henry4841

If you buy and use a class A SS amplifier and your hearing is good I guarantee you will hear the difference between a cold class A SS amplifier and one that has reached 55C. You will have to be serious about music first though. The 90% I referenced call serious listening when they are riding in their car or doing something else while music is playing in their home.

Basically you are correct with most mass produced electronic products. It is just when you get into serious discussions among audiophiles does warming up comes into play. I would say 90% of the population will never know the difference. I have noticed the difference after listening for an hour or more with a cold class A SS amplifier.

The only true parts of a car engine on a show room floor that require a break in period are the cylinder bores and piston rings because the holes are not perfectly round. They require some wear to perfectly seal. If the cylinder bores are perfectly round to start with and using the modern coated piston rings they seat within a few minutes. To achieve this requires torque plates for every part on the engine block before boring the cylinder. Most do not know how much work goes into a racing engine block before a piston with rings is installed. First the block has to be decked then bored using torque plates. There is much more that goes into the process of building a racing motor but this is a simplified explanation.

I was involved in racing engines in my younger years but if you think you know better. A racing engine, such as a Nascar engine, is built to last just long enough for the race, very short time. They cut every bit of weight on every part. If it is a 500 mile race they only build it to last a bit more then 500 miles. They do test it and change the fluids but not what we call for a breaking in. It requires no breaking in unless you call a few minutes running breaking in. When asked by novices about breaking in a racing engine we always told them we break it in on the race track.

Except when it comes to class A SS amplifiers. They sound the best when they reach their optimal heat temperature. They are recommended to warm up for an hour before serious listening. Before they reach this temperature they still sound good but sound better when they reach the warm up operating temperature. Passlabs recommends that some of their very expensive line stage amplifiers sound best after 24 hours of being on and to never cut it off. I am not going to dispute this fact with Nelson Pass if he says it is true. The fact is when a transistor is ran hot it sounds better, that is until it self destructs. BJT's have what is called thermal runaway at a certain point. Most class A SS amplifiers that I am aware of use mosfets instead of BJT's for this reason. Tube amplifiers benefit as well for a short time being on to stabilize. Most recognize tubes do not perform best until the are used for a 100 to 200 hours. I have one class D amplifier amplifier I built that was terrible lacking in bass when I first fired it up. After a few minutes it produced the best bass I have ever heard. Same experience with the second one I built. Only took a few minutes though.

Car racing engines when built right do not require breaking in. The use of torque plates for every attached part on the engine block enables the engine to break in on the race track. Drag cars much the same. But those engines get really expensive.

I am at the opposite of KT88 when it comes to tone controls. Have not had or used in a decade or more. It takes a lot of effort adjusting your speakers to your room but when done correctly tone controls are just another form of signal manipulation. More components in the audio signal path. It does take a lot of effort, time and expense to conform your room to your speakers. I am the camp of less is better. I have multiple amplifiers and preamps. None with tone controls. The one I use the most is a simple buffer with no amplification. The Nelson Pass B1v2.

It seems the Heritage speaker line is discussed the most on this forum whereas the bulk of sales of Klipsch speakers are the more affordable ones.

Always worth a try. My Dad use to say does not cost anything to ask.

Looks like Altec driver on the Altec 511B horn. Those things are super expensive. If they are the deal is a steal. The speakers alone are not what I would pay, $2000 but when you throw in the Altec horn and drivers I consider it a bargain. I consider the Altec 511B a big upgrade over the Klipsch midrange horn. How do I know? I have and use one.

Depending on price I say go for it. You can take Altec 511B out and have a stoke LaScala with the ALK crossover. The 511B is bringing a pretty price on its own on Ebay these days.

My thoughts as well. Right now I am using some of the NOS Russian 6L6's in my EL-34 SET.

I have a 45 tube amp I built and my experience is much the same as yours. Some of the best mids and vocals you will ever hear but suffers some in the lows. Have not noticed any difference in the highs vs my other amps but then being old and having the high loss that comes with old age I would not expect to hear much difference there.

Probably best moved to the Tube section for better response.

I have been having some PM's with Flevoman who is considering purchasing a new amplifier and he mentioned Melody of which I have not heard of. Marketed mostly in the European, Australian and Asian countries. From what I have found they are an Australian company with their products produced in China. For those interested here is their website and a tour of their facility in China by 6moons.com. https://www.melodyhifi.com.au/aboutus/ https://6moons.com/industryfeatures/roadtourchina/melody.html I found the tour to be very interesting. It would interesting to hear from a member that owns, has owned, one of these amplifiers.

