Islander

Thanks for clearing that up, Shawn. I guess Klipsch assumes that anyone reading the specs of pro cinema speakers knows what they're looking at, unlike a newbie like me...[*-)]

OB, I had a 383 stroker in a 66 Nova that I sold at the beginning of last summer. Peppy little engine but no substitute for cubic inches. Weight and handling is never a factor for me because quite frankly all these 40 year old cars handle like crap anyway:) You're right about that. I recall an episode of CHiPS where Ponch had a face-off with a hill racer in a Camaro. Ponch brought out his '55 Chevy from his bad-boy days and it was scary to watch that '55 skidding around the California canyon road. Handling has come a long way since then!

Thanks for the responses. There are some very knowledgeable dudes (and dudettes, I'm sure) on this forum. So it appears that any time misaligment in Heritage speakers is so minimal as to be inaudible to most untrained ears, and is less noticeable the further the listener is from the speaker. And yet the pro cinema Klipsches have built-in delay. In a typical cinema setting, most listeners are probably 20-200 feet away, so why would the design engineers feel the need to address this "problem", unless they were expecting an audience of sound engineers, each with his favourite sound meters in his pocket?

Many speaker designs try to compensate for time discrepancies between drivers by placing the tweeters back from the front of the enclosures, in some cases even having a separate mid/high cabinet that can be slid back and forth or tilted very precisely, depending on the listening distance, to ensure that all the musical notes arrive at your ears at the same time. Then I look at the La Scalas, with the tweeter driver about three inches back from the front of the enclosure, the squawker about two feet back, and the woofer about three-and-a-half feet back, and don't hear any "time smearing". Could it be that time alignment just isn't a problem in typical listening situations? Then I looked at the specs for the Klipsch theater speakers and noticed that most of them have built in delay between the drivers. In the case of the 3-way Jubilee 535, it's 3.5ms for the midrange and 4.6ms for the tweeter. My question is this: is there any built-in delay in the Heritage speakers between the drivers, perhaps in the crossovers? Or does something in the cabinet design correct for horn dimensions that look like they should cause a large time misalignment?

Get a second surge supressor instead of an extension cord and plug in your sub where it's most convenient, ideally on a different circuit from the rest of your sound system, or at least into a different outlet.

Well, that's clear and it makes sense. If you have monoblock amps, you could put one on each speaker cabinet (or even inside, if there's room) and run them with very little cabling between amp and crossover, but someone is likely to comment that amps should be on the floor resting on spikes to isolate them from any vibration. In hi-fi, as in everything, there is no ultimate...

Has anyone seen an impedance curve for La Scalas with AA crossovers? I'm curious to see it.

You mean the plastic pie-shaped one? You can get the bronze-colored metal 2006 Jubilee logo, as it's called. It's pie-shaped and nicer than the old plastic one. Part #070249. Peel-and-stick to attach it. It's just a little smaller than the original, but you can use the old sticky stuff as a guide to place it correctly (although it's bet to clean off any excess with alcohol).

Going from a $15 power bar to a Tripp Lite Isobar Ultra surge suppressor gave me cleaner FM sound and blacker blacks on the TV. Moving the sub to a different outlet further reduced FM noise. Moving the electronics and turntable to a different circuit, away from the sub and computer, as well as adding a second Isobar Ultra for the sub, reduced noise even further, even surface noise on LPs, to my surprise. Perhaps the turntable cartridge is sensitive to noise because its signal is so highly amplified relative to CD and DVD players.

That rule makes perfect sense for HT use, but for music, Heritage speakers like to be much further apart. Having them that close makes for a compressed soundstage when listening to music, although it places movie sound where it belongs. With my old Audio Logic speakers, the same narrow placing worked well for music and movies, but with the La Scalas, it seemed that I had to make a choice, so I went for a better music soundstage and an overly wide, but not too distracting, movie soundstage.

That may have been ambiguous. It's best to put as few electrical and electronic devices as possible on the same circuit as your receiver. Some items that will put noise into the line include your subwoofer, computer, fridge and dishwasher, for example. A surge bar with noise filtering will help.

Yes, it is better to plug the sub into a different outlet, or even a different circuit if your home's electrical layout permits it. If the sub has a Class D amp, it may put some electrical noise into the line, so it's better if it doesn't share an outlet with your receiver. If it doesn't share a circuit with your computer, that will also be likely to reduce noise. You definitely don't want to try to run more than 15 amps on a 15 amp circuit, or you'll be tripping the breaker or blowing the fuse. 15 amps on a 120-volt circuit equals 1800 watts, so you should be sure the current draw is below that, leaving some room for the higher momentary draw of musical peaks.

lumi, you only need to hook up to the red receiver terminal because there's only one sub channel.

As for minor tweaks, my logic is that a tweak that provides, say, a 2 percent improvement is inaudible, but if I do five tweaks of similar effectiveness, that adds up to 10 percent, which will be audible.

Bigger speaker wire means less resistance, but more capacitance. I think the sweet spot would be somewhat smaller than an inch in diameter, uless maybe you're wiring a very very large speaker for stadium use. Six gauge is probably as big as anyone would ever want.

You might want to put those speakers on casters just so they're safer and easier to move. There have been a few pairs of La Scalas shown on the forum with rollers under them. Looking forward to seeing pictures of them. Just be sure you're wearing something when taking the photos, thanks!

I think that's called hard-wiring and is considered the best-sounding but least convenient way to hook up your speakers. Were you thinking of running some heavy-gauge speaker wire into the amp housing and connecting it directly to the circuit board? If you're willing to go to the trouble, there might be some improvement in the sound.

