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w30bob

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  1. Yeah, I was at Lowes last night looking at casters........for some odd reason they're cheaper at Lowes in-store than others sell them for online. But I forgot to bring the hole dimensions for the screws in the corners of the bottom piece of plywood. I was planning on not drilling new holes in the wood, just using slightly longer screws and using the existing 2 holes in each corner. But now that I see what a whole friggin' dolly costs at Harbor Freight......and it's what 1 caster cost at Lowes. So for $24 I'm just getting 2 dollies and either use as-is or steal the casters off them! Or I could splurge and buy the pseudo butcher block dollie that's big enough to hold a La Scala.........decisions, decisions. https://www.harborfreight.com/material-handling/hand-trucks-carts-dollies/24-in-x-16-in-1000-lb-capacity-solid-deck-hardwood-dolly-56782.html
  2. That's funny........I was at Walmart the other day looking for ideas and I happened on the big thick rubber doorstops!! And I thought about it. Actually, it gave me some ideas for longer wood wedges.......but it is funny you mentioned them! Now I'm curious..........where would I look to find the other 7 of Mr Klipsch's principles for good sound. Me thinks I should read them! thanks guys!! bob
  3. HI Guys, I've been looking around for some casters for my La Scalas, and while doing so I ran across some risers as well. I haven't figured out the exact placement of my speakers relative to my listening position just yet......still playing around....but got to thinking I could use larger casters in the front and smaller in the back to pitch the front of the speaker upward, better aiming the drivers centerline with my ear location vertically. I liked that idea, but then thought it would be nicer if I could adjust the angle so if I sit nearfield or far-field, or move them from room to room, I can tweak the tilt of the speakers. Has anyone come up adjustable risers with or without casters for the La Scalas? I see fixed risers on Epay for silly amounts of money (for 8 sticks of wood), but really like the idea of adjustability. Anybody been there and done that already? thanks, bob
  4. Great video!!!..........Hey wait a minute.....that guy stole MY idea!!! How did he read my post and make that video so fast........I was only gone 45 minutes!! Seriously, that was good. And when I get to the point of considering changing caps in my crossover.....I'll do that! thanks, bob
  5. Great posts guys........I'm learning, which is the primary purpose of forums......so thanks. The whole discussion about what sounds better, this cap or that cap, seems to be the staple of the whole "Audiophile" hobby (industry). I was pretty big into it in the 80's and early 90's, although I took most of what I read about this component being better than that component with each monthly audiophile magazine I read with a big grain of salt. I was buying most of the BS until the Tice Clock came along and everyone started raving about a clock you plug into an outlet over on that side of the room..........making your stereo on this side of the room sound better! Uh.....yeah. Ok. The crazies are now running the asylum......I'm out of here! Right about then the speaker and interconnect cable nonsense really took off. It was fun to watch the manufacturers keep raising their prices on cables, all the while probably laughing their asses off in their boardrooms making wagers amongst themselves as to when these "audiophiles" would realize the King's really not wearing any clothes. Are there differences between pure silver multi-strand cross helixed interwoven binary wound $3000 a foot speaker cables and Radio Shack 12 AWG copper stranded speaker wire that sold for $12 for a spool of 50 feet..........man I sure hope so. But if I couldn't listen to them at the same time in the same place (my place), should I really care? And then one day I had to get a hearing test for work. I could hear ok..........but it got me thinking........I'm listening to and taking advice from what were called "Golden Eared Audiophiles" in the magazines.........and how did I know they were "Golden Eared"? Where was the results of THEIR hearing tests??? I would think they should be on Page 1 of every issue, right? I mean if you're being touted as having "Golden Ears" you must be able to hear better than me, right......and be able to prove it.....no? Nah, you just had to be around music and music reproduction for a long time. Except I got friends who've been doing that forever and they can't hear for shit. Hmmm.........me smells a rat. Anyway, it didn't matter. Because I started to realize I really enjoyed listening to music in my car on my Alpine front end way more than I did listening to it on my He-Man audio rig in the house. In the car I was jamming and singing and having a blast. But inside I was listening for separation between the band members and layering of sounds, and soundstage depth, bla, bla, bla..........but I wasn't enjoying the music! So I said enough was enough......tossed all my Stereophile mags in the dumpster at work, and just LISTENED to my music once again. I really didn't care if the new Krell monoblocks have more air and extension than my Carver TFMs did. I really didn't. Later after college when I had some bucks to spend I wanted to go back and revisit some of the things I lusted after back in the day but couldn't afford. So I picked up some Apogee Cal Sigs.....and was blown away! I could turn the lights out and Frank Sinatra was standing about 5 feet in front of me singing his heart out. I could almost reach out and touch