WopOnTour

Can anyone help me date my LaScala's?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> They dont seem to conform to most of the serial number posts I found as they are 9-digit but AFAIK MUCH OLDER than 1990 They have AA crossovers, K-55-V squaker (stamped 62657), K-77 tweeters (stamped 62664) The serial numbers (in red ink) appear to be: 708 705645 and 46 The "8" might be an "S" perhaps???? Harold Wright is the TESTED sig, but I can't make out the INSPECTED one Any assistance is appreciated Thanks WOT

Bob, I use KG4s with my 11wpc JE Labs 300B DX SET amplifier and IMO they are are quite detailed and IMO represent an excellent value for your speaker dollar. At 94dB @ they efficient enough for most tube amplifiers, and would be especially compatible with 40-60wpc EL34s in a Push Pull configuration like the Jolida. Hard to find or even build a DIY speaker this efficient or as responsive for the $300-$400 these are going for. Enjoy WopOnTour

Methinks you might as well be asking what flavor of ice-cream is "Best" !!To each his own I say, however- most disconcerting to me are people who profess their love for Dutch Chocolate Almond, when in fact they typically consume just plain ol' Vanilla, yet refuse to even give Pistachio a taste! WopOnTour

I'm Sorry JC, I may not have been clear enough about what had transpired My post was merely a manifestation of my frustrations with this guy I currently am using a pair of KG4s with my JE Labs 300B DX and have been deperately searching for a local pair of Khorns or Belles for over 2 years now, without success. When these appeared in the Bay area they were the CLOSEST pair I had seen in that period and despite the low seller rating, I decided to bid on them anyways. Unfortunately it didnt work out, so I will keep looking. Thanks again to lost_at_c and all who offered to help me out and realize a long time dream. If anyone knows of a set of used Khorns or Belles in Western Canada or the Pacific Northwest please feel free to contact me via PM or email at wopontour@gmail.com Thanks Regards WOT

I think you missed the point here. I'm more than willing to pay- (I wouldnt have bid otherwise)It was the SELLER who,on the day of the auction close, informed me he had a local buyer that has offered more for the speakers, that he would perfer to sell them to.Again (and no offense) it sounds like you dont know much about eBay.If you look at the auction you will see I am more than a little experienced with almost 150 transactions with a 100% rating,both as a buyer and seller. (and that's not including almost 100 transactions on my wifey's account) With many of them big ticket items. TYPICALLY, (unless otherwise specified) and as per your eBay User agreement, the buyer must complete payment for the item within 7 days of auction close. If the seller requires paymant sooner than that, it must be clearly stipulated in the item listing. If the seller demands IMMEDIATE payment, he/she must use "Buy It Now" with the "demand immediate payment" feature when creating the listing. That way the auction will not end unless the item is payed for- but again sellers perogative if he/she wishes to PAY ebay extra for these features. In this auction the seller also stipulated in the "ships to" settings that he WOULD ship the speakers, then "mentions" in the listing that arranging shipping will be the buyers responsibility. (For eBay what is stated in the "ships to" field takes precendence) The eBay User Agreement also stipulates that the seller MUST allow the the highest bidder to purchase the goods, when in this case the seller made it crystal clear (after the auction) he had no intention of doing so. So YOU would have sent him your cash then? Now THAT imo would be irresponsible. In the end, Parrot has really the best advice with respect to this particular auction, and that would have been NOT to even bid when dealing with a seller of obvious inexperience. But you know what they say about hindsight... (or was that foresight?? LOL) Thanks again for the advice Parrot, I doubt I will ever hear form this seller again anyways, as it appears the seller was hoping the Belles would go for some rediculously high price.Obviously (and unbeknownst to me) I was bidding against a silent bid from a local buyer. I wont even BOTHER giving HIM a negative feedback, as all it would do is drop his rating from +1 to 0 (not only a waste of time., but would very likely just trigger a retaliatory neg on my currently "flawless" eBay rating) Oh well... Thanks to all you helped and contributed to this thread Regards WopOnTour

Sorry sir but your way off base here. Sounds like you have about the same eBay experience as HE did.WOT

Thanks again for all your help Jim!! (Man this forum is UNBELIEVABLE!!) However I'm currently encountering difficulty getting a hold of the seller He threatened to sell them to a local intrest if I didnt send PayPal immediately after the auction, so that spooked me a bit. I took a couple days to search out his name and location, so I know where he lives and works and appears legit- but I just dont like a eBay seller with a +1 feedback to start making demands and pushing deadlines on a bigger dollar item like this. Because of his low rating the sale did not meet the qualifications for PayPal Buyer Protection and that worried me. All I asked was for some time to make some shipping arrangements and it angered him. So now I'm not too sure if he even has the Belles anymore Here's a link to the auction I have other pictures and besides the minor damage on the top of one speaker, they are impeccable 1978 models (he misread the serial number S as 5s) http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5832765101 I will keep trying and hopefully finish the deal with Jim willing to go out there and scoop them up for me Wish me Luck WopOnTour

