On many of the Klipsch models of your vintage the serial numbers are embossed into the wood, on the back, across the very top. The letter in the sequence denotes the year. The Klipsch forum will have the magic decoder ring. Yours are definitely first generation Heresy since the drivers are mounted on the back of the baffle.

This is a speaker build log with the intent of sharing information as well as acknowledging with respect, the fine work done by the late Paul Wilbur Klipsch.(March 9, 1904 – May 5, 2002) Paul was active in the company affairs up to age 96. He was 98 when he passed away. This is a favourite photo of Paul standing in front of a shed he rented in Hope Arkansas to begin hand building horn loaded speakers circa 1946. It is interesting that his first model, the Klipschorn is still in production today after more than 60 years.

• Klipsch Heritage S/N Date Code decoder. This practice was not used on later 'MDF' cabinets for Heresy's, etc. Serial numbers can often. Dec 28, 2011 Klipsch Heritage S/N Dates Code decoder. SERIAL NUMBER CODES VI. DRIVER CODES VII. BK = Belle Klipsch H = Heresy.
• INDIANAPOLIS (December 3, 2013) — Klipsch Group, Inc. (KGI), owner of the Klipsch audio brand, today announces the launch of a serial number verification portal now available at Klipsch.com. In a previous move to hinder counterfeiting, the company incorporated a serialized holographic label with targeted security features on all Klipsch.

(they are the big ones in the corner below) He was also famous for his yellow 'Bullshit' button that he would wear under his lapel. While at trade shows when people tried to suggest some new whiz-band design that went against solid engineering principles he would display the button. He would also pass out the buttons. A great American engineer that started from humble beginnings who created a huge international company by building well designed, high quality speakers.

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This photo shows the relative size of some of the Klipsch Heritage line. From left to right Klipschorn with a Heresy on top, then La Scala and then a pair of Cornwall in the middle. The idea of this build is to attempt to combine the favourable bass characteristics of the design of the Cornwall in the middle with the La Scala that flank them. Some Background on this Speaker Project After owning and enjoying a pair of La Scala for about 20 years and then selling them due to lack of space came the realization that the joy of listening to 2 channel stereo music was lacking. About 6 months ago I found an old pair of early 80's Heresy that needed some tlc.

After a refinish and replacing the capacitors they were back in action along with the understanding of how nice it was to enjoy the clear, accurate, forward sounding horns. In sourcing out the new capacitors from and his son Michael, I discovered one of his projects called the CornScala. The CornScala combines the fine bass characteristics of the Klipsch Cornwall with the dynamic clear midrange characteristics of the La Scala. You can read about the evolution of this project on his site. What a great idea and in short order realized this was the speaker build direction to follow. The decision was made to use drivers/crossovers of the latest CornScala version C but make the speaker a fair bit narrower, higher and deeper to fit my space.

Cabinet external dimensions are 19 1/2 ' wide x 37 1/2' high x 18' deep. Drivers and Major Parts list The tweeters are the Selenium D220Ti 8ohm version The horns for the tweeters are the Selenium HM17-25 The midrange drivers are the Selenium D405 The midrange horns are the Selenium HM4750 The woofers are the cast 15' CW1526C The crossovers are the CSSS 500/5000 are made by the folks at Crites speakers 3 sheets 5x5 13ply marine grade Baltic birch for cabinets ***ballpark total cost, shipping, taxes, odds and ends but excluding rosewood veneer about $1,500 for the pair. Here is a photo showing the layout of the drivers on the motor board. To determine the port size based on the Cornwall as a guide took the most time. The port defines a column of air that acts as a spring relative to the action of the woofer. There are a number of sites out there that have port length calculators. This was not quite as straight forward as I thought.

The port shelf ended up as 3 5/8 ' high x 18' wide x 9 1/2' deep. Here is a photo of the clamp-up step.

The plan was to use only glue and hardwood dowels to avoid any potential for vibration. These Selenium horns are not flush to the front so the decision was made to not bother building speaker grills. To give the woofer some protection a starfish design was cut into the motor board.