I look at them thinking how the original owners used them as a tool dragging them around for many a concert. Old Soldiers that could tell many a story. That was what LaScala's were originally supposed to be, a tool for musicians. Worth bringing back to life for someone with the ability. I enjoyed seeing them.

😆 Your wrong, mine is better. We should argue back and forth for a few pages on who's is best.

Just thought I would add for those saying the Heritage line is overpriced. The Heritage line is not for the masses but for audiophiles wanting the best sound. Much like any high end audio gear. If one wants the best you have to pay the price. It really is that simple. Klipsch has many really great sounding speakers that make up most of there sales to compete with the other speakers at reasonable competitive prices.

And this thread goes on and on. There has not been built a bad Cornwall speaker, period. As far as 4 sounding better, one would hope so after decades of being offered. Progress marches on. But this is what we do on forums. Mine is better than yours!

Doubtful if many if any go to the expense of making transformers like McIntosh.

Both SS and tube amplifiers can sound good. I think the biggest difference you will hear is going from a push pull amplifier to a single ended one. I have many of both and like changing them out on a weekly, monthly basis for a different sound.

A single speaker would be the best if it were possible, but not attainable at the present time without some compromise. It would solve a multiple of problems inherent in 2 and 3 way speakers systems. No time alignment problems or a crossover network with it's negative effect on sound. I own a 3 way system, LaScala, considering it the most economically way for upper end sound quality. There is a trend now for a full range speaker for many audiophiles but most do add a bass speaker crossing over at a very low frequency, around 200hz. I have experimented with a decent full range speaker but loss some detail and quickness that a horn speaker has. I still prefer horns even with a 3 way system. Engineers work really hard to limit the inherent faults in 2 way and 3 way systems.

This will never be settled on this forum. With any product a newer model is going to be touted as better then the old, for instance cars. A Cornwall is an expensive investment for most people. Those may just want to replace the woofer with a newer one to tighten the bass. The brains of any speaker system is the crossover. Small changes there are really going to change the sound either better or worse. Different drivers for the horn are also going to change the sound. For those on a budget with the older Cornwalls experimenting doing these changes is a much better solution then changing the entire speaker system for a newer model. I am sure there are differences in the sound of an older Cornwall vs a model lV but IMHO subtle when an older Cornwall is going to sound great as well. Then there are those on this forum that can afford to change speaker systems and I am sure they can hear differences over the previous one they had. There are no dogs, no matter how old, in the Heritage line. An older Heritage speaker is most likely going to sell for more then the original owner paid for it. Great investment most cannot say with any other speaker other then the giants of the audio world such as Altec Lansing, JBL, etc. A lot of nitpicking goes on in any product forum. There is a mid driver that is rarely talked about on this forum that I have found to be an excellent sounding one for not a lot of money. The Selenium D250-X that cost $100 a pair. Selenium is a value product from JBL. It uses a phenolic diaphragm that many claim to be a smoother sounding one. All I can say for the owners of the older Heritage speakers is give it a try. Not a lot of money considering the price on a new Heritage speaker. About the price of a good meal for the family these days. Eminence make some of the best woofers one can buy. One of the brands Klipsch has, if not uses now, for some of their speakers. Experimenting changing for a newer one of them is another alternative.

What someone can hear depends on the individual. Nelson Pass had a tester of his amplifiers that could distinguish the difference between a negative going 2nd harmonic and a positive going 2nd harmonic. He tested the hearing of this individual many a times even giving him 2 of the same amplifiers wanting him to compare the two. He came back a few days, weeks, later saying he could not hear any difference. Very few individuals could pass such a test. I am reluctant to say what any individual can hear unless they are just ridiculous. A K-horn from the 60's is not going to sound bad and many may even prefer it over a more modern one. Same with a Cornwall. The Heritage line are the ones most frequently mentioned on this forum when the bulk of sales of Klipsch speakers are not Heritage. Most will be perfectly happy with the other offerings from Klipsch. When talking of the Heritage line on a forum it really is nitpicking saying one is better then another when all sound outstanding.

What it boils down to is both are extremely excellent sounding speakers. Personal taste comes into play. A big factor in how a speaker is going to sound is the room they operate in. We all have different listening rooms.