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La Scala Split Project


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Today I filled in more dings and painted the back and sides of one of the two cabinets.  Also cleaned up the front of one of the cabinets.  These things are really rough, and whoever had them rounded all of the edges off.  The metal should hide the rounded edges pretty well, though.  Monday the new corners should arrive along with the new handles.  I decided to go with handles that wouldn't penetrate the case, but I have to rout an area out about 0.4" for them to sit in.  The drawing isn't dimensioned well at all.  No idea how big the routed area needs to be until I can measure the actual handles.

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I'm putting two handles on each side of the LF bins, and one on each side of the HF sections.  Handle is Penn-Elcom H7154Z from http://www.parts-express.com

 

 

 

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I went with the surface mount Penn Elcon for my faux LSI's. They worked out well and are well built. They are spring loaded so stay tight to the cabinet. I was afraid they might rattle but hasn't been an issue. Kinda hard to see in the photo but best I had.

 

alumtrim.thumb.jpg.cedee3f07341463264ebc83f4e60979f.jpg

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5 minutes ago, MookieStl said:

I went with the surface mount Penn Elcon for my faux LSI's. They worked out well and are well built. They are spring loaded so stay tight to the cabinet. I was afraid they might rattle but hasn't been an issue. Kinda hard to see in the photo but best I had.

 

 

I was worried they'd get busted off.  Almost went with those!

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Today I dismantled the old top sections in order to retrieve the former top plywood.  These cabinets did not come with woofer doors, so I intend to use the top plywood as the new woofer doors.  I saved the front as a router template for the 401/K77 holes.

 

IMG_2961.jpg

 

Remember that 3/4" of this front is missing below the 401.  This is because the rest of it stayed with the bass bin when I separated the two.  I'm going to build the new HF sections out of 1/2" plywood but same overall dimensions for a couple of reasons.  The first is weight.  The second is that I don't think it is acoustically necessary to use 3/4" plywood in the HF section.

 

Here's a shot of how the SpeakOn connector looks from inside the woofer area, just for the heck of it:

 

IMG_2960.jpg

 

I chose Penn-Elcom 5299 caster sockets, located where I wanted to put them, and almost started drilling.  That's when I did one last measurement of the caster socket diameter and realized it was larger than my 1/2 paddle bit...  whoops, almost screwed that up.

 

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After checking the drawing, it seems everything is in metric, which means a .59" hole, or 15mm.  I don't know I can find that around here.  I might just use a round .6" bit.

Well, off to the mother-in-law's house for Easter dinner.  I might work on this more later tonight.

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Do you think there would be any audible advantage to rounding the corners of the woofer slot in the doghouse?

 

When I was inside mine there were noticeable chips out of one of them and I stopped myself from doing that without putting it to the forum.

 

But my OCD is killing me... I know one of the slots is different, if only slighly, from the other.

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1 hour ago, geoff. said:

Do you think there would be any audible advantage to rounding the corners of the woofer slot in the doghouse?

 

When I was inside mine there were noticeable chips out of one of them and I stopped myself from doing that without putting it to the forum.

 

But my OCD is killing me... I know one of the slots is different, if only slighly, from the other.

I have no idea, but I have a bunch of guesses, and THESE ARE ONLY GUESSES:

 

The motorboard opening was designed with the dimensions it has for a reason.

It provides some compression and lines up with the rear diverter wood.

There's probably a little bit of tolerance in there for manufacturing tool wear.

At some point, increase in opening size will interfere with the horn expansion rate.

PWK knew way more than I do, and this is how he wanted it for the part he could control.

 

That said, I wouldn't make changes to the motorboard opening size.  I get the OCD thing (I have a really minor case), but at some point there are glue joints that don't have the same amount of glue, screws that are not tightened uniformly, brads that aren't driven all the same angles, etc.  In other words, where does it end?  I wouldn't mess with it.  Take a deep breath and relax, grab a beer, and listen to whatever tunes you like.

 

I'd love the real answer to this question, though.  Someone on here will know.

 

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59 minutes ago, codewritinfool said:

lines up with the rear diverter wood.

 

Which is larger than the splitter on mine (ignore the cobwebs... these had been sitting on someones porch when I found them).

 

Bruce

 

splitter.jpg

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One is a factory cab, one is a clone. Maybe Andy could shed some light on this, although it has been discussed before that there were two versions of the splitter built.

 

Bruce

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I know you have all the parts to make the LaScala but...  if it were me, (other than maybe having to drag more electronics to your buddies house) I'd make it a 2-way and put a K510 inside a new top.  The improvement in sound will not be insignificant.  (the cost might not be insignificant either, that's for you to decide)

 

(If you've seen/heard this before, then pardon the repetition)

JubeScala II.JPG

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23 minutes ago, Coytee said:

I know you have all the parts to make the LaScala but...  if it were me, (other than maybe having to drag more electronics to your buddies house) I'd make it a 2-way and put a K510 inside a new top.  The improvement in sound will not be insignificant.  (the cost might not be insignificant either, that's for you to decide)

 

(If you've seen/heard this before, then pardon the repetition)

 

I haven't see that before.  Kind of a La Jubilee.  Sounds like a future project.  What does the crossover circuit look like for this?  I realize it is 2-way, but what's the crossover point used, is it a custom-built crossover or does it use one from a Jubilee?  What driver is used in that top?

