After owning and modifying a few sets of Klipsch Heressy both series 1 and 2, I have noticed that many people will follow the majority of what is trending, meaning if horns are the new craze, they all will be into it and then the next idea pops up. That being the absolute need to start changing out xover parts without even testing things first.
(One more thing I don't understand is how replacing caps with low ESR caps could ever make them sound "better" unless you were the one who designed that crossover and know that the ESR was not figured into the design, if you need to add a small resistor to a circuit to get a better response, why not use a cap with that resistance already built into that cap? Saves on money and production costs).
In the case of Klipsch, there seems to be most buyers instantly feel a need to try to make them sound "better" by changing out every single thing except the one part that would greatly improve the speaker. So why buy a speaker that has such a long history of dissatisfaction? If you want to buy something just to replace everything in the cabinet (when the fact is the main problem is the cabinet itself) why not just start from scratch and DIY something that’s been proven time after time to sound better and cost a fraction of a brand name manuacturers set. First thing to understand is parts used in manufactured speakers are not going to use the best available and you’ll find that most drivers used (unless they are made in house directly by them) are available to everyone and many manufacturers use the same exact drivers (Vifa, Peerless, Seas, etc..) regardless to who made the speakers but somehow those same drivers mixed an matched will produce vastly different sounds as proven by reviews.
If you look at what’s happening in trending designs you will notice that there are certain distinct types of drivers that have been used. As stated by another poster, those types all have different things that make them good or bad. What the real problem is the fact that a new item has a patent on it. It may be the only one made of that type but it’s not the best made of the type, meaning although it may work fine at first it might deteriorate or gravity might deform it over time. Examples of this are easy to find. Glues dry out or turn to gel, then the public views all of those types as bad based on the original versions. Petents run out then others will try their hand at making improved versions of what was once the "best" but now time has passed and that type has been replaced by the next best thing, that improved old version is not likely to get recognition unless it’s introduced as a new technology once again to grab buyers sttention.
For some reason there are some type of dtivers that seem to be more of a mystery andd harder to work with successfully do to the huge amount of variables that can be changed. Horns seem to have a challenging idea that has not been perfected, proof is the fact that so many that own them are so quick to start changing them trying to trying to figure out exact what is the problem (obviously they heard other speakers that sound much better or they'd never be changing anything) If they did work perfectly you’d never see such a huge number of owners changing out every single part in an attempt to correct them, although few will admit they sound awful.
A better example is the electrostatic speaker, if you’ve very owned a true electrostatic (not just Martin Logans, there’s a variety of makers if you look into them) you would know exactly what I’m saying, the owners of electrostatic drivers are never or very few are interested in modifying them ever! You just never hear of his being done, no threads, no entire websites dedicated to modifying electrostatic speakers. Once you hear electrostats in your own home and have that chance to hear a horn next to the electrostats you will be wondering exactly what you were even thinking when you thought a horn sounded good. My Klipsch have spent their last 5 years in a closet with no intentions of ever being connected in my system ever again. It’s true that you may encounter some issues with electrostats but they are worth it no matter what happens. The only real draw back is you’ll have to be without them for a while. I can say that I have some back up electrostatss around in case one does need attention simply because I have tried to dig out some other regular or horn speakers to fill in and found it was better to not listen to my stereo without the electrostats. Once you hear the electrostats you will find other speakers are putting out a huge amount of distortion and are intolerable (also lack the ability to be correctedl). I’m in that position right now with both sets of electrostats needing repair to 1 of their drivers. I have pulled out 10 other sets of higher quality speakers and I just turned it off and I’m going to pick up another set of electrostats. I’m posting all my other speakers to sell them since I know that I’ll never waste my time connecting them in my system again.
