Islander

I've always had Yamaha receivers, and have never heard either of the receivers in this discussion, so I can only speak in generalities about them. Marantz seems to have a better reputation than Pioneer, but even that I just got from the previous comments from other members. I do stand behind what I mentioned about connectivity. I'm still amazed that I can press a Buy button to download the music on a CD to my iPad in a few seconds, and then send it to my receiver and hear the music coming out of my speakers. With the old gear, this was just not possible. With sources like Net Radio, I've been able to hear songs that are new to me, from artists I'd never heard of, which is a real pleasure much of the time. If I hear something I like, I can make a note of it and think about buying the CD/EP/LP. If I decide to buy, I can order the physical media, or buy it locally, or just get the download, which often makes more sense when it comes to bands from the other side of the world and the expense and delay involved in mail order. It doesn't make a difference to sound quality, it just give you so many more options, more to hear, and more ways to buy music that you like. How big is your budget? For as low as $300, you can buy a new AV receiver, with some of the latest features, plus a warranty. Sometimes free bargains are worth what you pay, and no more. If you can stretch your funds (maybe by saving up for a few more months) to $500, you can get a new receiver that's a step or two above the bottom model, and it would likely have better sound than many older units. What kind of system do you want to have? 2-channel stereo, or surround sound? Do you want to upgrade your system a bit and leave it at that, or are you considering a long-term plan, with the idea of having a really excellent system eventually? I chose the second path, and wound up with a system that had been so far away, it was over the horizon, and I couldn't even imagine it from where and when I was sitting. Just a suggestion.

What spoils it for me is that it says audio-technica instead of Technics.

When it comes to amplifier power, it's not like horsepower, where a 10% improvement is noticeable. Even a doubling in amplifier power only raises the volume by 3 dB. However, if it's accompanied by better sound, even a small increase in power is worth it. On the topic of sound quality, the engineers keep working at it, so the newer gear tends to sound better than the older gear, especially in terms of clarity. Before buying, maybe consider connectivity. One of the reasons I bought my 2016 AVR (In 2016) was to get connectivity options, like HDMI, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, that weren't available when I bought the 2005 AVR I was replacing. I also got a higher-level receiver, still with Yamaha, so the sound quality was better, too. Thanks to the Wi-Fi, now I can listen to Net Radio, which is probably more than 90% of my current listening. As well, you can buy music in download form to your laptop or tablet and then use Bluetooth or AirPlay (if you have an iPad or MacBook) and send it to your receiver. Since then, there have not been too many new connectivity options that I'm aware of, but I'm happy to be corrected and informed about that. Just something to think about.

The most negative Feng Shui-type WAF I've heard of was one guy's wife that disliked his La Scalas, because to her, the Vees of the bass bin doghouses looked like "poison arrows" aimed at her. He kept them anyway.

If you want to run speaker wire along the bases of your walls and make them less noticeable, a good way to go is to use split wire loom. This is lightweight corrugated plastic tubing that’s split along its length so that it can easily be slid over wires. It comes in a variety of sizes and colours. You’ll likely find some under the hood of your car, and that will be black. In most rooms at home, the white or beige wire loom is better. I use it to hide the wires that run around one side of the room to the surround speakers. I picked a size that easily fit the three 12 gauge wires that I was using. The corrugated white plastic tubing is visible, of course, but since it’s the same colour as the baseboards, it’s barely noticeable. I also use it in the front of the room, in spots where a black or dark-coloured wire reaches across a gap. Sliding a length of white plastic tubing over it lets it sort of blend into the off-white wall behind it. This is the stuff I'm talking about. It's available at most auto supply shops, maybe car audio shops, and online. As you can see, it comes in a variety of colours and sizes. 1/2" and 3/4" are likely the most useful sizes for covering home audio cables of all sorts. https://www.cableorganizer.com/wire-loom/colored.html

Normally, only the crossover capacitors and maybe the tweeters need to be replaced after 50 years. Maybe the K-55 squawker gaskets between the drivers and the horns also need to be replaced, but that’s about it. They’re a flat ring, and you need two, one for each speaker. When they they get old, they can dry out and spread into the path of the sound. If you want more bass, the best way to get it is wth a subwoofer (or two). That avoids modifying your excellent Khorns, and makes the amount of bass adjustable, to suit your room and your taste. Just be sure to get powerful subs, so they can respond to bass signals as quickly and dynamically as the Klipschorns.

