Constructing La Scalas

[robroy3300]

Hello all,

I Have been away for some time and appologise for not participating in our great forum!

Anyways,I will be starting a new project-I WANT A PAIR OF LA SCALAS!!! lol Although on a limited income,that can be difficult! I have studdied all the plans,and am confident I can build my own. (Thankyou to all who posted La scala plans btw) My father was a cabinet maker,so let's hope I picked up a few tricks! I have the equipment and plan to use red oak vineer. I do have a question though concerning the drivers.Should I order them direct from Klipsch(VERY EXPENSIVE I PRESUME) or how about Bob Crites and the drivers he offers? I am aware I can pick a set up on Ebay and replace the diaphrams,( I had to in my Forte II's ) but I question the woofers being used and so old! Perhaps I should just purchase the K-33's from Klipsch new and replace the diaphrams of a pair of used horns. Albeit,I was just wondering if anyone had expierience with the replacement woofers Bob Crites Offers.I welcome anyon's oppinion,and thankyou!!!

[Coytee]

I don't know what your budget is but... I'd suggest you do a couple things:

Drivers: I'd investigate "JubeScala". As an owner of LaScalas for 30 years I don't mind saying it is a clear notch above standard LaScalas. You could do the smaller K510 and perhaps incorporate the horn into the top of the speaker (in lieu of the K400 and tweeter) or if you really wanna go balls to the wall, build the bass bin only and put the larger (and more expensive) K402 on top for even better sound. You could also set the K510 on top of the cabinet instead of putting it inside.

Cabinet: I'd suggest you make it more like the LaScala II and make it an inch thick or perhaps 1 1/2" thick by doubling up on the 3/4" plywood...and NOT make it 3/4" thick unless you are going to put braces in the mouth. The thicker walls make the LaScala II an easy improvement over the output in bass over the original. the sidewalls that resonate in the original version....are a bad thing at times.

If you ever get near Knoxville, I can demo a JubeScala for you however I only have the larger horn, not the K510 (which sounds excellent on its own right)

[PrestonTom]

I am all in favor of DIY projects. I am also a big believer in hot-rodding classic designs.

However, if this is being driven by a financial issue, then you may want to check the arithmetic. Currently La Scalas and their commercial siblings are selling for dirt cheap. The asking price in my neighborhood for the commercial units is about $500-600 for a pair of decent working cabinets. The home versions are not that much more (roughly an extra 20 -30% if you shop around). If you add up the costs of the purchasing the drivers, horns etc. then the result a almost a wash.

Yes, Bob Crites would be a great source and resource for parts.

Now, if you want to put your own mark on it you can always buy a used pair and then hot rod with better parts or put some TLC into rejuvenating the cosmetics. Building them from scratch would be a fun project, but they would remain DIY cabinets and have limited re-sale value. Personally, with curent prices, I think there are better designs to clone or hot rod.

Either way you go, good luck,

-Tom

[jhoak]

I think if I was "building from scratch" and HAD to have a folded horn I'd look at Belles over La Scalas. While there are more cuts they don't seem to be quite as complex. This coming from someone who spent 10 years doing finish carpentry and cabinet making for a living. Having spent a metric a$$load of hours on a La Scala rebuild/refinish project (that isn't done YET) I can tell you that getting that point in the front of the bass bin "just right" will be no easy task. Especially on "consumer" grade power tools. And you can count the amount of material I've run across a table saw in my life in miles not feet.

Not being as deep as La Scalas Belles have a more forgiving footprint in most rooms. For woofers K-33s or Crites would be good with the Crites woofers putting out a couple of dB more than K-33s. Squawkers... 1st choice would be one of the Trachorns, probably by GotHover as they're shallow enough to fit in Belle tophats. 2nd choice Crites PH-800 horns though there's not a lot known about them spec wise and 3rd choice whatever Klipsch originally put in Belles with plastic horns being prefered over metal horns. Tweeters... Crites CT125s... No question. They OWN K-77s. As for crossovers... i choose to not enter that debate at this time.

