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lascalas very little bass


prog guy

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My new to  me LaScala' s are with an AL with that resistor that is white ceramic shown across the top of an oil can capacitor also.

It has the square magnet K-77 and the K-55-M serial # is 8640496 so guessing a little earlier speaker pair. Do not know the year yet.. 

Was not surprised to find the bass I have, which is acceptable to me as to the quality. Fine without sub, unless I change opinion.

Carl posted me a link to converting my AL to an AA which must change flavor some. May want to go AL-3, I do not know ATM, so

still reading. Your LS look a lot like mine except for top grille cover. Label shows LS-BL on mine.

Top and mids seem to more than make up for any perceived bass.

Congrats on a nice pair.

Edit: How about tryin another receiver with the set, no matter the wattage(less) just for kicks.

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22 hours ago, Schu said:

I just listened to foxtrot and Michael Rutherford's bass foot pedals in the last half of Suppers Ready is outstandingly deep and readily apparent... it shakes the house if I want it to.

You must have a setup issue.

Keep in mind that this guy's LaScalas have the AL network....what he needs is an AA network and everything will begin to level itself out except for what the bass horn simply CAN'T produce at its bottom end.

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So which La Scalas are yours? The first pic all dolled up? or the second next to another pair of speakers? I'm no expert but mine are like the second pic although mine have a full front grill cloth. My woofer access is on the bottom. And to tell the truth I'm having a real hard time imagining a top access under the midrange squawker. Could you really squeeze a 15" woofer down into the cabinet  and then secure it? Even with the squawker,tweeter and crossover out of your way? Just curious.

My access is under the squawker. Hope I never have to change a woofer. I’m very judicious with that volume knob. I like it loud but there are limits.


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Mid range is 3/4 of what we hear.  The LaScala does everything extremely well except pound out the lower end.  You can find a set of Cornwalls that will slam you with bass, but will not have the magic of the big mid horns that the La Scalas have and is a vented design that everyone from any maker has tried to refine since the beginning.  You also have to realize how big and/or long of a horn it takes to reach the lower area, thus to add to the lows you will affect some critical frequency output elsewhere on the chart.
Everything is a sacrifice and I would rather need a sub that will fill and blend db wise with the LaScala all the way down to 25 cycles AND be musical........ as opposed to finding some lifeless, ported rehash that is actually -10db @35 hz that is filled with distortion @60hz.  You either have to have horns or you don't.
 I was in your shoes back in the early 90's, and I even got rid of a set of Belles to try and get that low bass loss back with a pair of KLF 30's.  I saw them as a Crossroad of my previous Cornwall II's and the Belles.  I got a little more bass, but lost everything that I took for granted which was the most important part of the Belles.  
If you're after the lows, a decent sub and two LaScalas will rival almost anything out there.  

I totally agree. I use a sub, not for earth shattering lows, but to extend the low end on my Scalas.


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19 hours ago, prog guy said:

I do not think so but will check it again

 

20180103_124533m.jpg

 

If you like loud, just order a set of Bobs AL-3 topo's.   Steeper points.   If one watt is more important, an A or AA topo will blend the drivers better.  No matter what, dump those AL artifacts.  

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1 hour ago, Tony Whitlow said:


My access is under the squawker. Hope I never have to change a woofer. I’m very judicious with that volume knob. I like it loud but there are limits.


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OK. I was not doubting that they made them like HDBRbuilder said just scratching my head how woofer replacement would be possible. So just to make sure I understand your tophats are not removable and the woofer access is under the squawker? Man I could just barely get my arms and tools in there to replace the K400 horn with a Fastlane tractix let alone get to the woofer.

I guess where there is will(or necessity) there is a way.:)

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On 1/2/2018 at 8:12 PM, geoff. said:

I think a 1976 Klipsch would have a “letter” designation for the year,  “R” or “S” in the code. And, get this, it would be hand-written on the label.

 

Yours have the “newer” K-55-M mid driver, but still have the metal K-400 horn. I think by ‘89 the resin K-401 horn started to be used on the K-55-M. And somewhere in there the AL-2 crossover came out.

 

There is a list on this forum somewhere with all of the progressions over the model years.

 

Like I said, there have been ALOT.

 

 

I tried to click on the link all I get is 

 

On 1/3/2018 at 10:12 AM, ClaudeJ1 said:

Are you sure you don't have polarity reversed in your wiring?

Thank you all for your great information and inputs on my issue. I'm now asking you all to give me your thoughts on keeping these beautiful speakers and replacing the crossovers to the AR-3's or selling them and moving onto a different type of transducer for my hard-hitting PROG. music I was also told maybe stack the D-9's on top od the Lascalas but how would I wire them together without losing performance or damaging my Carver M1-ot?

20171227_161018s.jpg

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On 1/3/2018 at 2:01 PM, geoff. said:

That white rectangular power resistor in your AL crossover looks out of place.

 

 That is an AL for sure and the one I just took apart to salvage what was possibly useful had the resistor across the capacitor just like the OP's does. This AL sounded so bad compared to both a re-capped AL-3 and an AA crossover I had on hand that I just dismantled it for parts.

