The above pictured advertisement on Facebook Marketplace was the spark that ignited this speaker project.
A fellow audiophile, Sean, who had purchased one of my amplifiers years ago, has EV HR6040 horns mounted to EV DH1012A drivers. He uses EV XEQ808 crossovers. He raves about the sound of the somewhat rare driver/horn combination.
When I saw what appeared to be EV DH style horns listed on Facebook marketplace, I nabbed them. After obtaining and measuring the horns, I identified them as EV HR9040A models.
In search of DH1012A drivers, I posted a wanted ad on the Klipsch forum. A fellow Klipsch aficionado and another audiophile who had purchased one of my early amplifiers, saved the day and had two DH1012's. Thanks Michael!
For bass cabinets, I found a pair of fairly rough Peavey FH-1 cabinets. There is a lot of information about these folded horns on the Klipsch forum. More than a few users, who have compared them directly to the Lascala folded horn, believed the sound of the FH-1 to have the edge. Researching drivers for the Lascala or FH-1, the number one choice of those that have done lots of experimenting, put the Eminence Kappa 15c at the top of the podium. I removed the old, non-working Peavey Black Widows and installed a pair of Kappa 15c's. The cabinets were painted and traditional binding posts were installed.
I was able to source a pair of vintage EV XEQ808 crossovers on Ebay.
How do they sound? Dynamic, smooth, revealing with a HUGE soundstage. They don't image as precisely as my Klipsch CF-3's. As with Klipsch Lascala, the folded bass horns only reach down to approximately 50hz. However, the bass that is there has slam and speed that folded horns are known for. For the money invested, I'm quite pleased with the flavor of sound these produce. Big band and jazz are among my favorite genres of music and these excel with that material.