audiojerry

Your point is valid and well taken. I have never owned or heard a speaker that can deliver such effortless, unlimited power and dynamics like the LS. And this is with a 35 wpc tube amp. My wife owns a 7' concert grand, and the LS replicates that piano's impact when it plays crescendo. I know I will miss them. I just hope I don't regret my decision.

Thanks for everyone's input. I now know I'm not being unreasonable with the prices. Because of their size and weight, it would be a 2 man job with an appliance dolly to get them out of my basement listening room and onto a truck or large van. For this reason I think the prices are fair. In addition, I wouldn't have to consider the cost of creating shipping crates and delivery charges. My preference would be to sell the speakers and the Eliptrac as a package. Honestly, I don't know why a buyer would not want both. The sound improvement with the wood Eliptrac is unbelievable. If the buyer already has his own midrange horn substitute or just prefers the original horn, he could sell the Eliptracs at a profit based on the advice I'm getting here. And yes, I am using the midrange driver adaptors from Parts Express. The ALK crossovers are not the premium version. He is/was offering an AA replacement using the original xover board. That is why he required a trade-in of the original board, so my LS has to be sold that way. I added the bass bin braces after seeing how others from the Klipsch Community did it. They definitely help solidify the bass response. As I thought about it I would probably have to require local pickup because I would need the buyer's help loading the speakers onto a vehicle. If the buyer didn't live too far away, I have a pickup I could use to deliver to the buyer's home and help unload there. Why am I selling? I have been really thrilled with the performance of the LS, and am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity and the time to spend with these legendary speakers, but I am getting old and don't want to saddle my family with these beasts if I kick the bucket. Plus, I get restless and I want to get into building my own speakers. I will take some time to consider all this before moving ahead with a sale.

"IMO you would probably end up with more $ if you sold the upgrades separately from the stock LS units": Thanks. No additional advice? OK, would these prices seem reasonable? $1,200 for LS without the Eliptrac Horn, but with upgraded xover (ALKENG requires trade-in old for the upgrade xover) $1,600 for LS with Eliptrac - the cost of unassembled Eliptrac kit was $400. $500 for assembled Eliptracs. I could ship the Eliptracs, but LS would have to be pickup or delivery within 100 or so miles.

It would have to be local (Milwaukee area.) I could even deliver to around a 100 mile radius using my old pickup. They are vintage 1979, Type LS-BR, Serials 18T986 and 18T987, Tweeters are K-77, Mids are WK K-55-V, crossover Type AA. The cabinets are in decent shape considering their age, but they do have various nicks, chips, and scratches. After purchasing I replaced the old xovers with the Super AA Upgrade from ALK Engineering, and I later built the Dave Harris Eliptrac 400 wooden horn kit. I placed the wooden horn on top of the cabinet using the K-55 midrange driver on the Eliptrac, and kept the original metal horn inside cabinet. The sound improvement has been amazing. So I'm wondering whether they would be sellable in the Milwaukee/Chicago/Madison area, and what would be a reasonable selling price. Any thoughts?

I don't recall exactly, but they were 3/4" long and either 5/16 or 3/8 creating a snug but not too tight thread into the mdf mount. I did not need a retaining nut. A 2" diameter rubber gasket was used between the mount and the PRV adapter. The K-55 threaded perfectly into the PRV.

I joined the KAC forum last November after acquiring a nice pair of 1979 La Scalas seeking help and advice from fellow members. This was my initial post: Building the Eliptrac horns from Dave Harris's Eliptrac 400 wooden horn kit was the biggest and very labor intensive part of my diy project, but the results have been phenomenal and well worth the effort. I got the PRV ADM25-50 from Parts Express as the 1" to 2" adaptor needed to fit the K-55 midrange to the wood horn. Rather than trying to modify the La Scala cabinet, I simply placed the Eliptrac on top, allowing me to keep the La Scala intact, and give me more flexibility for future changes to my system. So here are some photos: I was experimenting with finishes over the bare mdf, and found that Varatane Triple Thick Polyurethane worked great at filling voids and leaving no brushstrokes. It is self-leveling. Another significant improvement came from adding a 15" subwoofer, 3 cubic foot diy cabinet kit and subwoofer amp, all from Parts Express. It really added the foundation needed to make my La Scala's sound complete. They sound so good they out-classed my $6,000 Harbeths, so I sold them. I am a happy camper!

I'm a La Scala newbie too, and I can't wait to get back to my upgrade project, which is in limbo until I get back home in April. I'm in the midst of building the Eliptrac midrange wood horn, and early testing has already yielded fantastic results, and I also added braces to the woofer mouth; a fairly easy job, but well worth the effort - very effective at reducing cabinet vibration.

Me too! I'm a new (vintage 1979) La Scala owner and a recent forum member, and happy to be both!. I'm definitely not a new high-end audio practitioner having enjoyed the pursuit for a few decades, but being a virgin La Scala, owner, room placement has become a high priority for me. I have found that the LS are far more sensitive to placement than any of the dozens of my previous speakers. Distance from walls, distance from listener, and most of all - toe-in/out cause significant changes in sound. This can be either a virtue and a vice. Thus far for me placement against the wall corners, pointed directly at me sounds the most evenly balanced across the frequency spectrum, but resulted in some strong resonances in the upper bass. For now, I'm stuffing some fiberglass insulation into the corners which has helped, but I will need to find a better room treatment solution - definitely not digital room correction - maybe an equalizer in the analog domain after my PS Audio DirectStream dac and my turntable. I'm theorizing that pointing the horns directly at the listening position can sound harsh and strident if the front end and amplification are not compatible, especially if the source of digital playback is not high quality. Digital playback quality is inherently a serious challenge, and with 105 db sensitivity I'm guessing the LS exacerbates the problem.

