Islander

Good advice!

First, welcome to the forum! When I joined the forum after I bought my 1974 La Scalas a couple of years ago, it felt like I had joined a club and I'm happy to still be a member. As for your La Scalas, starting with empty cabinets lets you choose the best components to put in them, but Klipsch parts aren't all that expensive anyway. Upgraded woofers often sound no better than the standard K33 woofers, for example. The Canadian supplier for Klipsch parts is Micron Electronics (http://www.microncanada.ca/), located in Mississauga. Two years ago, their price for K33 woofers was $175CAD apiece. Bob Crites, one of the forum members, has a good-quality replacement woofer that is popular with all who've bought one. He also sells crossovers and CT125 tweeters, which I've used and been very happy with. You can reach him at bobcrites@centurytel.net . If your cabinets are not in top shape, this would be the time to have them restored to like-new condition. Then, when you equip them with a full set of new components, you'll in effect have a brand new pair of La Scalas, which sold for around $5500USD in 2005, their last year of production. They've since been superseded by the La Scala II, which sells for around $7000CAD a pair in Canada. If you're in the Toronto area, Replay Electronics (http://www.replayelectronics.com/products.php) shows a new pair of original La Scalas on their site for $4999.00CAD, but the page hasn't been updated for some time.

Do you really need 130dB continuous in your living room, or do you just want your gear to have the top specifications?

That's a beautiful theater, but with the tables in front of all the seats, it looks sort of like it's made for conventions or large meetings or something like that.

Lemme ask ya this. Is it possible to mount the K510/K69 combo in the La Scala top sectoin. Granted you'd have to do some serious cutting to do so but is it too big to make the cut or would it just sqeeze in? This set up really appeals to me. Mounting the 510/K69 tweeters inside the La Scala cabinets would give a tidy look and a real upgrade in sound over the original squawkers and tweeters. The 510 horn is 9 inches tall and 15 inches wide, measured to its edges. The inside height of the LS top section is 10 inches, in my 1974 cabinets, at least, so it should be practical to fit the 510 horn in there. The opening in the front panel for the K400 is a bit over 16 inches wide, though, so to fill in the gaps you'd have to make up a pair of spacers about 5/8 inch wide to go on the sides of the 510 horns. The other way would be to just make up entirely new front panels, maybe even routed to allow the 510 horns to sit flush, but removing the original panel without doing any damage to the cabinet would be tricky. Also, the K-69 driver is a bit heavy, weighing nearly 11 pounds, so rather than hanging all that from the horn, you might want to either shorten the stand that comes with it, or make up a new one to suit the in-cabinet installation. I'd originally thought of fitting the 510s inside the cabinets, but I'm starting to like the effect of having the higher tweeters. The added height seems to give a bigger sound, but I'd have to try them at the usual height to be positive about that, plus they now line up with the mid-line of the TV screen, so the sound and sight tie in better. Of course, the quick and dirty way to check out the sound before you do any modifying would be to remove the K400 and the K-77, staple some grille cloth to the back of the La Scala top section front panel, and just screw the 510 horn into position. The K400's panel slot is about 5 1/2 inches high, while the opening in the 510 horn is around 6 3/4 inches high, so only a bit of it would be masked by the panel and the speakers would look sort of stock. Hope this is helpful.

I figured Roy would have it set so it sounds right, not so the settings look right, at least to my uninformed eyes. I'm not hearing any problems. As for the delay, the difference in horn length between the La Scala bass bin and the 510 is around 35 inches, so that's how I set the delay on channels 2 and 4. On the song Take This Waltz by Leonard Cohen, where there's a deep organ line keeping the beat with the vocals, it immediately sounded tighter and more together, but I think it would be less obvious with most other music. Since Roy's a pretty busy guy, I don't want to pester him just yet with some questions that I might answer for myself if I just listen a bit more. Thanks for your input, mike! All this stuff that's new to me seems to be old hat to you.

