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My first attempt at posting pictures, please be gentle: I hope they aren't all upside down.

FInally, everything is here and setup. Just have to run XT32 now.

Back to bed Sancho! Heading out to have breakfast with two other old geezers. Then a day of yard work. Cut the grass yesterday so I could take the mower in for a tune up, blade sharpening, new pull cord handle, and oil change. A1999 John Deere 20" push mower. Beautiful string of weather. Found a rather large snake skin in the side yard yesterday LF's Trek bike recalled due to disk brake/front wheel problem Cheers Ladies and Gents

Anyone awake? Good morning, y'all. Can't sleep. Listening to Jackson Browne Running on Empty

my mom and dad were both great people....but....if they knew the money their loving son has spent on klipsch products, they'd kill me! they both loved music, but a sony system, bought at sears, was their be all end all system! god love them, they thought it sounded great, and that's really all that matters.

Never heard of him or his music until now. Like Dtel noted, totally relaxing voice, beautiful voice actually. Thx for posting.

May the snark be with you.

Friday Cheers guys. Good grief, Sancho, you are the earliest riser around here! This is "D" day for me in terms of doing some dreaded and long avoided exercise. An old buddy has finally gotten me to agree to visit Planet Fitness with him. I mean haven't I walked Baxter every day? Haven't I already lost weight? Don't I cut the grass?? Why?? Oh why??? Guess I need to man up and see what my fate will be. On a cheerier note some of my 'new' tunes (actually oldies by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons) are starting to sound pretty good on the Hammond. Just about ready to play with my guitar buddy again. Happy Friday, all.

Totally neglected this thread today as I wasn't near a computer. I had to go to Houston for training today and then got home, changed and went to a fund raiser for our mayors re-election. Hope you all had a great day.

Buying a pair of these tomorrow, pics to follow. I ordered a Crites crossover repair kit and tweeter diaphragms today as a preemptive move. When I was younger I spent a few summers working at a salmon cannery in Alaska. After my first summer there, I bought a pair of the original Chorus I's and dragged them to college with me. I sold them years later when I joined the Navy. I miss those speakers and I am looking forward to getting the CII's.

that's like an international alert that Dave is within 5 miles.

