EL34

Klipsch Cornwall loudspeakers, excellent condition. Perfect working order, some cosmetic blemishes from years of love. These are vintage, unmodified, from 1976 in the Laquered Walnut finish. Local pick-up in Salem VA only. $1800 Serious, reasonable offers only.

Woofer has been sold. Thanks guys.

I have one here.

Klipsch La Scala loudspeakers. Birch ply, stained cherry/pecan color in good condition with some wear. Tremendously dynamic sound, extreme high efficiency at 104db per watt. These are the same drivers as used on the Klipschorn loudspeakers in a smaller enclosure. 1983 build, made in the USA. $995 - Local pickup in Roanoke VA. I may deliver to a not so distant address if you don't have a truck but you should of course stop by to see and hear them first. For more images, see also http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=260267352333http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem260267352333'>

The Rogue Audio preamps have phono stages that are based on the Stealth and which are scaled down for their application. The Metis preamp and Cronus integrated amp have a MM only version with a fixed 47k load. The Perseus has a fully adjustable MM/MC stage which most resembles the Stealths flexibility. All of the preamps have a pure tube line stage and excellent sound and build quality. The latest versions of the Rogue Audio preamps are very quiet, despite being pure tube designs. -Bill

Hi Mike, I am a dealer for Rogue Audio and I can say that not only are the amps made in PA, but they are all made by hand and to order. They have wonderful quality and customer service. They are located in Brodheadsville PA, which is probably only like 30-45 minutes from your house. You have no excuse not to visit! ;-). The MM phono stage is excellent, not merely good. Mark O'Brien is the head of the company and is a vinyl fan. The unit also features a headphone amp and remote volume control. It weighs 55 lbs and sports output transformers capable of 90wpc. The amp can come configured with KT77 or EL34 output tubes. The phono section and headphone amp are solid state and offer very low noise and excellent linearity. The preamp and power amp sections are pure tube with solid state regulation. It has a very dynamic and clean sound for a tubed amplifier, with very good frequency extension and bass control. It gets those things right that many tubed amplifiers cannot, yet it still has the soundstage and flow of a tube amp. It is one of my favorite amps and offers a tremendous value. Definitely worth checking out. The bias is easy to set. The amp has a built-in meter that is very attractive and is of good quality. It has the switches to select which tube that you are seeing the reading of and the adjustment pots under a metal hood in the top of the chassis. They even include an insulated tool for the purpose. Parts quality throughout is amazing. Most amazing is that you get all of this for not too much more than a Chinese made unit with similar power! -Bill www.rogueaudio.com

As firitz has indicated, they really don't have low bass output and if that is what you want, you need to add subs. A pair of CV scoops and an electronic x-over would be most impressive... and deafening ;-). -Bill

I actually meant to post it here. I think it is better for discussion. I don't really expect anyone here to buy them, I just thought that I would give you guys the first shot, as I did with my Cornwalls. Then they go out to eBay, etc. I'll put them on the "Used and Demo Gear" page on my website first also. It is fun to see if there are any comments about a particular model. The La Scala is more ubiquitous, so I doubt it in this case. My Corwalls were what I found to be the very sweetest version of many IMO, after researching them quite a bit. They are my favorites and would have been keepers at least for a while, if I could have made them work in my room. -Bill

Hi, Sorry about the ommission of price. I am super busy these past few days. I am selling them for the going rate, $1000, you pick them up. Here is an image of them and a link or three of others so as to conserve bandwidth here (we all know what La Scalas look like anyway, eh?). They may be a little lighter and golden looking in your homes lighting or in natural light. The color is fairly accurate on my monitor but a little dark and a touch red perhaps. http://www.uptownaudio.com/used/lascala2.jpg http://www.uptownaudio.com/used/lascala3.jpg http://www.uptownaudio.com/used/lascala4.jpg http://www.uptownaudio.com/used/lascala4.jpg

