JohnA

The squawker horn is now mounted on the front of the baffle! I didn't know that. It's been overdue. I have the flush mount brackets for the tweeters for my La Scalas. You will get the same drivers you have now with any Belle made in 1982 and after. The crossover will be different in the older ones, but they can updated. I doubt you will hear much difference. A recent factory tour improves ones knowledge! John

I don't think it is the tweeters that are the problem. E-V no longer makes drivers and the K-55-M in now unavailable. Others are being tested, but no selection has been made. E-V also made the tweeters so they are no longer available, either, but it is my understanding that a Klipsch friendly entity bought the tooling and can/is making the tweeters. Now if THEY'VE gone belly up, we have a problem! John

Keith, A full explaination will get very esoteric, very quickly, and well beyond my understanding. However, .... If both amps are really capable of 100/200 watts, as stated (nothing is really that linear and the real output at clipping is more likely 100@8 and 192+@4, or 110@8 and 200@4), then they will likely get just as loud as one another pushing the same pair of speakers unless one has some extra power supply capacity and can produce a little more dynamic power. Nothing here has addressed sound quality. The quality of the components and their ability to pass and amplify a signal unmodified from its input will dramatically affect the sound of the amp. Even things like the operating temperature of the transistors affect their ability to accruately amplify the signal. Mosfets sound a lot different than the normal bipolar transistors. The arrangement of the transistors in the circuit (cascode, cascade?) and whether there are capacitors in the signal path will affect sound. The maximum frequency rating of the transistors and the circuit will, too, due to its effect on transients and slewing rates. What's better and what makes no difference is pretty much beyond me. I think good sounding amp designs are still a bit o' magic. John

How do you get those cool double posts? John Warren, I don't disagree with your assessment of the Heritage line. However, a Wilson WAMM is more expensive than my house. The point is most items are an engineering trade-off between price and performance. I and most of us here have decided the Heritage Line is the best price/performance trade-off in the audio world. I have some ability to modify my La Scalas for better performance. I'm intrigued by djk's suggestion of the Comminity M200 as I had discovered it independantly and thought it might be a good substitute. However, I draw a line at sawing off the K-400 and using bondo to fill the crack (perhaps he omitted the TIG weld). Perhaps if Klipsch produced a horn that would readily accept the M200, I'd be all over it. Until than, .... John

They were raw birch when made. You should probably finish them with some sort of oil (tung, linseed?) for protection. John

They were raw birch when made. They look finished with some sort of oil (tung, linseed?). John

I see the British "valve amp" is right on the mark. I'd thought it was typical British like "bonnet". John

I sent you a response curve of a La Scala vs. a K-horn; both were measured in a corner. The Belle will be similar to the La Scala. The La Scala uses all of the K-horn components. The Belle's bass horn is wider and shallower than the La Scala so, it has a shorter squawker horn to fit into the shallower cabinet. Those are the two major differences in the Belle vs. the other two. It is said this causes no audible difference. The Belle is easier to place in the room, but takes up usable floorspace, unlike the K-horn. I use 2 VMPS Larger Subwoofers below 60 Hz with my La Scalas and am very satisfied. I'd buy the Belles if you don't have open, solid corners at each end of your long wall. Listen to them for about 3 months and then if you're not satisfied, go looking for a high output, low distortion subwoofer. The VMPS New Larger Subwoofer has an attractive finish and fits the bill, but is unpowered. Klipsch has a new powered sub, the RSW-15, that will work well, too. John

Aerovox is still in business, but no longer make the 2 uF caps you are asking about. 3uF caps are the closest they have. John

I have a Sony DVP-S3000 DVD player. I selected it because it has 2 seperate lasers; one optimised for DVD and one optimised for CD. It was built before the DTS standard was set. Such are the risks of the early adopter. It will pass DTS if it is all that's on the disc. Otherwise it will pass anything BUT DTS. Sony says it can't be modified. I'm thinking about another *cheap* DTS capable DVD player for DTS only. If I take the digital out to my pre/pro and let it do the decoding, will I lose sound quality? DTS is all about quality and I want that, but I can't see plopping down the big bux for a transport until DVD-A and SACD are settled. John

