the thin sounding side. Vocals lack warmth and depth. I'll continue to experiment.

Comparison speakers included Paradigm Studio 60s, ADS L1290s and AR-90s and less expensive speakers like JBL L50s, AR-2AXs and KLH 23s. I've tried all in the same room except the AR-90s (need too much power for the Denon). The Klipsch have many merits but the vocals are currently likely the thinnest sounding of the lot.
 
what you describe here is not the case so something is amiss. Your mid horns may be out of phase but thin mids is not what these sound like when they are working properly. See if you can sort out your mid range issues if you can then you might be interested enough to do some work on them if you can't then perhaps you should just cut your line and fish elsewhere. The Forte ll is one of the finest balanced speakers Klipsch has ever made and the Chorus ll is a copy from the mid horn up. I don't dispute what you say is going on just that there has to be a reason for it, find the reason or you will be throwing the baby out with the bath water. If you are handy with a soldering iron you might consider re flowing all the solder joints on the xover board easy and fast. I would also suggest you solder the spade connectors as that may be part of your issue make sure you use only enough solder to wet the wires and the connector, don't let any solder wick into the female spade. Good luck and keep us posted. Best regards Moray James.
 
Placement...Placement...Placement...

Two things that I've learned in my short time with horn loaded Klipsch designs:

1) They are extremely placement sensitive. And, even more so with the rear passive and rear ported designs.
2) Good quality amplification is a MUST, imho. I would recommend tubes or some nice "warm sounding" British solid state. An AVR is about the worst you can do. I use a Naim Nait 5i integrated with both my Quartets and Cornwalls, and the sound is just fabulous! Even better than the EL-34 based tube amp I used previously.

Having said that, I agree with moray. If vocals are sounding thin, something is most definitely amiss. Horns really excell with vocals, and this is actually what drew me to them.

I hope you figure it out...
 
Brac is right, this mid horn it is one of the good ones especially considering it's size. Read any of SET12's posts on his K700 Forte mids to get an idea of how large and full they can sound and they are a smaller older horn than the one used in the Chorus ll Forte ll and Quartet (all the same horn). These horns sound exceptional at a world class level when they are tweaked out to the max. Would be a shame for you not to hear them do what they can do so very well. Best regards Moray James.
 
since i"ve had mine hooked back up after a ten year hiatus ive found.... at low volume they dont sound much different than any other decent speaker, I have an old set of norman lab model 9"s that sound much better. They like to be cranked, i"m powering mine with a sx-1250 and they sound pretty good at high volume, but you cant stand it for very long. I have a complete set of x-overs from Bob waiting to be installed, hopefully that will help. I was laying on the floor the other day and they seemed to sound better down there, which leads me to what moray says about lifting them up. You would think that with a speaker that big you wouldnt need to raise them, but I just may try it, I will report back....Roost
 
Thanks for everyone's suggestions!

I intend to experient with amplification and placement first and then go from there. I don't hear anything fundamentally wrong with them to indicate something is definitely amiss, just a bit thin in the mids and lacking warmth. We'll see if the above two items can fix that and if not I'll explore cross over items etc.
 
While mine are completely stock; I do run about 700 watts each into them....they sound good even at low levels...
The bass could be better but I'm gonna try the passive weight suggestion Moray has...

Good luck!!!!

Matt
 
JesusChrysler said:
While mine are completely stock; I do run about 700 watts each into them....they sound good even at low levels...
The bass could be better but I'm gonna try the passive weight suggestion Moray has...

Good luck!!!!

Matt
Click to expand...

Matt......have you experimented with speaker placement, especially distance away from the walls to optimize your bass response?
 
...michaelhigh...no one here is saying they are the best for the money...but if you bought a used Chevrolet Corvette that everyone who owns a similar model claimed it was an all around pretty decent performer and someone reported just getting one that performed about as well as a Cavalier...might you not suggest that their particular version might be running 100%???...

after you try some placement...sources...you name it and it still isn't to your liking...perhaps you just don't like it or perhaps it really is garbage...

...however...I'd like to add...based on some things I have read here and my own dissatisfaction with my latest CD purchase...the latest digital remaster of Pink Floyd's The Wall...having bought the album the day it was released and totally loving it...I thought...hmmm something might be wrong here...others might say that my Klipsch Chorus IIs are just poor speakers...I thought...maybe not...

I changed the power to a receiver I had just about written off and was thinking of selling...my Outlaw Audio RR2150 retro stereo receiver...

...well...I just hooked up the RR2150...with the same CD player I was using...Cambridge Audio Azur 640c V2...I am totally blown away by the percieved jump in bass response and clarity...

...up until this point...this particular room system had served me just fine...but there it is...so...what could be the reason???

I'm totally fooling myself and this is the placebo effect???
I had a garbage unit powering these speakers prior???
the slight change I made in placement was the difference???
I just wanted to thump my chest on the errornet???

c'mon now...most the people are here on this particular Forum because they already like Klipsch or want to try them out and get some information on them...if you don't like them or think you entered the line for Klipsch Kool-Aide...step out of line or share some of your expereince...isn't that what the internet is all about???...:thmbsp:

Bill
 
...an interesting aside (at least to me it is)...if you played these same speakers back to back as I just did with both units powering the speakers and said they were two different speakers instead of sources, I would have said I much preferred the one playing right now...

