La Scala II Stereophile Review

[Tarheel]

Subscribers are getting theirs now, I don't know about newsstands. I thought the review was just pretty good, as Tellig wandered over a lot of old territory on PWK's life while getting to the point. I was never quite sure what all the positives were, as he kept busy slaying decades-old dragons about horn sound and prattling on about the dynamics. Toward the end, he said he added a super-tweeter, the Visaton TL 16H from Germany, to get the sparkle he was missing. This altering of a manufacturer's product in a test seemed to be out of the ordinary and didn't set that well with me.

He ended up on a positive note, saying that he was keeping his La Scalas (Visaton and all?).

lc

Has anyone heard these tweeters (Visaton TL 16H)? I am in the process of building La Scalas and had been planning on using Beymas. Is his hookup to the binding post of the speaker without the xover an acceptable practice?

Chuck

[Lascaladan]

Although I have not been a subscriber to Stereophile for a long time, I do visit my local book store to read these, and, other mags. It has always been interesting to read opinions from listeners like us, who have excellent writing skills. The fact that a reviewer has aquired a demo pair for purchase says it all. Adding the super tweeters might be compensating for room acoustics, loss of HF extension of his ears, or simply liking "more". Many audiophiles have "stayed away" from horns, for many reasons. Soundstaging, coherence, front to back depth, just to name a few, are words they have used to describe the listening virtues they were looking for. Dynamics, speed, visceral impact, detail, are some that I have always looked for as well. To have a speaker that "does it all" is a great achievement. My LSs do it all. I am sure the 11s do it too, maybe better.

[Arash]

I'm so interested in Sam Telling's Review about Scala but can't find it anywhere on the earth... dag up all the google and yahoo and bing and every other nasty SEs but failed... anyone has a copy of this review?

[wuzzzer]

http://www.soundhifi.com/klipsch/sam.htm

[Dr Morbius]

Thanks, I hadn't seen the review. Now if they could only test the Klipschorn.............[<)]

[garyrc]

........... Now if they could only test the Klipschorn.............

J. Gordon Holt threatened to, back when he was editor. He said he
would try to find a pair to borrow. It never happened. I believe he
said musicians had been writing in asking him to, since they appreciated
the realistic "tonality" of Klipschorns and sometimes did not recognize
their own instruments when listening through speakers deemed "high end."
Holt may have been able to step aside from the heavy anti-horn bias
of many audiophiles of that time. Long after Holt retired, the new
editor reported receiving some positive comments from him (I don't
remember what) about big horns, and I think our own Garrison of this
forum was also quoted in that editorial.

One great thing about
the Tellig review (like him or not) is that here is someone who has
heard high end speakers on a regular basis who likes the La Scala II.

The
anti-horn bias seems to be receding now, and Klipschorns might get a
good review, partly on the grounds that they are more affordable than
exotic horns, and have the virtues Tellig mentioned. Hopefully, they
would be well sealed into the corners, with no obstructions for 4 feet
out, etc., conditions I rarely saw in stores
when K-horns were commonplace in showrooms (there were 6 -- count 'em --
6 stores in the S.F. Bay Area with Khorns being demonstrated in the mid
'70s**). For some strange reason, I
never saw a horn speaker of any kind being demonstrated in a store
posturing as catering to the Golden Ear High End folk. so the customers had to take the word of the salons about the sound of horns -- and they did. One
Khorn dealer, who also had a variety of other good brands, including
many direct radiators, and horns by Altec and JBL, pointed out that the
profit margin for the dealer was lower when the speaker was labor
intensive to build, like almost all with big horn loaded bass cabinets.

What I would really like to see would be a review comparing three
speakers: the K-horn, the Jub, and whatever similarly priced speaker is a
Stereophile favorite at the moment.

** Poor Richard's, Christopher's, The Listening Post, Pro-Audio, Berkeley Custom Electronics, and The Good Guys.