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Yes, frequency range! I had several words wrong in that post, LOL. I was a pro/touring musician for about 10 years so I became very very familiar with the frequency and dynamic range of the kick drum during hours of tedious sound checks, LOL. Nothing like the sound of everything falling into place after 5 minutes of "boom.... boom... boom.... boom.... " If you are a Luxman fan check this out! CL-40 Vacuum Tube Preamp, manufactured in Osaka in 1983. Sounds even better than it looks

Yep, a properly mic'd and recorded kick has a significant dynamic range. I've experimented with setting the crossover at 90 tonight, but haven't had much opportunity to listen to anything. Tomorrow I take delivery of the SB-16 Ultra and will dedicate quite a bit of time to dialing things in. BUT, one thing to mention about my particular system is that even though I am running my Anthem crossover at 90 or whatever, and sending those lower frequencies to the subwoofers, I am still actually running the La Scala IIs full range (no crossover) out of my analog rig at the same time. So I have the frequencies at 90Hz crossed over with a 24 dB slope running through the Anthem EQ & room correction into the subwoofer, but running a full lossless analog system into the L/R of my Luxman tube system into the La Scalas. So I am getting a full range signal out of the fronts but augmenting the lower frequencies with the subwoofers through the Anthem/subs.

Optimizing is where I am at now! I am pretty happy with the mix between the ARC-EQ'd subs and the clean tube output (no room correction). It's great also to mix the Anthem (subs) louder or softer based on the song as well; some songs just need a little more oomf. I am pretty excited though to be swapping out the RP-115SW with a new SVS SB-16 Ultra that is arriving tomorrow. I had concerns about the trouble people have been having with the 115SW amp reliability and didn't want to kick myself a year from now if I have trouble (while I am still in my return/exchange period). The one thing I want to experiment with now is setting a higher crossover frequency on the La Scalas... At 70Hz, there is some electric bass played higher on the neck that I think would sound better coming out of the subs instead of the LSII woofers. As someone said, I think the mids and highs at times outshine the bass on these speakers, and it may be better to hand off the frequencies below 90Hz or so to the subs.

What is your signal path from your source (DAC/preamp/amp, etc)? Could it be too much gain structure somewhere in the signal path? I will say that my experience with the LSIIs so far is a big improvement over my biggest gripe with the Heresy IIIs and Forte IIIs I previously owned, which is that the mids get a bit strident and grainy on dirtier mixes. I have been pleasantly surprised with the performance of the La Scalas on specific recordings that I didn't like listening to on the other 2 lines of speakers. An example is Maroon 5's "She Will Be Loved," not an exceptionally well mixed recording, but still pretty clean... but on the the HIIIs and FIIIs, once the distorted guitar, bass, and full drum kit kicked in around the 2nd chorus, it got very strident and sloppy in the mids. Now listening to the track on the La Scala IIs, everything is much cleaner and smoother. Those observations are listening through my tube rig with no tone/EQ/room correction.

I have seen and heard about the Academy speaker since I got my first Heritage speakers a couple years ago (HIIIs), but they are always hard to find, and I feel like I may have placement issues with the speaker profile. I will say after working with the 450C over the past week and bumping levels in the La Scalas up a bit after ARC calibration, it is a pretty seamless front soundstage. Not as seamless as when I had a Monitor Audio Silver 300 setup across the front soundstage, but that L/C/R combo was built for each other. I feel pretty happy with the 450C at this point and hope my upgrade-itis is finally in remission!

I can run mine either through my Luxman tube pre & PrimaLuna tube amp or my Anthem which has really good room correction/EQ with their ARC software. For movies I listen to the ARC/Anthem rig all day long but on music the tube rig is absolutely stunning. I've got the RP-115SW crossover set up at 70Hz for music out of the Anthem (playing simultaneously with the tubes playing through the La Scalas) and the La Scalas are playing all the way down to their 52Hz bottom along with the sub. The blend is great and the sub is also EQ'd with ARC, so the bass is even and powerful.

I had built a couple of stands using plywood and pipe for my Heresy IIIs. I honestly didn't hear that much of a difference though. When I got my Anthem amp, after running some measurements both with and without the stands, they seemed to measure better on the floor. Here's an old pic.

Thanks, I've spent quite a bit of time with them over the past 5 days and they just keep sounding better and better. The way they handle the dynamics of piano, bass (guitar/standup) and drums is incredible. And the natural smoothness of reed instruments and pop vocals. Really stunning. Since the fam was out of town over the weekend I didn't get much sleep staying up and listening to "just one more song..." Regarding the bass, I did pickup a 115SW to support the SVS SB-2000 in the room. Calibrated levels and phase and then EQ'd with ARC and they are sounding very even and blend incredibly well with the La Scala IIs. Also picked up an RP-450C to replace the little RP-250C I had. It does a better job and sounds so much better than the 250C, although I still don't believe it's an ideal match for the La Scalas (even with ARC calibration). I guess it's what I will stick with until I get a dedicated room big enough to use a Heresy III as a center.