When you see the Spoon Lady prepping her spoons to sound just right, you think she might be a professional, but once she starts playing, there’s no doubt that she is a very skilled pro. Also, I like the guitarist’s foot tambourine. It adds just that right little bit of rhythm.

No need to be sorry. Bringing up news about scammers may protect buyers who don’t know about them. Every year, a few audio fans turn evil and start trying rob the rest of us, so it’s helpful for all of us to hear about them. Thanks.

Westerml, welcome to the Forum! Since I have a JubScala system, and one that has evolved through several configurations, that’s probably why Coytee mentioned me. He’s been helpful to me from soon after I joined the Forum, which was around a month after I bought my La Scalas. He’s also been friendly, to the point of inviting me to hear his Jubilees whenever I’m in his area. I haven’t made it so far, since it’s so far away, but it was a great offer, and I’d like to take him up on it one day. So when I call Coytee a bonehead, it’s because it’s a collective term that Roy, I believe, first started using to describe us mad Jubilee, and later JubScala, fans. So here’s the story: Coytee, that bonehead (we’re all boneheads here, but not in the same league as Chief bonehead), proposed the JubScala to Roy, as a lower-profile centre speaker between a pair of original/Underground/Pro Theater line Jubilees, sometime around 2005. Coytee should know the exact year. Roy considered it, and after about a year he put one together and did the testing on it. He liked what he heard and saw, and provided the E-V Dx38 audio processor settings that he had settled on to Coytee and the rest of us. That made the JubScala possible and even somewhat available. At this point, maybe I should mention that the “Jub” part of the name is a short “u”, maybe like Bart Simpson’s aunt’s lizard JubJub, not like a long “u”, like Joob. That’s how it sounds in my head, anyway. I didn’t, and still don’t, have enough space in my place for the Jubilee bass bins. The left one in particular would have partially blocked the light coming into the living room. For this reason, and because I naively thought that it would be much cheaper, I set my sights on assembling a pair of JubScalas. After all, how much could it cost? I already had a pair of old La Scalas and a high end amplifier (a Yamaha MX-D1), so I just needed a second matching amplifier (it is essential to match the sound quality of the two amplifiers, but the power output can be different. This does add the issue of gain matching between the amps, though), a sound processor, with the Dx38 being preferred, because it’s what Roy used to develop it, so his settings can be simply punched in, with no issues. So that was amp, processor, and tweeter horns and drivers. This was just a maybe someday idea, until a Forum member in Seattle offered me a matching power amp, and a member in Tennessee advertised a pair of K501 horns with K-69-A drivers for sale. These were starting to look like omens, so I looked for a Dx38, and within an hour or so, I found a Guitar Center in California that had two or three used Dx38 processors for sale. Well, it had to be Fate, so I bought the amp, one of those Dxes, and the K501/K-69-A combos. Hmm, the price was starting to add up... Anyway, I drove to Seattle and picked up the power amp, and before long the other parts arrived. It took a couple of weeks before I got it dialled in, in spite of some help from Tennessee Mike. His advice was somewhat above my level of comprehension, so in frustration, I called Pacific Audio Works, the