Sub for La Scalas - active crossover or tune sub to the mains?

[cmwolf]

Hello,

 

I am in the market for a pair of La Scalas. I love the design and sound, and am on the hunt for a good pair.

Having listened to my friend's pair, I know that I will want a sub.

 

The theory behind using a crossover to filter out some of the low end from the mains is that it gives more clarity to the mains when not forced to cover the lowest octaves. I am going to be using a SET amp setup, where a lack of low end signal will help clear up sound for the low wattage.. However I like the idea of keeping a simple + pure signal path for the La Scalas, and fear a crossover is adding more to the chain. Also it would be lighter on the wallet 😉

 

Part of the light sub response is due to the dimensions of the horn, of course - the La Scala is just not built for the horn's throat to radiate enough bass. Which has me thinking ... for a typical reflex system, the speakers can typically output sub, but using a crossover frees up the mains woofer from working double duty. Since the horn dimensions are what is lacking, rather than a typical reflex unit where there is strain, could I get away with just using the filter on the sub to tune to the La Scalas? Most subs have a crossover filter built in, so rather than adding a crossover I just dial in to the La Scalas. Or do people find that the clarity of the La Scalas is also improved by high passing lower octaves, and letting the La Scala woofer focus on higher bass + mids?

 

Lastly, I would prefer to not buy a huge rackmount-sized crossover. Equipment like the JL and NHT crossover are too bulky for my setup, and I don't want to buy separate stereo furniture. Any recommendations for a small audiophile-grade crossover if I go down that route? I may consider adding something like a Hsu High Pass rather than a full crossover network since my preamp has two separate stereo outputs and I don't need to split information for the sub.

[MEH Synergy]

32 minutes ago, cmwolf said:

Hello,

 

I am in the market for a pair of La Scalas. I love the design and sound, and am on the hunt for a good pair.

I have a "good" pair for sale. Where are you located?   I agree that filtering the low end will help produce a cleaner sound with given low wattage, but it likely won't be cheap to do it right and may be more trouble than it is worth. I use a Parasound Halo Integrated amp to accomplish this task and with crossover in the chain or bypassed, I don't hear an offensive degradation in the audio signal. As such, I use it. 

[brians7]

A pair of double H frames and MiniDSP sound great you can blend the perfectly. 

[Tarheel TJ]

You don't need to high pass your La Scalas.  I ran mine with a typical sub for years without a high pass.  The La Scalas don't dig down too low, and being a sealed design, the woofer isn't moving much down there anyway.  I am using a fully active setup now, and I didn't really notice much change in bass clarity by high-passing the LS bass bin.

 

That said, if you choose to use a crossover, go fully active with a DSP based crossover.  The flexibility and clarity they afford is truly something special.  I use a MiniDSP 4x10HD and love it.