Probably way too long and not worthy of a blog post. Edit it however you want if anything is usable, this is the best I can do. ---------------- My dad introduced me to the world of classic rock as a boy. We never had much money growing up so for transportation he had to overhaul his old Dodge D-50 truck a total of four times, squeezing over 400,000 miles out of it, while working third shift. There were times when the only chance I had to see him was to walk a quarter mile down to my grandparent’s garage and hang out while he tore an engine apart. The conversations usually ended up revolving around music while we listened to it. I didn’t understand much of it at the time but it makes more sense now. While in that garage, he would come to explain the meaning behind several Pink Floyd songs on many occasions. Any time Santana’s Black Magic Woman played, he would regurgitate memories about some crazy ex-girlfriend who was rumored to be a witch. He would describe in detail all the chaos that happened at Bull Island any time anything related to Woodstock came up since he was there. If Led Zeppelin played, he would have me pay attention to the strange rhythms that John Bonham cranked out. I was told about how my great-grandmother came from England, how she left behind a sister when she immigrated, and somehow through this person, George Harrison of the Beatles was born, becoming something like my 5th cousin, but somebody stole the letter that explained it all. I have no idea if that one is true but it’s a fun story nonetheless and his eyes light up every time he tells it. Eric Clapton would belt out Layla and he would tell me about the love triangle between Eric, George and Pattie Boyd. I learned about how I’d probably meet a girl who I’d be reminded of anytime the Moody Blues played In Your Wildest Dreams. Back home, any time he wanted to unwind, he would crank up Funk #49 by the James Gang. Jethro Tull and Neil Young were also favorites. He took me to my first concert at age 14, we went to see ZZ Top in their hey day. Their concerts were much different back then… trap doors, space ships, laser shows, conveyor belts, faux teleportation, etc., just really over the top, and nothing has been able to top it since then, it was truly a life experience. It meant a lot to me that recently we were able to see ZZ Top again, 25 years later, front row and center stage. We are seeing the Doobie Brothers soon as well. It seems that all the older artists can only make money by touring nowadays and he is enjoying that, seemingly going to a concert every couple of weeks. For my 16th birthday, Santa brought my first subwoofers, as well as a 4th edition of The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook, which helped us manually design and build a fourth order tri-chambered bandpass box together. Due to the aforementioned lack of funds, the first version was the budget build from hell. Due to a job in an industrial factory as an electrician, dad had access to old wire. He smuggled home some thrown away IBM networking wire for signal wires, some welding cable for power wires, smaller wire used as speaker wire, large capacitors to help the electrical system with dynamics, and many other industrial parts like fuse boxes and terminals. This is actually how I paid for the car itself, by stripping and recycling copper wire that was being thrown away, as copper prices weren’t what they are today so this was surprisingly pretty common. I found a JBL coaxial speaker in the trash and we used it as a center channel. As ghetto as that sounds, what we built would go on to win several trophies in halfway local IASCA competitions. Overhearing a judge tell their buddies “that’s the best sounding car out here” was a big source of pride considering it was thrown away parts and Wal-Mart amps, plus dad and I worked on it together. The first time we got it all connected after working on it for a long time, we sat there in the car in the middle of the night and listened to most of the Genesis “We Can’t Dance” album, which had recently come out and has some incredibly sweet midrange from percussion and keyboards which sounded great on the flat Blaupunkt “honeycomb” midranges that I had. Soon afterwards we cranked up the engine and got to hear what the worst ground loop in the world sounds like, but dad got it fixed pretty quickly. Anyway, more than anything he showed me what music can do to you emotionally. That really stuck with me, even nearly 30 years after hearing some of those stories in that garage. We never had nice expensive equipment, but the memories associated with the music are worth much more than that.

Setting it flat for movies is lackluster as well IMO.

Sancho - Upon your prompt, I went to Youtube to listen again to one of my favorite songs, "What a Wonderful world" As always, enjoyed it immensely Youtube directed me to others, among which was the following link. I very much recommend folks check this out. The Man recently died, and had a Traditional Hawaii Funeral WE love it. Just really felt I wanted to post this link, Lars.

Haha, ideally You can post something like oscarsear and then I can expand upon it/ask additional questions to flesh it out if need be.

Um..... okay. Well Ma and Pa were pretty much countrified kids living in a teensy town in Mo. They married young and moved to So Cal where my Mother parents lived and they were part of that music appreciation 50's generation. 1st they had one of those suitcase record players and a collection of various 45's etc....... Then around 1961 or so they got a Fisher 500C, a Gerard deck and bought these massive JBL D130's bare speakers. Grandfather was a carpenter and he built cherry cabinets according to JBL specs for those D130's. The cabinets did include the spaces for tweeters but they never got them. They never used any crossovers. We just fed those D130's whatever came out of the amp.......... worked pretty good. They never knew anything Klipsch until I introduced them to the brand in the 80's. But they seeded stereo gear and music in me big time. They are both still alive and they still own those D130's. Wished they had that Fisher unit but alas it is gone. That's another story I'll save for when you wanna hear about 'sisters'.

Fellow C2 owner here. You will love them the midrange on the second gen is awesome, put em in corners about 16" from wall grab a scotch and enjoy!

Marantz pics, I will post the rest in the HT picture thread

I eq my subs with XT32 dual sub eq. Seems to work well.

I think it has most to do with people's expectations and EQ ideas...Prior to understanding room dynamics, EQ and target curves I will admit to running my subs considerably hot enjoying the visceral sensations both felt and witnessed by crap shaking on the walls--When I learned the value of tight bass (felt and heard) that didn't mask nuances in other speakers, I reached Nirvana.