main concert sound company in town, and asked them to send over a tech to help integrate the Dx38 into my home system, which nearly caused the guy to drop his phone. He did send over a tech (the next day, I think) who got the system sorted within a couple of hours. That was $120 well spent! Of course, this “final solution” speaker setup eventually started hinting at upgrades, thanks to both my lusting after the higher end systems of some other Forum members, and the many enablers here, who love to help you spend your money. It may be contagious, because I’ve become just as much of an enabler myself. Five years after I got the JubScalas, a pair of La Scala IIs became available from another Forum member, not far away, and at a great price! Now I had JubScala IIs! They were a noticeable improvement in sound, and a very noticeable upgrade in appearance, going from plywood painted with black Valspar #? to Lacquered Walnut. Selling the La Scalas might have been a hassle, plus now I had the chance to have a matching surround system. Accordingly, the original La Scalas went behind and to the sides of the sofa and armchair, where their black paint was a benefit, since it made their bulk less noticeable. They’re on 13”/32 cm risers, so they’re not being muffled by firing into the backs of the furniture. What next? Four years later, I drove to the mainland again, this time to pick up a pair of mint K402 horns. That was a big upgrade, but then, just a couple of years later, a pair of K-691 tweeter drivers (the drivers that were being shipped with Jubilees at that point, in 2019) showed up on the Forum from a member in Texas. A couple of phone calls later, they were on their way to me. So that’s the current configuration of the JubScala IIs. They have La Scala II bass sections, with the HF cabinets still on top, but disconnected, and the big K402 horns on top of them, with the late-model K691 tweeter compression drivers. And it sounds great! What I have now is a highly resolving system, with amazing detail retrieval, along with lifelike dynamics and the ability to play without strain at whatever volume level you might like, with almost immeasurable distortion. That’s the audiophile description of the system, but in plain terms, it’s great sound that you can listen to all day. The idea at first was to emulate the sound of the actual Jubilees, at a reduced cost. Since I’ve never actually heard a pair of Jubilees, I don’t know how close they come, but I’m very happy with the results. To use a metaphor, if reaching audio Nirvana is a long and steep climb, the system has landed on a plateau where we (me and the speakers) can look out and see how far we’ve come. At the same time, climbing up from this high plateau gets into high expenses for little gain. It’s at the point of diminishing returns, which is fine with me. Of course, I have to give some of the credit to the subwoofers. Back in 2020, I bought a pair of Paradigm Seismic 110 subwoofers, which fill in the bottom two or three octaves very accurately and powerfully. I haven’t spent anything on stereo upgrades since then, after twelve years of steady upgrades, including various cables and a voltage adapter for the Dx38 to adapt its pro signal voltage to the lower home audio voltage of the rest of the system. The years when no major components were bought didn’t mean that no money was spent, if you know what I mean. And that’s how the system came to be in its current configuration, where it might remain, but no promises. EDIT: Just corrected all the typos (I must have been falling asleep) and added an opening paragraph.