JimWOW that would be GREAT! THANK YOU! I would have NO PROBLEM even letting you use the Belles until I could get them. At least I'm confident people in here would know how they need to be treated. And at the very least it would allow you listening time to know if you would ever plan to upgrade from your Cornwalls.Please PM/Email me you phone number and I will call you to work out the details. (travel costs etc- I dont expect you to be "out-of-pocket" for this of course) Thanks again to you and to the members of this great forum WOT

I am so screwed I got the shipping estimate back from the.packagingstore today: $175 pickup at location $350 crate and pack $598 ship (ground) from San Fransisco (1440 miles) $1123 Total LOL that's $2 more than I paid for my Belle's I had planned/budgeted 1/2 that so I'm quite disappointed but am continuing to look at other options I dont want to loose these as they are in SUCH good condition (the best I have ever seen for 1978 models) Would anyone in the SF Bay area be willing to "board" my Belle's until I can drive down myself? (probably in the Spring)... Help!!?? If anyone has any ideas - they would be greatly appreciated PS - Does ANYONE here know how much the Belle's bottom half would weigh when the horn/tweeter portion is removed?? Thanks for any/all advice WopOnTour

Dean, djk, Erik I certainly agree with and can relate to what you fellas are saying Im currently on my 7th set of JE Labs 300B mono-blocks (actually a couple of them were DX stereo units not mb) It always seemed not long after I get a set done, someone comes over, hears them and I end up selling them. But I just love the price/performance and continue to recommend them to anyone, especially if you have the DIY skills to build them yourself. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Anyways, the JEL plans call for a 0.22uf 600V coupling cap between the 5692 and 300B tubes. Because of their location in the signal path this cap appears to have a significant influence on the 300Bs. For the most part I have not upgraded too many of the other parts, passives or components. Certainly a few that I did may be considered more significant than others- like going from Hammond to Magnequest iron and some PS improvements, but I previewed each amp using the exact same pair of Electro Harmonix 300Bs (underrated IMO) In the first set of blocks I built over 3 years ago I used the very cheapest 600V 0.22 that I could find locally. According to my records it was a CORNELL DUBILIER polyester film type (that looked similar to the old Atoms) and cost me a whopping $1.95! Obviously I must have thought these sounded pretty awesome through my old Altecs (or I wouldnt have built any more JELs) At least by my only available measurement of performance- my own ears! Since then I have tried/tested/used almost every boutique 0.22 cap I could find- Hovland Musicaps, Auricaps/Cardas, Jensen paper&coppers, those silly retro Jupiter Beeswax jobs, and even a pair of those idiotic Audio Note silver foils to the tune of $199 each! (most others ranged from $15 to $75 each) Each appeared to colorize the music somewhat in their own way, and while none of them sounded bad, I certainly could not ever justify the cost of most of these artsy-fartsy capacitors. Can you guess which Im listening to in my JELs right now as we speak? a simple #716P Sprague Orange Drop" polyprop @$2.50 and they sound AWESOMEstill The moral of the story? (for me at least) IF it sounds good, it's good, and IMO good enough- be done with it. And if sounding good can be accomplished for $394 less? -well thats 3 or 4 decent bottles of single malt to enjoy while LISTENING to your system instead of working on the damn things. Ill take a shot of Macallans over all those hundreds of silver solder tokes any day! Sorry for the long post JMO <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />WopOnTour PS> I can hardly wait to hear my latest rendition of JELs on my new Belles! http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/640835/ShowPost.aspx

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Totally Agree, just using shear lunacy to enter into the debate is all. On another note aren't all those caps from the MCM 1900, oil filled "motor run" cans?? :>0 Correction: they COST more than your speakers! LOL WOT

After reading through all 15 pages of this thread- this statement rang the truest for MECase in point Lets respec AL K's ALKs (??) using the self-proclaimed "Music's Finest Conductor" <insert highly detailed drum-roll please> the AudioNote Silver/Copper Foil caps shall we?: 4- ANOTE- 64080 2.2uf 600V Silver Foil @$902.00ea $3608.00 8- ANOTE- 64071 10.0uf 300V Copper Foil $203.95ea $1631.60 (for the 39+1) 4- ANOTE- 64081 3.3uf 600V Silver Foil $1,389.90ea $5559.60 (for the 6.2+1) GRAND TOTAL (not including the $100 or so for the inductors) $10,799.20 That's 36 times the basic ALK DIY kit price of $299 I can say with almost certainty, that no measurement of "performance" could equate to THAT much improvement. Pass the Snake Oil... JMO WopOnTour

