La Scala placement (starting point)

[imahawki78]

Recognizing that I must account for many room variables and taste preferences... I have a question.  Do people position La Scalas like modern floor standing or bookself speakers?  I ask because I see them pointed straight ahead, completely against the front wall in many photos.  Is this because they SHOULD be placed like that or due to some limitation faced by those system owners that don't allow them to place them out into the room a bit?

 

TIA

[Schu]

Place them however they sound and image the best for your application... for me that would be off the wall and toe'ed in axis being behind the LP slightly.

[sean5340]

For me my Lascalas were 11' apart center to center. The inside rear corner of each speaker was 4" from the rear wall and the outside rea corners were 6" from the rear wall. My listening position was 10.5' back dead center.

I had spent hours on placement and experimenting. This was by far the best speaker positon for my setup.

The single most effective improvement for me was adding some rubber feet to the Lascala cabs. They were on a hardwood floor.

[tromprof]

The best mine ever sounded was tucked into corners and 20 feet apart. I also had them on 6 inch risers to get the tweeters up to ear level. The bass especially benefited from the corner placement. It was as big as my K-horns in that position (just didn't go as low).

[muel]

 You can find many methods or rules of thumb that you could use as a starting point but you have to find what works best for YOUR room.  There is no recipe that will work for all situations.

 

I suggest this a lot but only because it works so well: http://getbettersound.com/index.php

If you follow Jim's advice you can get better sound out of your system than you might ever thought was possible.  It takes some work and you might have some placement limitations depending on room layout and furnishings.  It is worth the effort though!   

[minermark]

Depends on if you want a "Sweet Spot" or not.

Just for the hell of it, toe them in a tad and get a chair your Fav tune/beer.

[Marvel]

Some point the mid horn straight at the listening position. I set up mine to converge at a point slightly behind me so that the 'sweet spot' was a little wider.

 

Bruce

[jimjimbo]

If I had good corners, I would definitely try that (but I don't, hence, no Khorns...  )  Off the wall a few inches, on some type of riser, and toed in is the way to go for me....of course, I have LSI splits, so I can mess with the HF bin all I want....

[Tony L]

I've got mine in the corners and toed-in to fire at the listening area. They seem to work better there than pulled out further into the room, the bass is more balanced, mid less forward. The room is a typically small but solid UK one and I listen pretty quietly.

[richieb]

The best mine ever sounded was tucked into corners and 20 feet apart. I also had them on 6 inch risers to get the tweeters up to ear level. The bass especially benefited from the corner placement. It was as big as my K-horns in that position (just didn't go as low).

Agreed - mine sound great in corners about 21-22 feet apart, listening about 15-19 feet back. I first had them toed in directly to the center, where I sat 15 feet away, but that seemed a bit much for me. Those big horns converging at that short distance was too strident to my liking. So I toed them out a few degrees, instead of hitting the center of the couch they were angled to ends of the couch. Probably not more than a 3-4 inch toe to the outside but made a huge difference for me. Much smoother, not in your face and a huge soundstage. Whoever says the LS can't image or presume a soundstage is wrong. But it takes a long back wall sitting several feet back, just like a KHorn.

[imahawki78]

I can't do corners given the layout of the room.  I'll start with them a bit out from the wall but not too far and toed in a little.  I've also gotten the best sound with toe in that results in convergence behind the listening position, not at it.

 

I definitely have spent a lot of time playing with speaker positioning so I get the idea that it will vary from room to room.  Hence the "starting point" aspect of the question.

Edited February 17, 2015 by imahawki78

[Bubo]

Recognizing that I must account for many room variables and taste preferences... I have a question.  Do people position La Scalas like modern floor standing or bookself speakers?  I ask because I see them pointed straight ahead, completely against the front wall in many photos.  Is this because they SHOULD be placed like that or due to some limitation faced by those system owners that don't allow them to place them out into the room a bit?

 

TIA

 

I've had mine for about 35 years and in several different homes and apartments.

 

Depends on the room.

 

The original room was 30 x 40, the LaScalas were on the 30 wall, 2 feet off the wall, straight ahead, I played with moving them around and recall they were about 12-15 apart. Carpeted room with furniture on the opposite side from the speakers.

