Islander

It's nice to think back on those simpler vehicles in that simpler time, but their high fuel consumption and need for new sparkplugs and a tuneup every 10k miles is something I'm happy to leave in the past. As well, here in my city, you can smell a '60s or '70s car when it drives by. They really do release a lot of pollutants into the air. I never noticed smell on mine. It was as clean a running rebuilt 400 small block with as much edlebrock as you could put on it. There was also all new headers dual exhaust and new mufflers. I didn't mind the 10K tune ups as the upside was lack of electronic everything. You are right of course once you develop a leak it will get that smell and at so me point all chevys do this. Back in the day, we were accustomed to the smell of car exhaust and barely noticed it. The newer cars don't smell, though, so when one of the old ones drives by, there's a sort of nostalgic odour that's easy to recognize.

Hmm, things seem to be back to normal. That was weird.

I wondered why I had the forum open in 5 windows, then I noticed that whenever I clicked on anything, it would open in a new page and the old page would remain open. Also, the scrolling function doesn't work, it just highlights whatever area the cursor is near. Is this just happening on my machine, or is anyone else noticing this? It just started late this afternoon.

You're kidding, right? It really has nothing to do with politics - battery technology simply isn't ready. In fact, many of the leading researchers make some really interesting claims about how the concept itself really isn't better. The gist is that you still need to generate the electricity that is charging the batteries - and most of that is going to come from oil powered power plants (if the switch to batteries actually happens). The problem is that batteries aren't 100% efficient and have some significant losses in adverse weather conditions - at the same time, the thermal efficiency of the automobile is about the same as the huge power stations...in the end, you're not gaining any efficiency by using batteries...even using a realistic ideal battery model Sure, there are alternative methods of creating electricity, but it's not like you can snap your fingers and change the entire power grid... Good points, Mike, plus the weight of the batteries is a serious issue. When the weight of the batteries is a significant portion of the weight of the vehicle, it's taking as much or more energy to move the batteries as it does to move the passengers. That's not efficient.

Way to go, Glenn! It really seems like common sense after a while, doesn't it? Those oddball diets of food that people don't like never work for very long. Eat healthy food that you actually like in the amounts you actually need and that simple idea can keep you healthy for the rest of your life.

It's nice to think back on those simpler vehicles in that simpler time, but their high fuel consumption and need for new sparkplugs and a tuneup every 10k miles is something I'm happy to leave in the past. As well, here in my city, you can smell a '60s or '70s car when it drives by. They really do release a lot of pollutants into the air.

Of course they're cute. Kittens are cute by definition, even kittens with kitten-sized helmets and battle axes.

Klipsch's numbering system got a bit mixed up in the 1990-1992 period. To get a fairly close approximation of the date of manufacture, you may want to see if you can spot the serial numbers on the woofers and then call Klipsch for date info. I ran into something similar with my second pair of Heresy IIs. I haven't taken the time to pull out the woofers yet, since 1990-92 is close enough for me at the moment.

Ideally, I'd like to have Jubilees, both the bass bins and the 402 horns, but they're beyond my budget at the present time and they're a bit bulky. The JubScalas are a relatively compact and inexpensive way to approximate the Jubilee sound.

The K-55 and K-77 drivers and the crossover are disconnected, then the woofer and the new tweeter are connected directly to their power amps, one for both tweeters and one for both woofers, with no resistors or capacitors in the signal path. Here's a rear 3/4 view of the new K-69A tweeter in the K510 horn. BTW, that right speaker is nowhere near a corner and the left speaker is 4 feet from its side wall, angled away from the wall.

Sure! It's a La Scala with a Jubilee tweeter in either a 510 or 402 horn, bi-amped with an active electronic crossover, or, less frequently, a passive crossover. The crossover settings smooth and boost the bass output, plus the modern tweeter takes the mids and highs to a new level of clarity. The tweeters (with the 510 horns) can be integrated into the LS cabinet, or set on top for a bigger sound. The 402 horns are bigger than the LS cabinet, so that's a different look altogether, but there's said to be even better sound.

Norse mythology can be cute! See: http://www.public.asu.edu/~mharp/viking_kittens/VikingKitten.htm

La Scalas are not Khorns, but they can be just as satisfying to listen to, as well as easier to get the best performance from. I was a little disappointed with the sound of my LSs when I first got them, but after a bit of tweaking and experimenting with positioning in the room, I was much happier. They don't have to be in corners, but they should be within a foot from the front wall. A sub is also strongly recommended, since their bass does roll off sooner than a Khorn's does. After a year-and-a-half of very good sound, I did the JubScala conversion and now I'm getting great sound. The only speakers I'd replace these guys with would be a pair of Jubilees.

Thanks for clearing that up, Don. Since my living room rarely has more than three or four people in it, my speakers should be well within their happy operating range, with headroom to spare, not that I was ever in any doubt. [H]

A couple of questions: first, if a pair of La Scalas are adequate for a 200-seat venue, would that be in the case of putting out rock concert/dance club volume, or for "making a speech" volume? Second, how would the design of the speakers be different if they were designed to be arrayed? Is it not as simple as adding more speakers to get more volume?

Good one! YAMAHA [Y]

If you could re-size your image file down below 200Kb in size, that would be appreciated. Even with high-speed cable, that picture took a couple of minutes to open.

After having said all that, I still like Corvettes. The new ones, like most other cars, are vastly better than the earlier models. If I was in the market for a sports car, the 'Vette would be at the top of my list.

I was referring to the ability (or lack of it) of some subs to match the transient (or impulse) response of the LS bass bin, which some subs are said to have difficulty with. As for distortion, the low bass region is the least critical in that regard. My father was a professional musician for a number of years, and he told me that when he was playing the string bass that most listeners could not even tell whether he was playing in tune or not. Distortion from tweeters is easy to hear, from woofers not so easy, and from subwoofers fairly difficult. Put your ear to the grille of a sub and see if you can pick out any distortion. I sure can't. When the string of a bass instrument is plucked (if it has strings, of course), most of the "pluck" sound is in the mid-bass or higher and doesn't come from the sub at all. The deep resonances of the instrument may come out of the sub, but if the pitch and impulse response are faithful to the sound of the live instrument, a little distortion from the sub will not be bothersome or even audible in most cases.

Although main, center and surround speakers should be timbre matched, the sub works in a different frequency range, so it's not as important to use the same brand as the other speakers.

Good idea! After all, the proof is in the listening.

Could it be that a smaller sub driver with a bigger amp might be more able to keep up with the speed of La Scala bass?

It's your time and money, but it would be simpler to just add a sub. Even a modified La Scala won't go that low, while a good-quality sub will reach down to 25Hz or lower.

You got that right!!!