After having built many amplifiers as a young man, Sakuma-san experienced an epiphany: Amplifiers that measured well often failed to make him feel deeply. He soon discovered that, for him, the most emotional sound came from mono systems powered by transformer-coupled amplifiers that used directly heated triode tubes.
In 1968, somewhat improbably, Sakuma-san opened a restaurant in the quaint seaside town of Tateyama. The eatery, called Concorde, was crowded with amplifiers of his design, which he demonstrated with a Garrard 401 turntable, a damped Grace tonearm, a Denon DL-102 mono cartridge, and Altec and Lowther speakers. Apparently, Concorde also served food: For years, the sole dish prepared by Sakuma-san was "hamburger steak," which came with two sauces and cost around $10.
In the articles on hi-fi that he contributed to the Japanese magazine MJ, Sakuma-san also wrote about film, fishing, karaoke, and pachinko machines, and he usually began and ended his contributions with a poem. He considered himself an evangelist for emotional sound and demonstrated his audio systems in homes, at conferences, and on concert stages around the world. Though he passed in 2018, his fan club, called Direct Heating, remains a happening concern (footnote 1). Sakuma-san was fond of coining mottos—one was "farewell to theory"—but what has stuck with me most is his description of the ideal sound: "endless energy with sorrow."
Living with the Klipsch La Scalas This phrase came to mind often during the months I spent living with the Klipsch La Scala speakers, which imbued my musical life with unprecedented amounts of sound and emotion, and which I believe Sakuma-san would have enjoyed. Despite what some of the glossy ads, in this magazine and elsewhere, would have us believe, no speaker can excel at every aspect of musical reproduction. All of them, even the megabuck ziggurats, are a compromise. Yet what the La Scalas do well is so rare in today's audio scene, and so fun, that everyone should experience it at least once. Their strengths also happen to dovetail neatly with my musical and sonic biases. It goes without saying that these biases may not be yours.
First introduced in 1963 as a public address speaker, the La Scala, now in its AL5 iteration, is the smallest of Klipsch's fully horn-loaded models, a little sibling to the venerable Klipschorn (with which it shares its three drive units) and the newer Jubilee. Of course, it's not even remotely small: Each speaker, made of birch plywood and MDF, measures 40" tall, 24 ¼" wide, and 25 5/16" deep, and weighs 201lb. (Just typing that number sent a twinge through my lower back.)
The La Scala is composed of two stacked sections. The upper cabinet contains the tweeter—a compression driver with a 1" polyimide diaphragm mated to a Tractrix horn—and the midrange unit: a compression driver with a 2" phenolic diaphragm mated to an exponential horn. Both horns are made of ABS plastic. The lower cabinet contains a 15" fiber-composite-cone woofer that's mounted backward and fires into a folded horn (which some would argue is in fact a waveguide). The rear of the upper cabinet has two sets of heavy-duty binding posts, allowing for biwiring but not biamping.
Mercifully, assembly was not nearly as odious as I expected thanks to the La Scala's modular structure and the bass cabinet's substantial rubber feet, which made moving the speakers surprisingly easy. Assembly does require two people, and one part—holding the upper cabinet while connecting its wire harness to the lower one—requires three, as I learned after much grunting, awkward contortion, and foul language.
Despite the La Scala's boxy form—roughly the size and shape of a washing machine at a big-city laundromat—I found its appearance delightful. The book-matched walnut veneer on the pair I auditioned was seamlessly applied and beautifully finished, making the $13,198/pair La Scalas appear more heirloom-worthy and furniture-like than many pricier alternatives. Even the magnetic grilles, done up in a guitar-amp mesh and sporting vintage-looking logos, were conceived with enough restraint to look cool. Nothing comes off quite as pandering and corny as retro styling done wrong, and Klipsch should be commended for hiring astute designers.
The manual offers assembly illustrations and one solitary paragraph of text. Reading it, I learned that 1W of power will cause the Klipsches to emit a hair-raising 105dB, roughly the amount of noise made by a Douglas DC-8 at one nautical mile. (110dB is the average human threshold for pain.) I also spotted a diagram suggesting that the La Scalas should be placed 13'–17' apart, a recommendation I found a bit laughable given that most of us don't live in a Greyhound terminal or aboard Jeff Bezos's superyacht.
In practice, the La Scalas proved to be fairly forgiving about placement, though they sounded bloated when pushed against a wall and a little bass-light when pulled more than a few feet into the room. Some internet commentators suggest toeing them in 45° and crossing them in front of the listener, but in this position they sounded pretty awful. The Klipsches ended up working best roughly in the same spot as my Altec Valencias: 8½' apart, 2½' from the front wall, and some 10' from the listening seat, toed in to cross slightly behind it.
