La Scala Owners: What Kind of Music Sounds Best?

[Islander]

Caution:  once you hear what I’m talking about, it may become difficult to unhear it.

 

La Scalas can play pretty much all genres of music, with the exception, of course, of music that contains a lot of deep bass parts.  The addition of a sub or two takes care of that.  However, when it comes to individual instruments, most of them are reproduced just fine by La Scalas, with the exception of drums.  The Scalas reproduce the dynamics and transients of drumbeats so well that if the volume is high enough, you can almost see the drummer right in front of you.  Unfortunately, other instruments are not reproduced as realistically.

 

Those other instruments sound like you’re hearing them through an excellent pair of speakers, but only on very rare and excellently-recorded tunes will you think you’re hearing live musicians in your room.  This sometimes strikes a discordant note with me.  It sounds like I’m hearing a band over a great stereo, accompanied by a live in-my-room drummer.  Luckily, this only happens when I’m listening at a really loud level, something I rarely do.  On the other hand, sometimes I put on records with a well-recorded drum part, just to experience that realness.  Take Five is one example.  During the drum solo, you can also hear the drums echoing off the wall near the drummer.  Many record producers would say that deserved a re-take, to eliminate that sound, but for me it adds to the realness of the recording.

 

There are also some tracks on the two Bob’s Your Uncle records, which feature Sook-Yin Lee on lead vocals, that can give that effect.  They have those very realistic drum sounds, so I sometimes play them at fairly high volume to remind myself just what my La Scalas (and Yamaha power amps, and Technics Grand Master turntable, and so on) can do when they’re fed something challenging.

[Zen Traveler]

1 hour ago, CWOReilly said:

Sounds like he needed and outdoor system. Why would you want to rattle everything in your house to hear it outside?

Yep. Needless to say after getting his room specifics, MLP, and SPL levels he wanted to reach, I had to admit he could benefit from an external amp after arguing the opposite for countless posts it would have been good to have that info in the beginning--It really was a lively discussion which still cracks me up. 😇

[Islander]

29 minutes ago, Zen Traveler said:

Yep. Needless to say after getting his room specifics, MLP, and SPL levels he wanted to reach, I had to admit he could benefit from an external amp after arguing the opposite for countless posts it would have been good to have that info in the beginning--It really was a lively discussion which still cracks me up. 😇

 

With the Klipsch Controlled Directivity horns, the volume gets really low if you move way off to the side, or to another room.  The walls and windows of a house also keep the sound in.  Trying to get an indoor system to sound really loud from outside the house is a great way to blow tweeters and maybe other parts as well.  Another Forum member posted a while ago that his son managed to blow one or two of the member’s K-77 tweeters by blaring the music in the house while washing the car outside, just like your friend is considering.  Bad idea.   I had a friend who liked to be able to hear the music clearly while vacuuming, so she’d play it super loud.  Luckily, nothing ever blew.

 

Yeah, your friend needs either an outdoor system or a pair of wireless headphones.

[Coytee]

1 hour ago, CWOReilly said:

Sounds like he needed and outdoor system. Why would you want to rattle everything in your house to hear it outside?

 

(having been there) because when you are in your basement finishing it, you might be using a framing nailer, air compressor, circular saw and have hearing protection on.....while at the same time, your one and only stereo system might be on the above floor and you'd like to hear it through all that....rendering it essentially background music to you but blaring upstairs.

 

So, what to do?  Put 5 disks on CD player and put volume control on 1:00.

 

Only issue might be when it changes disk and the next disk is recorded much hotter, your currently loud system becomes VIOLENTLY loud causing you to race up the stairs while keeping your hearing protection on because now you know you need it....  race across the room to turn it down before you blow a driver or two.

 

 

[Coytee]

Forgot to add...

 

Which is why I later bought some in-ear monitors so now I can turn my Ipod on without shaking entire house.

[Zen Traveler]

21 minutes ago, Islander said:

Yeah, your friend needs either an outdoor system or a pair of wireless headphones.

To clarify, this wasn't a friend but a guy posting from The Netherlands who came to the AVS Forum for sound advice and the parameters kept changing. What bugged me is that folks were claiming he would benefit from an external amp without considering  (or asking about) the other factors...Now, I really wish I would have thought about wireless headphones, but when I learned of his ongoing requirements gotta admit I was tired of that discussion.   

