oosting

I had the same problem with my '78 LaScala's. I replaced the tweeter diaphrams and everything is fine. You can get them from ElectroVoice (or Klipsch). Ed

Beautiful speakers! BTW, the moth is a Luna Moth. Ed

This message has been edited by oosting on 06-29-2002 at 09:58 AM

Get that broken woofer re-coned. Won't cost nearly as much as a new woofer and will sound just as good as the other speaker. Ed

I once worked with a guy that insisted in insulting me daily. One day, after an insult, I simply looked at the guy and said "I just consider the source". Funny, he learned some respect for me at that point and he actually became a friend. One who insists in insulting or belittling you generally has a very low self-esteem. You should pity them. I'll take Mr. BUILDER's experience over all the graphs and "data" any day. The response curves for the Heritage line are not very pretty. I would not trade my Lascala's for any of those flat-line 20-20K speakers. They're crap. Ed

Sure, it costs twice as much but, if it takes 4-4X8 sheets of plywood to make one LaScala, I'd pay the difference in the cost of materials ($200-300 per speaker). Labor should be about the same. I agree, buy the used vintage stuff. It's much better. Ed

Go to your local plywood supply store and you'll find out why MDF is prefered over plywood. It costs less than half as much as plywood. Ed

You should have asked before building the room. You could have put dual concrete or cinder-block bass horns below the floor and use them to support the floor. Have one mouth at the front of the room and one mouth at the opposite end and vent them outdoors. Dual 20 foot long bass horns driven with some 18" or 15" pro woofers! Now THAT would have been a REAL subwoofer! You could probably blow the roof off with something like that! Of course, everything else would have to be horn-loaded also just to keep up with the subs. Feel like pulling up some sub-floor? Ed

What's wrong with the cartriges? You can probably get a new stylus for your current cartrige at Radio Shack of all places! Ed

I suppose the break-in gang is right! When I first got my LaScalas, I noticed that the midrange seemed to smooth out as I listened to them. The bass seemed to increase and get tighter too. Funny how you need to break in a pair of 21 year old speakers (drivers)! Ed

"You noticed he said he has his amp on top of the 'pile'. (Stacked on each other?)" Yuz guys are far tooooooo seriousssss! IT'S A JOKE! Ed

It's simple geometry. If you start out with a flat piece of metal and turn it into a cone shape, the center of the cone will be the thinnest. Did you ever work in metal shop? Did you over make a bowl out of copper (real this time) sheet? The center is stretched out the most. I would imagine that they use thicker sheet to make the sub-woofer drivers. Anyway, I'm not convinced that it is an improvement over paper cones. Seems like if it was such a great improvement, they would use aluminum cones in the pro models. Ed This message has been edited by oosting on 01-28-2002 at 02:32 PM

"What is your opinion on black anodized heat sinks having better cooling properties than non-anodized heat sinks?" I think these people are confused by a physics principle of black body radiation. Something painted black will radiate better than as the same thing painted white. The only problem is that the main mechanism involved in heatsink heat transfer is not radiation but conduction and convection. The heat is conducted throughout the heatsink and then into the air surrounding it. Convection causes the heated air to rise bringing in colder air to replace the air that was just heated. That's why it's always a good idea to give your amplifier plenty of room above it to vent the hot air. Also, don't restrict the clearance below the amp since this would constrict the cool airflow to the heatsinks. I put my amp on the top of the pile with nothing at all above it. I think the marketing ploy with cerametallic is that the aluminum oxide layer is tightly bound to the aluminum. Aluminum oxide is a ceramic-like material thus ceram (Aluminum oxide) metallic (aluminum). One thing you must realize about a punched-out metal cone is that the metal thickness is the least where it is needed the most. Since the cone is stretched the most at the center as it is punched out in the press, it will be the thinnest at that point. The cone needs to be thickest at the center since that's where the most force is applied. The best cone would be thickest at the center and taper out towards the outer edge. That's probably why the cones are so fragile. I have personally seen two Klipsch copper cones that have creases around the voice coil. It looks like a little half-moon crease just around half of the cone within about one inch of the dust cap. Looks like the cone was over-driven and instead of the former ripping away, the cone itself buckled. Pretty scary stuff. Ed

johnny24c, How much you want for your Cornwalls? I'll take them! BTW, there is not enough of a layer of Aluminum Oxide on the woofers on the RF series to do any good. You can't grow that much of a layer of Oxide in the anodizing process. You pass DC through the part in a Hydro-Sulfuric Acid bath to oxidize the outer layer of the aluminium part. When you get a fairly thin layer on the part (in mils, I don't remember the typical layer thickness) the resistance of the Oxide layer stops the current and the oxidation process. Aluminium anodizing is really only intended to provide a non-reactive layer on the part to stop corrosion. A side-effect of anodizeing is that you can dye the part since the oxide layer is porous. I'd really like to see data proving that the oxide layer has a real effect on driver stiffness and damping. I haven't seen any data from any source yet. This leads me to believe that it is just marketing BS. Aluminium cone manufacture is much easier than paper. All you have to do is punch the cones out of a thin sheet of aluminium. That's probably the real reason Klipsch and other companies are using the "new" technology. Ed

Rob, To answer your original question: I would get a used pair of Cornwall I's (AlNiCo, Paper cones, Metal Horns, etc) and try them out. Pay attention to the microdynamics (the breath of the singer while the drummer is slamming the hell out of the bass). See which speaker can do it. The main problem with speakers is TIM (transient intermodulation distortion). This masks quiet sounds during loud passages. Also, play some very dynamic music like KODO Drum "music" at low levels. You should feel the drum beat on your face even at low volumes. If not, they suffer from a lack of dynamics (linearity). If you don't like the Cornwalls you can always polish them up a little, get some really good pictures of them and sell them for MORE THAN YOU PAYED FOR THEM on Ebay! You might even try out the laScala -- about the same size and price as Cornwalls. Hope this helps. Ed