A fine pair of speakers, in fine “Khorn corners”. Very nice. Welcome to the Forum, Domenico!

If most of the partygoers are standing around, they’ll probably never notice the imaging. A friend of mine asked me about getting some speakers and asked for my advice. She said she wanted the speakers to fill the roof m with music. I thought that Heritage Series speakers weren’t made to do that, so the shop suggested a pair of direct-firing speakers, and I agreed. My La Scalas do not fill my home with sound, and I’m happy about that. They can be loud in front of them, and barely audible in the next room, which suits me just fine.

I have to agree with the other members: Klipschorns are great, if you have suitable corners. However, if, like most people, you live in a home without "Khorn corners", you have two options. Okay, three actually, if you count finding a new place to dwell, but you never want it to be Heartbreak Hotel. Other than that, you can construct, or have constructed, a pair of false walls, as per the instructions that come with Heritage Series speakers. They don't have to be full wall height. 4 feet high is tall enough, and 8 feet long, but formed into a 90 degree corner, so that's two 4-foot lengths on each side of the speakers. They have to be sturdy, but then you're all set, and you can place your Klipschorns where you like, and pointing where you like, but in the general area of corners is preferred. A normal glass window does not count as a wall, unless maybe it's a very solid commercial curtain wall, like you find in some office buildings. But that's still not ideal. The Khorn is a speaker that appears to defy physics, by being a realistically sized horn-loaded speaker that can actually produce deep bass. It does it by using the walls of the room, but to pull off the trick, the walls need to be rigid. The easy alternative is the La Scala with good quality subwoofers. One will do, but two are preferred, to give even bass response throughout the room. The total price is still a bit lower, even if the subs are really good, and you don't need corners at all. There's no trade-off in sound quality, because, as you note, the Scala uses the same drivers as the Khorn (I don't know whether the KHorn gets the great new Celestion tweeter that the AL5 gets. Someone must know.), and the same mid and high frequency horns as the Khorn. Some people even prefer the sound of La Scalas plus sub(s) over the sound of the Khorn, even in a room with totally ideal corners, so you would not be "settling for less". In my room, the stereo is on the West wall of the room, but there's an electric baseboard heater on one side, and the other side opens to the dining room, so Khorns would be out of the question. The East side of the room is just as bad. However, with my JubScala IIs (bi-amped La Scala IIs with Jubilee tweeters and K402 tweeter horns), the bass goes down to 18 Hz, thanks to a pair of $1300USD (each) Paradigm subwoofers. They have the speed and power to match the La Scala IIs, even though the LS2s are driven with a pair of 500 Wpc power amplifiers. Tonight, another factor came to light. I was watching Top Gun Maverick, which contains lots of stirring music and jet fighter sounds as our heroes cavort through the skies in the name of freedom. When I got the LS2s back in 2013, I didn't want the hassle of selling the old La Scalas, so I just moved them behind and to the sides of the sofa to displace the Heresy IIs that I'd been using as Surround speakers. Sure, it seemed very decadent at first, but they fit right in, and the Heresy IIs went to a very happy new Klipsch owner. The point is that there's an advantage to having matching Main and Surround speakers. The matching timbre means that when similar material is being fed to the speakers, they produce very similar sounds, as they should. There's a Forum member, IndyKlipschFan, who has a 7-Scala home theatre. Although you'd have to hear that system to know, you can try to imagine how a totally matching speaker system all the way around could sound. Listening to that movie last night, it was great to hear the same full sound coming from the Front and Rear/Side speakers. However, as you know, finding a room with 2 "Khorn corners" can be a challenge. Finding 4 "Khorn corners" in a single room can be just a bit more difficult. Your decision is up to you, and now you have the information you need. Take your time, add everything up a few times to see if you're getting consistent answers, and then think a bit more. As you may have read occasionally on the Forum, the AL5s are really good speakers. For many of us, they're "end-game" speakers, the ones you won't even think of replacing, because they sound that good. At that point, upgrades are upstream from the speakers, in the form of better electronics. Better amps and pre-amps, better turntable cartridges, even a better turntable, maybe. As time goes by, new technology arrives, but often the speakers stay the same. My old La Scalas are 48 years old, and I have 42-year-old floorstanders of another brand in the bedroom. Sure, speakers change. One day, Klipsch will introduce AL6 speakers, but in the meantime the listening is great. Hop in! Welcome to the Forum, Bhai! And best wishes for a great-sounding 2023!

Two days ago, I had snowdrifts a foot deep on my balcony, but it’s been raining nonstop since then, and now nearly all the snow is gone. That’s winter here: rainstorms a few times a week, peppered with a handful at most of brief but intense snowstorms. That may sound terrible, but it’s way better (for me, at least) than the weather back East, like in Quebec City, with the snowstorms that start in October, snowstorms that dump snow that doesn’t melt, because it stays cold, sometimes really cold, and the snow builds up and up, until the last snowstorm, around Saint Pat’s Day on March 17th. Sorry, I meant the last blizzard. The lesser snowstorms continue until early April.

It looks like something that should be done by a helper/nurse/person in naughty nurse costume/etc., etc, rather than by yourself.

Do you just spray this stuff in, and then forget about, while it does its work, or do you have to wait a few minutes, then drain away the cleaning liquid and any lumps it has loosened up?

And a very happy Christmas to you too! Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2023, with horns in your past, present, and future! The bigger the better! Aside from horns, spare some love for your friends and family. We all need more of it. Let the love grid match the power grid, but with no blackouts, ever!

