The Two Channel Advice Thread

My thoughts exactly. Unless you are looking for head banging levels.

 

If you put the speakers beside the TV do not forget to cover the glass table with a sheep skin or something other that will prevent the early reflection off the table towards were you sit while listening. Even dsp will not be able to correct that mess. Or put the table somewhere else when listening to music.

 

I got a coupla of body pillow covers for $10/each at Target I use in this way.

 

So I auditioned the Klipsch La Scala's today. Condition looks good overall, though I suspect that cabinets are not original or someone tried to refinish them at one point. One speaker had a chip on the top side veneer.

Speakers were against the wall, approx 6 ft apart, pointed forward, seating about 8 feet away with a hard wall behind us. Room was untreated overall, with open joists above (we were in the basement).

Overall sound was good, very airy, room filling, I felt like there was a slight upper-mid shoutiness but my friend didn't feel that, though felt they were a bit weak on detail while I thought they were fine. We both thought the imaging/width was very weak. Really it was a uniblob of sound in the middle, albeit nice sound. We both honestly thought the seller was playing in mono at first. Horizontal dispersion was good (again it just felt like mono). Vertical also surprisingly good.

I feel the speakers need a lot of space, both in front of them and to be further apart. For me, standing closer actually reduced the mild shouty feeling but didn't help with the width/separation.

Bass light for such a big cabinet, though that was forewarned. Everything was sealed up so I couldn't check on the condition of the woofers. These things are so big... roughly 2'x2'x3'. Would not fit my living room at all. These would be great as a basement system... but my basement is unfinished right now and a mess of a construction zone.

So overall, impressed by the "bigness" of the sound despite the smallness of the staging... but not impressed enough to want to pull the trigger even if the guy is offering it at a stellar deal. Also too big to be able to reliably flip in my local small market. Maybe if the guy calls me back and drops it some more I'll get it for the sake of having it and figure out the basement situation later, but for now it's going to be a pass. At least I got to experience the sound though. Always a valuable lesson to be had when you get your own ears on things. I think it would be a most excellent speaker to build a room around. Maybe some corner loading to boost up the lower end.

 

Hard wall behind you says it all, early reflections galore, no wonder it sounded like mono.
I think you are right, either you build the room around the speaker, if you can’t you should choose a speaker which works well within the limitations of your existing room.
Having a hard wall close behind your listening position, do not bother, stick to headphones.