Dave A

I can buy 1" baltic birch for $49.00 per sheet + tax. When the cost of a speaker is $4,000+ and the use of inferior material saves maybe $50 per pair of Cornwalls please tell me again about engineering suitability VS parsimonious MBA CPA types who ask engineers for minimum suitable standards for production VS superior quality for production. They sell the heck out of Baltic Birch here in Music City to people who build custom cabinets and need them to be able to resist abuse and sound good. Perhaps most home environments think they will never subject their MDF stuff to abuse but I have handled way to many that have had water damage that PROVE to me the inferiority of the material. Out of the roughly 70 to 80 pairs of Klipsch I have sold MDF is what gives me trouble and that is the voice of real world experience.

I am not sure why these are still here but they are. I bought them from the original owner and have the boxes with his name on it from HI FI buys in Nashville to prove it. You have to really hunt to see the miniscule flaws in the oiled Oak veneer. Recapped with Clarity and Audyn caps and has my MAHL k-79 drop in replacement tweeter with DE120's. They are the best sounding Chorus speakers I have heard in person to date. $1,275 for a set that will knock your socks off and wont need to be fixed or upgraded. Pictures on the EBay listing. Do not contact me on EBay regarding these unless you want to pay the full EBay price because the sale will have to go through them at that time. These are tied with the finest condition Chorus speakers I have ever had and are the best sounding ones. If you are in the area you are welcome to stop in and hear these even if you do not want to buy them. Twist my arm real hard and I will sit down and listen and visit for a while. I might even fire up the MCM 1900 you just never know. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Klipsch-Chorus-I-with-MAHL-Machined-Aluminum-Horn-Lens-DE120-drivers/323400794773?hash=item4b4c308295:g:tyEAAOSwhSVbdumv:rk:1:pf:0

For my tastes the LSI's are the best La Scalas hands down. Great set and I hope you can sell them to one buyer who appreciates what you have done. My last LSI had been recapped and had my MAHL tweets added and a pair of soldered lug K-55-V's. Sitting next to my KP-456 I almost kept them which is a real testament to how good they sounded.

Why don't you find some to listen to before you drop that wad of cash? Ask for opinions and you will get a ton of them but unless you personally know the opinion givers system and what it sounds like because you have heard it how can you accurately assess the opinions according to your own preferences with no benchmark? One of the reasons I have gone through so many types of speakers is that I wanted to hear them in MY shop environment. Since I buy older stuff only I can always turn around and most of the time get all my money back and often more out of the ones I am not keeping. You decide you don't like those new Cornwalls get ready to be beaten up when you sell them. I am not a fan of Cornwalls as they all sound boxy to me and prefer the Chorus and you can find the Cornwall I, Chorus I and II for around 1G in good shape most places. It would really hurt my feelings to get new and then embark on "fixing" it like many do with immediate upgrades. Why the heck would you knowingly spend that much money on something and then fix it? I buy Chorus speakers built with MDF because that"s just the way it is. I absolutely refuse to buy particle board anything new though as I have had to deal with to much water and dent damage on older cabinets using that junk and don't get me started on chewed out screw holes that fail because of glued sawdust.

Well I guess it happens but I can't say I have heard it.

You'll be in more trouble than you know, trust me on this.

I have heard of port chuffing but to be honest I can't say I have ever heard it unless it was there and I did not know what I was hearing. My KPT 456's have four front ports and I can't say I have heard anything bad from them.

Yup you are right I meant Chorus I only. Hey I turned 65 on 10-1 so can I now claim a senior moment?

+++ 1,000%

To me passives in anything are a bad design. It means you have to meet specific wall conditions for them to work, front ported does not have this problem. The passives I have seen damaged happened because cats, sun shined on them to long when in front of a window, wives with vacuums poke a hole in it, lamp falls over on it, kid plays with it, moving helper puts thumb through it and these are all things I have been told in person. Grilles stop the front side damage. I certainly prefer the Chorus and Forte I's and the minor bass extension in the II's is not worth it to me. I can make an exception for things like KP-480's with their passives because it is protected so well and does not rely on corner or wall placement to sound good.

OK I can believe that is possible but what is your experience that says these particular ones are bad? The only time I used an SS kit it sounded the same side by side with the good OEM passive Forte. I did not have a way to measure the output so my opinion is subjective.

Yes and looking into cabinet saws to do these with. Oh and this is using 1" Baltic Birch, the superior cabinet material ;D

In the same vein of thought as the Super MWM and using as much of a 60" x 60" sheet of Baltic Birch as possible here is a thought on making a La Scala as big as possible withing those limits. The height of the dog house is as normal. The plenum behind the woofer is deeper and the doghouse is set back from the front edge for more protection from dings. I figure the bigger plenum, the longer travel and wider mouth should all help bass out and since you are cutting up this much material anyway why not make it go as far as possible. Debating the separate horn bin and thinking seriously about making it large enough for the bigger MAHL tweeter which I prefer if I have a choice. I will use the standard K400 horn with the K-55-v driver. I figure to use an AA crossover for this with the Zeners pulled out of the circuit.