Listening When the folks at Klipsch offered to send me a new pair of La Scalas for review, I requested that the speakers undergo several hundred hours of use before they were shipped, but this proved impossible. Straight out of the cartons, they had a plasticky, nasal sound and gummy transient response; with low-power tube amps, they refused to make much bass at all. Happily, all of this went away after about 100 hours of use. Patience is something I struggle with, and I admit that I came to some incorrect conclusions about the Klipsches before those long hours elapsed.
Oh, and about those neat-looking grilles: Music sounded more open without them, so regretfully I left them off.
The La Scalas offer a fundamentally different experience than most audiophile speakers. Their ability to (re)produce lifelike dynamic contrasts and scale is unmatched by any speaker I've had in my home, and matched by few speakers I've heard anywhere (all of which were larger). Once most speakers reach a satisfying volume, they allow a fairly limited range of additional loudness before they begin to compress, sound grainy, or distort. With the La Scalas, that range was practically limitless: I could set the volume anywhere from Mozart-trio moderate to Mastodon-concert loud with no audible penalty. In part that's because horn loading allows not only for increased sensitivity and efficiency but also for drive units to operate at lower levels of distortion.
The Klipsches created sonic images that were eerily, entirely life-sized and placed them on a stage as large as the recording and the room allowed. Combined with their hair-raising dynamic chops, this allowed the La Scalas to come uncannily close to creating the illusion of real musicians playing in a room. That's a big-time reviewing cliché, so perhaps a more effective way to communicate this is to say that they reveal how radically most speakers—even large ones—miniaturize the dynamics and scale of recordings.
I couldn't get enough of this illusion. Near the middle of "The Windmills of Your Mind," from Dusty in Memphis (LP Atlantic SD 8214), there's a moment when the band, the string section, the background voices of the Sweet Inspirations, and Dusty Springfield all surge. Played at a satisfying volume through most speakers, this crescendo comes across as a splashy, screechy mess. The La Scalas made me aware of the extent to which I had trained my brain to fill in the missing information; through them, I heard every detail of this passage, played at a loudness comparable to what the recording engineer must have heard at Memphis's American Sound Studio in September 1968.
The big Klipsches also allowed me to hear an array of meaningful detail with startling clarity: the reverb on Springfield's voice, her intakes of breath before every phrase, the mahogany chunk of Reggie Young's electric guitar, the coppery ring of Gene Chrisman's cymbal. These musicians appeared in front of me utterly human-sized, playing and singing in physical space with realistic force. With the right amplifiers (more on this later), the La Scalas also imbued this recording with copious presence, texture, and tone color, making it as lifelike and complete as I've heard it. (What I heard was an illusion in more ways than one: Springfield recorded her final vocals in New York and had them overdubbed. Aren't records great?)
If I'm making the Klipsches sound like a party speaker that excels only at playing loud, permit me to correct that impression. "Do they play opera?" Herb Reichert asked when I enthused to him about the La Scalas. That's a fair question given that they're named after the world's most storied opera venue. Listening to Boris Khaikin and the Bolshoi Theater orchestra and choir's rendition of the letter scene in Eugene Onegin (Spotify BMG Classics 74321170902), I was struck by the delicacy with which the big horns rendered this compressed mono recording from 1955, first issued on the Soviet Melodiya label. It happens to be my favorite version of Tchaikovsky's opera, with a radiant, 20-something Galina Vishnevskaya in the role of Tatyana and Khaikin taking the score faster than is common today, imbuing it with vigor and wit missing from more lugubrious readings. This nearly 70-year-old recording also showed off the Klipsches' buoyant way of carrying rhythmic lines, which sound as dancing or as relentless as the music dictates.
The La Scala is not without flaws, or more precisely, limitations. Surprising for a speaker of such ample proportions, it doesn't do really deep bass; its 15" woofer rolls off steeply at around 50Hz. Roy Delgado, Klipsch's chief audio engineer, told me that this is a result of a compromise that allowed Paul Klipsch to design a relatively compact bass horn. (The Cornwall, a smaller and less expensive sibling in Klipsch's Heritage line, dispenses with the bass horn and goes down to 35Hz.) Whether this deficit might be a problem for you depends on your musical diet and priorities. While I noticed bass missing on certain electronic music and hip hop recordings, I rarely missed it; some La Scala owners, though, use a subwoofer. I should add that, despite being limited, the Klipsches' bass is in no way wimpy: When called upon, the big horns emitted bass notes as stentorian and downright scary as any speakers I've lived with.
Last, while the La Scalas throw an enormous and cavernous soundstage, they do not create the razor-sharp sonic holographs of the kind conjured by certain contemporary minimonitors. But if that's crucial to you, you probably aren't considering these speakers.
In my room, the Klipsches' frequency response sounded just a shade richer than neutral, with an extended but mellow top end and some added presence in the lower midrange and upper bass. This euphonic voicing made poor recordings easier to listen to and good recordings propulsive and fun. I wouldn't change it for a flatter one, but frequency-response-graph enthusiasts for whom absolute neutrality is paramount should probably look elsewhere.
Footnote 1: You can learn more about Sakuma-san and his designs on the Direct Heating website: www.big.or.jp/~dh.
