Tarheel

Again I am remiss....welcome revjac. Post number 5! Good recommendation on the Rega. Lots of help on the forum with any question. I certainly have learned a lot these past two years. Chuck

Wallflower...I was negligent in not welcoming you to the forum. Welcome! You can meet some very fine folks here like William and get some very good information too. All the cds recommended are probably very good. I own a Jolida and am pleased with it but all the Regas are very good. William and I share some of the same equipment and I have enjoyed his comments on tube rolling in his Quicksilver Audio Horn Monos. It seems like yesterday when I first posted but I am now on my second set of La Scalas and over 140 post. Let us know which player you decide on and your impressions. Chuck

Wallflower......The Jolida 100 modded or not can be found on Audiogon frequently for $700 and has that nice tubed output section. Hey William is that a new avatar and can I assume that is you in the picture? Chuck

Thanks for the vote Colin[]. Glad to help jmc. Spongeworthy....just left the shop and Don is making good progress. The bass bins are nearing completion and paduak trim for one bass bin is cut. I was able to see how the raised panel will look next to the groove in the trim piece. I think they will look super and most suggestions Don makes are good ones. The top hat issue is a tough one, tweeter above or next to the horn. Either way will look great. Maybe Don can do a mock up on a piece of mdf. Happy New Year to all you guys. Chuck

No...the 1-800-HEY-DUKE number was a wrong number. That number gets you a bottled water business called Sharp Water in Salisbury, Maryland. The lady was very nice but didn't know Duke and wished me a happy new year anyway. I thought I heard a Bose radio in the background. So Duke....if you are out there give us a shout...otherwise all kind of stories will be spread about your disappearance from the forum. Chuck

Spongeworthy...sorry I missed you yesterday. Its rare when forum members get to our area. When I got home from work Bluesboy's truck was in my driveway and I thought you might be with him to see my speakers. Bluesboy was there to tell me about your visit and the decisions the two of you made. I could tell he was excited about another speaker build. He does enjoy his work. Don told me about the tweeter attenuators and the fool proof directions. I hope when you get back this way I will have my xovers built and we can give those clones/hybrids a proper test drive. Let me know your music preference and I will have some selections qued up. I will probably stop by Don's shop saturday and do quality control while he works on your hybrids. Quailty control coordinator is a title I gave myself since I have no woodworking skills. I really enjoyed watching my speakers being built in various stages including going to the exotic wood shop and picking out the Paduak for the trim. All of it was a fun time and then when the speakers were in place in my music room it was time and money well spent. Chuck

jmc...this is the thread you needed to see. I think this project sounds like what you want to do so you can take a look at our results. The feedback has been very positive and Bluesboy has taken a couple of orders for similar projects including trimming out some khorns in the Paduak with the front raised panel mdf painted piano lacquer black. He has also had inquires about just the top panel for LS. I am waiting on parts so we can start making up the new xovers a variation between universal and ES so the bass will cossover higher. Iam looking forward to that first listen! So when the xovers are done my BEC type A xovers will be for sale if anyone is interested. If anyone needs horns or drivers Bluesboy has several listings on ebay. Chuck

I haven't spent a lot of time on the forum lately and it occured to me that when I do log on I don't seen anything from Duke Spinner. Are you okay Duke and just taking a break? He is such a regular with the best avatar and a delightfull economy of words. Hope all is well. Chuck

jmc.....Bluesboy can probably help you with the plans and I will ask him to contact you. The bass bins are pretty much regular La Scala bins but made of 1" mdf rather than 3/4" plywood. We designed the top hats ourselves and that really did not require a plan just a little creativity. You have to cut the front panel pieces to fit the 511b horn and decide where you want to locate the tweeter and that is it. The top hat has no sides or back so I can toe in as needed. If you don't want to tackle the top hat job Bluesboy can do that for you but it is rather labor intensive and priced accordingly. BTW he can also do a precut kit for the bass bins. Let me know if you need more details. PS.... ALK Engineering is designing a special xover for this application. Chuck

George....you may want to talk with Bluesboy who has made new tophats for his Khorns and has taken a few orders recently as a result of his post on my hybrid La Scalas that he built. See the thread on Tarheels Hybrid La Scalas. He uses the 511b horns, Altec drivers and Beyma or JBL tweeters. Chuck

Rich....the Beymas came from usspeaker.com and are model #CP25 and cost $149 each. I can't speak to the Cornwall build but if you decide to go with the LS bass bins consider using 1" mdf like in the new LS ll. I am happy with the bass. Chuck

Thanks Dean....high praise indeed! Chuck

Thanks Rob. The credit goes to Bluesboy. Chuck

Indy....Thanks for the kind words. .I remember our connversation about the toe-in problem and that problem has now been eliminated without changing the cabinets on either side of the bass bins as I was about to do. I am very pleased with the looks and the sound of the hybrids. As Bluesboy said I still have to order new xovers or xover kits but the bass difference and midrange clarity alone was worth the effort. I like the look and practicality of leaving the components exposed on top of the bass bin and you can fine tune the toe-in all you want. The african wood Paduak was 1/3 less expensive compared to Rosewood and the grain pattern is a good contrast to the horns. Could it be I am finally at the point I want to be with my system? Not just yet. I have the Teac reel to reel problem to resolve and the tubes in my Quicksilver preamp are at least 5 years old. Maybe then. Anyway...if you are in the neighborhood stop on buy and we will take a listen. Chuck

