lascalawife Posted March 20, 2001 Share Posted March 20, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Allan Songer: I once owned a pair of 1970's vintage "industrial" La Scalas for a couple of months in the late 80's. I had owned my Cornwalls for about 10 years at that point and bought the La Scalas because I came across them for a really cheap price ($300/pair). The first problem I had with them is that my wife's first comment was "if you think you're going to have those things in our house, you're wrong." Well, they were really, really UGLY and the black finish looked like it had been applied with a broom! Perhaps if I had come across some Belles esthetic concerns woulnd't have been such a problem . . . Anyway, I was able to hook up the Scalas and listen for a little while and while I enjoyed them, they just didn't have the "oomph" in the lower bass registers I was used to with the Cornwalls. They didnt't go as low and were not as "clean." The mids and highs were very similar to the Conrwall sound. Another problem other than being UGLY and not having great bass, was that these things are freaking HUGE. I just couldn't seem to set them up in my room to get any kind of imaging at all, and my room is 17' x 28'!! So I sold the Scalas for a couple of hundred bucks more than I paid for them and didn't miss them at all. I know my experience is limited, but I thought I'd share it anyway. This is my first posting, my husband has a pair of lascala speakers that are 20 plus years old (excellent condition other than the fact that he blew the subwoofer and the tweeter in one and is having a really difficult time finding replacement parts......and although I am very much in agreement with other La Scala wives (UGLY!!!!) He is very attached to them, and I would really like to help him out and find him what he is looking for---can anyone help> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilH Posted March 21, 2001 Share Posted March 21, 2001 lascalawife: Call 1-800-KLIPSCH, have the serial number handy so they can trace the age and they should be able to help! PhilH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chockstarfish@hotmail.com Posted March 21, 2001 Author Share Posted March 21, 2001 My question is how do you blow a sub on a Scala? Kick it? there is really no way! id like to hear the story...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted March 22, 2001 Share Posted March 22, 2001 Can't kick it in. It is thoroughly protected in a wooden house. Can you fry the coil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted March 22, 2001 Share Posted March 22, 2001 How to Fry the Woofer of a La Scala... 1) Get a record player. 2) Buy a copy of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor on vinyl. 3) Buy a used Adcom GFA555 amp. 4) Flip little switch on back of amp that says "mono bridged mode". 5) site record player in close proximity to speaker, insuring acoustic feedback. 6) Connect record player to preamp. 7) Connect preamp to amp. 8) Connect amp to speaker using romex. 9) Place album on record player. 10) Start record player. 11) Turn up preamp until little red clipping indicators on amp are on more than off. 12) Leave area immediately. Not that I've done anything like this, of course... Ray ------------------ Music is art Audio is engineering Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oosting Posted March 22, 2001 Share Posted March 22, 2001 lascalawife, You can get new diaphrams for the tweeter from Electrovoice: Electro-Voice 12000 Portland Ave. S. Burnsville, MN 55337 USA Telephone: 952/884-4051 Fax: 952/887-5588 Toll Free: 800.392.3497 You need diaphrams for the T-35 from them. You can get the woofer re-coned at a place like http://www.newfoam.com/ . Do a google.com search on "speaker recone" for more people who do reconing. Klipsch doesn't have an exact replacement for the 20+ year old woofer. Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted March 22, 2001 Share Posted March 22, 2001 Romex? I never thought of that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chockstarfish@hotmail.com Posted March 22, 2001 Author Share Posted March 22, 2001 So Ray, what your saying is that there it is very hard to blow it..... correct? id like to know how some one did it........ without going deaf.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted March 22, 2001 Share Posted March 22, 2001 LaScalawife, They don't HAVE to be. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chockstarfish@hotmail.com Posted March 22, 2001 Author Share Posted March 22, 2001 nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted March 23, 2001 Share Posted March 23, 2001 Chockstarfish, Actually, my point, if I had one , was that given sufficient amounts of stupidity, youthful abandon, opportunity, and total disregard for common sense, you can pretty much blow up anything. Even La Scalas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chockstarfish@hotmail.com Posted March 26, 2001 Author Share Posted March 26, 2001 i don't know. im a youth and i push my scalas at least the amp that is. but ive never played them to the point of bad sound. i know that i have never really "pushed" them because of the rugedness and the high power handeling. that is what my point was. how? it must have been difficult. and i do realize that youcan't kick it but maybe if you took it out and threw it on the ground and then tried to play it? i don't know. kinda dumb founded. must have really been beatin on them because it seems unreal. when i think of scalas i think of a peice of 30 feet thick sheet of steal. undistructable. but i guess not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted March 27, 2001 Share Posted March 27, 2001 I was pushing over 600 watts through it continuously for over an hour. Had the tweeter and midrange disconnected, was using bass cabinet as a woofer under a pair of Acoustic Energy AE-1's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipschguy Posted March 27, 2001 Share Posted March 27, 