I'm realizing I've got a lot to learn about horns, and how important each lesson can be. In my enthusiasm I couldn't wait to install the Eliptrac and try it out before it was finished. I later realized that my cludgy attachment of the K-55 directly to the Eliptrac not using an appropriate mount with correct aperture opening and dimensions grossly colored and darkened the sound. For experimentation sake I added a few layers of gradually expanding 1/2" plywood increasing the length of the throat by 2 1/2 ", which greatly improved the results. I'm sure that using the PRV ADM25-50 will result in significant improvement. But I will have to wait 4 months before returning to Wisconsin from my warm winter hideout in Arizona.

The gasket part would be easy. The plastic body(?) seems like it could resonate. Should some kind of damping treatment be applied to the outside?

Thanks for the help!

I'm looking for an adapter to mount my K-55 compression drivers to the Eliptrac horns. I partially completed building the horns and couldn't wait to try them out with my 1979 La Scalas, and I am blown away by the results (more to come on my project), but I had to fashion a cludgy temporary mount. I am hoping someone knows of a screw-on mount that would work with the 2" Eliptrac opening. Dave Harris recommended the PRV ADM25-50 from Parts Express, and I found the Eminence S2B-A Aluminum 1-3/8"-18 TPI Screw-On adapter. Would either of these work, or is there another solution? Thanks for your help!

@Islander"shouty" That was one of my main issues after setting them up and listening to them for the first time, but I was so amazed by their sound that I decided to move forward with upgrades after getting advice and suggestions from this forum, So far I have installed rebuilt AA xovers from ALKENG, braces to the woofer horns in the front, and a vertical brace in the midrange/xover compartment. The braces have noticeably helped with the vibrations from the cabinets, which I believe helped clear up colorations, and the ALK xover made a big improvement to the sound quality. It really reduced the shouty character and really improved overall quality and coherence. I'd have say my $99 investment so far has netted great results. I'll have more to say - I've only finished the changes 2 days ago. Vancouver Island. eh? - I'm jealous, beautiful but a place I could never afford

@Dave A Thanks much for the offer. Can you provide the plans as an attachment, PM, or let me know. My upgrade/mod journey will be a slow process, but I had to replace the caps, and $99 for a complete crossover seemed like a modest investment. Same would be true for the Triptrac wood horn since it doesn't require any changes to the xover or use of the K-55 driver. I'm sensing that I might be getting teased a bit, and like Rodney Dangerfield, all I have to say is: "I resemble that remark".

Awesome! Even the crossover looks like a work of art.

That is beautiful. But that does not look like the diy kit I saw. It looks like a completely finished product. Did this come from down under? Are those ISO Acoustics pucks?

That K-402 is hu-u-u-u-ge! What are the sonic advantages of the 402 or the 510 over the 400? Admittedly, I have very little experience with horns, but I've heard a few different lines at audio stores and shows. My own personal takeaway is that curved apertures sound better than straight line apertures, and wood horns sound better. One of the best sounding horns came from a pair of Volti Audio at the Axpona show.

LOL. They are not so beautiful - photos don't reveal numerous missing chips of veneer along nearly all edges. If I can find a way to disassemble the outer pieces without wrecking the inner horn assembly, I might replace them with mdf with the same veneer. I'd also like to add a finished edge and a grille on the mid/tweeter.

LOL. They are not so beautiful - photos don't reveal numerous missing chips of veneer along nearly all edges. If I can find a way to disassemble the outer pieces without wrecking the inner horn assembly, I might replace them with mdf with the same veneer. I'd also like to add a finished edge and a grille on the mid/tweeter.

@Deang Thanks for the additional info, and thanks again to all. As I'm learning more I'm getting more excited about all the potential for future upgrade paths. It looks like there are numerous ways to go with no single right way. This is fun! Has anyone gone with Dave Harris Eliptrac 400 wooden horn kit for the midrange? I'm considering a possible mod involving the Eliptrac 400 mounted side by side with the B&C DE120 or B&C DE10.

Deang, because I'm new to the forum, I wasn't aware of you or your upgrade service. A pm from a forum member informed me about you. I learned about Crites and ALKENG using Google searches. I didn't get any results for Deang, and I couldn't find a website for Deang. Several replies to this posting have recommended new caps as a way to start, so I saw the $99 AA exchange as an inexpensive way to go since it includes decent caps, a new air core inductor, zobel, and some compensating resistors. I am hoping that this upgrade will allow me to decide how deep I should go into upgrades. I've read that the K-77 can't be crossed over below 6k hz because of risk of damage. Can that issue be addressed in the crossover? PS: I'm hoping I didn't start a firestorm with questions about crossover designers.😧

Those are nice tips, Rick. Some simple, inexpensive things to improve sound. Shakey, thanks for your clarification on room treatment. What was your source for purchasing?

Has anyone gone with the ALKENG Super AA-X crossover exchange for $99? Seems like a reasonable price to start the ball rolling on my upgrade path. PS: I never realized there was such a large and active Klipsch community. I am tickled pink!