Klipsch La Scala clone

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audiophile.1963

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#1
Hi, I'm building a Klipsch La Scala clone. I want cheap speakers for this project because the speakers is for my company non for my home.
I own the wood free and and a carpenter friend who cuts the wood planks. In Part Express there are a lot of good products.
Please let me know if this choice of speakers is right for a horn loaded box like Klipsch La Scala:
Woofer Dayton Audio PA380-8 15" $69.90
Mid PRV Audio D250Ph-S 1" $29.99
Horn Selenium HL14-25 1" $7.88
Tweeter Pyramid TW44 $9.88
or cheaper
Tweeter GRS PZ 1025 2” $2.47
Are these components OK? The problem for me is the mid, what can I do or buy? It remais the crossover…
Giuseppe
 
#2
These would not be my choice of components. I have LaScala's and I have tried many different crossovers and a simple 1st order crossover will work fine. You will need to attenuate the mids and tweeter, depending on the drivers around 8 db with resistors. You can use some driver attenuation calculators online. There are 1st order crossover calculators online you can use. An autotransformer is expensive and sucks the life out of the music for me.

I would definately change the mid driver to the selenium D 250X which is as good as a stock K55 and just a few dollars more than the one you have chosen.

http://www.parts-express.com/selenium-d250-x-gw-1-phenolic-horn-driver-1-3-8-18-tpi--264-204

This is the woofer many are replacing the woofer in the Lascala and say it is an upgrade.

http://www.parts-express.com/eminence-kappa-15c-15-driver-4-ohm--290-459

And if you want a better tweeter for not a lot of more money you may want to consider this. It is not what I would use but it use a better tweeter than the pyramid. The biggest obstacle in building a KaScala is the bass bin so I would try to get some better drivers. The horn needs to go down to at least 700 hz for a LaScala build and the one you picked is not a good choice because it is a long throw horn. You may want to look at the Dayton but if you can find an old Altec 811 you would be much better off. I use an Altec 511b which can get a little pricey.

http://www.parts-express.com/selenium-st200-super-tweeter--264-348

http://www.parts-express.com/dayton...-directivity-horn-90x40-1-3-8-18-tpi--270-300

Good Luck
 
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#4
Some even say the highest a LaScala woofer goes is 500hz but I know it does better than that. I would say 700 or 800hz is as much as you can expect with the LaScala bass horn cabinet. I would give serious consideration if I were you to a cornscala build.

Cornscala? | Critesspeakers.com

You will find tons of good information about a cornscala build at this website. I would not go to the trouble of building a LaScala bass bin. I love mine but it is big. Music lives in the midrange and that is where I would want the best components. Use the selenium 250X driver with the biggest 1 inch horn you can find for the price you want to pay and I would be perfectly satisfied with the Dayton PA 380 15" in a sealed box. Much simpler to build with a solid bottom end. Build the woofer in a separate box from the mid and tweet. Use a good tweeter and you should have a decent sounding system. I am using the Selenium D220Ti 1" Titanium Horn Driver 8 Ohm 1-3/8"-18 with Selenium HM17-25 1" Bi-Radial Horn 60x40 1-3/8"-18 TPI which is considerable more than you had budgeted for a tweeter. You do not want a horn for the mid that throws the sound for home use. You want one that has the best polar response that is the reason so much is said about waveguides of late. The Dayton pro woofer will go much lower in a room environment than what the specs show. The LaScala bass bin starts dropping around 90hz as well. Eminence woofers are my woofers of choice, they last.
 
#5
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#7
It would not be my first choice but if I had a pair I would give them a try, nothing to lose and they may be good enough. Most use a decent sub with LaScala's anyway as I do and you cannot beat Eminence quality for the price. Do use the best 1" horn you can find with good dispersion and not long throw. My rule for best sound from a horn is bigger is better. Members on the Klipsch forum are praising the big commercial mid horns that are as big as the LaScala box itself.
 
#9
SS4927 said:
I like the eminence wdecho linked. And others I been spending some free time reading about pro speakers and horn speakers in general. They come up a lot, seem to be in favor.
Click to expand...

Music is dynamics and you will not find a more dynamic speaker than horns. Conventional speakers can and do sound good but in a laid back kind of way compared to a good horn system. Nelson Pass likes and used full range speakers a lot and Passlabs sells a conventional cone speaker but he also just bought a new horn speaker too. There is certainly nothing wrong with having all 3 different types of systems. A lot could depend on the mood you are in as to which speaker system you want to listen to.
 
#10
wdecho said:
Music is dynamics and you will not find a more dynamic speaker than horns. Conventional speakers can and do sound good but in a laid back kind of way compared to a good horn system. Nelson Pass likes and used full range speakers a lot and Passlabs sells a conventional cone speaker but he also just bought a new horn speaker too. There is certainly nothing wrong with having all 3 different types of systems. A lot could depend on the mood you are in as to which speaker system you want to listen to.
Click to expand...