The LS bass bin is set to roll off above 420Hz and the 510 horn is set to roll off below 470Hz, both at 24dB/octave. These are Roy's settings and it seems to work fine, but with my limited knowledge, I wonder if that leaves a dip between 420 and 470? As for the sound, jc, I'm still not sure the sub is perfectly dialed in to the new setup, but in general I'm really happy. The sound was a bit bright for my taste, so I dialed the treble down 1dB (one of the many conveniences/advantages of the Dx 38) and that was an improvement. The 510/K-69 combo is a big step up from the K400/K-55V & CT125 pairing, but those were pretty good in the first place, so it's not like I went from garbage to gold, more like from silver to gold. Roy's settings also give the LS bass a bit of a boost, so I was able to turn the sub down 2.5dB, which is a good thing, since the sub is just there to assist the mains.

I see you have a sub. Is it properly integrated into your system so it's carrying its weight? If the sub is set too low, the the speakers will seem too bright at any given volume level.

This is certainly a sad story, but did no-one think of contacting the American or British police? Scammers like that get arrested regularly here.

A good sound system changes your perception of music. The realistic presentation means raucous music comes through in its undiluted form and soon gets tiresome. I like rock music (and I don't think for a minute that it's all raucous), but for all-day listening, I've really grown to like jazz this last couple of years. Ambient is good, too. It's much more relaxing. I can handle the sensation of a jazz trio in my living room all day. A hard rock band, not so much.

Here's a front view of the 510 JubScala. The height to the top of the 510 horn is 46 inches, higher than the La Scala's 34.5-inch cabinet, but shorter than a Klipschorn's 52-inch cabinet. It seems to work well with my 8-foot ceilings. I've since moved the tweeters nearer to the outside edge of the LS cabinets for a bit more stereo separation. The split setup is convenient that way.

In this picture, you can see a rear three-quarter view of the La Scala and its new tweeter. Although the new K-69 tweeter and the original K55V squawker both have two-inch throats, the K-69 has a much larger body than the K55, visible in the back of the cabinet. The cables aren't coming out of the speaker, they're just looped around the K55's support bracket so the weight of the cables doesn't tug on the connectors. The woofer cable is 8 gauge, while the tweeter cable is 10 gauge. The 510's support bracket is meant to be bolted to the bass bin, so without being bolted down, it tips forward. I cut a piece of Styrofoam to serve as a temporary support while I'm checking out how much I like the added height of the new tweeters.

Finally, here are some pictures of the 510 JubScalas. This one shows one of the 510 horns just out of the box. The grey box at the top of the audio rack is the EV Dx 38, the digital sound processor. At the bottom of the rack and on the floor beside it (on a slab of black ABS plastic) are a pair of Yamaha MX-D1 stereo power amps. Other than in magazines, I'd never seen a bi-amped system, so I thought I'd explain the connections for anyone unfamiliar with the concept. The Dx 38 has 2 channels in and 4 channels out. In1 and In2 are connected to the left and right Pre Out jacks on the receiver, for left and right channel. Out1 and Out3 are connected to the power amp on the left, which drives the La Scala woofers. Out2 and Out4 are connected to the power amp on the right, which drives the 510 horns with their K-69A tweeters. The existing tweeters and squawkers in the La Scalas, along with their AA crossovers, are disconnected, since the new tweeters and the Dx 38 are now taking care of the high frequencies. The K33 woofers operate as normal, but are connected directly to the power amp.

I've listened to a few high-end speakers and lots of mid-range ones and I've concluded that all speakers need the help of a sub. Simply put, a good-quality, properly integrated, sub lets you hear all the music. My La Scalas sound a bit thin when the sub is off. Some of the hi-fi mags even state that a good bottom end makes for a more natural-sounding midrange as well.

A sub set to Auto-On needs to hear a signal in its frequency range before it turns itself on. If the news is on when I turn on the system, the sub won't turn on if a woman (or a man with a high voice) is speaking. When a man with a deep voice starts talking, the sub turns on. I was surprised to learn that some people's normal voices go below 100Hz.

