What about KG4's??

[Kahoona]

Hi
Got the recap underway today while waiting for the new Ti Diaphragms to arrive in the mail. Please forgive me Bob but I already had many of the parts so I did not get the xover kit. I have to tell you I was nervous. These aren't just yard sale junk. If I was to break them I would be crying! Made drawings and diagrams,Took pictures. clipped leads and then unsoldered the bits removing most of the solder. It was not too hard because the wires and leads had been just stuck into the lugs soldered and clipped. I thought that was the wrong way to do it and solid contact should be there first. I installed the new parts carefully using shrink wrap where the parts might short. Things had to be moved a bit, mostly because of the shorter leads on the new caps and the non-radial 33uf but it fit similarly. Because of the way that the 33uf cap had the wires on the ends instead of radially I slipped some shrink tube over it and the wire so That it could not short on nearby leads. I tried to get a mechanical bond at each joint even if I could not get it as neat as most of the pics on AK. All the solder joints "took" none were cold. I checked them all twice. I added the Polyswitches and added a zip tie to keep the tweeter wire from being pulled and damaging the Polyswitch. I hot glued everything to stop vibration and prevent shorts. I put one back in and it worked!!! I was relieved to say the least! No way to tell how it sounds until everything is finished and the cabs sealed. I have attached pics. I hope someone can get some use out of it anyway. I fear that it is not up to AK standards but it does work and all connections are solid and it looks better than the original work. Pics attached naturally.
Now for a rant. Please stop reading this now if you aren't interested in rants but I am disappointed in the Klipsch company. At all stages of construction there are shortcuts and deficiencies. It is a wonder that they sound as good as they do. They are small things but important and I will have fun correcting them but the thing is here that one of my Gods seems to have feet of clay so to speak. The solder joints were haphazard in the crossover. The case is sloppily assembled with staples and the corner braces aren't square in the corners so the glue contact is minimal at best. There should have been plenty of glue or fillets. The front and rear boards are held on with four screws only and a little glue (which has failed in this one.). The gaskets were junk and have largely disappeared. I'm going to brace anyway so it will be fine but I somehow expected more. It reminds me of the AMF years at Harley. Speakers selling for half its price from Japan were solidly made and my KLH 5's were made around the same time and they are seriously well built. End of rant. Please forgive me for it. I feel better now.:thmbsp:

 

[Frank Sol]

IMO - always replace the polyswitchs (very cheap) or add them to the older KG4 when recapping

 

[toxcrusadr]

Kahoona, your recap looks fine and is certainly up to the standards of most manufacturers. Good soldering, insulating leads, hot glue are the keys. You can't do it much better than that.

As for your rant, it is kind of amazing to look inside speakers and see the design and execution when you consider the MSRP. My kg4.2's cost something like $500/pr in 1991, and I love em, but yeah, there is not that much to most speakers. Of course you have to consider the costs of design, labor, marketing and so on. If they're getting filthy rich making speakers, I haven't heard about it.

 

[Kahoona]

New Crites Ti domes arrived today, only 2 days after I ordered them. Dropped right into place would have been a ten minute job if I wasn't busy examining everything. Won't get to put the horns back in until I get gaskets for them as the old ones had disintegrated. Really easy to work on these.

 

[toxcrusadr]

I found on my 4.2's that the lugs they used on the ends of the wires were really cheap. I was pushing the foam rubber sheet back up into the cabinet from the woofer hole and knocked a wire off the horn. While trying to slide the lug back onto the terminal it broke in pieces. I had to pull the horn out and solder the wires to it. Probably better to do that anyway.

 

[Kahoona]

Finished for now. Thanks to everybody who helped out with advice. I was much more comfortable knowing that many had bone before me and that I could draw on that experience.
So... I did replace all of the lugs which were kind of flimsy as mentioned. I went in and laid wood glue fillets onto all of the bad joints particularly where there was a gap. I did it twice in some places because some of the gaps approached 1/4". The difference in the cabinets was large! I will still go in later and add some bracing but not today. I thought that the gaskets had been omitted but it turns out that they simply kind of dissolved in place so I cleaned off the residue and replaced all of them with a roll of speaker gasket from PE. I assembled everything and snugged the screws down. I had given all the screw heads a coat of black paint earlier. I hooked them up to my Pioneer SX-780 and a HK FL8450 CD for a test run. The first cut on Frank Xappa,s "Does Humor Belong in Music" is a long instrumental and I must tell you that it hit me like a ton of bricks! There is now an amazing difference. These are very nice speakers now. The Zappa seems to fit them perfectly too. Tomorrow I will clean up the cabinets, put some stuff on them and look for the grills.

 

[moray james]

Sounds great and especially since you are so please. I hope that this inspires you to go back in soon and do the brace and stiffening work. Perhaps stiffen your horns and re tune your passive's. All the best come back when you have more thoughts on how the speakers sound, the caps should be pretty much be done burning in in a month if you play them every day, the more the better. Best regards Moray James.