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La Scalas with a subwoofer


Jefe

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Yes.  Although a horn-loaded sub may be ideal, any reasonably powerful sub will do a decent job.  With my bi-amped La Scala IIs, I’ve used a 500 watt 10” ported sub, an 850 watt 10” sealed sub, and now two 850 watt 10” sealed subs.  All three setups sounded fine.  Sure, the more powerful subs do a better job, but your needs will depend on the size and acoustic response of your room, the type of music you listen to, and how loud you like to listen to it.

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7 minutes ago, Islander said:

Yes.  Although a horn-loaded sub may be ideal, any reasonably powerful sub will do a decent job.  With my bi-amped La Scala IIs, I’ve used a 500 watt 10” ported sub, an 850 watt 10” sealed sub, and now two 850 watt sealed subs.  All three setups sounded fine.  Sure, the more powerful subs do a better job, but your needs will depend on the size and acoustic response of your room, the type of music you listen to, and how loud you like to listen to it.


Thank you! The SVS is extremely powerful, with 1500 watts continuous and 16" driver. It's going in a large room but I won't be listening too loud. I just want the sub to be transparent and fill in the bottom octaves.

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Your sub should do a great job for you.  Just be sure to experiment to find the best location for it.  Check out the “sub crawl” technique, in which you place the sub in your listening position, and then walk or crawl around the room until you find the spot where the bass is strongest.  You’ll need some music with a sustained bass beat, of course.  Deep house music might be ideal.

 

Once you’ve found that strong bass spot in your room, that’s where you put the sub.

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I've been impressed how well my single sub (self-built, SVS-like) has kept up with my La Scala's.  I have considered a second sub, but about the only time it doesn't keep up, is on really bass-heavy music that is already much louder than I really need to be listening to.  This is using a driver from an RW-12d and powered by a BASH 300, tuned at 20hz and crossed over at 80hz (La Scalas crossed at 60hz).

 

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it works but if you're only going to have one I'd try to get a ported one, especially since you said it was going in a large room.  This is my latest setup like this, two SB16's and AL5's.  I wouldn't just use one sealed myself.  

 

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If just or mostly for music, check out Monoprice Monolith subs. I have a 7.2 setup with LaScalas across the front in a 16x22x7.5 basement room. With some eg they are razor flat to around 20hz. The subs are just 10" placed on the middle of the side walls (a good position arrived at empirically by Floyd Toole). Distortion is very low, especially if configured as ported. https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24456. Only 3.2 percent ar 105db.

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By the way, those 2 single-driver Monoliths replaced 2 Epik's each with dual 12s that I moved to my open-floor-plan main floor.. I know it's hard to believe, but the Monoliths sounds/perform/measure better in my space. If your space is bigger, the Monoliths come in bigger versions with similar performance. I think this is a good route for music if you can't or don't want to go the horn sub route. At least they're worth a look.

 

Best of luck with your quest.

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  I wanted to build a horn loaded sub to supplement the La Scala’s. But a deal on a flat pack for tapped horn fell through. 

  Ended just using a Blue Sky Sub12. Sealed with a single 12. Later dug it’s big brother Sub212 out of the closet. It is better. Better crunch. 

  A good sub makes music with boosted bass sound heavy, thick, and bloated. Some tracks are bass light. Others are just right. 

  Many are happy with the bottom end of Klipsch speakers. I would sell my Heresy III and La Scala II if used full range. In my listening area both are soft on bottom full range.

  I think subs sonic differences are overstated. I can turn off the mains and just hear the sub. There is not much there with a 60 Hz crossover point. Silent more than audible.

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Don’t forget to look at the Klipsch THX Ultra 2 subs and matching KA 1000 amp. Yes it’s a system,  buy the amp n 2 subs.   
 

These are extremely clean, powerful, you will feel everything from gunshots to blow crap up to solid bass in music too.  Not muddy at all I love them and have used with LaScalas and on Jubes with great results!   I’ve heard them with Bells too.   
 

100% happy and hassle free! 

505B7C0D-D2CE-4AAF-ACD8-061B97DC2F9E.jpeg

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On 12/6/2020 at 1:30 PM, yamahaSHO said:

I've been impressed how well my single sub (self-built, SVS-like) has kept up with my La Scala's.  I have considered a second sub, but about the only time it doesn't keep up, is on really bass-heavy music that is already much louder than I really need to be listening to.  This is using a driver from an RW-12d and powered by a BASH 300, tuned at 20hz and crossed over at 80hz (La Scalas crossed at 60hz).

 

 

 

 

wow ----you should call it the TUBE---

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Paradigm goes in a different direction, sort of set-it-and-forget it, which suits me.  To my mind, once the sub (or subs) are set to suit your room and the rest of your system, they should be good to go, with whatever kind of music you play.

 

With Paradigm’s Perfect Bass Kit/Anthem Room Correction (PBK/ARC), you connect the USB cable supplied with the kit to your laptop or tablet, and to the USB socket on the back of the sub.  The kit also includes a tripod and a calibrated microphone.  When you enter the mic’s serial number, the program accesses the recorded response curve for that particular microphone, and you’re ready to go.

 

You touch a button on the program, and the subwoofer puts out a test tone that runs through its operating range.  The mic is located at your preferred listening position.  The software records the response to the test tone, and prompts you to move the mic to another position and run the test tone again.  This is done for a total of 5 positions, at least 2 feet and at most 5 feet apart, and lets the sub estimate the size and shape of the room.

 

Then, the program shows the response curve as is, and the recommended correction curve, which is a mirror opposite, with peaks where the sub has dips, and dips where it has peaks.  At the press of a button, the correction curve is applied, and you can hear the difference immediately.  And you’re done!

 

It’s possible to tweak the sub’s response, but to me, that would likely mess up an excellent setting, which sounds really good.  It’s impossible to have a perfect response curve in less than perfect rooms, and the software shows the deviation from the ideal curve, but it’s a small difference, so it looks to me like it has given me the best curve possible in my particular situation.

 

Now, I’ve added a second sub, and replaced my regular sized very firm sofa with a larger and softer one, so I’ll redo the calibration on the first sub, and do the initial calibration on the second sub.  Once the kit is set up, doing the second sub should take only a few minutes.  At that point, both subs should be doing their best, relative to the room.  Later, I can run YPAO (Yamaha Parametric Acoustic Optimizer) from the AVR to ensure that the subs are closely integrated into the total system.  That should be it for sonic tweaking for quite a while.

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14 hours ago, Panelhead said:

  I wanted to build a horn loaded sub to supplement the La Scala’s. But a deal on a flat pack for tapped horn fell through. 

  Ended just using a Blue Sky Sub12. Sealed with a single 12. Later dug it’s big brother Sub212 out of the closet. It is better. Better crunch. 

  A good sub makes music with boosted bass sound heavy, thick, and bloated. Some tracks are bass light. Others are just right. 

  Many are happy with the bottom end of Klipsch speakers. I would sell my Heresy III and La Scala II if used full range. In my listening area both are soft on bottom full range.

  I think subs sonic differences are overstated. I can turn off the mains and just hear the sub. There is not much there with a 60 Hz crossover point. Silent more than audible.

In my opinion, the main factor that makes a La Scala so much different than all the other Klipsch models, except K-horn, Jubilee, is the horn loaded bass section. That is why I prefer it so much more than any of the direct radiator styles Klipsch offers. It sounds much cleaner/faster in the low end. 

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