Stay tuned. they sound like cans - horrible - A. It's a cell phone video B. It's on the CES show floor. We demo'd a newer version of this recently and they were right there with speakers in our own lineup that are much more expensive.

happy birthday and congrats! You've made one more complete trip around the sun!

Nice pickup!

Should I Set My Speakers to Large or Small? People always ask this question. The answer is very simple. If you own a subwoofer that outputs good bass sound, you should set all your speakers to SMALL. In general, if you own a subwoofer, it may be wise to set all your speakers to small for several reasons: When there is an overlap of bass sound from the front speakers and the subwoofer, you will get bloated and boomy bass. A subwoofer can play low frequencies all the way down to 20Hz or lower. Even relatively large front speakers cannot go that low. The placement of a sub in a room is the primary factor in receiving good bass sound. You cannot adjust the position of the front speakers and move them to the side or back. If the subwoofer and the front speakers play the same bass frequencies, there will be a possibility of phase cancellation of certain bass frequencies. Redirecting the bass to the subwoofer relieves the receiver/amplifier from having to work on reproducing the low frequencies and this greatly improves the headroom. If you are using the Audyssey MultEQ calibration, you will get much better bass performance because the MultEQ subwoofer filters have 8x higher resolution than the filters for the other speakers. People have a psycological difficulty with the word SMALL. They have spent good money on their front speakers and get insulted when the AVR sets them to SMALL. Remember that this is not a personal insult against you or your speakers. My Definitive Technology front speakers have 15" built-in subwoofers with built-in 300 watt amplifiers. In addition to those, I have six external subwoofers in my HT room. When I set the front speakers to SMALL, the quality of the sound (both music and movies) improves. http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=95817 With the mains set to small there is and additional 3-5 db headroom for the midrange. There is less intermodulation distortion since the woofer has less surface cone breakup. A nonlinear system generates new spectral components which are not in the stimulus. In addition to harmonics, the fundamental components interact with each other and generate difference-tone and summed-tone components in the output signal (see figure below). In the time domain the intermodulation causes a variation of the phase (instantaneous frequency) or an amplitude modulation of the envelope. Loudspeakers and other electro-acoustical transducers generate significant intermodulation distortions in the audio band which have a significant impact on the perceived sound quality. Power management is another important factor to consider. This topic comes up often and I have never seen a good scientific argument for setting the speakers to large. I feel it sounds better is not scientific, lol. The RF 7's are rated to 32 or 34 Hz but, add average listening position of 10-12 and the distortion goes up compared to the 1 meter measurement in the specs. There is nothing magical about setting the speakers to LARGE or using a XO of 40, 50, or 60 Hz. The only real purpose of the XO is to protect the speaker when using avr's with autocalibration. Ok, I went a little overboard.

Thank you gentemen

Fwiw, I am a big Multichannel Music listener, Movie watcher and don't change a thing after running Audyssey (except appropriate settings) and watch/isten to every thing using the Audyssey curve and Dolby PLIIz....YMMV.

I had a wrong understanding then, I thought when you set a speaker to large the crossover was bypassed. However, my AVR – Yamaha RX A1010 only allows a crossover for all speakers. Not separate crossovers. It was over a grand when I bought it so not a cheapie but not high-end either. Only after getting on this forum did I find out about Audyssey and MCACC. I'll have to do some experimenting this weekend

It can cause distortion depending on how loud you listen. It can cause phase issues with your subs. Power doesn't matter since your amped up some guys do it cause it gives a fuller sound. I listen loud enough id rather not risk damage. Other guys do it just cause they are thinking " I have dual 10's why wouldn't they run as large". To each their own. My 6 15's in my lcr are crossed at 80hz. That's the smoothest transition to subs in my room. Before when I had the thx ultra I crossed at 100 as my subs played smoother from 80-100 than the little 6.5" woofers did according to my room sweeps.

