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La Scala’s Stereophile April 2023 review


Ponch0069

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An honest review across the board including amplifier choice(s). Should my Jubilees somehow disappear I can easily live with my early version LaScalla. While listening at certain times I wonder if I need the Jubes at all - until they return to the system. However the LS could well be the last speaker I would consider selling - 

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The LaScala's have amazed me more than any of the other heritage series speakers in that somehow Klipsch was able to build speakers that weigh 175lbs each and feature 15" woofers yet are somehow only capable of going down to 51hz-the same bass my $400 Audioengine's produce with 5" woofers. They're really a marvel of sonic engineering but i'm sure all the LaScala apologists will come out of the woodwork to tell us how great they are but to spend $13,000 on a pair of enormous speakers that then require a subwoofer is really something

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To be sure, the LS are not apologetic be it

 

in any way, shape or form.You have only to imagine why the bass is the way  it is in given the history.

One can only conclude afterwards that, it is a successful speaker

within it's rightful  place in time. Cool?

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, carewser said:

The LaScala's have amazed me more than any of the other heritage series speakers in that somehow Klipsch was able to build speakers that weigh 175lbs each and feature 15" woofers yet are somehow only capable of going down to 51hz-the same bass my $400 Audioengine's produce with 5" woofers. They're really a marvel of sonic engineering but i'm sure all the LaScala apologists will come out of the woodwork to tell us how great they are but to spend $13,000 on a pair of enormous speakers that then require a subwoofer is really something


I can think of a number of speakers far more expensive than the LS that may not require a sub, but certainly benefit from it. And require is a strong word. Many owners don’t even feel the need to bother with a sub. The bass this speaker has is hard to fault for what it is.

 

Let's look at it from a different POV. If 2-3k subs added to a pair of lascalas gets you equal or better performance than most 15-20k speakers, then why wouldn’t you? And 13k might not be chump change, but it’s at the lower end of the spectrum for truly high end speakers.

 

Lastly, the bass a LaScala produces is NOT the same as your desktop monitors. That you even alluded to such a silly thing made me almost not take your post seriously enough to comment.

 

So this apologist will now slink back into the woodwork while you marvel at your computer speakers.

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5 hours ago, carewser said:

The LaScala's have amazed me more than any of the other heritage series speakers in that somehow Klipsch was able to build speakers that weigh 175lbs each and feature 15" woofers yet are somehow only capable of going down to 51hz-the same bass my $400 Audioengine's produce with 5" woofers. They're really a marvel of sonic engineering but i'm sure all the LaScala apologists will come out of the woodwork to tell us how great they are but to spend $13,000 on a pair of enormous speakers that then require a subwoofer is really something

Crazy sounding is it not but until you have heard horn loaded bass you will never understand. The bass it makes equals the quickness and dynamics of a cymbal. True it does not go as low as I would like but unless you want to spend more for the K-horn with an extra fold you just bite the bullet and buy a dedicated low note producer, sub, for notes below 50hz. When I bought my LaScala's they were half the price of the K-horns but way back then they were not furniture grade as they are now. I've suggested to Roy to reintroduce the old looking birch plywood LaScala to close the price gap between the Cornwall and LaScala. We have to wait and see if Klipsch thinks the idea profitable. 

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Every design is a series of trade offs

No speaker is better than every other speaker at everything

 

LaScala offers the finest reproduction of the human voice in the industy

especially the angels singing 400-6000 Hz

Horn loading allows the speaker to rise and fall quickly aka life like reproduction of cymbals, piano, bells etc with a sharp leading edge.

 

To get the low lows, add a front firing sub, with a tight response.

If you love deep bass, add two subs.

 

I purchased mine new in 1982

and have never looked back after countless demos of other gear

Same goes for McIntosh and Yamaha

There are lots of other great sounding amps

but not good enough to motive making a change.

 

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I truly love the older La Scalas I owned. I know I've harped on this before, but you can adjust the midrange down about 3db, which to my ears makes them sound more balanced. NOW, turn up the gain to bring the mids back and you'll have a little more bottom end. The LS doesn't magically have NO bass  elow 51Hz, it just starts rolling off pretty quick.

 

Did my MWMs give me more solid, lower bass? Sure, but they were big. What I have now are about double the size of La Scalas (picture two LS side by side). Eh, we'll see when I'm done getting the system together.

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10 hours ago, carewser said:

The LaScala's have amazed me more than any of the other heritage series speakers in that somehow Klipsch was able to build speakers that weigh 175lbs each and feature 15" woofers yet are somehow only capable of going down to 51hz-the same bass my $400 Audioengine's produce with 5" woofers. They're really a marvel of sonic engineering but i'm sure all the LaScala apologists will come out of the woodwork to tell us how great they are but to spend $13,000 on a pair of enormous speakers that then require a subwoofer is really something

You’re judging the quality of a speaker entirely on how low it plays with flat frequency response. And you make a ridiculous comparison of Klipsch Lascala to  a set of 5 inch speakers with a sensitivity rating of 83 db . You should have saved yourself some money and bought the Dayton B652’s for 49$ , they have a 6 inch woofer .🤓

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Ahhhh, just gotta love the "LaScalas have no bass" arguments (along with the tubes have no bass arguments). Always humored by those. I think it was Craig (NOSValves) who cured me of that misconception while the VRDs shook the sound room, while Craig shouts over the din "Whaddaya mean, LaScalas have no bass, hahahahahah...." like some sort of mad scientist, LOL.....nothing like driving seven hours to be proven a point.....

 

As a Belle owner I can identify with so much of this review, and was the way I cured my "all horn loaded" desires (KHorns and Jubes being outta the question here). LaScala is still a very viable and formidable choice.

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4 hours ago, OO1 said:

did you ever get a chance to audition Bose 901  speakers .:lol:

Well that was random. I'm not sure how Bose 901's got worked into the conversation about Klipsch LaScala's but as a teenager I can't think of any set of speakers I wanted more  than the Bose 901's but that was a long time ago and the reason I wanted them was because Bose claimed that had unlimited power handling but given how efficent the LaScala's are (like the rest of the Heritage line), I think Klipsch could make the same claim

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16 minutes ago, Audible Nectar said:

Ahhhh, just gotta love the "LaScalas have no bass" arguments (along with the tubes have no bass arguments). Always humored by those. I think it was Craig (NOSValves) who cured me of that misconception while the VRDs shook the sound room, while Craig shouts over the din "Whaddaya mean, LaScalas have no bass, hahahahahah...." like some sort of mad scientist, LOL.....nothing like driving seven hours to be proven a point.....

 

As a Belle owner I can identify with so much of this review, and was the way I cured my "all horn loaded" desires (KHorns and Tubes being outta the question here). LaScala is still a very viable and formidable choice.

With 105db sensitivity there's no doubt the LaScala's produce lots of bass, the problem is, 51hz isn't really deep or full sounding

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