Log in or register to post comments COMMENTS Best frequency response I've ever seen for a pure horn. Submitted by remlab on March 17, 2023 - 9:57am I was definitely not expecting to see that. Log in or register to post comments Bass!!! Submitted by georgehifi on March 17, 2023 - 3:16pm It's -10dB down at 45hz for a speaker the size of a fridge!!!! with a broadband bump at 150hz of +5db to make up for it. I owned a pair of the originals to see what all the hoo-ha was about, sure they went loud without too much stress (so does a PA system) but boy were they colored, they lasted a couple of weeks. Cheers George Log in or register to post comments lack of bass Submitted by carewser on March 17, 2023 - 10:04pm In fairness to Klipsch I mean how much bass can one expect when you only spend $13,000 for a pair of speakers? Log in or register to post comments Hoffman's Iron Law Submitted by m_ms on March 18, 2023 - 8:15am Price has no bearing here, but rather physics as laid out by Hoffman's Iron Law: "three parameters that cannot all be had at the same time. They are low-bass reproduction, small (enclosure) size, and high (output) sensitivity." Hofmann stated that designers could pick two of these three parameters, but in doing so, it would compromise the third parameter." The La Scala's are a high efficiency, (all)horn-loaded design, and their restricted size for a bass horn means you sacrifice low end extension. Not only that they also stop acting as a horn from just above 100Hz on down, which means they're essentially too small as a midbass horn also. With horns, all-horns not least and certainly for them to be their best, there's no escaping size. Log in or register to post comments If you want deeper bass in a pure horn system... Submitted by remlab on March 19, 2023 - 1:11pm https://avantgarde-acoustic.de/en/trio/ Log in or register to post comments A Sisyphean Struggle! Submitted by jack_lint_1984 on March 18, 2023 - 3:41pm On behalf of the International Committee on Complaining, I wanted to personally commend you, George, on your performance here - ever diligent, never satisfied. Bravo! As we like say in the trade, pleasure is overrated! Log in or register to post comments Klipsch cabinetry is first rate. Submitted by jimtavegia on March 17, 2023 - 11:06am My favorite has always been the Cornwall, but I have never lived in a house with a living room large enough that would make them work, sadly. I have heard them sing with a small 40 watt/channel EL34 tube amp. Log in or register to post comments None better IMO Submitted by DougM on March 17, 2023 - 12:47pm The La Scalas, and the mighty K'Horns, are more capable than any others of bringing the performance into your room, with an immediacy and effortless dynamism that sounds more like live music than any other speaker I've ever heard at any price. My bucket list speaker. Log in or register to post comments Corrections needed Submitted by Toobman on March 17, 2023 - 5:40pm The warranty is 10 years, not 5 as stated in the specifications. Also, there are no rubber feet supplied as the reviewer stated. I know because I just bought a pair. Further, I set the speakers up all by myself and it was not difficult. I'm 58 and in average shape. I can't imagine why the reviewer would suggest it takes 3 people to mate the upper and lower cabinets. Log in or register to post comments dirty little secret Submitted by michelesurdi on March 18, 2023 - 4:14am horns amplify noise.were the scalas silent with the amps you mention? Log in or register to post comments But for now ... Submitted by FransZappa on March 18, 2023 - 5:25am I'd like to ask you how You like the feel of the bass in your face in the crowd I have bought my Scala's about three years ago and they have never ceased to amaze me. My amp is an Elekit TU8600R - 300B and 9.2Wpc and my room is not exactly big. Believe me: it does do bass, not stomach turning low but very real life like bass. Gary Peacock is standing in front of you - like bass. It plays the Beasties and Aphex Twin and never has anyone sitting next to me commented about a lack of bass. Tom Waits' scrapyard percussion sounds fantastic and they unravel Zappa's genial madness brilliantly. And the Scalas are deadquiet with my amp. The last speakers I will ever need. Log in or register to post comments RE: But for now... Submitted by vince on March 20, 2023 - 3:01pm Amen! Try a sub, I tried a JL Audio Fathom and it brought a new level of enjoyment of my La Scala. Log in or register to post comments Not bi-amp capable?? Submitted by Toobman on March 18, 2023 - 8:03am Why does the reviewer say they can be bi-wired but not bi-amped? One set of posts goes to the mid/hi drivers and the other set goes to the woofer, so they should be able to be biamped. Log in or register to post comments Thank you Submitted by Alex Halberstadt on March 18, 2023 - 6:50pm Thanks for the catch, Toobman. My mistake. I'll make the change. Best, Alex Log in or register to post comments I was feeling really good about Submitted by FredisDead on March 18, 2023 - 3:50pm my enduring love for the Manley Steelhead until I read this piece of audio journalism dreck. I immediately concluded that Jim Austin must have decided it would be "cute" to review some audio icons-of-yore and even cuter if they were given rave reviews. How would that not create some stir among the ol' geezer subscribers? As it so happens I recently heard a newer set of these speakers and I could not get over how they sounded-old, tired, slow, soporific (Ambien