Islander

There's no need to overthink things. Now that you've got your La Scalas in place, take some time to get accustomed to their sound, before making any changes. If and when you do make any changes, you want to improve the sound, not just change it. To be sure of that, you need to be really familiar with the sound of your Scalas as they are. Happy listening!

When thinking about the acoustics of a room in a typical home, it's important to keep in mind that the room is "small", when compared with a nightclub or concert hall. This means that the sound will be bouncing all over the place, to the ceiling, the floor, and of course the walls. This is why smaller rooms need bigger horns, because the bigger horns can do a better job of directing the sound. No matter how good the horns are, the sound will still be bouncing off the back wall. This is where bookcases can really help the acoustics. It's not all about damping out reflections, it's also important to diffuse the sound. Large flat surfaces are to be avoided. You'll notice that in large concert halls with a reputation for good acoustics, the box seats usually protrude at odd angles, rather than being tucked neatly along the side walls. In the same way, your ideal listening room will have a certain amount of clutter, to minimize the effects of the flat walls. Those flat walls, arranged at right angles to each other, are what cause echoes and "bad" reverb. You can buy "skyline" sound diffusers to put on your walls, which look like a white plastic 3D model of a city, with buildings of every different height possible. Some of these diffusers are big, like 4'/1.22 m. x 6'/1'83 m., and they're not cheap. However, a bookcase or bookshelves that are mostly full of books can accomplish the same thing at a lower cost, assuming you don't have to go out and buy a couple of hundred new books. The books will be different heights, and some shelves will have books of different widths, meaning deep and shallow sections, which helps to diffuse the sound. All those uneven surfaces will help to greatly reduce echo, especially "slapback" echo. As for carpet, keep in mind that the thickness of the carpet dictates the longest wavelengths of sound that the carpet can absorb. If the carpet is 1"/2.5 cm thick, it can absorb sound waves of up to 1"/2.5 cm in wavelength. Sound waves of 2.5 cm/1" have a frequency of 13.5 kHz, so that is the lowest frequency that the carpet can absorb. A carpet that's 1 inch/2.5 cm thick is pretty plush, and yet it can only absorb very high frequencies. For deep bass notes, with wavelengths of 10-20 ft/3-6 m., the carpet will be completely unnoticed by the sound waves. That's why bass traps are so big and odd-looking. The bass sound waves are very long. The carpet can't over-damp a room, it can only reduce some echo.

Kevin, thanks for the photos. They're very helpful. I see what you mean about the sofa. However, in the meantime, just sitting sideways on it, with your feet towards the speakers, would work, and once you get the second speaker into its corner, you'll be most of the way there. Very few of us have theoretically ideal listening rooms. If you have two usable corners, you're ahead of me. BTW, is that a studio flash unit in the left of the first picture, or a reflector telescope? Or a stage lighting unit? In any case, that's a fine collection of guitars and amps. There's also another way to go. You could place your Scalas on the long wall, as Paul Klipsch often recommended. As long as the speakers are less than about 18 feet apart, they could sound good, with good soundstage effect. However, if they're more than about that 18 feet apart, you'd probably get the "hole in the middle" effect. The cure is simple: just add a centre speaker. A third La Scala would be ideal, but a Belle Klipsch would be an easier fit into the room, since they're only 18" deep, and compensate for that by being 30 inches wide. They're a good match for La Scalas, because they use most of the same hardware, except the squawker horn is shorter. There are so many possibilities. I hope we're not making your head spin. It could happen. "It was those wild-eyed audiophiles, Officer, with their crazy talk." "Don't worry, Sir, a few hours of talking with normal people is usually all you should need to feel sane again." EDIT: Your post was just ahead of mine, but I see that my second guess was right: it is a telescope. I've got a 5" Meade, my first 'scope, but it showed me the possibilities of what a bigger telescope could show me. I've also got some studio flash units, because I do some model photography (the 2-legged ones, not the tabletop ones).

One last bit. Some folks figure that since these are vintage speakers, they should be driven by vintage electronics. There's nothing wrong with that, but the newer gear does sound better, more clear, more accurate bass, and so on, whether you're talking SS or tubes. So I hear, anyway, in the case of tubes. With SS, there's no doubt. The better the signal your speakers are feeding on, the better they sound, whatever age they might be. Happy listening!

