Leaderboard

Good morning from the great northwest! Reading and coffee before the fam is up. Today marks a new number in the ten spot of my age. Turning the big 4-0 today! Some of you have been there done that, others are en route. Lots to be grateful for. Miss my dad today. I know many of you can relate but it is CRAZY how much more quickly time seems to pass the older you get! It offers a change in perspective like little else can. I'm crazy excited about the next 40! Cheers all! Thanks for sharing this hobby with me & teaching me so much and all with good company! ☕️

Me too on the carbs. Down 26 as of this am. No bread, rice, potatoes, or man made crap for 5 weeks. Feeling pretty good though!

Good morning friends....... Just took this photo.....Sunny and 30 degrees here in the western side of the Bay State, freshly poured Star Bucks FR in the correct mugs, and still about 4' of snow pile on the deck....! Hopefully, the warm up we are all talking about will take that back over this next week (0: Ok, 100% Canadian maple syrup on the range warming, veggie sausages in the oven, toast up the homemade pancakes from the batch made last weekend........more coffee, sounds good ;0)) Back on the side watching your posts... And listening to JL's suggestion.... nice! ........Gary

This is good stuff! Just to get your day going in the right direction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ynn3mzC2E4

Sunny and 30 degrees headed to 60 midday. Painter arrives at 9:00. Coffee and breakfast done. LF off to play tennis. Jake waiting to be walked. Going to add a quote I found to my signature. "I love to sing, and I love to drink scotch. Most people would rather hear me drink scotch". Cheers Gents

Well starting Sunday we will be gone for a week again, I know it makes no difference but I'm not ignoring anyone. Well I guess I am really ignoring everybody. This is a fun trip South, no bathroom remodels involved like a couple of weeks ago.

Hey there Chuck, we must never forget the Hammond organ in Janis Joplin tunes! When we did that multi-singers show last fall, I could not believe how much the Hammond was needed! Had to learn the music of Janis to Rod Stewart, to SteppenWolf ... Which is why I took the new Hammond and Leslie to that performance stage along with the two workstations for the Diamond stuff... Ok, glad you all liked this mornings photo.... Well, the LL.Bean outdoor thermo says it is 50 degrees in the sun........sounds good to me .........Gary

Forgot to add Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Beatles, Canned Heat, Clapton, Doobies and the list goes on!!,

Mornin' all. Busy Saturday ahead, including Baxter's final "exam" at dog school. Will likely need remedial work but we'll see. Great weather for a change and should hit the 60's today. On the carb deal, I've been low carb and gluten free since around last May and have dropped a little over 50 lbs. Would probably cheat occasionally, but anything with wheat makes me feel like hell now so the breads, etc. don't even look good to me anymore. Think I'll stick with it. Billybob, I'm not sure about "Abilene" but Hammonds were used in all sorts of rock 'n roll and country songs in the '50's, '60's and beyond, although mostly in the background with guitar leads. When my guitar buddy and I play that's essentially what we do. A lot of folks just associate the instrument with blues and jazz but it goes way beyond that. (Think early Santana, Eagles, Grateful Dead, Allison Krause, etc. etc.). Happy Saturday and cheers to all.

Morning folks, working on my first cup. I will have to check out the Chet Baker later, thanks for sharing. Chuck that sounds like a great signature, wish I thought of it first. Gary thanks for posting pics, I know your probably tired of the snow. But your photos of coffee and pancakes look so relaxing. We are looking up to 60 degrees this morning. I don't have a whole lot planned for today, but kind of busy in since. Well I'll check in later.

Oh yeah JL.......Chet Baker! Man I would love some blueberry pancakes Gary. Still carb watching though

Cold Coffee for an energy boost, lawn time. 73 and bright as hell for the end of winter.

Bacon, wheat toast with Butter for me...

