T.H.E. Droid

In the era when the 110 was made, not every receiver had a preamp out/amp in but most had tape loops. You might want to try both and see how your tone controls work. In the tape loop, the tone controls should not affect the DBX, but the preamp/amp connect should be after the tone controls. You might prefer to have your tone controls affect the DBX to give you a bit more control.

The Carver should be fine. Most people never use a small fraction of that much power and Klipsch designs tend to range from efficient to highly efficient. Any well-designed and built solid state amp should give you a clean clear soundstage with good detail, and pouring money into questionable audiphile hype won't improve anything other than your desire to believe your money wasn't foolishly spent.

I've given up on Sony forever. My Sony 3D blue ray player has the worst human interface ever designed. Of my four Sony multi-disc players (2x200cd, 1x400cd 1x200 dvd) only one still works. I've repaired the dvd player several times now only to have it fail again. Even my sony IPOD dock/mini stereo gave up the ghost. And those two big Sony rear projection TVs? Both of those died too. Stangely, all my other stuff-- Pioneer, Adcom, Samsung, etc. still works fine. Sony seems to have gone from a premium product to an overpriced corner-cutter. Kind of like Bose but at least Bose stuff seems to keep working too. As far as Marantz goes, I've been thinking about getting the CD 5004 single disc player. At $350 it's more upscale than consumer decks but cheaper than some of the esoteric stuff.

I quickly gave up on even looking for SACD software a few years back because of the prices and the lack of material. I don't think I need yet another copy of Dark Side of the Moon or other recycled material at very high prices, ditto with DVD audio, so you need to look at the actual source material that is available and see if they have what you want to listen to.

I agree with the others. I have connected my cd player with both coaxial digital cable and optical, but it sounds better with the analog outputs, most likely because the Adcom's CD player has a better DAC than my A/V receiver. Speaking of DAC's, I get surprisingly good sound from my old Toshiba DVD player which has a good audio DAC in it, which was kind of a bonus.

"muffled" implies your HF drivers are blown. Stick your ear up to the HF horn side and see if anything is coming out. If they are blown, you most likely do not have enough amplifier power for the levels you are driving them, causing clipping. Clipping will blow HF drivers pretty fast.

thanks everyone. PWK's designs are pretty simple passive summing circuits. I do like the design with pots that allows one to easily balance all the speakers. I will need another amp channel.

With a current post on the topic of using a Cornwall as a center speaker, I wondered how you connect and use a center speaker with a conventional 2-channel system. I know they've been around a long time and I don't think PWK had an A/V receiver to connect up a system with a center channel speaker. Is there some kind of passive circuit connected between the L & R amp outputs or do you need another amp? When I get my Khorns into their final location, I'd like to add a center channel speaker to strengthen the sound stage. I have Cornwalls and Heresy's available for the job as well as an RC-3.

Thanks for a wonderful resource and great exposition on all the mumbo-jumbo, audiophile psycobabble, misinformation and outright fraud in the speaker wire and audiophile accessories market. These outfits remind of me of supplement manufacturers, who are very happy to lie and misinform in an effort to overcharge you for dubious products. There is no electrical reason to buy more than good quality copper standed 14ga or 16ga speaker wire or zip cord. If you are dealing with long runs of cable (over 50 feet) or unusual/exotic loudspeakers with very low, highly variable or very high impedence, there is simply no real effect from speaker cable at audio frequencies. I'd say it's more important to make sure the cables have good, solid connections at each end. Save your money and spend it on things that DO make a difference, like green magic markers, polished rocks, and telegraph insulators.[]

If the heating elements in some tubes are not lighting up, most likely you have a power supply problem. (Especially if you swap out the "bad" tubes and they work in the other amp. Remember, tubes must be heated to be able to conduct and if not heated, you're not going to get any output. If you don't have a circuit schematic, you can't really check the heater supply circuit with a volt meter, and you'll have to get the amp serviced. Ah, the good old days. Checking to see if the tubes light up. Trips to the drug store tube tester. Selenium rectifiers making little stink bombs when they blow up. So much for the romance of tube equipment.

I had a similar problem with a pair of Cornwalls and it was one of the midrange diaphragms. I could certainly get the speaker to make the sound at higher volumes but it was not consistent. (Only that I could tell it was only coming from one side.)