I ended up getting the RP-450C over the weekend, and so far so good. I just had to come to grips with the fact I'll have a giant speaker sitting between my TV and console.

Since I upgraded to La Scala IIs for my combo music & home theater system, it was clear an upgrade from my RP-250C and SVS SB-2000 sub was in order. I've finally got the new RP-450C and RP-115W dialed in with Anthem Room Correction (using both the SVS and 115SW as dual subs) and the whole rig sounds amazing. But over the past couple of days I have been reading horror stories about Klipsch subs, and that the amps are going out on these 115Ws after about a year or so. Is this really a widespread issue or just a matter of a vocal few on the internet who have been experiencing issues?

I wonder how this or The Three would work as a center channel speaker. Since there's no speaker inputs I guess it's a non-starter for that application, eh? I've been wanting to upgrade from my 250C but I just don't have room for the 450C (or anything larger than the 250C really). EDIT: I guess with the RCA inputs you could use the center channel preouts on most AVRs but how would the performance sound versus the dedicated center channel speakers?

You are going to be just fine with your plans.... I have the MRX 720 and I am using an additional Adcom amp to power the rear Dolby speakers. I currently am using RP-150ms for surrounds and Klipsch 140SA for front heights and PSB Imagine XA's for rear Dolby speakers – I cannot mount rear heights so I have to make do with the beaming effect of Dolby-enabled in the rear. All of the RP series are very efficient and you're not going to run into power issues with the Anthem. If you're running 140SAs for front height and rear height, it won't have exactly the same directional atmos efffect as in-ceiling speakers, but mounting is much better than setting them on top of your speakers for sure. I am very happy with my atmos setup (front heights and rear DE-speakers); in my small room I'd say it gets me 90% of the effect. You will want to make sure you are setting up things correctly in ARC when you set up and calibrate your system. I don't know how it works in the 1120, but I have to assign the rear amps in the 720 in ARC to which set of speakers they should power (I use the front heights). Dolby-enabled (speaker top projection) speakers generally require crossovers to be set pretty high (I think 250Hz is Dolby spec) to eliminate directionality. But if you are mounting the 140SAs as heights, I have found that a crossover setting of around 150Hz works extremely well for me. The other thing you may need to do is once you have ARC calibrated, go into the "Levels" setting on your remote (NOT the Input setup, this will break ARC measurements) and bump up your front heights, rear heights, etc to suit the effect you want to get. Mine are set for about +8. Hope that helps. The Anthem MRX series are incredibly powerful AVPs and they sound fantastic.

Thank you - here is an early pic before placement and toe-in was refined a bit. I am sitting on a couch 10' back from the speakers, to the right side of the couch, so I have to work with toe-in a bit more to get a balanced center image in the main listening position. For critical listening, I pull that La-Z-Boy out in front of the couch, so I am center and about 7 feet from the speakers. You'll also see Klipsch RP-140SA Atmos speakers as front heights, and the SVS SB-2000 to the right... placement yet to be determined (it used to be in the front left corner). For rears I have RP-150s on stands & Auralex wedges with PSB Imagine XA sitting on top - unfortunately rear height placement is impossible so I couldn't double up the 140SA's in the back for Atmos... the PSBs do a serviceable job in this small room for height effect (combined with the front heights). In the media cabinet there is an Anthem MRX 720, an Oppo 205, and an Adcom 2 channel amp to power rear Atmos. Also a Klipsch RP-250C, which is the weak link in the chain right now. When this is all dialed in, I'll be using an amp switcher to run HDMI audio from the Oppo to the Anthem and analog outs from the Oppo to the Luxman pre (using Oppo as a Roon endpoint), so I can utilize the subwoofer along with the analog 2 channel audio from the Luxman. It works wonderfully, especially with the LFE corrected via ARC, and using the "AnthemLogic:Music" preset, it sends a small amount of content to the heights and rears for almost a "super tweeter" effect that really fills in the soundstage. I adjust the volume between the Anthem and the Luxman to get the proper mix. Looking forward to getting ARC dialed in and listening to some home theater through the system this weekend!

I will play close attention to how things behave over the next few days. I am certainly at the least going to put felt tabs on the feet of both units to protect the LSII finish, but I'll also be keen to listen for any sound issues as well. The PL4 tubes get pretty damn warm, but the CL-40 never heats up.

Yes, the CL-40 is vintage, ca 1983, with a complete restoration in 2013. It is quite possibly the sexiest piece of gear I've ever seen. The PL 4 is brand-new as of a week ago. So far both are playing really nice together.

