Daan

Hi Nico... Good story. Thanks. As a 2-way, I assume your crossover is something like 1KHz or so? Did you ever try reversing your amps, and put the Zen amps on the driver that carries all the fundamentals and put the Bryston on the driver that is carrying all the over tones? I would bet that the Zen amps are the better sounding of those two, and might make quite an improvement to your vocals. The Decware's are configured as mono's , each driving only one 2" Beyma driver for mid and high frequencies, each channel of the Bryston 4B drives a C-15W woofer, don't know if that was clear from my earlier post. This combination is sounding delicate and detailed, yet when pushed hard with one of my favorite "Kodo" Japanese drum tracks delivers punches that are like the real thing accoarding to my ears and stomache . With only the Decwares powering the old [3-way] setup this was not the case; they lacked the control over the C-15 W's. BTW; sorry for beeing ignorant but not sure what you mean by "carrying all the overtones".

Haha, you got me there. The favorite position of my legs [after standing on them all day], is horizontal and pointing to the middle of the speakers so I let my children do the dancing. You can say a lot of things about any given audioset, wether passive or active but when your toes come to life while listening you know it's GOOD !

No, I didn't. But I did move from ; CD player- passive pre [only a high-end pot actually] - two Decware Zen tube mono's- ALK Universals- University Classics [three way] to a completely different setup. Now it's ; CD player- passive pre- miniDsp- two Decware Zen tube mono's [mid-high] and Bryston 4B [lows]- University Classics [two-way]. Ofcourse it's no real comparison between passive and active because I changed more things at the same time, BUT to our ears well-known CD's especially the live recorded ones never sounded so realistic. Now I'm not a sound engineer [.....far from that....] but always use the ears of my wife and myself to decide wether a change in the setup is a UPgrade or DOWNgrade. Both our opinion is that this mix of tubes, SS and active setup sounds better [as in more realistic] after carefully finetuning than with any passive setup we previously had. Only work the miniDSP does; provide the crossoverpoints, minimal EQ on the Beyma CP750Ti drivers [to correct the high frequency-rolloff of that driver] and 3.4 milisecond time-delay for the woofer. We hear more detail, ambiance and depth in all our favorite songs we know so well, so for us it's a UPgrade; our toes wiggle and our two little boys dancing thru the room with lively music-material A few days ago my wife said " it's like the words of the song have more meaning now", which told me we were heading in the right direction. My 2 cents...... Nico

X2

Nothing much

Who can help me getting one? Over here [NL] they're nowhere to be found.... any help is appreciated. Thanks, Nico

If those were in Europe I'd buy them right away for that money. Over here things like that are nowhere to be found and when a set pops up they're abused or stored in a damp place. These are the best pair of early Khorns I've seen in years... I was already happy as can be when I found my "untouched" K-C-FB 's some time ago local. Phoned the seller right away and jumped in my car next day to get them. Really hope these early ones go to a good home.

X2 "and that's all I have to say about it.." [Forrest Gump]

Same experience over here in The Netherlands. Used his cast frame woofers and CT-125's in the La Scala's with great result. I second the "fast reply" comments, he made me feel a appreciated customer though only buying a few components.

I had a La Scala setup with subwoofer as well, which worked fine for some years for me ; tight upper bass from the LS's and from 60 to 20Hz supported by a REL Strata 3 . Now with a active setup, using University Classics and a miniDSP I am hearing faster, "tighter" bass than with that setup; I'm selling the REL now. It sure sounds more realistic using the 15" woofers for bass without a added [closed-type] subwoofer. A bit less deep but MUCH tighter. What also makes a difference is that I'm using a Bryston 4B SS amp on the low section and tubes for the mid/high-section of the 2-way system. Best of both worlds IMO. My 2cnts; If you want real deep bass; go for a good quality closed subwoofer. If you want realistic bass; go for a big hornsystem and sacrify some low-end.

After reading this thread and watching the video a idea came to me, for at work I stored my recently bought Khorns, waiting for a bigger home in the future. I also got a pair of La Scala's I could not part with yet, stashed at a friend's place. Now there's a elderly-home at the end of our street just 200metres from here, what if go over there and ask if they have a room I can use to play music for the residents once a week or so. The Khorns and LS's should have a purpose right now and I'd be able to listen to them myself as well. I got spare audio-gear enough as well to power them. We'll be on vacation with the family for a week first and then I will visit the elderly-home to have a chat there. Thanks for starting this thread billybob, my wife said I'm crazy for buying the Khorns [ no room enough in our current home] and for not selling the LS's yet....maybe there's a reason after all and they can be put to use. Will let you know how it goes.

Very educative, fun to watch. Thanks for sharing this video showing a craftsman at work.

Have a MONO SETUP with a BIG HORNSYSTEM ..... One day I heard such a setup and couldn't believe the realism of it playing a opera. Made me forget about the need for stereo completely.

