Islander

Being in the service, do you have access to those deep discount military stores we hear about? Get yourself some Heritage speakers for when you're back home and quit worrying about Reference speakers. After a long time "in the sandbox", you deserve some really good sound.

I've spoken to young acquaintances at loud concerts and had them tell me. "I don't need hearing protection. I go to a lot of concerts and my ears are used to it." They'd better get used to lip reading, with that attitude. My ears mean a lot to me, so I always carry earplugs in case the music is really loud and I'm not embarrassed to put them in.

There's nothing ugly about that. It really looks the business. Were you able to hear any diffference, either good or bad, with the conditioner in your system?

The image of three slide rulers ...... uh...never mind... it's not a pretty sight I guess the silver lining of that is any offender would know to the thousandth, how big a sphincter he was? [:|] That would be calipers, not slide rules, but you're right, really not a pretty sight...

Y'know, if I saw a dude running down the street with a La Scala under each arm, I wouldn't want to mess with him...

Maybe they've changed their spiel, but it's usually, "My dispatcher mistakenly gave me an extra pair of speakers, so I'll sell them to you instead of taking them back to the warehouse, at a great price!" In other words, "Wanna buy some stolen goods?" Sure, they're not really stolen, just cheaply made and overpriced, but if someone thinks they're buying stolen goods from a thief, what do they expect? It's almost like the wino that goes to the cops to complain that the bootlegger sold him bad booze.

Belles in a van ? [] White van speakers, the good kind this time...

They're not really thieves, just fraudsters selling cheap speakers and claiming they're good stuff. Anyone who buys from them assumes he's dealing with crooks, so shouldn't be surprised when he gets tricked...

Actually, the point at which the sound waves sum into a single coherant wavefront should occur sooner with the Jubilee due to it being a 2-way and having much better controlled polars. You gotta get 30 feet back from the lascala for this to occur. I'd say it's probably around 10-15 feet for the Jubilee. I think many see the large tweeter for the Jubilee and instantly are reminded of long throw horn designs. I would agree with your assessment if that were true, but it's actually NOT a long throw horn. [] The size is there only for low frequency pattern control. In regards to minimum listening distance for coherent wavefront, wouldn't that vary with different crossovers? Would a gentle slope crossover allow the driver wavefronts to coalesce at a shorter distance than a steep slope one would?

Tripp Lite also make some good surge protectors with built-in filtering, even between their own outlets, so you can filter noise between components. Mine actually improved the video picture, making the blacks more black. http://www.tripplite.com/products/suppressors/selector/index.cfm?standard=no&step=2&mode=1&category=strip#step2

Anybody remember when guys would flip beer-bottle caps across the room? I had two housemates who would have wars flipping them at each other. My Yamaha CR-1020 receiver wound up with a gouge in its front panel and that was the end of flying beer caps.

5 months? Wotta lightweight! I rode year-round when I lived in TO. I even rode my bike to Peterborough for Christmas one year, but there was very little snow that year (1978). Seriously, you can ride regularly at least nine months a year if you have proper clothing and even on the odd dry and non-salty day in January and February. As you might imagine, I really laugh at people in Victoria who tell me it's too cold to ride in the winter. Which shops have closed?

Actually, once they got some money, they flew across the country "sorting out" everyone who had insulted them. Oddly enough, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was on Bravo on Saturday night, so I saw it for the first time.

Horn-loaded mid and high drivers and only 89dB sensitivity? What's up with that? Can any low-sensitivity speaker approximate the dynamics of Heritage speakers?

So Roger Waters loves you. I'm, err, happy for you... We just won't mention the ***-bragging, or did you mean your axe?

In addition to its hydraulic function, brake fluid is designed to preserve rubber seals in the brake system and absorb moisture. That's why it needs to be changed periodically. DOT3 fluid is clear when new, and the colour of tea after it has absorbed its limit of water. It contains alcohol to absorb moisture, so it strongly attacks most kinds of paint. It might temporarily do something good to an old surround, but it won't make it new. Brake fluid belongs in brake systems, not in speakers.