This is a hotly debated topic in HT circles, and shows up here about annually. My approach to this is entirely practical. Meaning, I really have a hard time lusting after that Bulter Audio 5150 or Krell power amp when my Fluke (which can capture a single impulse peak at up to 4 kHz) is clearly indicating that even my paltry, little 65W Panny has 12 dB still on tap while the La Scala are dishing out an F5 tornado in the living room The fully horn-loaded crew get to work this discussion from an entirely different angle....while eating our ice cream of course. Power is simply not the issue. If a power amp is to surpass my current AVR in sound quality, it'll be not because of more headroom, but rather that it can do something else differently upstream. I don't discount the possibility of something sounding better one bit, but at this point the addition of discrete channel EQ, better filters, and time alignment would yield more profound improvements to my sound than simply an additional 3-4 dB of headroom.

I know, I know. This has been posted here many times here before, but I still get a kick out of it. Consider this thread for the noobs: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TiHCOXMLBIo

Happy Birthday akdave! and many more. At times I still miss my parents and 3 brothers. Fond memories and dreams keep their presence near me. Learned more about coffee and cables that I had reasoned had signed up for. Would bother you with my brother's paper roll analogy about how fast life rolls by but, not today. Enjoy!!!

How much distortion are we talking about? I didn't realize this was an issue. They don't seem to make external low power home theater amps though. You get a 5-7 channel amp and it's nearly always going to be 125-200 watts per channel. Even with inefficient speakers and playing at pretty high levels you're not going to constantly be running it at 2/3 power. A friend of mine works for a Company that designs and builds amps and he told me I should have went with smaller amps because of the efficiency of my speakers. My bass bins are running around 1 watt on peaks with a 250wpc amp, and my horns are in the less than 100th of a watt with my 25wpc amps. One of the advantages of horns is low distortion and I hate to see that advantage go to waste by adding distortion back by getting too big of an amp. I too looked for low power amps for multiple channels and couldn't find any... I am assuming that they are not out there because most people do not have that efficient of a speaker, and people think more power is better. Is he a designer? An engineer? I don't know, but I've heard that some amps have significantly higher distortion at very low output, and others don't. Some early solid state amps (late '60s) had that reputation. A few amp manuals have distortion graphs (e.g., my old Luxman). I've also heard that THD+Noise graphs can be misleading. I would hate to give up headroom. I'm more or less in the dark about this. I don't know if my friend is a engineer or not... All I know is he has worked at there for about 25 years and helped in the design and building of their amps as well as repair other brands.

I found a guy selling both and we agreed on a price but then he got the shipping quote and he had to back out. I understand though, i think he said shipping was around $500 for all 4 speakers. I am buying Cherry RF-63's, exactly like my last pair. Now i just have to wait the long wait..

The SVS uses a more powerful amp because the driver is smaller and will have to move it farther than the Klipsch for the same SPL. On paper, I'd take the 15" driver over the 12" driver as it will move less (less distortion) for the same SPL. The difference between the 17Hz and 18Hz is negligible and a function of the tune of the box. The only reason I might consider the SVS over the Klipsch is the track record of the Klipsch amps. They may be better now than they have been in the past but haven't been out long enough to know for sure.

Klipsch for me -

Ya wanna be sure? Mock up a box and then get one of these digital multi-meters of your choice that has a temperature lead. With the temp lead taped to the amp power up, play and see how hot the skin gets; no guessing. Now you have a nifty tool to check out your home air conditioning / heat, calibrate your oven, fridge...... edit: I am not a fan of the consumer grade (inexpensive) infrared temperature devices, high failure and inaccurate.

I forgot to take pics before I started. I installed a peg board to get a little organized. This place was chaos. Here are some midway pictures.

Happy B'day!

Yes Chuck, that list and more are some of my favorite groups, plus some more, of course. When a kid my older sisters spun some vinyl, and we had a local play all radio station in our small town. Maybe a little odd but, for a kid, listening to rock/country, whatever was at least something to do. Kept it to myself but, would sing all the country hits. Still do to this day when driving on the weekends, or at home washing dishes. Picture a kid singing Saginaw, Michigan, or 500 miles... Alright it is weird!

Happy 40th B'Day sir! ....and yes, many more...

I am liking that psa v1500 alot. And the made in USA is,pretty nice too. I may pull the trigger on it soon

Buy one of the PSA subwoofers mentioned, at least it was made here in the USA. Sorry but getting kinda sick of all the SVS accolades from the fanboys, they arent the greatist subs in the world + made in Communist sweatshops in China.

