This article discusses Klipsch’s new LaScala AL6 and Klipschorn AK7 Heritage speakers. We will discuss the legacy and what has changed to improve the iconic speakers. We’ll also discuss the history and accomplishments of this great company and what makes these two new models great and worthy successors to some of the longest-running speaker models in audio history!

Company History

In the world of high-end audio, it's rare for a company to become a household name. However, brands like Klipsch have achieved just that. If you bring up stereo speakers in conversation today, Klipsch is likely to come up. This is a testament to one man's vision and relentless dedication in designing some of the most iconic speakers in history. Paul W. Klipsch, born in 1904, worked in the 1930s maintaining locomotives. During this time, his passion for amateur radio led him to explore the differences between cone and horn speakers. What he discovered was the remarkable efficiency of the horn speaker.

While in graduate school at Stanford, a classmate suggested that speakers sound better in a corner. During his military service in Hope, Arkansas, Paul began refining his design, and visitors to his officer’s quarters were amazed by the sound and dynamics of his speakers. This experience inspired Paul to start his own speaker company. From prototyping in 1938 to receiving his patents in 1945, Paul was on the path to sparking a revolution in hi-fi sound.

While Klipsch’s original factory is now a museum, the Heritage model speakers are still crafted in Hope, Arkansas, maintaining the same handmade quality they’ve always had. This is especially impressive, as many speaker companies have outsourced cabinet-making and other processes overseas. But for Klipsch, this isn’t good enough. They insist on complete control over the quality, design, and manufacturing of their Heritage speakers. The Heritage line remains proudly American-made—and that’s how it will stay! These speakers are an American icon, and with these new upgrades, they will continue to prove why Klipsch is a legacy!

Features & Technology

New Updates, Same Great Design!

The new LaScala AL6 and Klipschorn AK7 are designed to maintain the same sound character and placement options. The Klipschorn is best mounted in a corner, where its 8’ long bass horn can reproduce sound using the corner boundaries to its advantage. The LaScala takes these design principles and modifies them to allow wall placement. In doing so, the bass horn had to be shortened, which did affect low bass performance. But these new updates hope to deal with this limitation. Klipsch leaves all of the true-to-life dynamics and lively character that have made Klipsch fans happy since the beginning.

Klipsch kept the cabinet design largely the same as before, with only minor adjustments to accommodate the upgrades. These handcrafted cabinets are available in book-matched American Walnut, Black Ash, or New American Auburn. These cabinets have the appearance of fine furniture. While they are large speakers, their corner placement (Klipschorn) or wall placement options (La Scala) make them suitable for more rooms than some speakers that require being pulled into the room to perform properly.

When Klipsch decided to refresh two of its most popular legacy products, it did not take the job lightly! If you watch any of Klipsch’s online content, you most likely have seen their "Chief Bonehead.” Chief Bonehead is the nickname given to Klipsch Principal Engineer Roy Delgado. He’s a cool guy with a great sense of humor who has been working for Klipsch since the days when Paul Klipsch himself ran the show. His work has been instrumental in bringing these new models to life. He even hosts learning events and tours he calls "Chief Bonehead Classes.” These events are cool as Roy gets to show off new models and ideas to people who are as addicted to the Klipsch sound as Roy himself is. This is just one example of what Klipsch does for its devoted fans.

Klipsch Has Trix, Tractrix!

One area that Roy improved was the midrange. He took redesigning these new models as an excellent opportunity to introduce better horn technology. Paul Klipsch and Roy worked with Tractrix horns for years in their other lines and knew the benefits that this style of horn brought. Roy and his team designed the new K-406 Tractrix horn for the new La Scala and Klipschorn. This horn is much shorter than the outgoing K-401 and has the patented “MUMPS” technology. That is one of the benefits of Tractrix horns. Their shape and design allow them to be shorter than exponential horns. A shorter horn allows the drivers to be better aligned, and the Tractrix horn has a better dispersion, giving users much better off-axis sound characteristics. This is an example of the patented “MUMPS” design as it is much different than other Tractrix horns on the market. The corners of the horn are specially shaped to allow better dispersion at the lower end of the horn's frequency output. This aids in a smooth transition between the woofer and midrange horn.

The new driver for this horn was sourced from Klipsch’s professional line. The KT-1133-HP 3” compression driver is 1” larger than the outgoing K-55-X 2” midrange driver. This new driver boasts improved clarity, and the new horn smooths the midrange. The original horn was dynamic and agile, but smoothness, accuracy, and detail all take a step up in quality with the new horn.

