Klipsch La Scala II Speaker - Black (Each)

HI, I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH EVERYONE MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE KLIPSCH LA SCALA SPEAKER.I HAVE ALWAYS LIKED THE WAY KLIPSCH SPEAKERS SOUND AND AFTER OWNING SEVERAL MODELS OF KLIPSCH SPEAKERS I DECIDED THAT I WOULD BUY A PAIR OF KLIPSCH LA SCALA'S. I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT BEFORE I PURCHASED THESE I DID YEARS OF RESEARCH. I READ AND WATCHED EVERY FORUM I COULD TO MAKE SURE I WAS BUYING A SPEAKER WORTH $7000. I HAD TALKED TO SEVERAL PEOPLE BEFORE I PURCHASED THESE SPEAKERS LOOKING FOR SUGGESTIONS MAINLY WHY I SHOULD GET THE LA SCALA OVER THE RF 7 II". I REALLY WANTED THE KLIPSCH RF 7 II BECAUSE I OWNED THE RF-5'S AND LOVED THEM. I FELT THAT THE KLIPSCH RF-5'S WHERE THE BEST SPEAKER I HAVE EVER OWNED AND THAT THEY MADE EVERYTHING SOUND GREAT. WELL I TOOK THE TIME TO GO TO VINTAGE AUDIO SHOPS AND ASK ALL THE GUYS WHAT THEY THOUGHT OF THE KLIPSCH LA SCALA'S. THE GUYS ALL STATED THAT THEY HAVE BEEN IN THE AUDIO BUSINESS FOR MANY YEARS AND THAT THE KLIPSCH LA SCALA'S WHERE IN A DIFFERENT LEAGUE THEN THE RF 7'S THAT THE LA SCALA'S WOULD BLOW THE RF 7'S AWAY IN EVERY CATEGORY. I HAD DEBATED WITH MYSELF A LONG TIME OVER SPENDING THIS KIND OF MONEY ON A PAIR SPEAKERS BECAUSE I AM NOT RICH BY ANY MEANS OF THE WORD. WELL FINALLY I HAD SAVED ALL THE MONEY I NEEDED TO BUY WHAT I THOUGHT WOULD BE THE BEST SPEAKERS I HAVE EVER HEARD. I WOULD JUST LIKE TO ADD THAT WHEN I WAS PUTTING IN MY CARD MY HEART WAS RACING BECAUSE OF THE FACT I WAS SPENDING $7000 ON SPEAKERS BUT I CONVINCED MYSELF AND I DID IT. I FELT LIKE THE 2 WEEK WAIT WAS FOREVER AND I COULD NOT WAIT TO GET THESE SPEAKERS. WHEN THE SPEAKERS FINALLY CAME I WAS A LITTLE SHOCKED OF HOW BIG THEY WHERE NO PICTURE OR VIDEO CAN TRULY SHOW JUST HOW HUGE THESE ARE !. I HAD DID A LOT OF RESEARCH AND DEBATING AGAIN OVER HOW I SHOULD POWER THESE SPEAKERS TUBE VS SOLID STATE. I HAD FINALLY DECIDED ON THE DENON 5308CI BECAUSE IT IS VERY POWERFUL 150 WATTS PER CHANNEL AND ALSO THE FACT IT COULD DO JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING I NEEDED AND MORE. I ALSO THOUGHT ABOUT A MCINTOSH 275 BUT MAN I COULD NOT AFFORD THE $5000 FOR IT AND ALSO I WOULD NEED TO BUY A LOT OF OTHER COMPONENTS TO GO WITH IT ALL IN ALL IT WOULD HAVE BEEN JUST WHY TOO MUCH MONEY. I HAD PURCHASED SOME REALLY DECENT SILVER SPEAKER WIRES AND OTHER HD RCA CABLES TO HOOK UP ALL THE COMPONENTS. WHEN I GOT EVERYTHING SET UP JUST THE WHY I LIKED IT I HAD THE SPEAKERS DIRECTLY FACING ME ABOUT 12 FEET AWAY AND THEY WHERE SPACED ABOUT 6 FEET FROM EACH OTHER. I FIRST PUT IN SOME CLASSIC MUSIC STEVIE WONDER,MOTOWN,BEATLES AND I SAT THERE FOR AWHILE LISTENING AND TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHY THEY SOUNDED SO FLAT. I TRIED EVERYTHING AGJUSTING THE EQ AND CHECKING ALL THE WIRES AND EVEN TRYING DIFFERENT AUDIO SOURCES CD'S ,MP3, VINYL IT ALL SOUNDED THE SAME FLAT. I THOUGHT THAT MAYBE I WOULD GO TO SLEEP AND WAKE UP THE NEXT DAY AND FIX EVERYTHING. WELL THE NEXT DAY I SET EVERYTHING UP ALL OVER MAKING SURE TO CHECK EVERYTHING THAT THERE WAS TO CHECK TO TRY TO FIX THIS PROBLEM. I WAS SO DISAPPOINTED WITH THE SOUND BUT I