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Theater Lascalas vs Living room Klipschorns.


chambers1517

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Something started me struggling with my contentment with my theater. I have a theater room that is 17.5' wide by 29' long. There are two risers, one at 12' and another at 18'. I have a false wall with 3 Lascalas recessed in sealed boxes in the wall. There are also 4 18" FI subs in this wall set up as an Infinate baffle. I have Heresys to the sides and rear as surrounds and I have an Integra Reciever running the Klipsch. There is also major sound and bass absorption in the room. I was in the room one day blasting some music and thinking about how incredible everything sounded. I went upstairs to the living room and put the same music on the Klipschorns and was thoroughly disappointed. They actually sounded better than my room. I showed my wife who could care less about this type thing but she just smiled and acknowledged it was better. All those speakers and these two sound better was her comment. I for the life of me can't figure out what it is about the living room sound that makes it better. I have endless clean bass in the theater but something is missing. How do I figure it out.I would never have noticed it without the direct comparison. I don't know if anyone would say the room is missing something but I bet after I let you hear the Klipschorns they would see what I am saying. Help.

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Are you comparing two channel listening in the theater or multi channel? Three LaScalas on a 17.5 foot wall isn't going to offer much separation and would give off a mono sounding soundstage IMO. If your just listening to the two La Scalas, maybe they are too low for the seating position? Are they towed in at all? You could get some response figures using a mic and some software to see what you're hearing and what you're not. Having 4, 18's playing could be covering some of the content coming from the Scalas as well. You might want to post some pics as that would help.

You will get some good insight from the people that have similar setups here.

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They actually sounded better than my room.

can you elaborate on this a bit? what aspects sounded better? better bass, midrange, seperation, imaging etc? might help others help you in determining what could be the reasons.

i cant imagine how 4 18" woofers, with adequite power & x-over settings, wouldnt have tons more bass than the K's, or that 3 la scalas & 2 heresys wouldn't have more/bettter midrange & highs than 2 k's.

please provide more details about the 2 systems & the gear you are using.

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I have ran REW in the theater and it looks pretty good. I have Audyssey x32 on the Integra and it improved the response on REW. Maybe there is a favorable dip or peak in the living room, I havent ran REW there. I have more bass in the theater than I could ever use. I let Audyssey set everything then I bump the subs a little. The Living room is the exact size as the theater and the klipschorns are on the short wall. The living room is more open as it has an opening on each side. The theater is completely sealed. I can't figure out what sounds better. Maybe it is the fact that I prefer stereo to multichannel and I prefer Klipschorns to Lascalas. The Lascalas are towed in and tilted up to point straight at the center of the front row head hi. I need help figuring this out.

Edited by chambers1517
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If your La Scala's are tucked into a wall they are most likely not toed into the listening area. So are they are probably dispersing sound away from the center listening position more than likely and no software program can remedy that. I think having them tucked into a wall may be hurting their performance. I stepped down from Klipschorn's to La Scala's and the only degradation in performance was the loss of an octave in bass response. This was easily remedied by the twin Velodyne servo subs. Mine are towed in and moved a bit forward of the rear wall.

Your Klipschorn's are toed in by sheer virtue of their design when placed in corners. When running my Klipschorn's in 2-channel they imaged so well that I could swear the center La Scala was playing.

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The Lascalas are actually toed in and up. Since the front wall is an IB wall I built boxes into the wall so it could be sealed. The boxes are big enough to move the Lascalas around some. The front of the lascalas are out about 2" on the outside and almost even in the middle. I put blankets between the speakers and boxes to fill the void.

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Something started me struggling with my contentment with my theater...They actually sounded better than my room...All those speakers and these two sound better was her comment. I for the life of me can't figure out what it is about the living room sound that makes it better.

I have endless clean bass in the theater but something is missing. How do I figure it out.I would never have noticed it without the direct comparison. I don't know if anyone would say the room is missing something but I bet after I let you hear the Klipschorns they would see what I am saying. Help.

Before proposing reasons, perhaps you should tell us the height, length and width of your living room...and perhaps a picture of both rooms?

There are differences that can be listed just from your description: differences in bass (horn-loaded) and room-corner loading, single source of sound (implying less time misalignment channel-channel), and simply better acoustics of the room/listening position.

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Three LaScalas on a 17.5 foot wall isn't going to offer much separation and would give off a mono sounding soundstage IMO
I have two LaScalas on a 13 foot wall and have a nice, wide sound stage that is very definitely stereo. Certain music seems to sound outside the line of sight to the cabinets.

I currently have Heresy IIs on each side of my TV. When we watch news in the morning, we just use the tv speakers, but when watching programs, only the Heresy IIs are powered up with the tv audio muted. Imaging is good enough that you would think there is a center turned on (but there isn't one...). The Heresy IIs are about 14 feet apart, angled in to converge just behind the middle seating position and up at ear level.

Bruce

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I wonder if the theater room is more dead with sound absorption and the living room is a little more lively with reflections and open space. You may not like the Khorns in the theater room. Just a thought. The room plays a big part in the sound.

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In your theater, I assume you are crossing over to your subs at about 80 Hz, right? IMO the living room Khorns are going to have cleaner, tighter bass in the octave between 40 and 80, even with great subs in your theater, unless they are horn loaded subs. Are they? The La Scalas will start to roll off at about 60 Hz and the Khorns at 35/40 Hz, but both will sound more precise than most subs, until they roll off.

Or, it may be because of some other factor, from amp to room to listening distance. I agree with the poster who said that your living room may be livelier. Many HTs are over damped.

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What equipment is running the Khorns ? didn't catch that

Maby you just have a really good room for Khorns ? I have heard them in a few homes and every one sounded different, one room was outstanding.

If I only had to chose one it would be 2Ch but your theater should sound great with everything you said is in there.

Good point Garyrc, could be ? " Many HTs are over damped."

Edited by dtel
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Maybe a simple pair of K-horns, which after all are fine wholly-engneered units, are simply better than a myriad of speakers that may not have that engineered level of quality overall.

I also missed what's driving the K-horns. However, I was VERY unimpressed with the Integra pre-Pro in Indy's Palladium HT showroom a few years ago. Greatly inferior to the now discontinued Aragon electronics Klipsch used in that showroom a few years before that. So, I'd compare it with what is driving the K-horns. Of course, that's only MHO.

Edited by LarryC
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Khorns can load the room more correctly along with providing more balanced presentation though maybe not as punchy as the La Scalas. Also Khorns do have a size to the sound that is hard to replicate due to the loading. Subwoofers and provide low bass but don't have the loading higher up to make it sound as "live".

At least that has been my experience with Khorns. Though I have had and have speakers that sound fantastic, they do replicate that fact with the Khorn. If you really like that quality, many others will not fill that void.

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