It’s good to be planning for the future, but how long will you be staying in your current home? If it’s a few months or less, and you’ll be moving into a bigger space, do whatever seems right for that space, because any annoyances about space where you live now will soon be over. On the other hand, are you in a hurry to upgrade? Maybe just keep your present system for now, and keep putting money aside for your “final” system. That way, you’ll be in a better position to see what does work in your new room, instead of hauling in the speakers that you figured “should” work in the room. As for Cornwalls, they can be turned on their sides and still sound fine. They used to actually come in vertical or horizontal models, to suit their individual situations. You mentioned that you currently have “ACA’s” for left and right speakers. What are they? We (some of us, anyway) don’t mind these threads, because it’s always fun to help somebody spend their money.

I agree with you about the ceiling heights. I’d like to have a cathedral ceiling, as I’m sure many others would, too, but not many homes are built that way. As for subwoofers, I have neither kids nor pets in-home, so my audio gear is safe from curious fingers, noses, paws, and claws. Accordingly, I use front-firing subs. However, to reduce or eliminate early reflections, and to bring them closer to ear height, my subs are positioned above the floor, one on a small table and the other one on an LP storage box. This works well, with the bedroom subs also, and the subs are on neoprene pads, which may reduce the amount of bass energy that could enter the ceilings of my downstairs neighbour. I live in a condo apartment, so I keep in mind that there’s no point in pissing off people I may have to deal with. What goes around, and all that. The funny thing about bass instruments, and the subwoofers that reproduce much of their music, is that they play below our optimized listening range. Our ears and brains are primarily tuned for for sensitivity to speech and sounds of possible danger. Deep bass notes almost never fall into those categories, so we’re not able to “decode” them as accurately as mid-range sounds. To quote two people: first, PWK, who famously said, “We live in the mid-range.”, and my father, who played string bass (upright bass/double bass) in a jazz band when he was younger, and said “The average person in the audience can’t even tell if the bassist is playing in tune.” Accordingly, it’s hard to evaluate the performance of a subwoofer. With regular speakers, you can listen for clarity, fine detail retrieval, especially in voices (for the reasons mentioned above), accurate timbre (Do the voices and instruments sound like actual voices and instruments, or at least come close?), consistent frequency response at different volume levels, dynamic range, and so on. With subs, on the other hand, you may need to depend on magazine reviews, because they should have the test gear that can “hear” what our ears can’t. Unlike regular speakers, subs operate in company with speakers (the “regular” is assumed), not on their own, so they have to be evaluated on how well they integrate into a typical system. A vocal, guitar, violin, or cello solo can be carried completely by a speaker on its own, but a bass solo won’t be restricted to the subwoofer, since the bass instrument produces tones that are higher than the subs’ operating range, sounds like the player’s fingers on the strings or keys, for example. In a store review years ago, I read how a guy went to the store with some of his test music, and wanted to test the sub he was interested in for presence and “slam”, at high volume, of course. When stuff started rattling in adjacent departments, the music got turned down pretty quickly, but he naïvely didn’t understand why. He thought the shop was showing poor customer service. It really does take all kinds of people to make a world... The point that I’m making (finally!) is that some (or maybe most) of the things that we do to get great performance from our subs is mainly theoretical. We think that this or that should help the sub sound its best, but most of the time we’re guessing, unless we’re dealing with one of those monster subs that seems to distort time and space in its vicinity, like one of those fan subs. They definitely do what other subs can’t do. Sure, we can tell if the sub goes noticeably deeper, or if it has much more power, but that’s most of it, in my case, anyway. Adding a second powerful sub (850 watts RMS) did smooth out the bass response, eliminating a strong bass peak right in front of the sofa, so that was something. Anyway, we do the various tweaks at the barely-audible level, hoping that they’ll add up to make a change that we will be able to hear, and they often do. Happy tweaking, and happy listening!

And I thought I was done with upgrade, lol... I guess the art and science of music reproduction continues to advance, and always will. That's wonderful, but it really adds up over the decades. Oh well, each upgrade makes the system more enjoyable at all volume levels, unlike with mods to bikes and cars that increase the potential speed or grip on the road, but are only noticeable in extreme riding/driving conditions, while an audio system upgrade is almost always enjoyable at normal listening levels. While live concert sound levels are available, you don't need to go there to hear what an improvement has done. Keep 'em coming!