DID NOT WANT TO ADMIT THAT I MADE A BAD CHOICE SO I TRIED TO FORCE MYSELF TO LIKE THEM. I WOULD LISTEN TO THEM EVERYDAY AND TRY TO TWEAK THE SOUND TO TRY TO MAKE THEM SOUND GOOD. THE ONLY GOOD THING I COULD SAY IS THEY REALLY MADE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC SOUND GOOD AND SOME VOCAL TRACKS. THE BIGGEST PROBLEM I HAD THAT I SUMMED UP WAS THE LACK OF MID-RANGE AND ALSO BASS THERE WAS NONE. THE KLIPSCH LA SCALA'S HAD THE WEAKEST BASS I HAVE HEARD HEARD FROM A SPEAKER THIS SIZE BY A MILE !. I WAS STILL IN DENIAL SO I THOUGHT IF I PURCHASED A SUBWOOFER IT WOULD FIX THE PROBLEM. I ENDED UP GOING WAY OVER MY BUDGET AND BUYING A KLIPSCH RSW-15. THIS SUB IS HUGE AND VERY POWERFUL IN FACT THE MOST POWERFUL HOME SUBWOOFER THAT I HAVE EVER HEARD. I MEAN THIS SUB ROCKED AND IT ROCKED HARD THE LOWEST CLEANEST BASS I HAVE EVER HEARD FROM A HOME SUBWOOFER.I WOULD SAY EVEN AFTER BUYING THIS SUBWOOFER I STILL DID NOT LIKE THE SOUND FROM THE LA SCALA'S. IT JUST WAS NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING AND ESPECIALLY FOR THE AMOUNT OF MONEY IT COST. I THOUGHT I WOULD TRY ONE LAST THING AND TO BUY A USED TUBE AMP TO SEE IF THIS WOULD FIX EVERYTHING. I PURCHASED A USED JOLIDA TUBE AMP ON EBAY FOR $875. THE JOLIDA PUT OUT 20 WATTS PER CHANNEL. I HOOKED IT UP AND EVEN THOUGH THE SOUND WAS A LITTLE WARMER NOT SO HARSH IT WAS STILL FAR FROM WHAT I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE. THE HARDEST PART WAS I DID NOT WANT TO ADMIT TO SPOUSE WHAT I DUMB*** I WAS FOR SPENDING ALL OF ARE SAVINGS AND VACATION MONEY ON A PAIR OF SPEAKERS THAT I COULD NOT FORCE MYSELF TO LIKE. I WAS ALWAYS FINDING MYSELF COMPARING THE KLIPSCH LA SCALA'S TO MY KLIPSCH RF-5'S. I WAS THINKING HOW CAN A PAIR OF $800 RF-5'S SOUND SO MUCH BETTER IN EVERY WAY THEN A $7000 PAIR LA SCALA'S. THE WHOLE REASON THAT I PURCHASED THE LA SCALA'S WAS BECAUSE OF HOW MUCH I LIKED MY RF-5 AND HOW EVERY TIME I LISTENED TO MY RF-5 THEY WOULD PUT A SMILE ON MY FACE. THE KLIPSCH LA SCALA'S NEVER DID MAKE ME FEEL THE SAME WAY THAT THE RF-5'S HAD. A BIG REASON I GUESS IS BECAUSE IN MY HEAD I KEEP SAYING OVER AND OVER HOW I PAID $7000 FOR THESE LA SCALA'S AND THEY WHERE NOT BETTER AND NO WHERE NEAR $6000 BETTER NOT EVEN BY A MILE. THE KLIPSCH RF-5'S HAD BETTER FULL SOUND, BETTER TREBLE AND WAY MORE BASS BY A LAND SLIDE. I STILL HAVE THE KLIPSCH LA SCALA'S AND I HOPE THAT I CAN FIND A BUYER WILLING TO TAKE THESE LA SCALA'S FOR I HOPE AT LEAST HALF OF WHAT I PAID. I WOULD SAY BUYING THESE SPEAKERS WAS THE WORST BUYER REMORSE I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED BY FAR. I NEVER DID TELL MY SPOUSE HOW MUCH I DISLIKED THESE SPEAKERS BECAUSE I KNOW I WOULD NEVER LIVE IT DOWN AND TRUST ME I AM LIVING WITH THIS REGRET EVERYDAY IN MY HEAD. I MADE A PROMISE TO MYSELF TO NEVER AGAIN GO OFF OF JUST ADVICE AND TO MAKE SURE TO ACTUALLY HEAR THE SPEAKER IN PERSON BEFORE I EVER DARE SPEND THE KIND OF MONEY THAT I HAD ON THESE LA SCALA'S.I HOPE THAT YOU SEE THIS IS AN HONEST PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND THAT EVERYTHING I SAID WAS 100 PERCENT FACTUAL. I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO ADD THAT THIS WAS JUST MY OWN FEELING'S TOWARD THIS SPEAKER AND JUST LIKE EVERYTHING THING IN LIFE 1 PERSON'S VIEW MAY DIFFER COMPLETELY FROM THE NEXT PERSON'S.I SIMPLY WROTE THIS REVIEW SO THAT MAYBE SOMEBODY IN MY SAME SHOES WHO HAS HAD NO EXPERIENCE WITH LA SCALA'S WILL SEE A DIFFERENT PERSON'S VIEW ON THEM AND HOPEFULLY HELP THEM ON DECIDING WHETHER TO BUY A KLIPSCH LA SCALA OR LOOKING ELSEWHERE.THANK YOU FOR READING THIS SLOPPY AMATEUR REVIEW I HOPE IT HELPS.FRANCIS

