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La Scala’s Stereophile April 2023 review


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Just now, Tom05 said:

They do , I’ve got a set of the original, and the air . I prefer the originals. I use them for Tv sound .🤓

Have mine on a reciever in the bedroom and in the kitchen as well. Good enough for background music. When I get serious though it is my LaScala's I listen with. 

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2 minutes ago, henry4841 said:

I was guilty of that myself when I was younger. Spec believer. You deserve it to yourself to hear a pair one day if you truly love music. Horns are not everyone's cup of tea, I will say that much but it is what turns me on.

I've already got the Promedia's and the Heritage Promedia's which both use tractrix horn tweeters and I don't hear much difference between them and regular dome tweeters although I know the LaScala's are all horns and obviously totally different than Klipsch's little multimedia speakers

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6 minutes ago, Tom05 said:

You should go out and listen to a big powerhouse horn  speaker system , like Lascala , and then report back . The speakers that you are referring too , are closer to IPhone speakers than the big Klipsch speakers  .BTW I was only joking about the B652  , you don’t really admire them do you?no offense 🤓BTW nothing wrong with you being a troll , just behave yourself.

I don't own a pair of the Dayton Audio's B652 Air's but Dayton has always impressed me how they were able to work in a little ribbon tweeter into such an inexpensive speaker

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5 minutes ago, Tom05 said:

They do , I’ve got a set of the original, and the air . I prefer the originals. I use them for Tv sound .🤓

We're going way off topic here but you actually prefer the 652's with the dome tweeter over the 652 Air's?!?! I also own a pair of speakers with ribbon tweeters (Kanto Tuk's) and that ribbon tweeter produces the smoothest sweetest highs i've ever heard

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3 minutes ago, carewser said:

We're going way off topic here but you actually prefer the 652's with the dome tweeter over the 652 Air's?!?! I also own a pair of speakers with ribbon tweeters (Kanto Tuk's) and that ribbon tweeter produces the smoothest sweetest highs i've ever heard

For music , the air easily wins , but for human speech I prefer the original.

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On 3/18/2023 at 1:00 PM, yamahaSHO said:

I couldn't read anymore after seeing someone judging speakers they've never heard.  Let alone, La Scalas 

The reason why I don't want to listen to a pair of LaScala's is the same reason I never want to hear a pair of Magnepan's or Audio Note's or Wilson's or Magico's because i'm sure they would all leave me disappointed with my speakers which i'm actually really happy with and I don't have 5 digits to spend on speakers

Edited by carewser
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3 minutes ago, carewser said:

The reason why I don't want to listen to a pair of LaScala's is the same reason I never want to hear a pair of Magnepans or Audio Note's or Wilson's or Magico's because i'm sure they would all leave me disappointed with my speakers which i'm actually really happy with and I don't have 5 digits to spend on speakers

I can relate to that

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15 minutes ago, carewser said:

The reason why I don't want to listen to a pair of LaScala's is the same reason I never want to hear a pair of Magnepans or Audio Note's or Wilson's or Magico's because i'm sure they would all leave me disappointed with my speakers which i'm actually really happy with and I don't have 5 digits to spend on speakers

 

I paid $800 for mine. Bought them as a shop speaker.  Liked them enough to move them into the living room. 

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I took my tube amps in to have them worked on... at a little shop in the same building as the current offices of Western Electric. The tech does some work for the owner of WE, who also collects vintage stereo gear. When I went to pick up my amps, he had them warmed up and connected to a tall pair of a German brand of speakers.

 

They sounded great, but I didn't think they sounded $140k + than my beater La Scalas sounded.

 

It doesn't hurt to listen to more expensive gear.  Kinda fun somerimes, even knowing you may never be able to or want to get those REALLY high end speakers (or amps, cables, cd player, trurntable, magic stones...)

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They were Gauder Akustik, the Berlina series.