Islander: Age doesn't seem to be much of an issue. The paper surrounds on the woofers last nearly forever, both because they're paper (and resistant to drying out) and because the horn allows the speaker to produce lots of volume with very little cone movement, so there's little wear on the woofer from use. Just an FYI, the surrounds aren't paper, they are treated cloth. Bruce Thanks for the correction, Bruce. I've never seen a Scala woofer, since mine are the top-loading variety and inspecting the woofers would mean removing the cabinet tops, the squawker horns and then the woofer compartment lids, with the crossovers on top of them. They sound fine, so I haven't got around to it yet. I understand the cone is doped paper. Is the surround glued to that paper and is it doped also?

Why not have all three Scalas on the floor? They'll give their best bass response when sitting on the floor, plus if they're all at the same level, they'll sound better (no up and down during left-center-right transitions), and you won't have to deal with putting a 125 pound speaker on a shelf. The only reason anyone puts a center speaker on top of a TV is because there's no room underneath it, but with a speaker the size of a Scala, you'd want to make room.

Sounds like you have a 1976 and a 1978. They're likely pretty well identical. The one in the photo looks sort of shiny for Birch Raw, so I'm guessing maybe they had some sort of treatment done (varnish, lacquer?), but it looks really good. How do they sound? BTW, the serial numbers may be stamped into the top of the back panel, on the edge.

The 1974 La Scalas I bought last year sounded fine. A few months later, I replaced the caps in the crossovers and they sounded better, then I replaced the tweeters and they sounded even better. I'm very happy with them. Age doesn't seem to be much of an issue. The paper surrounds on the woofers last nearly forever, both because they're paper (and resistant to drying out) and because the horn allows the speaker to produce lots of volume with very little cone movement, so there's little wear on the woofer from use. All the parts are still available (and not too pricey) and La Scalas are easy to update or upgrade. The lack of stiffness in the bass bin sidewalls was addressed in the design of the La Scala II, but the very low bass is a little limited in any case, so you may want to add a sub, depending on the music you listen to. That's not a flaw of the speaker. To get really, really, low bass with a horn speaker, the horn would need to be nearly big enough to walk into.

Yeah, Tony Levin was mentioned, and yes, he is great.

You get your system to put out test tones, one channel at a time, and use the receivers's level controls to match the levels of all the speakers, as heard from your listening position. You can do it by ear, but the meter is far more accurate. If the levels are not well-matched, you won't get good surround effect. You don't need to turn the volume really high to do this. 80dB is usually plenty. Also, on many DVDs, as was pointed out, there may not be much rear channel content. In most cases, the action is onscreen and that's where most of the sound comes from. With some concert DVDs, for example, you'll hear the audience applauding behind and around you very clearly, but with some others, it will all seem to come from in front of you. It all depends on how the sound engineer mixed it.

I'm running "100 Watt" La Scalas with a 500Wpc Class D SS amp. Most of the time it's probably putting out half a watt or so, but it sounds very clean and has vast headroom/power reserves. Rimshots sound like real rimshots, for example. Drums and pianos in particular sound more realistic, perhaps because they're both acoustic percussion instruments, which are easy to describe as "real" or "not quite real" sounding, unlike electric guitars, whose sound varies depending on their amp settings and effects. The speakers seem happy with this amp, although I suppose a determined and somewhat deaf person could send them up in smoke. I'm not likely to, and having an electronic volume control with over 3 turns from muted to full power makes an accidental slip of the wrist pretty unlikely.

I really like the uilleann pipes perfect for pipes for pubs. Hard to imagine playing bagpipes indoors omg. I have to agree. Scottish bagpipes are sometimes called War Pipes and they do work to best effect on the battlefield. I think they scared some of the Kaiser's troops out of their trenches in WW1. Uillean pipes are great indoors and have been used on many movie soundtracks to give a pensive or melancholy mood.

Very pretty! The black sections accent the wood very nicely.