BBZink Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 Hi, Base on your experience, is the Belle are better than laScala? i have a pair of laScala and saw a beautiful pair of Belle, and i am thinking about purchasing them? any help is welcome? Best Christmas wishes regards Tpjrs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psg Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 Salut Tapajeurs, (pourquoi le "s" à la fin ?) I have never heard the Belle, but (no offense to Belle owners) I see it as a compromised La Scala to get a better form factor. It has a shorter mid-horn and higher rolloff of the bass bin. Your next step up is the Klipschorn if you have to proper room dimensions, or the JubScala if you want to go that way. That's assuming that you have at least refreshed the caps on your La Scala (if they are old). If not, start with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris A Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 Based on your experience, is the Belle are better than La Scala? i have a pair of La Scala and saw a beautiful pair of Belles, and i am thinking about purchasing them? any help is welcome? Best Christmas wishes regards Well, I would say that there is very little difference between the two. If you look at the frequency response plots of both bass bins, the La Scala goes lower by about 1 Hz. I can't hear much difference between them, but I've never set them up in the same room in an "A-B" test. I have seen more people bracing their La Scala bass bins to eliminate resonances, but I haven't seen this done with Belles. I would guess that it's due to the different shape of the bins, although both designs are designed to be almost identical acoustically. At least one contributor here (seti) has stated that the Belle sounds a bit better than the La Scala. So I think the bottom line is: it depends mostly on the eyes (appearance) and where you are putting the speakers - the La Scalas are deeper and narrower. They are both about the same height. I note that the Belles sell for significantly more money on the used marketplace - probably due to their appearance and their lower availability (they are no longer made). Others may have different opinions. I hope that they feel free to share here. Hope some of this helps. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Flynn Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 Unmodified the LS mayoffer a little better low end and the horn mid may handle higherSPL without distortion. For the combination of living room quality furniture and Heritage sound the Belle would be 3rd. K Horn is 1. LS II is two. I have had my Belles for about 5 years now and other than the network upgrade I have not been motivated to upgrade for lack of realism and musical involvment. The LS before the LSII came out are excellent modified with new tweeters and Trachorn; but are too ugly for the living room. Franken Sclas are the best for "Man Cave" applications. Good luck; Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris A Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 LS II is two. Note that the La Scala II is not the same as a La Scala - in order to make sure that we are comparing apples to oranges (and not bananas), I would think that you are referring to your La Scalas as being La Scala I's. If that is correct, then you are comparing your La Scala I's with the Belle. I am aware of only one Belle design, although the crossover design changed over time. In any case, I would replace the crossovers in either the La Scala I's or the Belles with steep-slope crossovers (EDIT: I see that you've already changed out your La Scala crossovers with Crites crossovers), like the ones that Al Klappenberger sells (ALK Engineering) since the midrange is not electrically crossed over with respect to the tweeter. This results (IMHO) in somewhat harsh female vocals and larger-than-life reproduction of pianos. Some folks use tube electronics to address this, but I'd recommend the crossover upgrade (my opinion). I forgot to mention that there is a difference in the midrange horn between the La Scala I and the Belle. Note also that the Belle midrange horn is shorter than the La Scala's (both versions) due to the shallower depth of the cabinet. That means that the performance of the Belle's midrange horn is going to be different than the La Scala's, and Belle bass-to-midrange crossovers are crossed at a slightly higher frequency because of this. The Belle bass bin takes over a slightly greater portion of the performance than on the La Scala. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 I have both with similar components, I doubt I could tell them apart in any kind of blind test in a real room. Get the Belles if you like them, they're gorgeous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 [Edited, duplicate] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBZink Posted December 18, 2010 Author Share Posted December 18, 2010 Salut Tapajeurs, (pourquoi le "s" à la fin ?) I have never heard the Belle, but (no offense to Belle owners) I see it as a compromised La Scala to get a better form factor. It has a shorter mid-horn and higher rolloff of the bass bin. Your next step up is the Klipschorn if you have to proper room dimensions, or the JubScala if you want to go that way. That's assuming that you have at least refreshed the caps on your La Scala (if they are old). If not, start with that. Yes caps, have been refresh, and i am ready for horn, but none available for now, so i saw a beautiful pair of Belle on "lespac" at 1500$cad (the price seem fair?). Out of subject By the way, i missed the opportunity to see you last summer, i had to postpone my travel to Rimousky? I will need your help to prepare my next travel in your area next time, if you agree to help me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psg Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 Ah yes, I remember now. It will be nice to see you next time you are around here. You can hear my new sub! $1500 seems very good to me, considering that Klipsch Heritage speakers are not common here and they fetch a better price than in the US. Plus, being local, you wouldn't be paying tax on them like you would crossing the border from the US with speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBZink Posted December 18, 2010 Author Share Posted December 18, 2010 Salut Tapajeurs, (pourquoi le "s" à la fin ?) i guess, you mean the "s" in Tapajeurs, well it is we are so many listening music in my head! for others, Tapajeurs is sort of Horn noise language for a kid character in a kid program, back in those days His phrase where a sort of squeaking trompette and sax play as word. So since laScala are horn speakers, seems a good nick!! poueettte, poueette, frraaattt, pouet fraananan, taaratttam pouette pouet! [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 I just picked up la scala's today, they have original crossovers. There seems to be alot of discussion about crossover upgrades.\ Whats the best crossover upgrade? crites? A, AA? i need help with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBZink Posted December 18, 2010 Author Share Posted December 18, 2010 Type A is the best, but if you wanna protect tweeter AA then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tromprof Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 The LS before the LSII came out are excellent modified with new tweeters and Trachorn; but are too ugly for the living room. The Belle is a much prettier speaker than the La Scala but you can dress the LS up. Mine have full grills and a nice finish making them acceptable to my wife for living room duty. I also second the Crites A crossover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 What does that mean AA to protect tweeter? Also, where did you get that full grill, that may also make my wife...well...happier... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tromprof Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 What does that mean AA to protect tweeter? Also, where did you get that full grill, that may also make my wife...well...happier... The AA crossover has a circuit that adds protection to the K-77 tweeter so it isn't fried by more high powered amps. It is not needed if you are not listening at extreme volumes or are using Crites' CT125 tweeters. As far as the grills go, they came that way. The original owner claimed to have bought them new like that. I don't think it would be too hard to make though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 can i get the A crossover from crites? can you take off that grill and show me a pic? i'd like to see how they attached the grill on the speaker itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted December 19, 2010 Share Posted December 19, 2010 Be aware that the the "tweeter protection" is actually a pair of Zener diodes that short the pos and neg inputs together. So, it protects your tweeter by frying off your amp. Depending on the relative costs of the amp and the tweeter that might not be such a great deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psg Posted December 19, 2010 Share Posted December 19, 2010 The AA does not have a diode. It's just a slightly steeper slope than the A. Bob Crites makes a crossover that is convertible between A and AA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tromprof Posted December 19, 2010 Share Posted December 19, 2010 can i get the A crossover from crites? can you take off that grill and show me a pic? i'd like to see how they attached the grill on the speaker itself. Sorry, the grills do not come off. They are stapled to the frame like the to grills on my k-horns, with molding over that. Yes you can buy crossovers, and a lot of other goodies from Bob Crites directly. He has a web site: www.critesspeakers.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted December 19, 2010 Share Posted December 19, 2010 I have AA crossover in my La Scala's, just picked them up yesterday, I ordered the capacitor kit from Bob Crites already. I also ordered some fabric to make some grills. I have also contacted a few people about refinishing them. thanks for the tips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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