So after 2 years of trying to make them work, they just aren't the speaker for me. Here is some detail so you can help me decide what to move to next.
My room is untreated and 12X13X12 Sources: Vinyl and Dac both tube driven Preamp and amps are all Tube Driven Amps are: SET 7 watt and 2 different push pulls 20 watts from one and 60ish from the other Music : Blues,Classic Rock, Indie, Some modern, some heavier rock ,and just discovering how good Jazz can be
I have tried: solid state amps,crites crossovers, ALK corn-scal-wall crossovers, svs subs added,horn loaded subs added, Schiit Loki in line, toed in toed out. Corner loaded, pushed together, I even moved my room 90 degres to try and get a better sound out of them. Trust me I have tried it all.
Here is what I liked: Huge soundstage You are there live at times when listening Love being able to hear the detail they offer Love the bass when present
Here is what I disliked: They can get shrill quick They are so revealing music can sound just bad (I realize that should be a positive, but it isn't) Very bass shy They aren't "warm" at all. There is no real thickness to the mids. Detail, but not thick.
We are going to sell this house eventually so I do not want to invest a bunch on treatments for the room. I have 2 other speakers that can be run. Some older Polk Monitor 7A that are actually pretty impressive, and could have the crossovers updated and a few other things to really make them shine if I wanted to. I realize they aren't a Hi-Fi speaker but they are balanced and warm/musical. The other option is the Decware DM947 speaker system. It's good and fairly new to me so I haven't decided to keep or move them down the road. So far they are laid back with some nice sparkle. They image really well and are very forgiving of the room and the recording I am listening to.
So let's hear it! What did you replace your Klipsch speakers with, or what are you using that matches what I am after.
Am I the only one thinking that your room is way too small for the LaScalas. The speakers are 2 1/2 ft X 2ft X 2ft. Placed side by side the speakers are 1/3 the size of your wall.
I would recommend @$1000 or so level, to try a pair of the Zu Audio Dirty Weekenders
I have a bunch of stuff but my all day deal in my office is a Bryson 14b hooked to a pair of nautilus 802’s powered by a that I scored cheap $2500 cosmetically a little beat up but they keep up with my “all over the map” sonic brew- they can crank rock and sound good with lighter stuff - once in blue moon I’ll hook up my KLF 30’s to See if I can blow the roof off but it’s similar as they too get real “shrill” real fast-
I replaced my Klipsch Lascalas 40 years ago with B&W 802, S2. I like the B&W sound as well as Totem Acoustic Hawks and the classic Snell B-minor speakers from 20 years ago.
I'm a former La Scala (and Heresy) owner, among many others. The searching and spending ended when I build my first pair of Linkwitz Lab speakers. The LXmini's surpass the box speakers in my other systems by a considerable margin. And at a price that's easy to live with. www.linkwitzlab.com
Add Fritz Carreras to the list to consider if you can squeeze a deal in your range or even other Fritz perhaps. I do not think you could go wrong there.
Sold my La Scalas when we moved. Smaller room now and Snell E 3s and Snell Js are still too much. But I really like the Snells. Using and old but good pair of Signet 260s. Wish I had a bigger room for the Snells.
Ihave a lot of experienc3 with these, if you put a high quality crossover in there ,problem solved, crites is not even average from my build standards the Duelunds , Jupiter Copper JensenCopper Foil ,paper I oil , Jantzens newer Aluma Z capacitors , good 1% resistors, I usea Jantzen Foil waxed paper inductor for the teeeterJantzen open coil for the rest just as aexample , rewire it with a qualitywire and Gold over a Copper Connectors , it would for sure clear that mess up .i have done severalklipsch andowned the latest Heresy Which my brother now owns. Check that out, also replace the stock woofer with amuch better one.
If you damped your mid horns ( whether or not they are the earlier aluminum or the newer plastic units ), as well as some minor room treatment, your problems will be gone. Where do you live, as I am looking for another pair of Lascalas. Enjoy ! MrD.
With that budget, you'd be very hard pressed to do better than the $2K Spatial Audio M4 Turbo S.
I own Heresy IIIs and the Spatials beat them in nearly every regard. I was afraid they'd be excessively bright, being that they use a metal-dome compression driver to cover everything beyond 800Hz, but was pleasantly surprised by their neutrality. If anything, they lean just to the warm side of neutral. You'll still get the "you are there" moments with none of the harshness that occasionally plagues Klipsch speakers. The soundstage is massive but not so much that it smears the imaging as is the case with some speakers. They do need at least couple feet of wall distance but that shouldn't be much of a problem since you're already living with LaScalas.
That review is for the triode master version, but I've heard both trim levels and the review is fairly accurate for both. Over the last couple years, I've owned over half a dozen pairs of speakers priced between $1.5 and $6K and the Spatials are the best value by a long shot - easily compete with the $4 to $6K range of models sold through a traditional dealer network.
Gosh, you are going to cause people who add to this thread some serious head scratching with your budget and with the amps you have. I would try and listen to a pair of heresy III as suggested by the wolf man. Instead of a Rel, you could try a sealed Rhymic sub to as an alternative. Would you be ok with used gear? might open up a few more avenues for you.
The next home will have room treatments in the music room for sure. It could be a year or so before we move so speakers are on the list for now. I believe if I had more room I would have some of the issues mentioned in my original post. Treatments would still be needed even in a bigger room.
The Tannoys have been on my radar as a speaker I should look into. It looks like there could be a few models of the Tannoy DC speaker. Do you have a link by chance of the model you are talking about?
You are expecting a lot from your system. You will never achieve your goals without room treatment. If you are unwilling to do that you will never be satisfied with different speakers. That is the truth. The room and the setup will determine half of what you will hear.
That is quite an achievement for any loudspeaker. I'm guessing you'll have to give up a fair bit of sonic immediacy and life when making this change. No loudspeaker does it all.
But if greater midrange density is what you want I'd also suggest trying a large Tannoy DC (a 12/15 incher to stay in the same ballpark as your La Scala's). Your listening room is almost exactly the same as mine and I would never accuse the Tannoy's with their lovely fat midbass of sounding thin.
If you're able to find a used pair of DeVore 0/96s or 0/93s within your budget, that might be another option.
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