Dave A

These are now live on EBay under MAHL or Machined Aluminum Horn Lens

These horn lenses are now live on EBay. MAHL or Machined Aluminum Horn Lenses

Trumpville is currently the whole state of Tennessee except for the aberration known as Memphis TN where sanity does not much happen. My particular slice of Trumpville is known on maps as Lynnville.

There is a lot there I don't understand. For example my MCM 1900 ranges from 98 to 100db but I can tell you when I unplug a pair of Fortes or Chorus speakers and then plug in the MCM's without touching the volume the MCM is louder and has far more drivers to push.

OK there are three drivers. A tweeter a mid horn and a woofer. The stated efficiency of the Chorus, the complete speaker, by Klipsch is 101db. How does the complete system arrive at 101db when the woofer is 98db?

I never thought to look for specs like that even though I know better. Thanks for correcting my error. Can you tell me why the speaker as a whole is rated one way even though the largest driver is rated lower?

Sitting here working today and wondering just how many of these grand old systems are still out there being used. Anyone with any idea?

I bought a set of Chorus speakers last week and they came with the original shipping box. Right on the top was HI Fi Buys from Nashville Tn. Today Hi Fi Buys is the only, ahem , high end audio store in Nashville and they sell Buck Rogers looking B&W junk but nary a Klipsch to be found.

Stop in and see them anyway. I like an excuse to stop what I am doing and listen. Who knows how long they will be here though. Well I hope so. Not easy finding my 402 and I don't want to buy new. At least the super MWM's will happen. It's really cool here and crazy like a fox. Sign still in the front yard and on the mill and I am looking forward to six more years of watching really crazzeee TDS victims frothing and screaming.

I have some ideas for that 400 horn percolating and they wont be dynamat or polyfill. Now if I ever do anything that is another story. A lot depends on how my tweeter lenses sell and that would inspire me to do more things. On a personal level I have migrated to the pro stuff and really like the KP-456's and am dreaming of a super MWM + K-402. In the mean time I have that MCM 1900 and La Scalas just don't excite me anymore. I appreciate them and would like to have a reason to tinker more with them but other things are calling. The La Scala and Chorus I's are entirely different animals but I have a set of improved Chorus I's and La Scalas here right now and side by side I am liking the Chorus more. Re-capping and sticking that new tweeter in there has been kind of amazing. Before I stick dynamat on anything I think I will take my pile o Chorus parts and build one out of 1" baltic birch and then do the tweeter and crossover thing. So yes I guess I am crazy after all.

. John, are you being serious?

Hey Jerry, Here is the really snarky one from my EBay listing.

Yes and no I am not. I do black and then also have silver and I have already been asked for colors. I am not going to open that can of worms unless I start selling a lot of these. A good can of spray paint at my customers end should work fine and keep the costs down. Besides do you ever paint the trim on your car to black to hide the cool chrome trim look? Not one person who has seen these first hand says anything other than wow.

Yeah it is. My EBay listing picture does not extend that high but I knew the subtle humor would be appreciated here. Missed getting the Altec horn in on the side though.

I sold a set of La Scala's recently and got it back due to WAF. So I finally got to do what I had wanted to with them to begin with. This is the first time I have put a final style convex elliptic horn lens with a B&C DE120 in anything here. Along with that I recapped the crossovers with Sonicaps just to see what they would do over Dayton and Erse's which have been my traditional caps. With the higher wattage capacity of the DE120's I left the Zeners there but took them out of the circuit. Then to make things better I used one of my too many on hand sets of K-55V soldered lug mid drivers. I did not bother to do one thing at a time because I was going to do it all anyway and wanted to hear the finished product and not step by step improvements. Pretty dramatic improvement and all the shrillness is gone and horn honk is changed to be something that you can feel if you turn it up but it is not in your face if that makes any sense. Well worth doing and every La Scala I get my hands on will have this done to it. Finally figuring out how to take pictures of shiny aluminum too.

Since I seem to have stuff for sale all the time on EBay and Nashville Craigslist I feel funny listing in the Garage sale section as I figure Klipsch did not make this forum for me to make sales on. I do list things occasionally that I think are of interest and stop at that. Yeah shipping is what it is. I have to drive everywhere to get the stuff and so will my buyers. That way they come here and listen and agree that I represented them right and they like them and once they leave with them I am done. No I didn't get it or it was damaged or you said it was this and they turned out to be that. I eliminate all that hassle and there are plenty of people who will drive.

