Islander

If it fits your budget, you could go for a Yamaha MX-D1. It's only 3 inches tall and puts out 500Wpc, and is a major upgrade in clarity and detail over any receiver. It made my La Scalas sound better and when I hooked one up to my Heresy IIs, it made them sound better, too. Now I'm using two of these amps with my JubScalas, one for bass and one for treble. Very good sound is an understatement. They originally retailed for $5000, but you can get new ones online for under $1500 now. When Stereophile reviewed the MX-D1, they described it as "musical, with a sound that's easy to live with" and called it a bargain at $5000. See: http://search.ebay.com/Yamaha-MX-D1_W0QQ_trksidZm37QQfromZR40QQsatitleZYamahaQ20MXQ2dD1

Once you get your Khorns into corners, you may find they take up less space than you would think, and the bass will be much better. They're not nicknamed "corner horns" for nothing.

My JubScalas are about twice as sensitive as La Scalas, and I'm hearing a hiss I didn't hear from the LSs. I can't hear it from across the room, so it doesn't bother me, and the extra sensitivity adds detail that's hard to get otherwise.

Rolling Stones at the Max at an IMAX theater will make you wonder why you'd ever want to go to an actual concert again, since the view and the sound is much better. It came out in 1991, but the local IMAX theater ran it for six weeks in December and January 2 or 3 years back and it was sold out nearly every night.

You might like Bryston's CD player, if a CD-only player works for you. It's getting rave reviews and comes in silver or black. Features: http://www.bryston.ca/bcd1_m.html Reviews: http://www.bryston.ca/bcd1_r.html It costs around $2400.

Have you seen the movie? The reviews are pretty good. For that matter, did you see Rolling Stones at the Max back in the early '90s? That was excellent.

Looks like those scientists have lots of research ahead of them!

Here's a really green speaker! http://mdn.mainichi.jp/photojournal/graph/photojournal/1.html

Yes. The hi-cut adjustment on the back of the sub is used when the amp doesn't have a corresponding adjustment, but with most AV amps or receivers, you can control the LFE or sub rolloff, so you only send the sub the range of bottom that you want. In that case, the roll-of or hi-cut setting on the sub itself should be all the way up. I'm not sure what you mean by setting the frequency of each speaker. In most cases, you set the sub to work well with the main speakers, which are usually larger and able to go lower than the center or surrounds. There are a few people on this forum with 5 or 7 matching speakers in their home theaters, but most people don't have the room or the budget for 7 La Scalas, for example.

Thanks for the report, Picky! A fun read, and it sounds like a great time was had by all.

When I went to a much higher powered amp (from 130Wpc to 500Wpc) to drive my La Scalas, it gave the instruments a lot more "solidity" even at low volume. Drums in particular were more realistic. Klipsch speakers may not need much power, but all that headroom really does not go to waste. As well, in a given amplifier line, the higher-power models tend to be the higher-end ones, so the overall clarity and performance is often better, not just the power.

The AA crossover should be ideal with your electronics. Some of the steep-slope crossovers soak up a bit of amplifier power. Replacing the caps will bring your crossover back into original spec, so you can hear how an AA crossover was actually designed to sound. Before thinking of a different crossover, I'd consider a pair of BEC's CT125 tweeters. They sound noticeably clearer than the K-77s and are a closer match for output between individual drivers, typically within 1dB or less, while K-77s, especially old ones, can vary as much as 2-3dB.

Replacing the caps is a good idea. Fresh ones will sound better. Here's the AA crossover schematic:

Isn't shark liver oil the active ingredient in Preparation H?

I'm getting great results with a Paradigm PW-2100. It blends nicely with my JubScalas and has power to spare. The system has fairly flat frequency response down to 25Hz in my room.

Mmmm, Palladiums... With the La Scalas, you do get past the looks. When my buddy first saw the big black plywood boxes, he commented that they looked home-made, but when he heard them, he was amazed at how realistic the music sounded, even at low volume. He'd probably get a pair himself if he had the space and the budget. The other thing about La Scalas, black ones in particular, is that they start to look smaller as time goes by. That's not just my delusion, other owners have noticed it, too. They'll never look tiny, but after a while, they seem to be a part of the room and seem less obtrusive. As for the Klipschorns, they fit nicely into the corners and have a surprisingly small footprint.

