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Sitting at my bench working away. A glance out the window shows no break in the clouds. Two days of downpours had left the world soggy and my mood gloomy. A deep sigh escapes me. Dark thoughts, aching bones and a general miasma steal over me more and more these days. Well, I still have my work. After 65 years, I don’t really need it for income anymore and my hands can barely grip the soldering iron, but it gives me a sense of purpose and helps fill the empty hours. Not much work to be had, truth to tell. Mostly older guys bring the stuff in, early solid-state amplifiers, old vacuum tube radios, sometimes a turntable. No tv’s anymore, not since the airwaves went digital. Gotta admit, I don’t miss working around the kind of voltages hanging around at the back of those cathode tubes. Still everyone bringing something by has a tale to tell, “it belonged to my grandfather”, got this for my 18th birthday and boy was I excited”. “Joe at the Stop and Shop said you could get this running.” And, in a poor town like this, “can’t afford to replace it could you take a look and tell me if it’s worth fixing”. Well that’s about all I can do to this old solid-state Heathkit. Going to have to get some parts in. I’ll just scoop up these transistors and other bits, put them in my pocket and figure out the parts order later. Hah, I surely do remember how Martha used to yell and carry on when she’d wash my work jeans and a pocketful of parts would go for a ride through the dryer. She’d always save her scolding for the dinner table, so the kids knew that even the old man wasn’t immune from instruction from the real boss in the house. The kids would always nudge each other and smile, knowing that Dad was in for it now. Dear, dear Martha, gone these four years now. Kids scattered around the country like pebbles tossed in a pond. Just distant phone calls now, and sometimes, a short visit. Caught up in their loves, family careers and life. That’s all right, part of the cycle of life. What’s up next? Oh yes this RCA tabletop radio, circa 1946. Middle age woman brought it in, said it was part of her aunt’s estate. The story was that it belonged to her husband, killed in a car accident after coming through the war unscratched. I remembered how’d those of us who come through that mess whole, wouldn’t even blink when we’d heard something similar about a returning vet. Don’t know if it was callousness or just or the incongruity of it all. Her aunt had put the radio in a box after the funeral and it hadn’t been turned on since. Had a frayed cord she said and could you replace it. Yup, cords shot, but so is all the internal wiring, caps are leaky and I’m sure it’s out of alignment. Well I got all the parts for this type of unit and any tubes I need. It’s amazing how many spare parts I’ve ended up with by tripping out unrepairable items. The caps are all common values I keep on hand. Looks like I might as well do it today, no walk today, not with this weather. That didn’t take long. Musta rebuilt a thousand of these old AC/DC radios over the decades. Never meant to end up a tech, but even with the GI bill, I had to drop of out of engineering after only a year. Needed the money what with a young bride and little Tommy on the way. Seems like babies just dropped out of the sky back in those days. One following the other and before you know it, my youth was gone and my pathway through life was set. Let’s do the dial frequency calibration and antenna peaking and see how she sounds. That should do it so let’s turn it up a bit. Yup can’t mistake that sound. AM through a small speaker. It always gives me a feeling of distance. Like the signal had to travel a long ways to reach your ears. A feeling that the world is wider and stranger than we know. OK, now to tune in ABC and see what’s on the news: “Good evening ladies and gentlemen and you are listening to the news on WABC in New York City. International news today saw the adjournment of the 1st session of the UN General Assembly. UN Secretary General Trygve Lie called it a historic event in the quest to create a more peaceful planet…and in national affairs, major labor stoppages in the coal, electrical and steel industries continue. United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther repeated his call today for a “democratization of industry…and in sports the St. Louis Cardinals walked away with the win in the exciting