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LaScala on it's side???


bobdog

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Anyone ever try this for a center? I am moving into a new home and am starting to think about the theater setup. I am currently using a 90" screen with a front projector in my current house. I am using three front Forte IIs. In my new home I am going to use my Khorns for the left and right fronts and am on the lookout for a center to better match. The shorter the center the better because I can buy a larger screen (90-95" is about the limit to what can fit between the top of a forte, cornwall or lascalla and the ceiling. If I could get by with laying a laScalla on it side and angleing it up a bit with out it sounding awfull it would be great. Anyone try this? Anyone willing to lay one down and tell me how bad it sounds? Thanks, Bob

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I think a few people have done that. It's not ideal, but it doesn't sound bad either. I was happily using a Heresy III on its side under the TV for more than a year, before I replaced it with a Belle, which was a definite improvement. The Belle is standing upright, as it should be, with the 35" CRT TV sitting on top of it. The width of the Belle and of the TV are almost the same, so it really looks right and sounds good, too.

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To just throw ideas out there....

could you remove the MF and HF horns from your LaScala. Place the LaScala on its side and then place them on top of the sideways LaScala? This would lower the net total height yet still keep them in the proper orientation.

Question to the others: Doesn't the LaScala have the 'collapsing verticals' thing going on with at least the midrange? If so, woudln't putting it on the side create a sideways collaps rather than vertical? He'd then be sending more of his side to side sound into the floor and/or ceiling?

Better yet.... can you just get a screen with acoustic material so the speaker can simply fire THROUGH it? That's what I'm looking to do.

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I have two questions for Cask05. At the speed of sound, would you really hear a difference in the arrival of the different sound from the speaker? Also, I understood (but I'm a bit new to this) that part of the bass response for the LaScala comes from the relationship of the speaker to the floor. As I've seen LaScalas hanging from the ceilings of clubs, I've often wondered about this descrepancy between my understanding and what is reality.

Thanks in advance,

bob

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At the speed of sound, would you really hear a difference in the arrival of the different sound from the speaker?

On impulsive sounds like snare drums, triangle, etc. if the path length of the drivers are not the same to your ears, you will hear a "smearing" of the sound between these two drivers. If you lay the La Scala's tweeter and midrange down sideways, then as you walk from left to right in the room, you will get different effective path lengths between the midrange and tweeter. Listen carefully to piano, female voices, and percussion. I think that you will hear a subtle difference.

If you time-correct the drivers in the La Scala by tri-amping and doing the delay correction, I think you will hear a different image from the speaker on-axis. Rudy81 is tri-amping his Khorns (essentially the same tweeter/midrange horns/drivers as the La Scala). Ask him about his experiences.

Also, I understood (but I'm a bit new to this) that part of the bass response for the LaScala comes from the relationship of the speaker to the floor. As I've seen LaScalas hanging from the ceilings of clubs, I've often wondered about this descrepancy between my understanding and what is reality.

If you move a La Scala away from the corner of the room, you basically are cutting off its extreme low frequency response, and are making the resulting lf response of the room-speaker system much less smooth from an on-axis response in your listening position. PWK wrote an article many years ago on his experiments, which was recreated by another author fairly recently. Both of these gentlemen said "put the speakers in the corners for best bass response". If you move the speaker to a wall/floor intersection, then bass response will be reduced, and not as bad as placing it on the floor out into the room, away from the walls.

If you really want to kill the bass response, hang a speaker in the room away from walls, ceiling, and floor.

EDIT: I have attached a condensed 1-page article wrtten by PWK on this subject. I think that it should clarify the words above.

Chris

Corner Speaker Placement excerpts PWK.pdf

Edited by Cask05
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Chris,

Thanks for the detailed response. As things usually go,
this has sparked a few more questions that spring from my first attempts
to build a speaker.

I'm building what I'm calling a LaSquata.
I'm probably not the first to do so, but its my attempt to have an
equivalent center channel speaker for my LaScala mains. I've reduced
the heighth by widening the bass bin, keeping the volume pretty much
constant and using used and new components. I'll have a Crites woofer, a
used K-77 tweeter, a new K-401 horn and probably a Crite's crossover
and midrange dirver. In order to get the cabinet short enough, I'm
planning on moving the tweeter to the side of the midrange. Having read
your response, I'm a bit worried that the quality of sound may not be
what I hoped for based on the movement of the tweeter. I believe I'll
have room to place the tweeter horn horizontal, so I believe this may
minimize the issues, but look to you for your insight.


bob

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I believe I'll
have room to place the tweeter horn horizontal,

If you can set it up both ways to listen, then I'd say do that. The proof of the pudding is in the tasting...you can use your ears to get 90% of the system balancing done.

Experimentation is great: it gives you a feel for how the sound changes when you change drivers, horns or cabinets. I think that many people forget that part, and fall into the trap of arguing about stuff that really doesn't survive the "close your eyes and listen to it both ways" test. Use a good reference speaker to test against, but make sure that the reference speaker is set into the room properly (i.e., not placed randomly in the room).

I'd use testing source material like female voices and acoustic instruments - stuff that you know what it sounds like in real life and that has a rich natural hf content. I wouldn't use rock-in-roll, metal, or other highly processed stuff. If it sounds good with acoustic instruments, it will likely sound good with virtually anything.

Chris

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Hey bobdog,

Being kinda old, I didn't immediately put your name to the Academy you sold me a year or so ago. Good to hear you're moving up. I liked your setup a lot and know that your home theatre will be up to your high standards. As I posted earlier, I decided against the Academy as a center based in part on your input and secondly based on me getting a new tablesaw that is allowing me to pretty much build what I want and I've built the earlier mentioned "LaSquata" box in order to get the center channel low enough to fit the screen size I want. Still got a few components to procure before it is finished Anyway, good to hear you're moving up.

bob

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  • 9 years later...

Hey Billybog.  Did you ever attempt the LaSquata??  I have the same situation and managed to get a third LaScala but want to have my screen lower so I need to get the center channel down to a height of about 24".  I was thinking of getting a custom cabinet made to accommodate the woofer behind  the tweeter and midrange and fire two small folded horns out the sides of the driver.  It would wind up being pretty deep and wide, and I'm not sure how to get the same bass response, but since it's dialog mostly that I care about, not sure I need  the bass to exactly match my right and left.

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I use mine standing upright with my TV on top.  I did run one on its side back when I had a 46" rear projection TV.  It worked OK albiet with narrow imaging.  I found an industrial La Scala top hat (midrange/tweerer in a triangle shaped enclosre) on the cheap and used it for HF and the bin for LF.  Worked well.

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