justinsweber

If vintage is an option... The king for refurb is Dynaco SCA35 (Dynakitparts even has started selling new chassis again. (Ive owned 2 and loved them... They make a perfect project... and youll be left with 18watts with a phono stage :-).

Id go with some version of NOS tube... RCA or KENRAD... prob worth the money. I personally prefer the sound of 6L6s to EL34... Once you get and use for a while goto tube depot and go wild... Lots of options. The owner of musical paradise has spoken directly on a few posts on audio karma... He designs in canada and builds in asia... That said he amps look well made. I don't think its the last word by any means... but defin an amp to be proud to use and has some nice features... vol pot and 2 inputs. Looking on ebay... Id get it stock and buy my driver tube off ebay or tube depot.

My strong suggestion would be to by a Dynaco ST35 kit from Dynacokitparts.com incredible service... he will even solder your PCBs.... Dynacos have a cult following and many many many on here can help. The ST35 will be more than enough power and will be super reliable. We can even help you add a vol pot. http://www.dynakitparts.com/dynakit-products/amplifier-kits/ST-35-KIT If not, my 2nd strong choice is musical paradise MP-301…. Great amp… Go dynaco if you want pride of building… go Musical Paradise for entry level that punches above its weight. http://www.musicalparadise.ca/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=54

I think Dave includes a jig... all you need then is a router for a clean opening for the horn...which ever you chose.

OK after ½ mile walk to a meeting and some reflection. I will be keeping the K401 unless a Fastlaneaudio la Scala horns drop from the sky. I’ve heard them and a truly worthwhile upgrade but this is a garage/PA rig. If I were upgrading a Stock La Scala ALK cornscalawal crossover would be the absolute1st thing… That way I could dial my sound in. Dave’s HF horn and new driver would be next and followed by a new mid horn. I would then cut the tophat off… shorten it and have some cool LS monsters. Perhaps it’s upgrade-it is, or realization that sound great now… but I will call it good unless someone will do the work for me, (so not happening). Dave any desire to install your mid and HF horns and cut my top-hats down?... I supsect it will be silence I hear from now on. :-) As an aside. the D250X HD is a pretty incredible driver. Im not sure if Dave us using it with his Radial horn but it is a sweet driver regardless of price... the price is just the bonus.

Many prayers

So the crossovers came in yesterday and I as always, ALKs packing is 1st rate. Each crossover was individually padded within its own sub-package. Not really fancy wrapping but time consuming with attention to detail. I screwed the crossovers down and screwed down the wire leads… Taking the time to make the connections with fork ends crimped/ soldered into place and either tinned or with push on connectors definitely was a good idea. The Top-hat consists of the tweeter (Eminence APT-200) Klipsch K-401 paired to a Selenium D250X HD. After getting everything put and running and changing the auto former to -9 and setting the tweeter adjustment to the middle I removed my Eliptrac 400/ B&C DE85TN (AP12-500). I have to say it sounded like ***… super thin… very bad… not as expected. So then I broke out the noisy amp and set for pink noise and measured. The Mids were crazy low and the woofer (Eminence Kappa 15C) was running over it. So I started to move down on the auto former… 1st -6 better but not there. -3 WOW ok so I have a cornscala here. I then tried -3 with +1 tap used.. Seemed better but at 1db difference, I set it back to the -3 for ease of use. The Tweeter then was adjusted several times, settling 1 setting below full output. The D250X HX is supposed to be 107db so -9db would have had it at 98db which is right about the Kappa 15C. That said, it sounded way way way off with that setting and sounded spot on with the -3 which Ill need to ask ALK for a rhyme and reason for. Played against the AP12-500/DE85TN The big combo is the clear winner… BUT this network was incredibly musical and would be happy to own/use for a long time. I don’t like that the Eminence driver does not share its efficiency… I will replace with Eminence ASD1001 as it will screw on. I have zero complaints about sound. The Cornscalawal crossover is one of the most musical I’ve heard; more musical than my AP12-500 but less true… The AP12 makes for a better studio sound if you will. I will say I forgot just how long the K401 horn is. I will at some point soon bye a fastrack La Scala horn and then shorten the tophat.

