I was pleasantly surprised how much I ended up liking my La Scalas (along with the SET amps to drive them). After several decades of avoiding horns because of the “received wisdom” that horns are too colored sounding and that SET amps measure horribly, I decided to ignore this audio myth and hear these for myself. One benefit of being on the “right” side of 60 is that you don’t particularly care what other people think anymore! I was also curious how Klipsch stayed in business for almost 70 years. They must be doing something right!
After listening to my La Scalas for almost 9 months now, they’re my favorite speakers in my house. I still have three pairs of Quad electrostatics and a Harbeth Monitor 40.1. But the La Scalas sound better to my ears in ways that are musically important. Driven by a really nice SET — one of my current favorites is Oliver Sayes’ 421a based SET — their sound is simply gorgeous. I use a NOS Western Electric 421a power tube — one stereo tube for both channels. 3 watts is more than enough as the La Scalas are rated 105dB efficient. It never ceases to amaze me that this humongous 200 pound refrigerator sized loudspeaker is driven so effortlessly by this tiny SET with just 3 tubes in it! Efficiency is the magic ingredient.
I find the crossover to be pretty well done. I could digitally equalize the drivers using miniDSP, but that introduces its own colorations. Regarding the larger Klipschorn, HFN/RR just published a review of the KHorn AK6 and they didn’t like it. They previously reviewed the La Scala and loved it and rated it highly. Looking at their measurements (for what that’s worth), the La Scalas measure a lot better. But until I try the KHorn in my house, I can’t say.
I have a pair of large REL Gibraltar G1 Mk2 subs in my room. I haven’t turned them on in 9 months of listening to the La Scalas. I’ve gotten used to listening without them. One of these days I’ll hook them up. I find audiophiles obsess over low bass for mostly unmusical reasons. Harry Pearson in TAS used to write reviews of which speakers could reveal the direction in which subway cars underneath Kingsway Hall were running in some famous Decca recordings. Stereophile reviewer Larry Greenhill talks about his pants flapping in the wind from his subs. I find this amusing but silly. Low bass is useful but mostly irrelevant to the enjoyment of music. I have listened to many concerts in San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall. Not once did I come out thinking wow, great bass. There’s very little low bass in a huge concert hall!
As Peter Walker once famously said, a loudspeaker is great or terrible long before it gets to 10 kHz. I’d add the same about low bass. Under 50 Hz, it doesn’t matter what happens. Musically it’s irrelevant to me. Even for organ music. Anyway the laws of physics implies you cannot reproduce low bass in a normal listening room. The wavelengths are too long. You want to hear a great pipe organ? Go to a church!
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