scotbuck Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 Greetings, Today I officially adopted a mint pair of 1978 La Scalas and introduced them to their new home in my living room. Aside from general giddiness, here are my initial impressions. THE LOOKS Before I even plugged them into my system I was impressed by how gorgeous these speakers are. While they're quite large, they really do look like fine furniture. The grain on the birch is stunning, and the all-wood look of the basshorn mouth (as opposed to a grill) sets things off nicely. Definitely an unexpected bonus. THE SOUND A buddy helped me transport the speakers (he dubbed them "The Twins") and requested that I christen them with some "Dark Side of the Moon" on vinyl. The song "Time" seemed a good place to start. Now I've heard this song more times than I can count on a variety of systems I've had over the years, but I've never heard it the way "The Twins" handled it. First off, the bass drum at the beginning of the song was deep and plump, with no sponginess -- just a series of good, meaty "thwak-thwaks". The drum was, compard to most other speakers I've had, a little more recessed in the mix (but still more prominent than it was with my old Lowther-based system). Next, the tom-toms had incredible dynamics an size. They really breathed and expanded into the reverberant physical space they were in. Definitely gave the impression that these were real-sized drums rather than a compressed version of real drums. The same holds true for the cymbal crashes, which also had an incredible amount of air around them without the annoying "fizz" that many speakers have. Next on to "461 Ocean Boulevard", also on vinyl. Eric Clapton's voice was reproduced with much greater clarity than what my kg4's offered up. On the kg4s he seemed a little muffled, whereas on the La Scalas his voice sounds mellow without being swallowed up in the mix. Guitars had more weight and real-world size, and the harmonics from the distortion (whether it be natural tube overdrive or effects pedal based) was unexaggerated and natural sounding. At this point my buddy and I had to run (there was beer to be brewed ) so I'll have to provide more sonic impressions later... THE FRONT-END TWEAKS I've read numerous times that a lot of the Klipsch speakers are not very forgiving of any equipment flaws in the front end of the system. This was borne out in my initial listening session. First of all, the La Scalas definitely prefer my tube amp to my tripath amp (lucky thing I didn't sell it!). Interestingly enough, the opposite was true of the kg4's. Also, I've heard from several sources that the OM series of Ortofon cartridges (mine is an OM-5E) can be somewhat strident. With my Lowthers and kg4's I never found this to be true; the cartridge simply let the mids and highs come through better, whereas, say, a Sure V-15 sounded a bit rolled-off. With the La Scalas, however, I can now hear what the reviewers were saying about the cartridge. I guess it's all about system matching -- but it looks like a new cartridge is definitely in my future. Any suggestions??? (Currently I'm using a Kenwood KD-500 'table with an Infinity Black Widow arm.) Well that's it for now. As always, your thoughts and impressions are very much encouraged and greatly appreciated. Take care, Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leok Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 scotbuck, Congratulations on the Twins. I wish I could fit a pair of those in my house. I'm curious about what it is about the sound of tube over Tripath that you prefer. I find the same, but our reasons may be different. I find with tubes (both SET and PP), the very top end is cleaner. I've always attributed the Tripath high end issue to be the op-amp front end, but am beginning to wonder. What do you prefer about the tube sound? Leo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 Nice writeup Scotbuck! From the looks of your assemblege of guitar amps, you definitely know what sound you prefer. Your descriptions of the LS sound were spot-on! Congrats on your Heritage purchase. Enjoy a while before pursuing the modifications. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandi Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 I have LaScalas but do not have them in a room to do them justice, reading your writeup makes me want to move mine and swap them out with my Corns for a while. You will have to change the nickname for your speakers or I will be very confused, since there is a memer here who routinely takes out his twins (tube amps I think),but you can keep the name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 Yes Mssr Thebes will not enjoy someone else tinkering with 'The Twins'LOL Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotbuck Posted July 17, 2005 Author Share Posted July 17, 2005 ---------------- On 7/17/2005 9:44:39 AM leok wrote: scotbuck, Congratulations on the Twins. I wish I could fit a pair of those in my house. I'm curious about what it is about the sound of tube over Tripath that you prefer. I find the same, but our reasons may be different. I find with tubes (both SET and PP), the very top end is cleaner. I've always attributed the Tripath high end issue to be the op-amp front end, but am beginning to wonder. What do you prefer about the tube sound? Leo ---------------- Greetings Leo, It's a very interesting thing because with my kg4's I actually preferred the tripath sound. I noticed, however, that the tripath amps have a nominal 6-ohm load which perfectly matches my kg4s. Perhaps this is a contributing factor??? In my home with the La Scalas, the tripath now sounds a little too "gray" with slightly subdued highs and lows. This is puzzling because when I visited the seller's home to audition the La Scalas, I brought my tripath amp (the toob amp was just too dang heavy!) In the seller's home, using his cables, the tripath amp sounded great. Even the seller, who owns some SET monoblocks, had his jaw drop in disbelief. So perhaps his cables let the tripath amp sing despite the slight impedance mismatch with the La Scalas. Conversely, the somewhat weak sound I was getting from my tube amp with the kg4's has vanished. I'm getting the same strength and impact I got with my Lowther setup (although I think the La Scalas sound better). The sound is quite natural and more realistic than with the tripath. Why is this so? As the King of Siam said to Anna: "Is a puzzlement!" Take care, Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotbuck Posted July 17, 2005 Author Share Posted July 17, 2005 ---------------- On 7/17/2005 10:38:32 AM mandi wrote: ... You will have to change the nickname for your speakers or I will be very confused, since there is a memer here who routinely takes out his twins (tube amps I think),but you can keep the name. ---------------- Greetings, Sounds fair enough! I'm open to any and all suggestions! Take care, Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotbuck Posted July 17, 2005 Author Share Posted July 17, 2005 ---------------- On 7/17/2005 10:12:31 AM colterphoto1 wrote: ...Enjoy a while before pursuing the modifications. Michael ---------------- Greetings Michael, I couldn't resist the urge to roll some toobs. I brought back the vintage stuff -- Telefunken, RCA, Amprex -- and ya know what? Me likee!!! Take care, Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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