Im with you on horns. I heard some in a hall type room fairly large before it got crowded. I was standing about 20 feet off the opposing wall. Thats where I decided to replace my seat until it got busy. I was blown away by the clear authoritative sound coming out of them. I also heard a smaller horn set up in a good audio system, they had a similar effect. Jusst on a smaller scale of course.

I used to avoid horns like the plague. Reason being they shredded my ear drums. I heard some bad set ups for sure. I like them so much now I want to build a horn speaker. One of them I have in mind kit wise actually has an eminence, a 12 though.
 
#12
At the end I purchased the Eminence Gamma 15A-2 even if the Eminence company (I wrote an email last night) had recommended the Kappa-15C because they said that Kappa has a 3 "diameter voice coil with .375" plates, the Gamma just a 2 "with 0.313" plates and that the Kappa is closer to Klipsch K33. But I think that this should not be a great disaster!!! I must save money. This my project will be really original. I changed the first idea about the speakers looking for original projeccts on internet. I will use an old pair of JBL 2105h for a midrange, see this:
http://volvotreter.de/downloads/Edgar-Midrange-Horn.pdf
For the high way I'm looking for a very cheap tweeter, I don't know for the moment.
This will be the speaker that I will use inside my company when I'm working but this is not a reason to do something bad, I'm very finicky!
Thanks for all your advices!!! If you have other advices ... come on!!!
Giuseppe
 
#13
wdecho said:
Not a bad way to go, eminence 12. Add a sub and you should be good to go. Are you talking about the econowave? I've heard nothing but positive things about them.
Click to expand...


Are you familiar with the Bagby fushion 12 over at the diy sound group? It has positive talk after positive talk following it. From the follow ups they can do even better with subs. But the mid bass and lower regions are said to be pretty respectable. If I can figure out logistics I wouldn't mind getting one, in fact I likely will.
 
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#16
wdecho said:
Music is dynamics and you will not find a more dynamic speaker than horns. Conventional speakers can and do sound good but in a laid back kind of way compared to a good horn system. Nelson Pass likes and used full range speakers a lot and Passlabs sells a conventional cone speaker but he also just bought a new horn speaker too. There is certainly nothing wrong with having all 3 different types of systems. A lot could depend on the mood you are in as to which speaker system you want to listen to.
Click to expand...

I'm a horn guy, but I've heard direct radiators with real dynamics. Especially if they used a dedicated midrange capable of real SPL. IMHO, the Achilles heel of many conventional speakers is that they try to have one driver cover the midbass AND midrange.
 
#18
Patrick Bateman said:
I'm a horn guy, but I've heard direct radiators with real dynamics. Especially if they used a dedicated midrange capable of real SPL. IMHO, the Achilles heel of many conventional speakers is that they try to have one driver cover the midbass AND midrange.
Click to expand...

What are your opinions on these maximum 3 way12 kits
Maximus-12 DIY Sound Group

and this Jeff Bagby design B&C 8MDN51 8" Neodymium Woofer

The efficiency/ power handling looks enticing.
 
#19
audiophile.1963 said:
At the end I purchased the Eminence Gamma 15A-2 even if the Eminence company (I wrote an email last night) had recommended the Kappa-15C because they said that Kappa has a 3 "diameter voice coil with .375" plates, the Gamma just a 2 "with 0.313" plates and that the Kappa is closer to Klipsch K33. But I think that this should not be a great disaster!!! I must save money. This my project will be really original. I changed the first idea about the speakers looking for original projeccts on internet. I will use an old pair of JBL 2105h for a midrange, see this:
http://volvotreter.de/downloads/Edgar-Midrange-Horn.pdf
For the high way I'm looking for a very cheap tweeter, I don't know for the moment.
This will be the speaker that I will use inside my company when I'm working but this is not a reason to do something bad, I'm very finicky!
Thanks for all your advices!!! If you have other advices ... come on!!!
Giuseppe
Click to expand...

I would not be surprised to find the Kappa-15C is the one Klipsch uses. Eminence has been their main supplier for years. I did not read the whole article on your mid horn but it appears to be much better than the first one you planned on using. The better mid horn is the best thing you have changed. Good luck with your build.
 
#20
Patrick Bateman said:
I'm a horn guy, but I've heard direct radiators with real dynamics. Especially if they used a dedicated midrange capable of real SPL. IMHO, the Achilles heel of many conventional speakers is that they try to have one driver cover the midbass AND midrange.
Click to expand...

I am sure you are correct but I am betting it was a higher priced direct radiator speaker. Speaker drivers are much improved from former years. Better more powerful magnets and light but stiff cone material. Still, you may not actually hear the difference, I bet the distortion is still higher with a direct radiator than a quality horn driver simply from the fact that the horn driver does not have to move nearly as much. I have been reading a lot about the newer full range speakers in an OB and have even considered building one but I have not done so yet.
 
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