KauaiBass

Thanks for the help gentlemen. And I appreciate the good safety info Islander. The only thing these would fall onto is my 1964 Volvo 1800, but if that happened I'd be pretty much devastated.. This is for a new space I'm moving into and after my post I went back and really evaluated the options, taking into consideration your comments. I realize there is the option to split things up and just fly the trapazoids. That would make life much easier/safer and I see there's just enough room for the bass horns on the concrete floor. This should minimize low frequencies from being transferred outside as well.. I've never run them that way, but hey, it's one of the advantages to the LSIs - so might as well use it. These are all-original 70's non-trim LSIs I rescued from a rummage sale a few years back, btw. Love the sound. Finally getting a good place to spread them out in. Again thanks for the help!

Aloha Plan is to either: 1) fly LSIs on rachet straps and eye-bolts or 2) make up some heavy shelves and mount them like that. There will be an 18" JBL powered sub for below 125Hz. This is inside a 20'x20' wood frame garage w/ cement floor. Can't put LSIs on floor due to space constraints. Sub can be on floor though. I know they'll sound better on shelves, but I'm also trying to minimize the amount of sound that leaks out of the building to prevent bothering the neighborhood. Seems like though I'll lose some bass by flying them, the sub will cover that - and overall the sound energy will not come through the walls as much. Straps will suspend them from heavy rafters. Soundproofing using Green Glue may be in the cards, but not yet. No one will ever be beneath them so although they'll be hung well, it's not like a public area or anything. Any thoughts on this plan? Thanks for your comments!

Yeah...no....my wife would not be cool with a K-horn* B-room. any suggestions on a Bluetooth receiver? (* or La Scalas)

Aloha Guys, I'm the happy owner of some La Scala LSIs made in the late 70s. They are big, loud and good. I think there's a thread a couple years back showing how I refurbished them. I use them in my home office powered by an Onkyo power amp I bought for $5 at a thrift store. My whole cul-de-sac loves 'em! I needed something smaller for the bedroom [H]; so today I nabbed some RB 61 IIs off of eBay. These will be used with my lovely $39 Lihau T-amp that's been sitting unused since I got the Onkyo. It was a bit spur of the moment, so I hope the general consensus here is that the RB 61s sound good. I see a horn and the word "Klipsch" - usually this means good things. [] I want to stream audio via Bluetooth in this new set-up and I see a couple Bluetooth recievers - one from Sony and another from Belkin. Anyone have any advice on these - or any others? I'm not trying to attain the highest fidelity - just listen to/stream music in the bedroom and maybe connect up the TV from time to time. Cheers for any advice you can pass along.

We got rained out! [st] Unfortunately it looked nice enough for us to pack everything up and take it 25 miles to Hanalei! A pretty heavy rain started just as we were dragging stuff onto the beach. It cleared everyone out and continued to look too sketchy to chance em. It was fine..we got a better idea of the best way to do this whole thing. So we'll try again next month. Also George Clooney is starring in some movie that they were filming on the exact same spot that night..they had all the boom cameras there. Thanks for all the nice comments and gonna link up with you other Kauai Klipchsers.

I can't believe this...this post helped me link up with 2 Klipschers here on Kauai, and HanaleiMike here lives on Aku (freakin') Road about 100 meters from where I we're doing this. Mike thanks for the offer of help and you rule! I'll be interested to see just how loud everything really is out in the open like that and competing with the surf noise. Also got a PM from a Klispch guy in Ele'ele. Wow! Let's all have a Klispch night at the Nui or something. OK well now the rubber hits the road...time to get all the stuff broken down, packed into 2 trucks and hauled up to Hanalei. Thanks again to this wonderful warm Klispch community...I participate in several forums and this is as good as it gets.

We've got a great lanai and we've let our fair share of 'strangers' sleep there...any Klispch lover would be more than welcome! Here's a photo of the spot....you can see why I want to do this here. http://www.cutewallpapers.net/wp-content/images//sunset_in_hanalei_1024x768.jpg Now if the weather will cooperate.. Anyone else out there search Craigslist for "klispch" everyday like I do?

Good question, and the best part is the answer which is NO! In Kauai there is no noise ordinance of any kind..no nuisance laws..nada. This sucks when your neighbor raises roosters (for fighting like mine used to do)...or barking dogs, but good when you want to have a party! And all beach is public, so no one can 'own' the beach. But still, I want to be respectful of the folks who live up there (though in truth it's vacation rentals; not real residents..) so we're doing it from 6pm until 8pm, and we're setting up pointed towards to ocean. That way no one will get mad and we can watch the sun go down over Bali Hai. Here's the exact spot.. http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=hanalei&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Hanalei,+Kauai,+Hawaii&ll=22.209537,-159.497001&spn=0.003124,0.005681&t=h&z=18

