LaScala or LaScala II

[mark1101]

I think you are losing sight of the forest through the trees.

Roy told us personally that Klipsch wanted to keep the Heritage speakers as close to orignal PWK designs as they could while still making some incremental improvements. It's that simple. Nobody's hiding anything.

You can get all the information you need from disassembling a pair. But the bottom line is there wasn't that much to market on the LS-II.

[psg]

When I spotted a pair of near-mint LS2s three months ago, I bought them and moved the La Scalas to surround duty, after reconnecting the HF sections.

The LS2s were moved into the Main Left and Right positions and converted to JubScala IIs. You can see a picture of the right one as my avatar.

I assume that the bass bin can be detached from the top? If so, and you aren't using the top section, then why not remove it? That would be part of the appeal for me.

[Marvel]

I assume that the bass bin can be detached from the top?

Yes, they are separates...

If so, and you aren't using the top section, then why not remove it?

I think it allowed the 510 horn to be aat or above ear level.

I also think there are four recessed areas in the top of the bass bin for the four rubber feet on the bottom of the top cab.

Bruce

[Islander]

In my view, Klipsch are very tolerant of discussions of modifications and home-builds of speakers that are not in current production, on this site that they provide for us at no charge. We could hardly expect them to feel the same way about the current models, the ones that are keeping them in business.

Back in 2006, when the LS2s were first released, there was information here about the design process, which was of interest and can likely be found with a search. As for more technical info like polars and plots, that data could be used to reverse engineer the speakers, so I suspect that is why they're not readily available.

I partly agree with this. However, "...current models, the ones that are keeping them in business" is inoperative if we are talking about Heritage. Heritage represent a very small part of the Klipsch sales, and although I certainly don't have those sales numbers at my fingertips, it is pretty obvious that Heritage is a "halo" line that is most certainly not keepiing the company afloat.

The real reason that Klipsch is not forthcoming about, say, the current Klipschorn crossover, is that it does not have the time or patience to answer 1000s of questions from us DIY folks, like, "Why are you using L-pads instead of autoformers?" or "Why aren't you using my favorite capacitor de jure?" No speaker company I know does. In my youth, I sent off many letters to the loudspeaker leaders of the time. Only three gentlemen answered those painfully typewritten inquries: Ray Newman at Electro-Voice, Don Keele, and PWK himself.

Utlimatly, Klipsch, like any other corporation, has policies about protecting intellectual property. It doesn't matter if a smart fellow can work out the design from published hints or looking at a buddy's system, the intellectual property still belongs to Klipsch.

It may have sounded like an exaggeration that the Heritage line is keeping Klipsch afloat, since they have several other speaker lines that are selling well. At one point, the Heresy was an important factor in keeping the company in business, but that's less true today.

All that said, I doubt that Klipsch would continue to build a line of speakers that didn't make a profit for them, even if it's a "halo" line. I'm pretty sure all their products contribute to the company's bottom line to some degree. Improvements to the Heritage Series speakers continue to be made, even if most of them are incremental. My only experience with current models is with the Heresy III and the La Scala II, and in both cases they are worthwhile improvements over their predecessors.

As for your comment about intellectual property, that makes sense. Why give away what took so much engineering department time and expense to learn?

Capacitor-wise, I think you meant the French "de jour", not the Latin/Legalese "de jure".

[Islander]

When I spotted a pair of near-mint LS2s three months ago, I bought them and moved the La Scalas to surround duty, after reconnecting the HF sections.

The LS2s were moved into the Main Left and Right positions and converted to JubScala IIs. You can see a picture of the right one as my avatar.

I assume that the bass bin can be detached from the top? If so, and you aren't using the top section, then why not remove it? That would be part of the appeal for me.

If I was using the mighty K402 horns, I'd just set them and their stands on the bass bins, but with the smaller K510 horns, the tweeters would be too low.

That was the short answer. If you have some time to spend/waste, here's the long answer:

When I first got the 510 Jubilee tweeters for the original La Scalas, I considered modifying or replacing the front panel to accept them, so the appearance would be nearly stock, but I put them on top of the cabinets to see if I liked the sound. The mid-'70s La Scalas are only 34.5" tall, and it always sounded to me like the musicians were sitting down as they played, and that didn't seem right. If the speakers were on stage, as they were originally designed to be, that wouldn't happen, but sitting on my living room floor, that was the effect.

Having the 510 horns on top of the cabinets made it sound as if the players were standing up, and I preferred the taller soundstage right away. The La Scala IIs are 38.5" tall, and the extra 4 inches of height made for a still larger presentation of the music, so I soon forgot any ideas I'd had of putting the 510s on the bass bins and setting the HF cabinets aside. The top and bottom cabinets look good together as well.

The tops of the bass cabinets have four round slightly tapered black rubber "bumpers" (about 2" in diameter and maybe 7/8" tall) to support the treble cabinets, which have four matching dimples machined into their bottom surfaces. As well, the bass cabinets each have a hole about 4" wide that contains the connection cup with the binding posts for the leads from the AL-5 crossover that's located in the top cabinet. The hole is on the left-right centreline, about 6" from the rear edge of the cabinet. The matching hole on the bottom of the treble cabinet is directly over the one on the bass cab.

You can spot the crossover if you look through the hole in the treble cabinet, but it's a bit hard to see. Unlike the original La Scala, the LS2 HF section is closed at the back. Only the dome of the K-55 driver protrudes through the panel, and the hole is a close fit on the tapered dome. The woofer wires from the crossover are long enough to reach the bass cab, with a bit left over that you can tuck into the treble cab. To connect or disconnect, you just lift the treble cab at the back, or you can put some pads (I used 2" Styrofoam blocks) on the bass cab to let you slide the treble cab forward for easier access.

When the treble cab is resting normally on the bass cab, the gap between them is only about 5/16" (8mm), so the bumpers and wires are only visible if you're at just the right level and have a light or there's some light behind the speakers. The cabinet design and build is definitely good furniture grade. Veneer covers the fronts, sides, tops, and bottoms (bottoms of the top cabs), so the only black parts are the backs, and that looks appropriate.

Once again, I made a short story long, but I thought the details of the cabinet construction might be of interest to fans who haven't seen the La Scala IIs in person.

[seti]

The last time I was at Klipsch for a factory tour the plant manager was very excited about sales of Heresy III, Cornwall, and I think the RFII.

[psg]

Thanks Pat, cool description! [Y]

[kaiser SET say]

I wonder how a pair of La Scalas made out of pure aluminum would sound.

Not to sure how a Al-U-Minium pair would sound but these are pretty inspirational for those looking for purdy Las. These were done by Cueman, have not seen him around in a while but these are some of the sweetest Las I've ever seen! Good luck 63[]

[SonicSeeker]

WWWWOOOOOOWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now those are sweet.

[boom3]

"Capacitor-wise, I think you meant the French "de jour", not the Latin/Legalese "de jure"."

yeah, spell check gets us all eventually...

[Tarheel]

A little different......