new "speakers of the house"

dougy
dougy Posts: 182
edited September 2008 in Speakers
I was gonna put this under the "impressed with klipsch" thread but decided to start a new one. Apologies for posting about the competition, but...

I just bought new Klipsch La Scala II's. I've owned Klipschorns and Cornwalls in the past, plus Heresy II's for surrounds and a Belle Klipsch center speaker. I gotta say the LSII's are the best speakers I've ever had, period. That is, providing you put them with a good sub or two. The clarity and dynamics, and the super low distortion are just revelatory. They are very smooth through the mids, too. No horn colorations that I can hear. They even image great and have a decent measure of depth. The high-frequency "air" might be lacking in smaller or over-damped rooms, but not in mine (15x22).

On the down side: They're freakin' huge! They need subs and the sweet spot is kind of small. Plus, they ain't cheap.

Like I said earlier, I've had big Klipsch in the past, but sent them packing for various reasons. Thing is, I always seem to come back to them, like a straying husband crawling back to his loving wife. Something about the effortless dynamics and low distortion...and clarity!

To each his own and all that rot, but I may just ride off into the sunset with these pups.:)
THE MAN-CAVE 5.1 CHANNEL A/V RIG
Sony KDS-60A3000
a/d/s/ HT-400LCR (3)
a/d/s/ HT-300 (2)
Velodyne DLS-4000R (2)
Pioneer Elite VSX-55TXi
Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai
Sony BDP-S300
Sony SLV-779HF
DirecTV HD sat. receiver

MAN-CAVE 2-CHANNEL RIG (shares sources with a/v system)
Adcom GFA-5500
Bose 901 Series VI
NAD C-165BEE
Slim Devices Squeezebox Classic
TEAC CD-RW890
Technics SL-BD20D w/ Audio-Technica P34
Akai HX-A3X
Post edited by dougy on

Comments

  • dkg999
    dkg999 Posts: 5,647
    edited September 2008
    I'm glad you like them and shared that with us. I've never been very impressed with any of the Klipsch traditional/legacy speakers that you mentioned.
    DKG999
    HT System: LSi9, LSiCx2, LSiFX, LSi7, SVS 20-39 PC+, B&K 507.s2 AVR, B&K Ref 125.2, Tripplite LCR-2400, Cambridge 650BD, Signal Cable PC/SC, BJC IC, Samsung 55" LED

    Music System: Magnepan 1.6QR, SVS SB12+, ARC pre, Parasound HCA1500 vertically bi-amped, Jolida CDP, Pro-Ject RM5.1SE TT, Pro-Ject TubeBox SE phono pre, SBT, PS Audio DLIII DAC
  • fossy
    fossy Posts: 1,378
    edited September 2008
    I would like to hear a Klipsch system again -- been along time but they sounded good back then in a friend of a friend system -- I was in the teenage years but they impressed me even though I didn't know much about the "audio" stuffs -- I remember deep bass & big speaks -- & also "don't touch anything"
  • dougy
    dougy Posts: 182
    edited September 2008
    In my "formative" years of early audiophiledom, I was not so keen on the klipsch sound. Of course back then, the klipschorn, belle klipsch, la scala, cornwall and heresy was it. That was the entire line-up. Klipsch was a boutique brand. Now they're all over the place; computer speakers to the new $20k Palladiums. But I digress...In those days, I was hot for ADS speakers. I owned Advents but aspired to ADS L-810's. Loved that clean, tight, airy sound! But of course, being full of youthful exuberance, I tended to get a bit heavy-handed on the volume from time to time. Blew out the woofers in the Advents. Then I got a pair of ESS amt-1b's and burnt out two high frequency diaphrams in those. Finally I decided to try klipsch and bought a pair of oak cornwalls in '85. No more problems! In fact I've never had a problem with any klipsch speaker I've owned...

    Anyway, I bounced back and forth a bit. Got to reading S'phile in the 90's and decided Cornwalls were hopelessly out of date --WRONG! Sold them and bought Amrita Reference Standards. (ha, that's a joke! Anybody heard of Amrita speakers?....I thought not!) Had a life altering experience in St. Louis with a pair of k-horns at Flip's Stereo that put me on the path to a lovely pair in '98. Built a new house, but unfortunately there was no good sounding room that would accomodate the big corner-horns so they went on the auction block in '03. Since then I've gone through B&W 703's, ADS HT-400's and MoFi OML-2's. All very good for the money, but like the 'Stones, I "cant' get no satisfaction". So here I am back with a pair of walnut La Scala II's and happy as a clam! At least for now!!:D

