Panelhead

I see where they removed the resistor. Which sounds better. I will have to quit mentioning installing a pair of MAHL and DE-120’s in La Scala ii’s. Hoping someone does it and reports back. I have not opened my LS ii up. Leaving alone.

For 300.00 and some change you can install B&C DE-120 drivers and MAHL horns. They come with wires and connectors installed. Should be smoother sounding and may have survived your test. Better sound and better power handling. Just a set of diaphragms are cheap. Could be warranty item. But getting them in for check out and repair would be expensive. They would want the speakers and not the drivers.

And on lack of preamp in system. If your dac has a good volume control a preamp can only add coloration, distortion, and/or compression. These distortions are many times pleasing to the ear. I think Benchmark has volume control and output stage design figured out.

If you really have the itch there is a Spectral DMA-90 on Agon. Said it was factory upgraded for lower noise. This should be a rocket ship. The price is in the middle of your range and looks flexible. If I had not just finished building a new amp I would make an offer. Underground Sound in Memphis used to have Spectral of this vintage on display. Sounded fantastic.

How do you feed the dac? Improving your on amp will be difficult. I go against the grain and prefer 30 - 50 watt amplifiers for high efficiency speakers. Simple output stages. Many prefer having a lot of horsepower. You have plenty of horsepower now. Used to think a sweet Class A solid state, like a lower power Pass, Accuphase, or other great amp would be the ticket. Maybe a vintage Spectral, or one of the European amps.

The very bottom is always here. I can tell when my sub on on or off. It is crossed at 60 Hz. Use 18 dB/octave high pass and 6 dB/octave on the low pass. This allows more pass through to boost the output of the La Scala in the 60 - 120 Hz region. Played with frequency and slopes. Many settings worked fine. Speakers can suffer from bass doubling. The second harmonic is higher output than the fundamentals at the very bottom.This is how really small speakers sometimes sound fuller range. I am sold on using a sealed sub. After about 10 years there is no going back.

I think we need to get back on track. Is the older version with plywood cabinets and maybe alinico magnets better sounding than the latest versions. The subject of residential vs pro lines is too polarizing. Might need it’s own thread.

I would order another set and install once in. May be the gaskets are very old. Your gaskets seem to fail rapidly once installed. I thought they were good for 10 - 20 years.

That is not what I would expect from bad gaskets. Plus they should go a decade. Check your wiring for a bad connection. It made be when you swap gaskets you are getting a clean connection. My first guess would be degraded capacitor in crossover. But changing the gasket should not fix the problem.

I would look at the specs. I know the sounds good - measures good story. With high efficiency speakers signal to noise ratio ratio is important. Also residual noise. Something like 10 uV. With quiet amplifiers the sound comes from a black background. There is more space between the notes. One test is hook them up. Select an input connected to a source. Listen with your ear right in the mouth of the tweeter and then the midrange horn. The amplifier that is the quietest is what I would suggest.

I would contact your dealer. Doubt anyone wants to eat shipping from Ontario to Hope for the speaker. But sending the top should not be to bad. Have you tried any trouble shooting? May be failure in crossover. But at least try moving top hat from one bass bin to the other. Pulling the compression driver and swapping to the other speaker may void your warranty. With many products that is a warranty killer. At least take the two top hats to dealer to see if they have any Customer Service. Many have a tech available who can isolate whether it is driver or crossover failure. I stripped an ISO file from the Brothers in Arms SACD. Converted that to 96/24 for current dac. That is a very good recording and very solid musically. Played it this week. But maybe 20 dB lower level. Spent too much time around big PA rigs growing up in Nashville. I get a headache from loud music now. Maybe I need to drink more alcohol.

I used to build speaker cabinets for personal use. Never used MDF. Started with lumber core ash, later went to the high ply count birch. Russian or Finnish. It just feels and sounds right. Always glued and screwed the cabinets. Used a 1” round over bit on a router table to facilitate wrapping the veneer to cover the front and both sides with one piece. And I am guilty of buying a pair of new Klipsch and deciding to modify them. The LS ii 70th Anniversary speakers are too hot for my ears. Can care less about resale. Doubt I will ever sell.

I really doubt you blew the tweeter. It would require some serious sound pressure. Like 110 dB. Or more. Considering that is less than 5 watts on your LS ii the amping clipping does not sound right either. This is too much information, but I have LS ii also. Plan on installing MAHL and B&C DE-120. They are waiting at the house. So will have a new pair of K-77’s and horns extra as soon as I do the swap. Maybe 50 hours on them. But it takes a lot to kill the later model K-77. I torture tested mine. I use an interface as a source. Tried another interface and made a mistake while plugging it in. Plugged my amp into the line outs instead of the monitor outputs.. Both accept TRS plugs. The back has rows of jacks and I miscounted which pair was monitor output. Selected a track, hit play and and the amp was given full output. It was freaking loud. Dove across the room and started twisting the volume pot. No effect. Finally realized there was a problem and turned the amp off. The amplifier is a 50 watt. Run wide open. My ears rang for a few minutes. This from listening for maybe 20 seconds. Speakers still play fine.

I hate to ask what a R-117 brings. The vintage gear is nice. Nice units cost more than new. There are dried out filter caps, scratchy pots, channel inbalance, and other issues in vintage gear. The Luxman is a premium unit. Used premium parts. Hopefully it has another 30 - 40 years left.

Shouty. My LSii suffer a little. Have not tried anything to resolve. Got a few things to try, and some input from more knowledgeable people. This character is very recording driven. Some are fine. Others next to unlistenable. Need to dummy down the top end. New tweets and horns may help, the squawker is already crossed at around 4500 Hz. Have a lot of thick dampening material with adhesive. Will try dampening the cabinet when opening up the top hats for the first time. They sure are magic with the right recording.

I might be wrong, but low output impedance is what controls the bass. 50 watts is plenty if good quality. Stiff power supplies, and low noise will make them sing.

Ask Claude.

I need to look up. Seen the LM3886 version Neurochrome amplifiers. Got a My_Ref Fremen running this weekend. Used the good parts. Did hang an input transformer on it and ditched the coupling cap. Source is balanced output and the Cinemag 15/15B does the conversion to SE. Do not know if the noise floor is -145 dB, George K measured that. But is totally silent on my LSii tweeter and midrange horns with ear touching the mouth. So is low enough.

Is the badge blocking the throat of the horns?

Today what is your favorite drop in replacement for a K-77 M, new production?

This is good to know. I assume my LS ii crossover is very similar to this. The results are too good for me to think about. My only issue is it is so revealing. Some tracks sound better than I expected. Others are grating.

I had not looked at the DL-103r pricing in a few years. At 450.00 it is not the bargain it was at 229.00. But I never had issues with bright. Loading and VTA needed to be close to get full sound. The Hanna cartridges look interesting. They use Alnico magnets like the Denon DL-103 family.

I had trouble finding this service listed. This is a no brainer for the price. 99.00 and round trip shipping is cheap to have refreshed crossovers. It is fortunate that ALK, BEC, Dean, Dave A and others provide services to not only restore, but maybe improve on these speakers.

What is the mass of the arm on a SL-1200? The DL-103r matches okay and that seems to be a low mass arm. Mine has a damped armtube but that cannot add much mass. But I am using a heavy head shell too.

Do not even touch Be. Extremely toxic. Notice they ALL have a protective screen. Reminds me of the 70’s loudspeakers that either emmitted ozone to be a plasma tweeter or the electrostatic that had a non-sealed bag that leaked sulfur hexaflouride as an insulating gas to prevent arcing. Most I think are a Be coating over a normal metal. Some are pure Be.