The tweeter on both these models has not changed, but Klipsch added a wide dispersion phase plug like the other modernized Heritage models. This allows controlled dispersion all the way through the tweeter's frequency range instead of beaming at higher frequencies due to horn loading. This improved high-frequency dispersion allows a smoother flow of high frequencies throughout the room.

One of the issues with the La Scala that Klipsch also wanted to address was the bass. The La Scala always had a tight and detailed bass, but compared to the Klipschorn, it was limited in depth. So, Roy and his team wanted to see if they could improve it since they were also redesigning the midrange horn. While the Klipschorn has a full 8 ft folded horn area, the La Scala is only around 4 ft, which poses a problem in trying to get excellent performance out of the 15-in driver in the La Scala. After some testing, Roy found that if he ported the enclosure the driver is in, efficiency and capability go up. So Roy used a horn-loaded/vented enclosure for the bass. This differs from the sealed enclosure used throughout the La Scala’s production.

The original K-33-E 15” woofer was replaced with the more capable and better spec K 281 12” woofer directly from the Forte IV. After making this change, Roy found that after calculations, the 12” woofer with both bass ports had a more effective radiating area than the outgoing sealed 15”. Klipsch had to modify the bass horn with twin ports to pull off this upgrade, but they ended up with a speaker that gets 10Hz lower in the bass and has lower measured distortion than the 15”. Roy got the idea for the horn-loaded/vented enclosure because that is precisely how they did the dual 12” bass section in the flagship Klipsch Jubilee speaker. I guess the way Roy sees it, if he can get even close to the completely dominating performance on the Jubilee with the much smaller and more room-friendly La Scala, he has hit pay dirt! Roy was happy with the results of this change as he said, “We got 10 More, Bro!”

Active Or Passive? You Make The Choice

The active or passive argument has been discussed for years, especially since DSP was introduced into the audio world. Some people have embraced it, while others haven’t. A passive crossover introduces losses due to the signal running through these electrical components. Also, phase issues between the drivers can be introduced when these passive components are used. An Active crossover setup allows lower distortions and more control, and things like phase issues or frequency response anomalies are much easier to deal with in an active setup. Roy and the guys at Klipsch put a lot of time into testing the DSP-based crossover in the Jubilee and know how capable this system is. With the same Klipsch Heritage Active Crossover on Klipschorn and La Scala, changes can be made to crossover points, EQ, and levels on the fly, and Klipsch used this ability to take both the Klipschorn and La Scala to accuracy levels not seen before. Roy and his team were so happy with the results of the active crossover setup that Roy wanted his new creation to be an active-only model. However, after discussing this with the rest of his team, they decided to have both active and passive crossover abilities with these models. With the Klipschorn and La Scala, they knew their customers used a variety of systems with these speakers, from low-watt SET amplifiers to full solid-state muscle amps. So, having both options available was a must.

At 105dB, both models' sensitivity is very high, so they take very little power to come alive. But they also have very high power, handling up to 400 watts. This allows both options to work well with a lower-powered tube or higher-powered solid-state gear. We have heard great passive systems with both, and with the new active setup, you can put solid state where it matters most, on the bass, and a tube amplifier on the midrange and treble. This will give you the muscle down below with the tube finesse in the midrange and treble! And the Klipsch Heritage Active Crossover features XLR and RCA level connections, so any amplifier will work( we always recommend checking with your amplifier's manufacturer to ensure this process will not be affected by the input impedance of the amplifier).

When Klipsch decided to allow the Klipschorn and La Scala to be active or passive in the crossover, Roy knew his work was cut out for him. In the active crossover, you can adjust both frequency crossover levels and crossover slopes on the fly. Also, with the DSP, PEQ(Parametric Equalization) you can fix any response issue. This allowed both iconic models to produce flatter frequency responses than in past versions. While the performance was excellent and blew everyone away, trying to match this level of performance in the passive version would be work!

These are the test crossovers used while developing these new models. They are just test crossovers; the finished units are even more complex! To try to match the active version's performance level, they had to use three boards to hold all the components. Roy used 18dB crossover slopes and multiple filters to smooth out the response. Ultimately, the active and passive models are very close regarding frequency response and overall sound character.

