Review: Klipsch La Scala Speaker

Hey Bob, wait'll you hear those horns with the Close-N'-Play turntable....talk about heaven!!

IMO, Bob's advice regarding the LaScala's themselves is excellent by the way. Obviously we have very different opinions on amplification. I can't say I've heard that many examples of SS + horns, but every one I've heard (at least half a dozen different combinations) sounded harsh and unlistenable to my ears. The only one I tried that was a mosfet solution was a B&K with Forte II's which was awful! The B&K sounded great with Spica's, and the Forte's with tubes, but together they were horrible. No air, no atmosphere, just loud, brash noise. Perhaps I need to hear Bob's setup, as the rest of his advice I'd agree with completely. Or we could just have completely different preferences. Obviously I have no such problems with dealing with tubes/tube-issues or I wouldn't use them either, but Bob's biased observations regarding tubes when combined with 104db efficiency horns are not completely out of line, and offer a counterpoint to my own preferences. Bob, I also wanted to combine the musicality of my AA's with the pinpoint imaging of Al's crossover somehow. I'm thinking that perhaps an upgrade to the AA's caps might go in that direction. After all my A/B testing I sure don't want to butcher my AA's. On my system, to my ears, they just sound much more musical than Al's. I definitely would not want to live with the ALK's as they sound in my rig. Pretty amazing to look at the two as I would NEVER have guessed that, nor by reading the many rave reviews for Al's product on the Klipsch forum site. They must work well for some folks. Al's are like works of art in more ways than one. Ultimately I'd rather look at them than listen to them. Have you tried putting better wires in there yet? I'd be curious to hear about whatever experiences you have had with tweaking either.

I am always amaized how often this forum seems to go negative, perhaps it is the male nature to be thus. I do not often contribute but I do read this forum everyday. I have learned much and only contribute when I have some personal experence to share with others. I don't care to pass on something I have just read or heard thru the grapevine. This really is about the music, not the equipment. I am a baby boomer and have learned the hard way over time that some of the best advice and help I have recieved along the way often went to waste. Looking back I have to laugh at myself quite often. If I ever offend anyone it is unintensional as I do beleve everyone is entitled to there way of life and personal preferences.
My personal qualifications to contribute aside from my love of music, HiFi and old man time are thus: Certified Speaker Tech by JBL,Former Speaker Tech for Westlake Audio along with many projects over the years.

Thanks

Tubeking

P.S. SEAN is way cool!

Hey Tubeking- Someone with your experience is a valued asset to a forum like this, so I hope that trend doesn't discourage you from contributing further. I think it is a general trend with Internet forums/mailing lists. As I said in my earlier post, pixels on a screen seldom are a good substitute for a similar conversation with flesh and blood. It is true, some of the things people say here are probably not the same things they would say if they were standing around a room having a similar conversation. I have been guilty of that myself on some threads where my hackles go up and I let my personal need to be right blind me to common courtesy. It's much easier to disrespect someone when they are not standing in front of you and you don't witness first hand how your words affect them in real time and space. I've been on BMW motorcycle forums where the same thing occurs on a regular basis. So much so that I quit subscribing to them. Happily the amount of bandwidth that trend takes up in these forums seems to be less, so I keep reading and contributing when I have time and am familiar with the subject. I also have a tendency to want to liven up the conversation with some humor and some folks don't know what to make of it, or worse, get offended that I may not be taking the subject at hand seriously enough. Oh well, that's just who I am and I'll keep contributing in that tone when it suits me and hope in entertains more folks than it offends! I agree with your sentiments and have posted the same in several threads here: It is ultimately about the music....the gear is just the tools to deliver it to our ears, but without the music all our gear is a pile of parts worth far less than the exhorbinant prices we pay for it. I am thankful for these forums in that I don't have many opportunities to stand around and converse with a bunch of folks who have similar passions for this stuff (I only have one or two Audiophile friends who I rarely see), much less those with a range of knowledge and experience that is reflected by a group as we are here (as well as on AudioAsylum). I'm getting long-winded here, but bottom line is; thanks for your input and hope to read more from you in the future. I'd be curious to hear what your experience and recommendations have been with your Klipsch horn speakers as far as tweaking and improvements go.

It depends how anyone would think,not everyone is always carefull about how they respond to a question.But as for me,I would say in person my thoughts directly,likewise wanting to hear and understand someone elses explanations in person too.
All I wanted was not to argue but for people to give feedback.How I might have responded might of been offensive too.

Jax to answer your ? regarding the AA's: I find that changing the onboard wiring to a better grade of copper (I have Kimber TCX for LF & mid's - TCSS for HF's) & adding 0.01uF nonpolar Kimbercaps paralleled to the existing oilcaps has helped to smooth things a bit, enhance transient response a bit, & doesn't introduce sonic degradations. The oilcaps are prety good as-is so I wouldn't change those. I also changed the spade lugs to Audioquest 1010S soft copper silver plated lugs & used Wondersolder onboard. That small inductor with a steel screw fastening it to the board: I pulled out the steel & used a fastening cement instead.

Above I haven't said anything that I would not say to anyone face-to-face. I don't mean to sound hypercritical (although my anti-tube prejudices are admittedly revealed) but again I don't have a problem with tube preamps, only power amps have not done the job for me. Of course I haven't tried everything available & perhaps my (optimized for solid state) cabling was not compatible with what I did try. So of course I would be interested to hear from Tubeking regarding his tubes setups that are successful & so indicated that previously.
Pure doesn't really seem interested in glassware himself & so I offer a contrary opinion based upon my successful endeavors with solid state. Yes I'm an engineering type (hardware oriented) so that shows through moreso than my knowledge of music, which admittedly isn't very extensive. I am not meaning to argue, nor to offend, nor to dismiss out-of-hand the valuable experiences of obviously knowledable contributors. Not at all. Tubeking's experiences with speaker design fascinate me, & I wish that he would further share that information & in relation to his aforementioned positive glassware experiences. In fact I even stated that thought initially, although perhaps not plainly enough, so I repeat.

Once you have spent time listening to tubes on any of these speakers you will be hard pressed to listen to Solid State again.

I've heard this before - several times in fact. Please elaborate - I'd like to figure out what I did wrong, & what I'm possibly missing? My apologies for running on at such length & for any offense that might have been mistakenly interpreted; this was not my intent.