finale to their 7 game contest with the Boston Red Sox…” How, how can this be! It’s like the radio captured what it heard on the last day it was plugged in. This is amazing! It’s the same on all the dials. Hey it looks like there is an unusual blue glow coming from the radio tubes. Talk about time in a bottle. Oh my goodness, how wonderful. It’s approaching dawn and the longer I listen the more disconnected from this time and place I become. It’s like my mind is slipping away, or is it simply fatigue since I’ve now been up nearly 24 hours. Dawn’s breaking. Looks like the weather has cleared. Going to be a nice day. I’m spinning off into sleep, a vortex of thoughts spinning me around, around… …with I start, I snap out of my seeming daydream. Confused I gather in my surroundings. Looks to me like a typical early morning on Centre Avenue in my hometown, Secaucus, New Jersey. I’m staring into the window of Mr. Diggs hardware store. My reflection shows what it should, a 24 year old man, dressed up in suit and tie, with a nervous smile on his face. Nervous because I’m off to 229 West Pleasant Avenue, where I’m about to offer up a ring and proposal to my true love, Martha Ames. The ring! The ring! Do I have the ring! Patting my pockets I reach into my pants pocket and with a sigh of relief feel the small box. Say what’s this other stuff? Change? Pulling it out I spot several small transistors. Hey, how do I know their called transistors? Never heard of or seen such a thing, but I’m sure I’m right. I’m also thinking I should take a bus ride over to Murray Hill and show these to some folks at Bell Labs. Don’t know why, just a hunch. Maybe if they like what they see they’ll help out with my engineer schooling. Its’ for sure the GI Bill funds can only stretch so far. And why do I feel like I should take a train trip out to Hope, Arkansas? I have this funny feeling something specials going on out there. Oh well. I’ll save that thought for another day. Martha’s waiting and things are looking up. (End Note: The transistor was invented in 1947 by 3 scientists at Bell Labs. Hope Arkansas is where the folded corner horn speaker, known as the Klispchorn was first made in the year 1946 by it’s inventor Paul Klipsch. It is still in production in Hope today and costs of $11,000 a pair.) ********************** Now for the technical details. With the gracious assistance and seemingly endless patience of our own local tech, Maynard slash tubefanatic, I have just finished a complete restoration of 1946 RCA tabletop radio Model #56X3. This is my first real experience working with these radios which carry their own challenges, mainly the fact that they are AC/DC radios, which I gather to mean that there is both AC and DC voltages running around inside, thus a chance to double your fun. A customer of mine, knowing of my hobby, asked if I could replace the cord, which was cracked. Well when I pulled the chassis out of the case, the inside was something I had never seen. Every non-cloth wire’s plastic coating was crumbling into dust. Broaching the subject with Maynard he readily agreed to lend a hand. The primary issues were safety, safety, safety. He clued me into special safety caps now used in restoring these types of radio, which I obtained through Just Radios in Canada. In addition to the safety cap he instructed me on how to rewire the innards to accommodate a polarized wall plug thus removing a major safety flaw in these types of radios. He also advised me to obtain an Isolation Transformer, which is a special transformer that apparently puts all that mean ole AC in a special cage designed by some fellow named Farraday. He even let me stick multimeter probes inside the box when everything was turned on! The final steps were very cool. I just happened to have a RF Generator sitting around. I built a “probe” for lack of a better term to go with it. He then taught me how to check and see if the generator itself was properly calibrated. Finally, I got to align the tuner and do the dial frequency calibration and antenna peaking. Antenna Peaking! I love that phrase. It’s pretty cool too. I’d describe it, but it’s part of a secret radio rite and not for mere plebeians. Of course, throughout this process, there were the usual Thebesian mishaps and mistakes. Indeed at one time I had to warn Maynard that the power company had threatened to turn off my power permanently if I took out the East Coast grid just one more time.