 

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"JubeScala"

 

Although the genesis of the name was with the K402 in mind, not the 510.  The driver is the K691 and it's the tw eeter driver/horn for the 3-way Jubilee.  When used in a residential situation, you can use a lower crossover point.  It will run you out of the room before you blow it.  I don't know anything about a passive for it.  That would take one of the smarter guys than me.

 

Here is the active info for it.  Note that this is using the K69 driver and now they're using the K691.  I don't know if nor how much that might change the crossover situation.

 

I'm here to tell you though....once you hear the larger format drivers, you will scratch your head and ask yourself why you ever listened to those small horns...

DX-38 settings for LaScala (1 or 2) LF with K510 & K69.pdf

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Kind of a bad angle, but this morning I put the first coat of Duratex on the wedge on one of the LF sections.

 

IMG_3025.jpg

 

It is impossible to reach into the back, so it'll forever look bad.  I'm thinking I will make a set of grilles.  I might just build some wedges for this purpose like others have done or put some furring strips on the top & bottoms and sides and attach it that way.  Haven't decided yet.  Thoughts?

 

Also today I figured out where I'm going to put the side handles and marked the sides so I can properly rout the depression for the handles.  More on that later.

 

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A little more progress today.  I routed out the four pockets for the handles on the LF cabs.  I was going to put two handles per side for a total of 8, but after looking at these handles, I decided that one per side would be sufficient.

 

Here's after routing:

IMG_3035.jpg

 

The second LF cabinet is below, and not nearly in as finished of a state as the top one.  Basically I made a .38" deep, 3" tall, 5.2" wide rectangular slot in the LF bins with a router just eyeballing some guidelines.  There is plenty of overlap from the slot to the flange, so the holes didn't need to be super clean. 

 

Here's what one of the handles looks like after it is mounted:

IMG_3036.jpg

 

I went with the 3/4" lath screws here because they look good and have a big wide washer-head on them.  I chose silver handles because they sort of match the metal edges and contrast well with the black cabinets.

 

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Looking good - handles, trim, caster, all of it.

When I did mine, I was concerned about how to get the duratex into the doghouse area as well. I gave up and sprayed the inside portion, only doing duratex on the outside of the cabinets. I added a little texture (silica) into the paint to give it a little texture to look more like the exterior, but not a lot. I had a fair amount of bondo on mine so needed to hide a few sins. Covered fairly well.

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2 minutes ago, MookieStl said:

Looking good - handles, trim, caster, all of it.

When I did mine, I was concerned about how to get the duratex into the doghouse area as well. I gave up and sprayed the inside portion, only doing duratex on the outside of the cabinets. I added a little texture (silica) into the paint to give it a little texture to look more like the exterior, but not a lot. I had a fair amount of bondo on mine so needed to hide a few sins. Covered fairly well.

Thanks, Mookie.  That's a good idea with the silica texture, but I still think I might just do some grilles and hide it.  You know the wood at the back of the V that goes straight back on either side of the V?  I'm thinking that may make a good edge for a grille and then add furring strips on the bottom and top and the side to complete it (grilles in red in the drawing).  I've seen the stiffening braces with grilles and other grilles and they are way forward of this.  It seems that these edges are perfectly placed to support one vertical edge of a grille.  I'd place them so they make a 90 degree angle with the V.

 

Black grilles might look really good.

 

 

image.png.1324953faa7673d0ee1f8ededab187c5.png

 

 

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5 minutes ago, codewritinfool said:

Thanks, Mookie.  That's a good idea with the silica texture, but I still think I might just do some grilles and hide it.  You know the wood at the back of the V that goes straight back on either side of the V?  I'm thinking that may make a good edge for a grille and then add furring strips on the bottom and top and the side to complete it (grilles in red in the drawing).  I've seen the stiffening braces with grilles and other grilles and they are way forward of this.  It seems that these edges are perfectly placed to support one vertical edge of a grille.  I'd place them so they make a 90 degree angle with the V.

 

Black grilles might look really good.

 

 

image.png.1324953faa7673d0ee1f8ededab187c5.png

 

 

I made frames for LS grills many times for Matthews. He did the hard part of putting the fabric on. They always turned out nice, maybe too pretty of Industrial versions, but still nice. He went out closer to the front end than you show in your illustration but same idea.

 

bbty.jpg.1c93bdf3b272bfe21083f967b281848b.jpg

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1 minute ago, MookieStl said:

I made frames for LS grills many times for Matthews. He did the hard part of putting the fabric on. They always turned out nice, maybe too pretty of Industrial versions, but still nice. He went out closer to the front end than you show in your illustration but same idea.

 

bbty.jpg.1c93bdf3b272bfe21083f967b281848b.jpg

Those La Scalas are stunning!  Now that I see this, I like the big W look.  Time for me to think some more.

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