Belles arrived today

For equal time, I will say I have Crites crossovers in my LSIs and I love what they did for them. Trying another option and comparing is part of the fun. At my age, my hearing is only good from 45 to 16.5k so getting the most out of the middle is important.

He also told me to cover the horn with a sound damping material. Anyone tried this?
 
Decided I didn’t want to wait 2-3 months and bought the parts and built some crossovers. Spent more than I originally intended. They came out ok for a first attempt and I like the sound so far. Moved the autoformer taps around a few times and found a place very close the LSI. Wife still likes the LSI better. Need to do some extended side by side listening.

91A26166-51FF-4BE6-BFA7-C6681E5B6C85.jpeg B0EF1078-FC6E-4E8D-91FC-49B5747D5B54.jpeg
 
I liked Belles and installed quite a few. They looked great and when placed near corners had adequate bass for most folks. They weren't Cornwalls however. But there extra output was just enough to allow folks to get by with some of B&O receivers and combo units and produce great sound with great looks. B&O speakers needed big power, which they could not handle all that well, and Belles and Hersey's did a great job. We even had a pair of Belles and Hersey's made up in Rosewood back in the early 70's. The most beautiful Kornerhorns I ever saw were the Rosewood pair we had in the 70's and a pre-owned pair I saw at a Mcintosh dealer just north of San Diego back in the early 2000's. That and Ebony Belles were just drop dead gorgeous. If I had had the Money as far as being impressive having two Kornerhorns and a Belle in Ebony or Rosewood would have made me a very happy person. Of course I would have needed 3 Urei 539 room EQ's with Mac 7100 power amps. What a set up that would have been. You cannot really appreciate how great a 3 channel set up of klipsch speakers can sound until you have them voiced properly. Its like listening to an entirely new set up with a magnitude better sound. With todays mini digital processors and FFT analyzers and a lot of patience the improvement in sound should be make you think your system is as good as any out there.

So enjoy your Belles and get them all tuned up, because some day you just might want to try Room Perfect with your speakers, you will be in for a big surprise.
 
^^ I agree. In car audio circles it's widely known & said it's 80% TUNING. One can make avg speakers sounds excellent once you equip them correctly.
Case in point I took my Lexus which had pretty good stock Pioneer speakers and had a circuit judge(ironically he trained other judges in Northern California AND had the exact same model car as mine so he had dialed his in) plug and play my system modeled after him. Well, looking to "upgrade" to a more expensive speakers in the $3k range after six months I took off to a well regarded audio shop across town(40 miles away) to get an opinion.
The owner of the shop was smart and said let's hear what you have.
After bringing out his demo CD he stopped it half way through and said "I don't have anything that'll improve your sound. Unless you want to spend $3k for that extra 1%." Then he got a sly smile. He asked who did the set up in my car? I dodged and said a guy in Sacramento. He named the person and laughed "He trained me. Now I'm a circuit judge".(for audio)
Anyway, that's integrity for a guy to turn down money knowing the law of diminishing returns.
Point is get it dialed in with the proper equipment and it'll rip.
 
I have a bit of a journey in front of me. I am comparing them to a perfect set of LaScala Industrials that sound excellent in my space. My wife tells me she can notice the difference in the next room. Comparing them side by side to the LSI, to obtain a more natural sound, I need to tame some horn harshness and simbilance on female voices, and peaks for specific brass notes while making them sound less boxy. They don’t have a large sound stage like the LSI. They sound good just not great. Maybe the squawker horn size difference means they never will or it is my room or tuning, idk.
 
Made some changes to the crossovers and doing some listening. Better! Need more listening time.

FA3DDBAC-4148-42D7-B292-7F663F842086.jpeg
 
Confirmed what others already knew. K77M, in my Belles have better high end extension than the K77 in my LSI. Now that I have equal crossovers, the Belles sound better in the upper ranges than LSI which I thought were great! I couldn’t figure out why the Belles should have more defined cymbal crashes, so I opened up the LSI to swap crossovers for a test. Tested two different Crossovers side by side on the LSIs. Ran them monaural and compared each LSI and they sounded equivalent to me. So concluded it is speaker difference I am hearing not a crossover difference. Testing the LSI to Belle with the same crossover showed the Belles had better highs. The cymbals on the LSI sounded muted. Took a look at the drivers. The Belles have K77M and the LSI have K77. Now I feel like I need to replace the tweeters in the LSI. Don’t want to lose the magic mid range but want the extra high end extension...researching.

Enjoying the Belles.
 
^^ I agree. In car audio circles it's widely known & said it's 80% TUNING. One can make avg speakers sounds excellent once you equip them correctly.
Case in point I took my Lexus which had pretty good stock Pioneer speakers and had a circuit judge(ironically he trained other judges in Northern California AND had the exact same model car as mine so he had dialed his in) plug and play my system modeled after him. Well, looking to "upgrade" to a more expensive speakers in the $3k range after six months I took off to a well regarded audio shop across town(40 miles away) to get an opinion.
The owner of the shop was smart and said let's hear what you have.
After bringing out his demo CD he stopped it half way through and said "I don't have anything that'll improve your sound. Unless you want to spend $3k for that extra 1%." Then he got a sly smile. He asked who did the set up in my car? I dodged and said a guy in Sacramento. He named the person and laughed "He trained me. Now I'm a circuit judge".(for audio)
Anyway, that's integrity for a guy to turn down money knowing the law of diminishing returns.
Point is get it dialed in with the proper equipment and it'll rip.
Terry Soohoo ... easy.
 
Back
Top Bottom