    I really should add, in light of the fact this forum is provided by the good folks of Polk Audio, that somewhere in all that time I did get to hear some wonderful sounding Polks at Audio Electronics in Overland Park, KS (i think). It was one of the earlier versions of the big SDA. I forget the exact model, but I remember the sound to this day: Extremely three-dimensional! I couldn't afford them at the time, but there was a long time they were on my short list!
    THE MAN-CAVE 5.1 CHANNEL A/V RIG
    Sony KDS-60A3000
    a/d/s/ HT-400LCR (3)
    a/d/s/ HT-300 (2)
    Velodyne DLS-4000R (2)
    Pioneer Elite VSX-55TXi
    Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai
    Sony BDP-S300
    Sony SLV-779HF
    DirecTV HD sat. receiver

    MAN-CAVE 2-CHANNEL RIG (shares sources with a/v system)
    Adcom GFA-5500
    Bose 901 Series VI
    NAD C-165BEE
    Slim Devices Squeezebox Classic
    TEAC CD-RW890
    Technics SL-BD20D w/ Audio-Technica P34
    Akai HX-A3X
  • dougy
    dougy Posts: 182
    edited September 2008
    A couple of pics:
    THE MAN-CAVE 5.1 CHANNEL A/V RIG
    Sony KDS-60A3000
    a/d/s/ HT-400LCR (3)
    a/d/s/ HT-300 (2)
    Velodyne DLS-4000R (2)
    Pioneer Elite VSX-55TXi
    Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai
    Sony BDP-S300
    Sony SLV-779HF
    DirecTV HD sat. receiver

    MAN-CAVE 2-CHANNEL RIG (shares sources with a/v system)
    Adcom GFA-5500
    Bose 901 Series VI
    NAD C-165BEE
    Slim Devices Squeezebox Classic
    TEAC CD-RW890
    Technics SL-BD20D w/ Audio-Technica P34
    Akai HX-A3X
  • george daniel
    george daniel Posts: 12,096
    edited September 2008
    whatcha' driven those horns with? I heard that tubes and horns were magic,being an efficient speaker and all,looks nice,,enjoy.
    JC approves....he told me so. (F-1 nut)
  • dougy
    dougy Posts: 182
    edited September 2008
    whatcha' driven those horns with? I heard that tubes and horns were magic,being an efficient speaker and all,looks nice,,enjoy.


    Thank You!

    Amplification is very humble: An Onkyo A-9555 class D 85W/channel integrated. I've just never felt any need to mess with tubes. I'm quite happy with the sound I'm getting. Of course, I've only had the LSII's 6 days, so ask me again in six months!:)
    THE MAN-CAVE 5.1 CHANNEL A/V RIG
    Sony KDS-60A3000
    a/d/s/ HT-400LCR (3)
    a/d/s/ HT-300 (2)
    Velodyne DLS-4000R (2)
    Pioneer Elite VSX-55TXi
    Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai
    Sony BDP-S300
    Sony SLV-779HF
    DirecTV HD sat. receiver

    MAN-CAVE 2-CHANNEL RIG (shares sources with a/v system)
    Adcom GFA-5500
    Bose 901 Series VI
    NAD C-165BEE
    Slim Devices Squeezebox Classic
    TEAC CD-RW890
    Technics SL-BD20D w/ Audio-Technica P34
    Akai HX-A3X
  • dougy
    dougy Posts: 182
    edited September 2008
    Lasareath wrote: »
    They sure do look very sweet.

    Your rack seems a little too high tech and futurist for them.


    Thank you very much!

    I love that rack! It's an OmniMount 303. I had a Standesign 4 that was similar but I gave it to my son when I was running Adcom because the Adcom stuff was too deep for it.

    BTW, I'm gonna have to check out you're set-up. It looks interesting!
    THE MAN-CAVE 5.1 CHANNEL A/V RIG
    Sony KDS-60A3000
    a/d/s/ HT-400LCR (3)
    a/d/s/ HT-300 (2)
    Velodyne DLS-4000R (2)
    Pioneer Elite VSX-55TXi
    Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai
    Sony BDP-S300
    Sony SLV-779HF
    DirecTV HD sat. receiver

    MAN-CAVE 2-CHANNEL RIG (shares sources with a/v system)
    Adcom GFA-5500
    Bose 901 Series VI
    NAD C-165BEE
    Slim Devices Squeezebox Classic
    TEAC CD-RW890
    Technics SL-BD20D w/ Audio-Technica P34
    Akai HX-A3X