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Would my 1987 La Scala Industrials sound better if I installed risers like the new AL5’s have?


gilligan

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What a coincidence!  I've been wondering if risers would be of benefit to my 1986 La Scalas. I wasn't thinking of bass, just about getting the speakers closer to ear level when I'm seated.

 

Just today I went through my notes about the AL5 risers because I was thinking of making some for my 1986 La Scalas. If my notes are correct, the AL5 risers are 3" high and are made of 1" MDF (just like the AL5). 

 

When the snow stops I was thinking I'd rummage through my wood pile and make a pair of risers just to see if they make any difference.

Edited by Dave MacKay
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29 minutes ago, Dave MacKay said:

What a coincidence!  I've been wondering if risers would be of benefit to my 1986 La Scalas. I wasn't thinking of bass, just about getting the speakers closer to ear level when I'm seated.

 

Just today I went through my notes about the AL5 risers because I was thinking of making some for my 1986 La Scalas. If my notes are correct, the AL5 risers are 3" high and are made of 1" MDF (just like the AL5). 

 

When the snow stops I was thinking I'd rummage through my wood pile and make a pair of risers just to see if they make any difference.

I hope the snow stops soon because I would like to hear how your risers turn out! 
 

The reason I mentioned the bass improving is because I had some mid 80’s La Scalas a while back that we’re on casters and the bass wasn’t as deep as the industrials I have now. I figured the bass is better on the industrials due to them being closer to the ground and more inert, but it could also be due to the K43 woofer. Have you had any experience with bass bins for the LS? They are supposed to provide more LF extension but I’m not sold on the concept yet as I really don’t like to modify/tinker too much.

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36 minutes ago, gilligan said:

They currently have 4 1” rubber feet each underneath but I’m wondering if the bass would improve if I put risers on them like the new AL5’s have. Thanks in advance for any input. 

 

Risers decouple the  LSI speakers from the Floor surface  , they also raise the speakers by 3 inches ,  but the bass is not improved solely by adding risers  ,  however you can avoid bass loss  via a tighter  seal of the lower  woofer door panel  -

 

 

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@gilligan  your current LSI have better bass because the LSI Cabinet is made with a slightly  thicker  and therefore stiffer  Plywood  versus the LS , if you remove the rear Cover panel  for the Midrange and tweeter/crossover , you can see the plys in the wood .

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3 hours ago, 001 said:

Risers decouple the  LSI speakers from the Floor surface  , they also raise the speakers by 3 inches ,  but the bass is not improved solely by adding risers  ,  however you can avoid bass loss  via a tighter  seal of the lower  woofer door panel  -

 

 

Thank you 001. I will look into reinforcing the woofer door panel although I gotta say, after trying unsuccessfully to remove it a few days ago, I might not need to do too much reinforcing. These LSI were in storage for 20 years after being used as DJ speakers for 10+ years throughout the 90’s so they surely were pushed to their limits during that time. Should that type of heavy usage be of any concern as far as the integrity of the woofer goes? By the way it doesn’t sound bad at all as it plays now but given their history It did make me wonder whether or not they could or should be sounding a little better than they do. My old LS just seemed to sound a bit more “woody” and articulate when playing upright bass. These LSI seem to be more pronounced in the mid bass around 70-120hz just from the listening I’ve done so far

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2 minutes ago, gilligan said:

 Should that type of heavy usage be of any concern as far as the integrity of the woofer goes? 

the LSI  can take quite a bit of  heavy usage , day in day out ,  the LS used the K-33 which had more slam  upfront , but the LSI K-43 is quite articulate with mid bass , and overall a very highly seeked  speaker , the k-43 is a rare bird nowadays ,  and these were even used in these big bad boys , so no worries 

 

klipsch MWM MS 3WAY 1998 nero | Bacchi Tecnologie Audio | Reverb

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8 hours ago, gilligan said:

They currently have 4 1” rubber feet each underneath but I’m wondering if the bass would improve if I put risers on them like the new AL5’s have. Thanks in advance for any input. 

 

Will bass improve? No

 

LaScalas are all about the human voice, primarily on the mid range horn aka squaker

 

Putting the mid range horn at ear level will definitely improve the human voice quality, specifically female vocal. aka Angels singing.

 

I raised mine with 4 175lb load wheels from Ikea that have the "furniture look".  Cleaning and maintenance became a lot easier

 

I have a front-fire  sub I use with my LaScalas, on or off it doesn't make much difference for the music I listen too.

Maybe needed for pounding techno

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9 hours ago, gilligan said:

They currently have 4 1” rubber feet each underneath but I’m wondering if the bass would improve if I put risers on them like the new AL5’s have. Thanks in advance for any input. 

 

You could replace the rubber feet with spikes or simply metal feet and see what happens. Maybe just remove the rubber feet for test purposes first.