 

  I had bought a pair of La Scalas recently with the AL crossover and K-55-M mid driver. What I read here on the forums was that this combination was pretty shrill and that described it to a tee. Put a re-capped AA crossover and a K-55-V driver on there and back to sounding exactly like a La Scala should.

 Your room environment is critical to. I bought these at a guys house where he had them in a room with hard walls and out from the walls by about six feet and across the room where he would sit were sound absorbing couches and seats. The bass was remarkable to me and this will be my sixth set of La Scalas. I bring them to my shop and the bass magic was gone and the only variable was the listening environment.  

 

I have tried various types of Heritage Klipsch and this excludes the Khorns. You cant beat the punch La Scalas have in my experience but you are going to have to learn to set them up and get rid of those crappy AL crossovers.

 

 

 

On 1/3/2018 at 2:01 PM, geoff. said:

 

 

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2 hours ago, mike stehr said:

What's wrong with the big JBL?

nothing they rock! I bought them after the lascalas did not give me the hard-hitting sound I was looking for.  I thought I would try them in the corners to help with the bass they were sitting just off to the sides but in front of a flat wall.  The JBL's were the replacments and might still be?

20171215_153259S.jpg

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7 hours ago, prog guy said:

 

 

7 hours ago, prog guy said:

I have herd a few owners talk about that same resistor being on there crossovers as well as a few pictures of them on this topic I guess they were normal on some of the 80's Lascalas?

 

  Ok the attachment gives a list of what your year code means and what SHOULD be in your speakers.  http://www.critesspeakers.com/crossovers.html

will tell you about crossovers and years of production. Use this information to determine whether your parts are original to the build tag or not.

Codex_V3_130823_635128700889860000.pdf

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My '89 LaScalas were the same as yours, beautiful speakers. First, the AL really needs to be swapped out.

 

If you get new A/AA crossovers from Bob, you can also drop the mids approx 3db. This will give you more apparent bass when you crank the volume back up.

 

Please note the bass sbould be, no, will be cleaner and smoother than the CV bass. The woofer on the CVs will have way more distortion because that is what direct radiators have. The LS cone barely moves, that is the efficiency plus of a horn loaded woofer. 

 

I would say you are used to listening to the modulation distortion of dr speakers. It is night and day different and not really accurate. Even those big woofers on the JBLs.

 

Did you loosen and retighten the screws on the terminal strips on the crossovers? That could make a huge difference as well.

 

Bruce

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Almost forgot... if you crank the LS really loud, the mids can start to sound pinched. Do you know at what levels you listen to your music? I didn't see it mentioned.

 

And... the extra piece of 3/4 ply on the bottom will have about 8 flat head screws. The gasket between that and main cab bottom will have turned to goo and dried out. It will be hard to get them apart, but careful use of a large scraper/putty knife will get them loose if you want to check the woofers. Once inside, there are only four machine screws threaded into t-nuts holding them in place. Sometimes they will work loose causing a buzz/rattle. As nice as yours look, they are probably fine.

 

You should be enjoying these.

 

Lastly, have you tried any amps besides the Carvers? Just asking, sometimes, some gear just doesn't work together.

 

Bruce

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I'm gonna hazard a guess as to why the O.P. says there's a lack of bass from his LaScala's.

 

That room looks like a converted garage, because I see a garage door on the left. Then I assume it has a concrete floor, and perhaps concrete walls as well. And it looks like quite a large volume room.

 

The concrete floor isn't going to vibrate like a wood joist floor can when excited by bass waves; too much mass. Same with the walls.

 

I'd definitely try to place the LaScala's in a wood framed room, just for test purposes, and see if they perform better. I'm not suggesting to permanently move the speakers but just to prove a theory.

 

I had a kg sw subwoofer in my roughly 600 sq.ft. concrete floored/walled basement and it augmented my twinky satellite speakers well. Perhaps a subwoofer is the O.P.'s best solution.

 

Yeah, I know what you're saying-what could a subwoofer do that the LaScala's can't? Well, just humor my theory for a minute and try it out, please! ;)

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I know I am late to the party but just wanted to add yet another 2 cents.

LaScalas are not bass shy. There is plenty of bass if operating properly. They do drop off at the very low end but where the "meat" of the spectrum is, they kick. Last week I auditioned a pair to a forum member (who is a self proclaimed bass-a-holic) and the first words out of his mouth were "these aren't lacking in bass at all".

Step one is get rid of the AL's. You will never know how good the speakers can sound until these are out of the mix. The ones you have are similar to the ones I pulled from a beater pair a couple years ago (they were adopted by another forum member when I threatened to wash them then burn them). I put in recapped AA's and (almost) everything worked great. I am not saying you will be blown away by them (I still am) but you need to hear them working properly. You may still want a sub but if you are driving with those other speakers, you may not. For me, if not using for HT, no sub works great.

Note: Just saw Peter's post. When I auditioned the LS for @timdog5000, it was in a 65,000 square foot warehouse.

 

Old AL next to AB (equally undesirable)

post-60988-0-84460000-1445822602_thumb.jpg

 

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