JohnA

Hey Don, Where did you get your grille cloth? What did you use? That's a VERY good job! How much time did it take? A runt La Scala would make a great center for me.

Keep the polarity Al recommends, but use taps 4-0 or 5-2.

Ceramic magnets are the dark gray exposed stuff you always see. AlNiCo will be a small cylinder covered with a "U" shapped steel bar that completes the magnetic circuit. The magnet and steel bar are almost always covered with a steel cup. That makes them easily recognizable. Modern shielded speakers will have the cup, but it will be larger and it is rare nowdays to see a new AlNiCo driver. Early Klipsch used AlNiCo woofers, too.

K-77/K-77-M/K-77-F bare diaphragms cost about $25 each and must be soldered into a "carrier". Klipsch sells the diaphragm already mounted in the carrier, so it is easily field replaced. You don't do any soldering or centering (although the job is not that bad). You paid extra for convenience and more new parts. Is that so bad? I have seen the "kit" for sale for $60 each, I think, but I don't know if it is as complete as the one you got from Klipsch. The prices have come up a little recently, but still aren't bad. Altec and JBL diaphragms routinely sell for $150 to $200 each, plus installation.

The Type AA is a derivation of the Type A. Both use a T2A autoformer. The AL-3 used a T4 autoformer, thus the different tap numbers. The numbers themselves cannot be related to each other. However 3-0 on a T4 is the same, or about the same as 4-0 on a T2A.

A Cornwall will hae the same drivers as a La Scala within the same year. The crossovers are, of course, different.

aka standing wave. It is a peak in response caused by a dimension or 2 that coincides with the wavelength of the resonance. There's no reason a bass trap cannot be tuned to a specific frequency like a speaker cabinet. It may not be simple, but it would be easier than changing the room dimensions.

If I bought a receiver, a B&K would be the one.

Notwithstanding any of the comments above, It's your house and money. Do it your way. Without seeing a drawing or the house, I can't comment much on the structural advantages of any method. I like trusses, but they have 2 weaknesses. In a fire, the gusset plates soften and the truss colapses, often quickly. The small members, the advantage of a truss, also burn quickly. Both weaknesses can limit the time you have to get out. My house has pratt trusses for the roof. If you live in an area where the greatest fire threat is from outside the house, you may want to put sheetrock under the roof decking to help fireproof it against a brush fire. Check out manufactured wood I-beams or laminated wood beams instead of a steel beam. They have a higher strength to weight ratio.

My La Scalas sounded worse with a pair of Wave-8 tube amps. If you want Cornwalls, get them. The RF-7s will not be less demanding on your electronics.

I really like that front trim! That's classy and classic. I wish I'd thought of it! It is not factory. The attached pic is what I did.

Vladi, What are the dimensions of your room? Do a search on Jon Risch to find his web page. He has published a DIY bass trap for promlems like yours. There are commercially made versions, too.

Reconing is still a good option for repairing your woofers, or normally would be. However, multiple reconing signifies extreme abuse. Watch for other problems. Aesthetics are up to you, but bed liner would not be allowed in MY house. A speaker is not a music producer like a guitar. The cabinet should not contribute to the sound, so if it were to "sweeten" with age, it would be undesireable. After they are running properly and before refinishing, play some Kate Bush, Loreena McKennett and Celine Dion to see if you hear ringing or overhang in the mids (or can feel a vibration in the horn that coincides with an undesireable tone). If you do, consider damping the squawker horn, we have discussed it at length. Play Seal and see if the male voices are boomy and check the sides of the bass horn for vibrations when you hear undesireable sounds. If so, you may want to brace the bass horn as shown below: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3019459149&category=14980 http://www.hps4000.com/pages/525_.html

My very limited tube experience excatly mirrors Tom's. I found the Wave-8s to be competent, but unremarkable and went back to my Parasound power amps. I expect my system to ruthlessly reproduce all that is on the source, good or bad. I did not think the tube amps did that.

Well John, PWK didn't like the L-pads, but the autoformers have 3 dB steps and a 1.5 dB step is now needed. The -X lost a little efficiency. I'll bet that 1.5 dB step was deemed too small to justify the $25 cost + development of a new autoformer. I won't mention its fashionability.

Soundstage is the ability of 2 speakers to fool your ears into thinking there are multiple sources of sound placed in 3 dimensions in frony of you. My La Scalas are not good at it. My old Boston Acoustics A150s were. Martin Logan SL-3000s were GREAT at it. For instance, the sax player in DSOTm00n should be out in the room WAAY in front of the speakers and to one side (right, I believe). With modern recording techniques, soundstage is all artificial. No one sets up 2 mics and burns tape anymore.

As long as your power amp has the ability to drive the speakers with ease, impedance has no impact on speaker performance at all. The Heresy varies from 8 to over 100 ohms and the K-horn/Belle/La Scala vary from 4.something to about 32 ohms. The catch is the power amp. It must have the current capability to drive low impedances easily. High impedances limit current flow and unless the voltage and current are wildly out of phase, are easier to drive.

Yes. A diaphragm can be damaged and rub the magnet gap but still work. I have a spare K-55-V still doing that.

European TVs and VCR run on a PAL standard and US TVs and VCRs run on the NTSC standard. I do not know about the tapes themselves. The DVD player's output will will match the TVs of each continent, but I think the disc's contents are the same, the adjustment being made in the player. Changing regions won't hurt anything and should not change the output format.

The passive radiator is just a substitute for the port. One big advantage is that it limits the max excursion of the woofer below resonance where a port cannot.

Try to find out what bass driver was used in the Peavy FH-1. The FH-1 is a La Scala copy that is a bit wider. If the bass drivers you have now are the ones used in the FH-1, they will be acceptable or better. If not, the Klipsch K-43 is normally installed in your type of La Scalas. It used to be $250 each from Klipsch.

Post Pics. I would be interested in one myself.

You must be asking about some of the new subwoofers. The passive radiator produces the deepest frequencies. Having it forward may reduce the higher frequencies produced by the woofer. When used correctly (crossover below 100 Hz) it won't matter which end faces forward.

Well, other then the receiver, ....... Most systems that seem bright are in highly reflective rooms. I'd work on the hard surfaces in the room myself. A neat, highly effective absorber is a 1x2 wooden frame filled with "duct board" and covered with a coordinated fabric. The foil backing goes against the wall. You can make any size and shape you want. They should be firmly fixed to the wall so they don't rattle.

Here's what I have on an AK-3. I think this version may be missing the polyswitch and resistor in the tweeter circuit. They are available at Partsexpress.com. I do not have a schematic for the AK-2, but you should be able to see the differences. Don't use motor start capacitors if you need to replace any. I'd use polypropylene film and foil, like Hovlands.