Jump to content

Tom Brennan

Regulars
  • Posts

    17
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Tom Brennan

  1. A pair of ServoDrive Contrabasses will match horns for output and low distortion, I know of no other turnkey subs that will (well there's the ServoDrive Basstech basshorn but it "only" goes to 30hz or so). I heard Tom Danley of ServoDrive running a pair with his Unity horns, very good. Of course a proper DIY sub could match horns; twin EV-30Ws, 8 JBL 2235s--things like that. It's a sad fact that as frequency goes down you simply need more driver area to maintain low distortion. If long excursions were a good way to get bass PWK would have made the AR3 instead of the KHorn. Or like Danley use motors that don't have increasing distortion with increasing excursion; the twin 15s in a Contrabass are driven by a rotary electric motor by means of a driveshaft and belt and make long excursions with low distortion. But note he still uses twin 15s. You guys REALLY gotta get out there and hear the ServoDrives!
  2. Many years ago I used a Dynaco 400, a very good 200wpc SS amp, and LaScalas. I used every bit of the available power at times and often setoff the clipping lamps. For seriously high levels lots of power is needed, even with high efficiency speakers. My taste has changed with age and now low power tube amps are OK but I wouldn't have liked them 25 years ago. As has been mentioned the best of both worlds can be had by bi-amping with SS on bass and tubes on mids-highs. I use a stout SS Yamaha below 500hz on my modded FH-1 basshorns and a vintage Fisher SA-100 above 500hz on my compression drivers. Nice.
  3. The P Trap is a .1mh coil and a 3uf cap, in parallel, wired in series with the + terminal of an ATLAS mid driver. The "P" stands for the name of a friend of mine who developed the trap, an astute horny of long experience who found years ago that many (but not all) of the Atlas mid drivers used by Klipsch exhibit a rising response, a "flare" so to speak, ay 9khz. The P Trap is meant to suppres said flare. No other trap is a "P Trap".
  4. Chris---I strongly disagree. How can you match a 12" direct-radiating sub to a pair of horn-loaded 15s (or even vented 15s) and expect the sub to match the dynamics, output and low distortion of the mains? Such an exercise is IMO missing the entire point of using LSs or CWs. Better no sub than an inadequate one, sometimes you just gotta live with the tradeoffs.
  5. I've owned LSs and CWs and I think the CW, with it's deeper bass, is a better balanced and more tonally pleasing speaker.
  6. Joe---I'm a big JBL-Altec fan but I'd leave the Belles alone. The D-130 is a good horn driver but lacks the K-33's xmax. The woof-mid crossover at 400 means you must use a phenolic diapgragm 1" compression driver, aluminum-titanium-berilium diaphragmed drivers like Altec 802s, JBL 2420s, JBL LE-85s and LE-175s, or TAD 2001s won't work. The JBL 2470 is a good phenolic driver but I doubt it's any better than the Klipsch driver in this use. The LE-175 won't respond as high as the Belle's T-35 though some would think it sounds better. And changing drivers means screwing around with the crossovers. If you have vintage JBL drivers you want to use I suggest building a DIY JBL rig---D-130s in a suitable box, cross to the LE-175s at 800 or 1200 depending on the horn you use. What horns do you have for the 175s, potato mashers or cheese graters?
  7. I can see the Heritage stuff keeping or going up in value especially the older Alnico, pre-Hoosier stuff. Like vintage JBL, Altec and EV (much of which is worth far more now than when new) this is serious stuff of interest to fanatical hornies. The stuff made now is just product like Polk or Paradigm and of little interest to collectors or fanatics. I run with some pretty serious hornies and nobody's interested in KLFs, KGs and stuff like that. Khorns, LaScalas, Belles and Cornwalls are another story though, I might start looking for some pre-Hoosier, Alnico LaScalas myself. I just know the value will go up when old PWK is gone, they sound good too.
  8. Jake---Go to my profile and then my website. I have info and photos on the tractrix-Cornwall mod I did a few years ago. Tractrix horn was from a KPro model, I forget which, info is on site.
  9. Joe---My amp appears to be wired triode and lacks the switch. The rig gets pretty loud but does distort at levels other amps have reached easily. But it works very well for 99% of my listening, I seldom want it as loud as when distortion sets in. The extra 6db of headroom with LSs compared to 605s must be of benefit.
  10. I bought one of these little ASLs a few months ago and use it to drive 35 year-old Altec 605As. The sound is very,very good. They get just barely loud enough with the 98db 1w1m 605s before distorting though, I imagine that with LSs they'd be plenty loud. This ASL is a great bargain, I paid $540. But you need high-efficiency speakers,like I said 98db 1w1m just barely cuts it.
  11. Al-The Malibu was a home version of a popular monitor and used 2 414 woofers. Crossover at 800 cycles to a 806 compression driver, horn was the 811B radial. Mark's 805s are multicells, an entirely different animal.
  12. PWK knew what he was about when he designed the speaker. His goals were low distortion and high efficiency with a 12 in a small box, this neccesarily resulted in a high f3, that's how things work. Extending the bass lower can only come at the expense of lower efficiency and higher distortion. If you want lower bass get a Cornwall. If you use a sub use big drivers with low distortion, double 15s or an 18, no sense mating a high distortion sub with a low distortion speaker.
  13. John---I think Gil meant the design of the horn not it's construction. People looking for some "magic" driver to make their Khorn go lower are in or some disappointment.
  14. Parallel a .1mh coil and a 3uf cap, wire this circuit in series with the + terminal of the Atlas midrange. This circuit is called a P Trap and was designed by a friend who's an old time horny years ago to suppress the 9khz flare the Atlas often exhibits and has been sucessfully used on many Khorns and LSs, ought to work on CWs and Hereseys too.
  15. Originally posted by Klewless: My Peavey FH-1 basshorns (similar to the LaScala horn) have such reflectors in the corners, they help the highend response of the horn. Supposedly the LS horn runs out of gas at 400 cycles, my Peaveys (with K-33E woofers installed) run flat up to 500 cycles. So the reflectors might help the top response of the basshorn but since the LS crossesover at 400 cycles the mod may be of no practical use. However if you CAN get the basshorn to respond to 500 cycles then lots of other mods become possible such as substituting aluminum diaphragm Altec or JBl drivers for the stock mid drivers. Then you could junk the tweeters and go 2-way and play with 511B or Edgar saladbowl horns and on and on, it never ends. :-)
  16. Peter---Apogee Stages eh? Man those were great speakers, only direct radiators I've heard with the immediacey and clarity of horns. I should'a bought them, I have about 10 sets of speakers around, 1 more wouldn't hurt :-) Are you still using them? What amp? I heard them with Krell and Adcom, great sound in both cases.
  17. Vented speakers (and PRs are vent substitutes) should not be stuffed, only lined, usually on 3 of the walls. Stuffing the speakers will change the response intended by the designer. Stuffing will, in effect, reduce the cabinet volume and throw the whole bass alignment out of whack, no good will come of this.
×
×
  • Create New...