Aloha Guys, Well my acqusition of the LSIs set in motion a plan to have a beach party powered strictly by solar panels and batteries. I think those awesome photos by G. Kennedy with the LSIs sitting in the desert is what got me thinking and inspired. These speakers are so efficient that you can crank them to well over 110dB using a T-amp powered by 8 x AA batteries! How cool is that? But still I wanted more juice to power a sub and other gear, so I stepped it up to a 12v-battery system the gets its power from the sun. Because I live on Kauai (which has the highest electrical rates in the US at about .48/kWh) I am trying to promote the idea of using photovoltaic panels to either grid-tie or get completely off the grid. So I put together a small off-grid system that can be used either at home or taken apart and set up remotely to power things like our beach party. Plus in the event of another Iniki-like event where our island had no power for over 3 months (!), this set up could be really useful. [ip] For the power side I am using a single 230W Solon Blue solar panel, a 3000W inverter, a MPPT-type charge controller and 6x 115 Amp/hr deep cycle batteries - currently I'm using this set up to power my home office and its making about 1kWh per day..hey that's over $180 per year! The system cost about $1400, but you get back ~50% as tax credits, so the final cost was $740 and at current rates the system should pay for itself in 4-5 years. For the PA side, I'll be using the 2x split LSIs powered by a 20W T-amp by the "famous" LIHAO brand..lol...but believe me this is PLENTY loud and has very clean sound! We're adding more bass using a JBL 18" powered sub. The music is provided by a couple iPods and a battery-powered 4ch mixer. We'll be dragging all this onto Hanalei Beach tomorrow afternoon if anyone wants to help! [H] This is basically a test-run to see how everything works, but the over the summer I'm going to try and make this into a regular thing. We plan to shoot some photos and maybe even a little video...so I'll post that and let you know how it went next week. You guys know how many little things can go wrong when you do something new like this, so wish me luck!

Aloha! Just pondering some speaker placement options ... I've got split LSI speakers (pre-aluminum trim) and I've looked through the forum trying to see an example of the HF section mounted separately from the LF bin. Was there a specific way this was done - did Klipsch make any type of mount for example? Usually I've seen the HF sections simply stacked up if the rig was pretty jumbo. I'm sure I could cobble together something that would work, but if I had a photo or someone's experience to draw on, that'd be a great help. Thanks!

OK back for more guidance from the gurus of electrons... Here's what Armand over on Oahu has done thus far to the LaFayette amp: 12.00 for 4 68uf x 400v power supply caps parts only labor inc. 40.00 for the 4 0.1uf x 400v auricaps parts only labor inc. 12.00 for the 4 250k resistors P&L (parts and labor) 15.00 for the new switch P&L 15.00 for 2 33uf x 6v elna silmic caps + 2 1.0k 1/2 watt resistors P&L10.00 for the 2 .01x2000v safety caps. P&L All the switches and pots have been cleaned and lubed. No charge for replacing 2 defective B+ supply wiring. OK here's my question...I'm now at abut $225 for this whole project, should I have him go ahead and install 4 new matched Russian military 6p14p-ev power tubes for $30 more? Thanks in advance for any suggestions from the knowledgeable mob that hangs around here. [8-|]

Drat...I checked and I am officially 9031 miles away from Hope. That's more than 1/3 of the Earth's circumference! So as much as I'd like to come... And to think I used to drive through Hope 4-6 times a year when I going to college in Dallas and my family lived up in Ohio. Sounds like it'll be a great time.

I picked up a pair of much-less-nice-looking La Scala Industrials like the ones shown above for $200 at a rummage sale. Now that's not an everyday thing, but I check craigslist from time to time and they go for $600-2000 depending on how nice they are and how much homework the owner has done. I run mine with a 18" JBL powered sub and it sounds great and could fill a huge space with clean sound. Making them yourself sounds from forum plans like a good idea, but IMHO unless you use the original drivers and crossovers (or the modern 'copies'), you won't really have a La Scala sound or their efficiency - though it could still be very good. Certainly copying the doghouse will give better result than almost anything someone could invent on their own! Good luck on your journey... ps for yucks I looked on Craigslist around the country today and this is what I found in La Scala-land.. Near you..ish..Found these vintage La Scalas for (gulp) $1700! I guess this guy did a little TOO much homework. http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/ele/1596883585.html (did La Scalas REALLY cost $1900 EACH in 1978??!) But in San Antonio these gnarly ones are $750 (but claim to be Industrial model..) http://sanantonio.craigslist.org/ele/1598632518.html (could use some TLC, but look ok otherwise) and some really minty ones for $1400 in Chicago.. http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/ele/1626797556.html and for $1600 in ATL.. http://atlanta.craigslist.org/eat/ele/1622700451.html

Thanks Mark! I did a bit more digging and I see the Auricaps getting lots of praise. I got $40 for that...auricaps it is.

Aloha Guys, I am stoked to find a nice 60's tubed LaFayette 224A amp on craigslist in Honolulu for $125 (I like cheap). The guy who selling it is a tube enthusiast and he's going to do a rebuild for $50-100 according to my wishes/parts. He's asked me what type of new caps I want to go in and I wanted to get some input from you way more knowledgeable people. Here's what he says: Right now i have some highly regarded Auricaps which are a current favorite among audiophiles and also some k40y9 russian mil spec oil caps and sprague vitaminQ type. The stock cap i will put in cost about 3.00 each at no charge to you. But if you want to upgrade to the k40 it would be 5.00, sprague 7.50, auricap 10.00 per capacitor with 4 caps required. While the sonic differences between each type is not huge it is readily apparent with high quality speakers like yours. You can expect improvements in imaging, bass, and frequency response with the better caps. So for $40 I should probably go for the Auricaps, yeah? Any *other* things I should request? I was going to have him upgrade the RCA inputs to gold ones and see if he can upgrade the speaker terminals as well. This amp will only be used for line level input - no phono. From all I've read this amp gets decent marks and since shipping to Hawaii is so expensive I'm happy to find this guy nearby. Currently I'm still listening to my LSIs through this awesome 8W LIHAO t-amp I got for $40...sound is simply amazing. Even my very non-audiophile wife noticed when I swapped it over from the gnarly Sherwood receiver.. Thanks for the help! ps here's what else is part of his $50 rebuild... "includes replacing the 4 coupling capacitors, changing the bias supply capacitors, check tolerance and replace if needed all power B+ supply, and bias resistors, clean and lube all pots and switches."