Klipsch La Scala Dilemma

La Scala's have the unique quality of a fine aged wine, only a connoisseur can appreciate them.

I agree that a 12X13 room is way too small for K-Horns, La Scala, or Cornwalls, for that matter, and marginal even for the Heresy. if for no other reason than its simply not long enough to allow generation of LF wavelengths (40 Hz has a wavelength of 28 ft so the room needs a 14 ft wall just to support a 1/2 wave) and more subjectively, horn mids in my experience need a good 15 to 20 feet to keep from being literally 'in your face'.

My first serious exposure to K-horns was in a smaller room, where they were driven by a big Pioneer receiver. They sounded ragged and hard at every level and the mids were simply too much. Visiting a couple years later, The horns had been replaced with Heresies, and the system seemed much more relaxed. The owner just shrugged his shoulders "These just work better in here." 

He sold his K-horns to a friend with a huge bonus room. It was the only time I ever heard K-horns sound 'right'. The room was about 16 X 30+ feet long, and the couch was set about 20 feet back. They were driven by an old McIntosh MC240 tube amp, and they sounded glorious - open and dynamic. Listening at live sound levels (upwards of 100 dBa) the system was not sounding stressed, as there was still a good 15-20 dB headroom left. 

Full disclosure - The K-horns were Speakerlab clones (using the same Electrovoice Mids and T-3500 tweeter as Klipsch used at the time) and built by a Boeing engineer 'to aerospace standards' which included 11-ply Baltic birch plywood, stainless screws, epoxy glue, upgraded caps and resistors in the crossovers, T-nut threaded inserts for driver mounting and some extra bracing to reduce panel resonance. The tops and front panel holding the mids and tweeter were Corian. I don't think a better executed K-Horn exists. The Heresies were stock, except the crossovers which were upgraded to Sprague 'Orange Drop' capacitors.

10 year old thread. Please try harder when you Internet...............