Alex Leopold
March 11, 2016
Klipsch fans come from all over the world. This time, we are talking to Frank van Kasteren, who resides in the small town of Wijk en Aalburg in the Netherlands.
Of course, even in the Netherlands, dedicated Klipsch customers like van Kasteren are prone to creating crazy, yet awesome, DIY speakers using Klipsch speakers.
Van Kasteren is “a huge fan of Klipsch horn loudspeakers.” About a year ago, he purchased a pair of heavily used (“loved”) La Scala Industrial speakers from 1993, which required restoration.
The Dutchman replaced the speakers’ non-original woofers with two originally K-33 woofers that he procured in an online auction. Keep in mind that van Kasteren had to ship these woofers from New York all the way to the Netherlands – not cheap by any stretch of the imagination.
“It was worth it” and he happily posted a bunch of photos of the successful restoration on the Klipsch Forums.
Van Kasteren’s La Scala Industrial speakers were bi-amped with two Bryston 3B poweramps + a dbx active crossover before he decided to turn these La Scalas into something a little more potent.
While he loved the way the La Scalas sounded, he was looking for more low-end. He considered adding a subwoofer, but the direct radiating subwoofers weren’t exactly to his liking. His next idea was to go with the Klipschorn to hit those lower frequencies, but he settled on something entirely different.
Van Kasteren procured a Jubilee KPT-535 to serve as the low-end provider for his La Scala Industrial speakers. This combination has actually developed a cult following on the Klipsch Forums thanks to its incredible performance throughout its full range of sound.
These DIY speakers are lovingly dubbed the JubScala, a combination of the big K-402/K69 horn/driver from the Jubilee + the LF-section from the La Scala.
“Bass from a Jubilee is very deep, tight and powerful. I love it!” van Kasteren said.
One of the first changes van Kasteren made was to change out the dbx active crossover for an Electro Voice DX38 active crossover, based on what he had seen from Klipsch engineer Roy Delgado. The subwoofer’s amplifier is a 400 Watt DS4.0 digital plate-amp made by the Dutch company Hypex.
Van Kasteren was kind enough to share his entire setup in detail below the photos, but we must post a warning to everyone before they consider DIY speakers utilizing Klipsch components. While we love these DIY speakers from Klipsch fans, it should be noted that projects like this violate the warranty of the products.
LOUDSPEAKERS
25-50 Hz subwoofer
Klipsch Jubilee LF (2x 12" K31 woofers)
108 dB/1W/1m
400 Watt / 4 Ohm, Hypex DS4.0 amp
50-470 Hz low/mid-low
Klipsch La Scala Industrial LF (1x 15" K-33 woofer)
105 dB/1W/1m
470-20.000 Hz mid/high
Klipsch K402 horn + Klipsch K69 driver (= P.Audio BD-M750/8 2" driver)
107.5 dB/1W/1m
POWER AMPS
2x Bryston 3B (4x 120 Watt / 8 Ohm, Bi-Amping)
ACTIVE CROSSOVER
Electro Voice DX38
PRE-AMP
Bryston BP20
INTERLINKS
2x Audioquest Yukon XLR (DX38 >> Bryston 3B's)
2x Neotech NA-12165 XLR OCC Pure Silver (BP20 >> DX38)
1x Neotech NA-12165 RCA OCC Pure Silver (MacBook Air >> BP20)
CLEAN POWER
Kemp SNS-plug
Kemp QA-plug
USB-DAC
Audioquest Dragonfly
Audioquest Dragontail
2x Audioquest Jitterbug
What do you think of the JubScala? Have you heard one of these near-mythical DIY speakers before? Post in the comments below!
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