soporific) outdated, disassociated, discontinuous, unnatural, etc. Dynamics? What good is lack of compression when you are overwhelmed by crass treble, scratchy midrange, and soft bass, all failing to integrate and instead sticking out like three sore thumbs? Which leads to only one inevitable head scratching inquiry-has Stereophile truly, once and for all, jumped the shark? Log in or register to post comments Another cantankerous barnacle Submitted by jack_lint_1984 on March 19, 2023 - 7:42am Have you ever been to an arena sporting event? If you have, you’ll have noticed certain people in the crowd screaming at the players, as if their opinions are more important than the action unfolding in front of them. As if the professionals should stop play and pay attention to every voice in the crowd. You, FredisDead, are one of those screaming fans. Log in or register to post comments Nope, Submitted by FredisDead on March 19, 2023 - 1:19pm I don't yell at players, don't go to arena sporting events, don't drink beer, and don't know what rock you crawled out from either. Am I such a person in your tiny mind for expressing a different view and relating it to editorial policy? It is simply ludicrous to call the La Scala competitive with modern designs and I chose to express my opinion here where the piece originated. This is a subjective hobby but it is hard to imagine that most would find this product capable of providing a fraction of the performance of most modern designs. I happen to be a fan of easy to drive efficient loudspeakers and my personal choices (Devores and Spendors)are 93 db/W/M and 90 db/W/M efficient without difficult phase angles or impedance curves. I simply disagree with the flowery language used to describe their sound. Log in or register to post comments "I simply disagree with..." Submitted by rschryer on March 19, 2023 - 6:47pm "...the flowery language used to describe their sound." You should've started with that. Log in or register to post comments Prickly! Submitted by jack_lint_1984 on March 20, 2023 - 6:58am You are the kind of person who acts like a childish bully hoping it makes you seem less...Defensive? Sensitive? Afraid? You disagree with the reviewer and prefer your choices in speakers. Not exactly revelatory stuff, FredisDead, especially without all of your flowery machismo. Log in or register to post comments who do you think you are?? Submitted by georgehifi on March 20, 2023 - 12:10pm The forum cop or something??? Go away and let people have their say. Argue the point not the person!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Log in or register to post comments Hold on... Submitted by jack_lint_1984 on March 20, 2023 - 2:17pm Are you the forum cop, georgehifi? This is so confusing ;-) Log in or register to post comments 1 Submitted by georgehifi on March 20, 2023 - 8:49pm Typo Log in or register to post comments YOU JUMP ON MEMBERS PERSONALLY Submitted by georgehifi on March 20, 2023 - 8:47pm No look at it again, YOU JUMP ON MEMBERS PERSONALLY if you don't agree with them, instead of opposing their statements with something tangible from your mouth. Log in or register to post comments OK. Let me try again Submitted by jack_lint_1984 on March 21, 2023 - 3:41am FredisDead's comment was pure dreck and I have to wonder if he was just trying to be "cute" to anger the old geezers or if he's completely jumped the shark. Log in or register to post comments FredisDead's comment was pure dreck Submitted by georgehifi on March 21, 2023 - 12:38pm It's his opinion on these Klipsch speakers, and he didn't attack YOU PERSONALLY!!! You should do the same and attack his views on THEM NOT HIM in a subjective or objective way technically or whatever, and lay off him personally.!!! Otherwise your just being a redneck. Log in or register to post comments No, that was his opinion of the reviewer and Jim Austin's motive Submitted by jack_lint_1984 on March 21, 2023 - 3:05pm I just re-used his exact words. FredisDead's words. The fact that you didn't see that makes me wonder if you actually read the things you comment on... Unless you think its OK to "personally attack" Stereophile's reviewers and Editor, you should also aim your outrage at FredisDead. I have to point out that complaining about a perceived personal attack wherein you personally attack the perceived attacker is not a great way to make a point or set a standard of conduct. Log in or register to post comments Well paraphrased. Submitted by Anton on March 21, 2023 - 1:20pm You beat me to it. Audiophiles are an amazingly disgruntled lot. Likely the amount of rancor from a person is inversely proportional to his auditory acuity. Log in or register to post comments I think this is a response to my comment Submitted by jack_lint_1984 on March 21, 2023 - 4:33pm If so thank you, if not apologies. I'm new here, long time reader, and our grandchildren coaxed me into 'participating' so forgive my clumsiness. Disgruntled! About hi-fi? About listening to music? I imagine it's a byproduct of free time, something that was in short supply back in the day. And on that note, this 'participating' may not be for me. Listening to music is a luxury, at least it is for me, so I've got no interest in arguing over the means to that end. Log in or register to post comments Hello, Jack! Submitted by Anton on March 21, 2023 - 6:04pm Yes, I meant that as a compliment to your post! I did not mean to impugn audiophiles, in general....just some. Cheers, and pleased to meet you! Log in or register to post comments No, Anton, not disgruntled, Submitted by FredisDead