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Oh no, I've been bitten by the Klipsch bug - bought some CF-3's

Alpha Lima

Alpha Lima

Treading Water
They're definitely Series 3, in black satin, serial numbers are close but not consecutive, their feet are missing, and their bottoms are a bit scuffed. However, they're in otherwise good shape and they sounded good hooked up to a 15 year old Yamaha AV receiver. I intend to put them up on 12" stands anyway.

But I please want to know:

1. Was $300 too much for them?
(The guy threw in a Yamaha R-V1105 receiver, DVD-S510 DVD player & CDC-505 CD changer, all pristine, for free; I might keep the latter.)

2. Do you think they'll sound nice with my Pioneer SX-3700?

Thanks.
- Alpha Lima
 
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Klipsch, love em or hate em it seems. As I own three pair it's not hard to guess which side of the fence I sit.
 
No personal experience but the specs are pretty impressive, and at 102lbs they must be physically so as well. Look like something I would like to hear, going to check eBay right now actually, LOL.

Two pair of series I Heresys, and a pair of KG -3.2s. One Saturday I stacked the four Heresys on top of my 12" subs, dynamics out the ass with six 12" drivers.

Couple of pics showing my standard setup, and the stacked top pair inverted setup.

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$300 was a good price for them and I think the Pioneer would be super with them, as you may know, Klipsch makes highly efficient speakers and you don't need much power to run them.
 
Try them on both receivers and tel us what you think sounds the best. I like the sound from the SS.

300 was a great price.
 
Great speakers...even version 3's (which I have...modified). I'm running a Carver M-1.0t MKII Opt 002 rated at 460wpc. Definitely sounds better than a 10 wpc tube amp...to me. They are a little overrated on their 100db @ 1 watt rating though. More like 94 or 95. But I love 'em.
 
Alpha Lima said:
They're definitely Series 3, in black satin, serial numbers are close but not consecutive, their feet are missing, and their bottoms are a bit scuffed. However, they're in otherwise good shape and they sounded good hooked up to a 15 year old Yamaha AV receiver. I intend to put them up on 12" stands anyway.

But I please want to know:

1. Was $300 too much for them?
Click to expand...

The people who own version 3's seem to love them. I would value CF-3's at $600, deduct $100 if they are not the Version 1. It's not that Version 1 is so much better, but they are considered the "holy grail" of the Epic series and seem to be highly sought after by collectors who will pay a premium for a Version 1 of both the CF-3 and CF-4.

Feel free to visit the Epic Owner's Group for more information on your great speakers. :cool:
 
Great speakers. I bought my CF-3's about a year and a half ago. $300 is a fair price for them. They will more than likely need to be recapped. I agree with avguytx, they are not as efficient as most Klipsch speakers. I have run mine on a tubes and a NAD 150 WPC amp, but they seem to love my400 WPC Sunfire amp the best.
 
I just got through modifying mine back to series I's. Stangely enough even though mine were consecutive serial numbers the crossover in one was something between a series I and II/B. Looked like a series I xover to a T except for the 1 ohm cap that I had to bypass. The second crossover was totally alien...looked like nothing I had seen before nor did it have values like a series I or II. Ridiculous right? In any case I'm moving on to cosmetics next, if you need any assistance you can feel free to PM me.
 
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An update:
I never hooked up the black Epic CF-3s.
That's because, before I could bring them in, I found another pair - a virtually pristine set in Light Oak with consecutive numbers, babied by original owner - for only a couple hundred more! They sound pretty good powered by the Pioneer SX-3700 (atop the left speaker), playing CDs using a Pioneer Elite DV-45A DVD-Audio/SACD player. And having them up on 12" high stools makes a big difference, sonically. I gotta make more space to be able to properly toe them in. They still image nicely, particularly on acoustic or classical tracks. And their seeming ability to cleanly reproduce such a broad sound spectrum almost effortlessly is stunning. These are early Version 3s - I can only imagine what Series 1 CF-4s can do!
However, the speakers are revealing some of the limits of the SX-3700, whose crappy speaker terminals force my to use basic 14awg wire. Even though I love looking at the Flouroscan meters, I'm thinking of hooking up the CF-3s to the B terminals of my 140wpc Pioneer Elite HT receiver (rendering it a 5.1 surround system), using decent speaker cables terminated in banana plugs. I'll keep you posted.
BTW, look how nervous the Polks seem to be of the CF-3s!
 
Very cool!! I agree, raising them up on some some rigid stands/small tables makes a HUGE difference. Im a big Pioneer Elite fan too, and I think you'll be in for a real treat when you hook them yo to the bigger receiver. Keep us updated! ☺
 
I've always kept an eye out for a great deal on Belle's which, maybe thankfully, hasn't come up in the last 20 years. As I sit here listening to my CF-3's while wife and daughter are at Winter Jam in Little Rock and son is outside playing, I get to open them up more and diversify the listening collection. They love power....460wpc of Carver M-1.0t MKII Opt 002 runs them with no stress on any part of the system. I've got low powered completely rebuilt console tube amps which are enjoyable to a point; but the Carver just does them right.

Maybe the Belle's will happen one day either building a pair or finding them. But no rush. At all.
 
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