La Scala question regarding speaker Height

[Shodrewken]

Would raising the La Scalas and putting them on some sort of stand provide any benefit from them just sitting on the ground? And if so, how high should the base of the Scalas be from the floor?

[nitrofan]

I would love to have my lascala's mid and high horn the same height as a khorn,but am afraid i would lose some bass response.

[Chris A]

See https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=47376

[The Dude]

Looks like you will lose some bass, makes since.  Are you running a sub? It may not matter than and it will bring the mid and tweeter up to more ear level.  If the tweeter is all ready at ear level I wouldn't worry about.  

[tromprof]

I raised mine 6 inches. There was no discernable loss in bass, and a noticeable difference in raising the tweeter to ear level. Build a box and try it.

[Chris A]

An enclosed box is much better than a stand with legs, i.e., a cavity under the La Scalas.

 

La Scalas don't have a lot of output below 60-70 Hz. There's not much to lose if you don't already have them in a corner to begin with.

 

Chris

[Max2]

Since we're on this topic, it seems a height somewhere in-between the K and the LS would be optimal. When I ran my La Scalas as mains the sound was too low for my couch or chairs, now I added K's as mains and I have to sit on a couple of cushions to get a sweet spot.  I have even considered building a platform for my chairs to get things a little higher.

[mustang guy]

Warning. These are purely subjective opinions! Personally, I like the sound of Lascalas on the floor because they are slightly off vertical axis when I am walking around, and that makes them sound less squawky. Some folks attenuate the midhorn down if they don't like this. For me, when I am sitting to watch a movie, the voices are better because they are more vertically on-axis and the vocals mostly come through the midhorn. For a while, I had a 2x4 laying down on it's side to give them a slight upward firing angle. It made the 2 top horns fire directly at the main LP seated. I tried it that way for a few months, and the other day I removed the 2x4's. I noticed an improvement in overall sound not having the tophorns firing right at me, and I also picked up a discernable amount of bass (I can't substantiate this, and it may well have been placebo). The main LP is about 20-22' from each Lascala. My conclusion is that I prefer my LS firmly on the ground as designed.

 

 

See https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=47376

By looking at that document, uncoupling the speaker from the floor by 14" really had a negative effect on the bass frequencies below 70Hz. Naturally, the Lascala starts dropping pretty steeply at ~63Hz. Based on this, if you uncouple the bassbin from the floor as they did in this document, you will have a very steep rolloff, and virtually no sound below 70Hz. This isn't necessarily a bad thing if you have a couple well placed subs.

 

Question: If you build a solid box to place them on, will this allow the bassbin it's mirror amplification and not cause a dropoff at 70Hz?

Edited June 6, 2016 by mustang guy

[Shodrewken]

Thanks for the input fellas. 

 

After having my K-horns for a bit, and even though they were in a less than desirable space, I very much appreciated the mid, and tweeter being at ear level. Now my Scalas are in the corner and even though they don't dig very deep, the bass is quite good for what it produces, and was wondering if raising them up a little bit might give a little overall sound quality improvement.

 

With that being said, I'll probably just leave the Scalas how they are. They are the best two channel speakers that I have ever owned, and was just curious if I could cheaply pull a little more SQ out of an already amazing speaker.

 

Chris A thanks for the link, the info was appreciated.

[wvu80]

With that being said, I'll probably just leave the Scalas how they are. They are the best two channel speakers that I have ever owned, and was just curious if I could cheaply pull a little more SQ out of an already amazing speaker.

 

I know that you know there are numerous articles on how to hot-rod your LS's but I know what you mean, is there something with regards to toe-in, placement, etc.  The room can be up to 50% of how your speakers sound.

 

Both my LS's and Khorns are unmolested, but I did a major hot rod operation on my CF-4's.  The single best thing I did to make them the outstanding speakers they are now was to add just a little bit of polyfil in the right places.  They absolutely hold their own against the other two, and fully modded they are the best of the three.

 

In my house, with my gear, with the music I like to hear. 

[soundbound]

Place a narrow board that's only a few inches wide and as long as the speakers cabinet's width under their fronts and adjust it forward and backward until the speaker's cabinets horns aim up toward your ears. You may like the sound of your speakers cabinets fronts - horns titling up toward you. I've done this for big speakers that were not high enough for ear level and liked it. If you're sitting back some a few inches adjustment is all that's needed. It only takes two small pieces of scrap wood and some minutes to try. Results will vary.

 

I also titled my Klipschorn's top cabinets down and out toward me. I like my speakers aimed at my ears, then adjust sound as needed.

Edited June 6, 2016 by soundbound

[garyrc]

Would raising the La Scalas and putting them on some sort of stand provide any benefit from them just sitting on the ground? And if so, how high should the base of the Scalas be from the floor?

 

As Chris said, avoid having a cavity under the La Scalas.  Enclosing any legs you put under them with very rigid board would be good.  Then put the tweeters at seated ear level.  If your ceiling is less than about 8 feet, put some absorption in the first reflection point on the ceiling.  Consider using a sub.

Edited June 6, 2016 by garyrc

[Chris A]

Question: If you build a solid box to place them on, will this allow the bass bin it's mirror amplification and not cause a drop off at 70Hz?

 

A solid box to place your loudspeaker on will reduce the suck out frequency irregularities corresponding to the gap underneath them if using an open stand.  That's point number 5 of PWK's eight cardinal points paper, as found on the fourth page of this article.  You will get some increase in low frequency extension if you set them on the floor, and an equal amount more if you place them into a full corner. You will lose the least lf extension if you place them on a solid stand with no gaps underneath.

 

Of course, if you place them in corners you might need to absorb the near field early reflections from the midrange horn to the closest side and front wall to the midrange horn to regain your full stereo center imaging.  It doesn't take a lot: a 2' x 2' absorption pad will do on each wall.  The speakers will then image like they did standing away from the walls.  Keep all other equipment racks and other nearfield acoustic reflectors at least 3 feet away.

 

Chris

Edited June 6, 2016 by Chris A