Klewless

I will throw in my two cents. I am a beliver in three channels using a Home Theater receiver (mine is Rotel). Three Heresys and a good sub is all you need in hardware. Put the HT receiver in three channel mode (also works with 2-channel source due to all those nice decoders) and you will have one good system. I seem to be in the minority on this subject and I am doing what I suggest using Khorns for main L/R and Heresy for center. Was using LaScalas before getting Khorns and that works great too. I am also and "Old Man" who has learned to throw away my past (limited ???) ideas about music reproduction and never plan to go back to two channel mode. Good Luck

I would first worry about cosmetics. Granted a lot of work but really makes one proud of his speakers. After all you got to look at them everyday! There are lots of reasons people upgrade/change internals and the OLDER the speaker the greater the need to do something. Personally I would live with them a year before considering making technical changes. One possible exception is to replace the capacitors with newer ones. I don't think yours have changed enough to just plunge into it. Need to spend lots of time listening to have a point of reference for yourself. Just my opinion, of course. Good luck.

I have owned these Bozak as well as my own design for 2 woofers. They are on my short list of speakers I would own again. Sound very different from Klipsch and need very good high powered amps to do them justice. I loved them but had a bigger heart for Klipsch. Excellent natural sound (to me) with very good midrange.

I have a very different take on this issue. I vote for 1 K-horn. Because, You can go for Home Theater receiver. K-horn is center, set to large (actually could be set to small with really good bass management). Heresy is the L/R pair, set to small. A good sub does the bass. Tell your receiver you have rear speakers, but don't bother to hook any up (a necessary "fib" to preserve the front imaging). You would not be dissappointed with the resulting three channel sound for today's decoding software! That is my 2 cents worth.

The simple answer is that at lower volumes you cannot hear the low frequencies as well as the higher ones. As the volume increases your hearing becomes more linear in nature up to a point (as in very loud). Hearing is most sensitive around 1 or 2 KHz, falling off on both the highs and lows. That is why some older electronics had a variable response, referred to as the loudness control, which increased bass at the lowest end of the volume control's rotation.

The simple advise follows. About the cabinet. You could have a woodworking shop help you decide if it is better rebuilt or repaired. Not a difficult cabinet to duplicate. About the woofer. It is either dead or alive. If alive it might be distorting due to coil problems or cone issues. A reconing outfit can help you decide which. A simple ohmmeter to measure resistance of the woofer coil (disconnected from the crossover) can help. If it measures zero, you have a shorted coil. Can be replaced. If it measures infinity, you have a burned out coil. Can be replaced. If it measure a little over 4 or 5 ohms or so, it should be functional. Have to look for other issues. A flashlight battery should cause the cone to jump with a thud if it is OK. Don't leave the battery connected very long. Otherwise better defined testing is in order. There are people on this board who can help with greater detail. Good Luck

Depends on what you consider 2-channel quality to be. Many opinions there. I have had 3 HT systems all of which support 2-channel direct modes. I am currently using a Rotel HT receiver and love the 3-channel sound I am getting (it also has a 3-channel from 2-channel decoder). I use L, C, R and lie about the surrounds (the receiver thinks I have them but I never connected any speakers). That way it does not route surround info into the mains. I believe that even in the late 40s and 50s, 3-channel was considered far superior to 2-channel. Other than tape, no way to get that third channel onto a record. Just my opinion here but I never intend to go back to 2-channel. I think that part of your 2-channel quality issue depends on the quality of the electronics. Mono was once considered superior to 2-channel!

Try ROTEL for sweet sounding solid state. I have the home theater receiver (7 chan but I only use three of them L, R, C). I love their sound, esp all the bass management features for my subwoofer. You might be very happy with them, plus they are into 2-chan as well. It runs my Khorns (Heresy center).

Thanks for input guys. I am not unhappy with my current LaScalas. Was just wondering what were the technical differences between the new version and mine. Such that a minor change to drivers or xover that improves sound might be a reasonable upgrade. I have had thoughts of rebuilding the enclosure (tired of black) and converting to removable top similar to Khorn. Of course additional bracing would be part of that type of project. Heaven forbid but have had thoughts on building a scaled down Jubilee using the LaScala components. Would not expect much change in performance but it would fit better in my room. I have too much time on my hands anyway.

