jhoak

More specifically is anyone using one with tube amps?

I have a line on a pair of Dynaco MK IV mono-blocks at what appears to be a very fair price. We're not talking a "garage sale" give away price. The owner knows what they are. They were rebuilt / upgraded a couple of years ago by Craig at NOS Valves. The seller claims that they've had very few hours of run time since then. They have new "all triode" front ends installed. 2 - 12AU7 per board according to the NOS Valves invoice. He also did the full boat cap upgrade. If I get them they'll be driving a pair of recently rebuilt Klipsch La Scalas. Front end duty will be handled by a Marantz 2240 by way of the pre-out connections until I can find and afford a more suitable preamp. The usual sources TT, CD, AppleTV, DTV, etc. Are they worth driving 3+ hours (round trip) to look at and possibly acquire? What questions should I be asking him? I'm not asking from a $$ point of view but rather from a technical merit (or lack thereof) point of view. Are Dynaco MK IVs decent amps?

I'm probably going to get seriously flamed for this but... I think that if working within Klipsch designed crossovers changing caps will provide at best incremental improvements regardless of budget. That said changing out the entire crossover to an ALK or Dean G is an entirely different matter If you're looking for "bang for buck" upgrades to your La Scalas you need to be looking at trachorns. Personally I have a pair of the horns built by GotHover in my La Scalas and could not be happier. I've heard a pair built by Greg Roberts trachorns installed in Mike Lindsey's Klipschorns but those speakers are on a whole different level from mine as they should be. Stunning doesn't begin to describe the experience of those KHorns. I have not heard a pair of ALK trachorns but I have no doubt that they too are an amazing upgrade. OK guys... I'm decked out in my very best Nomex... Flame away

Thanks for all the knid words everyone. What you see here represents a LOT of hours of work. With quite a bit yet to do. I just couldn't stand walking through my garage day after day looking at them and not listening to them. The only time I have to work on them is the weekends. I suspect that I could have finished in a week or so if that's all I had to work on. I'm going to listen to the for a couple of weeks, maybe a month before I make the conversion to ported. The good news is that by virtue of the design it'll take me about 30 minutes to convert them from regular La Scalas to ported La Scalas. Then I get to play with port lengths. Again easy to do. I can swap out port shelfs in under 15 minutes. For the last 3 months or so I've been listening to my "poor mans" Cornscalas. I got a pair of the PH-800 horns and the appropriate crossover bits from Mr. Crites. They're nice no doubt. They do have more bass extension. What they don't have is the accuracy of the La Scalas. At one point yesterday I had one La Scala and one Cornscala hooked up. By setting the old Marantz to mono and sliding the balance control I was able to give them a good A/B comparison. The La Scala won. Hands down. I don't suppose there's a marked for Cornscala cabinets without drivers? What's next? HMMM... I'm thinking tubes...

OK... So the next question becomes... Where do I place the Klipsch emblems? I have a few brass on black and a pair of "vintage" copper badges. I'd like a pair of "pie slice" logos but I hear they're kind of hard to come by. Help me properly ID my La Scalas.

And here's a shot of the whole "sound stage"...

Well they're done. OK... "mostly" done... I went to bed last night and laid there and pondered the project. What had I missed? What had I overlooked? What could have been done better? You know the usual paranoid delusions that haunt people like me. Having drifted off to sleep without any significant changes in mind I got up this morning and set about the task at hand. One of the things that did come to mind was that fact that it has been 3 months or so since I listened to them as "La Scalas". I have not heard them with the current amplifier (Marantz 2240), or the current turntable (Clearaudio Emotion) so I made the decision to put them back to original configuration for a while before I implemented the porting. At this point they've undergone a couple of MAJOR changes. Most notable are the trachhorns from GotHover. I just thought it prudent to step in to the upgrades one at a time to best judge which ones matter. Here's the picture of the left one. The right one looks just like it's partner.

You mean something like this???

Ditto... Oh yea... Been there... Done that... Lost my T-Shirt... Along with pretty much everything else... Question... Why is divorce SO expensive? Answer... Because it's worth it. []

Thank you!!! I'm really REALLY anxious to get them put back together and in the living room doing what they were designed to do. Making music.

My son stopped by the house this afternoon for his usual Saturday afternoon "I need some $$"... err... Chat... While talking to him I mentioned that I'd come to a decison about some changes to the living room 5.1 system versus the 2 channel system. Very much in passing I said "yea.. I'll be posting the Heresys on Craigslist soon. He perks up a bit and tells me that one of his coworkers is looking for a nice pair of Heresys. He calls him and about 30 minutes later this guy (let's call him Bill) shows up. Bill comes in to the spare bedroom where I currently have (had) the Heresys set up in a 2-channel system and stops in his tracks. He looks at me and says "They're identical to the ones I already have". Well after a just a few minutes of listening he says "yea I want them". He strokes a check and away they go to a new home. I'm really torn right now between sad that they're gone and happy that they're in a "good home". You see he already has a pair of 83 HBRs that he bought new in 83. Mine were the first pair of "matching" Heresys that he'd ever seen for sale. Let's just say that he was pretty jazzed to get them.