I received this today. I guess the thieves in Russia got envious of the money the Nigerian scammers were making. "Re-profiling" is a term I've never heard before, but it seems to mean money laundering. No mention of the currency, whether it's dollars, rubles, or Canadian Tire money. I am Mr. Robert Horton, I represent a top company executive in Russia. I have a very sensitive and private brief from this top executive to ask for your partnership to re-profile funds over twelve million . I will give the details subsequently, but in summary, the fund is from a holding bank in Russia where we have a considerable stake. We need to present You/your Company as a management consultant to undertake and complete this re-profiling job. This will be done legitimately. Details of your remuneration for your role will be discussed in subsequent correspondence if I am able to reach terms with you. If you wish to be recontacted email me at robert_inc1@yahoo.pl . Please keep this close to your chest as much as possible; we cannot afford any political problems with Moscow. Whatever your decision, I look forward to it. Regards, Robert Horton

I've never noticed an audible difference in damping factor, but there's a very noticeable difference in transient sounds with different gauges of speaker cable. Drumbeats and handclaps sound markedly more realistic with bigger cable.

A scary moment, but I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted to miss it. Who else will be able to top getting just missed by a crashing jet airplane? As well, no-one was injured, so it ended about as well as it possibly could have.

That's the downside of realistic, lifelike, recordings. Don't we all remember being at concerts when the applause was really loud, then some guy or girl right behind or beside you feels the need to whistle piercingly loudly, over and over? And then there's the "Whooo!" girls, who have to yell that out all the time. I used to live with one of those girls, until I came to my senses.

mdeneen: I gotta admit fellas, I am mystified by the strategy of putting a 250W amplifier on a tweeter. I've been doing audio for 40 years and I can't figure this one out! I agree. I'm using a 500Wpc amplifier with my tweeters. It seemed logical, since it matches the amp that's driving the woofers. Interestingly, the tweeter amp seems to run a little warmer than the woofer amp, although "warm" in this case means barely above room temperature. Right now I'm listening to James Taylor at about 70dB and probably using a few tenths of a watt, but the available headroom...

That's normal. On my Yamaha receiver, CDs sound good at around -30dB, while LPs need to be turned up to -18 to -12dB to get enough volume. Another post mentioned output voltages, but the numbers were off. CD players put out 1-2 volts, while MM cartridges put out only 2-5 millivolts. Your receiver's built-in phono pre-amp will boost that up to usable level, not CD level. More boost might mean more noise, so having to turn up the volume a bit is no big deal, as long as you remember to turn it back down when switching inputs. MC cartridges put out way less than MM catridges and need a separate phono pre-amp to get any decent volume.

14 gauge is fine. 12 gauge might be just a little better.

My turntable came with a blue PlatterMatter and I'm pleased with it. It's quite thick, but not tacky. Adding a Michell record clamp improved the sound, but I had to get the Rega version, since the thick mat left less spindle protruding than usual. The Technics turntable has adjustable VTA, so it was easy to adjust for the extra thickness.

"Take-a-guess" engineering sounds pretty chancy. Why not just get the Heresy III upgrade kit for them? It costs $272 per speaker and includes new tweeters and woofers, plus new crossovers, leaving only the midrange horn from the Heresy II. The kit is available from Klipsch Parts and a Heresy II with these upgrades is considered a real Heresy III. People who've installed the kit are happy with the improved clarity and bass response, plus the 2dB increase in sensitivity (97dB/1W/1m to 99dB/1W/1m).

Another point in favour of the CT125s is that their output is very consistent from one to the next, like within 0.5dB in the pair I got. The K-77s the speakers came with had 2-3dB variation in output between them. Matched tweeters should give improved stereo imaging, you would think, although when I installed them, the speakers were too close together (5 feet apart) to really tell. At any rate, the sound was much improved with the CT125s.