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JFHSQT

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Everything posted by JFHSQT

  1. I returned from Thanksgiving travel tonight and long story short, when rebooting my Mac Mini I sent a huge burst of bitstream noise into my 6 month old La Scala IIs ... to make matters worse, I had neglected to check the volume knob on the amp... assuming as I was reconnecting everything, it brushed against my shirt and was turned to 12 o'clock. So that digital burst must have been about 125 dB. I turned it down as fast as I could, but when I finally got the Mac Mini and Roon set up and went to play music, the top end sounds like it's very lo-res, cardboard... muffled and coming out of a box. So I'm about 98% sure I blew the tweeters in both La Scala IIs. They both sound the same. I plugged my RP-150Ms into the amp and they sound fine, so it's definitely the LS II components. Not sure if the crossovers were affected but for sure the tweets. How much hassle is this going to be to track down and replace? Should I call Klipsch and try to order new tweeters? I assume this will not be covered under warranty. I just don't want to send these monsters off somewhere, and I'm sure the local dealer I bought them from will keep them for weeks and charge labor, etc. Can I get the same LS II tweeters from Klipsch? Should I take this opportunity to see if there's any tweeter upgrade I may want to do that would be an improvement over the most recent LS II tweeters? Thanks for any advice.
  2. I guess this post is a little old now and you've already sorted this out, but I am using a CCA with my The Three in my bedroom and it works great. I am not using the toslink cable into The Three's DAC, I'm just running RCA into the Aux input of the Klipsch. It sounds great to me... I also have a CCA plugged into the aux on an old Bose Revolve speaker in my bathroom, and I've set both CCA's up as a Speaker Group in Google Home. So now I have the Upstairs Audio Speaker Group in Roon as an endpoint. I just pick that endpoint and dial up a playlist in Roon every morning and have multi room audio every morning when I am getting ready for work... It works great!
  3. Let me know if you'll ever be down this way for a few hours on a weekend. Would love the help and lunch will be on me!
  4. Plug the single RCA into one of the pre out outputs. You don't need a stereo signal to your subwoofer. You will, however, have to set your crossover at the sub (no bass management in the Rotel).
  5. I just bought some Mogami XLRs to go between my DAC and amp and they sound good. Replaced a couple of Whirlwind cables I got from the local guitar shop just to have some ICs to play around with. I admit I am curious whether or not a higher end XLR like Wireworld would much improve things, as I've replaced all my Rocketfish/Best Buy digital cables and RCAs with WIreworld Eclipse and the improvement was notable.
  6. Funny, the thing is I don't know anyone that could come over and help me position my speakers. I've tried to do a master set by myself and it is just about impossible, especially with the La Scalas. The other thing is, due to the room, I cannot sit in a perfect triangle from the center point of the speakers. In this video, I am standing behind my couch which is directly in front of the console. But this couch is one of those leather home theater things where you basically can't sit in the middle seat. So my main listening position is the right side of the couch, nearly directly in front of that right La Scala. I spent a lot of time trying to get an optimal center image and sound stage with toe-in despite that off-center seating arrangement, and what I finally ended up doing was positioning the left speaker away from the wall for best bass response, then using a laser pointing level across that axis on the floor to match the same position on the right speaker, then for toe-in setting the laser level on top of each speaker right at the tweeter position, and laser-pointing the target right at my head when sitting in the main listening position. I was surprised at how far off I was before I tried the laser pointer. Originally the tweeters were pointing way over my shoulder and behind me. But now, as cockeyed as they appear, they are both pointing directly at my head, and believe it or not I have a perfect center image. Someday if I ever make friends I'll have someone over and try to do a proper setup... for right now though it works well.
  7. I was very tempted to go in for a close up, but at that volume level the audio on the clip would have been a mess.
  8. Thank you - I've owned the La Scala IIs for about 6 months now, and have always had all-tubes amplification (Luxman CL40 valve pre & PrimaLuna ProLogue 4). This is my first solid state system and I'm amazed at how well it combines forces with the high sensitivity of the La Scalas to create such a dynamic and responsive system. I will admit the tubes have their own particular beauty and can project a holographic soundstage that can induce goosebumps. But there is really something about this integrated that leaps out of the blackness and smacks you in the face... it's just a whole different way of listening than a tube system.
