$13,000 or $25,000: the question nobody asks

La Scala at $13,000 or Yvette at over $25,000. Most people walk into that choice asking which one sounds better. The question they avoid is the one that decides it: do you have the system and the room these speakers need, or are you still building?

I asked myself exactly that. Do I have the foundation, system, room, electronics? I had the McIntosh electronics, a treated room, sources and cables I trusted, so the audition was never really a contest, and the robot-looking Yvettes left me no room for a decision.

With this speaker, the law of diminishing returns, it evaporates. Twice the price, and not 20% or 30% better but a different category: 20 Hz extension, a three-dimensional soundstage, the ability to disappear. I called a $25,000 speaker a bargain, and I would say it again, with the condition attached.

Answer no, and everything flips. Without the foundation the Yvette will reveal every weakness you own, and the beautiful, sweet-sounding La Scala becomes the smarter choice, for warm sweet-spot electronics, for vinyl lovers with a decent setup, for people who listen to everything rather than reference recordings. You will be absolutely happy with it.

Answer that question honestly before the audition. The right speaker for today is chosen at home, not in the dealer's room.