on March 22, 2023 - 6:09am just opinionated. If the loudspeaker that is the subject of this review is a "great" loudspeaker, than what loudspeaker that produces some degree of sound is not? Are any of the loudspeakers sold at large appliance stores really all that bad? How are they inferior to the La Scalas? It is the lack of relativism that provoked my first post. If the gist of the subjective review was that they bring a lot to the table and offer plenty of good attributes despite having some shortcomings (including being huge for the sake of so-so bass response), I would have been fine with the review. Re-reading it, I see that the lack of holographic imaging and a slight "euphonic" character is mentioned at the conclusion. In the bigger scheme of things, my gripe is with being far too complimentary to virtually any product under review. This particular outdated, limited, and highly compromised product captured the cover of the magazine. Log in or register to post comments Easy, big fella... Submitted by JHL on March 21, 2023 - 5:16am ...because demands for tolerance are never tolerant. To extend the arena metaphor, don't be mad guy shrieking for the ref to penalize the player who finally hits back. I'm with jack: When a driveby commenter drops in just to attack the publication and its readers I assume the only tone he understands is that tone. He's declared war on everybody; who are you to impose decorum on the victims, mister punctuation? If high end audio doesn't maintain then it won't be maintained. That would be unacceptable. Log in or register to post comments I'm with jack: Submitted by georgehifi on March 21, 2023 - 12:39pm Well your just as bad then Log in or register to post comments I've heard plenty of Spendors Submitted by TK-421 on March 21, 2023 - 11:50am I've heard plenty of Spendors and they are a boring snoozefest compared to La Scalas, not to mention way overpriced for performance you get compared to others. Just expressing my opinion. Log in or register to post comments Horn sound Submitted by Staxguy on March 19, 2023 - 10:22am My first loudspeakers were Klipsch Heressy Ii’s (x3) and Klipsch KG 1.2’s. The store that sold them also sold La Scalas. For bass, I had a Velodyne F1500r. At the time I would have preferrered a Carver Amazing Loudspeaker with ribbons and four 12 inch drivers per side, but couldn’t fit or budget them. Noted that I preferred the kg 1.2 bookshelf speakers for music over the heresy’. https://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/290carver/index.html The Klipsch horn systems really sounded honkey to me. Ok for dynamics. I much preferred a friends home theatre with 5 psb stratus gold speakers and five velodyne f1500rs, which I later upgraded to. A bit overkill in the bass though. Obviously now, I prefer electrostatics. Quite the opposite of horns. The new la scalas as pictured are drop dead gorgeous. Perhaps Klipsch has upgraded the sound also. The price is quite reasonable, at that of a high end phono cartridge. My auditions at the time don’t quite pass muster, today, 30 plus years later. I appreciate the article. As for realistic audio, the only speakers which sounded live to me were the focal grande utopia iii em, which I auditioned when they came out many years back. Still, I wonder how a Bob carver design of today would compare to the La Scala. Log in or register to post comments Klipsch and Wolfman Jack in Germany Submitted by Electrophone on March 19, 2023 - 12:58pm I was enthusiastic about hi-fi as a teenager, but could only afford the most basic equipment. A key experience back then was the Klipschorn demonstration in a Frankfurt/Germany hi-fi studio, which I was able to sneak into. I can still remember the track being played: "Silly Putty" by Stanley Clarke. I was deeply impressed by the dynamics and the live character of the playback. Unfortunately I don't remember which amplifier and turntable was used. A few years later I regularly went to a small nightclub in a suburb of Frankfurt. Two Klipsch La Scala speakers were used there, suspended from the ceiling. No subwoofers! The sound was very good, the bass not too deep, but very defined and powerful. My last encounter with Klipsch loudspeakers was in 1983 I believe. Wolfman Jack was then on the "European Tour, sponsored by Klipsch and Phase Linear" and performed in American clubs. He also did a gig at Rhein Main Air Base and an American friend took me with him. I still have Wolfman Jack's autograph today, and a Polaroid of me with him. I had to pay an extra $20 for the Polaroid back then, on top of the entrance fee! Log in or register to post comments 40 years in the dessert, maybe longer. Submitted by Anton on March 21, 2023 - 8:08am I am so old, I can remember the 40 (or so) years when "Klipsch sucked." They couldn't get a good word in the Hi Fi world to save their souls. Now, they are great, again. I look at this with some happiness and some cynicism. It's almost hard to discuss. I partially see both sides. Is it that they figured out what they lacked was simply a healthy bump in price and that got their audiophile bonafides sorted out? Did we slowly wake up to what they do well? Is modern Hi Fi sterile or some adjective that makes us go 'pop' when we hear actual dynamics? No set answer, but great wine conversation! When we talk money/value: These $1100 per pair in 1978. I'll leave it to whomever to run that through an inflation calculator. It ain't like they reinvented the wheel, you know. Anyways....I've always enjoyed them, they have plusses and minuses, of