him. It was spooky real. So the Polk SDAs had a new permanent home in my closet.......and then a pair of even bigger of Apogee Duetta Sigs followed me home one day. I'll never sell them......they're going in my coffin with me. So maybe I was a bit hard on the "audiophile" community. So then I bought a pair of B&W 801s from a recording studio in Philadelphia, as they were the rage in Stereophile for a number of years. And they ARE nice speakers. Very nice speakers. On wheels even. I can roll them onto the deck for summer parties and they do rock the house! So I'm putting my new La Scalas right next to them tonight in the living room for a quickie comparo. Should be interesting. Which brings me to my La Scalas. I'd always read about Klipsch speakers when younger, but dismissed them as incredibly overpriced PA speakers. I was wrong, they were incredibly overpriced stereo speakers! Well, "overpriced" might raise some heckles........so I'll tread lightly. I realized there was a huge markup on speakers from way back, when I pried the top cans open on my Ohm Sound Cylinders and found the cheapest speakers and parts in there.......and understood why they didn't want anyone seeing what was in the top hats. If it cost them more than $15 to build one Sound Cylinder I'd be amazed. And they sold them for $300-$400 a pair!!! OMG. So when I looked at Klipsch I saw some horn speakers and sheet or two of plywood.......maybe $200 bucks if they paid retail..........and they were selling them for THOUSANDS!!! My bullshit meter was off the charts. But they've stood the test of time, and I was feeling that maybe I was missing something by not at least checking them out. And that's what I'm doing now. We'll see how it goes.........but at the very least I can check off "Klipsch Speakers" from my Bucket List...... Woo-Hoo! Now how did I get here..........oh yeah.......crossover capacitors! So here's a dumb question. If people think they hear differences in capacitors made of different material or brands......why doesn't someone just build a switch box with a number of these different capacitors in there and switch between them while listening? Why in Audiodom do we always have go take someone's word for what sounds better when they're relying on their memory? I know I can't remember shit from day to day, never mind how my system sounded last week with Capacitor A, vice this week with Capacitor B.....I mean really? Hey, I'm not trying to piss anyone off, but being an engineer if I can't see or hear the difference in real time.........I NEVER rely on my memory for anything. I would just think that rather than debate what sounds better, why doesn't someone just PROVE IT once and for all, and then move on to the next point of contention? Of course I'm oversimplifying..........I make that mistake a lot. But it's a forum......where we're supposed to ask questions and learn............so I'm just asking. And even if my La Scalas don't sound that great..........they do look FANTASTIC sitting there!!! But I got a feeling they're going to surprise me. I'm going to go clean my ears now.........just to be fair!! Great replies guys..........keep 'em coming!!! thanks, bob
  6. Sorry.........double post I don't yet know how to delete
  7. Hi Islander........yeah, I've heard and seen the term "squawker" in posts and on crossovers.......but it's so "un-hi fidelty" a word that I have a hard time using it when talking about something that is supposed to sound "good", and not like a bad PA system. I mean "woof" and "tweet" aren't too bad a descriptor, but I can't imagine the word "squawk" ever had a good connotation, although I've heard things were weird back in the 50's, so who knows. I'm actually surprised it's lasted this long! But hey, when in Rome...........so "squawker" it is! thanks, bob
  8. Hi Guys, Yeah, I didn't think $2k was out of the park. There's a few nicks here and there, but the grill cloth is perfect.......the white stuff you see in the pic is just dust.....but I would have liked the casters the Industrials come with. The few La Scalas I've seen for sale near me (I'm in Maryland and don't know how to add that to my avatar) seem to all start out around $2500 and then sit for half a year or so before the price drops to $2000. There's a pair of black Industrials up the road (not splits, just black painted wood) of 80's vintage that have been sitting at $2K for some time now. Others I've seen on Ebay and Marketplace start out higher, but I assume don't sell. It's a game.....so you never know. But I think the stories I've read on here about finding them at church auctions for cheap or in a dumpster for free are all in the past. But you never know............. I've got another question for you. What are a pair of minty K-Horns worth today. And I mean minty. White oak with black grills......not a mark on them. 80's vintage with untouched drivers and crossovers. All the posts about pricing I've found on here are 10 years old or older.........so not really relevant. So what's the going rate today? I realize there is no one price, and it's whatever someone is willing to pay for them.......but what's a good ballpark $$$? thanks again, bob
