tromprof

Sorry to hear about the bad Ebay experience. ANYTIME you ship you have to use tracking. Ebay is pretty good about making sure transactions go well (at least in my 10 year experience with them) but I found out the hard way on a couple of occasions the importance of not cheaping out on tracking. I lost a nice Denon CD player to someone who claimed to have never received it. I think he scammed me but, no tracking, no proof. I had to refund the purchase price. That is also the problem with using USPS to ship overseas. Once it leaves the US, no tracking. To quote Regan, "trust, but verify." [:|]

The DAC is the most important element. I have a Cambridge Audio DacMagic that I route all my digital sources through (CD/DVD, computer music server, HD radio, etc.). The DacMagic has a better sound than any of my sources, and better yet it will make any old CD player with a digital out sound great. I would spend my money on a good DAC like the Cambridge Audio or the new Emotiva for audio and make the selection of blu-ray on price and video. Of course the DACs don't do surround sound (which is a feature I happily got rid of).

Sorry, the grills do not come off. They are stapled to the frame like the to grills on my k-horns, with molding over that. Yes you can buy crossovers, and a lot of other goodies from Bob Crites directly. He has a web site: www.critesspeakers.com

The AA crossover has a circuit that adds protection to the K-77 tweeter so it isn't fried by more high powered amps. It is not needed if you are not listening at extreme volumes or are using Crites' CT125 tweeters. As far as the grills go, they came that way. The original owner claimed to have bought them new like that. I don't think it would be too hard to make though.

The Belle is a much prettier speaker than the La Scala but you can dress the LS up. Mine have full grills and a nice finish making them acceptable to my wife for living room duty. I also second the Crites A crossover.

I have always wondered what I would do if I ever moved and lost my corners for my K-horns. Now I know, your bass bins look fantastic!

I agree with all the advice regarding refreshing or replacing the crossovers,esp. using Bob Crites' stuff. Tubes really do a great job with the big Klipsch speakers, but I have found even with tubes they need a little EQing (or maybe the room does, however you want to look at it). I use the Behringer DEQ2496 and like many forum members I have been extremely happy with both of mine. Behringer get a well deserved bad reputation for selling a lot of junk, but the DEQ2496 is a well designed unit with built in RTA (real time analysis) and mine have given me no problems. The difference with them in the system is huge.

If you are willing to pay for the Crites tweeters I am really happy with his A/4500 network in my K-horns. I have his A network in my La Scalas and plan on the further upgrade next year to the A/4500. Used networks (at least the AAs I have sold) to quite well on ebay. Both of mine have gone to Europe and pretty well paid for the new ones.

Keep them both. That's why we have basements and spare bedrooms (and surround sound). []

Yes they do, and the do still have their uses. I have a Pioneer RT-707 that I use to record myself when I practice (I am a professional trombonist). The reel to reel allows me to easily play back stuff at half speed when I really want to hear what is going on. If I want better quality I use my DAT (still old school) but the RTR sounds pretty good and as you said, it looks very cool! BTW, I paid less than $200 for mine and it is in good working condition. There are better units out there but RTRs are more for fun than fidelity at this point.

I am using the Crites A network in my La Scalas and am very happy. I feel no need for the AA since I am not using a high power SS amp, and don't crank them up too much either. I have the A/4500 in my K-horns and love it, but it requires non stock tweeters (I am using the Crites CT-125). I really like Bob Crites' products. Excellent quality and reasonable prices, and he is happy to answer questions.

No, they came that way. I am the third owner, the first claimed be bought them that way new in Louisville, KY. The grills greatly improve the WAF. []

I have a pair of La Scalas in a room 30x15. I have to have them on the short wall and with a door on one side and a bookcase on the other they are not exactly in the corners. They replaced a pair of Fortes and couldn't be happier with them. I did build them a horn loaded sub-woofer (tuba table). They are basically little K-horns but don't have the placement issues that K-horns have. The trade off for the smaller cabinet if loss of low bass, but with the sub I built the bass is now even lower than the K-horns.

Great story, but... Pictures!

