JohnA

Colin's description of Carver amps (AWA Phase Linear, a previous Carver design) is the same as mine. Not for Klipsch. I have 140 wpc Parasound amps. They are TOO big. I have discovered the first 1.5 watts is Class A and it transitions to Class AB above that, so these are not as bad as many SS amps. None the less, I RARELY use more than 10 watts per channel (114 dB peaks, LOUD!) A 25 watt (x 5) Class A power amp is all I'd ever need. Parasound has considered this but sees no market, so affordable Class As are not readily available. John

John

Rat Shack has a pretty good +10 dB in line amp. I've even used 2 in series powered with one power supply with good results. John

Remember those drivers can be OH'd cheaply. John

I'm pretty sure the middle section IS (includes) the diaphragm. I have a spare. They are the same for T-35s T-35As, Bs and all K-77s. If you have the Alnico T-35/K-77 be really careful taking is apart. If the pole piece in isde the magnet moves you'll have to have it remagnitized, tough to do, nowdays. John

Start by wrapping the horns in rope caulk or Dynamat to damp their resonances. Then I'd look at crossover upgrades. I believe the Cornwall mod is described here: http://www.audioreview.com/reviews/Other/product_5472.shtml It's possible to use, say a K-604 horn on a Cornwall. The Cornwall has a crossover at 600Hz. I believe the 604 is a tractrix horn, John

The black plastic boxes are 2 uF capacitors. Klipsch had to change to them when the 2 uF Aerovox caps were no longer made. John

I think the AB-2 is the latest for the Belle. Don't they have extra input terminals? John

sunnysal, How are things after the earthquake? Did your house get damaged? Hope not. John

Isn't that one of the signs in Revelations? John

The latest xovers have extra terminals for bi-wiring. This could be used for passive bi-amping. The older xovers can be modified, but I don't have a schematic to show you how. What netwirk is in your Belles? John

How about RB-5s or RF-3s for speakers, about $800 a pair. I really like the looks and specs of the NAD L40. No place to hear one around here. If that's not to your liking, look at Parasound and Acurus for moderately priced seperates. Jolida makes some neat tube integrated amps for not too much. The sky's the limit for tube $$$. John

H2s should be great! A KLF-C7 makes a good convential center. I use one with my La Scalas. John

True bi-amping requires the removal or modification of the internal crossover, yes. A 3-way system could be tri-amped, or the crossover modified so that the HF amp sees the mid to tweeter crossover. One point is to get rid of the passive xover and its impact to sound. Properly done, the electronic xover is a high quality, expensive piece about the cost of a good pre-amp. I don't think this is done much, anymore, outside of LARGE pro audio systems; the outdoor or stadium stuff. I suppose "stacked" means plugging one F-mod into another and then into the power amp. The configuration mdeneen and I suggested would only use the receiver's volume AFTER the system had been balanced using the integrated amp's volume. For this reason, the "Y" and F-mod must be connected to the AUX in. Passive bi-amping uses no electronic xovers and thus fails to reap the benefits of eliminating the passive xover components. It is an easy way to put unused equipment to use and get more power (giving more headroom). If used for this, both the high-pass and low-pass F-mods MUST be at the same frequency. You must have one for each channel. Unstrapping the bi-wire terminals will allow bi-wiring, of course, and passive biamping (no F-mods). True Bi-amping will require extensive modification to the crossover and you will end up with, most likely, a similar looking pair of terminals on the back. John

If I were you, I'd use the La Scalas for mains and surrounds (I do) and one H2 for center and the other H2 for the rear ES/EX. MOST KILLER! For that system the room should be 18' x 20', or bigger, just to have room for the speakers and furniture and not be crowded. John

I've read they are. Jake "We're on a Mission from God."

I hate to admit it, but now there is an "authorized" Klipsch dealer in my town. It's a miserable one man shop and the last time I went in there I woke him up, at 4PM! At one time, he also sold guns out of the same store. Check my e-mail address and you'll see what I think of guns. Still, his focus in on a dollar and not on serving up audio. As far as I've ever seen, he's never had 2 of anything. I've not been in there since he supposedly picked up Klipsch; I just couldn't take it! I disagree with the internet sales policy. I wouldn't disagree with a policy that said the selling dealer had to perform all warranty work for the first 6 months or year. That way I couldn't burn a local dealer for repairs on something he didn't sell. There HAS to be a way to get these people to stock some of the Heritage line, too. John John

True biamping requires an electronic crossover, probably with level controls, and bypasses the passive crossover in the speaker. You have most of the equipment to Biamp. Bypassing the internal xover is an "own-your-own" situation. I'm SURE it can be done, but I have never seen inside your speakers. To get started, cheaply, go buy 2 pair of F-Mods from Harrison Labs (search with Yahoo or at a car audio shop). Buy a pair of high-pass and low pass at the design xover frequency of your woofer to squawker (800 hz?). I'd use the reciever as the "master". Connect a Y-adapter to the receiver's pre-outs and use the high pass F-Mod to feed the receiver's power section. Use the low-pass F-Mod on the other branch of the "Y" and feed the Aux in of the integrated amp. Connect seperate speaker wires from the receiver's speaker terminals to the squawker and tweeter and connect the integrated amp to the woofers. Use the integrated amp's volume to balance the sound. This should work well. You can try passive biamping by omitting the F-Mods and unstrapping the biwire terminals on the speakers. Passive biwiring requires the speaker's xover be UNmodified. John

I can only imagine you'd HATE the Bloze. 901s have always sound amazingly bad to me, even before I had Klipsch and was accustomed to direct-radiator sound. If you want smaller, go listen to some RB-5s and a KSW-15. John

I have 2 1981 La Scalas and 2 1987 La Scalas. They have K-33 woofers and the bass is not shy, but not deep. K-33-Es are $100 each here, surely your import duties are not that high. The K-33 was made by Eminence, http://www.eminence-speaker.com/Pages/Home/HomeF.html and you can still buy them from them under part number 15-3309, model number 1520F5637. Send them an E-mail and ask for help from Ray Wagner. In a La Scala, the Klipsch K-43 ($250 each here) offers more power handling, +3 dB more bass and was the factory woofer in your speakers. A K-43 will not go deeper than a K-33. It is a cast frame woofer capable of absorbing 400 watts(like you could survive THAT). Maybe Mr. Wagner can help you with a pair of those or equals. Finally, La Scalas usually need to be placed in a corner to have the bass most people expect. You need to wrap that K-400 metal horn in Dynamat or a soft putty that doesn't harden to damp out unwanted resonances. It is a noticable improvement. I've seen a few pair of one piece La Scalas in black and they look GREAT! Yours were originally black, unless special-ordered. John

Randy, you bum! LOL! John

O.K. That's what you get when you send Ol' Paint to the glue factory. I thought that was just a Bugs Bunny thing, not real. John

There are other alternatives to Dynamat. I picked that because it is designed to dampen metal resonance. You can also use window sealing putty from Home Depot. I can't find my box to look up the name. John

Massive amount of work! Look like you did a nice job, though. What is animal glue? John

The best bang for the buck is wrapping the metal squawker horns in Dynamat. The next thing would be replacing the capacitors with modern high quality one like Hovland Musicaps, or buying Al K's crossovers. John