My experience in condo living is similar to that of mdeneen. Concrete high-rise condos can be pretty quiet. When I moved to Victoria, BC, I was warned away from wooden buildings, because they're like living in a wooden house in that you can hear your neighbours around you as if you were sharing a house with them. In a concrete building, it's a different story. We've only had serous complaints about one owner in our 51-unit 9-storey building, because he blasts his music at 4:30am when his drunken friends are over. There's a band on the 5th floor, and one little old lady thought there was some banging in the pipes, but it turned out to be the drummer. No other complaints about them, though. My unit has two apartments below it, but none above or to either side. Even so, I keep the volume moderate after 11pm, and usually save really loud volume (ZZ Top La Grange, for example) for mid-afternoon when it's not likely to disturb anyone. More than music, I think it's the bass-heavy movie soundtracks that would be the most annoying to neighbours. During some movies, it feels like there's an earthquake going on. I've got all my subs (one in the livingroom, two in the bedroom) on inch-thick neoprene rubber pads, and hopefully that keeps the excess bass from travelling through the floor. I know all my neighbours, but don't ask if they can hear the music, in case I don't like what they might say. Over two years so far with no problems.

I'd suggest 2-sided tape, which is easy to fix if you don't get them on straight the first try. Photo mounting glue can be useful, as it comes off with practically no residue. It's a quick-dry substance that comes in a tube, and is often used to attach credit cards to paper forms. You know, that funny rubbery stuff. I've even used it to glue surround speakers to their brackets or stands, or a small center channel speaker to the top of a TV, since you can separate the parts later with no damage to either surface (in almost all cases). You just have to keep the parts stationary for 5 minutes or so, until it dries. I'm mentioning this because I got one of my nice peel-and-stick 2006 Jubilee logos (which resemble vintage '70s badges) on a little bit crooked, and I'm not sure how to get it off without any problem in order to put it back on straight.

Two weeks ago, I relocated my system so the Scalas are on the long wall and much further apart than they had been, thanks to a tip from Peter (thanks, psg) and the sound was quite improved. However, the surround speakers were no longer where they needed to be, so I moved two of them for now, and ran Yamaha's YPAO auto setup routine. It declared that the La Scalas were small and out of phase with the other speakers. Actually, the only things the YPAO got correct were the size and distances of the surround speakers. All the other distances were off a little, and the sub was about 4 feet closer than indicated. Interestingly, though, I learned that the Scala distance to the listening position should be measured from the back of the squawker horn, at the driver, not at the front of the horn. Obvious when you think of it, but not like cone speaker enclosures. According to the owner's manual, the program is not always correct about phase with certain speakers. As for "size", the La Scalas are certainly big, but their gradual bass roll-off might make them test like small speakers. However, having the low bass coming from the two Scala bass bins (even with it tapering off below 100Hz or so) plus from the sub makes for a noticeably fuller sound, so I set mains at "large" on the receiver. Accordingly, I agree that main speakers capable of any decent bass response should call for the amp settings to be set at "large" for the mains. Just my opinion.

Just teasing, Max! Congrats on having a great amp. Are you using the Yamaha passive preamp with it? By the time I can budget for one, it'll probably be updated to the D2 or D3. I'm sure it sounds WAAAY better than my receiver, but I'm pretty happy with the receiver for now. As you may know, the MX-D1 was reviewed in the April 2005 issue of Stereophile. The reviewer was impressed, but of course he found it slightly lacking when compared with his $23,000/pr reference monoblock amps. Man, there's really no end to hi-fi!

Max, you messed me up! The Yamaha MX-D1 was my dream amp, but then I got the La Scalas and a mighty amp seemed to be no longer necessary. Now you mention that you're using one. Are you driving Heritage speakers with it? I'm sure it sounds better than my Yamaha receiver. You revived my dormant fantasy, and now I'll have to start saving up again. Grrr!

As NOSValves pointed out, many Klipsch owners listen at higher than typical volume levels. I don't know about anybody else, but I've found that I often have the volume higher than I did with my previous speakers because the La Scalas (with Paradigm sub) sound so darned good! They grab my attention more, and I want to listen "harder", or maybe "closer" is a better word. I'm still talking under 95dB, BTW.

Some speakers don't sound good at very low volume, while others do. Is it a constant that more volume always equals more distortion? Don't speakers, along with electronics, have a "sweet spot", or most linear range, where distortion is lowest? If it's at very low volume, don't psychoacoustic effects start to emerge (Fletcher-Munson, etc.) and possibly overshadow measured distortion numbers?

Adjustable VTA comes into play with more than just record thickness. Different height cartridges and different thickness of platter mat call for resetting tonearm height. I've got a thick Platter Matter (vintage or what?) on my Technics SL-1400MK2, but the tonearm height was simple to adjust with a single knurled screw and the index lines make the adjustment repeatable. As for DD or belt drive sounding better, there are very good turntables with each system. It appears that some folks really like Technics decks and some really don't. Could they be one of those items that works great in some systems and terribly in others? I'm really pleased with the sound of the Technics 'table in my system, but I'm sure that the people who don't like them aren't deaf and have found them lacking in their systems. The original poster was also asking about a new Technics versus a used Rega, for around the same price. I'd lean toward the new unit, but you can also get an SL-1200MK5 for not much more, and it has the LED stylus illuminator light (which should last nearly forever) instead of the bulb which can burn out and be a nuisance to replace.