Rolox

There’s a reason why the crossover to the tweeter has been lowered from 6000 Hz to 4500 Hz. Just do a search on this forum about « replacement mid horn » and you will see how many looked for a better alternative and why they thought it necessary. I’m not alone here. A stock Klipsch sounds great but if your room is smaller than average that beamy midrange gets tiring pretty quickly.

I can vouch for the K231 crossover. I use it both for subs and at 400Hz between bass horns and mid/ highs. Sound quality is extraordinary, way above any other crossover I've had; probably as good as Bryston 10B at a fraction of the price. just look at the specs! mine took a while to break in - fresh out of the box it sounded harsh and congested. But nw after two weeks it sounds incredible. There's a 45 days no hassle return option should u be disappointed. Don't waste your time with pro units, they don't sound good enough - they will color the sound too much.

Just for the record : I'm using an actively tri-amped system (if you include the subs) ever since I tried the mini class D / T amps I was hooked! Currently have a 25W SMSL SA50 on the 40-400Hz range driving Peavey FH1 bass horns with K33E inside; above 400Hz is a fully modded Trends TA10.1 tripath amp (8W) driving the mid and tweeters; the clarity, imaging, detail, and impact are out of this world - in active bi-amplification each amp operates within its limits at all times (at least with 104dB speakers in a home-audio context) and my ears give up way before the sounds starts to distort or get harsh; only the active subs have more traditional class AB amps. My preamp and amps stay on 24/7/365 and stay cold and don't consume much electricity; I've stopped worrying about having an amplifier suddenly failing (and destroying a driver while doing so), and the sound is better than I ever had with any "high end" class AB or class A amplifiers I've owned. As active crossover I'm using the K231 from Sublime Acoustic, which I highly recommend if you can live without digital delay and DSP; the sound is fantastic and it's as silent as a tomb. It takes a couple weeks of burn-in (quite harsh and fuzzy fresh out of the box) but after that it's a fantastic crossover at ANY price.

Typically two things happen during break-in: there's a mechanical break-in of the diaphragms, typically the sound will be more relaxed, less "constrained" and less stiff; then there's an electrical break-in of the capacitors in the crossover, which may take longer with some capacitors, depending what they are made of. Typically smoother top end and wider, more opened / detailed sound when everything has settled down. I had once to change the diaphragm in one of my Beyma tweeters; the freshly fixed tweeter sounded harsh and louder than the "old" tweeter for a couple of days, displacing the stereo image to one side; then after settling in all became balanced again and the stereo image came back to the center. When I got my brand new A55G drivers they sounded nasal and not very defined at first and it took a few days before I started to gain real improvement compared to the old K55V. Break-in is a very real thing.

You do NOT want to raise the LS bass bins from the floor using 3 or 4 footers; the gap created between bass horn and floor will reduce bass output - something you do NOT want with LaScalas. If you really need to decouple them from the floor, use either just a large layer of rubber-like material (like what you'd put under a washing machine) or better, that combined with a slab of granite or other very dense material in a "sandwiched" configuration. The important being that there's NO GAP between floor and enclosure.

I say (I might lose some friends here for saying that) that the K400 / K401 horn sucks; way too beamy and honky. I've had some joy from a pair of EV SM120 horns, John Allen / Bob Crites A55G drivers, and Beyma CP25 tweeters.

I'm using EV SM120A mid horns with A55G drivers with Beyma CP25 tweeters, passive crossover at 6KHz, and active 24dB at 400Hz to a pair of Peavey FH1 bass horns. The EV SM120 horns are WONDERFUL with the A55G drivers: wide open and smooth. And you may be able to score them for cheap!

What you want is the A55G driver sold by Bob Crites; improves smoothness and cleanliness in the all important midrange; after using K55V for about 20 years I couldn't believe the improvement the A55G offered. They need a couple days break-in to sound their best but then, what a feast! Replace the driver-to-horn gaskets while you're at it.

I would suggest a Peavey FH1 instead; it is easy to find, costs peanuts, extends to close to 1KHz (don't know if it's advisable tho, but a 500Hz crossover is more than fine) and the height would be perfect with a K402 on top.

I think I’ve made up my mind: I will buy the Kappa 15C as soon as possible. I’ve had time to search for more posts regarding that driver and it seems to me everything I need. Plus in a home audio context with high pass filter and low power amps there’s no worries to have regarding the X-max.

How would you describe that improvement? Does the upper bass sound more defined and articulate, or is it just a matter of better matching the midrange output level near crossover frequency (if it's ever possible to dissociate both things)?

I do have good K33 (bought new about 20 years ago but never abused); however, I don't use (and don't want to use) an EQ anywhere in the system (analogue crossover); so my question is would the 15C bring more DEFINITION and neutrality; seems to me that a flatter response (which is what a 5dB raise on top of the passband does by reducing the difference between the bump at 160Hz and the upper range) could be good? Isn't the 15C a more "articulate" driver?