You are right about that, currently I'm using a 2" driver/ horn combo as well in a 2-way setup. I can tell you one thing though; three weeks back I swapped the modded [ 2-way] University Classics for the Khorns just to test them temporarily before putting them in storage and guess what.... the same thing happened regarding dynamics. The Khorns play with the same "speed" as I remember from the LS's more than 25 years back when I heard them for the first time. Right after starting to mod the LS's they sounded more natural, but a part of that "speed" seemed gone. With "speed" I mean the difference between sheer dynamics or a more "mellow [ relaxed ] sound". After modding the LS's they sounded way more natural as said before, but also more relaxed; did not startle me anymore like the original setup could. Friends listening to the original LS's said they almost crapped their pants during a recording with some full-orchestal attacks in it. It's like choosing between two characters; one that will have you on the edge of your seat but wear you out in an hour or so, OR one that will sound more relaxed but will enable you to listen all day..... Nico

Before you do that; be aware that choosing a different horn for mids will completely change te overall sound. I noticed that with other midhorns it all sounded more natural and less agressive to the ear, BUT not as dynamic as with the K-400's . Before you buy a replacement-horn like a tractrix design , I think you should know this. Nico

After removing the wooferpanels of my K-C-FB Klipschorns I found the K33-V woofers; I'm surprised how these 41 year old woofers still look like new looking at the cones and surrounds. Looks like they can easily play for another generation, just like the rest of the drivers of the set.

If only everything was made by craftsmen with so much attention for detail .....

I still love a good designed crossover network but what sounds good for one does not for another. Treble for instance; my brother-in-law likes it loud where my wife and I realized years ago that while listening to live music there isn't that much treble at all. So while a good crossover will upgrade most OEM crossover, it can't compete against a properly set up active system which enables the listener to tailor the sound he's hearing. For people who's hobby simply is listening to music; stick with a proper crossover [yours are very fine examples DeanG ]. For those who want to be in full control and want to be able to adapt almost anything to their liking [ even after changing components or speakers] ; go for a good quality active setup IMO.

Max2; after changing from the ALK networks in my La Scala's [and later in the Universal Classics] to bi-amping with a miniDSP I heard details I never knew were there in my favorite recordings.. At first I was very reluctant as well to put more electronics in the signalpath, but I ended up with a even more natural sounding system.

-When you can't beat them - join them. -be aware of what you wish for - you might just get it. -when you want to catch a big fish - you first have to catch a small one to put on your hook. -remove obstacles in your life so that your children won't stumble over them and fall. -when you try to become the parent you always wanted to have yourself , then you might grow to understand yours. -for the good things in life ; better sooner than later, better later than never...

Thanks for your thoughts; I must admit I might be getting too anal about connections and such... it's good to read your opinions about this. It started after buying a point-to-point wired tube amp that sounded so much better than the previous one [which had a printed cicuit board] that I started to wonder about this. No doubt only a handfull of people can hear any real difference, if any. For me it's just one way to satisfy my "less is more" apetite... If I had received one dollar for every raised eyebrow when telling people about the difference in sound after changing to V-caps... then I would be a rich man! [ moral of the story; do what feels and sounds good for you]. Nico

As convinced as I am about the difference in soundquality these crossovers provide, one thing puzzles me... We all buy interconnects and speakercables of high quality, connectors that do not corrode and even wall sockets and special plugs for main power. All this to minimize the losses while our music-signal is travelling form the source to the end of the chain; our loudspeakers. Why is it then, that a beautifull crossover like this is still equipped with the old-style terminal with so many connections the signal has to travel through? I investigated this while upgrading my La Scala's with the bass-mod; the ALK's would not fit in the top section because of the bassports in the back, so I'd repositioned the connections. After getting rid of the screw-type bar with connections and soldering the speakerleads directly to the crossover, I noticed that there was a small improvement in the highs [less harshness] and micro-details seemed more clear than before. Wether that was imagination or not; when you count the number of "transitions" involved when you use the bar-with-screws-type connector [with spades on the speakerlead to begin with] OR connect the leads directly to the components of the crossover themselves, you could start to wonder if it was imagination or not. One of the most striking comments I got when a technical engineer was visiting us to have a listen and said; " so you're into the high-efficiency thing that lets you hear every little detail..., what did you do to keep the complete signalpath short and clean? " As always, I'm open for thoughs about this; over the last years I try to hang on to the " less is more" idea when it comes to stereo and I like it. Nico

Hand build, 8 channel competition car amp build by yours truly. Four oldskool [90's] Phoenix gold MS275 amps in a MS1000 heatsink. Maybe a bit off-topic but still amp porn IMO....

Thanks for the info, for me things like these signatures make the speakers unique though I never knew them in person. These old labels are one of the things that expresses these loudspeakers were build by hand with care and attention; try to explain that to our modern generation. My heart missed a beat when I saw the well-known labels on the Klipschorns I recently bought; if those labels had been removed or painted over I doubt if I would have bought them so soon. In the past I used to tune motorcycles; after finetuning a engine I used to engrave my initials in a hidden corner. Some 30 years later I found my own initials engraved in a engine I was asked to rebuild; a weird feeling came over me like the past was staring me in the face. I guess when the people who build "our Klipsch speakers" would see their name on those old labels again they would feel the same. Nico

One of my La Scala's. Signature just readable [old pic].