course. But all in all, a fun product! My son stole my La Scalas and is quite the happy audiophile. If you ever get a chance to hear Elvis' vesrion of "Fever" on these, you will know what the fuss is about. (They also play the band Morphine like they were made for each other. As John marks used to say, "Different horses for different courses.") Log in or register to post comments Great Speakers Submitted by vince on March 20, 2023 - 1:44pm I have a pair of the La Scala II. I found the bass a bit lean, until I added a JL Audio sub and it became awesome. They image well, they have plenty of slam and dynamic range, and sweet sounds sweet. I have them paired with a 300B SET amp. I'm glad I have them, they can give me goosebumps, given the right recording. The latest example of this was from the Analog Production's reissue of Cat Steven's Tea for the Tillerman. Log in or register to post comments That Cat Stevens recommendation is a good call... Submitted by Anton on March 21, 2023 - 8:12am I agree. They are pretty "unboxy." There is a certain frequency in the upper bass where you can 'hear' that there's an enclosure involved in the sound. It's a bit hard to describe. It's not 'horniness,' but almost like a hint of 'box echo' with the woofer at the upper end of it's frequency range. You can hear this on something like Joe Jackson's "Another World" with the percussion at the beginning. Log in or register to post comments Subwoofer required Submitted by teched58 on March 22, 2023 - 8:01am So I will need a subwoofer if I want to get low bass out of my La Scala setup. Isn't the subwoofer supposed to be the biggest speaker in the room, not the smallest? Log in or register to post comments Terrible Submitted by tnargs on March 22, 2023 - 2:26pm I have twice had extended auditions with the La Scala, 30 years apart, and decided that they are one of the worst serious speakers I’ve experienced. Log in or register to post comments Great Review ! Submitted by Sal1950 on March 22, 2023 - 3:31pm Great Review Alex. But you better run like hell. Sam Tellig wrote a rav review on the La Scala's here in 2006 and the horn haters nearly stoned him to death. I owned my La Scala's from 1978 to 2011 when I moved to Fl and didn't have the room for them here. Like every speaker before and since, they have their weak points and strong points. The things they do right, they do better then almost any speaker ever made. Wish I still had the room for a pair. cent' anni, Sal Log in or register to post comments
I was definitely not expecting to see that.
It's -10dB down at 45hz for a speaker the size of a fridge!!!! with a broadband bump at 150hz of +5db to make up for it. I owned a pair of the originals to see what all the hoo-ha was about, sure they went loud without too much stress (so does a PA system) but boy were they colored, they lasted a couple of weeks.
In fairness to Klipsch I mean how much bass can one expect when you only spend $13,000 for a pair of speakers?
Price has no bearing here, but rather physics as laid out by Hoffman's Iron Law:
"three parameters that cannot all be had at the same time. They are low-bass reproduction, small (enclosure) size, and high (output) sensitivity." Hofmann stated that designers could pick two of these three parameters, but in doing so, it would compromise the third parameter."
The La Scala's are a high efficiency, (all)horn-loaded design, and their restricted size for a bass horn means you sacrifice low end extension. Not only that they also stop acting as a horn from just above 100Hz on down, which means they're essentially too small as a midbass horn also. With horns, all-horns not least and certainly for them to be their best, there's no escaping size.
https://avantgarde-acoustic.de/en/trio/
On behalf of the International Committee on Complaining, I wanted to personally commend you, George, on your performance here - ever diligent, never satisfied.
Bravo! As we like say in the trade, pleasure is overrated!
My favorite has always been the Cornwall, but I have never lived in a house with a living room large enough that would make them work, sadly. I have heard them sing with a small 40 watt/channel EL34 tube amp.
The La Scalas, and the mighty K'Horns, are more capable than any others of bringing the performance into your room, with an immediacy and effortless dynamism that sounds more like live music than any other speaker I've ever heard at any price. My bucket list speaker.
The warranty is 10 years, not 5 as stated in the specifications. Also, there are no rubber feet supplied as the reviewer stated. I know because I just bought a pair. Further, I set the speakers up all by myself and it was not difficult. I'm 58 and in average shape. I can't imagine why the reviewer would suggest it takes 3 people to mate the upper and lower cabinets.
horns amplify noise.were the scalas silent with the amps you mention?
I'd like to ask you how You like the feel of the bass in your face in the crowd
I have bought my Scala's about three years ago and they have never ceased to amaze me. My amp is an Elekit TU8600R - 300B and 9.2Wpc and my room is not exactly big. Believe me: it does do bass, not stomach turning low but very real life like bass. Gary Peacock is standing in front of you - like bass. It plays the Beasties and Aphex Twin and never has anyone sitting next to me commented about a lack of bass. Tom Waits' scrapyard percussion sounds fantastic and they unravel Zappa's genial madness brilliantly. And the Scalas are deadquiet with my amp. The last speakers I will ever need.