Pioneer

The question about transients. I seem to recall that historically it was thought that transients on live music were about 18 dB above the average. This article say 20 dB. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_power I expect that the percussion section was responsible for that. There are a couple of implications. We have to dig out the Klipsch papers about the big demo systems Bell Labs set up but I think that 0 dB reference on the line was indeed about 18 dB below the max for the system. And these days with digital of honest to gosh recordings without compression, the average on a system should be 20 dB below any big peak. As far as playback on speakers, it seems that PWK got it right. 80 dB average is pretty loud. At least an 80 dB test tone is about as loud as you'd like on a test tone. Try it with a test tone and an RS meter and you'll see what I mean. So 100 dB transients (that extra 20 dB) brings us up to the 1-watt level of a K-Horn at 1 meter and with two K-Horns and some extra distance at 104 dB actual sensitivity we'll call it even. When he quipped that the world needs a good 5-watt amp, that was really just some headroom. WMcD

I lived in a conundrum once but the neighbors were loud as they had several cube speakers so we bought a house.

I was comparing the LS's to Chorus. I do have something that would benefit them and they will soon be in the garage sale section. BTW, that's a 401 composite mid, not a cast 400. Your top Notch Max2, as Boxx would say

So chuck, i never heard you say how you liked your new DAC ?

I had the same need. Apple TV is the deal for sure. I love that I don't need to have a tv running for a display.

You got it right Billybob, including the spelling, which I did not!

My approach is to try and keep the cost down around some number that makes sense for the loudspeaker. If you have a set of speakers that are worth around $600.00, do you really want a pair of $700.00 networks in them? Now, you can certainly do that, but it probably makes more sense to upgrade the loudspeaker. I save the higher level upgrades for the big Heritage loudspeakers since they are more expensive and revealing. Also, since the Klipschorn, LaScala, and Belle Klipsch have networks that are exposed (not in the cabinet), the parts measure as bad or worse than they look. Replacing all of the parts with newer and better parts makes more sense with these guys. With the PCB based networks, a popular alternative is to replace all of the inexpensive parts with a lot of other inexpensive parts, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Replacing a perfectly good coil with another coil of the same type is just paying for something you don't need. A truly better coil won't fit on the board, and if you move it to a different board, you change the modeled behavior of the circuit due to proximity effect. Most schematics state that all of the parts were measured while on the board. In other words, proximity effect, or mutual inductance - was factored in to determine the correct values for the coils. Moving them around to wherever you want probably isn't really ideal. This is more critical with the high pass, which uses more coils. Notice that on the Reference Series of loudspeakers, the coils are right next to each other, and on the double stacked boards, they are also right on top of each other. There is nothing wrong with the original PCBs unless they are visibly damaged. There is also nothing wrong with the wiring. In fact, it's tin coated annealed copper wire, which is better than what most are replacing it with! In most cases, since the runs are shorter, there is less resistance. There is nothing wrong with the coils, and replacing perfectly good coils with perfectly good coils is a waste of money. Replacing grainy sounding resistors with grainy sounding resistors is also a waste of money (but they're so dirt cheap I guess it doesn't really matter). In all cases, rather it be some Reference loudspeaker model, or any of the older Klipsch models - the only parts that really need attention are the capacitors and resistors. Money should go into the series capacitors in the high pass and the resistor(s). The low pass in the Reference speakers can be left as is, while electrolytics in the others should be replaced with the Bennics from Madisound. The values are high, and replacing a 68uF with a 65uF is perfectly fine (within 5% or pretty close). I think the Dayton Audio capacitors net better results than some of the more expensive options - they are amazing for the money. I wouldn't use anything but Mills resistors. If you think all resistors sound the same, that's fine, but it has nothing to do with reality. Replace the two orange/red oval capacitors. I believe they are a 12uF and a 5uF. The resistor values should be clearly marked, replace this with Mills non-inductives. All of these parts are available from www.partsexpress.com.

Aside from being happy for you, which I am, regardless of not knowing you, I'm also excited about witnessing the unfolding of someone's dream setup come to fruition. It gives this commoner hope. Congratulations!