It can't be thread crapping, you started the thread. I like IZ he had a great voice he shows up on my Pandora station. It's a shame, his weight is what did him in before 40 years old, I thought it was over 15 years ago when he died ? Heard that song many times, very relaxing, I really need to try to hear some of his other music.

Where did you find it? I grabbed it in January from eBay....I think I paid $12 bucks. I was looking for some Atmos demo's (didn't find any) so I picked up this. The included Music Tracks are very crisp & full bodied. I have the 2014 one. Last year you could just call DTS marketing and they'd send you one free. I think her name was Erin IIRC

Hope it's not considered thread crapping. Lars

Where did you find it? I grabbed it in January from eBay....I think I paid $12 bucks. I was looking for some Atmos demo's (didn't find any) so I picked up this. The included Music Tracks are very crisp & full bodied.

Joe, Get some arnica gel to put on the bruise. It will really help, just makes sure not to get any in his eye. Any drugstore will have some. You can put some on in the morning, and at night before he sleeps. It will speed up the healing... You can look it up online, to see what I'm talking about. Bruce

Interesting idea... Large Format Printing on canvas would be cool. But, Marvel has it right, much smaller scale....Computer/Tablet Wallpaper. Here's a few Vertical Phone options (attached):

Could be a good deal for someone. No affiliation. http://phoenix.craigslist.org/cph/ele/4993116533.html

Organ muzak cued up in your honor!

Oh, it is.

Oh good God.... the Klitschko little brother is still fighting. Man, I've been out of it for a long time, didn't even know he was still putting the gloves on. I'm with you too, and won't being paying to watch Mayweather, but I'll probably seek out a local pool hall or bar that'll show it. For the past 8 or 9 years I've limited my PPV viewing to UFC only. Floyd's a notoriously slow starter against anyone with skill, so I don't see him getting on his game until it's too late and Manny's banked away too many rounds. If Manny loses, it'll be because of his aggression, he's really a fighter who can also box.

How long does such stories need to be and does it have to be related to Klipsch specifically?

The additional power in passive bi-amping is dissipated as heat in the passive xo. This subject is always a hot topic, he. he.

Have a good one!

It's been a while since I've posted here. I've been experimenting with the Texas Instruments TPA3116 and TPA3118 Class D amplifiers and ST Micro TDA7297 Class AB amplifiers, and a few hundred dollars of parts and amplifier modules, I've come to the conclusion that the TDA7297 is a worthy chip amp champ in terms of sound quality, energy efficiency and value. This little amp driven with my modified Astron RS-12A regulated linear power supply (14VDC) can generate as much as 8 watts within reasonable distortion levels. This is plenty of power to drive most efficient Klipsch speakers. I can drive my Forte II's to ear-splitting levels with plenty of headroom with this amp. As discussed earlier in this thread, there are many possibilities for powering these miniature amps. I've found that my Astron regulated linear power supply provides clean power (i.e., voltage and current) that allows this amp to create a huge soundstage (deep, wide and tall), articulate bass, warm mids and extended highs an a focused image with excellent separation between performers. As a reference, my system consists of the following: Restored and modified Kenwood Trio PC-400U belt-idler wheel drive turntable (a la Thorens TD-124) Talisman Alchemist IIB high output MC cartridge re-tipped by Needle Clinic Sony ES DVP-NS999ES DVD/SACD/CD player Audio Research PH5 JFET/6922 tube phono stage preamplifier Audio Research LS7 tube line stage preamplifier Restored Dynakit Stereo 35 6BQ5/EL84 push-pull tube amplifier modified with Enhanced Fixed Bias (EFB) Klipsch Forte II speakers modified with Bob Crites Titanium tweeter diaphragms, capacitor replacement and internal wiring kit, and Pomona 3770 Copper binding posts Recently, I modified a TDA7297 amplifier module purchased from eBay seller "homemart.usa." This amp cost under $7 with shipping from China. Delivery to the US takes about 7-10 days. The stock unit actually sounds pretty good, but significant improvements can be realized with a minimal investment of money and DIY time. Removed yellow 100nF ceramic cap Replaced the polarity protection diode with a sold core Copper wire Replaced the stock 2,200uF/25V electrolytic cap with a 470uF/35V Nichicon KZ Muse electrolytic cap for the power supply/DC decoupling cap Replaced the two (2) stock .22uF Mylar film caps with 1.0uF/250V Radio Shack Mylar film caps (http://www.radioshack.com/1-0uf-250v-10-metal-film-capacitor/2721055.html#.VTplAWd0zDc) Replaced the three (3) stock terminal blocks with Weidmuller terminal blocks Replaced stock 50k volume pot with 50k 21-step SMD resistor stepped attenuator, and used Mundorf Silver-Gold wire as hook-up wire I installed this in a Context Engineering split-body Aluminum enclosure that had a previous TDA7297 build in it. To my ears, this amp sounds really good. It may not have the full tube bloom of my Dynakit tube amp, but it has a warmth and presence that could easily fool someone into thinking they are listening to a tube amplifier. Better yet, this amp is 80+ percent efficient, so it would make an excellent warm weather amplifier. Probably the most significant modification is increasing the input capacitance from .22uF to 1.0uF per each channel. This lowers the high pass input filter corner frequency to below 20Hz, so that the bass response and definition are significantly improved. The Radio Shack film caps are some of the best kept secrets in DIY audio. Unfortunately, these caps are only available in 1.0uF/250V.