I have a pair of '83 La Scala for sale here. They are in perfect shape electrically and feature the Type AL crossovers, K-77 HF drivers, K-55-M / K-400 squawker, and K-33-E woofer in each. They were originally bare birch but were stained a rich orange lacquer color, darker than golden oak, more like cherry or pecan. I'll post pictures later if anyone wants to see them. there are some dings and I will be touching up the worst spots but there will still be places that you might want to redo if you are finish picky. -Bill

The plastic post is a "key" to line-up the tube pins with the appropriate holes on the tube socket. You just need to be sure that it goes back in the same way that it came out. The pin is probably rattling around inside the amp chassis and you could perhaps super glue it back on as a reference but it may not stay put like new. It will not effect the operation of the amp at all. -Bill

They must have sold them both ;-). I heard the K2 a few years ago and did not really care for it personally although it was rather impressive. The Everest is obviously the larger and more majestic of the two ;-). -Bill

Hi Audio Flynn, The Njoe Tjoeb is an older model Marantz CD player that is modified to add a tube output stage. So if you know what budget Marantz stuff looks like, then you know why it seems "less robust". In fairness the transport tray really plays no part in the sound of a well designed unit. I have never liked marantz gear sort of their very top end stuff and could never justify paying for that. Hi Carl, I am an authorised Jolida dealer and have been for ten years. I don't sell any modified gear but I can do modifications when needed. I don't believe that there is any merit in modifying CD players and really don't even like to modify their amps. The reason is that there are so many choices of CD players available that it is wasteful to pick one that is not performing to your satisfaction and then proceed to "invest" more money into it; I just recommend other models that meet the customer's needs. As far as the amp mods go, I typically only do really useful mods such as adding sub outs. The guys that have their own "my Jolida is better than yours" mods are just trying to pull customers away from other dealers and even squeeze a few more dollars out of them. Jolida can't warranty something that they haven't done. I have even seen some of these "mods" that don't do ANYTHING electrically, but rather just add different feet, etc to dampen the units. That would not void the warranty but I wouldn't want to pay for it either. The trouble there is that the Jolida gear was never designed to be a high end pproduct but a great value. These "mods" rob the units of that value - yuk. The Jolida JD100 player is their third generation CD player. I have been around to see the very first introduced and have of course tried out and sold each version. Their initial attempt at a tube based player was much like the Njoe Tjoeb in that they took an existing, budget player and modified it. It was a disaster as it was very unreliable. It sounded great! Really, it was one of the sweetest sounding tubed CD players that I have heard. It wasn't the most resolving or particularly neutral sounding unit but it had a HUGE soundstage. I mean amazing! The trouble was that it would skip if you tapped it or tilted it, etc and ultimately they all just stopped reading discs. The second generation player was much better in terms of reliability and was also a modified player but still had a cheap, plasticky feel to it. It lost the warmth and depth of the first player but gained resolution. It felt like and sounded the most like the Njoe Tjoeb to me. It maybe wasn't as well built as that even but it was very affordable and really didn't float my boat overall. The JD100 was the result of that learning curve. They just could not make a player of the quality that they wanted by modifying other products. With the JD100, they stamped their own heavy steel chassis and built it from the ground up. It is built like a tank and if you have ever lifted one, you know what I am talking about. The inside is very clean and well laid out and the output stage is a real tube output stage, not just a tube buffer like some other units. It also uses what may be the most common tube in the world in the 12AX7, so no funky stuff there. I like the player alright but they had to double the price of the unit to make it into its final version here at almost $1000. That puts it up there with some pretty stiff competition and no matter how I like the robust build quality and the smooth sound of it, I can always find another player that has better sonic traits. It is also a little on the warm and fuzzy side for me sonically and I like a very natural sounding front end. Many of my customers really like it and we just one yesterday actually. No one that bought one has ever claimed that I twisted their arm! -Bill

