The return of the la scala's.

[Daan]

Hello to you all.

I've just signed up here as a new member, [ location; The Netherlands],hoping to get help with taking care for my la scala's, and to tribute whatever I can to help others with various things I do know....

A bit history about these speakers;

I bought them about 16 years ago after a most convincing hearing-test; I was blown away by the dynamic range, clarity and livelyness they displayed.

They came in very good shape, undamaged by moving around, [or watering plants], with original receipt of purchase, and a lot of dust.

After 3 years I had to sell them because of moving to a much smaller appartment; luckily my father-in-law was just as enthousiastic about them, and bought them with the agreement that he would sell them back to me when he needed them gone.

His daughter and I separated, but I always kept in contact with her parents; resulting in the return of my la scala's last week!

They are connected to a denon dcd2560 player, Thel passive pre-amp, and a Phoenix Gold MS 2250 high-end car audio amplifier which get's it's 14.4 volts from a huge powersupply.

I restore these amps for a lot of years already, and they are amazingly suitable for home-audio for their high-end capability's.

If anyone would like more info about these special amps I'll post more about the subject later on.

First; thank you for reading this, and the first thing I would like to ask is if there are replacement woofers for the K33-E that can be used without the chance of ruining the original specs.

These woofers have the square magnets; the cones have gotten out of their original position, due to their age.

Still playing fine, but at some point, the voive-coil will start to rub against the magnet-core for sure.

Thanks again; any help getting recone- parts, or replacements is appreciated.

Nico

[Daddy Dee]

nico,

Welcome to the forum. La Scala's are indeed fabulous sounding speakers.

You'll find a number of folks who will contribute to your projects through their own experience and knowlege.

[Islander]

First; thank you for reading this, and the first thing I would like to ask is if there are replacement woofers for the K33-E that can be used without the chance of ruining the original specs.

These woofers have the square magnets; the cones have gotten out of their original position, due to their age.

Still playing fine, but at some point, the voive-coil will start to rub against the magnet-core for sure.

New woofers are available from Klipsch Parts, plus Bob Crites (BEC on this forum) sells both stamped-frame and cast-frame woofers that meet Klipsch original specs.

As for your woofers sagging due to age, have you thought of turning them 180 degrees so they'll return to their original shape? It's sort of like occasionally flipping your mattress and a few forum members have commented that they rotate their woofers when they have the cabinets open.

[Daan]

Thank you both for your words; in regards to the turning of the woofer; I did that already years ago, but find the replacement woofers not expensive [found them on the bay at Bob Crites'add], so am going to replace them to get a fresh start.

Also would like to replace the AA crossover for a new [and upgraded?] one; what is considered the best choice ?

While reading posts on this forum, and finding various crossovers....I'd like to replace these original ones with the best that are available for my early LS's, [alu mid horn].

I'll also ask Bob if the woofers with the cast frame are better than the stamped ones.

Thank you; as a newbee I can not do much more yet ,then ask for advice from you members, I appreciate the help very much!

[Marvel]

Asking about crossovers is a loaded question! [] Some just want to get new caps to bring their old crossovers up to spec, while others go all out with newer designs.

The AA is a good crossover, as is the A, but some prefer to go with one of Al Klappenberger's extreme slope designs. They are expensive, though, and I won't get into the merits or faults of either. The volume at which you listen can play an important part in what you might want to get. Some think the extreme slope crossovers need to have the juice put to them before they sound their best.

I built my own, which are closer to the A, but a constant impedance type. These have worked well on my LS powered by low power SET amps.

Bob will be able to advise.

The cast frame woofer will likely not fit in the LS, as it has a slightly larger frame than the stamped frame model. They are both good woofers.

And welcome!

Bruce

[Daan]

Thank you, and also the people who have send me PM's; in only a couple of days I have been receiving good advice about what to do.

Result; I ordered a pair of cast-frame woofers plus a repair-set [sonicaps] for the original crossover from Bob Crites.

Next step will be replacing the complete crossovers by ALK 's gentle slope ones in August, when I have funds again, and also a friend of mine in the US will bring them with him when he visits us here.

I choose the cast-frame woofers, having lots of experiences with both stamped steel ones and cast ones; the later beeing much more rigid, plus Bob also told me they are slightly better.

So for the next couple of months I'll listen to the effect these upgrades will have on the speakersystem, and go on from there.

I thought about replacing the original k77-m tweeters for Bob's version, but decided to take it easy and go step-by-step.

They already sound great as they are now imo, so things can only get better.

Thanks again for the input!

Nico

[Blvdre]

I'm sure Bob already filled you in, but just in case: you'll have to either grind down a bit of the cast woofer frames, or the LaScala cabinet in order for the woofers to fit. See this thread

[dtel]

Welcome, I think there is at least one other person on the forum from the Netherlands.

[Daan]

Thank you for bringing it up; I was already informed about this.

Since I'm well equipped for wood-working plus metalwork, I will have no troubles with making this woofer fit[]

After looking at the thread, I saw that others already went that way, covering the woofer, and shaving the excess metal off the edges.

It's only 1/8 inch too large in diametre in total; I'm happy with my decision to buy these woofers!

I'll post my experiences with pics after fitting them, maybe usefull for others in the future....

[Marvel]

I still have my original woofers in mine and they sound great ('86 LaScalas). I wouldn't just toss the originals... you may find they are just fine. I know you won't regret gettingthe ones from Bob, though.

Bruce

[Daan]

Talking about quality here....

When I saw these original woofers for the first time, I was stunned by their "cheap looking appearance" [*-)]

16 years back, they both had membranes that were just sagged, coming outwards on the lowest side, and inwards on the upperside.

I was amazed they did not rib against the magnet-cores yet!

Back then I wanted to change them already, and now I will, and with a bit better ones as well.

Also I tried a [very good] 2x 30 band EQ on them , together with my analyzer, to determine wether they did what they should do in freq, response... they didn't anymore.

I guess the mis-alignment takes it's toll on the response, and I 'm SO HAPPY that these speakers are in my posession again, that I want to give them a fresh start.[]

Going one step at the time, and asking for advice from people like you, I hope to make the right decisions and enjoy these speakers for the rest of my life.

[My wife has already accepted the fact that when the LS's have to go, I'll go with them[:#]]

[JK] she loves the sound they produce as well, and when I come home from work, for the first time I sometimes find her playing music....

Got to go; have to listen to my complete collection of CD's again since "the return of the LS's ".

Nico