The postal service is good at running over things, maybe they can "make" you a pair. I once received a trombone from them with tire tread marks down the center of the box. That was one FLAT horn! [+o(]

The Fortes are great speakers, but suffer a lot in comparison to La Scalas. The La Scalas actually make the Fortes sound small. I owned a pair of Fortes for over twenty years, and even though I had a pair of K-horns in a different room, I was stunned when I recently brought home a pair of La Scalas a put them beside the Fortes. I have always liked the big beefy sound the Fortes produced, but sitting next to the La Scalas they sounded like a clock radio (but a good clock radio!). If you have the space, they are the way to go. [Y]

My main listening room is approximately 15x20. When I first got my K-horns I had to place them on the short wall. It wasn't until 6 months later and I was able to redo the room that I moved them to the longer wall. They certainly sound better on the long wall, but if you can place your sitting position so the horns are aiming at you they should sound fine on the shorter one. Over 14ft apart is a good distance, very similar to my short wall and I was just blown away by how good they sounded when I first got them.

To quote Wikipedia: "MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer 3 (or III),[4] more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression. It is a common audio format for consumer audio storage, as well as a de facto standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on digital audio players." The iPod as mentioned above is just a MP3 player. The iPod is a "i gotta have it" item for kids (my kids really want one but I am a luddite and so the answer is NO). If you get him one it will be a hit and from those I know who have it it is very user friendly.

I always liked my Fortes, one of the best bang for the buck speakers Klipsch made. As far as updating the crossovers, I think that is the way to go for any older Klipsch speaker. I have new Crites crossovers in both my K-horns and La Scalas. It is money well spent, and I was able to sell the old AA crossovers on Ebay for the price of the new ones!

If you have they money for a pair of Heresy III why is the only other option Fortes? I price a pair of the new Heresy III at $1600. For that kind of expenditure there are a number of very good options that will cost far less including Chorus, Cornwalls, and La Scalas. All of these can be had in excellent condition for well under a thousand. You will have more than enough left over to be able to pay someone to move them into place for you. I got my La Scalas for around $800. A friend of mine has had great luck in using members of the local HS wrestling team to move heavy equipment for his shop. They think $20 for a few min. work is great! []

These are so many different ways to change these speakers. I think it is better to start small and see if you like the change. When I get a chance (i.e. can spare the $) I will do to my La Scalas what I did to my K-horns. I first put in a new Crites A crossover and then put in his tweeters as well. More recently I changed the crossover to his A/4500 crossover (and put the A in the La Scalas) and replaced the horn to driver gaskets. All of these were easy improvements that left the speakers still sounding like K-horns but with noticeable improvements. Though not cheap, these smaller changes weren't outrageous either. One major upgrade I am doing to the La Scalas is building a horn loaded sub woofer. As nice as the La Scalas are they are lacking in the bass department. Tinkering with these speakers is fun. [8-|]

Go for it, $2,000 seems like a good price. All the above comments are spot on, esp. the one about amplification. When I first got my K-horns I was using Adcom gear. I really liked it with my Tannoy System 12s but it it really sounded bright with the K-horns. I now use tubes and vintage Yamaha SS and all is bliss. AS far as "thinning the herd," isn't that what basements are for?

NEVER take the wife shopping for audio equipment, you may never be happy with the outcome. Wait until they leave or you will be stuck with what looks good to them instead of what sounds good to you. If they don't get it mention next time a major appliance goes on the fritz like her stove or something similar tell her the old one is too big and 2 burners is enough to cook on anyways right ? Maybe thats why I'm divorced. lol, there does seem to be a lot of guys wearing skirts around here.. A little compromising goes a long way. I have been happily married over 25 years AND have more stereo equipment than anybody I know (this does not include audio nut-cases on this site). []

Back in 1988 when I bought my first pair of Klipsch speakers, Fortes, I also listened to a pair of Chorus as well. The Fortes were way to big for my tiny downtown Boston apartment but I was just blown away my how good the Chorus sounded and would have bought them instead if my wife hadn't stepped in. We are still married by the way (she did let me get the Fortes after all). Since then I have always wanted to find a pair and it was my constant internet searching for a pair of Chorus that actually landed me my K-horns a few years back and more recently the La Scalas. I guess I am pretty well set, but a pair of Chorus would be nice in the basement...[]

Igor, I can understand where you are coming from because there are so many threads on how to improve the sound of different Klipsch speakers, and people seem to be having s much fun doing it! I haven't heard the La Scala II yet but the problem you seem to have is that they sound pretty damn good already. [] My advice is to go find an older pair and start having fun with them instead, and save the LS IIs as a reference.