That's what we do

Women there won't treat you mean in Abilene...my abilene

Happy Friday folks! Warming trend here so we're anticipating a great sloppy snow melt, at least for a few days. Finally got Baxter out for a walk yesterday and will try again today. Movie Night on Fridays at our house, too. Will probably play a few tunes on the B before that. I've been stuck on a few old songs the past few days like the old country tune "Abileen" as well as some vintage Hank Williams. Not exactly pipe organ material but neither is the rock 'n roll that I like to bang out. Cheers............

Earl and I already had this conversation...he told me the only things he's bringing are a half full bottle of Tylenol, a spare pair of glasses, and his phone. No change of clothes, no toothbrush. I got the impression that he's comfortable with stale clothing and gargling with scotch. I mean, he is an attorney after all.....

Those autoformers are sole by a gentleman called Werner Jagusch. They can be either purchased off ebay, or from him directly (which might influence the price slightly). I use the same units (with 1.5db steps) and have asked him also for bass inductors. To my ears his units sound more open than either the Klipsch autoformer or solen air core inductors. I am a very satisfied customer indeed. Tanks by the way for elaborating a bit on the Jentzen wax coils - it was a useful description. Wolfram

In real world listening it won't matter because the sub will be crossed over (via the AVR) and only play the frequencies below 80Hz or so... And the extra 100 watts of power in the SVS is very minimal in regards to continuos output. In reality it would net you just less than 1 dB more than the Klipsch. As every 3 dB increase in SPL output requires double the power. Having said that SVS built their reputation on quality subs and you're unlikely to find a better price/performance ratio... unless you build something yourself.

Did you replace the crossovers in each pair, Mark? Is there a way I may be able to check the condition of my current x-overs? Yes, replace @20 years, is my standard, hell something has to lose it's value in that time, caps forsure go south.

Going down to -10 tonight. I am so thankful summer is only 4 months away!

About the same, ~5 watts, and almost entirely in the sub channel. ~100mV across the L,C, & R at wide-open throttle. The discussion between amps and "How much?" often falls short because what's really at play is often times not power delivery, but rather the transient behavior of each device. Almost no data, from any manufacturer, is ever provided in that regard. Even fewer people have the tools, knowledge, and time to investigate that, in particular case by case. There's a lot more to it than just raw, calculated power numbers.

Don't really agree with the above....totally depends on your router speed, the devices you are connecting. If you are relatively satisfied with what you have now, leave it be, don't pay the extra dough.

You are definitely a creature of habit ! Your going to need some road trips in the future, to spend some serious $, cave shopping, think space, as to stay out of trouble. Yes we do miss the road trips for speaker runs, however with the impending retirement of the wife coming up here short time, like less than 60 days, Reno runs are planned, real estate search must happen, oh yeah, she wants a new car too.

Googling a few movies to other day, i saved a few wild looking posters, i cannot believe they made some of these.

HDMI is mostly great. Keeps the rat's nest from behind your receiver. A receiver upgrade would certainly be good. As far as the sub, if you give your room specs, I am sure someone will chime in and give you their opinions on what they think your needs would be. Back to the receiver..... I personally like Yamaha receivers and you are probably already a little more familiar with their menus etc. since you are currently using one, Personally, I think receiver brands are a Ford vs. Chevy type of thing. There is a general consensus that Yamaha has the best reliability of the major brands. Yamaha is also pretty liberal giving you legacy connections like component video on all but the lowest models. The biggest negative I can give Yamaha is that they rate power output with two channels driven (as do many other brands,) but output power really takes a hit when multiple channels are driven. For example, Sound and Vision tested an RXV-775 and was able to achieve 122.8 wpc @ 0.1 THD with two channels driven. At five channels, it dropped to 38.2 wpc and 32.2 wpc with seven driven at the same THD. In a real world scenario with subs taking a lot of the work, you may still be ok, but it is definitely something to keep in mind. All of them, except maybe really high end stuff drop a good bit in output when multiple channels are driven, so it is not exclusive to Yamaha. Yamaha just seems to throttle back more than most. http://www.soundandvision.com/ gives some real testing of receivers if you are interested. Bryant