LaScala Upper Base Bin Mod (Let's try this again)

[rborder]

Well, since Geocities shut my site down after about 10 viewings, I'll try this again, with embedded image-shack URL's...

Rebuilding/Mod'ing an old pair of Klipsch LaScala speakers

I've been a fan of the old Klipsch Speakers for a long time. I have
owned a pair of CP-1's (pro Cornwalls)
for over 20 years now. Not too long ago, I picked up 4 Heresy HIP's
(the pro versions) which are now the center and
surround speakers in my home system. I've been keeping my eye on ebay,
looking for 2 more similar speakers to complete the system (speakers 6
and 7 in my 7.1 system). Shipping is always expensive on these things,
and so I often
sort my searches by "distance"; and one day at the top of the list,
popped up an old pair of LaScala's, about 15 minutes from my house.

Here are the actual pictures, taken by the seller, from the auction:

The good news was: yes, they are indeed Klipsch LaScala's. They're
the Auditorium & Theatre version (sort
of going along with my "pro" theme), consecutive serial numbers- 1F291,
and 1F292. I brought a receiver with me, along
with my ipod to test basic functionality. Acoustics were horrible in
the shop- and they really didn't want me to turn them up in the store.
But I could at least tell they made noise. I arranged to come back
later in the evening to test them with a bit of volume. They came with
a big subwoofer box (more on that later) and some long runs of heavy speaker
wire.

There was bad news too. Cabinets had obviously led a very
hard life. Lots of damage. Tops were beyond repair, and just needed to
be
replaced. Joints at bottom were broken. Many (bad) chips at front of
plywood edges.

Further testing that evening confirmed that the tweeters were not
operational. There were amateur covers over
the access holes on the back and I wasn't able to open the speakers to
check much inside. I was optimistically thinking perhaps they'd just
been disconnected for DJ use (I've seen some speakers with this done).
I was able to run
them hard enough in the shop to confirm the horns and woofers seemed to
be working pretty well, and so a deal was
struck: $400 for all. I took them home the next day

First thing to check was the tweeters, and I'm sure most of you have
guessed by now that they were simply blown.
Another visit to e-bay, and I had a new set of K-77's; which the seller
had removed for an upgrade to his LaScala's.
I wired them into mine, just sitting up on top, and the high end woke
right up. So much so, that I started to question
the bass on the speakers- something was really not right with one of
them. But I now knew the dead tweeters were
not the result of a damaged crossover (was fairly confident that would
be the case from some reading I did about K-77's
and the Type-A cross-overs), and so I decided to just take the plunge
and fix 'em up.

Disassembly yielded the probable root cause of the bass problem. The
woofer in question was laying down in the
bottom of the dog-house; not connected to the horn structure in any
way. Additionally, there was a fair amount of hay
in there sharing the space. My guess is that the original woofer
failed. I've heard of burning out a driver, but never quite so
literally...

I don't know what exactly was the cause of the fire; but it seems to
have been contained by the woofer surface.
When it was replaced (thankfully, with a real K-33), the technician
used wood screws rather than utilizing the factory T-nuts. I know this,
because I found them stuck to the woofer magnet. It was obvious that
the speakers had been abused/dropped, so it's not surprising small wood
screws failed to support the weight of the woofer. I actually took this
all to be very good news- I had found a very plausible, and easy to fix
cause for
the questionable bass performance I had heard.
After disassembly, the next thing to do was repair the structural
problems.

The speaker in this picture is going through 3 repairs

The big pipe clamp is holding one of the bottom joints near the
front which has been repositioned, glued, and set with brads.

The 3 C-clamps are holding a section of plywood which partially
delaminated (I think it got wet)

The big 6X6 on the back is being used to re-set a back corner.
There is a threaded rod running through it, and
through the bottom of the speaker. On the underside is a steel plate I
fabricated which is squeezing the plywood (up against the 6X6);
so as to pull it back flush with the side and back panels; where it too
was glued, and re-nailed.

Much of the cabinet damage can be attributed to the wheels which were
attached to the bottom of the speakers. They were bolted to the flat
panel only, and the joints of the cabinet were clearly not designed to
take the resulting shear load. The speakers had small (factory) feet in
the corners, but they were carefully placed to support the vertical
boards.

This, by the way, was the better of the 2 cabinets.

Other damage included various holes which needed to be filled
(drilled them out, and glued in dowel). Stripped holes
where the horns mounted (again: drilled, glued in dowels, and then
drilled fresh holes the right size), missing plywood where it was
chipped (filled with filler, and in the worst cases, fiberglass
re-enforced bondo), etc.

