Islander

You may be right, but since my ears seem to lack some high end extension, the tweeters' response sounds fine in my system...[H]

The K69 is a tweeter, so you could go with 402 horns for your midrange, with the drivers they're usually supplied with, and use 510 horns for tweeters. Here's info on the 3-way Jubilee. I believe there is only one of them in home use. All the others are the 2-way models. http://www.klipsch.com/products/details/kpt-jubilee-535.aspx

I asked about that when I first got my Scalas a couple of years ago and the consensus is that the cabinet is sufficiently heavy, with such a wide and deep footprint, that it's stable enough that spikes wouldn't make any appreciable difference. They'll be sitting pretty firmly on that carpet. If your La Scalas are over 15 or 20 years old, you might want to replace the caps in the crossovers. That will bring the crossovers back to stock spec and you'll hear the difference right away.

The Jubilee is a 2-way speaker with no mid driver, although there is a 3-way theatre version. The Jubilee bass bin has two 12-inch drivers and the tweeter is a K69 driver mounted in either a K402 (very large) horn or a K510 (not so large) horn. You can also approximate a Jubilee with a JubScala, which is a Jubilee tweeter, with either 402 or 510 horn, mounted on a La Scala bass bin or complete cabinet. It's not a full Jubilee, but it's more compact and less expensive. In either case, you'll need two amplifiers, since the Jubilee is designed to be bi-amped. As for the comparison with the Klipschorn mid and high, the Jubilee tweeter is a big step beyond, especially in clarity and detail.

I did say I had nothing against Onkyo. My point was that you should choose the item you want based on the item, not on the price. A year from now, a few bucks one way or the other won't matter, as long as you have the item that pleases you. And no, Youthman, I can't take credit for that quote. It's a classic from many years ago.

Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten... Nothing against the Onkyo gear, but price isn't everything.

I'm using a Yamaha RX-V750 with 2 Yamaha MX-D1 power amps to drive my main speakers and the sound is excellent.

The Knukonceptz Karma Kable is pretty good and not too expensive. As for size, most people recommend at least 14 gauge, but 12 gauge is a bit better and doesn't cost much more. It's one area where most people can afford not to compromise. http://www.knukonceptz.com/productMaster.cfm?category=Karma%20SS%20Speaker%20Kable When you add in how much cable you'll need for your surrounds, you might be surprised. My system is 5.1 now, but when it was 7.1, I bought around 300 feet of cable. Of course, cheaper cable may be adequate for the surrounds, but don't go smaller to save money, since resistance adds up with length and surround runs tend to be the longest.

More power and maybe a phono input. If both of those are irrelevant to you, the 463 would be fine for you. However, if you hang around here for a while, you'll learn all kinds of reasons why you should buy more and bigger speakers, then better electronics to drive them, and so on and so on... []

The RX-V463 will likely serve you well. There are quite a few forum members, including myself, using Yamaha AV receivers in their systems. Keep in mind, though, that this year's budget may seem too conservative before long. If you plan on never upgrading, it makes sense to put together a system with all the pieces being of comparable quality and performance, but if you think you might want more down the road, a few hundred dollars more would move you up the range of receivers and might cost less in the long run.

A La Scala on its side with a 402 on top of it? That actually sounds kind of sensible. The height might work out well, too, since the speakers would not be so large as to dominate the room the way a pair of Jubilees would. The simplest way to stiffen up the side panels would be to glue and screw a sheet of plywood to them, so they'd be 1 1/2" thick, if you used 3/4" to match the existing sides. However, when using a sub to assist the LS on the low end, the flexy sides seem to be more of a theoretical problem than a real one. With the standard LS, it was no problem in my setup and it seems to be no problem with the JubScalas either.

I've been enjoying my Technics SL-1400MK2 with Shure M97xE cart for over three years. It was probably made in 1978 and still works fine, other than the auto-lift at the end of the record not working. I also had the audio cables replaced with better-quality ones when one of the originals failed. It's a set-and-forget kind of dependable and good-sounding turntable.

Okay, that makes sense. PWK certainly was no "audiophool".

I'd second the Jubilee option. After all, they are PWK's (and Roy's) crowning achievement. See how to build Jubilees here: http://www.jubilation.ws/

Perhaps I'm not understanding what you mean, Mark, but that seems an odd statement. PWK devoted most of his life to designing and developing speakers that would reproduce music as accurately and realistically as possible. Wouldn't that make him very much an audiophile, or are you using the term in a different sense altogether?

Maybe you need the "mini-spades", the size used with barrier strips. I was able to find some gold-plated crimp-on ones that would accept 8 gauge cable at a local car audio shop. I crimped them onto the speaker cables, then soldered them as well, for extra strength and to fill in any air gaps.

I agree that buying Heritage is the way to go, as long as you have the room. The sound is great and it's actually the more economical way to go. Upgrading your system in a few big steps is more satisfying and less expensive than many small steps.

I've been using my La Scalas, and now JubScalas, with Yamaha electronics for a couple of years and I'm really happy with the sound. The most popular brands of receivers on the forum seem to be Yamaha, Denon and Harman Kardon, plus there are some Onkyo fans.

I'd change the caps right away, which should bring the crossovers back to proper performance. With fresh caps in their AA crossovers, my 1974 La Scalas sounded good to me at all volume levels. Well, replacing the K-77s with a pair of CT125s helped, but that was after changing the caps.

You could try the BFA bananas from Audioquest. They fit up to 9 gauge cable and are tightened to the cable with setscrews. They even come with a neat little Allen wrench to tighten the screws. You wouldn't need heat sleeves. The insulators are black and red, 2 of each in a set of 4 for $20. They're available in silver or gold, as shown in the picture. http://www.needledoctor.com/Brand-Stores/Audioquest-Audio-Connectors

Replacing the caps will bring the crossovers back to original spec and performance, since the other crossover components don't seem to suffer from age in the same way. As for the tweeters, I'd recommend a pair of Bob Crites' CT125s. They sound noticeably clearer than the standard K-77s that you have and are a suitable replacement. My La Scalas are 1974 models and I did both changes to them, first the caps and then the tweeters. I ordered them at the same time, but wanted to be sure that both items made a difference. They sure did!

Modern high compression engines run well with low-octane gasoline because of better combustion chamber design. Even as far back as the mid-1980s, some motorcycles had 11-11.5:1 compression engines that would run happily on regular fuel, while older engine designs would need premium, even at 8.5:1 compression ratios. As for the engine management system limiting knocking, it's done by retarding the ignition timing, not by lowering the engine revs. Some performance-oriented cars will run as much spark advance as the octane rating of the fuel in the tank will permit, so with those cars, using higher octane fuel will allow higher horsepower.

Not necessarily. There are generic tartans and plaids that you can get as kilts, that aren't affiliated with a particular clan. I work at a small Presbyterian college, and a number of the men wear kilts, especially for dress occasions. There is a drum and pipe group that plays for convocation, when all the faculty march in and are introduced to the freshmen class. For this they wear the dress kilts, and all the accessories. A couple will wear standard work kilts on a regular basis. Thanks for clearing that up. Could it be that the black kilts are for informal occasions, sort of like jeans instead of dress pants? That certainly is a pretty humourous site. Let freedom swing!

So is that where the band Everclear's name came from? I've never heard that name anywhere else.

Phallo"logical"? That makes sense, since women often claim that men's reasoning is overly influenced by their members...