  9. Thanks! No concerns about the tchotchke.... it is very lightweight and does not obstruct the ventilation, which runs down each side of the integrated. The base sits in the middle and does not obstruct the grill. It also weighs maybe 2 lbs and has a felt bottom.
  10. I recently replaced my vintage Luxman gear with a new Luxman L-509X integrated amp... the combination of power and detail from the 509X and the sensitivity of the LaScala IIs is incredible! It seems like this combo was made for each other... I know this is a lowly YouTube video, but here's a clip of the last several minutes of Doråti's 1812 Overture... an amazing demonstration of how dynamic and refined the La Scala IIs are (with an admitted assist on the cannon fire from an SVS SB16-Ultra)...
  11. Just picked up a new The Three on my way out of town for a long weekend. Out of the box I cannot get function from this thing. I have downloaded the Klipsch Stream app to try to connect to wifi, and the Klipsch app automatically tries to update the firmware, and just keeps "Searching..." I see the PlayFi device in my wifi connections but it does nothing when I connect my phone to that network. I have reset by plugging in and holding the source knob for 5 seconds and it does nothing. It does not show up as a bluetooth device when I try to connect to my phone. And of course Spotify Connect does not show the Three because it won't connect to the wifi. The Three just sits here with the white bluetooth light pulsing. Basically a really nice looking, totally useless box. Am I missing something here?
  12. Great, that's exactly what I needed to hear.
  13. I've been messing around with a new DAC (Hegel HD30), running it through a vintage Luxman valve preamp into a PrimaLuna ProLogue 4 tube amp, and decided to do some experimenting this evening. I'd read that the Hegel sounded just as good, if not better, bypassing a preamp and using its own volume control directly into an amp. So I plugged the Hegel directly into the Prima and cannot say I heard any difference at all with the Luxman in the signal chain. No better, no worse, which to me says, well, why mess around with a 38 year old vintage tube pre? Going one step further, I'd read that some PrimaLuna owners found that the 4 ohm taps sounded better to them than the 8 ohm taps. So again, swapped out the La Scala II's 8 ohm tap over to the 4 ohm tap... And the results were actually more notable than the preamp/no preamp comparison. It does sound to my ears that the 4 ohm tap sounds a bit more relaxed and open, maybe even a bit smoother in the mids (smooth mids in the LS IIs is why I love them in the first place). So 3 questions - are my ears playing tricks on me, why would the sound be different, and will this harm either the PrimaLuna amp or the La Scala IIs, since they are 8 ohm speakers?
  14. I have this crazy idea that if I call BDI they'd be able to custom cut me the same kind of tempered glass finish I have on my BDI Corridor. I am sure they aren't equipped to do that, so I'm hoping a local glass shop can approximate the same thing.
  15. Thanks for all of the awesome and detailed replies. I believe it is oil walnut veneer, though I'm not sure what the difference is. The grain is raised on the veneer and some of the scratches are through the raised dark grain, so that part of the wood is "broken." I will give some of these great recommendations a try this weekend, likely starting with 314carpenter's suggestions and follow up here to let everyone know how it turns out. Thanks again!
  16. Thanks for all the suggestions. I think they’re pretty deep scratches, at least they wouldn’t buff out with a cloth. The image is too large for me to upload from mobile (2MB limit?) & I don’t have my laptop at home but maybe this link will work: https://imgur.com/gallery/mt6Og1m
  17. While rearranging my media cabinet the other day, I stupidly sat an old DVD player on top of my walnut La Scala II, which is maybe 3 months old at this point. I had to roll the cabinet out and when I did the TV corner caught the edge of the DVD player and dragged it across the top of the speaker maybe 3 inches. Didn’t think anything about it until I went to remove the DVD player and saw 3 giant scratches across the top of the veneer from the DVD player feet. Tried to buff out with cloth, used furniture polish, no use... the scratches are still there and very visible and it makes me physically ill 3 days later thinking about it. Is there anything I can do? I sure do not want to sand these things... is there some kind of oil that can be rubbed on to smooth out the veneer or anything like that?