Maybe this makes them the CornScala C - Starfish:) This is the A very highly engineered product that allows for very accurate dowel placement. More great North American engineering technology but in this case Canadian. It worked like a charm and made for really strong joints. Used the Lee Valley Cabinetmaker's Glue 2002 GF mainly for the long tack time because you don't want the glue going off while you are fitting the clamps.

Showing the back brace right behind the woofer on the inside of the back panels. The speaker terminals will be recessed into this brace so they are well protected, especially when moving the speakers. The speaker binding posts are from Parts Express at about $8.00 a pair and great quality. Would use these again for sure. Clamping up the base. Again not using any screws only hardwood dowel and glue and clamping.

Probably would not scallop the base as much another time. This is the crossover and it has 500Hz and 5000Hz crossover points. They were made and tested by Michael Crites. They are well made units with high quality components.

Rather than use the self stick pads a couple holes and screws will attach them to the cabinets. Found a number of suggestions that a center brace to the middle of the back panel is a good way to reduce resonance. The rosewood veneer was sourced from This company came highly recommended on the Klipsch DIY forum and they provided a nice product. The edge 1 - 2 inches had some damage in shipping. The veneer was applied uing the iron-on method and Better Bond Heat-Lock glue sourced from This is a great system and IMO much better than using contact cement. Happy to provide details on request. Here is a finished carcass ready for the internal batting material and drivers etc.

I was not all that happy with the Tung Oil used. Might try a Penofin product next time. Autodesk Inventor 2014 Sp2 X64 Download.

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Found some nice brass wood screws to mount the horns at Lee Valley. The rubber feet were sourced from Parts Express. Good dense rubber but they smelled like a car tire for a few weeks, but nice and thick and tough. This is the batting material used. It is a polyester upholstery stuffing material. It is much denser than polyester batting used to make quilts and the like.

A double layer was used as recommend on a couple DIY sites. A couple yards did the trick. Everything in place and ready to button up.

Done Front View Side/Top View Placed and hooked up. The plan is to use the new CornScala for 2 channel stereo and continue with the Boston Acoustics as the HT setup. I have tried using La Scala years ago as the fronts in a HT setup with disappointment. I could never get the volume balanced the way I wanted.

IMO a set of speakers for each purpose is best. It has been a couple weeks and the woofers should be somewhat broken in by now.

These speakers sound amazing! Better than expected by a long shot. I have read about how horns do well when matched with small tube amps, so purchased a to try from. I have found they do sound more musical using this small amp connected to the pre-outs of the Denon 3310. The bass response is great, nice and low, very tight and not boomy at all, the midrange is super crisp and clear, the tweeter matches well without being harsh. They do very well at low volume as well as handle high volume with ease.

It does not take much power to get them breathing. But they are not forgiving at all. Feed them a poorly produced source and every flaw is revealed. Here are the results of the Audyssey auto EQ calculation on the Denon 3310.

Nothing surprising really. Similar results for both speakers with nothing drastic going on at the crossover points of 500Hz and 5000Hz.

Conclusion Great fun and results from building these CornScala speakers. Before you build these, it is best you are familiar with the horn speaker sound. Find a used pair of Heresy or another model in the Heritage line and you will get an idea of their basic characteristics. They are up front sounding and may not be for everyone. The amp you use is important. But they sure wash the entire listening area with crystal clear full-range non-fatiguing sound. IMHO you will be very hard pressed to find another speaker that could come remotely close to sounding this good at many times the parts price of $1,500.

Believe people when they say 'fewer better speakers is best'. (for music anyway) The CornScala are a fairly straight forward speaker project to build with lots of information available online. In this case they were built in a second bedroom of a condo over a 3 month period. Build a pair, you won't regret it!

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Update to Crossover Networks (May 25, 2011) Have decided to upgrade the crossover networks to a set of AP12-500 and ES5800 from. Al has done alot of work improving the crossover designs. There is an interesting read on his site regarding xtreme slope crossovers. ETA is probably a couple months. Say Fall 2011 before I can comment on results. Getting parts has been a challenge and Al builds them himself. Update to Crossover Networks (July 17, 2011) The extreme slope crossover networks arrived yesterday in good shape.

Construction is excellent and Al did a great job. Interestingly, he gets many parts from a fine Canadian company from Quebec.