Hey CHAD!!! Another suggestion! Would it be possible to make a search function in the members section, so we could search by location???? This would make it easier for us to locate members in our area, or members that can help in a "Pony Express" to ship speakers or check out speakers for a fellow forum member. Feel free to chime in here guys and or hit my like button if you agree this is a good idea!!! Thanks Chad!... Roger

While I'm sure Klipsch does not want or need to run a social networking site, the exchanges in the old "General" forum attracted newcomers and seemed to involve most members. I enjoyed reading about members new dogs, project cars, dinner fixins, personal problems, and jokes. Don't see much of that anymore and it looks like forum traffic is way down now too compared to just a few years ago. Some pretty fascinating (sometimes mildly disturbing) charactors have passed through this forum. Just guessing that many old timers still lurk in from time to time just looking for something interesting or funny. Why not just take the old "General" forum and call it a "General Discussion" forum or " Lounge" and place it near the top where new posters can introduce themselves and everyone can join in and post friendly (and nonsensical) discussions, catch up with each other, and then move on to 2-Channel or whatever. Sort of the welcome mat to the rest of the forum instead of a "What's on your Mind" sub-forum buried in the basement. Without the banter in what used to be the "General" forum, I'd probably just wander off aimleesly into the internet and end up wasting away my life at some seedy porn site since I'm so easily corrupted. I guess it's a win-win for me either way.

Please don’t email me or call about items listed or items that you know I have and “may list”. Just post that you “PM” me regarding the item you are interested in purchasing. Ask all you want about the item and I will post back in the thread. I'm selling stuff as I'm moving. I will have one audio room and that's it. I’m doing this sale in this manner as the last time I posted for sale stuff…..I got confused on who got dibs first and I basically got mixed up on who was who. 4 double stacked MWMs. No woofers. Wiring intact with terminal plates and fuse. The fuses need changed. One MWM is missing the cap for the fuse capsule. One MWM is missing the red plastic "screw on" for the speaker wire....which can be replaced at Parts express for cheap. They are with no handles as these were a permanent install version...like the new pair I have now. They have the Klipsch painted logo on the front which looks cool. They need cleaning and painting but could be left as is if new owner doesn't care. Also needs new screws for the woofer mounting and the woofer chamber cover. The foam rubber seals on the front cover are all good. $800 for all 4 (you need 8 woofers . As is. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KPT MCM Grand 3 http://www.klipsch.com/kpt-mcm-3-grand Pair K402's with custom base better than the manufacture which is 'fixed". The ones I made are capable of changing the angle of the horn. NO driver. So the stand is "custom". The last two photos show an upclose of the inside the throat. That bare looking area on both horns were like that when I got them. They don't show up when you are sitting in a listening position. I have a flash upclose to show the paint-like defect. The flash on the camera makes the defect look non-black but that isn't the case. It's black like the rest of the horn. I never noticed they were there until one day I had a flashlight in there when I was making sure the installed compression driver was "flush". Pair Xii with stock driver. This is the 12" woofer horn loaded tractrix module. Can't get these anymore. Pair modern day MWMs loaded with stock woofers. So basically this is the MCM Grand 3 except there is no compression driver. There isn't a passive. I had this system up and running as of this summer and has been unhooked for the move. $1800. This is a steal folks. Sold as is though. The photos below posted with show the Modern day cinema MWM's with the Xii's on top. The blue tape on the Xii's is the painters tape that was on there for the movers. In the middle of the room and in center between The Grand system is the 4 total empty MWM's. These are from the KP days not KPT. These were in a club in Maryland. I paid a driver to go up there and get them. This stuff above is for pickup only. Takes 3-4 guys to pickup the loaded MWM's. If you work with me on pickup dates.....I can have some young bucks over here to load in your truck. You better have a big truck. I prefer a mailed check in advance with clearance or Paypal plus 3%. jc

I am posting this for a friend who has not got access to a computer. The amp is rare and is in nice condition and he, within the last 3 months, had the unit professionally worked on at Durhams electronics in Little Rock. The unit is in 100% working order. Lights work, front glass is clean, etc. It is a very powerful amp, rated at 180wpc but is actually closer to if not over 200wpc. He is asking $1,000 obo, trades considered. He is located in central Arkansas. If interested call or text Bud @ 501-416-1253.