A different view...

New pictures... Veneer complete. 1st coat of Watco oil applied.

I'm not entirely sure how but I managed to toast one of the woofers in my KG-2s. I've already emailed Klipsch support to inquire about a replacement. Assuming that they're not available can anyone suggest a suitable, readily available replacement? I'm not opposed to purchasing a pair of them so they match if necessary. THANX!

Well I can scratch that idea... $1870 for cabinets. $1431 for drivers and crossovers. I think I can picke up a pretty nice set of Belles for $3300. Assuming of course I still want Belles once the La Scalas are finished.

I'm not Greg (though I am a fan of his work) but I'm pretty sure those are rosewood. Here's the link to the complete restoration http://www.dcchomes.com/NJkhorn.html Stunning work!!! If you get the time check out this one too http://www.dcchomes.com/FLKhorns.html I've actually heard these. AMAZING!!!

No worries. You're not interfering with anything. I know how this is going to shake out. He'll call me with the price for the cabinets and when the shock wears off I'll say something like "thanks, I'll let you know when I'm ready". I already know that he only works on what he wants to AND he gets premium prices for his work. He is though very very good. In the end I'll end up with the finished La Scalas blazing away in my living room with my fat a$$ on the couch, drink in hand and a big stupid grin on my face. I really don't see any problem with that. When you figure that a complete new driver compliment with crossover is close to $1500 no matter what the price is for the cabinets I can probably find some mint Klipsch built Bells cheaper if I'm patient.

I'll know more tonight or tomorrow. He's supposed to call me with pricing. I really wish I had a way to use KHorns in my living room but it just ain't gonna happen in my current house. How much for the La Scalas? HMMM... Well I guess that depends a lot on what he wants for the Belle cabinets. Have you seen the pictures of them? At the moment they're at a point where they could easily be "finished to order" for someone. Asuming the price on the Belle cabinets is reasonable I could even sell cabinets only and keep all of the drivers for the Belles. To be honest I really haven't given it all that much thought yet. If you haven't seen the pictures of the project they're here: http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/125734.aspx

My current 2 channel system consists of a Marantz 2240 receiver, a pair of Cornscalas, a Clearaudio Emotion turntable and a couple of digital sources. It sounds wonderful but I want to take it to the "next level". I have a couple of options available to me at my budget. Option #1 Add a tube amp, probably a Dynaco ST-70 or a pair of MKIIIs or the like with the budget being around $1000. Continue to use the 2240 as a preamp/phono stage until I can afford a decent preamp/phono stage. Option #2 There is a locally available set of 3 McIntosh components. A C-26 preamp, MR-73 tuner, and MC-2505 amp. These will meet my budget point assuming I'm able to sell the 2240 at a decent price. I defer to the vast accumulated wisdom, knowledge, and experience of the forum collective for guidance.

I'm not real sure where I should post this. It may be better off as an addendum to a previous post about La Scalas vs Bells. Then again it may well be better off a new post. Moderators... Please feel free to move this post to wherever you deem appropriate. First the back story... My father spent his working life building upper-middle-class custom homes. I worked for him for a few years and learned skills that still serve me well today. He's now retired and spends his days slowly driving my mother insane (something he excels at) and puttering around various construction projects mostly at their church. This evening I needed to stop by their house to drop off a few things. When I got there I discovered that they were entertaining a couple who have been close friends for 30+ years. The fellow who was there was also a builder (now retired) who rather than drive his wife insane opened a custom cabinet shop to occupy his time. He pretty much works on what he wants to when he wants to. I slipped in to my mother's “office” and quickly printed off the basic plans for La Scalas, Belles, and Klipschorns. I handed him the La Scala and Belle plans and asked which one would be easier to build. After a few minutes of study he says “they're about the same. Where one has a bit more complex geometry the other has a few more pieces. Pretty much a wash time and material wise. I then gave him the Klipschorn plans and and he says “Oh I've built some of these already. There's a doctor here in town who wanted four of them for his theater room”. I so want to see this theater room. After a few more minutes of chit-chat he reveals that he has a source on 1” thick Baltic Birch plywood. He wasn't sure if it was 13 or 15 or maybe 17 ply but he can get it. It ain't cheap but it's available. That said I asked him to cost me up a pair of Belle cabinets in 1” birch. I can veneer them if I get so inspired but I suspect that they're look pretty good as BBRs. I'll let you all know how this shakes out. Oh yea... Just one more thing... Anyone want to buy a pair of really nice La Scalas veneered in red oak?

So I'm going to bring this thread back for a few questions... 1) Now that you've had a couple of weeks to listen to them what's your take on the Selenium mid-drivers? Worse than / equal to/ better than the Atlas drivers? 2) How far does the horn lens on the tweeter extend from the motorboard? Assuming a .75" grill frame will the cloth clear the tweeters? 3) Here's the big one... Now that it's all said and done what would you do differently? THANX!

