seeking ‘HORN’ ideas apart from Klipshc Lascalla


hello all!

Horns, and just now, the Klipsch Lascalla interests me and as a new purchased items, ala, $12K MSRP, are doable.

to gain a wider perspective what other avenues, choices, or options in competing brands could be suggested as alternative selections in the $8K to $15K new or used arena?

i’m aware adding sub (s) is a likely necessity with the Lascallas, and possibly many other such speakers..

power is up in the air and nothing yet is set to stone, but any speaker candidates will be used with tube or SS amps. Tubes predominately of course. albeit, not necessarily SET Flea wattage amps, e.g., 2a3, 300B, etc., though I’d not wish to rule out these types as a later down the road application .

I’ve heard only at shows sevewral brands and have not been thrilled by Avante gard Duos or uno’s especialy.

I have enjoyed immensely the Classic audio T1s but am having issues justifying their near $40K entry fee.

overall, i do enjoy the idea of the sheer impact and presence horns produce but feel from my brief listening experiences in show venues imaging often lacked yet contributed this attribute to room conditions and or the LP itself being perhaps too close.

truth be told, even cone speakers are not totally off the table as considerations, as some ‘hybrid’ bass powered systems appear to be quite easily driven;.

predominately, my main caveats here are size of units and the room dims. they will be set.

for a bit , room size will be 13.5ft x 21ft x 8.5ft and using the short wall.

albeit the current room dims will increase, it is not yet known to what extent, though the desire is to land in a larger, but not huge dedicated listening room. likely a tad wider one in any event

secondly, given present room dims, it seems to me placing speakers in there which are taller than about 4ft or so, is going to be excessive…. ?

lastly, imaging is usually a pet peve of mine. the better the imaging the more involved the presentation seems to be IMO. certainly imaging is not the whole shooting match and orgainics, speed, leading edge def, decay, lower register deliniation, and presence all play quite significant roles.

as I’m at the onset of putting together this outfit any suggestions are definitely appreciated in terms of speaker ideas other than the Lascalla per se.

alas, DIY, or kit options are off the table as assenbly is no longer something I’m comfortable doing..

as for power, consider what ever amps are involved, I’d probagbly use what ever quality amps whose outputs are 25wpc or greater, be it one chassis or two. the plan is to acquire more than one sort of power amp in topology and or output along the way.

huge thanks, .
blindjim

Showing 4 responses by ozzy62

Take a listen to the Cornwall IV if you can. To my ears, this speaker is as close to a pair of Khorns you can get and will fit better in most rooms. I am thoroughly enjoying mine.

Oz



P.S Don't forget that mask today, to stop the spread of COVID.

I choose to stop the spread of fear.
Why? Horns distort sound. They are for poles at football stadiums, not serious audio systems.

Spoken like a true neophyte. Horns have probably the least distortion of any speaker design today. You may not like the sound of horns, and that's ok by me. But don't rant about "distortion". That just makes you sound very uninformed. 

Listen to big band jazz, blues or classic rock. A planar will NOT give you the dynamics nor the feel of live music like a well designed horn speaker. Hell, for that matter, listen to a good recording of the human voice. A planar won't give you the texture or the spatial cues that a person is standing in the room singing to you. Horns will do it. And they will give you excellent midrange tone too.

I have owned maggies in the past. They do what they do. They are open and airy and sound better than many box speakers. But dynamics DO exist in music and that is where most planars fall short.

Oz



@superstoked

I owned the Cornscala "C" version a few years ago. It was a lot of fun, but that cabinet has midbass resononances that are hard to overlook. That was ultimately why I got rid of them.

Oz