Along the way, I was doing a little reading in the Klipsch Forums
about possible modifications to the LaScala. With cabinets in such
rough shape, I really had no fear about hurting them, and so I decided
to do a couple of them. Most significantly, I decided to do the upper
bass box mod, described here:

http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/thread/259793.aspx.

So, what follows are a few pictures of this modification, actually done
to a set of LaScala's. Mine are old- meaning top loaded woofer- so the
procedure would be a little different with a newer set.

First step was to frame in the opening on the back of the speaker.
We're going to cover this hole, and need something to
attach the cover to. Be sure that you leave an opening big enough to
get the front of the squawker horn though; there was very little room
to spare on mine.

My goal was to make a cover which would be, for the most part, flush
with the back of the speaker. It would probably
be simpler to put an external cover over the existing hole- but I was
trying to keep the installation as clean as possible.

So, here is the cover, along with the 10" ports. Note that there
needs to be a 3rd hole cut for the K55 driver, since the back of it is
almost flush with the LaScala cabinet. Don't worry, it will be sealed
up... I have also added some (Radio Shack) banana plug adaptors to
these covers.

Next, since I planned on affixing permanent tops to these speakers,
I needed to open up the bottom of the dog-house.

This is a new hole, the old LaScala's have solid bottoms.

The bondo and putty party commenced:

http://img481.imageshack.us/img481/5555/puttyna0.th.jpg

Since I'm going for a pro painted look, I added holes for
handles, and used a router to put a clean round edge on
most of the corners.

Before gluing and nailing the new tops on, I did a few final checks
to make sure everything was going to fit:

http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/489/testfityr8.th.jpg

As you can see, I relocated the cross-over to the side of the upper
chamber. Originally, it was on the large panel which closed up the
dog-house. Rather than remove the components, I just cut the old panel
down. Likewise, much
of the lumber used for my new internal parts was recycled from the old
tops which I was replacing.

And here's one of them all together. New top. New base. New braces
between the doghouse and side-panels:

http://img481.imageshack.us/img481/6292/togethervg0.th.jpg

It's going through the final stages of putty and sanding here, which is
the final step before...

Set-up (a lot of cleaning):

http://img481.imageshack.us/img481/1295/setupfr0.th.jpg

Texture:

http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/5109/texturecy2.th.jpg

Primer:

http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/4541/primebv5.th.jpg

Details, Details, Details

Remember, I said I had a plan for that hole required to accomodate
the K55 driver?

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/4346/caprq2.th.jpg

Another Ebay find- some vintage Klipsch handles. These needed some
work too- I ended up really sanding them down, removing gouges,
scratches, paint, etc.- before pouring a new layer of resin
over them, and repainting. All in all, I'm really happy with how they
turned out.

http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/3492/handlekb7.th.jpg

They really do look better than this... tough to take a picture of something that's all black.

Some nice heavy duty rubber feet from Parts Express:

http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/2677/feetwk4.th.jpg
5 feet for each speaker
.

Of course I needed a pair of Klipsch logo's which would match the
rest of my speakers. These white-on-black, screw-on version
are getting awfully hard to find. Even though I live in the central US,
really not all that far from Hope, AK, these were found in Istanbul,
Turkey.

http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/8151/logogx6.th.jpg

(ain't the internet great?)

Drum Roll...

Here they finally are, installed in my little home theater room:

http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/2302/theatersb8.th.jpg

If you look close and reference the very first picture up at the top
of this page, you might just recognize that
little coffee table / foot rest. It's the sub that came with the
speakers, which I refurbished at the same time as the LaScala's. It's
now sportin a JBL 2226H inside. It came with an EVM-15L (a 300W driver)
which I inadvertently annihilated with about 1400W of power when I
first tried to test it
to "see what it could do". In this configuration, we simply refer to it
as the butt shaker.

[Spongeworthy]

Very nice theater indeed. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

[jacksonbart]

Dang!! That is a nice room. What happned the first time?

[rborder]

"1st time" was just a reference to my 1st attempt to post the pictures. After putting up with a horrible web interface, and accepting they were going to put ads on my page, geocities shut my site down for bandwidth, after about 10 people looked at it :-(.

[rcarlton]

Terrific pictures and modifications. How does it sound?

[DrWho]

You are crazy - very nice work [Y]

So how much did you end up putting into the pair?

[rborder]

I paid $400 for the lot; but it included that big subwoofer cabinet, and the (about 200ft, heavy) cable. So, I'll call it $300 for the LaScala's, and $100 for everything else. $100 for good used k77's, ~$50 for paint, $30 for the logo's, $30 for handles, $20 for rubber feet, $30 on lumber, $12 on acrylic, $10 on hardware (screws, wires, and such). Adds up to somewhere just under $600.

