OT? Heavy Metal Stereo Speaker Project Pics

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 17:31:02 -0700, JR North shouted from the rooftop:

Is that a Dual turntable in one of the pictures?

-Carl (who, once upon a time, had a pair of Klipsch LaScalas in the living room) "If you don't have enemies, you don't have character"-Paul Newman

They didn't come close to the performance of the JBL speakers. I can understand why you no longer have them.

Harold, who still has three sets of JBL's, two sets of C-50 Olympus cabinets with the S8-R speaker systems and a Paragon.

But Klipsch and JBL's are small potatos compared with these:

-- Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I don't have to like Bush and Cheney (Or Kerry, for that matter) to love America

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 12:30:32 -0700, "Harold & Susan Vordos" shouted from the rooftop:

No, you can't. I don't have them becausewWe sold that house with it's large, open floor plan (LaScalas need _lots_ of room to sound good).

They are currently at my friends' house. He lives in the country and we drag them (and his _other_ pair of LaScalas) outside during barbeques. We have been visited by police officers who marveled at the sound while asking us to turn it down. JBL's aren't bad- I have built speakers from the Altec Lansing book of plans and they worked quite well- but for serious sound reinforcement the LaScala is hard to beat.

-Carl "If you don't have enemies, you don't have character"-Paul Newman

Chuckle. I used to get that with the speakers in the house. No need to drag them outside to irritate the neighbors, just turn them up.

Without turning this into a "dick size" contest, yes, the LaScala is hard to beat, but not impossible Bozak Concert Grand can do it (as long as you have a ton of power, anyway), as can the high end JBL speakers that I own. McIntosh has a line of speakers that will put them to shame, but, then again, you must have lots of power, something like 1200 watts per channel. . I had the option to buy Klipsch when I invested in speakers but I made a different choice, based on my own observations and personal prejudice. To this day, no one has marketed speakers with the design qualities of JBL, especially the Paragon. Do not confuse Altec Lansing with JBL. They are not the same.

In my quest for speakers that pleased my ear, I even looked at Tannoy, which didn't come close to the performance of the JBL's in my opinion. Industry wide, the 375 mid-range driver is one of the most respected speakers to ever hit the market. So much so that they now fetch far more than they used to cost new. I don't recall anyone seeking any of he speakers lines the way I've seen fans pursue the JBL stuff on eBay. Everything I've seen sell by other manufacturers has sold well under the original selling price, whereas JBL has brought far more. JBL has proven itself through more than 40 years of success. It's a shame that they were sold and the new owners discontinued the high end home consumer products. That, of course, matters only to those that appreciate their sound. Not everyone does.

Harold

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 16:42:06 -0700, "Harold & Susan Vordos" shouted from the rooftop:

My old house was built ~1856, brick construction. I cranked up the LaScalas indoors exactly once- windows rattled in the casements, a wall cracked, and 140 years of accumulated dust shook out from the floor planking. It took weeks to clean the basement and the (open during the event) washing machine pumped mud for a couple of cycles. My wife almost killed me.

Not at all- LaScalas need lots of room and perform poorly in small spaces. Back in the late 1970's a friend of mine worked at a high end audio store and got to drag home a lot of exotic stuff including a pair of DCM Time Windows which are out of production. I have never before or since heard such amazing sound and imaging. Words fail me. Back then, they were $800 and a quick web search shows that they still command prices in the $300 range (not bad for +20 year old speakers) _when_ they come up for sale.

I keep hoping I'll find a pair at a garage sale or find some more information on their construction and build a pair.

-Carl "If you don't have enemies, you don't have character"-Paul Newman

I once had a pair of homebuilt speaker cabinets. Each with a 15" JBL in the bottom, and a large green Altec horn above. Regret parting with those.

michael

S'pose I should add my two bits. (Yeah, like they even cost that much to build.)

two of these, mid/tweeter, connected in parallel with my vintage 1959 Magnavox console stereo cabs, doesn't sound bad through my vintage-ish (why, homemade of course) tube amps. :)

Tim

-- "I've got more trophies than Wayne Gretsky and the Pope combined!" - Homer Simpson Website @

Not limited to LaScalas. All good speakers need a minimum of 30 feet to prevent standing waves on the low end. I once hauled my speakers to a church hall for a performance. Couldn't believe how much better they sounded in a large room.

Typical of what I've been saying. When the Paragon was introduced in the late 50's, it sold for under $1,800. One if fine condition today will fetch $8,000. I've seen them advertised for as much as $20,000, but no takers. They only built about 1,000 of them in all the years they were produced, so there's not a large market from which one can choose, and the fact that many of them have been shipped to Japan isn't helping the cause.