  18. Kind of like that, but the input of the LS IIs is completely independent (a different source) than the subwoofer. The Luxman & PrimaLuna tube rig is sending analog signal via USB DAC out of the main output of the Oppo (Oppo main L/R -> Luxman CL-40 -> PrimaLuna -> La Scala IIs) The SVS Sub is getting bass from the Anthem AVR via the analog L/R pre-outs of the Oppo (Oppo preout L/R -> Anthem MRX -> SVS SB16 Ultra) This way I actually can independently volume match/level adjust the bass from the subwoofer against the main L/R of the La Scalas. I normally level match by using my speaker switcher (both amps are connected to this). I listen to the Anthem output through the LS IIs, then hit the A/B switch and level match the Luxman preamp. It sounds more complicated than it is actually... But it sounds amazing. Best of both worlds!
  19. Actually I am running the LS IIs full-range (with no crossover) from my Luxman/PrimaLuna rig out of an Oppo 205, and sending the analog signal into my Anthem which is processing the full analog signal through ARC and sending the low frequency content over to the SVS. So even without the sub, the LS IIs are always reproducing the full-range output of the Oppo.
  20. Thanks - this graphic kind of reinforces the way I have been looking at the La Scalas, which is to say as a "musical instrument" in and of themselves, as much as a speaker. I've owned lots of speakers over time, but having these sitting in the living room – and having been around lots of Ampeg bass cabinets, etc – really feels like the design of the speaker is fundamental to the reproduction of sound. Now I realize that's the case with all speakers, in a general sense. But with the LS IIs it does seem like they are more a part of the sound than anything else I've owned or listened to in the past.
  21. Last night my wife and I were enjoying some tunes on the La Scala II and SVS SB16-Ultra combo. She was amazed when I explained that the bass we were hearing was not coming from the giant LS II cabinets, but mostly from the SVS at the back of the room. It really is an auditory illusion, as it sounded 100% like the sound was coming from the front soundstage, until I hit the Mute button on the SVS and the bass shrunk significantly down to the LSII's folded horns. I should note that we were just listening to a live George Michael recording (MTV Unplugged, "Older,") so the bass was essentially 60-80Hz bass guitar and soft kick - nothing that was really outside of the range of the LSIIs. She couldn't understand why these giant speaker cabinets taking up her living room were not able to produce the same kind of bass as the SB16 – looking at the big folded horn woofers, it seemed like (to her) they would be capable of producing much more bass than she was hearing. So I tried to explain that the speakers were that large not necessarily to produce "deep bass," but to produce distortion-free sound without resonance peaks... the speaker design was more about eliminating distortion and creating a deep and even sound field with smoother response than using up all that room to create tons of bass. That being said, I realized I myself didn't have a good explanation as to the physics behind how and why these speakers are built. I know that the essential philosophy behind PWK's designs was to maximize efficiency, eliminate distortion, and as a result this sacrifices bass response. But is there a quick and easy primer someone could share on why these speakers were designed the way they are - what is the end-goal and how does this design serve that purpose? Thanks!
  22. Ha, this was the first pair of La Scala IIs I have seen in real-life (in that room a few months back). They are gorgeous. I love Crutchfield and the Harrisonburg store in particular is incredibly helpful. Spent many paychecks there. I will say, that room is about the size of a laundry room, and I can’t imagine they are doing those La Scalas any justice in there. I did ask to hear them, but at the time I was there the sales associate could not get the streamer to work and he was unable to get them to produce any sound. I ended up getting my La Scala IIs here in Roanoke, because I was able to basically buy them and have them delivered in-home and set up locally on the same afternoon... It would have been quite a wait to have them bought and shipped from Crutchfield, and being shipped by UPS Freight, they would have been dumped in my driveway (like the SB-16 Ultra I just bought from C-field Harrisonburg, ugh what a beast). I have been told from several Klipsch Heritage dealers that they are now required by Klipsch to have a pair of at least one of the larger Heritage models (LS IIs, Cornwall IIIs, etc) on display. Crutchfield in Charlottesville has the Cornwall IIIs on display I believe. Good idea from Klipsch, I think, as it was actually being able to hear the LS IIs that led me to buying them.
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