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im working with chad about this right now. trying to get something together like this: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1354149/the-ill-demo-my-subwoofer-for-other-enthusiasts-thread this is one of my kansas city buddies. he makes alot of fun stuff happen over at avs, but i wish there were more klipsch guys around over there

My indoor drive in theater.

Thanks! Thanks! I guess so. The only thing I did was to put Roxul Safe'n'Sound insulation in the walls.

This isn't exactly revelatory stuff because I think we all know by now that the better the resolving power of the system the more we can pull out of the recording. The additional detail is great when the recording is good, not so great when it isn't. For reasons I haven't been able to figure out, recordings that fall somewhere in the middle usually end up sounding subjectively better. The normal thing to think here is that people are hearing more detail and elevated levels in the higher frequencies because they are replacing 30 year old or older crossovers with something new -- but only one person was in this situation, while everyone else was/is using something already recapped or completely new (various circuits). Bruce's (Marvel) comments here and in the other thread over in mods are of particular interest since this network and the one he's using are quite similar. Bruce's DHA2 has a single capacitor for the tweeter while the Super AA uses a third order filter section. Bruce's attenuation setting for the midrange is fixed at -3dB, while the Super AA is adjustable and is sent out set at -4.6dB. So, both the tweeter and midrange are delivering a little less output than what Bruce is used to. However, these combined differences, in spite of being relatively small, create what might be considered a disproportionate impact on the sound. Both the DHA2 and Super AA are really just modified versions of Al's Universal Type A (ALK), but anyone who has heard all three will tell you that though they come from the same family, like family -- they have very different personalities. What you learn is that it doesn't take a major change to a circuit to make a major change in the sound. I've always found that interesting and I guess I'd like for everyone to find that as interesting as I do. Cameron's (Muel) post pretty much sums up what the other testers are telling me. I really wasn't expecting this to turn into a Super AA love-fest when I started the thread. What I was expecting was something more balanced with a little of something that mirrored my own personal experience -- and only Jeff came through for me on that one. After hearing Tom's Super AAs he had me build some PIO Type AAs for him. Both are very happy listening to some very different sounding LaScalas! I love the sound of the Type A and AA. The network I used 90% of the time was a pair of Type As with no low pass coil. IOWs, my networks had three parts. Easy to get away with if you don't listen crazy loud, and with my small room it worked pretty well -- I preferred the sound over anything I'd built/tried. At the point I realized I no longer needed adjustable attenuation and having outgrown the excessively loud listening sessions, it was an easy transition. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm really surprised by the level of acceptance for this design as well as the equally high level of rejection for the ones I actually prefer! Well, I do have a theory for that ... if you want the old school sound then build with old school parts. I've been messing around with some RB-61s that I use for listening while I work. Sometimes it's nice not learning anything new.

Sorry tigerwoodKhorn, they still play boring music for old people, its just that now you and I are old people. Cheers

Hey everyone... Just wanted to thank you all for your continued input. I want to also let you know that we are currently not going to aggressively move topics around, for now anyway. We've got too much other stuff to do. What we'd like to do is keep things as they are for now, and compile some usage data over the next few days/weeks or months. Then we may (or may not) consider a forum restructuring of sorts, which would almost certainly consolidate things a little. By that I mean combine certain forums that don't get much traffic, rename certain other forums, and simplify things a bit. Again, we aren't going to do any sort of restructuring beyond what's already been done yet. We may not even do it at all. But, time will tell. Anyway, thanks again. I'm going to go ahead and close this topic, as I think most people that have a strong opinion on it have said what they wanted to say.

