Marvel

djk, It didn't shrink as much as a double-knit suit would have! Looks nice. I still like Erik Forker's LS cabs made with 10 inch drivers. He has plans on his web site. Marvel

Having worked on friends CDs as engineer and musician, worked on documentary films, and done a movie soundtrack, I would say "yes: to working in the film industry. I continue to listen to, watch, and enjoy the work I have done in the past. Woking on the individual parts is way different than seeing the whole finished product. It's not an ego thing. It is just fun to see what youv'e worked on. I also worked for a printer/publisher for almost ten years. Holding a product in your hands that you have worked on is very satisfying. Especialy when you know all the work that went into something, all the other people who have contributed to the final product and added their talent and expertise. Marvel

Telefunken USA is still in business. They just released a new tube microphone to the market, to the exact same specs as their original 251. It lists for $10k. The originals go for upwards of $20k. Wish I could get me one. Marvel

djk, Are we really at odds here? CD audio or a wav recorded on a CD is 44.1k with a 16bit resolution. You can't write a 24bit wav file to a redbook CD. The way that info is stored is a different matter, as you point out. Marvel

Tom, I played in a band in Memphis with a guy who had an Ampeg Portoflex paired with an original Hofner bass. He pulled the frets out of it because he wanted a fretless bass. It sounded soooo good with that Ampeg. I would love one of those, with the flip top cabinet. I was playing lap steel and dobro. Marvel

I like these bass compression drivers. I probably couldn't even pick one up. Marvel

M00N, They say 116 db @ 1watt fro these. Marvel

I kinda think these are bigger: http://aca.gr/pop_goto_ale.htm Other cool stuff here. Marvel

44.1K and 16 bit Marvel

It is pretty sad when you tune in most country stations. You can't tell one artist from another. Really like Junior Brown. Want to hear Buddy Miller (Buddy and Julie Miller), after reading an interview in Tape Op magazine. Swing music. Marvel

Moon, They sound pretty good, as his were free. I recently had someone give me a pair of the L56 model, which has a 10 and a tweet. The L46 has an 8 in. woofer. These are older model JBLs, like early 80s. They have real walnut veneer on them and not vinyl junk. I have a pair of their studio monitors from 1972 (about $329 each at the time-list), the 4311, which is a three way (12 in. woofer, etc). The 4311 had a consumer brother which was the L100. These are all only about 89-90 db efficient. JBL still sells the 4312 in Japan. Mine even got used by Styxx to mix one of their albums on. They needed them for reference as the studio they were at were using some EV setup and they weren't used to them. Invidiosulus, I wondered why you left the camera at home. Saw it after you had left. I think the mids on the L46 would clear up at higher volumes. I noticed that the L56 model is rated at 150 watts continuous, where the 4311s are only menat to be driven by around 50 watts. Maybe if I cranks them up the mids will start to come through. BTW, we think the earthquake cracked the foundation a little bit. Not enough to cause other damage. Sure did rumble through here though. Haven't decided what to do with the Knight yet. I have schematics for a simple EL84 amp, with a 12AX7 front end. It would have less than half the parts of the Knight. Marvel

Tom, Did you ever have any of those Kustom columns with the 4 tens that had the pleated and rolled coverings? A pain to carry. Big padded cabinets. How many high school bands used those things? Just for the vocals, while all the instruments went through individual amps. Fender, Marshall, Vox, Ampeg, even Gibson. ... oops, the mind is wandering again. Marvel

I'll go ahead and check in on this one. The specific design of the power supply circuit can certainly change the sonics (hi falutin' term) of a tube amp. Probably more so on a lower powered amp, as all parts are more critical (not that they aren't critical on a higher powered amp). That being said, the Sovtek may sound no worse in an ST70 than a Mullard. For $12 you can afford to try the Sovtek. Borrow a Mullard and compare. Marvel

John, Very nice work. While my son was home on his spring break, he made the comment that my JBL 4311 speakers sound very close to his Heresy cabs. I am sure it has to do with the midrange on the 4311s that give it the great presence that they exhibit. My JBL L56 cabinets are only two ways, and there is almost no midrange at all, with the crossover at 2.2k, the woofer just doesn't deliver the crispness of the 5 inch mids. They also have big magnet structures, considering the small cabinets they are in. Not as bit as those though. I am working on a big bass horn, but mostly as an experiment as the living room isn't really big enough to hold anything much more than the JBLs I have, or a pair of Heresys. Marvel

Hey Doc, My Sony is pretty quiet (or my tweeters are blown, which they aren't). I question the comment you made about Sonys being made by slaves in Japan, not like your Onkyo. Onkyo is a Japanese company as well. Now can we talk about cats again? It was more fun than this. Marvel

I think that photo is in the book about PWK, "Paul Wilbur Klipsch The life ... the Legend. I was looking through it while at a Borders Books store in Atlanta last weekend. Lots of drawings and photos. Marvel

Russ, That wasn't a criticism of everyone. I have copies of some of my own CDs as well. It is a moral dilemma that most people don't want to get involved in. Most people don't bother to photocopy books because it would cost more than buying the book. CDs are quite cheap to copy. Still doesn't make it right when they aren't your own. Now let me step down from my soap box ... Marvel

jt, DOes the organ have a blower on it or do you have to pump it manually? It is quite beautiful as well. Marvel

