La Scala II's In The House!

[jdm56]

Arrived today; rockin' the house tonight! Arrived in fine condition, courtesy Yellow Freight.

Surprised at how high the bass starts rolling off! Down 4dB @ 100 Hz in the corners; down 6.5dB @ 100 Hz mid-wall. Oh well, I figured I'd need subs anyway. May have to plan an upgrade in the dept. ...Next year, maybe.

Sound quality is wonderful. Kinda like having the music hard-wired right to your brain. Imaging is excellent and even the depth is good. Best imaging of all the big ol' heritage speakers, imo. All I've listened to so far is Carmen and Dire Straits. I'll be up all night!!! See Ya!

[Islander]

Congrats on your LS IIs! Sounds like you're enjoying them. As you've noticed, the horns of the bass bins are too small to go really deep (explain that to the lady of the house!), but what bass you get is clear and strong.

La Scala IIs and La Scalas (even more so) really do need the help of a sub to put out the bottom couple of octaves, but then you'll have really top-level sound right across the frequency range.

[Coytee]

[Y] Nice [Y]

You'd better velcro those knick knacks along the wall to something !!

[]

[jdm56]

I've got a pair of Velodyne DLS-4000R's to use with them. I'm running them up to 80Hz and running the LSII's full range. I'm getting pretty flat response down into the 25H band with the subs doing all the heavy lifting. It's odd, but those Velo subs sure sound a lot better now than they did with the 85dB sens. MoFi's! A lot of what we interpret as percussive bass must be over 80Hz! The sledgehammer effect. Because now, the bass is SLAMMIN! Even though the same two subs are doing the bottom two octaves.

[Islander]

You might want to experiment with the subs running up to 90, 100, or even 110Hz, so there's no dip between where the LS IIs start to roll off and where the subs pick up, since the sub rolls off, too, rather than cutting off sharply at its top end. My sub is set at 150Hz with the JubScalas running full-range and the bass is smooth and natural.

[colterphoto1]

Congrats

MC = LS rolled off at 90 Hz to THX sub system.

[picky]

jdm56: Man, do I ever "hate" you now! LOL [] You lucky dog! I am GREEN with envy! I wish I had both the room and the cash; I love LaScalas, especially the twos! Have fun! -Glenn

[seti]

When I ran a sub with Belles I had the sub crosed at 45-50. It never seemed quite right crossed higher for me. With the khorns when I use the sub it is crossed about 35. The volume is also dialed in fairly low on the sub.

[jdm56]

jdm56: Man, do I ever "hate" you now! LOL You lucky dog! I am GREEN with envy! I wish I had both the room and the cash; I love LaScalas, especially the twos! Have fun! -Glenn

Please don't hate me! Hate mushy sound instead!![]

Yes, I'm a very lucky dude! My wife puts up with me and my audio-obsessive ways, and with our basement, we have space enough for me to indulge my passion without "cluttering up" her living room.

The 'Scala's are sounding amazing! I feel like this is the sound I wanted with my k-horns but could never get in our current house because of room and placemet issues. The 'Scala's are much more adaptable, being shorter and not requiring corner placement. Of course, they really do need subs, and good ones if you intend to use much of the La Scala's output capability. My Velodynes are doing an admirable job keeping up, but I'm thinking an upgrade down the road would be good. How about four SVS powered cylinders?[6]

Actually, I did try the speakers w/o subs, but the bass was just too thin to be acceptable. And I also tried the same thing but with the bass tone control on my amp dialed up a bit. It is centered at 100Hz, so it falls just about right to compensate for the rolled off response of the 'Scalas. And i could live with that if I had to. It sounded MUCH better with 4-6dB of bass boost, but still there is nothing usable below 50Hz or so. ...So, subs are still the best tonic.

It sure does get me thinking that these guys who build "CornScala's" are really on to something, though. I sit and look at that La Scala bass bin and think, "man, what if you just ripped that dog house and driver right outta there and mounted a big ol' 15" woofer on a baffle and stuck it in there?... I suppose, for one thing, you'd have to pad the horns down to keep from having a mismatch in output, but still I think there is a lot of potential there for those with the guts and the skills to pursue it.

And Pick', don't be too envious. Nobody's knocking on my door wanting to take pictures of my rig![]

[LarryC]

A break-in issue? How many hours so far? It took around 40 for the bass to fill in when my AK-4 setup was new. Then, it was fine.

[jdm56]

When I ran a sub with Belles I had the sub crosed at 45-50. It never seemed quite right crossed higher for me. With the khorns when I use the sub it is crossed about 35. The volume is also dialed in fairly low on the sub.

I'm sure i could get by with a lower x/o to the subs if I put the La Scala's in the room corners, but that causes the response to get rough in the upper bass / lower mids. Or at least in my room it did. True, I would prefer to let the Scalas cover as much spectrum as possible, but I didn't get acceptably smooth response through the bass until I set the x/o up to 80Hz. I tried 60 and 70. I have not tried going any higher. I'm pretty happy withthe performance where it is. Other than It'd be nice to have a little more of it!![6]

[jdm56]

A break-in issue? How many hours so far? It took around 40 for the bass to fill in when my AK-4 setup was new. Then, it was fine.

Could be that it will get a bit better, but I doubt it would get that much better! I just got these puppies yesterday, so they don't have over 6-8 hours on'em yet.

[Islander]

The 'Scala's are sounding amazing! I feel like this is the sound I wanted with my k-horns but could never get in our current house because of room and placemet issues. The 'Scala's are much more adaptable, being shorter and not requiring corner placement. Of course, they really do need subs, and good ones if you intend to use much of the La Scala's output capability. My Velodynes are doing an admirable job keeping up, but I'm thinking an upgrade down the road would be good. How about four SVS powered cylinders?