[Cathedral Guitar]

2 hours ago, Islander said:

The Scalas reproduce the dynamics and transients of drumbeats so well that if the volume is high enough, you can almost see the drummer right in front of you.  Unfortunately, other instruments are not reproduced as realistically.

 

Totally agree with this!! I had a Led Zep CD going, and oh my God, I thought John Bonham was in the room. I was totally blown away. Of course, it helps that he was a great drummer, but still, was indeed freakishly realistic.

 

Also, on October Road, it was the super quiet drums played with brushes that blew me away. I had barely noticed them before, but auditioning the A50 I could hear all the details and edges of the notes played on parts that were just barely audible.

Edited July 6, 2021 by Cathedral Guitar

[Bubo]

Quote

So my question is, givin the assumption that not all speakers are universal,

 

No speaker does everything, they are application specific.

Home Stereo is one application, movie theaters another, outdoor concert another.

LaScalas excel at almost any music or instrument, with the exception of very low freqs which can be accommodated with the addition of a sub

 

Any quality amplifier should be able to drive them

 

Quote

 which genres do you think the La Scalas do best? 

 

Mid horn is superior to any with female vocals......

[Islander]

On 7/6/2021 at 12:10 PM, Cathedral Guitar said:

 

Totally agree with this!! I had a Led Zep CD going, and oh my God, I thought John Bonham was in the room. I was totally blown away. Of course, it helps that he was a great drummer, but still, was indeed freakishly realistic.

 

Also, on October Road, it was the super quiet drums played with brushes that blew me away. I had barely noticed them before, but auditioning the A50 I could hear all the details and edges of the notes played on parts that were just barely audible.

 

It’s great when you can hear all the music.  Sometimes, when I’m listening to a piece of music, and I’m hearing details that on lesser systems would be inaudible, I wonder how the musicians and the producer and recording engineer feel, knowing that some of the music that they work so hard to create will only be heard by a small minority of listeners.  The rest of the fans will be hearing a rough approximation of what was happening in the studio, and will be rocking along with the beat or the chorus, but never knowing how skilled or creative the artists are, or how much emotion the players and singers put into the piece.

 

An example that I’ve mentioned once or twice is Neil Young’s Live at Massey Hall 1971.  I always thought that Neil had a sort of whiny voice, and was a middling-skilled musician.  That recording opened my eyes and ears.  I got the DeLuxe version, which for two bucks more ($21.99 instead of $19.99) included  the DVD.  That’s when I learned that DVDs sound better than CDs, and maybe even better than vinyl records.

 

What I heard was transformative.  I never realized how much emotion Neil Young puts into his singing, or how skilled he is as a singer.  His guitar and piano playing also surprised me.  Subtleties came through that I had never heard before.  It wasn’t just me, either. Friends who heard it also mentioned that it was like hearing new songs for the first time.

 

That’s what a pretty good system can do when it’s fed a really good recording, on a very high definition medium.  I used to play that DVD a lot.  Interestingly, the video on the DVD is very lo-res, as if all the bandwidth went into creating the finest-sounding recording possible, at the expense of the video.  It was a wise choice.

[Cathedral Guitar]

32 minutes ago, Bubo said:

Mid horn is superior to any with female vocals......

 

Totally agree here as well. I've always been fond of the Alison Krauss CDs, as the performances, arrangements, and recordings are all world-class. I was blown away when I first hear these on the La Scala.

 

Going back and sorting through all recordings with female vocals and drums. This is great!! This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for, thanks.

[Schu]

Techno

[KT88]

I would like to ask the OP's question a little differently. He asks: "What Kind of Music Sounds Best? To this my answer is, very many kinds of music. I ask, on the other hand, at what volume does the LaScala sound best?
The answer certainly depends on the year of manufacture and the crossover. Outsiders would say, who has such a horn wants to hear loud. This is really not true from my point of view. For loud listening, I know of nothing better than the Jubilee. Of course, it can also play quietly very well.
But I hardly know a better speaker for soft to medium SPL than my old LaScala with AA Xover. Even with simple recordings which sound good everywhere, such as Steely Dan "Two against nature", loud or very loud listening is not a pleasure with the old LaScala. Even a 1996 Lascala that I also had was much better out loud. 
Quiet to medium loud my 1977 LaScala is a jewel, unmatched. One never has the feeling it could not be loud enough. It is consistently very good within this spectrum.
For example, a conventional BBC box can be very good. But their window is much smaller. A little too quiet, you hear only half. A little too loud, it sounds very strained. In contrast, the old LaScala is very even from soft to medium loud. Within this range, every! kind of music is a pleasure.