In what way would the vibrations manifest itself in the sound? Would it be just general noise or some sort of hum or feedback? Unfortunately I don't have much choice right now, in that my entire room is taken up by these monsters, LOL. I could remove the XBox One and get a 450C center to put on top of my media cabinet and maybe free up some room in my BDI Corridor, but damn, who wants to hide something as gorgeous as a CL-40?

I am curious if setting any tube amps on top of the LSIIs could result in distortion from microphonics, etc. I didn't hear any issues last night, but I was listening at probably 70dB, not much to shake at that level. The one sacrifice I have to make with these speakers is room, so I lost my component cabinet and have to use the LSIIs as end tables for my tube gear.

Yes, definitely not the same in the bass dept, but I after 3 weeks I was still really not thrilled with the FIIIs, particularly with the grain and glare in the mids. Audiotronics had just gotten in these LSIIs on Tuesday, and they really have always been my end-game speaker... so after hearing them I had to make a deal. They gave me full refund on the FIIIs and took my Heresy IIIs and I ended up paying a little less than half of the LSIIs in cash. Not a deal to write home about, but if things hold up at least my speaker buying days are done.

I didn't mention it in my final review post, and I'm embarrassed to admit, but when I set them up initially they were out of phase and the L/R were also reversed. Definitely explained my initial lack of bass and kind of bewilderment as to the sound. Funny, I discovered this while listening to Steven Wilson's remix of Tears for Fears' "Shout," which was the first time the pan on the opening chimes were actually mixed properly - the original release had the stereo channels reversed, and the chimes went from left to right. Wilson consulted with Chris Hughes and Roland Orzabal and discovered the 1985 release had reversed the stereo channels. Sure enough when I played it, I noticed my chimes went from left to right and I smacked myself in the head and brought out my AXIS calibration DVD to be sure. Out of phase and channels reversed. So things improved dramatically after that. I do have my SVS SB2000 connected now through the Anthem, and I'm listening to the HDMI output of the Oppo 205 to get the bass into the subwoofer while using my amp switcher to use the Oppo analog outs to the vintage Luxman CL-40, so I'm able to get sub bass and analog L/R, and it does sound amazing.

Hey man - it's me in Roanoke... the guy who missed your Forte IIIs by that much! Turns out it all worked out for the best anyway. We should connect some time!

Believe it or not, my wife thinks they look great too, which is a huge relief because I am not the "consult with the spouse" type of guy, and I had some real worries that I had gone too far this time. After I played Prince's "Sometimes It Snows in April" for her last night she loves them almost as much as I do.

Well I must have uploaded my daily quota of MBs so I can't upload any more pics. But I have had another hour and a half of critical listening and I can say, so far that they are very amazing speakers and different than anything else I've ever heard before. It's hard to describe, but the detail and dimension of every note is pretty flawless. I've always been attracted to the Heritage line for the "live music" feel but this is the first I can say I've heard speakers that actually present a live soundstage in every way, and not just a "sounds like" live experience. They are also quite different from the Heresy III and Forte IIIs I have owned previously (and sacrificed to own these). One example of something that always nagged me on those speakers was that there always seemed to be a forward glare to certain mids that didn't sound natural. Listening to the opening of "The Working Hour" by Tears for Fears, the saxophone always seemed a little harsh and grainy. Not so listening to these LSIIs... the sax is completely natural and laid back - you could still hear the reed in the instrument, but the blare and horniness of that track has just disappeared. Something else I realized was that I figured I'd work my way through my Tidal playlist and listen to 30% of every song like I always do, and skip to the next track. Not so with the LSIIs. I discovered I was listening to the entire tracks to hear how each song unfolded, tons of detail... highs seem to hang in the air. Another example, "Spain," from Chick Corea Trio's Trilogy, when the percussion instruments kick in around the 2 minute mark, the chimes and cymbals just seemed to come from nowhere and hang in the room. Pretty darn great. Anyway, I haven't even listened to the Anthem yet or any home theater content. Waiting until the weekend when I can run ARC without interruption and get things dialed in further. Still very interested in hearing other owners' impressions as well.

Here's a few more photos, then I'll post some initial observations from the past hour or so of listening to these amazing speakers. Luxman CL-40 tube preamp, left La Scala II

Really? It only goes down to 52Hz. The Forte IIIs go down to 38Hz. I briefly owned a pair of Monitor Audio Silver 300s that reach down to 32Hz. I think, unless you are only listening to acoustic guitar and vocals, etc you are going to be missing a lot without a subwoofer.

Great, I'd love to hear from them! I have these in a smaller room, main listening position is 10' away. Speakers are positioned along the long wall, and unfortunately not much ability to move away or closer to the wall. I am sure it's too much speaker for this room, but we are moving next year and I hope to have these as part of a dedicated theater and listening room. For now, I have to deal with what I got. Also - I am located in western Virginia. Here's a quick pic - again, not much has been done in terms of placement yet.