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LaScala for this room


svberger

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7 hours ago, Shakeydeal said:

Congrats. How do they compare to the cornwalls?

Thanks!

 

Not as subtle, but certainly not shouty or thin. They have a very rich quality and as I indicated the bass is very good, better then what I expected, which I presume is do partly to placement, partly to my gear, and partly to what I consider adequate bass. I can certainly understand how for others it would be a problem, and why they might want to sub, but I'm fine with it. Might also have something to do with the Allison EQ unit that I posted about above.

 

There is certainly no lying with these. They disclose it all. They work very well with the MC240, and I'm looking forward to hearing them with my MC30's.

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21 hours ago, captainbeefheart said:

 

That's a good sign the caps are measuring correct values. They should be checked for ESR at frequencies of interest, 500Hz and up for 13uF and 4.5kHz and up for the 2uF. My La Scala's from 1982 have the original oil filled capacitors in them and last I tested them they were within acceptable parameters so I left them in there as the speakers confirm they sound great. If you can keep it original, I.e. you like the sound of them then I recommend leaving them stock for a while and listen to them.

 

When I end up having to replace the capacitors I plan to use Paper capacitors, either paper and foil or metallized paper both oil impregnated. They will retain the Klipsch sound and I actually prefer them as I feel they are a tad smoother overall.

Nice to have a $400-$500 meter to measure these.  I can't justify it and just replace the caps if they are old.  I was looking at a $70 meter on Amazon but it measures at 100Khz.

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15 hours ago, KT88 said:

To try it out very simply and reversibly at first, you only have to unscrew only one of the two diodes from the small sheet metal plate, loosen the threaded nut, and then pull out the diode. It doesn't matter which one. This plate conducts current from one diode to the other. When one diode is unscrewed, the whole circuit is interrupted. 
The wire can stay connected to the diode, you don't have to unsolder anything. But you should tape off the diode that is now hanging free with some insulating tape.

 

 

 

About the background:
Don't worry, these diodes are parallel to the music signal, so you don't change anything in the circuit characteristics. The function of the diodes is to short the signal to the tweeter if it would be more than two watts. But imagine how much two watts would be at the tweeter. If your whole box gets two with the basses then that's already very loud, and with two watts over all, it's estimated that only 0.2 watts will reach the tweeter. This is just to reassure you.

 

And the screw I mentioned which is in some speakers magnetic is the one in the picture above left. Test it with a small magnet. if it reacts, remove it. For now, you can try this until you find a non-magnetic replacement.

D471B35D-2E86-4C68-99B0-86B8E80999FE.jpeg

E4ABD3F3-BF0F-4C4A-A8A0-4AEC94275765.jpeg

Heinz I’m still a bit confused about what to disconnect (now you understand who you’re working with here). The easiest is to loosen  one of the screws that connects the red and black wires above the label “7 8 Tweeter” on the terminal and remove one of those wires with clip attached.  They are connected to both the piece that I think is the diode you’re referring to and the capacitor. This disconnects one, either pos or neg and leaves one connected. On my crossover the piece that you have circled is to the left of the terminal bar and has the two diodes(or what I assume are)attached. I tried to unscrew one of those from the nut closest to the cap in your picture but couldn’t budge it. 

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16 hours ago, svberger said:

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Nice speakers, and nice room, too.  Congrats and happy listening!

 

However, I would advise against using the Allison EQ unit to augment the deep bass output of La Scalas.  The Allison info states that it’s meant for use with box speakers only, not ported speakers.  Horn-loaded speakers are not exactly bass reflex models, but the same thing applies.  Trying to produce deep bass notes from a speaker that’s unable to do so because of the relative shortness of its bass horn will only overheat the woofers, so if, and this is unlikely, it does increase the bass output below 50Hz, I don’t think it would do it for long.  The Allison warnings and disclaimers should not be ignored.

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32 minutes ago, Islander said:

 

Nice speakers, and nice room, too.  Congrats and happy listening!

 

However, I would advise against using the Allison EQ unit to augment the deep bass output of La Scalas.  The Allison info states that it’s meant for use with box speakers only, not ported speakers.  Horn-loaded speakers are not exactly bass reflex models, but the same thing applies.  Trying to produce deep bass notes from a speaker that’s unable to do so because of the relative shortness of its bass horn will only overheat the woofers, so if, and this is unlikely, it does increase the bass output below 50Hz, I don’t think it would do it for long.  The Allison warnings and disclaimers should not be ignored.