This makes paying duty charges more annoying. They are a modular design such that the AP12-500 (top in photo) will accomodate a 2 way configuration, then with the addition of the ES5800 (bottom in photo) via the cable, will crossover the squawker and accomodate a 3 way configuration. These will be going in shortly and update to follow. Have both the AP12-500 (bottom) and ES5800 (top) installed in both cabinets now. Tried to keep them away from the speaker magnets as far as possible.

I left the woofer taps at x-4 and the tweeter attenuation selector at 0 for the loudest. I tried a couple other setting on the tweeter but even at 0 the tweeter sounds less pronounced than the BEC networks, so this seems the best tweeter setting for now. Initial comments are that these new networks are a definite improvement. Best described at this point as a cleaner more pure sound. Updated comments to follow in a couple weeks. Many thanks to all involved.

Especially - The late Paul Klipsch, Bob Crites and co, Al Klappenberger and the Klipsch Forum folks and the many DIY sites.

Do you mean the CF4? Dual twelve inch woofers single mid/hi horn D'Apolito configuration. If you want a surprise then raise them up so that the centre of the horn is at your seated ear level.

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These speakers though rated at 102 db efficient are not really as efficient as stated and they do respond to lots of good clean solid power they shine with 150 - 250 watts a side. I have some CF3 which used dual tens and the same horn and driver. There is lots of modification work that you can do with these to extract even more performance.

Enjoy your new Klipsch one of the finest designs by Roy Delgado and Klipsch period. Best regards Moray James. First off is the cabinet you should brace and stiffen it making sure to tie the cabinet together with 1x2 inch stringers. You can also re damp the cabinet internally. The drivers respond very well to damping I like to use dynamat and F-11 acoustical felt so too do the compression drivers. Further there are ti diaphragms available and then there are the crossovers for the faint of heart new caps are a very good start.

These speakers will sound much better if you raise them up so that the centre of the horn is at your seated ear level. How long are your vent tubes by the way? Hope this is of interest. Best regards Moray James. Two way Vs three way kind of apples and oranges. The did not build the Epic series for very long about three years. Depending upon where you are the tend to pop up every 3-4 months or so.

I prefer the woofer in the KLF20 over those EV neo units in the CF3 but that's just me. The two ways will integrate over a shorter physical distance than a three way will so in most homes a two way has the advantage. The fact that the horn is so large and the crossover is so low put the CF3/4 way ahead of any of the RF series in my book. Have you considered diy? Just a thought. Hope this helps.

Best regards Moray James. PS: I have both KLF20 and CF3. Not sure if I should post here or start a new thread. I bought some CF-3s and was wondering if you guys have done any mods to yours? I appear to have the series 1, the ports measure 5.25'. What's immediately noticeable over my KLF-20s is that the woofers on the CF-3 have a much stiffer suspension.

The first thing I immediately did was plug one of my ports, it dropped the tuning significantly and gave them better extension with music. I did some loud listening yesterday and I noticed harshness from the horn. One thing I quickly noticed when I bought them was that, upon tapping the horn with my fingernail, it feels really quite cheap and thin. I'm going to apply some damping material to the horn to try to correct any possible resonances - which could be what made them sound so harsh. I've also noticed this from the mid horn on my KLF-20s but they're smaller and probably more rigid.

I'm thinking Dynamat would do a pretty good job damping the horn but perhaps there's something out there equally easy that costs a lot less? It's amazing what kind of deals you can find on Craigslist. Picture(s) related. That's right Bill. Seems that the hard core customers and dealers did not care for the Epic as it neither looked or sounded like the Heritage series Klipsch loudspeakers. Sad part of all this was that marketing told engineering what to do and the Epic went away.

I think the Epic CF3 and CF4 are probably the best Klipsch ever designed. Only the large Heritage better them in efficiency. The best was lost.

Later the company came out with much taller HT format two ways but the horns had been shrunk and the crossover points increased by three. Gone too was the D'Apolito driver configuration with a return to the KG format or WWT towers. If others have more info I would like to hear about it. Thanks and best regards Moray James. That's right Bill. Seems that the hard core customers and dealers did not care for the Epic as it neither looked or sounded like the Heritage series Klipsch loudspeakers.