Nah, Jubilees are only the size of fridges. La Scalas are the size of washing machines and Heresies are the size of microwave ovens. Klipschorns are in between Jubilees and La Scalas. And they all sound great!!!

Klipsch makes lots of great speakers in a wide price range. Your budget and room size will narrow things down a lot. If you have the space, the Heritage Series, with possibly a pair of Jubilees, would be great. See: http://www.klipsch.com/products/lists/heritage.aspx The THX Ultra 2 system is engineered to work together and gets great reviews. See it at: http://www.klipsch.com/products/lists/thx-systems.aspx Another factor is whether you listen mostly to music or movies. More info can enable better advice. There are smaller and more affordable systems in the Klipsch line in addition to the big stuff.

There was a period between 1990 and 1992 when the Heresy II numbers were a bit mixed up. If you have Heresy IIs with square connector cups on the back of the cabinet and numbers that don't fit the usual pattern, they could have been made then. The earlier Heresy IIs have a round connector cup and should have more typical serial numbers. Heresy drivers are mounted from the rear of the baffle and are a bit recessed, while Heresy II drivers are mounted from the front and sit flush.

On the news yesterday, a man with his golf shirt pulled up to his nose tried to rob a convenience store by brandishing a large palm frond, almost a small palm tree, at the cashier. Another employee chased him out of the store while aiming the legs of a barstool at him. He was caught outside and charged with armed robbery. No joke, it really was on the news!

Those are as pretty as Belles.

Your best bet might be to be patient and keep and eye on Canuck Audio Mart. Heresies come up on there fairly frequently. I've bought two pairs of Heresy IIs from the Mart, one pair from near Kingston and another pair from near Vancouver that I was able to hear before buying. Canada Post from Kingston to Victoria was only $100 for the pair of Heresy IIs, with no cross-border taxes and duties, which are always aggravatingly high. http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/search.php?submit=1&keywords=Klipsch

When the receiver's amps aren't being used, they'd be generating very little heat. For instance, if you have a 7.1 receiver, but are driving only 5 speakers for a 5.1 system, the two unused channels are receiving no signal and are idling. In my 5.1 system, I have external power amps for the main speakers, so the 7.1 receiver's power amp is using only 3 of its channels, powering the center and surround speakers. Since the power supply is usually the limiting factor with receivers, using fewer channels also often means more power available for those channels. One popular "7 x 100 watt" receiver tested at 55 watts per channel when driving 5 channels, but 132 watts per channel when driving just 2 channels in 2-Channel Stereo mode. BTW, there are a number of forum members successfully using Yamaha receivers as pre-pros or preamps.

Actually, direction arrows on interconnect cables have to do with the shielding. It's connected at one end and not at the other end. Since speaker cables aren't shielded, they don't have any direction arrows. BTW, try some 14 or 12 gauge speaker cable sometime. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to hear a noticeable improvement in how transient sounds like drumbeats and handclaps are reproduced.

I used a 500 Wpc amp for a year with my 100-watt La Scalas with no problems. Then I converted the speakers to bi-amped JubScalas and added a second 500 Wpc amp, so now each woofer has 500 watts available to it and each tweeter has 500 watts available to it. "Available" is the key word. Most of the time the amps are putting out 1 watt or less, with the extra power just being used on musical peaks for a split-second. With the very high sensitivity of Klipsch speakers, even deafening sound levels probably use less than 10 watts, so there's not much chance of ever using full power and putting the speakers at risk, unless some drunk decides to see how loud they'll go. Not too many of those fools in my living room. The only things to be really careful of are making sure the volume is turned way down before powering off the system, so you don't get a loud surprise the next time you turn it on, as well as turning down the volume when switching inputs, because the volume is turned up somewhat higher when listening to LPs than CDs or TV, since phono cartridges put out relatively low power compared to the other audio inputs. Finally, your speakers should sound better than ever, since the headroom that the high powered amp provides will give you more realistic transients, even at low volume, along with a greater sense of the actual presence of the musical instruments in your listening room. If you don't go crazy with the volume knob, you should be fine.