It has little to no effect so removing is no problem. 

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1 hour ago, svberger said:

Heinz I’m still a bit confused about what to disconnect (now you understand who you’re working with here). The easiest is to loosen  one of the screws that connects the red and black wires above the label “7 8 Tweeter” on the terminal and remove one of those wires with clip attached.  They are connected to both the piece that I think is the diode you’re referring to and the capacitor. This disconnects one, either pos or neg and leaves one connected. On my crossover the piece that you have circled is to the left of the terminal bar and has the two diodes(or what I assume are)attached. I tried to unscrew one of those from the nut closest to the cap in your picture but couldn’t budge it. 

svberger, it may be that the components on your AA xover are placed somewhat differently. I had taken the photo from the Internet.
I have a rebuilt xover from Crites, where I only changed its Sonicaps to polyester, so I can't describe exactly how it is placed on your original xover. But just to be sure, if you can't disconnect one of the diodes on the sheet metal plate, then technically it's exactly the same if you disconnect the wire that the diode is connected to (either one) at the other end.
Under no circumstances should you break the connection to a capacitor.

I could guess that there are two wires coming out of one of the terminals 7 and/or 8. If so, simply remove the lead that goes to the diode....but only to the diode, nothing else or further.

I am happy to help you if I have explained it incomprehensibly and if you still have questions, I hope I have translated it ok in English.

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4 minutes ago, KT88 said:

svberger, it may be that the components on your AA xover are placed somewhat differently. I had taken the photo from the Internet.
I have a rebuilt xover from Crites, where I only changed its Sonicaps to polyester, so I can't describe exactly how it is placed on your original xover. But just to be sure, if you can't disconnect one of the diodes on the sheet metal plate, then technically it's exactly the same if you disconnect the wire that the diode is connected to (either one) at the other end.
Under no circumstances should you break the connection to a capacitor.

I could guess that there are two wires coming out of one of the terminals 7 and/or 8. If so, simply remove the lead that goes to the diode....but only to the diode, nothing else or further.

I am happy to help you if I have explained it incomprehensibly and if you still have questions, I hope I have translated it ok in English.

The wire from the terminal plate is actually two wires soldered together one to the diode one to the cap so guess that won’t work. I’ll give one more try to getting diode loose but it sounds good anyway so will probably just leave it all alone. 

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10 minutes ago, svberger said:

The wire from the terminal plate is actually two wires soldered together one to the diode one to the cap so guess that won’t work. I’ll give one more try to getting diode loose but it sounds good anyway so will probably just leave it all alone. 

No, then you have to leave the wire as it is at the terminal.

The nut of the diode is actually easy to loosen with combination pliers, it would be just a sound nuance to my ears, the speaker sounds a bit more open and less squeezed in the highs. But of course it is not a must:)

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1 hour ago, KT88 said:

No, then you have to leave the wire as it is at the terminal.

The nut of the diode is actually easy to loosen with combination pliers, it would be just a sound nuance to my ears, the speaker sounds a bit more open and less squeezed in the highs. But of course it is not a must:)

It’s on very tightly and probably has been there since first installed in ‘77

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The best thing about getting "new" speakers like these, for me, is being able to pull random things from the collection and become acquainted with them all over again. Hearing things that I haven't heard in awhile, at least, and discovering sounds on them that I'd either forgotten about, or didn't hear through plays before these extremely revealing beasts.

 

There is no downside for me with these. I can listen to them for hours and look forward to the next record.

 

I could not be happier. Now what am I going to play next?

 

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16 hours ago, svberger said:

The best thing about getting "new" speakers like these, for me, is being able to pull random things from the collection and become acquainted with them all over again. Hearing things that I haven't heard in awhile, at least, and discovering sounds on them that I'd either forgotten about, or didn't hear through plays before these extremely revealing beasts.

 

There is no downside for me with these. I can listen to them for hours and look forward to the next record.

 

I could not be happier. Now what am I going to play next?

 

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Herbie Hancock, Butterfly😎

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Ok as much as I adore these LaScala's I've now become just the slightest bit curious(mostly because of how easy it is to install, even for a knucklehead no tech like me) about Crites AA update. I see there's two different options, one with Sonicap, one with Dayton. I've no doubt I'd never hear the difference, but if I was going to spring for one of them, mostly to satisfy curiosity, and not because I have the least bit issue with these speakers as is, which one would be the people's recommendation? My objective would be to keep the sound as close to original as possible, while providing whatever update "improvement" people think one achieves by making this investment.