WARNING: THIS LONG EXPLANATION WILL TAKE YOU A FEW MINUTES TO READ. After you do, you may say, "Well, that's a few minutes that I'll never get back." You've been warned. Mike, those stainless steel Allen head machine screws and nuts seem like ideal hardware for the job. I was probably over-thinking things, in that the amount of vibration encountered is actually minimal, when compared to what an engine produces. On my bike, there are the outer fairing panels, which mount to brackets on the frame. There's a little bit of misalignment here and there. You might run into something similar with a turntable dust cover, so that you need to adjust the hinges carefully to get the cover to sit straight at the front. That doesn't cause any issues. However, on the bike there are a couple of small black inner panels which have to be secured very carefully, or within a few weeks or months they'll crack, which is annoying, because the new parts may be unavailable. These panels look a bit like an elbow pad, one that runs from the area around your elbow to halfway along your forearm, so roughly 10-12"/25-30 cm long. The one on the left includes the mounts for the choke knob and the Reserve fuel switch, so it looks funny if it's missing. These panels are secured by three (or maybe four. I don't see the bike everyday anymore.) 6 mm Phillips head screws. The issue is that the panels arrive a bit warped, so that when you tighten a couple of the screws, the panel might not touch the other mounting spots, so that when you tighten at those spots, you're puling the panels down and putting some stress on them. This should not matter, but it does, because that's where a crack will soon appear. Accordingly, the mounting spots that are a bit high above their mounting plate get shimmed with one to three flat washers between the mounting plate and the panel, so that when you tighten down all the screws, there is absolutely no stress on the panels anywhere. It's weird that a body panel would need to be "tuned" at each fastener location to prevent it from cracking due to the combination of stress and high-frequency vibration (900 to 11,750 rpm/Hertz, while the greatest amplitude of vibration is around 4500 rpm/Hertz), but after cracking a few panels, it was no joke. Since this issue did not affect every one of this model in the showroom, I can only surmise that the original panels were not warped, but the later ones were. Worn-out dies or stampers? Who knows? I don't know what the other FZ750 owners did, but I would gently tighten a couple of screws, then check for clearance or pressure at the remaining locations. Washers would be added or subtracted as needed, then the screws would be snugged down, and I'd ride away happily, with one more annoyance/distraction out of the way. After owning and riding a particular bike for more than ten years, with the major issues long since cleared up, the minor things now shift themselves to your front of mind. So that's the long explanation that covers why I considered vibration to be such an issue when securing the K402 horn to its mounting brackets. It's an example of how things that are a problem in one application/situation are sometimes not a problem in another case. 'Nuff said!

Yes, you too can make your living room look like a HIGH CRIME AREA, complete with authentic hi-vis lighting. When it comes to mood lighting, that's not a mood that makes your living space a comfortable refuge from the outside day-to-day concerns, lol. But hey, to everyone their own mood in their own place. This is is sent in a spirit of humour, so please take it that way. Happy listening!

Keep in mind that these aren't cylinder head bolts. I don't know whether the new drivers come with recommended torque numbers, but they need just enough to keep them fixed in position and not much more, especially if there are any plastic parts involved. Whenever it's practical, I prefer to depend on Nyloc nuts, rather than split washers. If the plastic crushes over time, the split washers loosen, while the Nyloc nuts do not. Just a suggestion.

The K700 is just about right for a lamp base, or even a pair, like for on both your speakers. The K400, on the other hand, is a bit of an odd too-big-for-the table, too-small-for-the-floor size, in my opinion anyway. Of course, depending on your decor, a K400-based lamp might fit right in, so I'm just thinking of the more likely situations.

Zappa was even weirder to dance to, especially the first few albums.

Those were the days! However, Klipsch woofers with the doped-paper surrounds do last indefinitely. The dope is the black stuff that keeps the surrounds from drying out. The woofers in my 1974 La Scalas have been happily making music for 48 years. I did replace the tweeters and crossover capacitors, but that was it. Also, welcome to the Forum! Don't be a stranger!