Review: Klipsch La Scala Speaker

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.

Hey Bob- Many thanks for your input on the AA's. Were you talking about the AA's or the ALK's? When you refer to "smooth things out a bit" I wondered if you might have switched them since that is what I'd want to do to the ALK's? I found the AA's "smoother" on my system, while the ALK's seemed to stress laser imaging overall. It is also likely that my SET amplification has an entirely different effect than your SS, not to mention the rest of the differences in our systems. I'm probably on another part of the audiophile spectrum than you and have only a fundamental understanding of the hardware, as well as lacking in ways to describe how it sounds to my ears (not hip to all the lingo, but I sure do know what I like). I doubt anyone took offense to your post Bob...I sure didn't. I think you brought some balance to the discussion, and didn't mean to point any fingers whatsoever. I only meant to make a generalized observation, which is most certainly not a rule. As I said, overall I find folks on this forum to be pretty courteous in general, much more so than some others I've participated on.

I can't answer for Tubeking, but since I have a similar opinions about tubess+horns I can comment on what made me a convert. You will have to forgive my lack of audio-vocabulary to give creadence and color to my statements. The qualities that make tube amplification worth what little extra effort and $ it may take (though I don't know it's been a whole lot in my experience) are about air, atmosphere, soundstage and musicality. While SS has punch and dynamics in spades, bringing those quailities closer to a live performance in the way great SS can just knock the breath out of you sometimes....I do like that aspect of SS. What it lacks though, that the best of tubes, and even some really inexpensive tube rigs can impart, is a depth and airiness...an atmosphere that I've yet to hear SS give to music. There is a holography to the music with great tube amplification that I've never heard with SS. SS had the width, but lacks the depth in my experience (though I must say I was impressed with the Pass Labs Aleph 5 that I had for a short while in that it did have some sense of depth. I've also owned a tube rig that came close to having the 'slam' of SS (a Mesa Baron) but it was certainly at the expense of the atmosphere I get from my 300B SET amps. Ultimately I like the atmosphere over the amazing detail and slam. I was impressed at the detail listening to a good friends Levenson system. Around $50K+, wired well, in an outstanding room with NHT 3.3's (tight bass to write home about). We were listening to a cut on a Beethoven piano concerto disc I'd brought and was familiar with. By god I could hear the pianist feet on the peddles as he played. That was truly amazing. Yet still, bringing that same disk home to the SET amps, though it lacks that kind of crystaline detail (though the ALK's may bring much of that out), I just love the holography that is simply lacking on his rig. Another friend has a $100K Krell setup that raised the hairs on the back of my neck, but the novelty wore off as time went on and the listening session somehow grew tiresome. I never get tired of listening to my SET's and the sound remains engaging to me throughout, though poorly recorder music does become wearing almost immediately. I hope someone else may comment who knows more how to embellish their experience with all the fancy vernacular, or can add a different perspective on it.

That said, I very much doubt you did anything WRONG Bob. And, in fact, there may be nothing you are missing. Even if you listened to the two side by side you may still prefer the sound of SS over tubes. My bias is obviously strongly in the other direction, but I'm always open to hearing a system that will change my mind! I don't think it is a matter of either/or, but I sure love the combination of tubes&horns. For my tastes, I haven't heard better to this day.

Jax is one of my dogs names and part of my email address, as well as being my ID here. The name suits my dog pretty well, but doesn't really fit me as well! Y'all can call me Marco as I feel pretty silly answering to my dog's name. I'll just start signing my posts.

Best to all,

Marco

Jax2, right on! I couldn't have said it better. I think that people listen in so many different ways. I am the type that sits in the sweet spot and even sometimes lowers the lighting to add to the atmospheir and just sink into the music in my lazyboy chair, (very appropriatlly named). I think I will read you last post again, you said it so well.

Mark/tubeking

One thing Tubeking brings to mind in his response that I've been meaning to ask here: Just one more way I like tubes+horns......sitting there in the sweet spot you do get the full holographic effect and enjoyment of what they can bring to musical reproduction. But I also listen to my stereo at times when I'm not sitting in "the spot" (heresy!) and I've never read any posts on this. Perhaps no one wants to fess up....or do you all immediately shut down your system as soon as you leave "the chair"?! With my system obviously the holographic effect is lost once you leave the room. But one of the things I do like most about tubes+horns is that when I leave the room and go cook in the kitchen, or pound away at the keyboard in the office, it still sounds more to me like someone were down in my living room playing the guitar and singing (at best). The SS rigs I've owned and heard in others homes always seem to sound to my ears like there is a stereo playing in the other room once you leave that sweet spot and go off to another spot in the house. I think this can only be a generalization at best for me as my experiences are limited. It could also have a whole lot to do with the structure of the specific home and how the sound travels within that structure(?). But as a generalization it is certainly something I really enjoy about tubes+horns as well, and seems to be consistent in the limited experiences I've had. Can anyone else comment on that?

Marco

In an attempt to suggest a clue to the answer to my own question, .....and it may sound like I'm talking out of the side of my mouth here as I fully admit that I'm no sound engineer and the highly scientific and technical aspects of why this stuff works the way it does is as foreign to me as Chinese algebra. I had the pleasure once of visiting and speaking with George Wright of Wright Sound. When I asked him why tubes sound distinctive from SS, the explanation he offered had something to do with exactly how the two reproduced a signal. If you run a signal through a SS amp to an ocilliscope the graph will read as a stair-step hard straight line, rising and falling off like a cliff. Run the same signal through a tube amp and it reads as a curve, rising and falling off more gently. This reminds me of the difference between digital and analog reproduction where the digital represention of the curve of analog becomes a very fine stairstep that represents that curve. The other distinction that I've heard made is that tubes impart certain orders of harmonic distortion that our ears/minds equate more directly with music (or perhaps just as 'pleasing'). To further the description of what I like about tube+horn reproduction of sound that may relate to this: there is something about the way it lets the music just linger in the air and fade off that is very appealing and natural to my ears. SS tends to sound more abrupt and does not have the same sense of "lingering". OK, so enough of my butchering away at scientific (mis)information. Someone who is far more versed in this stuff needs to step in here and set me straight!

Marco