I have yet to measure a crossover that old that does not have capacitors with either high ESR or out of spec capacitance AND high ESR. I recap every one I get and it is the cheapest thing you can do to your speakers that will make a difference besides Tom's good suggestion on room tinkering. PE has also started carrying a good variety of Audyn caps at good prices often right in there with Dayton and Solen and so far the ones I have bought have measured well.

I have used this kit and it works fine. Remember to take the weight off the old one to put on the new kit as it won't be right without it. If I remember right it is 3.5oz. This is MUCH easier to install than a regular recone kit for speakers. I used a new style one from Klipsch one time and did not like the rubber surround at all since it is such a glaring visual difference. But at least Klipsch did make a new passive that will work which can get you out of a bind.

The DE10 can't be used where the smaller MAHL K-77 drop ins go. It is to big in diameter to work. At this time there are three drivers that fit the small MAHL lens clamp plates and they are the Faital HF100, DE120 and 110. There are others made that will fit diameter wise but they don't sound good enough to consider. The bigger MAHL lens is another story and the DE10 and a TON of other drivers will physically fit although that does not mean they will be right for your speaker of choice. The Eminence N151M-8 for example fits a Chorus or Forte but sounds terrible in both.

+ on the Chorus, my favorite above even the Cornwall. I don't normally do this because I don't want to sound like I am hyping my tweeters but I have a Chorus I in my shop right now with re-capped crossovers and the DE120 on the tweeter lens and it is a remarkable sound. While I am selling these off after they proved the concept I have a set of parts here to build a pair of Chorus I's which I intend to do with 1" Baltic Birch and those will not be for sale. I like front ported speakers because I do not want to have to be tied to a corner to make things work right. I want to be able to put them where ever I wish and know what the results will be. Agreed especially with pro gear which is to me the hands down best. Of course you can get speakers to big for the room. When I first had a set of KPT456's I had them hooked up before my MCM 1900's. My shop was a little crowded at the time and I did not have much separation between the boxes and was a bit disappointed. One day I cleaned out the wall on the opposite side of that section of the shop and spread them out and MAN what a difference a few feet made. Went back and did that with the MCM's which were nice but not what I expected and they became extraordinary. If I was limited in space I would probably have the Chorus I mentioned above. I have sold more of these to people with terminal illnesses who want the joy music can bring than any other Klipsch speaker. I agree with them and I think they are the most musical and placement neutral of the older vintage speakers. Heresy's are good speakers but I miss to many low notes in music I know are there to be happy with them.

Cory in Paducah has a set I listened to earlier this year.

Yes indeed one way to find out how good your treasured music library is is to put it to the test.

Audiophonic Master Conductor. If yer gonna talk about it at least use correct descriptions.

I have plans for the La Scala if you need them.

Well today I sold a set of KP480/250 II's that came from Atlanta and a set of KP301 II's from Bowling Green and the guy who bought them came from Charlotte,NC. There is a pair of Jubilees for sale right now in Indy from Coulter. I think more trades hands than most know because they are not digging or putting their names out there as being interested. Never said they would be easy to get but worthwhile to get and a bargain. Heck even if you had to buy new they are what, 1/2 the price of KHorns and much better. Yes the chase is certainly part of it and I can count on one hand the easy close by purchases I have made in the last five years. Folks I might be mistaken regarding the Coulter Jubilees. They came up in conversation and it might have been they were the ones he was going to keep. I talk to too many people to keep this stuff straight sometimes if it is not of real current interest to me. Just for the heck of it I did search today and nothing out there right now.

Yup and the fancier the name the harder I look for reality behind clever marketing jargon meant all to often to sell to ego and not ears. If someone hears my system I want them to be able to walk blindfolded into my listening area and be impressed and not see a stack of marketing psyop and then be impressed because $$$$$. I had an Uncle that owned a VW Beatle he called the Green Monster with a Porsche racing engine in it. So his pile-o-parts would pull up next to a $60,000 dollar (at that time and much more now) prestige vehicle and proceed to leave them in the dust. Of course he was concerned more with the reality of results rather than have something with merely decent results that cost ten times more and did not, where the rubber meets the road you might say, give the same high end real world results. The audio world is chock full of stuff like this and I want to know how it sounds and not what you needlessly spent.

Are you seriously considering MDF? Please say no!! I just busted up an LSI that was to far gone to recover and yes it may be possible for you to beat off the side panels and replace them but you run the risk of to much ancillary damage to even consider it in my opinion. I did save the doghouse and if I rebuild it I will use 1" Baltic Birch which is far superior to MDF in strength and water damage resistance and looks good on it's own sealed with polyurethane. Those look way to nice to consider what you mention. If you have to putty in those minor chips, strip it down to wood and re-coat with satin spar polyurethane. Personally speaking if you start getting into that $3,000+ range you are quickly approaching if you buy into some of these items in this thread I would rather spend that money and get a used Jubilee and now you are really talking awesome sound.

It will outshine anywhere. Although I have to admit a set of KPT-456's beats a KHorn.