You should have had a plan for upgrading based on the driver specs. I guess you just "got lucky" and aquired a set of drivers that work and now you need to find mates. JBL does make some of the best horn drivers available. If you like those, you will love the TADs. Check these out: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/pg/album/compare/0,,2076_310070071,00.html I have never really been a fan of horn loudspeakers of any type. I do like the cream of the crop in the Tannoy and the TAD systems but don't really have any need or room for them. They are simply too big and too loud for my space. I have a customer who really likes the larger than life dynamics and has built a humongous, custom TAD system driven by an equally humongous stack of Bryston x-overs and mono amplifiers. It is ridiculously powerful and loud, but that's what he wanted. Personally, I prefer the Tannoy Dual Concentric designs for their near perfect phase and full frequency response. Either system is way more expensive than the Klipsch system, so the K-horn certainly has it's place in the price to performance ratio if you figure in loud and large at the top of the list. They certainly have a lot of fans around here and deservedly so. You will likely want to remove the x-over and use an active, adjustable filter such as those by Bryston or Marchand to get the thing to come back together properly. Set up a couple of lawn chairs out about 20 yds from the back porch and enjoy it before the cops show up ;-). I assume that you have it but you need a really big room for those to gel with any sort of drivers as they are so large and also require hard corners to get the low frequencies at the same level. I have seen photos of some small rooms with huge speakers in them that you would not believe. If I can find the one that I am thinking about, I'll share it. It hurts my ears just to think about it ;- ). Funnier still, I have a scale model of Tannoy horn loaded loudspeakers here that are really cute. They are a beautifully finished pair of working speakers that use 4" Dual concentric drivers and are only about the size of a shoebox. The real speakers were a vintage set that had a 15" Dual Concentric driver and so would have been just larger than the Cornwalls! -Bill

Hi Dave, Funny, but it worked for me (crumby map though ;-). Here is a better link that gives directions as well as better maps: http://www.uptownaudio.com/map.htm We are across the street from the Kroger (lower level Towers Shopping Center) in what was the original Record Exchange location. I've been there for ten years :-). -Bill

Hi Tom, I would leave this one to oscarsear, he seems to know about the amps. The 545 was a direct coupled amplifier and may very well have been the best that Adcom produced. You don't need to be concerned about the overall amount of power as much as the quality of the first few watts. You will probably never use more than 20-25 watts with a pair of Cornwalls or K-horns as they will be unbearable beyond that, so quality is of more importance than quantity. There is some risk with a direct coupled amplifier of damaging the speakers though. They sound most clear and have the best bass performance possible but they can pass pure DC voltage to the loudspeaker if there is DC offset in components in front of it (a tube preamp might be a prime example). I never really liked the 555 and agree with the poster who used them for 10 years and found them to be very harsh. I even find Sunfire gear to be somewhat harsh and if that is a major improvement, you can only imagine what it was like before! Perhaps the best amp they ever produces was the GFA-1A, but if not then I would vote for the GFA-545 II. The newer GFA-5800 had a warmer sound but was even more colored and I could not get past that. They did away with the brightness but not the noise. I can't recommend any of them with the larger Klipsch speakers. They would be OK for the smaller types with lower efficiency though. -Bill

Hi Dave, You are of course welcome to stop by the store. We also have another pair of Klipsch speakers here plus a couple other brands that we have taken in on trade. Lots of new gear as well naturally. Rick, I didn't take note of the values and ratings on the caps as I hadn't even given the speakers a serious listen when the photos were taken and I wasn't sure if I would be bypassing the high frequency or the mid and high or not. Typically, loudspeakers use 50v or 100v caps but they can be higher, it doesn't matter beyond that. The caps in there may or may not have been spec'd for a motor run application, i don't know. They are obviously not the older "oil can" style but are more modern film and foil types. The smaller caps are potted and they all look to be of very high quality so it was just a matter of whether or not I thought that the speakers would benefit from a bit more energy on the top end as to a bypass operation. After listening to them, I don't think it would be of much benefit really. They sound quite nice stock and are about as extended and clear as the drivers will allow. Nothing to knock about those x-overs, they are very substantial and hand off the signal to the drivers as they should. You don't see this type of quality and craftsmanship much more today as it is very expensive. The newer versions are less substantial and still run thousands of dollars new. The thing that I find most distracting about them is the size. That is the very reason they were sold in the first place. You don't need boxes this big to produce great sound anymore. You do need it to produce a huge output at lower frequencies with this style woofer however and I gotta say that they will do that when asked! Cello was very realistic in the lower registers. I guess I like classic style and workmanship, so I was attracted to these by those aspects. The monsterous size is also attractive in a he-man, power tool kinda way ;-). Every type of furniture and every type of sound presentaion has its fans in the audio world and this is no exception. They take "big old speakers" to the extreme and round back again for another slap on the forehead! -Bill