Try a sub, I tried a JL Audio Fathom and it brought a new level of enjoyment of my La Scala.
Why does the reviewer say they can be bi-wired but not bi-amped? One set of posts goes to the mid/hi drivers and the other set goes to the woofer, so they should be able to be biamped.
Thanks for the catch, Toobman. My mistake. I'll make the change.
my enduring love for the Manley Steelhead until I read this piece of audio journalism dreck. I immediately concluded that Jim Austin must have decided it would be "cute" to review some audio icons-of-yore and even cuter if they were given rave reviews. How would that not create some stir among the ol' geezer subscribers? As it so happens I recently heard a newer set of these speakers and I could not get over how they sounded-old, tired, slow, soporific (Ambien soporific) outdated, disassociated, discontinuous, unnatural, etc. Dynamics? What good is lack of compression when you are overwhelmed by crass treble, scratchy midrange, and soft bass, all failing to integrate and instead sticking out like three sore thumbs? Which leads to only one inevitable head scratching inquiry-has Stereophile truly, once and for all, jumped the shark?
Have you ever been to an arena sporting event? If you have, you’ll have noticed certain people in the crowd screaming at the players, as if their opinions are more important than the action unfolding in front of them. As if the professionals should stop play and pay attention to every voice in the crowd.
You, FredisDead, are one of those screaming fans.
I don't yell at players, don't go to arena sporting events, don't drink beer, and don't know what rock you crawled out from either. Am I such a person in your tiny mind for expressing a different view and relating it to editorial policy? It is simply ludicrous to call the La Scala competitive with modern designs and I chose to express my opinion here where the piece originated. This is a subjective hobby but it is hard to imagine that most would find this product capable of providing a fraction of the performance of most modern designs. I happen to be a fan of easy to drive efficient loudspeakers and my personal choices (Devores and Spendors)are 93 db/W/M and 90 db/W/M efficient without difficult phase angles or impedance curves. I simply disagree with the flowery language used to describe their sound.
"...the flowery language used to describe their sound." You should've started with that.
You are the kind of person who acts like a childish bully hoping it makes you seem less...Defensive? Sensitive? Afraid?
You disagree with the reviewer and prefer your choices in speakers. Not exactly revelatory stuff, FredisDead, especially without all of your flowery machismo.
The forum cop or something??? Go away and let people have their say. Argue the point not the person!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are you the forum cop, georgehifi? This is so confusing ;-)
No look at it again, YOU JUMP ON MEMBERS PERSONALLY if you don't agree with them, instead of opposing their statements with something tangible from your mouth.
FredisDead's comment was pure dreck and I have to wonder if he was just trying to be "cute" to anger the old geezers or if he's completely jumped the shark.
It's his opinion on these Klipsch speakers, and he didn't attack YOU PERSONALLY!!! You should do the same and attack his views on THEM NOT HIM in a subjective or objective way technically or whatever, and lay off him personally.!!! Otherwise your just being a redneck.
I just re-used his exact words. FredisDead's words. The fact that you didn't see that makes me wonder if you actually read the things you comment on...
Unless you think its OK to "personally attack" Stereophile's reviewers and Editor, you should also aim your outrage at FredisDead.
I have to point out that complaining about a perceived personal attack wherein you personally attack the perceived attacker is not a great way to make a point or set a standard of conduct.
You beat me to it.
Audiophiles are an amazingly disgruntled lot. Likely the amount of rancor from a person is inversely proportional to his auditory acuity.
If so thank you, if not apologies. I'm new here, long time reader, and our grandchildren coaxed me into 'participating' so forgive my clumsiness.
Disgruntled! About hi-fi? About listening to music? I imagine it's a byproduct of free time, something that was in short supply back in the day. And on that note, this 'participating' may not be for me. Listening to music is a luxury, at least it is for me, so I've got no interest in arguing over the means to that end.
Yes, I meant that as a compliment to your post!
I did not mean to impugn audiophiles, in general....just some.
Cheers, and pleased to meet you!
just opinionated. If the loudspeaker that is the subject of this review is a "great" loudspeaker, than what loudspeaker that produces some degree of sound is not? Are any of the loudspeakers sold at large appliance stores really all that bad? How are they inferior to the La Scalas? It is the lack of relativism that provoked my first post. If the gist of the subjective review was that they bring a lot to the table and offer plenty of good attributes despite having some shortcomings (including being huge for the sake of so-so bass response), I would have been fine with the review. Re-reading it, I see that the lack of holographic imaging and a slight "euphonic" character is mentioned at the conclusion. In the bigger scheme of things, my gripe is with being far too complimentary to virtually any product under review. This particular outdated, limited, and highly compromised product captured the cover of the magazine.
...because demands for tolerance are never tolerant.
To extend the arena metaphor, don't be mad guy shrieking for the ref to penalize the player who finally hits back. I'm with jack: When a driveby commenter drops in just to attack the publication and its readers I assume the only tone he understands is that tone. He's declared war on everybody; who are you to impose decorum on the victims, mister punctuation?