  9. Hi Guys! Thanks for the replies. I agree with all of you, am going to take my time and not screw anything up that can't be undone because I'm uninformed. I've been in the 'collecting' hobby long enough to know not to mess with what's original until you fully understand what you're doing......and at this point I don't. I will get pics up ASAP, I just need to get them to a place that isn't so messy........I wouldn't want you guys thinking badly of me (wink, wink). I did make sure the check all 6 drivers when I went to see them. Everything works. Can't say how well, but both tweeters tweet, the mids mid and the woofers woof. I had one small issue that I had to take care of before I bring them into the room that has my primary system. And that was I found a cat had pee'd on the bottom of one of them. Didn't catch the odor in the guy's basement who was selling them, but when I brought them into my house.....OMG! So I did a bit of research on how to neutralize cat pee on wood. Very interesting stuff, if you're so inclined. Seems it's an age old problem with the usual ton of solutions listed online. I have fully 100% eradicated the cat urine, but learned a lot in the past few days. I should probably put the info in a separate post.......to save anyone else from having the try 50,000 things that don't work. In the end I did find 2 things that work......well one that works 100% and one that works like 80%....depending on how good your nose is. All the rest of the home remedies online for dealing with pee on hardwood floors, like vinegar, vinegar and baking soda, Murphy's, etc, flat out don't work. To be fair it's really a function of the strength of the particular cat's urine.......but the one that got my speaker must have been a super-pee'r. Long story short the stuff called 'Angry Orange' works. Period. Quickly and easily. I had to pop off the bottom cover of the doghouse to make sure I got it all, but other than dealing with a few stubborn screws with worn heads........that was easy peasy. Luckily the cat somehow managed to pee on the bottom cover piece of plywood only, and none got inside the front of the doghouse. I kind of wanted to see what the woofer looked like anyway........so I killed two birds. Now that the world's most disgusting smell has been eliminated I'll move them into my main system, maybe this weekend, and get you guys some pics. So hang tight and I'll get on that ASAP. Now, just so I'm clear on the Raw Birch finish.........are you telling me that when new the wood was literally left raw........no sealer or anything.......just real raw wood? The kind that gets dirty just by looking at it? Is that how they really came? Or were they just not stained any color and cleared over with something? Again, just want to know what they started life as and then I can go from there. Thanks again for all your replies. Looking forward to picking your brains on this stuff!! Oh.......I have spent some time on Crites website familiarizing myself with his upgrades. It all sounds good, but I got a lot to learn before moving in any direction. Hmmm..........I guess I can upload the pics from the original listing to give you guys something to gnaw on until I can get some better ones up. Ok, will try that. thanks, bob
  10. Hi Guys, Neat forum you have here. I've been lurking and did a lot of reading for the past couple of weeks, as I had my sights on a minty pair of K-horns that would look nice in my system. But communications with the gal selling them was going too slow, so I ended up buying a nice set of La Scalas today that were much closer (and cheaper). I paid $2000 for the pair, which I realize isn't a bargain, but I'm a bit off the beaten path and they don't show up for sale often. I may still pickup the K-horns, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm currently running a pair of big Apogee Duetta II's with subs, but have always wanted to check out the Klipsch side of the house. Guess it's that time! So now that I'm "in the family" I've got some questions. And I'll have a lot more as I get into this. First, the LS's I got were made in 1992 and they're sequential (not that that makes any difference). The finish is "LS BIR RAW #17 Grill". I've been to the decoder post, which is great....so thanks for that! I got them from the original owner's daughter and they're in pretty good shape. No mods and the AL-3 crossovers are unmolested. Overall a nice set of LS's, but not showroom perfect.....which is fine, I like things with history. I understand about the crossovers needing attention, and will get to that shortly......but first I want to get the cabinets sorted out and as nice as I can make them while keeping them original. My first question is............where in this forum are the cabinet restoration posts? I looked around quickly but didn't see any....which seems odd. Are they in one place or scattered thru the different headings? Right now I'm specifically looking for all the wisdom regarding maintaining and repairing original finishes, etc. Can someone point me in the right direction? My second question relates to the cabinet finish. So I understand it's coded as raw birch, which it is, but it's got a sealer on it.....it's not really "raw" as in untreated wood, just not stained. So is the sealer a polyurethane or something else? I fully intend to save the original finish, just want to know what it is I'm dealing with. I've got one faint water ring on the top of one cabinet.........looks like the size of a planter base........and I want to see if I can save the top surface without sanding it down and refinishing. I'd expect folks on here have dealt with that sort of thing and might have some insight. My third question.........does anyone repop the serial number plates/stickers? Mine are pretty heavily worn/faded and it's tough to read the SN and cabinet code. If they keep deteriorating they won't be very readable going forward. If someone repops them I would simply put the old ones in a bag and tape it to the back of each speaker for originality sake. Ok, I'll stop at 3 questions, as I don't want to wear out my welcome before I even get here. I look forward to chatting with you folks. thanks, bob
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