 

The stereo gear was on shelves in the room behind the 30x40 room, so just speakers were visible.

 

People would freak out when they heard them.

 

As the room gets smaller, the speakers get closer to the corners and the wall out of necessity and toed in to focus on the location of the listeners.

 

Hope this helps.

[nitrofan]

My experience with my lascala's is dead on what schu recommends

[BusaDude]

I put mine all the way back into the corners, facing in at a 45 degree angle (like a Khorn), and they've been there ever since. They're on the long wall of a 20'x14' room and sound great. I sit about 3' off the back wall and am 11' from the front of each LaScala. They are basically pointed right at the listening position in my room.

I've been tempted to move them in a bit, so they would be about 15' apart, just to see what it would sound like. But I haven't tried it yet because I would need to move my equipment rack.

I think they'd sound great regardless. But I would probably have them toed in more than others have mentioned. I've always preferred to look down the throats of the horns or aimed just slightly behind me.

[Mxvm]

Hello everybody,

this is my first post (and I am French so sorry for my awfull english ) and after having lived 3years with my La Scala (K-55-M +  AL3 series) I wanted to explain which is the best placement in my room... because it is unasual in the modern world of speakers  :

 

Obviously the exact placement as the klipschorn one, right in the angles !

 

This looks very strange because they are spotting a point wich is almost 2 meters (6 feets) far from me, in the front. 

 

Why does it sounds the best ? 

 

Because the scene is just perfectly stable. I can move from right to left, without earing the singer’s voice following me. Moreover, it is adding the perfect amount of bass reverb to reach the realistic acoustism of it (without being too fat). And the scene is much deeper ! 

 

I spent 2 years with a more conventional placement (by ignorance)... but once I have tryed this way, I never went back to another way of listening it, whereas it looks weird for someone that is not used to it. 

 

For me, they should be used as we should use Khorn. 

 

Is someone can testify the same ? Or not  ?

 

ps : used with Beard P35 (triple El-84 push-pull for 2x35w), Beard Ca35 preamp. 

[jimjimbo]

Hello and Welcome!!  Your english is fine, my french is much, much worse.....

 

I think you are absolutely correct, and my testimony would be the same.  You have probably already tried different spotting points, so it's great that you have found something that works.

 

Again, welcome to the forum and please keep in touch!!

[Mxvm]

Thanks for the welcome jimjimbo ! I’ll keep in touch and keep improving my english

and yes, I tried many spotting points, except this one that I tried last... and it was the better... as written in the klipsch documents lol. 

[Tony Whitlow]

My room is 19’x 25’. They are along the 19’ Wall. I do what The Colonel said. They are STUFFED in the corners and toed in 45 degrees.Corner placement reinforces bass and increases the efficiency 8x. When my Heresys were my mains the same applied. If you don’t have corners still toe them in on a 45. This still gives you the sweet spot and gives any listener in the room a more balanced left and right. The horns make sure of that. With the wide dispersion of horns it is not critical for them to be at ear level. This is my opinion but it is based off of the Colonels findings.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

[MVC]

I am curious about Mxvm’s comment about putting the LS in the corners like you would the KH, given that the LS have a straight back unlike the triangular back of the KH specifically designed to fit into a corner.  With a straight back, doesn’t the LS leave a big gap between the corner and the speaker and therefore this defeats the purpose of getting the base sound?  Or is it negligible? I am sill tweaking with the placement of my LS.  Unfortunately I don’t have a long wall I can place them at so they are on a 12ft wall (I know not ideal), at a right angle in the corner, 4” off the back wall.  Because of the shorter wall, I don’t toe them in and given that my sitting position is far back, so they would meet in front of me and the horns clashing sounded strident (I have tried).  I found this placement coupled with carpeting right in front of them on hard wood floors the best to compensate for the loss of space between them.  Still string quartets sound the best, live and awesome but I wish piano solos could sound better.

[JohnA]

In my old .room built just for them I liked them better near the corners but pulled out from the back wall about 2 feet/.6m.  I thought the balance of the bass was best that way.  They were toed-in about 45 deg.