If high end audio doesn't maintain then it won't be maintained. That would be unacceptable.
Well your just as bad then
I've heard plenty of Spendors and they are a boring snoozefest compared to La Scalas, not to mention way overpriced for performance you get compared to others. Just expressing my opinion.
My first loudspeakers were Klipsch Heressy Ii’s (x3) and Klipsch KG 1.2’s. The store that sold them also sold La Scalas. For bass, I had a Velodyne F1500r. At the time I would have preferrered a Carver Amazing Loudspeaker with ribbons and four 12 inch drivers per side, but couldn’t fit or budget them. Noted that I preferred the kg 1.2 bookshelf speakers for music over the heresy’.
https://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/290carver/index.html
The Klipsch horn systems really sounded honkey to me. Ok for dynamics. I much preferred a friends home theatre with 5 psb stratus gold speakers and five velodyne f1500rs, which I later upgraded to. A bit overkill in the bass though.
Obviously now, I prefer electrostatics. Quite the opposite of horns.
The new la scalas as pictured are drop dead gorgeous. Perhaps Klipsch has upgraded the sound also. The price is quite reasonable, at that of a high end phono cartridge.
My auditions at the time don’t quite pass muster, today, 30 plus years later.
I appreciate the article. As for realistic audio, the only speakers which sounded live to me were the focal grande utopia iii em, which I auditioned when they came out many years back.
Still, I wonder how a Bob carver design of today would compare to the La Scala.
I was enthusiastic about hi-fi as a teenager, but could only afford the most basic equipment. A key experience back then was the Klipschorn demonstration in a Frankfurt/Germany hi-fi studio, which I was able to sneak into. I can still remember the track being played: "Silly Putty" by Stanley Clarke. I was deeply impressed by the dynamics and the live character of the playback. Unfortunately I don't remember which amplifier and turntable was used. A few years later I regularly went to a small nightclub in a suburb of Frankfurt. Two Klipsch La Scala speakers were used there, suspended from the ceiling. No subwoofers! The sound was very good, the bass not too deep, but very defined and powerful. My last encounter with Klipsch loudspeakers was in 1983 I believe. Wolfman Jack was then on the "European Tour, sponsored by Klipsch and Phase Linear" and performed in American clubs. He also did a gig at Rhein Main Air Base and an American friend took me with him. I still have Wolfman Jack's autograph today, and a Polaroid of me with him. I had to pay an extra $20 for the Polaroid back then, on top of the entrance fee!
I am so old, I can remember the 40 (or so) years when "Klipsch sucked." They couldn't get a good word in the Hi Fi world to save their souls.
Now, they are great, again.
I look at this with some happiness and some cynicism. It's almost hard to discuss. I partially see both sides.
Is it that they figured out what they lacked was simply a healthy bump in price and that got their audiophile bonafides sorted out? Did we slowly wake up to what they do well? Is modern Hi Fi sterile or some adjective that makes us go 'pop' when we hear actual dynamics? No set answer, but great wine conversation!
When we talk money/value: These $1100 per pair in 1978.
I'll leave it to whomever to run that through an inflation calculator. It ain't like they reinvented the wheel, you know.
Anyways....I've always enjoyed them, they have plusses and minuses, of course. But all in all, a fun product! My son stole my La Scalas and is quite the happy audiophile. If you ever get a chance to hear Elvis' vesrion of "Fever" on these, you will know what the fuss is about. (They also play the band Morphine like they were made for each other. As John marks used to say, "Different horses for different courses.")
I have a pair of the La Scala II. I found the bass a bit lean, until I added a JL Audio sub and it became awesome. They image well, they have plenty of slam and dynamic range, and sweet sounds sweet. I have them paired with a 300B SET amp. I'm glad I have them, they can give me goosebumps, given the right recording. The latest example of this was from the Analog Production's reissue of Cat Steven's Tea for the Tillerman.
There is a certain frequency in the upper bass where you can 'hear' that there's an enclosure involved in the sound. It's a bit hard to describe. It's not 'horniness,' but almost like a hint of 'box echo' with the woofer at the upper end of it's frequency range.
You can hear this on something like Joe Jackson's "Another World" with the percussion at the beginning.
So I will need a subwoofer if I want to get low bass out of my La Scala setup.
Isn't the subwoofer supposed to be the biggest speaker in the room, not the smallest?
I have twice had extended auditions with the La Scala, 30 years apart, and decided that they are one of the worst serious speakers I’ve experienced.
Great Review Alex. But you better run like hell. Sam Tellig wrote a rav review on the La Scala's here in 2006 and the horn haters nearly stoned him to death. I owned my La Scala's from 1978 to 2011 when I moved to Fl and didn't have the room for them here. Like every speaker before and since, they have their weak points and strong points. The things they do right, they do better then almost any speaker ever made. Wish I still had the room for a pair. cent' anni, Sal