 

https://gauderakustik.com/en/index.php/loudspeaker/berlina-series/overview-berlina-series

 

They had a smaller set as well. My 2A3 amps are sitting between them on a cart. Admittedly, it was in a workshop area with a bunch of RTR decks and vintage receivers everwhere.

 

 

20180217_112655~2.jpg

 

They aren't horns, they didn't have the snappiness/dynamics that horns have. Visually they were ok... I don't worry about looks much, but horns systems are just more appealing to me. Although I do still have my JBL 4311 studio monitors from the early '70s. Although, if you only went by specs, you wouldn't have used them.

 

Anyway, I took my amps home, hooked them back up to my LaScalas and enjoyed the music. Lively, toe tapping stuff. Always put a smile on my face and great sense of satisfaction.

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18 hours ago, Marvel said:

I took my tube amps in to have them worked on... at a little shop in the same building as the current offices of Western Electric.

 

It doesn't hurt to listen to more expensive gear.  Kinda fun somerimes, even knowing you may never be able to or want to get those REALLY high end speakers (or amps, cables, cd player, trurntable, magic stones...)

I'm mostly envious that you have a little shop local that works on gear.

 

And there are many instances that listening to more expensive gear tells you that some people have more money than brains...

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I've listened to a set of these at ListenUp a few years ago...  They sounded good, but they didn't make think any different about my La Scalas and a sub.  They weren't $137k better and the LaScalas don't require the big/expensive/heavy amps to sound good, like the Focal's had.

 

 

https://gridhifi.com/shop/speakers/floor-standing-towers/focal-grande-utopia-em-evo/?variant=1024176&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google Shopping&gclid=CjwKCAjw5dqgBhBNEiwA7PryaAmjBOqWsc8CZUNnwFZNxahfXMIdMsnRWRa7QUNntIvCXA1DLEL4shoCKRcQAvD_BwE

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Although quieter, I can hear lower tones than 50 Hz with my LaScala when placed close to the wall if I use a tone generator.
But that is not my point. It's not about lowest frequencies and it's not (only and rather rarely) about high volume. 
The LaScala delivers a quality that most other speakers can not realize. I call it the energy of bass...in combination with the energy of mids and highs, it is the energy of sound. It's the superior serenity of a big block V8 like performance that I hear and love. It is breathing sound with the quickness of reality and the authority of nature.
With the LaScala, a heavy wooden door slamming into a lock sounds just like a real heavy wooden door slamming into a lock. So does the surf of a big wave on the rock, a thunder or the delicate sound of Pablo Casals' cello.
I cannot describe better what is the difference between "electric" sounding direct radiators and the "natural" LaScala sound.

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On 3/20/2023 at 10:03 AM, KT88 said:

Although quieter, I can hear lower tones than 50 Hz with my LaScala when placed close to the wall if I use a tone generator.
But that is not my point. It's not about lowest frequencies and it's not (only and rather rarely) about high volume. 
The LaScala delivers a quality that most other speakers can not realize. I call it the energy of bass...in combination with the energy of mids and highs, it is the energy of sound. It's the superior serenity of a big block V8 like performance that I hear and love. It is breathing sound with the quickness of reality and the authority of nature.
With the LaScala, a heavy wooden door slamming into a lock sounds just like a real heavy wooden door slamming into a lock. So does the surf of a big wave on the rock, a thunder or the delicate sound of Pablo Casals' cello.
I cannot describe better what is the difference between "electric" sounding direct radiators and the "natural" LaScala sound.

You used a lot of ethereal terms there I don't really understand but i've heard people use similar language in describing the sound of LP's which is another thing i'll never understand as it's flawed 128 year old technology that I moved beyond a long time ago

Were I to purchase any of the Heritage Line from Klipsch i'm pretty sure i'd go with the Cornwall's as i'm something of a bass and spec hound and they're cheaper and smaller than the LaScala's yet for some reason produce much deeper bass (34hz compared to 51hz)

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