Gary Burley

Has anyone else had problems in matching new Heritage Veneer finishes with older Heritage models? Do you think Klipsch should have announced these changes in standard veneer finishes or at least inform people that are trying to match with older Heritage of the changes.

I live in London England and in the 1980's/90's I was UK distributor for Impulse Horn Loudspeakers. I know how hard it is to find quality cabinet makers and veneer finishes. Here is my story. In March 2009, I ordered a pair of Heresey 111 in cherry, when they arrived they had transit damage, one of the cabinets was crushed where the bass speaker is. When you looked at the box and packaging you could not see how this happened (they were not insured), apart from this the cabinets and veneer finish were of the highest quality. I was so impressed with their performance that in July 2009 I ordered a single La Scala 11 in cherry (in the UK Heritage is twice the price of USA) and listened to it for 2 years in single speaker mono (see Jimmy Hughes review "Klipsch La Scala 11 back to Mono" in Hi Fi + no 77). In July 2011 I ordered another La Scala 11 in cherry for stereo listening, when it arrived it was many shades darker than the older La Scala, even looked like walnut. I sent photos to quality control in Hope and was assured it was definitley cherry but was not given a proper explanation of why it was so much darker than the older one. Just told I should have ordered them at the same time, which I accepted. The grille on the new LS11 frames the top hat on all four sides as opposed to the top and bottom on the older one. I actually prefer the new darker cherry and both speakers are built like a battleship to last forever and the veneer finish is of the highest quality. Anyhow the La Scala 11's life changing performance more than makes up for this difference in veneer colour and I am honoured to own them, I have even had the personalised brass plaques made which look great.

Hi I live in London, England and in the 1980's/90's I was UK distributor for Impulse Horn Loudspeakers. I know how difficult it is to find quality cabinet makers and veneer finishes. Here is my story: In March 2009, I ordered a pair of Heresay 111 in cherry, when they arrived they had transit damage, one of the cabinets was crushed where the bass speaker is. When you looked at the box and packaging you could not see how this happened (they were not insured), apart from this the cabinets and veneer finish were of the highest quality. I was so impressed with their performance that in July 2009 I ordered a single La Scala 11 in cherry (in the UK Heritage is twice the price of USA) and listened to it for 2 years in single speaker mono (see Jimmy Hughes review "Klipsch La Scala 11 back to Mono" in Hi Fi + no 77). In July 2011 I ordered another La Scala 11 in cherry for stereo listening, when it arrived it was many shades darker than the older La Scala, even looked like walnut. I sent photos to quality control in Hope and was assured it was definitley cherry but was not given a proper explanation of why it was so much darker than the older one. Just told I should have ordered them at the same time, which I accepted. The grille on the new LS11 frames the top hat on all four sides as opposed to the top and bottom on the older one. I actually prefer the new darker cherry and both speakers are built like a battleship to last forever and the veneer finish is of the highest quality. Anyhow the La Scala 11's life changing performance more than makes up for this difference in veneer colour and I am honoured to own them, I have even had the personalised brass plaques made which look great.

Hi Bruce The Klipsch distributor for the UK is based in Ireland and can be contacted at www.klipsch.co.uk . Many thanks for the welcome, I will be posting pictures of my La Scala 11's shortly. Regards Gary

Hi This is my first post, I live in London England and I too have La Scala 11's in cherry. I bought them one at a time, the first La Sala 11 I aquired in July 2009 and I listened for 2 years in single speaker mono. Even one La Sala 11 in mono had true greatness,(see Jimmy Hughe's review in Hi Fi + no 77 "Back to Mono" of my La Scala 11), it was far superior to my previous pair of Heresy 1111's. I aquired the second La Scala 11 in July this year, I finally had stereo again, the performance is life changing. Last year I was searching for a high quality low output intergrated amp with XLR balanced connection. After months of looking I aquired the Luxman L550A11 amp, the only suitable amp tube or solid state I could find. For the last 30 years I have used various tube amps, this is the first solid state amp I have used since the 70's. The Luxman is 20 watts pure class A and has proved to be a perfect match for La Scala 11's. The sound is as see through and effortless as tubes, the dynamic extremes are far superior and the mid to lower mid bass is extremely lean, clean and tight. I have been a Hi-Fi enthusiast since 1971, in the 1980/90's I was a Hi End audio dealer and UK distributor for Impulse horn loaded loudspeakers. Because of the La Scala 11's history, provenence, specification, build quality and life changing performance I consider them to be the greatest speakers in audio history. I have spoken to the current UK Klipsch distributor and he tells me there is very few La Scala 11's in the country, no more than 4 or 5 pairs.

Post it as a PDF! Tell me how to post as a PDF, and I'll do it! (Excuse my ignorance) Jimmy Hughes

Hello Rich, and greetings to everyone on the Klipsch forum from England. My name is Jimmy Hughes, and I wrote the Heresy III review in Hi-Fi Plus. This is my first post here using a friend's account. I have signed up for the Klipsch forum, but am awaiting my password to participate. First off - thank you Rich for bringing my Heresy III review to everyone's attention on the Klipsch forum. And thank you for taking so much trouble to obtain the magazine - I'm pleased you thought it was worth $16. My friend Gary Burley alerted me to your original post about the review a couple of weeks back, and - seeing as the magazine is so difficult to get in the USA - I have been wondering if it might be possible to post the review here. However, I might be able to offer you something slightly better (or, depending on your point of view, considerably worse - LOL!) - the full unexpurgated 'Director's Cut'. My original piece was rather long, and the version that appeared in the magazine was trimmed. Unfortunately, the various cuts have created at least one serious misunderstanding. When I referred to the 'H1s' I was thinking of my own Impulse H1 horn speakers - NOT Heresy 1s. In the magazine version, most of the intro was cut. In the original version, I described how I got to hear the Heresy III's at the house of a friend (Gary Burley), and how hearing them made me want to write a review of them. In passing, I mentioned my own Impulse H1s, and how their size had made it difficult for me to review speakers due to lack of space. Unfortunately, none of this was published. Trouble is, I'm not quite sure how to post the original article here. I've already checked with the Editor of HF+ and he's cool about me doing it - so no issues there. The problem is actually getting it on the forum. I could, of course, simply cut and paste it here, but most forums have a word limit, and I fear it would it be waaaaay too long. Would I be correct in thinking I could put the article on a site like flickr, then post a link to it here? Alternatively, I could send the text to Amy for her to post here. But, these are details; one way or another, I will find the means to do it. Thanks again for your interest! Jimmy Hughes