If they are erroneously trying to sell the horns as authentic 2404's and they are not, why would anyone have any confidence that unlabeled drivers and diaphragms are authentic JBL? Remember that there are thousands of crooks on ebay selling fraudulent or counterfeit items. These are likely knock-offs and aren't even worth the shipping cost.

What's the point if you have to use a subwoofer? Might as well use a small pair of Klipsch bookshelf speakers (or Heresy's) if you're going to use a sub and then you don't have to look at those LaScala's. You'll probably get at least as good a sound. So, music comes out of subwoofers? All speakers sound the same? Strange comment... Of course music comes out of subwoofers. Unless you only listen to steam engine and environmental recordings, what else is it? I'm making the point that you so obviously missed. About 80% of the cabinet space of the LaScalas is for making bass, so you're adding a subwoofer to an already large pair of speakers to make even more bass. Smaller speakers like the Heresy can handle the mid bass and up very well and turn over the low bass reproduction to a sub and you have a combination that is much easier to place and less intrusive in the room. Are Heresy's inherently inferior in midrange and HF reproduction compared to the LaScala? You're not going to get me to say it because I don't think it's true. Across PWK's entire line of heritage speakers, I think the main difference between each product is the method of bass reproduction and mid/hf systems are more similar than different..

Aw shucks, just go out and buy one of those $30,000 turntables, which will probably cost less, look prettier, and work better without making your head hurt in the meantime.

What's the point if you have to use a subwoofer? Might as well use a small pair of Klipsch bookshelf speakers (or Heresy's) if you're going to use a sub and then you don't have to look at those LaScala's. You'll probably get at least as good a sound.

See Al's last bullet statement here: http://www.alkeng.com/pad.html You have to run the math, but it is possible to drop the damping ratio too low (less than 20) using an L-Pad if a network isn't intended for one. See also: http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/understanding_the_relationship_between_amplifier_damping_factor_impedance_c/ First of all, I can't see any way to evaluate what ALK is trying to get us to buy because I see no techical explanation of what he's selling. If I had to guess, it's nothing more than a variable tap autotransformer. But because he doesn't say what the circuit is, I have no confidence that his claims are factual. There's nothing exotic that I've seen in the Klipsch crossovers that I've handled so far, they are pretty standard filter networks. Since the L-pad is an industry standard level control, I'd have to see some real information that shows it will not work with my A/4500 crossovers. Bob recommended against using L-pads, and also recommended against changing the autotransformer taps. He did give me a technical explanation as to why the transformer taps shouldn't be changed, but not against the L-pads. As to the other article you quote, you somehow missed the first line of the article, which reads "In live sound reinforcement systems, damping factor is really driven by the length and size of our wire and the impedance of the loudspeakers we connect at the other end." As much as you want to support your argument, there's a real difference between a live sound system (which may have more then two dozen speakers, a dozen or more amps and many HUNDREDS of feet of cable. The information in the article is important for those applications but trying to apply it to a home stereo system is simply irrelevent. If you're trying to put your loudspeakers 200 feet away from your amp, and then drive it with 2000 watts, maybe, but I haven't seen a setup like that in anybody's home.

I think the Cornwall has by far the best combination of size, ease of placement, sound and cost. I'm not sure why there is any inherent reason to go with the Cornscala design. The Cornwalls are a proven quantity and you're forced to become a speaker engineer by trial and error with the Cornscala. I've had LaScalas in the past in both commercial and home systems. They are capable of very high outputs but the bass will not please you once you've heard the Cornwalls, which do it with a cabinet half the size. That bass punch and projection is usefull in commercial installations but at lower home listening levels I think the Cornwall bass system excels. The LaScala is, unfortunately, difficult to place in a room because of the size, and frankly a rather ugly speaker. Think of the Bell Klipsch as a beautified LaScala, and if you're considering LaScalas I'd suggest you consider Belle's instead. Klipschorns are expensive, very difficult to set up and balance, and because they must plug into a corner, room size and placement seems to have a great effect. After comparing my Khorns, Cornwalls, and JBL Summits (similar to Cornwalls) I have to rate them in order of best to worst- Summit, Cornwall, Khorns. I think with some work I'll get the Khorns better, but right now I listen to the JBL's most of the time.