I had this typed up an hour or two ago, but forgot to press Send. Hopefully, most of it will still be relevant, perhaps when dealing to buy your next pair. So, congrats on getting your new-to-you speakers! Also, welcome to the Forum! I would point out that although your La Scalas weigh 125 lbs/57 kg, they have flat bottoms and little wide steel "button" feet, which means that they slide easily on carpet. I was able to shift my 1974 Scalas all over the room singlehanded. I may be a bit excited for you, lol. It's kind of magic when you get them home, and magic again when you get them hooked up and speaking in your room for the first time. On to a couple of hours ago! The "W" in those speakers' serial numbers indicates that they were built in 1981, and the way the seller dropped the price in half suggests that either he has no idea of their value, and/or he's under pressure to get rid of them. Does he look like someone who'd be impressed if you "flash the cash" and offer $800? They are 42 years old, after all... In any case, it would be very helpful to you to be able to test them. You don't need a high-end source and amplifier. Even a basic receiver would let you find out if everything is working and sounding okay. Bring along a towel to stuff into the squawker horn. This will make it easier to hear the tweeter, since the squawker will be playing louder than the tweeter with most music, most of the time. If the price is low enough (be careful, because some folks take offence at real lowball offers), it may not even matter if everything is working, since all the parts are relatively available, and at reasonable prices. Good luck, and keep us up to date.

Does your room have two usable corners on the same side of the room, less than 18-20 feet apart? If so, those would be the best positions for your La Scalas. If there's only one corner on the side of the room that you want to use, pull your corner speaker out of the corner. The idea is that either both Scalas should be in corners, or neither Scala should be in a corner (the arrangement that I have to use). The more similar your speaker positions, the more similar the sound of each speaker, which is what you want. If you can post a diagram of the size and shape of your room, including doors, windows, baseboard heaters or radiators, or any other features that make it difficult or impossible to locate your speakers in the corners of the room, that would be very helpful. Also indicate where your speakers are in the room. Locating your speaker in opposite corners of the room (not opposite on the same side) is not the classical way to place speakers, but it will certainly fill the room with sound, which might be exactly what you're after. Where you sit has a big effect on both soundstage and bass volume. Ideally, you would sit about 1/3 of the way into the room, like if the room is 12 feet deep, you'd want to sit about 4 feet from the back wall (the wall behind you). The seating position is determined by the location of your head (and ears), so with a reclining chair or sofa, you should measure the distances to the speakers and other items from a location a few inches in front of the headrest.

I think my comment may have been a bit ambiguous. When I said "omit", I meant "overlook", in the sense of "that price estimate might be overlooking the costs of R&D", suggesting that the final costs of the members of the new horn sub family might have to be higher than your estimate. Of course, these are all guesses. Even Roy, who knows the actual numbers involved, probably won't know the final costs, and thus prices, until next year. I guess.

Wouldn't that omit or at least minimize the R&D costs, including building and rejecting early prototypes? Also, these subs, particularly the two larger ones, will likely be produced in the hundreds, not the thousands or even ten thousands of some very popular subs.

Even better is a pair of high-performance over-ear headphones powered by an AudioQuest DragonFly. Why? Because the DragonFly (available in Black, Red, or Cobalt, listed by increasing price) is an affordable combo DAC and headphone amp. It plugs into the source's USB port, bypassing the source unit's usually low-end to midrange DAC in favour of the DragonFly's higher-end Sabre ESS DAC. The headphones plug into that. The little dragonfly on the unit's body lights up in various colours to let you know what type of signal it's receiving. The much better DAC gives you clarity, and the amplifier gives your 'phones more authority. That's not to say that's the only way to get good sound when listening to an iPad or the like, but it's one effective and satisfying way. Schiit gear seems to fit in there, too.

It's always better to be a smartass than a dumbass. As for the question above, where does a "numbnuts" fit in?

double post.

It appears to me that Heritage prices fall for 20 years or so, then they start to rise again. By the time the speakers are 30 years old, their prices may have come back to their original selling price, which still seems low compared with the current price of the same model. For example, in 2006, I bought a 32-year-old pair of 1974 La Scalas. Asking Price: $1400CAD Price Paid: $1200CAD Original 1974 Price: $1050USD Approximate Current La Scala AL5 Price: $17,000CAD Does anyone else have some examples of Heritage Series speakers depreciation, followed by appreciation?

Those are La Scala IIs, which first came out in 2006, barely last month in Heritage Series time. Normally, they wouldn't need any service or maintenance for 20 to 30 years, so it surprises me that those speakers have any problems. I've got a pair of 2007 models, and they're still like new.

Home Depot had them for $7.50CAD, in black. A pretty good deal.

I bought a wooden LP crate at one of the local new and used music shops. It's the ideal size, about 13"x13"/33cmx33cm. However, it's made of "recovered"/scrap wood, so there are a few knotholes. It's stained a nice dark tone, and makes an ideal stand for my right subwoofer, as well as holding the LPs in heavy rotation (about 50 or so). At $70CAD, it was a bit pricy for what it is, but it's the perfect size and looks better than the plastic milk crates that I used to use.