RIP Bob Crites

[Squishman]

Bob Crites died yesterday or at least it was announced yesterday. He made crossovers and sold other upgrades for old (and really old!) Klipsch speakers keeping them sounding amazing. My Forte II's and my Academy center speaker benefited from his services.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

Aww that's really sad! He was a dedicated improver of their designs.

 

[shadyJ]

My question is why was Klipsch designing such subpar crossovers that Crites becomes a known figure just for offering better crossovers? Why couldn't Klipsch just design good crossovers to begin with? With their Heritage line, I don't think they stand a chance of producing acceptable sound performance by modern standards without using an active crossover anyway, not that Heritage aficionados care about modern standards.

 

[highfigh]

They designed those "subpar" crossovers because those components worked and they could buy them at a price that Paul Klipsch would pay. The technology had changed a lot between the time Klipsch started and when Bob started doing his work- what's to wonder about? Ever seen the electrolytics in Hersey speakers from the '70s? Big and rectangular. They used terminal strips for the connections and nothing fancy.

What was available from other manufacturers, at the time (of Klipsch origin, not 20-30 years later)?

I called Bob once, for Heresy tweeter questions- he wasn't impresses by the 'tweaky' modifications and cable marketing, either. We had a few good chuckles- nice guy.