MMurg

Supposedly, at the end of February. 🤞

The only news I've heard was at the La Scala Reborn class back in November when Roy said that the engineering work for the subs was completed a while back and that they would be released sometime in 2025.

I somehow forgot that my 40th "Klipschiversary" happened this past October. I wish I had remembered. I would have celebrated when I was at the La Scala class at Klipsch in Hope back in October. I know the exact date from the sales receipt. On October 4, 1984 (40 years ago), during my junior year of college, I went with my fraternity brother (who already had a pair of Heresy) to M&M Stereo in our college town of Lewisburg PA and purchased my first Klipsch speakers. It was a pair of kg2 in oiled oak. I went through my college photos, and I found what are probably the only pictures of the system I had at the time. Unfortunately, you can’t make out the speakers well, but you can see the first audio equipment I ever purchased. It took a bunch of sleuthing on the net to figure out what models the Onkyo gear was since I don’t have any paperwork for those. I still have the Yamaha brochures, so I know for sure what those are. You can see the very dusty top of one kg2 in the first picture at the bottom below the shelves. The other is in the shadowy corner behind another fraternity brother’s leg in the second pic. You can also see part of the “A Legend in Sound” banner that I got from the dealer that got lost somewhere in the intervening years. So mad at myself for losing that. This is the gear list: Onkyo TX-35 Stereo Receiver (45 watts per channel into 8 ohms) Onkyo Integra TA-2044 Cassette Deck Onkyo CP-1022A Auto-Return Turntable Yamaha CD-2 CD Player Yamaha GE-3 Graphic Equalizer Klipsch kg2 Speakers Anyone else remember their Klipschiversary? 😊

https://www.hifishark.com/search?q=klipsch+KLF-C7

I don't know. The question didn't come up at the class.

Congratulations! That size room is going to be a challenge. Room treatment may be as important as placement with a room that size. I made the attached drawing before the Jubilee was released based on the spec sheet dimensions and some measurements taken by a dealer who had the production prototypes for demos for a few weeks. (I stupidly forgot to take the measurements when I heard them in Hope the fall before the release.) I don't feel like pulling the Jubes out of the corners to see if these are exact, but I'm sure they are close enough for planning. It's what I used to make a cardboard cutout for placement planning. It's much easier than using tape since you can move it around. I hope this helps.

The pro cinema KPT-Jubilee/535 was discontinued when the Heritage Jubilee was released. It is no longer listed on the "Behind the screen" page of the pro website (https://www.klipsch.com/pro/pro/cinema-3/behind-the-screen). Maybe a dealer like American Cinema Equipment might have some old stock, but there won't be any new ones coming out of Hope.

Roy said there are various PEQs, etc. being applied in the DSP to get very flat frequency response and good phase response. What those are and how many there are were not revealed at the class. (This was also never revealed for the Heritage Jubilee. I assume they consider this trade secret information.) Roy attempted to implement as many of these in as he could in the passive network as was practical within the size and cost considerations. The new passive network is so large it had to be split into two boards whereas the AL5 network is only one. However, he could only do part of that was done in the DSP, and he also could not do the driver time alignment that's possible with the DSP.

Yes, Roy demoed both configurations at the recent class. Go back to the first post in this thread.

Roy's original intention was DSP only. However, others thought it might hurt sales to require tramping. So, Roy did passive networks as well. However, in my opinion, using the new La Scala with the passive networks would be a colossal mistake. The passive and active configurations don't even sound like the same speakers. The triamp DSP configuration is far better sounding. It's not even close. I imagine this will be the same with the new Klipschorn.

The new La Scala will ship with a traditional passive crossover network like the current version. An available option will be an active DSP crossover. This will split the signals for the tweeter, squawker (midrange), and woofer at line level, before amplification. Therefore, you will need three channels of amplification (triamp) for each speaker. This configuration sounds far superior to the using the passive crossovers.

Roy said that the engineering work on the subs was finished and the plan is to launch them some time in 2025 after the launch the new La Scala and Klipschorn.

That would have required another cabinet change, which would make upgrading from the AL5 impossible since that would require a new top cabinet or would require customers to be skilled with a router.