2001 I have had extensive listening experience with both the Cornwalls and the La Scalas. My opinion is that both of these speakers are great speakers and both have a easily identified "Klipsch sound." However there are some perceptable differences. The La Scalas, in my opinion, have a bit better midrange - dips a little lower and has a little more oomph (when turned up, you can actually feel a snare drum with these speakers). The treble sounds about the same to me from both speaker types. The bass is an area of significant difference. The La Scalas have a tight Klipschorn (folded horn) type bass, but fail to reach the lower octave like the K-horns. The Cornwalls have a respectably tight deep, full bass response which can actually shake the floor and walls (but not like an outragious subwoofer system). The La Scalas, when listened to flat, to me almost have no bass and will likely be disappointing when compared to something like the Cornwalls. However, if you roll the bass up some, or engage the loudness control to get the woofers moving, these things can really pump out some punchy in your face bass, with a folded horn quality. If you have one of those pre-amps with just a volume contol or insist on listening to your music flat, you will likely prefer the Cornwalls. My personal preference is the Cornwalls because they are unfatiguing and deliver a crisp clean, midrange foward, full bass, balanced sound (almost mellow with my Alnico tweeters). From my 20+ years dabbbling in Audio, my best representation of the Cornwalls would be this (anybody feel free to disagree): if you took a large pair of vintage Bozaks and mated the sound with the La Scalas, you would end up with the sound of the lovely Cornwalls - a true compromise of mellow vs. "in your face." Truly, they are both great speakers. You should really have a pair of each - I go back and forth myself, kinda depends on my mood. Klipschguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chockstarfish@hotmail.com Posted March 27, 2001 Author Share Posted March 27, 2001 i know its looked down apon but i do use a eq. with most the bass up you make the amp work hard because thats a big driver but i love the response with no sub i feel that there is no other speaker that could keep up with me except the scalas. if you take a 200 wpc amp put it on any other 15 inch woffer and you won't get much. you but 200 wpc on a scala you better hang on to your chair..... i know ive never herd another speaker produce such deep and loud bass and not sound bad..... wish i had a bigger power amp..... 600 watts you say? unless you have the proscalas they can only peak 400.... did you blow it? some times i wish i could see that HUGE woffer pulsing back and forth..... but im satisfied with the sound..wouldn't trade um for nothing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chockstarfish@hotmail.com Posted March 27, 2001 Author Share Posted March 27, 2001 and i don't understand this uglyness stuff.....the scala is the only speaker that looks "proud" to be a fine audio pleasure. the way it looks like its standing at attention ready to fill the room with increadable sound....that is the scala ------------------ ------------------------ LaScala (industrial) Main Radio Shack ssm-1200 mixer Carver 400 Amp Pioneer pd-4700 cd player Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted April 23, 2001 Share Posted April 23, 2001 >and i don't understand this uglyness stuff< Same here. I've always like the look. Maybe some are used to seeing all grill cloth or the flat K-horn... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Songer Posted April 24, 2001 Share Posted April 24, 2001 I don't think ALL Scalas are ugly! Mine were PA speakers and as I said, looked like they were painted with a broom. They were beat to hell and really were eyesores. The design is very functional and quite handsome in my opinion. A nice pair of crisp unfinished birch La Scalas would look great in a mid-century modern environment--Eames, Nelson, Saarinen, and Klipsch! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptnBob Posted May 8, 2001 Share Posted May 8, 2001 Blow a LaScala woofer? I've seen it done and it wasn't pretty. When I was working at a college, someone (a student, perhaps?) turned on the theatre sound system in the wrong order, ending with the Radford preamp. I noticed the next day things seemed a little "shrill," shall we say. After taking the speaker apart - the access port was on the top, under the squawker - I found a woofer with the paper torn completely around the surround, and again about an inch out from the dust cap, with four or five radial tears and a few chunks about the size of quarters blown completely off and resting on the floor of the box. I never tried to find out who the miscreant was. I figured that, for someone who had endured a turn on thump that loud, anything I did would be anti-climactic. p.s. This was the good old days, when the warranty was "Any repairs, within reason." Klipsch fixed the woofer for free! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted May 9, 2001 Share Posted May 9, 2001 I have seen that kind of damage before.It is not caused by a one time event.Repeated rear-wards over-excursion causes the starfish tears.Repeated front-wards over-excursion causes the cone to wear out at the point where the cloth edge stops.When the cone is new and stiff the coil keeps pushing on the cone after all the travel is gone and the cone gets soft where the dustcap is glued to the cone.One day after the cone has been softened up a large rear-wards excursion will rip the coil off the cone.Over-excursion causing starfish tears is usually a bad woofer inductor!!!Amplifiers with tiered power supplies (Carver, NAD2200,2400,2600) frequently rip the coil off the cone whereas amps with regular power supplies (Adcom 555,Hafler DH500,etc) do not have this problem.Soundcraftsman amps with the PCR power supply are absolutely the worst in this respect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.