Hi Guys, These are new to me, I got them from the original owner and have been doing some research on the details of them and how they compare to others. It is obvious that all the contents are original and the original owner confirms this. He wasn't a tinkerer by any means. I have been enjoying the experience and also communicating with you folks here. Yes, that is a photo taken from a corner of my showroom. You can see more pics, although somewhat dated at: http://www.uptownaudio.com/about.htm & http://www.uptownaudio.com/Virtual%20Tour/tour.htm The photo file sizes are stupid big so they take a while to load if you have a dial up connection. We have completely new inventory and displays since the photos were taken but much of it is still of currently available products. Yes, we do have a lot of turntables set-up and ready to demo as well as packed and ready to take home! More than most stores in major metropolitan areas. I have been collecting Lp's for 30 years and am the local analog expert so I have brought that experience and enthusiasm with vinyl to the store. I have had most of the classic turntable models at one time or another and also do repairs and modifications to all sorts of equipment whether it is setting-up turntables, updating loudspeakers, repairing hi-fi gear including tube amps, and even restoring old guitar amplifiers and guitars. I struggle with the guitar as far as playing goes and don't have time to practice. I spend all of my time repairing and setting them up which is really how I got started with it in the first place. I do love to get a guitar and amp set-up to get some great tones ripping from them though! -Bill

Hi Joe, Just in case you might want an integrated rather than a power amp, the same exact amp was available in an integrated unit called the Orchid. They have discontinued that but they do have a low power KT88 amp that operates in triode called the MD SI 15 DT. That's a silly model number but you may find it to be more functional. It has 5w triode and 15w pentode, switchable operation and includes a remote control for about the same price as the Tulip. http://www.divertech.com/aslmgsi15dt.html -Bill

Hi Jake, You might like the Jolida. A lot of people do. I think the system gets too muddy with the 100 and the 1701 together though. If you have a Jolida dealer where you can hear some various pieces, I would give a listen to one of the pure tube amps instead. For about the same money, you could trade-in your 1701 and get a JD302. Then you might find the Sony ES to be a reasonable piece for a while. No doubt that the current round-up of players is better but I have never really warmed-up to the 1701 so much. If you do like it in your system (and it is certainly better than a lot of other options), then I would think that you would prefer a Cambridge Audio unit (or an Arcam for that matter). I actually has a 1701 in my home for a couple of years. My wife picked it out for a second system. We then went through a few others that she hasn't really cared for so much (my bust, I was just trying to keep her stuff more current) until I brought home the Rega Brio 3. That one is a keeper. The 1701 had a nice, warm sound to it but it was not so resolving and doesn't have the bass extension of the 1501 (the 1501 is pretty amazing really). I guess what I am trying to point out is synergy here. I always like to mate gear that keeps the overall system output in the neutral range from a frequency balance perspective and from a resolution and soundstage perspective. I don't like too forward and bright, and I don't like dull and WAY distant. A solid state CD player that has a warmer balance will work great with most any amplifier, but a tube based unit can introduce too much warmth and the bass can get slow and heavy, while the top end rolls off and develops peaks. Good tube gear costs a lot of money and there is usually a better alternative. You might think of it like a hybrid system just as you have now if you go with a SS player and a pure tube integrated. The pay off will be higher resolution and better linearity. The only down side is a slightly higher cost and tube replacements. Output tubes are going to be a maintanance cost with a pure tube amp and they do produce alot of heat if that is ever an issue. Good luck! -Bill