Sad part of all this was that marketing told engineering what to do and the Epic went away. I think the Epic CF3 and CF4 are probably the best Klipsch ever designed. Only the large Heritage better them in efficiency. The best was lost. Later the company came out with much taller HT format two ways but the horns had been shrunk and the crossover points increased by three. Gone too was the D'Apolito driver configuration with a return to the KG format or WWT towers. If others have more info I would like to hear about it.

Thanks and best regards Moray James. The info below was posted by a Klipsch forum member? EPIC Series Production versions – Rev.1, Rev.2, Rev.3 Rev.1 – Start of Production in Spring of 1994 These models had 5' long port tubes Networks used OFC (monster cable looking) clear jacket wiring. Horns in these models were gray in color. Rev.2 – Fall of 1994 These models had shorter 2.5' long port tubes (to raise the box tuning) Networks had a component / value change to correct for the new ports. (The network wire was still the OFC used in Rev.1.) Rev.3 – Summer of 1995 to end of production in 1996 These models had new lighter cone woofers (new vendor) (these cones aren’t nearly as stiff as the originals and can be deformed much easier by pressing on them) Networks were changed to compensate for the new woofers Change in network wiring to colored 16ga. Like what is used in Legend KLF networks New horn material that was 20% glass and was painted black.

Serial number decoding for EPIC Series models (or any Klipsch model made from 1990-1997(?)) Production Years Description Example 1990-1997(?) DOY Y2Y1 # # # # (135791234). Not sure if I should post here or start a new thread. I bought some CF-3s and was wondering if you guys have done any mods to yours? I appear to have the series 1, the ports measure 5.25'. What's immediately noticeable over my KLF-20s is that the woofers on the CF-3 have a much stiffer suspension. The first thing I immediately did was plug one of my ports, it dropped the tuning significantly and gave them better extension with music.

I did some loud listening yesterday and I noticed harshness from the horn. One thing I quickly noticed when I bought them was that, upon tapping the horn with my fingernail, it feels really quite cheap and thin. I'm going to apply some damping material to the horn to try to correct any possible resonances - which could be what made them sound so harsh.

I've also noticed this from the mid horn on my KLF-20s but they're smaller and probably more rigid. I'm thinking Dynamat would do a pretty good job damping the horn but perhaps there's something out there equally easy that costs a lot less? You are right about the thinness of the horn walls and I have felt them flexing under hard drive (due to cabinet pressures). I stiffened my horns up with half round cut length of plumbing pipe and some adhesive. You could also use hard wood struts and adhesive. Then I damped the rest of the back side with Dynamat. The compression drivers also respond very well to damping mechanical and acoustical using Dynamat and S.A.E.

Rated F-11 acoustical felt. I hope this is of interest.

Best regards Moray James. I know I am way late to this thread.

Anyone use the cf-4's with class A tube? No one that I've heard of. That's because tubes are relatively low power. The guys who have the La Scalas, K-horns, Chorus, other speakers in what is referred to as the Heritage line like the tube amps.

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The CF-4 is different from the Heritage line in that it likes power, so higher power SS amps are the norm, at least 100 wpc. The CF-4 has a HF that overpowers the LF, so the secret is to bi-amp and run an amp to the woofers you can control so more power goes to the LF. A 200 watt amp to the woofers would be outstanding. Also, To tell the version, are you talking about how far the ports extend into the box or the diameter? [/QUOTE The width of the port is 3' when viewed from the outside.

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If you place a ruler inside it should reach 5 1/2 inches. The ports are loosely pressed into the cab so they can be easily removed and re-inserted. +++ The CF-4's were produced for three years, 1994-95-96. A version 1 was produced in 1994 which you can tell by the serial number. DOY Y2Y1 #### (135791234) DOY= day of the year Y2Y1=2nd digit of year, 1st digit of year My CF-4 has a s/n 251499125, so it was born in the 251st day in '94.

+++ NOTE: The picture below shows the two pieces of 3/4' foam through the woofer opening which is stock. I placed a small amount of Polyfil (white in color) near the ports in the bottom.

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The Polyfil lowers the pitch slightly giving the speaker a more accurate sound and removes the slight harshness in the HF region.