La Scalas came home with me today. Ready for work

Drugolf

Drugolf

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
A black cabinet version of La Scalas came up for sale at a very good price here so I grabbed em. The plan is to go through them and bring everything up to speed and then determine if they go or stay. I really dont have a place for them but I thought it would be at least fun to see what they are all about while bringing them back to life.

Previous/original owner used them with his instruments, mixer boards amps etc as a musician. The terminal connection he had on them was for patch cords, not that it matters though as I quickly just pulled that off to run cables direct to the original terminals.

The contingent is as follows:
Crossover - AA with PIO caps etc.
Woofer - K33E
Mid - K55-V with K400 horn
Tweeter - K77

All drivers work and they sound pretty good, except I think I have a little less output/sound on one of them. Seems like the mid horn is not outputting as much as the other but it is hard to tell. I guess I should disconnect the tweeters and woofers and listen that way. ?

So, hit me with things I should consider or need to do. For now I would rather stick with original stuff and then go from there. If I am getting slightly reduced sound from one speaker, my first instinct would be crossover issues. With these being PIO caps I am not sure if that would be the case though. They are really dirty so I will for sure get in there and clean them up to see if that improves a connection or something.

Can diaphragms weaken and result in reduced output in a horn? Is that something that can be tested for?

I only hooked them up to the pictured Pioneer SX5580 for now (went with the all black look) but plan on using tubes with them for sure.


La-Scala-front.jpg La-Scala-crossover-AA.jpg
 
Last edited:
I think most would suggest the crossovers might be getting a bit long in the tooth.

I have a pair of AA LaScalas... bought them in 1979. (yours will have a serial number on the tag on back and/or, "stamped" on the back of speaker just below your crossover (look at your picture of crossover, "move" camera slightly down to capture the corner and that is the ledge but it's on the TOP part of that ledge.......if that made any sense)

Anyway, just to prove some things to yourself....if you have some decent sized clamps (like 3' which everyone should own, right?!) you can temporarily clamp the front edges of the bass horn while playing. Doing that might give you the illusion of deeper bass.... wrong. It's not an illusion. That deeper bass is there, it's just masked over by the side walls resonating. You can then choose if/how you want to address that. (I've never done anything to mine about it but....mine now serve as my rear speakers so they're not as critical anymore)

That room looks a bit hard & reflective. If you decide you don't like them....then before making any determinations, take them outdoors to give them a listen (bypassing the reflective room)

They can certainly be fun speakers.

The interesting thing about them is you can also easily convert them to 2-way if you want to really jack up their scale of sound (not loudness mind you, they'll go plenty loud on their own.... I'm talking about the scale of the loudness)

You just need to decide how much you'd be willing to invest into them. Here's a picture of what I mean (not my speaker)

2-way, active crossover and biamped.

Bubbles.JPG
 
It's always interesting when you point out to someone who hasn't noticed that the top horn (weird calling it the tweeter) is actually LARGER than the full sized LaScala speaker itself.
 
Serial numbers are 18S417 and 18S418. So 1978. The 17,417th and 17,418th made.
 
If the number is in there, I would have thought it to mean the 417 and 418 unit to be made that year.

Maybe accurate....maybe not....

Today, if I recall correctly, when they make the Jubilee the serial number includes the year and unit numbers (for units made that YEAR)

I picked up on that when someone bought a pair (about 4 years after I bought my pair) and exclaimed they had the "first and second" units made....

Well.... maybe they did for that year!
 
Coytee said:
If the number is in there, I would have thought it to mean the 417 and 418 unit to be made that year.

Maybe accurate....maybe not....

Today, if I recall correctly, when they make the Jubilee the serial number includes the year and unit numbers (for units made that YEAR)

I picked up on that when someone bought a pair (about 4 years after I bought my pair) and exclaimed they had the "first and second" units made....

Well.... maybe they did for that year!
Click to expand...

For that period of years 1955- 83, the letter indicates the year. The number before the letter indicates lot of 1,000 (overall and not for that year) and the number after the letter indicated the number within that lot. So for mine the 18 = 18th lot of 1,000 units translating to 17,000 - 17,999. S = 1978 417 and 418 are the number of the speaker within that 18th lot.
klipschFan's serial numbers would be 18S329 and 18S330
 
klipschFan's serial numbers would be 18S329 and 18S330

Nope. The serials begin with 17S, not 18S. I believe this means they were the 16,329th and 16,330th Klipsch speakers made.

At least I think that's how it reads.
 
For these I am going to order the Sonicaps Gen 1 from Sonic Craft and pretty much do what the Crites rebuild would be. Then I will assess diaphragms.
Upon further inspection, it appears these were once a wood finish version that the original owner painted the black over. I can see the outline of the original Klipsch sticker on the back underneath the paint. I am tempted to strip off the black paint, but man, is that a Pandoras box or what?! If successful, it will raise the value of these pretty good I bet.
 
Crossvers and you will find your new speakers are much "newer" compared to current performance. Nice find!
Cheers,
" I started out with nothing and still have most of it left "
 
I ordered all the new caps, matching what Cites does on their kits.
Stopped at a local furniture refinishing shop and had them look at the cabinets. They don't think the paint will come off well enough to make it worth the effort so the plan is now to sand them a bit, do some repairs with bondo on some spots, prime them and do a nice paint job on them. I guess black, but chime in if you think another color would be cool.
 
Poor. LaScalas. You either see them in fair to great shape, or well-used and beaten to death.

LaScala, the industrial strength Klipsch!
 
Drugolf said:
Stopped at a local furniture refinishing shop and had them look at the cabinets.
Click to expand...

What about wrapping them in another layer of 1/2" or 3/4" plywood? This would give you a clean surface to start with....would also reinforce the sidewalls from resonating (they will then sound like they play deeper) and you can paint/stain/veneer them to be what you want. Also...you could leave a "step" along the front so you could fit a grill in there (if you wanted to hide their interesting looks)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

SBinLilRock
Didn't plan on La Scalas
Replies
11
Views
874
hugeroost
H
cyto
Positioning La Scalas
Replies
12
Views
961
ASPEC
ASPEC
BroonsBane
La Scalas or Fortes?
2
Replies
35
Views
4K
Peter Ward
P
131east23
Friend at work is now a proud owner of La Scalas
Replies
5
Views
579
AlTinkster92
AlTinkster92
rwj0j0
la scala questions
Replies
2
Views
696
silversport
silversport
Back
Top Bottom