I would like to finally post my experiences with the roadshow crossover and my current crossover of choice. I'll follow up later with my experiences with quite a few other crossovers I've tried. After trying out the roadshow networks it was a no-brainer that I wanted a pair of these for my own! It was obvious that these networks were something special but it took some time to wrap my mind around these. Here are some notes I took and shared with a few of the other roadshow participants: "I got the roadshow crossovers and put them through the paces as I got the xovers from Tom and I'm putting time on them now. I have a lot of various networks to compare to but I'm pretty bad about changing more than one variable at a time so I can't go into my past listening experience and be very scientific about it since I'm not comparing apples to apples. I don't have to put any other networks on these Lascalas to know that these are a different animal. I would take these over the stock AA networks in a second. I wish I was better at choosing words that accurately convey what I am hearing. I'll give it a shot now and after I listen some more over the next couple of days. I’ve been really puzzled by some of what I am hearing. I think the cohesion between the horns is excellent. Very smooth! Balanced is another word that comes to mind. There is a "mellowness" that I can't quite figure out. This is something for me to get used to but it seems to be growing on me a bit but then I listen to something else and I'm not sure again. It seems some tones in some voices have a little distortion... ... At the same time it is strange to me how I can hear that mellow sound AND such clarity and good highs (well, lows too). It can get loud without falling apart as well!" After a couple more days of listening: " ...I am slowly coming around to accept that I am hearing better resolution with the Super AA networks and that is why I am conflicted. Some stuff sounds so good and yet I'm hearing some things that aren't so good even on what are considered audiophile recordings. Hearing more of what is in a recording isn't a completely good thing I suppose so you have to accept the good with the bad. In the end, what makes me want to sit and listen?" Well, my answer was to give it ALL to me.. good and bad! My answer was Dean’s Super AA’s with oimp V-Caps. I've been listening with these for almost a couple of months now and am very happy.

Well, since Marty is still busy trying to tune in "Bleaker Street" from 1967 or something, I'll hijack... Dang'him. Caused me to spend a couple of hours hunting down the Radiodyne WC-17. Thing originally cost 75.00 in 1925. I think I got ripped off paying 50.00 for it over 50 years later! It's a tuned radio frequency receiver using 5 UX201A tubes. This is the RCA and the one I want to get working again. I didn't pull it out, as debris from the mine walls was filling in around me and I feared a complete collapse. However, this is "my precious," a horn-loaded 1925 unit in very, very nice condition. I think I mentioned I purchased it from the estate of the original owners from the room it had been in since purchased. The cutout grill is the horn mouth, battery cabinet below. There was a sixpack of the UX201A tubes in there when I brought it home. I still have them. I took the transducer off the horn to take this picture of it in the battery case. This is the horn. Inside. Can't describe the smell, but I LIKE it and it's like smelling time itself...whatever the hell that means. Those tubes are on a board that is designed to "float" suspended by rubber tethered to the four posts you can see at the corners. It was still in place, but very brittle, when I got it but has simply turned to powder since. I presume this circuit was rather microphonic. It's all rather minty inside when cleaned up. Fine looking component quality. Back. Complete instructions on how to tune into 1925. Dave

Thebes, What a wonderful story telling gift you have which really does place the(this) reader back to a time when things were simpler. Thanks so much for providing an alternative to the gloom and doom I could have read if I had chosen to entertain one of the "news" websites on this beautiful Saturday morning. Bill

Recently, I bought a restored RCA 45RPM record player for my mother for her 75th birthday. I also explained to her how to clean records using elmers. Since then, every time I see her she tells me of another record she has cleaned explaining that she only cleans them when she wants to listen to them. This is a barometer not only that I picked a gift for a 75 year old that was actually being enjoyed which is hard, but of inspiring a new skill into a person who may well have thought there was little more to learn in this life. What you do and are going to do has and will make a difference in the world. There are millions of older people just waiting to be energized. What's more, there are tens of millions who are trying to shop for a gift for a person who is old enough to have everything they want or need. In fact, unless it is a consumable, if they don't have it, they probably don't either want it of need it. For those people, shop for restored vintage gear. You will not regret it! God bless you Maynard, Craig