Dave A

I like his logic. I have a Ford 2010 Van they don't make anymore. Wonder if he would pay me more for it than a 2018 version.

I know my KP-450's are a huge step up from La Scalas or Cornwalls and beat the pants of a set of pristine KP115's and 301 II's. It was a bit shocking how much presence these had and the 456's should be even better.

These are mine so shameless self promotion. Even if you are not a buyer if you are anywhere in the area and would like to just stop in and hear them come pay me a visit. Twist my arm real hard and I might sit down and listen to some music with you. https://nashville.craigslist.org/ele/d/klipsch-pro-la-scala-with/6528552356.html

Yes and I wondered if this is why the perforated metal cover. Some time back I did a job for UAH in Huntsville Al. A past project came up and the guy was talking about a machining job involving Beryllium. The job paid extra for the known hazards and apparently the warning to the wise went unheeded. ALL the machinists later died of cancer and Beryllium is a known severe carcinogen. There will never be any Beryllium diaphragms in this household.

Amended the ad thanks for the suggestions.

That would go for Forte's and Chorus and Cornwall speakers also since my number one source for top condition speakers has been WAF rejection of the big ugly boxes. Something I am going to try is brown tinted Duratex with new corner guards on a set or two of Pro speakers. It is kind of cool industrial looking. Maybe I can list it as Steam Punk stuff since they seem to go for that. I do too though not a steam punk. I saw a set of Pro speakers somewhere on the forum that had used a reddish color with plastic guards and it looked pretty good. School color I think was the reason.

No it does not. I looked at a bad K-77 I had with the idea of doing something but decided against it. Those four small screws holding the magnet on to the horn don't have much engagement and anything I did would be heavier than OEM. The other and bigger objection I had was reusing the horn. I never did like the idea of them behind the motor board assuming that rough opening could not possibly help fidelity. Did not want to cut the motor board to front mount the horn either since once you hack and whack values can plummet. The best answer I could see was the eliptrac idea. K-77's are hard to replace as a drop in because there are few drivers small enough that sound good. Bob Crites has his own variant of the APT-50 which he says is made to the original specs whereas the new Eminence ones are of lesser quality. Maybe one day I will get a set from him and see but for now all I can say is these Eminence APT-50's sound better to me than the old K-77's they replaced. I am probably going to figure out a horn for the B&C DE 120 or 110 too. Aluminum has to be much better structurally than particleboard and it looks much nicer. This would add to the available driver options. Choices are really limited with the space Klipsch allowed for in La Scalas and Heresy's and others. https://nashville.craigslist.org/ele/d/klipsch-pro-la-scala-with/6528552356.html Here is the ad you asked about. Perfect timing as Nashville went from no La Scalas for a long time to three sets including mine. Feast or famine I guess but mine sound the best

I said "upgraded tweeters" when I should have said "upgraded K-55's." Even though those dual phase K55v are worth what, $300-350 they still would not return that value on the upgrade to an LSI, IMO. Well actually there are new tweeters and new horns + the K-55-V. I figure the tweeter horn assemblies are worth around $200.00 new and these are new. We are not too far apart as I have these listed for $1,650 on Craigslist. They are the best sounding La Scalas I have had.

You forgot the dual phase soldered lug K-55-V's. Whats your total with that added? Only if you let me take them in the house and set them up too. I can also haul off those ugly big speaker boxes you won't need anymore and do that for FREE.

Most of the people I sell to don't use soldering equipment well but they know of and appreciate Klipsch. People here on the forums are the exception to the rule and in general far more technically oriented than those I sell to. I am coming to the conclusion that making parts like that machined K-77 drop in is a smarter thing to do and certainly less trouble than find buy travel fix answer gobs of emails argue and then sell. In my experience these quoted numbers are not accurate either based on what I have paid and sold for. So no conjectures on the Pro La Scala values?

Very well said. Sadly as much as I like buying and selling vintage Klipsch because I like working on them it has become VERY hard to buy at a price where you can make money after time to acquire and cost of drive + cost and time to fix up things which seems to be required three out of four times. If you believe in re-capping old crossovers which I do then every single one unless already done needs this. If it is already done then the seller rightfully expects to get more so cost to buy goes up. I am working to get my money out of current offerings and after personal expenses from EBay fees to repairs maybe getting 15 to 20% averaged markup after all expenses and it is not worth it. I hardly ever get to buy at the prices thrown about around here and the choice is to either pay more of forget doing it and believe me I spend time looking. A few times per year you get lucky the rest of the time if you wish to have things for sale regularly you don't get lucky. Cheap prices are the exception to the rule in Nashville for speakers in decent shape..

