Malcolm

Looks like Brazilian rosewood to me. If seem to recall seeing a pair go on eBay for under $2000.

Wow! Explain crossovers in plain English! Quite a challenge! Well, there are serial crossovers and parallel crossovers and hybrids of the two. They take their names from how the filter sections for each of the drivers/radiators are connected to each other. The crossovers used in most of the Heritage line, including the B2, use an autotransformer. I am not sure what you would call them. The differences between the various crossovers used in the Heritage line are basically due to the crossover frequencies and attenuation required to make the particular drivers/radiators and box yield a reasonably flat frequency response. Generally, the only way you can tell what kind a crossover is to look at the circuit or a schematic of it. The crossover for each combination of drivers/radiators and box pretty much have to be designed for that specific combination, although different crossover designs can be used to achieve similar frequency response from the speaker. There are active crossovers and passive crossovers. Passive crossovers are what you usually have inside your speaker cabinet. The are composed of capacitors and inductors, and sometimes resistors or protection circuits. They do the work after the power amplifier. Active crossovers live between the preamp and the power amplifiers. They are built with operational amplifiers. They are used by people who bi-amp or tri-amp their speakers. There is a lot more to crossovers than this, but at least it is a start. ALK's crossovers are electrically very similar to the original. Al can fill you in, but basically, he uses higher quality components and some circuit tweaks to improve the sound. Cheap crossovers are usually cheap because they use cheap components, bipolar electrolytic capacitors instead of metalized polypropelene or oil capacitors, ferrite inductors instead of air core inductors. Some are cheaper because they use a less steep roll-off in their filter sections. Crossovers with first order filters are cheaper than those with second order filters because they require fewer parts. Speaker manufacturers have to make compromises in crossover design, and for that matter everything else including drivers/radiators and the box, to get a speaker they can afford to build for the target market. As a speaker enthusiast, you are not faced with that dilema. So you can build crossovers like Al's, use active filters and tri-amp, or do whatever you please, if you have the time and money.

You wont't get all the finish off, but then, you really don't want to. The oil finish polymerizes, effectively locking it into the wood. The only way to get it all off is to sand. And, by the time you get it all off, you will be through the face veneer, So, you are on the right track. But, use 0000 bronze wool. Little pieces of the wool will get embedded into the wood. Steel will rust and discolor over time. Bronze will not discolor. Go with the grain, not across it. Wet the wood with boiled linseed oil or whatever finish you are using while rubbing, at least once you break the surface. Most oiled finishes are basically boiled linseed oil. You can use that, or just use a "Danish oil finish" available at your favorite hardware store. You can get them clear, or with a stain mixed in. Follow directions on the container. If it is stained, try it in an inconspicuous location first.

Hmmm... What part of the country do you live in? The service from the drivers and counter people here in northern California is great. I think the key to safe shipment is proper packing, whether you ship UPS, FedEx, USPS or any other way. I use lots of padding, sturdy boxes, double box, and lots of "FRAGILE" labels. I have shipped a number of speakers (mostly Heresys) and a lot of other things by UPS, FedEx and the Postal Service. I have only had two problems. The crossover of one speaker shipped parcel post came loose and was bouncing around inside when it arrived. Luckily, the woofer was not damages, just a couple of capacitors that were going to be replaced anyway. This is really due to the way Klipsch mounted it with two screws into plywood, and the fact that the speaker was 20 years old. I think it would have come loose regardless of which way it was shipped. The other problem I had was a damaged magnesium frame on a woofer shipped UPS. This was the fault of the person who packed the shipment. The two woofers were banging around in the box without sufficient padding. Of course, you find idiots in every occupation. I saw a freight driver push a $20,000 computer subsystem off the back of a truck. In another case I saw another driver dump another piece of expensive equipment onto the floor from his hand truck. In both cases, I just told the driver to put it back on the truck and take it back.

Hi Jon, The subwoofer's magnetic field should not noticeably affect the sound of your other speakers. Malcolm BTW its somewhere between Nevada and Illinois tonight!