That said... If I weren't already eyeball deep $$ wise in my project in retrospect I should have cut up the old La Scala bass bins to use for fireplace fodder and just built a pair of Cornscalas. There are many here who have abandoned their La Scalas for Cornscalas. Do a search, you'll be stunned at the number of results. In particular look at the GWN Cornscallas. Absolutely stunning!!! I haven't heard them but I have a strong hunch that they'll absolutely SMOKE any La Scalas you could ever build or buy by a wide margin.

I'm veneering my La Scalas in red oak as well. If you'd like to see them there's a few pictures at: http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/125734.aspx I'll post some more as I make some more progress and especially once they're done. I can't wait...

Good luck and HAVE FUN!!!

[JohnA]

Hello all,

I Have been away for some time and appologise for not participating in our great forum!

Anyways,I will be starting a new project-I WANT A PAIR OF LA SCALAS!!! lol Although on a limited income,that can be difficult! I have studdied all the plans,and am confident I can build my own. .......Should I order them direct from Klipsch(VERY EXPENSIVE I PRESUME) or how about Bob Crites and the drivers he offers?....................

You'd be surprised how reasonable Klipsch parts are when you need something to *repair* your La Scalas. A K-401 horn is about $50 each.

If I were you, building my own, I'd use 1" birch plywood for the 5 sides of the bass horn (only because it's easier to build, only the sides really need it), use Bob Crites' cast frame woofers (old lower Fs, better bass, 150 watts) and his tweeters. I'd pick up a pair of K-400 or K-401 horns from eBay or Klipsch and buy a pair of solder terminal K-55-Vs from eBay. I'd build a pair of Type AA networks without the tweeter protection and a band-pass on the squawker. You can probably build a textbook high-pass for the tweeter, if you use Bob's I'd also add a pair of 1"x 1" x1.41" corner reflectors in the rear corners (more output above ~400 Hz.

This will set you up for experiments with 500 Hz horns but give you a baseline to start with.

[robroy3300]

Dear jhoak,Thanks foryour response and helpful advise-You are right; I. as well prefer the Belles over the La scalas in apperances!

Are the doghouses close the the same construction do you know? (internally I mean-obviouse cosmetic difference)

[jhoak]

There are obviously a LOT of differences between the two. But it looks to me that the same basic design principals apply to both. Rear facing woofers with the sound "turning the corner" as it were to exit at the front. If memory serves the Belles are 6" or so wider overall than the La Scalas. My hunch is that is to give the doghouse enough internal volume to approximate the La Scalas. I'm not an engineer nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night so take my observations and suppositions as just that. Observations and suppositions. Hey... Wait a minute... I AM an engineer... Just not THAT kind of engineer.

I haven't done the internal volume calculations on both, (I need to do that) but there are more similarities in design than differences. For example the motor board openings on both are identical 13” X 3”. The layout of the “ramps” is very similar as well I know that I studied plans for both extensively and recreated the La Scala plans in my CAD software from metric measurements. In the end it appeared to me that the Belles would be an easier build from scratch. Not as many complex cuts that would need to be done on consumer grade power tools. NOW... If I had access to a full blown cabinet shop... HMMM... I don't know. Belles would certainly fit my living room better than the La Scalas do.

That said I didn't build either one. I ended up buying a pair of beater La Scalas that I'm in the process of bringing back to life. I only hope that they sound as good as they look at the end of the day.

Have fun!!!

[Tom Mobley]

Having done both I don't mind saying the difficulty is about the same for both. The hard part of an LS is the acute angle cuts oon the front of the doghouse.

The Belle doghouse is easier but the whole speaker is harder because of the large number of pieces that need to be finished.

For the LS the front pieces of the doghouse are cut by running the plywood through the table saw vertically. I made a little sled to run on the fence.