Are you familiar with the Paragon? It was an award winning stereo speaker system. If you're not, ask and I'll send you a picture of ours. If you like Danish modern design, you should love the looks, even if you don't like the bright sound of horns. But then, you did say you had LaScalas. It's been years, are the LaScalas the corner horns?

Could be the "magic" is in the speakers, not the enclosures, so you might be disappointed. That would definitely be true with the JBL stuff.

Harold

What are you using for output, Tim? The larger amps are using KT-88's, or slightly smaller ones 6L6's. My first amp, a McIntosh 240, used the

6L6's. A great sound, but not as clean as solid state. That should open the endless debate! :-)

Harold

Heh, the left channel uses 6V6s (see Frankenhouse on my website) and right channel uses 12AU7s (hehe.. Hept'AU7 if you want to dig for it on there as well). They measure good. :)

Tim

-- "I've got more trophies than Wayne Gretsky and the Pope combined!" - Homer Simpson Website @

JR, Thanks for the tour of your speaker construction. Very nice job, not only on the cabinets, but the web site as well. How are you powering the speakers, and what's your listening pleasure?

Harold

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 21:08:45 -0700, michael calmly ranted:

Sounds like a familiar copy of an Altec Voice of the Theater speaker, my favorite blood curdler. When each is run by a Phase Linear 700B which has been bridged for mono output, they simply purr.

------------------------------------------------------- "i" before "e", except after "c", what a weird society. ----

Dynamic Website Applications

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 12:30:32 -0700, "Harold & Susan Vordos" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!: remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Where? Speakers ain't speakers. Some stuff sounds good in one situation, others in another.

FI, at a lower level, I recently acquired a "midi" system (insurance replacement). It has a "subwoofer" (whatever that is, considering that a "woofer" as I knew it went down below human hearing! hrmmphh!). Basically, set up in the lounge it sounds shit. But crank it up and step outside. hmmmmm...

Unfortunately, this means that the neighbours, most likely to object, get the best version of what they do not want to hear.

Maybe we should all move next door!

I once built a set of experimental boxes, using fairly loend stuff. they boomed like crap inside, but watt for watt, wer hard to beat outside.

More efficient = nastier in any enclosed environment and more sensitive to driver quality/buildofbox? They alwys had problems with bass-reflexx, and horn loaded. Built both. Both had their uses.

eeeuuuwh!

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Sometimes in a workplace you find snot on the wall of the toilet cubicles. You feel "What sort of twisted child would do this?"....the internet seems full of them. It's very sad

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 16:42:06 -0700, "Harold & Susan Vordos" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!: remove ns from my header address to reply via email

What I said before.

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Sometimes in a workplace you find snot on the wall of the toilet cubicles. You feel "What sort of twisted child would do this?"....the internet seems full of them. It's very sad

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 23:55:54 -0700, "Harold & Susan Vordos" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!: remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Solid state

MOSFET or bipolar?

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Sometimes in a workplace you find snot on the wall of the toilet cubicles. You feel "What sort of twisted child would do this?"....the internet seems full of them. It's very sad

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 23:55:54 -0700, "Harold & Susan Vordos" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!: remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Sorry, but I have to "snob" here. I grew up on a Williamson HiFi....807's in push-pull.

Funny, you know. It was crap (distortion was hifi at below 10%) BUT SOUNDED GOOD.

Somehow the MUSIC (hang on to that part of listening) helped.

I remember a joke that my Old Man told me. A hifi buff comes out of a symphonic performance......"not enough treble there...."

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Sometimes in a workplace you find snot on the wall of the toilet cubicles. You feel "What sort of twisted child would do this?"....the internet seems full of them. It's very sad

On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 22:43:22 +0800, Old Nick vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!: remove ns from my header address to reply via email

And to follow that up.

My Old Man talks of a guy (whose name was uncannily like Ted Edwards, come to think of it!!!!!) who took his built amp and basically rebuilt it (in that compassionate way that geniuses have for the enthusiast) by removing 1/3 of the components........from the _design_.

Those were the days. The "black box" was 3 feet square.

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Sometimes in a workplace you find snot on the wall of the toilet cubicles. You feel "What sort of twisted child would do this?"....the internet seems full of them. It's very sad

Basically, yes. I didn't have any exotic amp/preamp setup. As I type, I am listening to some Steppenwolf, driven by the same Harmon Kardon 330 that drove those speakers. It's an early one, with the script lettering on the face, not the block letters, nor the 330A. That tuner is now about 35 years young, knock on wood, still runs good.

michael