I use an Acurus ACT-3. Parasound has one, so does Proceed and Aragon. I THINK Marantz makes one. It looks like Denon, Sony and Sunfire makes them, from a quick web search. I have listened to the Proceed and ACT-3 both do a very good job with both music and HT. John

My DVD player has trouble with DTS. Is there any other audio on the disc besides DTS? John

Why waste your money on a receiver with amps you aren't going to use? Buy a Pre/Pro and get better performance for your money and add the amps you want to it. John

A voltage is positive or negative with respect to a reference point, like positive and negative temperatures. It your reference point is 100V (black lead) and the test point is 80V, you'll read -20V. It's a relative thing and can be used to show the direction of moving electrons John

UPS won't let you open a C.O.D. box. However, there is a solution. I use iescrow.com. I give them the money, you ship me the stuff. I get 3 days to test the stuff and they then release the money automatically. If during the 3 days I find a problem an e-mail stops payment, but I can't get my money back until you get your stuff back. Tracking numbers establish the location of the goods at any time. John

A mono mini-plug to coax adapter will work. If the digital out from the Sound Blaster has the same content as the digital out from a DVD player your reciever will convert it to audio and it should sound good. John

There's a lot of stuff I can't hear or can't hear easily in the room I use. However, I have seen the Dope from Hope introducing the solder terminal -V and it's response curves. The latest -V is obviously smoother than the previous one and has better output from 4k - 6k. That's why I went to the trouble to find a second solder-terminal driver. I expected to hear something, but didn't. Maybe if I had 2 of each and swapped both at once, I'd hear it. Why does Klipsch use such a small throat in the K-400? When I first saw it I thought it looked too small, but I barely understand the physics. Is the small throat a way of getting a horn with a 263 Hz cut-off in the space alotted? If the throat were larger and the length the same (with a small increase in mouth size, perhaps) would the cut-off rise to an unacceptable frequency? Specifically, what does the small throat do to sound (velocity too high?)? John

Those ARE the late drivers. I have 2 of those and one of the early K-55-Vs. I can't hear a difference other than the fact that the newest late driver has less output than its twin. I have had the disphragm replaced and found the voice coil was rubbing apparently from abuse. John

The factory is good sized, but not huge. The warehouse is stacked to the rafters with new product, even the Heritage Series. The atmosphere is casual and comfortable. QA/QC is turned up very high; miniscule dimples I couldn't see cause cabinets to be destroyed. The people at the factory were very friendly, helpful and eager to help me with a pair of grilles I bought. The people there are excellent hosts, but make no mistake, their passion is fine horn speakers and they take that very seriously. John

"Music Sub" and Cornwalls don't seem to mix. There are very few fundamentals lower than the 35 Hz the Cornwall is capable of. Organ and electronic music will use the sub, but little else. John

Caps at the low end of tolerance? John

Ray's advice is good. With KLF-30s, you won't miss a sub except during certain movies and then not until you have had one for a while. You will eventually need one to get the best performance from your home theater. John

My 2 and 3-channel Parasound amps sound the same. I've noticed that some multi-channel amps don't put out rated power with all channels driven, indicating low capacity power supplies. It sounds like you want mono-blocks so you can add channels as you use them. John

I can't say if the corssover will work, but the K-400 is too long to fit in a Heresy; it and a K-55-V is just short of 24" long. There is a difference in the K-55-V and the -M. The -M is a little more efficient and sounds different. For years Heresies had K-55-Vs on K-700 metal horns. You might want to go that way. John

The input impedance for the sub will be so high there will be no power loss to your La Scalas. In order to have a chance of keeping up with your La Scalas, you need the biggest sub you can find. I would not consider less than a 15". I have 2 HUGE subs, 42" tall x 21" square made by VMPS. They have a 12" driver, a 15" driver and a slot-loaded 15" passive radiator that's tunable. They are 12 dB less efficient than La Scalas. Both are in the corners and are powered by an amp that can put out 450 watts per channel. It is rumored NASA used several of these for sonic boom testing (VMPS claims NASA as a customer). They will barely keep up when I crank the La Scalas. Both together can do about what one Klipsch RSW-15 can do on 1700 watts peak. If you want deep bass when cranked, you need all the sub you can afford. John