The bass took a day off

I went to the La Scala audition with good memories of Klipsch and every intention of loving it. In many ways I did. The bass, on the other hand, took a day off.

That horn-loaded immediacy hits you instantly. There is a jump factor, a presence; when the music starts, it is there. Very musical, extremely vivid, its own vintage soul, on a mid-tier McIntosh system streaming Qobuz through a HiFi Rose.

But the soundstage narrowed to a specific area behind the speakers, and the sound could get loud while staying thin. The low end never clipped on my demanding songs. That was not control; the frequencies simply were not there. On paper it stops at 51 Hz, and at the audition it felt like even less.

And still, I cannot call it inferior to the B&W I owned. Its horns are not as fatiguing as the diamond tweeters, and its sound is more coloured but more pleasing. For most people, it's the right speaker, and I will admit it would look better in my living room.

A speaker that never clips because the bass never arrived has not passed the test. It skipped the exam.