JohnA

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

Nah, it's gotta be "Afternoon Delight" or anything by the Bay City Rollers! John

That La Scala center channel is killer isn't it? I showed this to my wife and now she is letting up on me and my so called obsession! She never seemed to understand when I described this system until she saw the pictures. John

Q-Man sent me these pics and asked me to put them up. May God have mercy on his ears! Front Wall of Sound: Here is a close up of the right front, K-horn ala Scala: The rear 3 channels; I believe the stands for the La Scalas are the Jensen Imperial replicas: A close up of the left rear: John

Yeah, Arny didn't come back did he? I wish I had your tools and wood working skills. I would like to have a wooden K-400. I could finish it easily enough, but making it isn't goung to happen around here. I've got a line on an aluminum K-400 and driver; maybe I can figure out how to make it attractive. John

Gil, How are you coming with those mid horns? How do they sound? John

Boy! Those wooden horns are exciting! I'll be really interested in how they sound. It looks like you've done a great job so far. I think you should try to make the throat as perfect as possible. Getting the wave front started out right seems like the most critical thing. Could you use some sort of router bit to help you transition from round to square, or does the adapter do that? How do you plan to finish them? Cherry and hand rubbed oil would have to look rich. I could imagine one and a T-35 on top of my C7 covering the upper ranges. John

Q-Man, Your suggestion of strips across the back was my original idea to help fronts without changing their appearance from the front. My fronts are nicely finished already and I hate to modify them. But the rears are going to get stripped and redone, so they can be easily modified and still be finished well. djk, I'll make a sketch. John

My rear La Scalas need to go in to the cabinet shop for refinishing. When I do it, I want to stiffen the bass horn at the same time. I will add a horizontal brace acros the mouth extending back to the "notch". I've been thinking that adding a 2' x 2' x 3/4" plate to the outside back of the bass horn attached with glue and screws would add mass and stiffness and reduce resonance. Have any of you done similar mods? Will this in fact add enough stiffness to control the bass horn's resonance, or is it wasted effort? John