Nope since what they were bought for is a test bed. Although I keep saying I want to get out of fixing up old stuff they somehow beat a path to my door and I can't say no especially when I want a proof of concept. Hearing is believing and tells a tale just like data does. I had a guy sell a set of really fine La Scalas back to me today because his wife did not like them and they are my next test bed. Had to laugh because he ended up getting a set of horn lenses with B&C DE120's for his Chorus speakers and he will be install #2. Believe it or not Delrin would be a lot more for stock and brittle compared to aluminum. When you start getting into 2" thick material you better bring your banker with you if you have to buy a lot. I have already thought of all these things and made a choice for aluminum for more than one reason. Well I never painted the chrome trim on my car and I like the contrast. Very easy to buy a can of paint and apply. Not easy adding steps to manufacturing and then when you offer colors everyone wants more and more options. The only ringing from these will be the wood around the lens. You have no idea how much strength is in these to resist damage and resonance. You might scratch them but never break them and they will be more resistant to resonance than any other one out there in this same application and size range.

CNC as it would be impossible to do this manually and yes more precise than ever would be needed. I have thought about coatings and decided that it is a rabbit hole I don't want to go down right now. I really like the milled finish and so does everyone who sees one. IF I were to consider anything it would be clear lacquer or something like it. As far as colors go when would you have enough and would it ever be the right color? I like what Ford said about the Model T and you can have it in any color as long as it is black. A can of spray paint will cure those color problems for anyone.

Easy you get a hole saw and cut the hole and then use that as a guide for your router. Cant get a router bit big enough cut he shoulder then cut a larger hole in a piece of plywood and use it as your router guide and just go round and round until you have the whole shoulder routed.

The biggest grin was last night while listening for the first time. Looking was fun but listening was amazing.

B&C is not helping matters here. You go to their website and the DE120 is in the legacy section and not listed as a current offering. You can still buy as many as you want from various places so I assume they are still producing. What they have told Bob Crites is that as long as there is a demand they will keep producing them. Personally I think they will in time drop the 120 just as they indicate by removing it from current offerings. It is why I made my clamp plate to fit both and yes they are a different two bolt pattern. Odly enough PE still offers the DE120 but does not have the new DE110.

Well the "glare" in person is crisp and well defined and has far more pleasing reflective symmetry. I just can't get it right so far in pictures.

Considering the things I got to hear last night over the things I had been missing with the K-79 if hotter is what it is I like it. Percussion, horns and stringed acoustic instruments sounded very detailed and I could actually hear them which in some cases before I could not. Songs like Cream's Toad and Tull's Bouree and some SRV just for the heck of it were very very nice. I am going to sell this pair off since they are pristine and truly one owner and build a pair with the parts I have sitting around for my test bed. I am sure the things Claude will come up with for the Super Cornwalls will apply here in some ways and someone with more knowledge than I will figure out how to make other drivers work and work to the best of their ability.

OK I finished doing my very first install, actually it is the very first ever anywhere, machined horn lens for a Chorus using a B&C DE120 driver. I recapped the crossovers and they sounded pretty darned good then. The next step was putting the tweets in. Very simple direct drop in through the hole in the motor board with no problems. The crossover has had no modification for this tweeter and is stock except for new and better capacitors. I have never heard anything like this before and had to drag myself out of the shop. These things just sing and the definition is better than any I have heard before. You may think I am kidding but this transformed these into the finest vintage I have heard yet excluding La Scalas and KHorns which are different beasts. I had this clamp plate machined for DE 110's and 120's and anything with a two hole 1/4 20 thread size on a three inch center to center. I had a set of Eminence N151M-8 that I tried first but apparently some values on the crossover will need to be changed as it was way to sibilant. The DE120's just sounded good from the start and I imagine when they get broken in will sound even better. What is the best tweeter driver for the Chorus I don't know but now for the first time you can hang it on one of these whether it is a 1 3/8 18 male threaded driver or like the above drivers bolt patterns. There are many that can fit here and it will be interesting to see what the experimenters end up preferring. I can machine these to fit more and probably use the same plate as a kind of universal except the 1 3/8 will have to be a separate clamp plate from the rest. This horn lens and two sets of clamp plates will get you a TON of drivers to play with. Sorry for the crappy picture on these horn lenses. They are too cool in person but I don't know how to show this without all that glare.

No way. I never let my chain get that loose