Just waiting for the FedEx truck to bring them... The back plate for the amp in and bass bin out is wired and read as are the drivers.... open open open...

If only the La Scala cabs went togther as easy.

here are the plans to the flat packs we have built... think they make some sense... but let us know.

The current progress... Just ALKs crossovers which are in route!

I don't know if folks like all my pictures . I usually open two windows, I open and copy on one page then place the cursor and paste on the other one. Your website made it easy. The other method I use are instructions from inmate Boxx on use of Photobucket. I have two accounts there and don't use up the Klipsch forum bite limit. Just open, copy, place and paste. This a fun forum, some other forums I use, you can't smile or post pix. If you want I can post pix tips to your PM? So the Cornscala if set up with the official K400 and driver, that combo is about 23 inches long. Your finished cabinet has a shallow top hat, does the horn sit out back? What motor boards do you supply for all the possible combinations? You said you like pix. A nice finish takes way longer than the actual build. The ones in the pic are my 2 way system with an eliptrac and B&C DE85TN. I think they are 16" deep. The ones Im building are ~24 long and will use a K401. I ordered a pair for a customer, but klipsch goofed up shipping during there where house inventory system change over. The customer went with a different horn... I called klipsch frustrated and the horns became a free gift... Klipsch has outstanding customer service... always has from my experiences. So with some free horns the PA rig idea was born.

Never did the DBB thing. I had a wonderful bass bins I made long ago... Prob was they were 1.5" on all sides... Dave can tell you they were monsters... way too impractical. Then I had Dave build my most enduring cornscalas... I think dave got the cabs from another forum member and then finished them with his horns. After selling off my 2way cornwalls (Still miss them) I got the bug to build my own again. As I had teamed up with Ryan Moses to start ampsandsound, we got to build bass bins... 1st for ourselves and then figuring out how to set them up such that anyone can assemble and get them square. The Bins are 3/4" Baltic Birch and are biscuited and pocket screwed... so they self align. The expectation is that a K-33E CW1526, of Kappa 15C will work great. I assembled my pair with a buddy and a 6pack of beer in an afternoon... now Dave's plywood eplictrac and a DE85TN sit atop. I love the bass bin idea as 1... no one else is doing it; so Im not steping on toes. 2. anyone can put whatever horn they want on top and have a killer system. In the last several years we have seen such a growth of horns, eliptrac, the bi-radial, M2380, the Faital eliptrac, the PH800, and on and on. Almost any 15" will get to 800hz so there are almost infinite options. I suppose you could also use for 15 audio nirvanas or big coxials. ? The internal detentions are 22.5x.22.5x22.5=11390 cu in = ~6.59 cu ft. ad some bracing and minus cone area... ~6.2cu ft which is perfect for the K33/Kappa 15C. BTW thank you for posting the pic... I strugle to get my pic uploads to work.

Those corner horns :-) looked very cool. Ill post pics of the top-hats tonight. I had painted them and didnt like how they turned out so I did some sanding and re-rolled them. My top-hats are K401/D250X APT-200. With crossovers in the horn sec. If I had it to do over... Id place Dave's new tweeter and the crossovers in the bass bins and have an exposed horn up top.

Selenium D250X is correct... sorry about that. These are for garage speakers... I have yet to sell any flat packs... lots of interest but no sales of them yet. If after 12mo I don’t sell any... I'll write them down and keep for myself. Either way, I planned on building a pair of splits to take to the park across the street for movie night :-). (Cheap projector, a sheet, battery supply and some chip amps.) I had a ton of spare parts.... K401 being of note and wanted them to be used... so cobbling together a spare top-hat.

It’s still a work in progress... as most things in life are... right now its a standard darling circuit with 4 sec. power supply with 47uf per. The DC ripple is around 20mv which is 4x times what I am used to. My production amps generally roll off the line with between 5mv and 12mv which means I can hear them... :-). I won’t be selling until I get the ripple crazy low. As I was reminded by Shannon Sparks the ratios used for the 32ohm and 600ohm taps offer much less attenuation and thus Ill need to beef up the filtering... Arg. With he noise floor lower I think it was be a wonderful amp... goes low and has very good HF ext all with the same mid range id expect.