Is there something in the water in the Detroit suburbs? Sounds like a replay of my situation, with some differences. The speakers are already being pushed by a tube amp, so that line of reasoning isn't going to work unless the argument that just any tube amp won't do, it's got to be the right one. Of course this advice will fly in the face of reason. If the Klipschorn can't sound acceptible without a certain amp, wouldn't PWK have insisted it go out the door so equipped? To date, I've tried my Khorns with six different amps, including a tube amp, and all sound about the same at normal listening levels. I know from long experience with horn speakers that, to me at least, the mid horns and often the tweeters, too, have way too much output for my tastes. My first Klipsch speakers were LaScalas, and I have Cornwalls and Khorns now. I also have a set of JBL L300 Summits, which are very similar to Cornwalls abeit higher end speakers. All have either needed to have the midrange toned down with either equalization or the built-in level controls in the case of the Summits. I even gave a pair of Speakerlab K's to my uncle, and we had to rebalance the mid and high levels to get them to sound right to our ears. (Speakerlab K's are Khorn clones) At this point I certainly don't suggest upgrading your crossovers. Recapping, perhaps, but don't change them out. I had a bad tweeter so I put in Crites A/4500 crossovers and tweeters. I'm really pleased with the tweeter performance, but the Crites crossover replaced the stock second order low pass filter with a first order filter, which reduced the bass crossover slope to 6db/octave. In my opinion, this really degraded the woofer performance, especially in the crossover area, and produced a murky, muffled, woody high bass sound. Switching back to the Klipsch low pass filter improved the mid-bass sound. I did get some L-pads to help balance the mids and highs but I've taken them off temporaraily until I get the bass issues resolved and make sure everything is working properly. They'll go back on when this work is done. BTW, making sure the speakers are fully seated into the corners made a big difference in my case. At the very least, I recommend you put an equalizer into the system to see if you can reduce the mids to comfortable level. Once you see how much you need to back down the drivers, you can decide how to address the issue permanently. I've gotten advice from a number of people that counsel against the use of L-pads, yet speakers manufacturers use them on many speakers. I would certainly call my JBL's audiophile quality, and the Lpads on those speakers have really made a big difference in the sound quality when set to the right level. (to suit my ears, of course.) None of the people recommending against using L-pads could give a technical reason for not doing so, and electronically speaking, I can't think of one either. Good luck and don't give up on them.

thanks everyone, I saw some great sources and some nice wood. My khorns are black ash and definitely need some sprucing up.

Forgive my ignorance but this is a new one built on the Dynaco ST70 design or a heavily rebuilt ST70? What makes it so good in the opinion of owners?

Takes me back to the good old days. I built a dance club and the owner wanted a really impressive bass system, so I hung a CL&S Liviathon straight bass horn with twin gauss 15" drivers over the bar pointing into the center of the dance floor. That unit had to come through the door in pieces, too. If I remember the mouth was a bit over 7' diagonally. Crossed it over at 200 hz into 12" dual bass bins over the dance floor, and pushing everything with 800 wpc QSC amps. Since the dance floor could hold about 500 people, it actually sounded pretty good. The first plan called for 8 LaScalas distributed around the floor (hung from the ceiling) but there's nothing like a straight bass horn. It was lit, of course, with lights that followed the bass. I always wondered what happened to that horn.

Where do you folks get your veneer? I have a pair of Khorns to cover and also would like to redo my oak Cornwalls. I'm not looking for anything really exotic, just woods like oak, cherry, ash at reasonable prices. Also, those of you who have done a fair amount of veneering, what seems to work best? unbacked, paper backed, etc. ?

All the RF's will have a similar sound, they just go up in bass and overall SPL ability with the higher series numbers. 400 for RF52's doesn't seem unreasonable if they are in good shape.

By the time I got my LK48 shipped here, I had just under $500 invested. That's a bargain because I know the previous owner spent a fair amount more than that buying the amp and having it restored. He also had a walnut cover made for it, and he also sent along the original metal cover. Vintage hifi restorations are similar to car restorations, you can rarely get what you paid. The exception to that is McIntosh equipment, which seems to be just plain costly, whether restored or not.

Huh? Just go to the terminal strip on the crossover and disconnect the positive + terminal for all three drivers. Reconnect them one at a time to check each driver and make sure you get the screws nice and tight. You don't have to crank up the volume to huge levels but it's handy to be able to hear each driver separately.