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La Scala aa vs al3 cross overs


Alexander

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In the next ~4 weeks I will be down in my Florida house (against my will). But the upswing would be there is a 14' x 20' x 8.5' room room that I can use a friends set of 1975 LS's. So looking for something to do I have the itch (again) to put together a crossover - this time for the LS.

 

So here is the question, have been thinking about building the al3 xover but have seen so many times that the aa is used. Aside from maybe the decreased parts count of the aa is there a reason to go with the aa and not the al3?

 

I should add that the OEM aa xovers will be left unmolested other than a possible re cap.

 

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My first pair of La Scalas ('89s) had the AL crossovers, which were not pleasant. I'm sure it didn't help the they were nearing 20 years old. The AL3 is supposed to be a decent version.

 

I opted to build a set designed by on of our members here, a simple design that works very well with my low powered SET  amps. Works well with higher powered amps but I don't crank it much.

 

I would do AAs over the AL3.

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I have AL-3’s in my 1990’ish La Scala’s with original drivers. The networks were recapped by me (were original upon my purchase) with sonicap caps from Crites.

 

After listening to them stock for around 3 months, upgraded to SMAHL tweeters with B&C DE 120’s, as well as the Type A/4500 network from Crites (time aligned á la Marvel- tweeters mounted to lenses placed on top and to rear of the La Scala).

 

The sound was somewhat jarring at first, but after a/b testing (no measurement equipment, just ears), I really liked the Type A/4500 with DE 120 combination.

 

Eventually, I went with a Volti 2” horn with ALK Universal Networks, keeping the La Scala bass bin only. A great deal on Peavey FH-1’s came up and am now using the ALK Universal, DE 120, Volti 2”, FH-1 combination. Did some A/B (again, no measurement equipment, just ears), with the brother in law between my current setup and the La Scala’s- the La Scala with AL-3 did very well against my current setup, although a bit more compressed sounding to my ears.

 

I know I didn’t answer your question regarding Type AA’s, but wanted to share my experience using AL-3’s.

Edited by The Green Hornet
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Not much to say, but I (also) have 1990 all stock La Scalas with AL-3’s. I absolutely love them as is. I bought AA’s when a pair came up to swap out and try, but it has not happened yet. I can shape the sound of my system quite a bit if needed, but I normally run flat / tone bypass. Maybe I’ll update the AA’s with new caps and go from there...


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1384901678_TypeAAJohnLaScalasR1.thumb.jpg.00cef1f72de6b12869355036bd5fbbc6.jpgThe AL-3s were developed with a slightly different woofer (round magnet supposedly with a higher Fs) and a different squawker (K-55-M, supposedly about 1 dB hotter).  The AL-3 has steeper crossover slopes and some woofer and tweeter eq.  While it can't hurt to try, I'll bet the AL-3 will not be so nice with -V squawker and the older square magnet woofers. 

 

Were I you, I'd add an inductor to the squawker like the attached schematic and change the tweeter to a B&C DE120 based tweeter.  If you like La Scalas, you will surely like them this way.  You can even place the tweeter on top of the cabinet over the squawker to time align the HF.  I am running DE120s on Fastrac tweeter horns.  They're sweet and silky. 

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The AL-3, all of the ALs, also have 3db more attenuation on the squawker than the AA/A crossovers.

 

This changes the balance a bit. You might argue a lot. The woofer and tweeter will shine a little more at a given volume, not a bad thing in my books...

 

I have been fortunate enough to have owned a few LS, the first pair having the AL-3 crossover. Here’s the thing... I knew I was going to eventually own a pair and had actually bought a pair of A/4500s and CT125 tweeters PRIOR to even finding my first pair. The AL-3 pair of LS I lucked into first sounded so good to me I never even tried the A/4500s out in the year or so I owned them. Yup, they sounded that good.

 

The second pair I owned had the plain old AL crossovers, and despite all the negative reviews, I didn’t think they were in need of any immediate assistance. But I tried the A/4500s and CT125s in them and was impressed in a different way. The were so “refined”. Almost out of character, but ever so well behaved, and at high volume too, which I found surprising for a first order crossover.

 

The pair I have kept are LSI Splits and have the K-43 woofer which rocks with anything that’s put on top of it. I have tried the AL, A/4500, and AA crossovers in them, ALWAYS with the CT125s or CT120s, and could be happy with any of them here.

 

Now here’s the kicker... I bought a pair of AB-2s recently (AL-3 minus the tweeter protection) but moved just days after receiving them in the mail and haven’t taken possession of the new pad yet.

 

I have all of the requisite parts for a head to head shootout (AA, A/4500/AL-3) but I don’t have the venue, yet.

 

From my experience so far though, I think any “experimental” money would be extremely well spent first on DE-120s on whatever lens you can find that will fit into the LS. Preferably the elliptrac or SMAHL. And I thought the K-77 sounded fine until I heard CT-120s in the same application.

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Thank you all for posting your personal experiences with your LS. And please feel free to continue since I will be breaking new ground as this will be the first set that I will have listened to .

Judging by a few pics I have received it looks like the AA xovers have the yellow MKT caps not the metal cans. I would have thought that 75 was too early for Klipsch to use them yet. Any thoughts?

We are now knocking on 3 weeks away and quite anxious to setup these what appears to be pure stock LS.

 

 

LS75s.jpg

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Thanks Drewg, neat to know they are true OEM. Now lets hope everything in the cabs still work. My friend picked them up “as is” so to speak. He never had them hook them up to give them a test.

 

This leads to a question with the fragile k77s. I see quite a few members using ct125 & ct120s and few others + some I am not familiar with. Money will be an issue (as always) so for example are the ct120s worth the extra $$ over the ct125s?

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Had a chance to compare Stock AL-3 (recapped with Sonicap's) networks and Crites AA networks. Have you had made it to FL yet?

 

My impression, AL3's have slightly less midrange and found the AA's have a snappier high frequency response as well. I prefer the Crites AA's over AL-s, but also prefer Crites A/4500 over the AA. I have not heard a standard Type A network. My speakers are loaded with stock K-77M tweeters and K-55M Mid drivers, and K-33 woofers.

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On 12/15/2020 at 12:43 PM, The Green Hornet said:

Had a chance to compare Stock AL-3 (recapped with Sonicap's) networks and Crites AA networks. Have you had made it to FL yet?

 

My impression, AL3's have slightly less midrange and found the AA's have a snappier high frequency response as well. I prefer the Crites AA's over AL-s, but also prefer Crites A/4500 over the AA. I have not heard a standard Type A network. My speakers are loaded with stock K-77M tweeters and K-55M Mid drivers, and K-33 woofers.

 

Yea, been down now for a bit over a week and have set up the LS. I appreciate your reply as that is the kind of feed back I was hoping for. But as it looks at the moment the best that can be done is to just stay with an AA. We are currently torn between a simple re-cap or scratch build of the AA. And even at that we will only be able to use Dayton, Solen or Audyn Q4 caps.

 

 

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