I can attest to that in my personal upgrading of my Forte XOs which BTW was done because of SET12's work
If some people want to believe the changes are subtle or nuanced or even psychological... All I can say is they haven't heard it
And I aint going to argue with them
Don't blame you Frank! Though I certainly can relate to some of the comments.
Are you saying that
you are experienced?
You know one of my favorite recordings is "Electric Ladyland" The Jimi Hendrix Experience cut 12. I once had a Recording Engineer at my home tell me that he's heard the recording perhaps a hundred times on many system's but he had never heard like he heard from these extreme Forte's.
All I can say is, I must be doing something right!
I'm not saying that, I'm saying "improvements" are a crap shoot at best, if one just decides to replace parts with what they perceive as better parts. Even undeniable better parts (in whatever way they are better) do not guarantee improved sound quality on any given speaker.
Here's where I agree with you 100%.
For me its what's certainly called better parts.
Taking the inductors more seriously, in every case I have had the experience to listen to they very well were a substantial improvement.
In my own networks which are easy to audition parts with, every componet had a signature.
I was lucky to have a borrowed stock pair of Forte's. That certainly said a lot in the contrast. The owner of which thanked me. I asked what for? He said all I have to do is buy the parts.
Hearing for a few others was all it took and they followed suit as well. BTW none have even remotely though of going back to what they had before.
Changing drivers is changing the design parameters, It's a far cry from changing passives for like values.
Edit:When you change drivers, the crossover needs to be re-designed. The crossovers are designed with the specs and behaviors of the drivers and cab in mind.
These are very simple networks.
I also might add that according ALK a supplier of Klipsch after market networks and drivers and also an Engineer specializing in filter design has said that many of the Klipsch networks especially the Heritage series networks are not electrically correct and rightly so.
When I say not electrically correct, I mean not a constant impedance, he likes to point out that many of the Klipsch tweeter networks are wrong as well. But many owners are perfectly happy with them.
I just learned that Paul Klipsch liked the mid range to have a high impedance. He said it produced a lower distortion level. When I say high an Autotransformer reflects back an impedance that is the turns ratio squared x the drivers impedance. This can be as much as 100 ohm's.
There is an advantage here with a 100 ohm impedance in that it allows a small value coupling cap to be used, in my case a 1uf cap vs an ALK network that might have to use 40-50uf. The 1 uf allowed me to purchase a subjectively high value cap if you believe in this sort of thing. The Duelund 1 uf Copper VSF is about $150 each I have had them for a few yrs now. For me it has been one of the finest caps I have ever heard.
Typically the mid's and tweeter's have diaphragms that are changed and these parts are often common for several of the Klipsch models. The motor assemblies are also common.
I have used a number of Mr Crites after market products with great success. He pretty much stays true to Klipsch philosophy and offers a great service to Klipsch owners. He does a considerable amount of research and testing before he releases anything.
I have even use the factory Klipsch mid diaphragm's which are factory approved for many of their speakers they just drop right in the same motor assembly.
Many of the Klipsch speakers even have the same spl/watt and use the same tweeter network design.
I have had a great time working with the networks and a level of satisfaction from a speaker that I have never had with any other and some of those were pretty expensive. Once more the satisfaction is so high that I can listen to 10 and $20,000 loudspeakers and not have a lust for.
I hate that line, really. In my opinion, that's not how life works, it's not how science works.
In the short time frame of an a/b test, or the short time frame of an individual listening session, our judgment is insufficient to make a fully informed choice.
I basically totally agree with this when talking about subtleties. But sometimes things are not so subtle, I've had to many people in aw...
Back to caps,
One of the best electrolytic caps I have ever used is Muse, I must say I feel they are a cut above other electrolytic caps. They remind me of very good film caps. Some people have said that Muse is the only electrolytic that sounds good in a signal path.
Though I'm not using them this way.
In my CDP I increased my analog sections power capacitance with multiple small Muse caps from 2820uf's stock to 22,000 Muse. The CDP over all uses a mix of new Panasonic and Muse caps I went from 16,000uf to 110,000uf I did this for my Burson Discrete Op Amp modules which uses about 120 ma vs the IC Op Amp's that use about 20 ma total. I also did a few other modifications to this vintage $2000 Sony X77ES 40lb player. I had few friends with $10,000 CDP's feeling a little left behind so I decided to try and give them a run for their money the results were very, very, good.
Here's a link to the thread if you care to look
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=185971&page=5
SET12