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6 hours ago, gilligan said:

 I will look into reinforcing the woofer door panel although I gotta say, after trying unsuccessfully to remove it a few days ago, I might not need to do too much reinforcing.

That seal around the access panel turns to goo after a period of years. You'll need to work patiently to remove it (wide paint scrapers worked for me to pry it open without damaging anything). Clean all the old seal residue off, check out the woofers and get new sealing gasket material from parts express.

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11 hours ago, gilligan said:

Have you had any experience with bass bins for the LS? They are supposed to provide more LF extension but I’m not sold on the concept yet as I really don’t like to modify/tinker too much.

I think you may be talking about adding a ported box to the bottom of the bass bin (see attached file). No, I haven't tried that.

 

According to what I've read (mostly on this forum), the La Scala stops acting like a horn around 104 Hz and pretty much runs out of low-end at about 50 Hz. I wanted more of that "punch in the chest" bass that the La Scalas couldn't really deliver. To get the bass I wanted, I opted to add a subwoofer. After trying a low-end Klipsch 10" subwoofer (anemic) and an SVS SB1000 Pro (very good, but not enough for the La Scalas), I built a THTLP subwoofer (see https://billfitzmaurice.info/THT.html). Now I have all the bass anyone could want.

 

I should mention that I made another change that may have helped too. Because of some damage to the cabinets on my La Scalas, I laminated 3/8" baltic birch panels to the top, bottom, and sides of the speakers. In addition to addressing the damage, that made the cabinets stiffer which is supposed to be beneficial by reducing resonance from the side walls of the bass bin. Others have added braces to address the resonance.

 

Bass mod.JPG

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1 hour ago, chassell said:

That seal around the access panel turns to goo after a period of years. You'll need to work patiently to remove it (wide paint scrapers worked for me to pry it open without damaging anything). Clean all the old seal residue off, check out the woofers and get new sealing gasket material from parts express.

When I refurbished my La Scalas, the original gasket was still OK (in that it hadn't turned to goop). However, it had been squished so that it was about as thick as a playing card. I just left it in place. Would you recommend scraping it off and replacing it with a new gasket?

 

I have some 3/16" thick x 1 1/4" wide self-adhesive gasket tape (typically used for sealing truck caps) that I used when I built my THTLP subwoofer. Would that be suitable, or would it be too thick? I should note that the packaging cautions against applying it to unpainted wood.

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I used modern risers on my Chorus II speakers. It tightened the bass up very nicely. Gave it a bit more punch and refinement.

 

For my La Scalas, I covered the mid horn with Kilmat, which gave me more bass detail as well. 

 

More tinkering on the way, but this is what I've got so far. 

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2 hours ago, Dave MacKay said:

When I refurbished my La Scalas, the original gasket was still OK (in that it hadn't turned to goop). However, it had been squished so that it was about as thick as a playing card. I just left it in place. Would you recommend scraping it off and replacing it with a new gasket?

 

Definitely replace the gaskets. You will notice the difference right away. 

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4 hours ago, chassell said:

That fiberglass coating stiffens things up considerably also.

yes it does , and it isn't cheap , plus the metal trim  on the entire speaker and the V metal  lip -handles  , rear panel to seal the Drivers , all are luxury items that are  no longer offered by klipsch due to the high cost   ,  + these speakers are  quite Heavier than a Standard LS .

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15 hours ago, 001 said:

the bass is not improved solely by adding risers  ,  however you can avoid bass loss  via a tighter  seal of the lower  woofer door panel.

I will have to disagree. When I placed my LaScala's on moving dolly's such as from Harbor Freight, the bass improved noticably. These dolly's raised each speaker about 3.5" from the floor.

 

Now each room is different, so your milage may vary, but I think rasing up the speakers helps various listening anomalies. 

 

 

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23 hours ago, gilligan said:

I’m wondering if the bass would improve if I put risers on them like the new AL5’s have. 

 

23 hours ago, gilligan said:

I hope the snow stops soon because I would like to hear how your risers turn out! 

 

Although I didn't brave the weather, just for giggles I put my La Scalas on some dollies that I had laying about. They raised my speakers 5" off the floor (not 3" like the AL5 risers).

 

I didn't do a before/after test with REW and my UMIK-1 so that my observations are based solely on my hearing/perception. And ... I'll be the first to admit that my hearing likely isn't as discriminating as some others on the forum, so that my observations may not be entirely correct.

 

I may have been seduced by the novelty of the change, but I thought the speakers sounded better: I thought that the music sparkled a bit more. But, if there was an improvement in bass, it was pretty modest.

 

@Bubo may have explained why I thought the speakers sounded better.

15 hours ago, Bubo said:

LaScalas are all about the human voice, primarily on the mid range horn aka squaker

 

Putting the mid range horn at ear level will definitely improve the human voice quality, specifically female vocal. aka Angels singing.

 

I'll definitely be building risers for my La Scalas (and replacing the gaskets on the bass bins). Until then I'm going to leave them on the dollies.

 

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