[Cathedral Guitar]

20 hours ago, KT88 said:

But I hardly know a better speaker for soft to medium SPL than my old LaScala with AA Xover. 

 

I have the same speakers 1x = 21T424 = 1979 and 2x = 10R462 = 1977 (all w/AA + MAHL DE120) and I agree, they sound great at low to medium, and I listen to them all day long while working from home. As a result of this thread, I am also building a playlist for "Sounds Great Loud" on the La Scalas -- for taking a break when you feel like inviting John Bonham to play live in your room, and other tracks that are so euphonic they make you feel euphoric -- much like being high on drugs, but w/o the drugs. "Good Times, Bad Times" is track #1 on this playlist.

Edited July 9, 2021 by Cathedral Guitar

[Schu]

how about... NO music sounds best.

it all sounds good

 

for me it better to answer, which music sounds the worst... that I can answer.

I think, personally, I have the most issue with the 'wall of sound' rock music... which may be more a function of how it's mastered than how it plays back. Everything else sounds fantastic including techno, jazz, acoustic, fusion rock and everything else.

[Cathedral Guitar]

3 hours ago, Schu said:

I have the most issue with the 'wall of sound' rock music.

 

I agree with this. Coincidentally, 'dense mix' is what the British A50 reviewer specifically called out as what my A50 amp was not good at. I guess it is easier for the system to give you a sense of the instruments being live in the room with you when the mix has some sense of space to it..

Edited July 9, 2021 by Cathedral Guitar

[Zen Traveler]

On 7/6/2021 at 3:07 PM, Cathedral Guitar said:

 

Going back and sorting through all recordings with female vocals and drums.

Fwiw, one of the knocks I discovered on either a bad recording or subpar horn is that the sibilance of female voices can be excruciating and not unheard after experiencing it. Of course the LaScala doesn't suffer from the latter but may on a bad recording. Dunno.

[Schu]

22 minutes ago, Cathedral Guitar said:

 

... it is easier for the system to give you a sense of the instruments being live in the room with you when the mix has some sense of space to it..

 

 

YES!!!

 

the space between... negative space matters.

 

 

[Marvel]

On 7/6/2021 at 3:10 PM, Cathedral Guitar said:

Also, on October Road, it was the super quiet drums played with brushes that blew me away. I had barely noticed them before, but auditioning the A50 I could hear all the details and edges of the notes played on parts that were just barely audible.

 

That is an excellent recording, and it sounds superb on my LS.

[Marvel]

On 7/9/2021 at 1:21 PM, Schu said:

 

 

YES!!!

 

the space between... negative space matters.

 

 

 

There was a time when studios started isolating all the instruments during recording, partly around the time that they moved from 8 to 16/24 tracks. That way they could totally remove or replace a bad performance. That's why a lot of acoustic performances and recordings sound better, as they sound more cohesive with an interaction going on between the performers.

 

 

[JohnA]

On 7/5/2021 at 3:37 PM, Cathedral Guitar said:

So I currently drive my La Scalas with a Boyuurange A50 MKIII, and I love the sound, but have gravitated to the genres of music that sounds best with this system, and I had previously thought this is what the La Scalas did best. However, I recently listened to A British Audiophile's review of the amp, and he said this exact same genre was what the A50 amp did best!! This being singer/songwriter, folk + folk/rock, acoustic music, sparse jazz. So my question is, givin the assumption that not all speakers are universal, and will do their absolute best work when focused on specific genres of music: which genres do you think the La Scalas do best? 

 

 

 

 

All of them!  Metallica to Diplo dubstep. 

 

You may not hear or realize just how good they are, though, until you hear them play acoustic instruments.  Acoustic instruments have a characteristic sound and are readily identifiable, unlike a synthesizer.  If you go see the orchestra, or acoustic jazz, you will immediately recognize each instrument.  The arrangement need not be sparse, either.  The instruments should be readily heard regardless of how many pieces are playing.