As usual, the latest Chief Bonehead class, La Scala Reborn, was a fun and informative event. We spent the day learning about and listening to the upcoming La Scala AL6 with Klipsch Principal Engineer Roy Delgado. We also learned about what changes are coming for the Klipschorn AK7, but the prototypes were not fully assembled and there wasn’t time for additional listening. If you have a chance to attend any of these classes, you really should. They are fun and help fund the Klipsch Museum of Audio History (https://www.klipschmuseum.org/). Even if you can’t attend, consider donating to the Museum or even becoming a member to help them continue preserving Paul’s legacy and promoting STEM education. Commercial over, now onto the class information. Here are the upcoming changes to the La Scala and Klipschorn. Remember that this is preliminary information subject to change. New midrange horn and driver (La Scala and Klipschorn) The reason that the La Scala and Klipschorn are being updated at this time is because the tooling for the K-401 midrange horn is finally wearing out. Instead of making new tooling for that old exponential horn design, it was decided that it would finally be replaced with a modern modified Tractrix horn, designated the K-406. This new horn is much shorter and features a 2” throat and “mumps”. The next change is the midrange driver to go with this new horn. This is the large diaphragm, 2” exit KT-1133-HP compression driver used in the Klipsch Professional line. New tweeter wide dispersion phase plug (La Scala and Klipschorn) All compression drivers will start to beam at a certain frequency as the frequency increases. The frequency at which this happens depends on the driver’s exit diameter. Once this happens the horn no longer controls the coverage pattern. A phase plug is then needed to control the coverage past this point. That is why wide dispersion phase plugs were added to the high frequency assemblies when the Heresy, Forte, and Cornwall were last updated and why the Heritage Jubilee has always had one. The La Scala and Klipsch will now join the rest of the Heritage line with the addition of a wide dispersion phase plug to the tweeters. Revised bass bin with horn-loaded vented system and different woofer (La Scala only) In order to get additional bass extension from the La Scala, Roy decided to experiment with using a horn-loaded vented system design like the Jubilee bass bin. After experimenting with various port numbers, he settled on two ports. These are the same ports used on the Cornwall, Heresy and RF-7 III. Since there is only so much space on the woofer baffle, the woofer size had to be decreased from 15 inches to 12 inches. However, this is no ordinary 12-inch woofer. It is the same woofer used on the Forte IV. It has a larger voice coil (3”) than the 15. Since the ports contribute to the effective radiating area, this combination actually has lower distortion than the sealed 15. Doing this netted an extra 10 Hz of bass extension. New crossover network and optional DSP (La Scala and Klipschorn) The original intent Roy had was to forgo a passive crossover and only do an active DSP like the Jubilee. However, some people thought that sales might suffer if buyers were forced to buy six channels of amplification for stereo when only two are required for the current La Scala. So, now the La Scala AL6 and Klipschorn AK7 will ship stock with a passive network and the DSP will be a separately purchased option. The new passive network will be fairly complicated since Roy tried to accommodate as many of the PEQs, etc. used in the DSP as possible. It’s so big that the production network had to be put on two circuit boards. However, the real magic comes with the optional DSP. This allows time/phase alignment of all drivers. This also allowed the response to be really flattened out. However, this also means that the new La Scala and Klipschorn will require three channels of amplification per speaker when using the DSP. Upgrade kits (La Scala and Klipschorn) The plan is to have upgrade kits for both the La Scala and Klipschorn. Any upgrade kits that might be offered would probably only be for the La Scala AL5 and the Klipschorn AK6, since only those versions have the Celestion tweeter with the front-mounted horn that will be carried over to the new versions. The kits would include the passive networks and the DSP would still be an optional purchase. The La Scala may have two versions of the kit. Since the woofer baffle has been changed, to do a full upgrade would require replacing the entire “doghouse” in the bass bin. So, there may be a kit with the doghouse and one without. If you pick the one without the doghouse, you will miss out on the additional bass extension but still get all the other improvements. How do all these changes sound? Well, we began the listening session with the La Scala and the passive networks. These sounded good. You could definitely hear the extended bass and the smoother midrange. You could be happy with these without a sub, depending on your musical tastes. The hint of shoutiness from the K-401 mid-horn is completely gone. However, there was little of the magic I heard back in March when we only heard the ones with the DSP. Once Roy switched the setup to the tri-amp DSP configuration, the improvement was astounding. The bottom end sounded even fuller, the speakers sounded smoother, better integrated, and more like single sources. The improvement is as dramatic as when I head the comparison of the Underground Jubilee and the Heritage Jubilee. The sound was as close to the Heritage Jubilee sound as I’ve heard from any other Heritage speaker, just at a smaller scale and without the ridiculously deep bass of the Jubilee. These are not your grandfather’s La Scala. I imagine the improvement will be similarly dramatic with the Klipschorn as well. Purchasing the new La Scala or Klipschorn without doing the tri-amp DSP setup would be a monumental mistake in my opinion. The sound with the DSP is so much better. I can’t wait for these new versions to be released. The event was capped off by an evening at the Klipsch Museum Visitor Center of enjoying Roy’s famous grilled fajitas and chicken and live music with the Dusty Rose Band. Edit: I forgot to mention that Klipsch is currently planning to launch the new La Scala and Klipschorn at the end of February of next year (2025).

Never depend on any Klipsch new product date estimates. I learned this the hard way with the Heritage Jubilee. It was teased by Roy in the summer of 2020 and then officially announced at CES 2021 with an "estimated" release in the late summer of that year. I placed my preorder in May of that year. They didn't show up at my house until July of 2022. At the La Scala class this weekend Roy said all the engineering work on the subs was done a while back. They were handed off to production/sales to get in the new product release plans. He said they should be coming sometime in 2025. I would take this with a huge done of salt. If you want something this Christmas, you will have to look elsewhere. If you want a Klipsch horn sub, you will have to patiently wait.