Hi Jim, I guess I don't deserve the same respect according to another user here, but hey that's no excuse to stoop to his level. I guess I took a shortcut there and just gave it a descriptive name rather than a lengthy review. Oh well. I think that you would really like the Rega Saturn then. It does some things that the 840C does but in a smoother, warmer way. They both clobber the 640C and I agree that the 640C is a really nice sounding player, especially for the price. The real cool thing about the 840C is the additional inputs for the DAC. I might buy one myself. I have been thinking about a system overhaul anyway. I have a really nice all SS system now and I have had it for a few years with only changes to the amp and speakers. I didn't change anything because I felt I needed to improve it, rather because my two year old daughter was making me nervous being in the same room with a nice pair of speakers. She has been real good and not messed-up anything but I am on the defensive about it so there is not a "first time". I think I will get this Rogue Audio Perseus preamp first and then maybe a power amp and whatever speaker flavor I am in the mood for at the time. I have a lot of nice brands available to choose from. Right now I just have a pair of powered monitors going so a preamp will do it for me for now. The 840C would serve as a great CD player and also a DAC for both my DVD player and Direct TV receiver. I am liking the idea! -Bill

Hey NOS, You crack me up! Try again when you catch up. And hey, you haven't seen my bookshelves! I also tried the Cornwalls with a smaller, solid state amp and of course it was cleaner when at idle and probably overall but it was even more Klipsch-like at that point. The tube amps do help to smooth the wrinkles and frequency extension is very good with the Rogue Audio amps so it doesn't get rolled off. Overall, they are what I had imagined. Almost made the cut for a take home trial but as I said earlier I don't really have room for them. Besides my "bookshelf" speakers sound better. I have to say that they do integrate better than other Klipsch speakers and some Altecs that I have had in the past. Just barely too big for the digs, too brash (sorry but they are), and they just don't quite have the resolution as others that I have already. They certainly play louder, so if I need to make an anouncement across the parking lot to wake-up the entire mall, - no problemo. The Altecs that I had were the same way in that regard. I could kill small mammels at 50 yds with a Barry manilow CD (but then, why would I want to ? :-/). -Bill

Yes, "Wifey" will be ordering a machine to install these in your nostrils. For her convenience (and since your La Scalas will not permit you to hear her cries from down the hallway), she will be able to merely give the attached cord a tug to summon you for other worldly duties such as snow shoveling, leaf raking, grass trimming, Argh - Gutter Cleaning!!!! No, stop... OW! ok, honey, I'm coming......

I would just buy a new, budget unit also. Take a look at the Cambridge Audio 640P if you want MC capability. If you don't need it and want to try out a tube phono in that system, the Bellari is a nice, warm sounding MM unit. The Music Hall is also really affordable. All of them are better than the typical old school phono preamps inside of receivers and integrated amps. If you want something much nicer, look out for a used Rogue Audio Stealth or a Dynavector P-75. Those will be more however and hold their value very well. -Bill

Hi Joe, That's the one that I was refering to. Not that particular amp, I can't vouch for it of course, but the new ones that I have sold are very sweet. It is strange that there are no power tubes with that one. That begs the questions "How did he test it?" and "What will he do if you put output tubes in it and it smokes?" Just would sort of make me look elsewhere. Of course it should make a lot of others look elsewhere too so if it is a good working amp, it should go cheap enough. You can also use 45's in that amp. The meter on the front is a digital bias meter. You can switch it off when you are using the amp and is a nice built-in feature. Mine didn't seem to run too hot so they might be easy on tubes also. If you like a low power amp, those are nice. -Bill