OK I will restate my question this way. Were there any driver changes? Was there a xover change? Beefed up cab is something I can handle. Thanks

What would it take to upgrade a fairly modern version of LaScalas to LaScala III ? 1. Drivers? 2. Horns? 3. Crossover? Already know bass horn needs to be beefed up. Could there be an upgrade kit made available? Thanks

My Khorns are setting on top of little area rugs with their rubber backing facing up. The carpet side protects my hardwood floor, seals the bottom, and makes moving the Khorns easy.

Thanks guys. PS. I was secretly hoping they would have moved it outside the box so I could see it do its thing! On the other hand, I suppose I could move mine to the front of the cabinet facing inward. Have to can the front grill though.

Where did they locate the woofer?

I understand from this forum that the Klipsch K33E has a mass rolloff around 400 Hz. How fast is it? 6 db, 12 db ??? Thanks

"Regarding the bright sound of the horns, I have noticed that mine do not begin to have a brightness to the sound until I am really pushing serious volumes (>105db). " This is a typical description of horn systems, but is not necessarily limited to horns only. Just that horns are capable of tremendously loud sounds before dying. Here is a simple test to try out. Crank them up until they reach the offending loudness, then walk into an adjacent room to listen. If the shrillness goes away in the other room, the problem was not the speaker. Quite possibly your EARS doing the distortion from sheer overload. And room problems may as well do the same number on your ears. Many possible reasons besides the speaker itself. Don't get me wrong since the speaker might actually be the culprit.

I too once had Magnepan towers and loved them very much. I agree that their placement was very critical. Depending on that the sound image wandered from a hole in the ground (couldn't figure out where the image was) to excellent depth and breath. However when I got a good image I didn't have much bass; get the bass and the image went to pot. I admit to having a very bad room; long narrow with the short wall almost half the length. That spells double trouble and it showed. The image was also very large at times and sometimes felt it was just too large. I have had LaScalas in the same room. Same type of problems but they had much easier time in finding a good place to live in there. I have had no problems with their imaging nor their clarity. Obviously a sub (Rel) made for an excellent system. Now Khorns occupy the corners, with the same sub. The Khorns simply do not do that last octave the organists like to step on. Their placement is less perfect than the LaScala due to the corner restraint. But few problems with imaging nor clarity. With the Khorns I have placed a Heresey for center channel. I use a Rotel home theater receiver which supports 3-channel stereo. I set all speakers to small and crossover to the sub at 40 Hz. This is the best sounding system I have ever achieved. My room problem was basically: 1. Good image resulting in no bass. 2. Good bass resulting in no image. 3. The center was always absent. Room alterations were out of the question. Too much glass, doors and poor length to width ratio, which the Klipsch was better able to handle. With the Klipsch I have always felt that when all was said and done after a LOUD session with classical and Pink Floyd type of rock, the Klipsch left a feeling that they were just getting started. The Magnepans seemed like they were tired and needed a rest. I guess it is the dynamic range is where the Klipsch always won. The Magnepans seemed more up close than the Klipsch but Klipsch just took everything in stride better. That was my experience with these two. Both excellent in different ways but I ended up liking the Klipsch better overall.

I believe the SpeakerLab crossover had two L-pads. One for the midrange and one for the tweeter. Seems to me that the soulution is a midrange speaker with higher sensitivity.

I think they play "odd electron out"!

I use a sub with my Khorns and love it. I like classical stuff, esp pipe organs. Most of the time the sub has nothing to do but well worth it when it does! I have it adjusted so as not to interfere with the "classic Klipsch sound" (under 40 Hz fill in below the Khorns).

The current issue of AudioXpress mag (January 2007) has an article by Steve Stokes, "A Unique Crossover Design with Waveform Fidelity". This article is about the Technics SB-7000 speaker around 1975 which used a version of the Kido-Yamanaka crossover, which was first described by Bunkichi Yamanaka of Matsushita Corp. (Panasonic) in 1967. This used a mid speaker (called the "Filler Driver") bridging the woofer/tweeter. This approach claims to be able reproduce square waves. An interesting read. There is only one crossover point in the system. All the above information came from the article and are not direct quotes.

360 Degree pattern reminds me of the OHM "F" ( as best I can recall). It did 360 but was not a horn. And, not to be outdone, it could do a good job of reproducing a square wave. Not many speakers can do that!

Can't you just get it (them) reconed? For a lot less $$$ than new replacements!

I hide in St Paul and would be interested. The Mall of America might have space. Several hotels in/around the Mpls/St Paul loop have space. I will keep watching this topic!!

I suppose it is OK to fool your amp but not mother nature and, hopefully, not yourself to boot!