You could buy your own and not violate the copyright laws. Since they aren't yours, you can't legally make copies of them. That's my two cents, but I have too many friends who are working and recording musicians who depend on the sales of their CDs to say otherwise. Marvel

Michaelstano, A friend of mine in Memphis bought an old house that he began fixing up. He had a front room with a door off the living room. To the right was a door into an inner hallway, a fireplace and a bookcase on the left of the fireplace. He and his dad put all of his audio gear on the bookcase. I told him he should have built matching shelves on the right side, removing the door and providing rear access to the gear from the hallway. It was one of those headslappers. trying to get behind gear to work on it is really a pain. Marvel

Andy, All those reasons for not putting them in production models makes a lot of sense. I just posted this on another trhead, but look at Erik Froker's site at www.volvotreter.de and look at the link for his old system. He made mini LaScala clones with a 10" woofer and a tractrix horn on top. He has those braces on those he built. His new system looks pretty cool as well. He is using a KHorn as a subwoofer. Marvel

Tom, From the looks of the pics on the Martinelli site, they aren't CD horns and he calls his 800Hz horn a radial. Erik Forker's site at www.volvotreter.de has his tractrix calculatr and some cool things he has made. Including a friend who made horns from glued up mahogany (four saw cuts). Marvel

Does this mean we're getting old? Sounds like some old folks talking about all the operations they've had. Marvel

Dave is sure correct about there being no degradation when copying digital files. You WILL have degradation if your copies are being ripped to MP3 files. If you pull them off to wav files there should be no difference in quality. The size will stay the same then though. I have made an mp3 at 320kbits from a 24bit/88.2 wav file. The file is way smaller and the quality is quite passable. If you stuck both of them in wavelab I'm sure you would see a difference, but for playback in the living room it still sounds okay. Marvel I had forgotten the 3M machines. They were BIG too. A friend of mine still has a four track master of something of mine, done on a 3M. Now, where does he live ...

Frode, Below is his original about the LS mods: The taper rate of a LaScala is 100hz, The mouth area is good for 125hz. Below this it is a big woofer in a small sealed box. If we plug the T/S parameters for the K33E into a box program we will see that the Qtc=. 85, the Fc=82. 5hz, and the F3=70. 9hz . If we close in the back of the high frequency cabinet and open the woofer rear chamber up into this volume and fill with fiberglass we now have Qtc=. 577, Fc=58. 2hz, F3=73. 6hz . Bessel=Qtc. 577=D2 gives the best transient response and the least group delay of all the sealed boxes. At 30hz the Qtc=. 577 has 4. 5dB more output than the Qtc=. 85 . Compared with sealed enclosures, the transient performance of the best vented enclosure is worse than the best sealed box enclosure. Since we have made great gains in performance some may elect to stop here. But please read on. The next step is to port it. The K33E is not the optimum woofer for this but it works pretty good. With the box size optimized for a D2 we can port the stock woofer to an SC4. The transient response of an SC4 while not as good as an SBB4(more on this later)is better than the more common QB3. Unequalized the F3=49hz and has 3dB more output at 30hz than the D2. The response curves are parallel with the D2 the only difference being the Fc being a half octave lower with the SC4 and the output being 3dB higher from 30~70hz. The output of the SC4 does not drop lower than the D2 until you go below 17hz. Again this may be a stopping point for some. But by adding a simple two pole high pass filter ahead of the power amp we can now have a C6 with a -3dB point of 31hz. Since this is the Fb of the system there is no increase in cone excursion or distortion. The filter consists of a cap an inductor and a pot. The pot allows adjustment at Fb of +/- 3dB. This is similar to being able to change the Qtc of a sealed box from . 5~1. 0 . If you think about it we have the choice between a D2, SC4, and a C6 in the same box by plugging the port and/or bypassing the eq. If you have a SET amp or simply want to get the most out of the LaScala you will want to upgrade the woofer to something with a lower Qts. The Klipsch K43E does the trick, as do the EV DL15W and the JBL 2205. The EV and JBL drivers require some minor network changes. The lower Qts drivers allow for an SBB4 alignment which has the best transient response of the vented alignments. With no eq they have 3dB more output at 30hz than the stock woofer. With eq we have a maximally flat B6 and the F3 of the system is 27~28hz. If using a solid state amp with the low Qts woofers a small resistor must be added in series with the driver to have the same Rg as the SET does. This mod can be backed out of a stock LaScala with no externally visible changes if you don't like it. No one has ever gone back to stock after hearing this mod. Paul Klipsch was violently opposed to the venting of horn speakers bassed on his experience with venting the K-horn. In retrospect it is easy to see why. The 12" Jensen field coil woofer he was using had an Fs of 60hz and a quick calculation of the vent area vs the Vb based on the photographs of this experiment looks like an Fb of ~80hz. I am sure this sounded horrible. Paul Wilbur Klipsch is a giant in audio. If I appear to see farther than PWK it is only because I am standing on his shoulders.