When Klipsch decided to make the active version of these speakers, they wanted to make it modular so users could upgrade to the active crossover even after purchasing their speakers. So Klipsch made these models adaptable to both! You can either keep the passive crossovers in place and use them or wire around them with the DSP system. Panels on the back of the speaker allow you to do this by effectively bypassing the passive crossover when the active crossover system is connected. This is excellent as it makes these speakers completely adaptable to any system! The active setup can get quite complex since it requires an amplifier channel per driver and the cables that come with that. That means you will need three stereo amplifiers, a six-channel amplifier, or multiple mono-block amplifiers to make this work. But if you can assemble the amplifiers and cables required, the performance gains with these two speakers are noticeable! With the ability to change to active later, you can start with the passive setup and one amplifier, then build up to the entire active setup as you attain the equipment. We warn you, once you hear the active setup and its effortless capability, it is addicting!

Performance

The New American Auburn of the La Scala has a great wood grain, and the Klipsch horn's new cherry finish has a great pop to it. The veneer is book-matched for a fine furniture appearance. Both models are large, heavy speakers (around 200lbs), so asking friends for help is always encouraged.

The La Scala’s new bass section and Tractrix midrange horn were the first listen, as we were excited to take this upgraded model for a spin. We used the McIntosh MC1502 Stereo Vacuum Tube Amplifier. This combination proved great and allowed us to hear that this new bass section is impressive!

Listening to Marcus Miller's 2007 album Free allowed us to hear this new bass section in action. With the new, more capable 12” woofer, the bass had great texture and dynamics and did seem to go lower than previous La Scala’s. Marcus’s bass guitar lines had clarity and the proper weight for the mix, and the bass punch also appeared to be improved. Overall, the bass performance of the La Scala has taken a considerable step up in ability and sound quality. With past models, there was a definite difference between the La Scala and Klipschorn in the bass. This difference is now much less noticeable, and with the 10Hz lower bass capability of the La Scala, the bass now has more depth, giving your music the foundation it deserves.

The new tweeter waveguide seems to allow the treble to have more effortless detail and smooths out the treble delivery. It is the same tweeter, but with the extended phase plug, the treble has improved.

The new Tractix midrange horn in both models was also impressive. We listened to Julian Lage’s 2024 album Speak To Me and were immediately impressed with the improved midrange on both of these models. Julian's guitar work in this album is magical, and the new, more significant midrange driver and Tractrix horn allow this midrange magic to pour out of the Heritage speakers! The midrange had all of the clarity and detail while remaining clean and without the shoutiness that accompanied many horn designs of the past. Having a clean midrange while being this dynamic is addictive, as you can feel the instruments being played. This is something that horn speakers do very well, and the new Klipschorn and La Scala speakers are top-notch at it. While we could not verify this with measurements, the sound seemed to have better coherency between the drivers as well, not sure if this is the better timing of the drivers due to the new midrange horn or if the new crossover is just that much better, but we will take it!

Moving on to the Klipschorn, we decided to move on to a fully active system to see what performance gains we could hear. We used the fantastic McIntosh MC257 7-channel amplifier as it would have all of the amplifier channels needed for the active setup while still being one amplifier chassis. This is how we see many using the active option on these Heritage models as having six separate amplifiers in a system would take up a lot of space. After placing the active Klipschorns in the room, we sat down to listen. After hearing these speakers briefly in an active setup, we almost wanted to call Roy to tell him how well he did! Everything these speakers are known for doing excellently took another step up in capability. The dynamics were off the charts good. Micro and macro dynamics allowed us to hear the smallest changes in the mix. And the effortlessness of the sound delivery was crazy! Everything we threw at these speakers sounded effortless and alive. Anyone who has previously heard the Klipschorn or La Scala’s needs to listen to them in the new active setup.

Playing The track “Awzan” from the 2014 albums from Driss El Maloumi Makan we were astounded at the level of effortless detail the active Klipschorn system gave us. This track is a drum track that can get muddled and show the limitations of some speakers. The new Klipschorns efficiently handled these tracks and let us hear how dynamic these drums can sound. If you are a fan of true-to-life dynamics, then the active Heritage series will impress!

Conclusion

If you are already a huge fan of the Klipsch Heritage line or are just a fan of true-to-life dynamic speakers, the new Klipshorn AK7 and La Scala AL6 speakers are a definite upgrade from their previous models. With the new, more capable midrange horn, new tweeter phase plug, and the new woofer section in the La Scala, the Klipshorn and La Scala are closer to the reference performance of the Jubilee model. Whether you choose to go active or stay with a passive crossover, Klipsch’s team has ensured these two new models are the best they can be! If you are in the market for new speakers and want true-to-life dynamics, effortless drive, and a sound as iconic as Klipsch’s name itself, then you need to hear the new Klipschorn AK7 and La Scala AL6. Give us a call, email, or chat on our website to see which new Klipsch Heritage model is the right one for your system.

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