Got new La Scalas, need help with serial numbers

[heresy2guy]

Just bought two (2) new pairs of La Scalas for $1200. Well, they're new to me, but in actuality, they're used. They're of 1990s vintage I think, and both pairs are finished in black.

Serial numbers are as follows:

1st pair - 168390321; 168390330

2nd pair - 036298357; 042290694

Both pairs have "LS FIN. BLACK." on their rear tags.

Both pairs have AL-3 crossovers.

Can anybody tell me when they were made? I can't seem to decipher the serial numbers on their tags.

I saw an ad on craigslist.org for 2 pairs of la scalas - $300 per speaker. I thought it was a typo or something. Turns out the owner is a 36 year-old Marine GYSGT who's been recently transferred to MCAS Miramar, here in San Diego. He's also newly married. Apparently, he's on leave and is moving into his new home here. I guess his wife didn't want his 4 huge black klipsch la scalas in her new house so she put an ad on craigslist with his consent. I answered the ad, showed up at his home, and wound up paying $1200 cash for 4 klipsch la scalas. That's $300 per speaker, which seemed like an awesome price. And they were just 15 minutes from my home too.

I had to do it.

My wife's driving me nuts now because I walked into the house today with these monsters but hey, I'll just deal with it. I've been through worse over the last 12 years of marriage so I'll eventually weather the storm.

Amazingly, I managed to fit 2 La Scalas at a time in my Volvo 240 wagon. I just put the rear seat down, opened the rear hatch, and let the Volvo swallow them up. Yeah, I had to make two seperate trips in order to get all 4 speakers home, but I was pretty amazed at what my old Volvo wagon will carry. In fact, it'll probably beat many SUVs in cargo carrying capacity.

But anyway, back to the serial numbers. If anybody can decipher them, I'd really appreciate it.

Oh, he was also selling an older Onkyo amp (M-508 with 200 wpc or something) and an Onkyo pre-amp P-304 for $800. The M-508 looked like a nice piece with two large VU meters and was built like a tank. Weighed like one too.

Here's his ad:

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/ele/58185618.html

Anybody know anything about this particular combo, and is $800 a good price for both of them?

-Heresy2Guy

[Vavoline]

1st pair - 168390321; 168390330 - Both produced on 168th day of 1993

2nd pair - 036298357 - 36th day of 1992

042290694 - 42nd day of 1992

Congrats on your fine new heritage speakers!

"My wife's driving me nuts now because I walked into the house today with these monsters"......

Man, if you can carry four LaScallas into the house at one time, you are one bad mo fo!!!

[Vavoline]

P.S.. What a deal!

[Frzninvt]

That Onkyo M-508 is one hell of an amp if you are doing the HT thing I would make him an offer on the amp. Have it run your mains and you will have gobs of headroom not to mention dynamics and clarity that will be off the scale.

[Flason]

I have a M504(165wpc vs 200wpc of the 508)& P308 running my KHorns. $800 is a good price for the combo, but not a deal like you got on the Las. There is a 508 on Audiogon right now for $675. I would guess you can get the 308 for a little over $200, so if the pair is in good condition, I would get them. The 508 is a 2 channel amp and although there are connections for 2 sets of speakers, will sound best powering 1 set of speakers at a time.

[J.4knee]

So now you can change your moniker to "La Scala's too guy". Congrats

EDIT: Where are you at in San Diego? I live in San Marcos.

[heresy2guy]

Thanks for the manufacturing dates Vavoline!

And no, I didn't carry all four into the house at once. I took them one at a time via a small dolly, but you should see just how much floor space 4 la scalas take up. My wife commented today "Those things look ugly in black. They look like they belong at a concert somewhere, not in my house."

The finish is actually quite good, with just a few, very minor scuffs here and there. Compared to the la scalas from the 70s and early 80s that routinely show up on ebay, often with faded finshes and chunks of wood missing on corners and stuff mine look almost brand new.

Still, they're black and they do look like concert pieces so they wife complains a bit. Guess I can't blame her. Maybe a refinishing project is in the works over the summer, but it seems like it would be a real pain to try and work on the area around the folded horn. It's pretty tight in there.

At any rate, they sound fantastic. I hooked them up to my HK430 alongside my Heresy IIs. In a nutshell, they sound like Heresy times ten. They're so much more efficient that it really blew me away at first. They sound almost three to four times as loud at any given volume setting. The bass is different then the Heresy II as well and it's immediately apparent. I really don't see why people complain about a lack of bass in the La Scalas because it doesn't seem like a problem at all for most music. At least not with my HK430. Maybe I would feel otherwise if I switched to a different power source that offered less bass response, but I really don't sense a lack of bass at all right now. And it clearly trounces the Heresy in bass output. In fact, it trounces the Heresy in all departments. Like I said, Heresy times ten - that's the La Scala. Bigger, wider, louder, deeper. There's no competition whatsoever. After hearing the La Scalas, I could never go back to the Heresys as my main speakers. Right now I'm thinking about where in my master bedroom to place the Heresys, since my wife wants them out of the den. Maybe I'll find a place in the living room for them. Who knows...

I'll say this much though. Although it's been said that the Heresy is 2/3rds that of a Khorn due to the common midrange and tweeter drivers (at least on the original Heresy), I have trouble accepting it. It clearly isn't 2/3rds of a La Scala, sonically speaking at least, so how can it be so to a Khorn?

Thanks too for the imput on the Onkyo amp and preamp. They seem like quality pieces but I did read several reviews by owners claiming they had to replace the caps and that it was rather pricey and that they routinely failed on that model. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but I'm not in a position to dump another 800 smackers right now regardless. I might just end up buying another HK430 or maybe an HK730 to run the one pair of La Scalas since they sound so sweet right now. There's a big difference between spending $70 on a HK430 and $800 on an Onkyo, with or without potential reliability issues.

In conclusion however, I'm really happy about the sound from my new La Scalas. Other then the Khorn, I guess there's nothing else in the Klipsch lineup that can compare with the sheer "presence" that the La Scalas exhibit. And for $300 a speaker, you simply can't go wrong. I see it as if I practically stole them at that price.

And yeah, you gotta love that midrange horn - the thing's massive.

And sounds like it too.

[heresy2guy]

J.4knee - I'm down in the UTC/La Jolla area. We used to live in Shadowridge, which is in Vista, which, as you know, is right next to San Marcos.

You should keep your eyes glued to the craigslist.org ads here in san diego. I browse it practically every morning with my coffee and then sometimes at night after I eat dinner. You never know what you might find. Go to the "for sale" section and enter "klipsch." Craigslist is REALLY BIG up in San Fran by the way - there's tons of stuff up there listed for sale. About 2 weeks ago, I stumbled across 2 different ads for Fortes. One was for $400 and one was for $450. They both looked to be in excellent shape. I was VERY tempted to contact the poster of the $400 ad and hop in my wagon and drive up there and get them but I eventually blew it off.

Point is, craigslist beats Ebay hands-down. Ebay's now chock full of scammers - people trying to sell junk and taped-together items for premium prices. And then they have the nerve to try and fleece you on the shipping and their special handling charges too. It's nothing like it was back in '98 or '99.

Craislist has scammers too, but it doesn't seem like every other person is one, you know what I mean? That's why craigslist gets my nod over Ebay. It's not as specialized as Ebay, and it's definitely geographically limited, but that's not really a case out here in California.

Now if you were in Smallville, MT, it would be a totally different story, LOL.