Guest " " Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Speakerlab did an excellent job at marketing. When I was a private in the ARMY during the mid 70's everyone I know in any state I was assigned had a speakerlab catolog. I never heard of Klipsch until I was assigned to Germany 15 years later and came face to face with a pair of LaScala's at the Base Exchange. 1989 price of 525 each with no sales tax and free shipping to any address in the states. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrewBolce Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 My midrange came with PD5VH's, but they are the early version with no phase plug. I did improve them somewhat by polishing, aka like porting an intake manifold. They did indeed have the 8khz "bump". As advertised the ALK universals took care of that issue. The fiberglass is too thin. Someday I will take the time to glass on a new layer, in the meantime I found that a good layer of rope caulk took care of the ringing problem. Yes, ringing. They had a resonance right in the midrange. Taping produced a ring that I guess was about 1500hz, not the thud (50hz or lower) that thick glass would have produced. To be fair I have not put the WA4000 ("wave aperture") horns back on and tried them with the ALK crossovers. Someday when I have time (not likely) I will try them and post the results. The cost of the tweeter is probably justified. The horn is a structural plastic casting, not really all that cheap. Before I thought it had poor imaging and a rolloff even lower than the 77's, but that may have been the crossover. I am still kicking myself for not spending the extra $26.00 and getting the 350's which as we all know are worth much more today. Note that the crossover does not have an autoformer. Substituting L-pads was no solution. To me it seemed like the L-pads killed the midrange clarity. From what I can tell the woofer is a reasonable copy of the Klipsch. I think Edgar was looking at a particularily bad one or some bad specs. The specs I have for the woofer vary dramatically. It seems like SpeakerLab had several versions. They might have been changed in response to Edgar's article. Anyway the "hole" at the midrange crossover point doesn't seem to exist on my system. Some other thoughts on the early rolloff may be, 8 ohm instead or 4 ohm impedance, coil mismatch (ALK has done some work on this, it is a problem), poor cabinet construction (even minor air leaks), or poor corner sealing. I have had all of them and have found them to be extremely important for good woofer performance. mungkiman - SpeakerLab suggested a woofer mounting board with the throat slot. This would then by attached to the motorboard inside the cabinet onto studs with thumbscrews. I would hate to try to put the woofer in with screws only. Sorry to hear your builder cut corners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungkiman Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 So, what did you end up with? La Scalas, SK's, or both? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longdrive03 Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 I built a pair of these monsters. Well actually a buddy of mine cut out the cabinets and I assembled them. Imagine my surprise when I went to his shop and he DIDN'T HAVE A TABLE SAW!!!! He used a hand held Skil circular saw. Real easy to cut 13 degree angles with that. Somehow he got close and I assembled them using a hammer, screwdriver and LOTS of clear silicone. (I was in college at the time). The second pair of speakers I built. First ones were BOSE (okay I'm sorry I said it) clones using 8" Quam orange surround full ranges. I must have done okay cause they sounded awesome. I used 1/2" plywood and a 3/4" plywood front on top of the 1/2" plywood. My roomates in our house loved them and they were great at Halloween. I ultimately stripped out the speakers and sold them and the cabinets. I recall the woofer was 8 ohm impedance and Klipsch was using 4 ohm. It had an Lpad for the mid and tweeter with the T-35 tweeter. Mid horn was cast aluminum and nice. Oh those were the days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrewBolce Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 Well actually a buddy of mine cut out the cabinets and I assembled them. Imagine my surprise when I went to his shop and he DIDN'T HAVE A TABLE SAW!!!! He used a hand held Skil circular saw. Real easy to cut 13 degree angles with that. Somehow he got close and I assembled them using a hammer, screwdriver and LOTS of clear silicone. I built mine with a skill saw, ripping fence and blade set protractor. What an immense pain. However, the final cuts were better than you can get on a cheap table saw. This really is the territory for cabinet makers only. Fortunately I was able to get very high grade RTV from a local manufacturing company. Now that they are over 20 years old this decision is paying off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradford Stephen Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 Altec Lansing voice of the theater model # 501-8a serial# 1123 need Speaker parts for upper mid- range horns? Got anything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.