 

After all, I bought the LS's as a kind of experiment as well, and I'm extremely happy that I did. So doing this is consistent, to some degree, with my original plans. Plus, I could always look at it as a backup plan in case something on the originals goes bad.

 

Thoughts?

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9 minutes ago, svberger said:

Ok as much as I adore these LaScala's I've now become just the slightest bit curious(mostly because of how easy it is to install, even for a knucklehead no tech like me) about Crites AA update. I see there's two different options, one with Sonicap, one with Dayton. I've no doubt I'd never hear the difference, but if I was going to spring for one of them, mostly to satisfy curiosity, and not because I have the least bit issue with these speakers as is, which one would be the people's recommendation? My objective would be to keep the sound as close to original as possible, while providing whatever update "improvement" people think one achieves by making this investment.

 

After all, I bought the LS's as a kind of experiment as well, and I'm extremely happy that I did. So doing this is consistent, to some degree, with my original plans. Plus, I could always look at it as a backup plan in case something on the originals goes bad.

 

Thoughts?

You'd probably be hard pressed to discern any difference between the Daytons and Sonicaps. I've used both and can't tell a difference in the sound.

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16 minutes ago, svberger said:

Ok as much as I adore these LaScala's I've now become just the slightest bit curious(mostly because of how easy it is to install, even for a knucklehead no tech like me) about Crites AA update.

 

Heh, I told you on AK that it would happen  lol.

(happens to pretty much everyone so it was an easy presumption to make)

I don't recall the vendor but there is a vendor that will give you (sell) "Klipsch specified" parts so that you are getting it to the Klipsch engineered sound.

 

I have no clue how the different flavors sound.  When I replaced my AA's (on 79 LaScalas) I bought some ALK extreme slope crossovers.  

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Just now, Coytee said:

 

Heh, I told you on AK that it would happen  lol.

(happens to pretty much everyone so it was an easy presumption to make)

I don't recall the vendor but there is a vendor that will give you (sell) "Klipsch specified" parts so that you are getting it to the Klipsch engineered sound.

 

I have no clue how the different flavors sound.  When I replaced my AA's (on 79 LaScalas) I bought some ALK extreme slope crossovers.  

 

You did and I didn't realize at the time Crites' was so easy and quick to install. As I  indicated, it's only out of curiosity and only because it's essentially a few minutes of unplugging and plugging that has me even considering it. That having some kind of go to backup plan if need be. Kind of like having extra 6l6 tubes for my MC240 if one goes down.

 

 

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4 hours ago, svberger said:

Ok as much as I adore these LaScala's I've now become just the slightest bit curious(mostly because of how easy it is to install, even for a knucklehead no tech like me) about Crites AA update. I see there's two different options, one with Sonicap, one with Dayton. I've no doubt I'd never hear the difference, but if I was going to spring for one of them, mostly to satisfy curiosity, and not because I have the least bit issue with these speakers as is, which one would be the people's recommendation? My objective would be to keep the sound as close to original as possible, while providing whatever update "improvement" people think one achieves by making this investment.

 

After all, I bought the LS's as a kind of experiment as well, and I'm extremely happy that I did. So doing this is consistent, to some degree, with my original plans. Plus, I could always look at it as a backup plan in case something on the originals goes bad.

 

Thoughts?

I am happily using Crites AA. But only because I changed to air coils on my original xover 16 years ago and I forgot where I stored the original ones. That was a mistake to think, air coils would be an enhancement. long story short I found the original coils some months ago when moving with my office and I was happy about this „gift“. Unfortunately the bag with the originals coils was put in the wrong place together with other stuff that went. So my joy was of short duration and changed into sadness.

The Crites AA I have bought in 2009 and therefore I have a replacement in use since that time.

 

To your thoughts, coils and the autoformer of your original AA should last forever. The only difference when purchasing a Crites AA would be the type of caps. Nothing against the Crites built quality, all is the best. But in your case you would purchase what you already have (the nuts of the diodes were to loosen easier:). And the only difference, the caps of the Crites AA I have changed against types which are closer to the original ones.

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