Well, I'm using a 25watts class D amp on the 40Hz-400Hz range; below 40Hz is filtered at 24dB/octave; even when pushing the volume with bass heavy music, I doubt I'd ever meet the 15C x-max (I may be wrong); I live in a normal apartment, not a airplane hangar

I've read great things about Vicoustic Cinema Round Premium; they look great and are not outrageously expensive. I was about to buy room treatments but then the purchase of a new, huge fabric and foam sofa to replace the leather-and-chrome vintage design sofa solved the issue I had in the midrange (I kid you not!) If I ever buy something it will be those vicoustic panels BASOTECT foam is GREAT too and available in white but I heard it's quite fragile (its the same foam as the "magic erasers" your wife uses to remove nasty stains); check out eBay there is a lot of different stuff good luck! (whatever you do, do not put TOO MUCH absorption; reading a lot on the subject is important)

I know there are many threads about that woofer already but none that answers completely my question: Currently using K33E in peavey FH1 bass horns, in an ACTIVE bi-amp configuration. Crossover is 400Hz 24dB. Would you guys consider it's worth the swap to Kappa 15C knowing I'm in an active set-up and can modulate the low pass to match the midrange horn much better than if I had a passive network? Is there, besides the 5dB lift in the 200 to 500Hz range, a QUALITY to the mid bass (more punch? more definition?) that makes the Kappa 15C the better woofer, even tho I don't need to go up to 500Hz and have an active crossover? I kinda feel the answer will be positive but I'd like to not waste time and money (even tho they are cheap) if the improvement is tiny.

Nope. The mounting holes in the horn were used to mount a frame that makes the horn more rigid and holds the tweeter hanging LOWER. As far as I know, the tweeter was NEVER mounted on the horn itself.

Hahaha yes, the high-tech insulators ^^ I had to raise the high pass horns due to a change in sofa (I kid you not) so that my ears would still be in the right eight. so I bought hockey pucks. Works wonders - but if you look closely you will see there IS an audiophile-approved, specially made isolator between the hockey pucks and the top bin 😉 About the SM120: they are WONDERFUL. Wide open and smooooooth, and even in semi near-field (I sit about 8 feet from my speakers!) they throw a wide and enveloping soundstage, and no shout, no honk. With the John Allen A55G it's fantastic.

In fact they were not: the ST350 were hanging UNDER the SM120 horn, indeed attached to those holes on the sM120 lips.

Actually, I'm not really new here: I was very active on this forum at some point (I think almost 20 years ago? is that even possible? I think so) but then I became member of other forums and life got in the way... and I lost access to my account... I was young however and had much less experience and knowledge than now (all is relative, I'm no engineer of course, far from it) and I don't know if there's much I wanna save from that period. My nickname was Shock-Late 🙂 About that foam: it's hard to tell from the link. If you wanna deaden the wood panels, you need something dead and heavy and sticky that will bond with the wood. I'm not sure this is dense enough for wood. But maybe?... it will however be very hard to remove so I'd go for something you're really sure of. You won't get to try different things... Here's the bitumen sheets I've used; I'm located in Europe, I don't know if it's worth paying the shipping to the US, you can probably find something similar over there: https://www.befr.ebay.be/itm/Sinuslive-20er-Pack-ADM-Bitumenmatte-Dammmatte-Selbstklebend-22-45-EUR-m/153765174866?hash=item23cd1e5e52:g:zFoAAOSwFiNd-MX8 It's very heavy and yet is easy to cut even with scissors. Extremely easy to use, no smell, no "cooking" necessary. You can apply two layers where you find it necessary. (You will need two packs for two FH1, if you decide to order some) I can't find the foam, it is I guess 40mm thick eggs crate acoustic foam with a peel-on sticky back face, it sticks very strongly; you need a quality foam of good density. Here's a picture of my "LaScala on steroids" :-)

Hi, I'm using FH1s in my system currently loaded with K33 (probably will soon switch to Kappa 15C). I tried damping the back chamber and these are my results: started by lining all internal panels with auto-sticking bitumen sheets (sold for car audio tuning) I guess the brand was SinusLive from Germany. I then covered all internal panels with eggs-crate foam (quality German stuff, not cheap light foam from China); I foolishly thought because it was ""just foam" and it was just lining the panels it wouldn't impact the back chamber's effectiveness, but boy was I wrong! The treated FH1 had seemingly NO output, like the driver was stuck in glue! TERRIBLE!!! 😞 I then proceeded to remove all the foam - just leaving it on one of the horizontal panel that is facing the removable bottom panel, since that's the only place where standing waves can occur. That worked, and allowed the driver to do its job while removing a lot of the woody resonance and spurious vibrations (when you are sitting in semi-nearfield, you sometimes hear the cabinet "singing along" even with FH1; in a huge room sitting far I'd think it's less annoying). Sometimes I have the feeling the PERCEIVED output might be 1 dB less than untreated, but it's probably just hearing less resonances and distortions, and in an active setup wouldn't matter much anyways. Globally very happy as to how it turned out. Hoping it will work as good with 15C drivers in there. Whatever you choose to do, DO NOT over damp the back chamber, and of course (you know that already) do not touch the horn path. In my system the fH1s are used with John Allen A55G mid drivers, EV SM120 mid horns, Beyma CP25 tweeters; active 24dB at 400Hz and passive 6Khz - sounds great even if I wouldn't compare it with some K402 and big high end 2" drivers. I use two high end Focal active subs, and I tried crossing them over at 80Hz but it made the bass quite slow; horn subs are not an option so I ended up high-passing the FH1s at 40Hz (just to avoid wasting amp power on those frequencies ) and the subs low-pass is around 60Hz, using the subs internal filter; in my room the overlap it creates with the fH1 gives the most agreeable transition from horn mid bass to direct radiating subs.