Unless you listen to a lot of rap at high volume, it's hard to imagine needing 4 subs. The single sub in my setup does just fine, with its level set around the 10 o'clock position (no markings around the knob), and I do listen to loud music and movies sometimes. Do you need to have your Velodynes cranked up to keep up with the LS IIs? If they're not working too hard now, they may be all you need.

[jdm56]

The 'Scala's are sounding amazing! I feel like this is the sound I wanted with my k-horns but could never get in our current house because of room and placemet issues. The 'Scala's are much more adaptable, being shorter and not requiring corner placement. Of course, they really do need subs, and good ones if you intend to use much of the La Scala's output capability. My Velodynes are doing an admirable job keeping up, but I'm thinking an upgrade down the road would be good. How about four SVS powered cylinders?

Unless you listen to a lot of rap at high volume, it's hard to imagine needing 4 subs. The single sub in my setup does just fine, with its level set around the 10 o'clock position (no markings around the knob), and I do listen to loud music and movies sometimes. Do you need to have your Velodynes cranked up to keep up with the LS IIs? If they're not working too hard now, they may be all you need.

Arghhh! You used the "N" word! (you been hanging around my wife?) ...No, I don't need four subs in a 15x21 room, BUT, better too much bass than not enough! Right?[H] I don't know how hard the Velodynes are working, really. Right now, blending well with the horns, the volume on them is set at 47 on a scale that runs 0-100. Last night I was cranking up Dire Strait's remastered "Brothers In Arms" CD and checked the peak levels: 90-95 dB at the listening position. Add maybe 6dB to compenste for the distance and maybe the LSII's were approaching 1W of input, and the subs may have been hitting 50-60W. If that's the case, they were getting a moderate workout. Whatever, they sounded really good!

[Eric B]

It sure does get me thinking that these guys who build "CornScala's" are really on to something, though. I sit and look at that La Scala bass bin and think, "man, what if you just ripped that dog house and driver right outta there and mounted a big ol' 15" woofer on a baffle and stuck it in there?... I suppose, for one thing, you'd have to pad the horns down to keep from having a mismatch in output, but still I think there is a lot of potential there for those with the guts and the skills to pursue it.

I had two of those many years ago... I think the guy who sold them to me called it a 'terminator bin copy' It was bigger, but the same basic shape as the 'Scalas and had a 15"Celestion sub. Two of those could supply bass for an entire school gym.[]

[ClaudeJ1]

You might want to experiment with the subs running up to 90, 100, or even 110Hz, so there's no dip between where the LS IIs start to roll off and where the subs pick up, since the sub rolls off, too, rather than cutting off sharply at its top end. My sub is set at 150Hz with the JubScalas running full-range and the bass is smooth and natural.

I was using my MWMs as LaScala Bottoms before my current "stack" (see avatar). I crossed them at 150 Hz also, which tamed the bass peak there, but with the LS II's I guess they did that in the Xover, but it's easy enough to experiment with different sub-Xover points to hear what sounds best in one's particular ROOM since everything below 300 Hz depends more on the room than anything else.

[jdm56]

Please excuse my blathering on, but I had time to listen to a couple of CD's to day on the LSII's and just wanted to "opine".

This AM it was Josh Rouse's "Nashville". Lot's of acoustic guitar and pedal steel, but it ain't country. Anyway, the sound was wonderful! I'd forgotten how clear those big horns can sound. But not spotlit or hot, but just smooth and clear. A clarity that I would attribute to the controlled directivity of the horns. Kind of like listening to the worlds biggest headphones. (Well, except for the k-horn and the jubilee)

Then this evening I had a chance to squeeze in "All American Bluegrass Girl" by Rhonda Vincent (yum-yum!). Again, the clarity is what stands out. And the bass is so clean. Of course, I've got the pair of 12" Velodyne DLS subs running below 80Hz, but I swear, they sound 10 times better than they did before the La Scala's came into the picture. Weird!

The main impressions of the La Scala II I have at this point, after being away from klipsch heritage for 4-5 years is this: Unmatched sense of ease, inaudibly low distortion, incredible clarity, pinpoint imaging and good depth and three-dimensionality. The only sonic deficiency I hear is the rolled off bass. And I guess the sweet spot is kind of small. But that's about it!

[mbajner]

Jmd56

I recently audition LSII’s and came to about the same conclusion

The openness of the midrange and clear highs was outstanding

I was able to compare these to other Heritage speakers all in the same room

The Klipschorns that I heard sounded boomy in the small room that they were in

For the price of the LSII’s I was disappointed in the bass response

Not sure what you paid but for a pair of speakers costing over $5,000

one would expect more from them

Mark

[jdm56]

Jmd56

The Klipschorns that I heard sounded boomy in the small room that they were in

For the price of the LSII’s I was disappointed in the bass response

Mark

Yeah, I agree. K-horns gotta have room! And it needs to be a good room; not just big.

I concede your point: For the money (and size!), LSII's don't make much deep or even mid bass. Neither do Quad electrotatics, though, and look what they go for! LSII's are about clarity and low distortion and life-like dynamics. I think the price is fair, considering you get world class performance in those areas. You can then "season to taste" with all the subwoofage you care to add! Another option is to put the La Scala's in room corners and/or use an EQ or tone control to fatten up the bass. This will get you solid down to 50Hz. But the best option, IMO, is a good sub (or subs). Almost all speakers/rooms can benefit from quality subwoofage anyway. And once you add that, I'd put the La Scala's up against anything out there.

[Marvel]

For the money (and size!), LSII's don't make much deep or even mid bass

It is slightly rolled off bass, and superb mid bass.

I don't have subs on my LS, and they sound great in my room. The LSII have even better, tighter bass.