Plus it was kind of a fun little project.

For <$600, I think they'd be hard to replace. I certainly wouldn't sell them for that ;-)

[rborder]

> How does it sound?

I guess I have to reference it against my Cornwalls (CP-1)'s.

First I'll say that I continue to be surprised at how different the two speakers are. I almost bought pro LaScala's when I bought my Cornwalls- the 3 factors that steered me to the Cornwalls were price, space, and the low low bass response. I don't recall the difference between the 2 models being so dramatic.

Next, I should probably tell you what I'm driving them with: I am using a Crown PSA-2, with an Outlaw 990 pre/pro.

Compared to the Cornwalls, there is a definite improvement in what I'd call the "clarity". There's music I've had, and listened to for years- in which I honestly hear small details I've never heard before. The LaScala's are definitely more "in your face". In a review I read, the writer described listening to a saxaphone, and getting wet from the spit coming out of his speakers- that's about the best way to put it.

The bass is tighter on the LaScala's. Sometimes it seems like I hear it more on the Cornwalls, but feel it more with the LaScala's. It seems like the "upper bass" is a little more prominent on the LaScala's. I think my LaScala's can reach just as low as my Cornwalls, which I attribute, in part, to the cabinet mods I made.

My wife hears what she describes as a "raspi'ness" on the LaScala's. Upper range vocals seem to bring it out the worst. I don't really hear it, but on some tracks it drives her nuts. I suspect it may be the squawker/tweeter collision that I've read about with the type A crossover. To be honest, if I leave these where they're at, as the mains in my home theater, I am considering an eventual crossover upgrade.

[LousyTourist]

Good job. I'd keep the type A's if I were you, replace the caps as they are probably toast.... and consider the PWK slogan "If you don't like what's coming out, you wouldn't like what's going in" -- I have no good reports of matching Crown amps with Klipsch horn loaded speakers.

[rborder]

Hmmm- well I can give you one good report :-)

After I purchased my CP-1's, I went amp shopping. I bet I home demo'd at least (I'm not kidding) 15 different amplifiers. My #1 choice was a Counterpoint SA-2 tube amp. I'd still think about buying one of those if the right deal came along. But, a very very close #2 was the Crown PSA-2.

Since then, I've hooked up various other gear- Yamaha, Perreux, Hafler, even McIntosh, and I really haven't found anything that I like as much. I remember when I got my Heresy's, I first hooked them up to my Hafler DH220... it was so bad, that I honestly thought something might be wrong with the speakers. I will concur that the horn loaded Klipsch speakers are almost hyper-sensitive to the gear hooked up to them- to some degree I think that's why they get a bad rap in some circles... people just haven't heard them hooked up to the right gear.

I should also mention that I've tried newer Crown amps; and haven't been very happy with how they've mated up. Though I keep my eyes open for a MicroTech 2400 sub-amp :-)

I do occasionally appreciate the dynamic headroom available with 915W @8 ohms too.

I like the PSA-2 so much for these speakers that I now own 7 of them.

I do recognize that just because they were the right amp for my Cornwalls (and I like what they do for my Heresy's) there is a possibility that I would have made a different choice if I was amp shopping for the LaScalas.

[Marvel]

Welcome to the forum.

There are lots of great reports of people using Crown amps with Klipsch Heritage gear.

How are you sealing the area around the K-55 on the back panel? Is there another smaller panel that covers the hole?

There are some who have felt that a 7 inch port length works better, returning the snappiness to the bass but getting more low end than stock. Can you change the ports to try or is everything pretty well locked in?

Very nice job, btw. They look really good. My LS will be headed for the bass mod one of these days. Something you may want to consider, is the tweeter replacement from Bob Crites. They are a drop in replacement, and took me all of ten or fifteen minutes to do on my pair. The improvement was rather dramatic to my ears. A lot smoother high end, and higher power handling. I built my own crossovers, still first order, as I normally listen at lower volumes and use some 2A3 amps. Long term, if you play at higher SPLs, you may want to go with an extreme slope design.

Bruce

[BS Button]

Very impressive work!!! Looks like you really did it right the first time...

BS

[rborder]

Hole for K55 driver is covered with clear acrylic. Look close at the pic, you'll see it there, secured with 6 screws w/ rubber washers.

Ports are pretty well locked in at 10". Although, they're secured only to the access panel (the one with the acrylic and banana plugs), and if I really got curious, it wouldn't be too hard to fab up some new panels with different length ports.