I have two "conflicting" Marantz + Klipsch experiences. One stellar one not so much First the not so much... I was running an Outlaw Audio 990 PrePro feeding a Marantz MM9000 5 channel amp driving a pair of Cornwalls at front, Heresys at surounds and Academy at center. Everything was crossed over to the IB sub at 80Hz as I recall. I guess I failed to see the part about 4 ohm loads on the amp. It never did like the speakers. It would run hot, sound bad, shut down and just generally give me fits. I sold the amp and the buyer hooked up a set of 8 ohm speakers and the last time I talked to him he gushed about the "Marantz" sound. Go figure... Now the stellar... I'm currently running my Cornscalas on a 74 vintage Marantz 2240 receiver. 40 watts per channel and it sounds spectacular. So much so that since installing it a few weeks ago I have not powered up my Pioneer Elite the first time. And the Pioneer is no slouch. It's no match for the Marantz though. All of that was to say that for the most part there's a great "synergy" between Klipsch and Marantz. Pay close attention to the impedence matching and you'll be a happy camper for years to come. Enjoy the music and have fun!!!

There are obviously a LOT of differences between the two. But it looks to me that the same basic design principals apply to both. Rear facing woofers with the sound "turning the corner" as it were to exit at the front. If memory serves the Belles are 6" or so wider overall than the La Scalas. My hunch is that is to give the doghouse enough internal volume to approximate the La Scalas. I'm not an engineer nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night so take my observations and suppositions as just that. Observations and suppositions. Hey... Wait a minute... I AM an engineer... Just not THAT kind of engineer. I haven't done the internal volume calculations on both, (I need to do that) but there are more similarities in design than differences. For example the motor board openings on both are identical 13” X 3”. The layout of the “ramps” is very similar as well I know that I studied plans for both extensively and recreated the La Scala plans in my CAD software from metric measurements. In the end it appeared to me that the Belles would be an easier build from scratch. Not as many complex cuts that would need to be done on consumer grade power tools. NOW... If I had access to a full blown cabinet shop... HMMM... I don't know. Belles would certainly fit my living room better than the La Scalas do. That said I didn't build either one. I ended up buying a pair of beater La Scalas that I'm in the process of bringing back to life. I only hope that they sound as good as they look at the end of the day. Have fun!!!

I think if I was "building from scratch" and HAD to have a folded horn I'd look at Belles over La Scalas. While there are more cuts they don't seem to be quite as complex. This coming from someone who spent 10 years doing finish carpentry and cabinet making for a living. Having spent a metric a$$load of hours on a La Scala rebuild/refinish project (that isn't done YET) I can tell you that getting that point in the front of the bass bin "just right" will be no easy task. Especially on "consumer" grade power tools. And you can count the amount of material I've run across a table saw in my life in miles not feet. Not being as deep as La Scalas Belles have a more forgiving footprint in most rooms. For woofers K-33s or Crites would be good with the Crites woofers putting out a couple of dB more than K-33s. Squawkers... 1st choice would be one of the Trachorns, probably by GotHover as they're shallow enough to fit in Belle tophats. 2nd choice Crites PH-800 horns though there's not a lot known about them spec wise and 3rd choice whatever Klipsch originally put in Belles with plastic horns being prefered over metal horns. Tweeters... Crites CT125s... No question. They OWN K-77s. As for crossovers... i choose to not enter that debate at this time. That said... If I weren't already eyeball deep $$ wise in my project in retrospect I should have cut up the old La Scala bass bins to use for fireplace fodder and just built a pair of Cornscalas. There are many here who have abandoned their La Scalas for Cornscalas. Do a search, you'll be stunned at the number of results. In particular look at the GWN Cornscallas. Absolutely stunning!!! I haven't heard them but I have a strong hunch that they'll absolutely SMOKE any La Scalas you could ever build or buy by a wide margin. I'm veneering my La Scalas in red oak as well. If you'd like to see them there's a few pictures at: http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/125734.aspx I'll post some more as I make some more progress and especially once they're done. I can't wait... Good luck and HAVE FUN!!!

Thanks for the encouragement!!! Grills? Yep... That's the plan. I have yet to paint the inside of the BBs. I'll need to finalize the color and starting on finishing just as soon as the last of the veneer goes on the La Scalas. When it's all said and done (many months from now) I'll end up with the La Scalas in oiled oak, a pair of 83 HBRs re-veneered in matching oiled oak and an Academy re-veneered in the same oiled oak. The Heresys already have the crossovers rebuilt but they'll get CT125 tweeters. I've got a new titanium diaphragm and a crossover rebuild kit for the Academy but I'm reserving that project for when the Academy is out of service during refinishing. I'm not sure what I'll do to entertain myself when that day arrives... I suspect I'll figure out something... []