Is this price for one speaker or for a pair.

Audiophiles used to like to sneer at Klipsch designs- old fashioned, they said. Horns? Who uses horns? Horns are for PA systems. All they have going for them is efficiency, and who needs that is this day of 400-watt FET amplifiers? Until, that is, a few audiophiles rediscovered the wonders of simple, single-ended tube designs. Suddenly, 3 and 5 watt triode amps powered by surplus Western Electric 300B tubes were all the rage. Problem was, those flea-watt amps wouldn't get much output from a pair of $120,000 WIlson Audio speakers. What do do? And someone remembered Klipsch.Company founder Paul Klipsch was famous for saying (among other things) "What this country needs is a good five watt amp," and he was saying it long before the triode renaissance. Whereas most sealed box speakers have efficiencies of between 2 and 5%, horns can deliver up to 33% efficiency. The La Scalas have a sensitivity of 105dB/Watt @ 1 meter, which is astounding for a Hi-Fi speaker. Consider that the Wilson MAXX, which costs $69,000, produces 90dB/watt- that's a 30:1 difference! The La Scalas can produce sound levels with a 20 watt amplifier that would require A *600* watt amplifier with the Wilsons.Efficiency isn't everything of course, but it is a lot. You may not want to play music at levels that will make your neighbor's house shake, but it you listen to orchestral music you'll need a system capable of great dynamic range to reproduce the full range of the orchestra- everything from those ppp solo violin parts to a full fff crescendo. A live orchestra can produce a dynamic range of 70dB, or 10,000,000:1 sound level ratio- and well-mastered CD or LP can capture that. That's pretty astounding, and its the reason that a lot of high powered audio systems that can reproduce heavily compressed pop music fail miserably on orchestral material. Even a pair of those $69,000 Wilsons and a pair of 400-watt amps are going to have trouble creating a realistic orchestral sound stage- but the La Scalas can do this with 100 watts or less.What makes the La Scalas particularly attractive today is that they're really very affordable by today's standards. Sure, they're not for everyone. But if you have the room for them, and the budget, the La Scalas can deliver an orchestral reproduction few other speakers can touch at ten times the price.

To be frank these speakers sucks! Don't even try to use them in a normal house or even in a large basement the sound is all highs due to the folded horns. The bass well thats another story so much that the movie theater had to remove them. We could not use them, our unit with dbx 400 watt amp and pre- amp could not tone down the bass and treb. Enough for the movie. Now in a five hundred seat theater sounded bad try in a very large basement.