...both are 100 wpc so there is plenty of headroom whatever that is...;)...

...the speakers sounded just as fine before my minor placement change too so it wasn't that...

if I had bought these speaker and only listened to them on the receiver I just changed out for the Outlaw Audio RR2150...I would have said they sound crisp and clean but just a touch bass shy...and by that I mean the ooomph from the bass as they certainly go down to what they go down to...which some report...is not very far...:D

just some random thoughts as I sit here listening the The Wall and as content as I was the first time I heard it back then...stark contrast to the last time I listened to it and thinking I must have been taken by this remaster...

Bill
 
silversport said:
...michaelhigh...no one here is saying they are the best for the money...but if you bought a used Chevrolet Corvette that everyone who owns a similar model claimed it was an all around pretty decent performer and someone reported just getting one that performed about as well as a Cavalier...might you not suggest that their particular version might be running 100%???...

after you try some placement...sources...you name it and it still isn't to your liking...perhaps you just don't like it or perhaps it really is garbage...

...however...I'd like to add...based on some things I have read here and my own dissatisfaction with my latest CD purchase...the latest digital remaster of Pink Floyd's The Wall...having bought the album the day it was released and totally loving it...I thought...hmmm something might be wrong here...others might say that my Klipsch Chorus IIs are just poor speakers...I thought...maybe not...

I changed the power to a receiver I had just about written off and was thinking of selling...my Outlaw Audio RR2150 retro stereo receiver...

...well...I just hooked up the RR2150...with the same CD player I was using...Cambridge Audio Azur 640c V2...I am totally blown away by the percieved jump in bass response and clarity...

...up until this point...this particular room system had served me just fine...but there it is...so...what could be the reason???

I'm totally fooling myself and this is the placebo effect???
I had a garbage unit powering these speakers prior???
the slight change I made in placement was the difference???
I just wanted to thump my chest on the errornet???

c'mon now...most the people are here on this particular Forum because they already like Klipsch or want to try them out and get some information on them...if you don't like them or think you entered the line for Klipsch Kool-Aide...step out of line or share some of your expereince...isn't that what the internet is all about???...:thmbsp:

Bill
Click to expand...

Bill, I think you took Michael's post the wrong way. He has had a lot of good things to say about his Fortes.
 
ahhhh...it would seem I did then...well for any of you other guys out there talking garbage :D...michael... my apologies...

Bill
 
Just a note, much like the OP I did not want to recap my Chorus II's as I felt the highs and mids were already good but guess what, after I did the bass really came alive.

Mine have Crites Ti diaphragms and I just got the recap kit from Crites. I'm very pleased with the Chorus II's now and have no intentions of getting any other high efficiency speakers at this time.
 
Rex Everything said:
Just a note, much like the OP I did not want to recap my Chorus II's as I felt the highs and mids were already good but guess what, after I did the bass really came alive.

Mine have Crites Ti diaphragms and I just got the recap kit from Crites. I'm very pleased with the Chorus II's now and have no intentions of getting any other high efficiency speakers at this time.
Click to expand...

the problem with trying to convince people to upgrade is a difficult one and people remember their speakers (or what ever component) how they sounded on the day they got them. Actually people don't remember how the sounded auditory memory is generally very poor. What people do remember is how their new speakers made them feel. Tome slowly wears away on things like capacitors which have a limited life to begin with. The degradation of sound goes unnoticed for the most part mostly because we adjust to it. Then one day you may realize your old speakers just don't do it for you anymore.
Congratulations on your recap and on the new ti tweeter diaphragms they really are great. The tweeter is running from about 6.5KHz. on up so it's all harmonics yet the added smoothness and detail they bring is amazing the improved resolution on good recordings can be breath taking. Now imagine that level of improvement on fundamentals also not just on harmonics. That is what titanium mid diaphragms bring to the table. Don't forget to damp behind your tweeter and mid diaphragms with some fiberglass pads. There is no excuse for not doing this and it make such a nice difference. Best regards Moray James.
 
moray james said:
the problem with trying to convince people to upgrade is a difficult one and people remember their speakers (or what ever component) how they sounded on the day they got them. Actually people don't remember how the sounded auditory memory is generally very poor. What people do remember is how their new speakers made them feel. Tome slowly wears away on things like capacitors which have a limited life to begin with. The degradation of sound goes unnoticed for the most part mostly because we adjust to it. Then one day you may realize your old speakers just don't do it for you anymore.
Congratulations on your recap and on the new ti tweeter diaphragms they really are great. The tweeter is running from about 6.5KHz. on up so it's all harmonics yet the added smoothness and detail they bring is amazing the improved resolution on good recordings can be breath taking. Now imagine that level of improvement on fundamentals also not just on harmonics. That is what titanium mid diaphragms bring to the table. Don't forget to damp behind your tweeter and mid diaphragms with some fiberglass pads. There is no excuse for not doing this and it make such a nice difference. Best regards Moray James.
Click to expand...

I don't want to jack someone else's thread. Is there a link I could look at discussing this in more detail?
 
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