Ray, Interesting explanation, but I don't think even 500 watts is going to significantly pressurize my listening room, even with all the doors shut. Isn't the real reason that speakers generally show better bass response in a listening room because most speakers radiation patterns at low frequencies are nearly omnidirectional whereas at high frequencies they tend to be fairly directional toward the front, more so as the frequency goes up? The frequency response figures you see from the manufacturers are open field measurements directly in front of the speaker. When you place speakers in or near the corners of rooms, which most people do, the mid and high end measurements will remain reasonably close to the open field measurements, but the low end might be 6 dB higher because the sound that was radiated away from the meter in the open field is now reflected toward the meter in the room. Of course, actually frequency response in a room is much more complex than this. The measured frequency response is going to vary from point to point in the room because of reflections. There will be peaks and there will be troughs, perhaps even nulls. And of course, what is good for one frequency is bad for another. All of this causes people to treat wall, floor and ceiling surfaces to reduce reflections, and to use bass traps or other contraptions to minimize the peaks. Sometimes people have to use fancy equalizers to get rid of the peaks and troughs. I would go along with what James D McCall and John Albright said on this. And I would also suggest just building a room that will be esthetically pleasing and comfortable with you equipment in it, then worry about figuring out how to make it sound the best from your preferred listening position.

Oops! Can't edit worth beans. Proof read even worse. I meant that nominal impedance doesn't have anything to do with the EFFICIENCY of a speaker.

The 1974 pair would be Cornwalls, the 1987 would be Cornwall IIs. They have diffent woofer, squawker, tweeter, and crossover and will sound different. www.belgaudio.com has an informative report on Cornwalls (actually, they tested Cornwall IIs). A search of the Klipsch bulletin board archives will also return most or all of the information you seek.

BTW I would recommend getting a fifth LaScala, selling the Heresy IIs, and using the money for a good subwoofer, if you have room for all those LaScalas. I have 5 matched Heresys with a Decware WO32 subwoofer and am very satisfied. I would be even happier with 5 LaScalas if I had room. But if you must use what you have, I would use 3 LaScalas in the front, use the Heresy IIs for the back, sell the extra LaScala, and put the money toward a good subwoofer. The front center channel is the most important speaker in a home theater system. Most of the sound will come through this speaker, most of the time--anything that is on-screen. It important that the timbre of the front speakers match as well as possible so that pans from either side through center to the other side are seamless. Heresy IIs have different tweeters and squawkers than LaScalas and will sound different. You would get better results with an original Heresy with K-77 tweeter and K-55-V squawker, but I think you would still hear the difference because of the diffence in crossover points to the woofer. Even with LaScalas, you will need a subwoofer for the low end in a home theater system. Since you already have the speakers, give it a try both ways in whatever room you have now and see which sound you like the best.

In addition to what has already been suggested, wouldn't you want the longest dimension (diagonal across the room, top corner to bottom corner) to be at least equal to the wavelength of the cutoff frequency of your speakers?

Something to do with the beast and the woman?

I think they also at least have different squawkers and crossovers.

The impedance you refer to is the nominal impedance of the speaker. It is not the full story by a long shot. The actual impedance of a speaker varies considerably above and below this rating depending on the frequency, reaching a maximum at the resonant frequency. Impedance does not have anything to do with with speakers. A speaker with 8 or 16 ohms nominal impedance can be just as efficient as one with 4 ohms nominal impedance. For example, they could both produce 96dB @ 1 watt @ 1 meter. Impedance does affect the maximum amount of power that a given amplifier can produce into the load. So, if you had two speakers of identical efficiency, one 4 ohms and one 8 ohms. You might be able to play the 4 ohm one louder with that amplifier, if the speaker could handle it. Why should you care about all this? You shouldn't. Just pick the speakers you like the sound of, then make sure your amplifier can driver them as loud as you can stand without clipping. Others have more or less covered the technical explanation.

You'll never hear the difference. The THD of the speakers is orders of magnitude higher than the THD of even cheap modern amplifiers.

Actually, 16 gauge ought to be sufficient for a 25 foot run. See http://www.sundial.net/~rogerr/wire.htm for what the people at McIntosh say.

If space is not an issue, just buy Heresys for the back channels. It will be cheaper. If you watch eBay for a while, you may be able to get a pair for around $300 plus shipping. Even if you are going to build small Heresys, I think the cheapest way is going to be to buy some Heresys, throw away the the cabinets, sell the woofers and squawker horns and build from there. To get the same overall sound from the smaller box, I think you will have to use the same squawker (K-55-V, K-53-K, etc.), tweeter (K-77, T35A, etc.), and crossover (C, E, E2, etc.) as you have in you front speakers. If you use the stock K-400 or K-401 squawker horn, you won't be able to reduce the depth of the cabinets, so you will have to use a different horn lens. There are lots out there that will fit. But you will have to find one that will go down to the crossover frequency or lower. I think you biggest problem will have is finding a smaller woofer that matches the efficiency of the Heresy woofer. Sounds like a big job, but it could be fun. Let us know how it goes.