Sorry- I had this going in two seperate threads- WOT http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/640835/ShowPost.aspx

I see what you mean. I could see it as being maybe feasible if I needed a set of Belles shipped FROM Ohio... But the costs to double ship the crate would certainly negate it's stand-alone construction costs (assuming I could find someone in the Bay area to build something similar for $200) let alone the inconvenience of getting it to the depot TWICE! Thanks for the great suggestion though Parrot, I'll keep working on it. I wonder if anyone here would from the SF area know of someone that might consider building a Belle crate for "similar" $$ ?? Parrot could you please give me accurate "inside" dimensions of your crate? (the height you mentioned included the "skids" I believe but I cant estimate that from the photos) I would think given the speaker dimensions and allowing for 1.5" of foam all around and in between it should be something like 33"x42.5"x39" (LxWxH) on the inside- does that sound about right? Maybe I'll try some similar logistics companies by phone tommorrow. BTW, the speakers ARE in fact in the SF Bay area, (technically in Discovery Bay near Brentwood) HOWEVER I am in Western Canada. I bought them on E-dismay with the agreement that I would handle all of the shiping issues, so I'm just looking at ALL of my options right now. Would anyone know what the "lower" section of the Belles weigh? Assuming they would weigh less than 80 lbs I might even consider taking my wife on a "weekend getaway" to SF, fly out with carry-on only and return with 2 pieces each of "checked" baggage. (Although I dont know if I would really trust my new babies to be loaded/unloaded safely by your typical Air Canada baggage handler- LOL!) Another thread mentioned that Klipsch might still offer the original packaging for the Belles. Can anyone confirm that's true? I presume each Belle ships in 2 seperate boxes? Would anyone know the dimensions of the upper and lower sections?? Maybe I could call some of the larger Klipsch dealers in the SF area to see if THEY had some "spare" Belle cartons they would sell? I also have a "Quote Request" in at http://www.packagingstore.com/html/locations.shtml Thanks to Bill H. I dunno... Anyone in SF driving up to Lake Lousie for a "ski trip" this Christmas??? LOL Any other ideas?? Thanks to any/all who comment/suggest (other than the obviously obligatory "Why the !@%^^&* would you buy something without having a way to get them shipped?!" - that's what my WIFE is saying... I would hope most here would be a LOT more understanding of my dilema... ;>) Regards WopOnTour V V V V V V V V V BELLES TRYING TO FIND THEIR WAY HOME V V V

Wow that's awesome! Looks like it provided a LOT better protection than cardboard(albeit at a significant weight premium) So Parrot Would you be interested in: a) Selling Renting c) Lending d) None of the above ...your exclusive "Belle Vault" ? Regards WopOnTour

Thanks I certainly will. Sure wish this forum had "stickys" so that the moderators could lock down certain threads making them easy to locate. I did some searching and did find some shipping/packing suggestions but stickys would make it soo much easier. When researching/identifying these speakers I found some older posts in these forums very helpful and informative, but a sticky or FAQ on "Identifying your Heritage Klispch via the Serial Number" would have been extremely helpful. Thanks again for your helpful replies and to all that contribute to these great forums Regards WopOnTour

Looking for someone with a bit of expertise/experience in the San Fransisco (Discovery Bay) area willing to accept fair payment to assist owner to crate up and help arrange local pickup for a pair of Belle's for a safe journey to Western Canada. Am thinking they could both be put face-to-face on a single smaller wood pallet with suitable foam, carboard, strapping and shrinkwrap. I think only someone here could appreciate what type of dilema I am in, trying to get my long time "dreambabys" home safely. If ANYONE here is willing to help please reply here or email me at wopontour@gmail.com Thanks for the great forum Looking forward to further involvement once I start upgrading these beauts! Regards WopOnTour

Thanks for the reply I'm not so much worried about the carrier itself (or the price) as I am for the actual packaging/boxing of the speakers so they do not get damaged enroute. Or are you saying this carrier has experience in or provides this service for larger Klipsch speakers? WOT

Looking for someone with a bit of expertise/experience in the San Fransisco (Discovery Bay) area willing to accept fair payment to assist owner to crate up and help arrange local pickup for a pair of Belle's for a safe journey to Western Canada. Am thinking they could both be put face-to-face on a single smaller wood pallet with suitable foam, carboard, strapping and shrinkwrap. I think only someone here could appreciate what type of dilema I am in, trying to get my long time "dreambabys" home safely. If ANYONE here is willing to help please reply here or email me at wopontour@gmail.com Thanks for the great forum Looking forward to further involvement once I start upgrading these beauts! Regards WopOnTour