OK I see numbers thrown around all the time and I see what I pay and sell for in the Nashville area. So one can buy speakers with or without work being done and those without work are worth less. The cheapest La Scalas I bought in a year and a half were $1,000 and a 580 mile round trip to Atlanta. Refinished and coated in satin Spar Polyurethane and the AL-2 's replaced with AA 's. Everything checked out for proper working condition and an almost new pair of Atlas PD-5VH put on the K-400's. These sold for $2,000 to a guy who drove up from Fl to get them. So there is value added at times which leads me to this. I have a pair of Pro La Scalas one piece with fiberglass and trim. Recapped AA crossover and cabinet cleaned up and painted. A pair of dual phase soldered lug K-55-V's put in. A pair of my machined aluminum K-77 drop in eliptrac style replacement horns with Eminence APT-50 drivers installed and they sound really nice. So just what is the consensus here on the value of these?

Listening to these yesterday and thinking how all the shrillness is gone. Between replacing the old round magnet K-77's and adding the dual phase plug K-55-V's and re-capping the crossovers made a huge difference. Have to admit they look nice to. I am going to get a price on Aluminum and have decided this latest version is the final one. Since I know how much time it will take to cut I should have a price on these very soon for all who are interested.

Anti- Intellectualism Perhaps it is the endless discussion of created topics where no one can "win" except the bored guy who starts it all and keeps the pot stirred. There are hobbies for all sorts I suppose.

Mine were in bad shape. Some of the capacitors were melted and the resistors on three of them were so hot they had scorched the crossover boards and melted solder connections. Water damage where the magnet assembly had corroded and the voice coils were rubbing the accumulated dirt and corrosion. They actually all played and did not sound to bad even in that shape.

Here is the literature I have. Generally I find these old Pro speakers have been abused so be prepared to fix a few things. Super price if you don't have to fix much. KP-260.pdf

I have been selling 1's and 2's for $750 to $825 in very nice shape , recapped crossovers and most of the time with Crites Titanium tweeter diaphragms plus they have been gone through and thoroughly checked for any problems. Yours are worth $600 untouched in the Nashville Tn market.

I have seen pictures of the eliptrac and that did inspire me. Never had one to measure but I would imagine they are close. You create the geometry with a circle at the bottom and an ellipse as big as you can get to fit the opening and generate a surface between the two. The sides are actually a straight line from the circle to ellipse and generating a negative or positive bulge to change that is something that can be done but I figure simpler is better since I have no analytical way of designing a horn lens by math. That eliptrac looked to be a straight wall so I stayed with that.

1 3/8 18 threads. Funny you should ask. I just came in from the shop where I installed a pair of these along with some soldered lug K-55-v's into my Pro La Scalas. Disconnected the Zeners because I don't have to worry about tweeters anymore. Fired these up and it was like new speakers had appeared. I did more than one thing so how much is due to each part of the equation I don't know. I am sending a pair of tweeter assemblies off to someone who can properly assess what I have done this coming week. Those KP-450's still are better but the improvement with the La Scalas was enough for me to think briefly about keeping them.

Yes it goes well with the AL crossovers I think are in them. Maybe he wants this much because there are some German Beeswax Hermetically Encapsulated Sonically Balanced Super Gold Foil $800 dollar caps in there.

That reminds me. These are meant to be a direct drop in replacement for the K-77 in the La Scalas. If your driver is not small enough to fit the cabinet these will be of no use to you. If you have a custom cabinet with more space available that's a different story.

A big part of the equation is the cutting of the conical shape. It takes a ton of little tiny cuts to make a smooth surface with the .06" radius bull nose cutter I used. I am going to try a 3/8" ball nose end mill and see what that does. In any case it needs to be no more than the same priceor very close as other existing similar things. I have to see if I can get the cutting time down low enough to be worth it.

Well when I am certain they work well you would buy them from me since I am making them. I am sending a pair off to a guy for testing and then making a pair for myself to see what I think. One of the problems for sure is the paint on the horn. Using a standard tap which does not vary it is hard to screw the horn in until the paint is removed from the horn threads. I ran across this with an old horn and I could barely get the driver off. These big fine threads don't have much tolerance for problems before they seize and gall.

Finally got around to machining an adaptor to fit an APT50 super tweeter to a K-77 opening like on the La Scalas. Have not put one in yet but I have a pair of Pro La Scalas slated for this soon. Figure I can just bypass the zener's on the AA crossovers with these and not have to worry. May not be the final final but darned close. Will fit the stock screw holes with an extra one for safety and be flush with the outside of the motorboard for better sound..

Not a buyer for his La Scalas but thought I would help him out by showing what a real price would be. There is a pair for sale close by in Chattanooga for $1,500 and that was still a bit high to me. Someone has convinced him that the pair of 50th anniversary special edition La Scalas on Ebay is a normal price.