I replaced the fuses (3) this morning. I moved the deck to another wall plug away from all other equipment. I have checked the breakers. No luck. I can buy an ohm meter to check for continuity first or replace the plug with an afer market replacement first. I called Kevin and he said to check continuity. If that is not the problem it could be the transformer. When I go home at lunch I will look for hidden fuses though the others were very visible at the top of the unit. Thanks for the help guys. Chuck

After installing my new La Scala hybrids Sunday I was on top of the world. Then I had to unplug the Teac X-10 to plug in a lamp to hook up the xovers. Later I decided to play a tape. I plugged the Teac back in and pushed the power button and nothing happend...no power, no vu meter lights...nothing. My reel to reel technician lives in Florida so its not conveinent to send it back except as a last resort. I called Kevin Kaask, my tech and a former trouble shooter for Dokorder, and he said it was most likely a fuse but unlike my Teac 3300S the fuse is on the inside of the case. He gave me the most direct route to the fuses and I removed them. I did not see any blown fuses. One fuse is a 250v-2a and the other two are 125v-7a. I tried different outlets in the room with the same result. I then suspected two other areas....the power cord and the power switch. I wiggled the cord and sprayed the power switch with contact cleaner....nothing changed. When I leave the office in about 15 minutes I will try to buy new fuses though they still look good. Any suggestions appreciated. Can the fuse be bad if the filament is not broken? The power cord ends are soldered on to the power switch so changing that would be difficult for me to rule that out. Chuck

Thanks Spongeworthy.....they came out better than expected. The trim on the bass bin was an afterthought when we couldn't get the end grain on the mdf to quick sucking up paint. I am very pleased with the solution. Chuck

Phil....the Heels are looking pretty good the last few games....we may have a contender! Chuck Back to the La Scalas....what I needed to do was have a 2 piece speaker that we could rotate the top (midrange and tweeter) to toe it in. Bluesboy already mentioned that my previous speakers were wedged in and fired staight ahead so this was our goal to correct that problem. A top section that was basically a rectangle didn't look right so we started thinking of designs that softend the edges and looked less cumbersome A bell shape with a more gentle slope was the final result. The Paduak is really a beautifull wood and we used three coats of tung oil using 0000 steel wool and tack rags between coats. Early Sunday morning we met at Don"s shop and finished assembly .....I wanted to get the new speakers installed in my music room before my wife got home and realized that Don and I had built a second set of LS in 2 years! I had not got around to telling her about our project other than we were making a few changes to my existing speakers. She came home just as we finished hooking everything up. She loved them!. She liked the looks and the sound so I put on one of her Andre Bocelli cds for her first listen. Don and I had already listened to Sonny Rollins "Saxaphone Colossus" a favorite of mine for our audition. What can I tell you about the sound other than I was grinning ear to ear. What an amazing improvement. First the bass was much better either from the woofer change or the 1" mdf or both. The 511b horn/902 drivers are so clear and the Beymas added the sparkle I had not heard before. I enjoyed this build and I loved the finished product. Bluesboy is very meticulous and does beautifull work. I handled some of the unskilled sanding, painting and finishing work but Don is the cabinet and speaker builder and really enjoys his work. I think I am finally done with the speaker tinkering but then again I said that last time. BTW my 2005 LS clones are still for sale with or without xovers. Chuck

A thread discussing xovers lead to an exchange between Al and a forum rep resulting in Al deciding to end his association with the forum. This is the version I heard and may not be all of the story.

Definitely a sad day and a great loss to the forum[]. As a relatively new member I appreciate the time Al took to answer all of my questions no matter how elementary they must have seemed to him. I usually considered his comments as the final word in most discussions. I hope Al will reconsider after some time has passed....but if not... all the best in the future. Chuck

An update on the new Scalas. The Beyma tweeters came today from US Speaker. I am using the 511b and 902 drivers and new k-33s as planned. I will be using the BEC xovers for now and have changed the tap position as recommended. We are mounting the horns and tweeters in a piece of Paduak I bought Saturday at a hardwood import shop. Very nice looking grain pattern. The facade will look a little like a bell shape with a more gentle slope with the baby cheeks on top and center. These will sit exposed on top of the bass bins. I will be able to toe in the top part without moving the bass bin and this should solve my restricted corner problem. I think the black bins and the natural finished ( think rosewood color) top should look okay. The bass bins are built and have all but the final top coat of black laquer. One problem we are having is trying to seal the edge grain of the 1" mdf. The edges keep soaking up the paint. At this point I am a little concerned about the finish. We used semi gloss which is not looking too much like a black lacquer piano finish I am use to so we may go to high gloss for the next coat or two. Any tips appreciated. I still have my LS clones with the Altec 416 woofers if anyone is interested. Bluesboy will post pics later.

Joe...We used 1" MDF and I couldn't find any locally already veneered or I would have gone natural. The speakers now have the third coat of piano black and only the end grain needs another coat. Bluesboy came up with the idea of framing the edges of the bass bin in natural to tie it in with the top but I want to see a mock up of that before deciding. John and Intotubes...I will pass that along to Bluesboy...my speaker builder. I am all in favor of saving the $300+ for tweeters. Thanks for the suggestion. Chuck

I need 2 Beyma CP25 tweeters in good shape for the LS rebuild project. Please call if you have some you are willing to part with. 910 200-1225 or 395-0825 nights. Chuck

Thanks Carl for the reply. Primered and sprayed first top coat of piano black on the new bass bins yesterday...Bluesboy will post some pics today. Decided to frame the horn and tweeter in a natural finished wood possibly rosewood to go with the black bass bins. I think it will look good. Good luck with your project and post some pics. Chuck

You are right Dean...mine are BEC's type A. I guess I have been on the keyboard too long today. Thanks for catching that and for the modification info. Chuck