I agree 100%. An 80hz cross for mains and a center isnt "bad", but Id rather at least be 60hz. 80hz to me is still a little directional, and deep voices will be over in the subs too. Only complaint about the 64ii, it's not a 60hz center. So small and 60 or 40 sends all front channel material under it to the subs. Large/full range means the fronts are responsible for everything on that front channel, by themselves. I am not sure I would be fond of that either. If you have material in the front channels that is low, chances are the fronts arent going to handle it as well as a sub, and in the case of anything below 40hz and the RF7 that is most likely for sure.

I am really glad you posted Michael Lavorgna's article. It is a great example of what the purpose of a great many blogs are, to sell you on something, whethet it be an idea, product or service. Michael Lavorgna is an audio journalist, and his particular niche is blogging for Audio Stream, Stereophile, Six Moons and others as well as writing articles about streaming services he submits to a variety of magazines such as Men's Health. What Mr, Lavorga did was to prepare a "book report" of sorts on a data report prepared by Ajay Kalia who works over at the streaming service, Spotify. Mr. KKalia's job there is to convince people that the future of music is Spotify. His point is that as we age we listen to less and less "popular" music. He doesn't define popular music in his article, but mentions that Spotify has ranked bands and performers, and uses his "ballsack" graph to show that we are listening to "top 500" acts in our teens and 20s and by the time of our 30s we are listening to acts who are way down at 2500. (Oldtimer, is that an industry term for that graph?). He hyperlinks an article on research that takes you here http://musicmachinery.com/2014/02/13/age-specific-listening/ If you read that article it says that a duplication of songs on a list of a 64-year-old man will 35% of a 13-year-old kid. Their lists will have 35% in common. The author of the research article says that he expects that the 35% overlap is an overestimate due to inaccurate age reporting, that multiple users use one account, and other factors. He acknowledges that his data is suspect and then concludes as follows: "This quick tour through the ages confirms our thinking that the age of a listener plays a significant role in the type of music that they listen to. We can use this information to find music that is distinctive for a particular demographic. We can also use this information to help find artists that may be acceptable to a wide range of listeners. But we should be careful to consider how popularity bias may affect our view of the world. And perhaps most important of all, people don’t like music from the 70s or 80s so much." Age plays a role in the type of music people listen to, what a revelation! This guy is a genius, what a waste of talent. He could be selecting what music could be going with commercials, movies, etc. Figure out the age of the target market of what you are trying to sell, select music that the target market listens to to grab their attention, and combine them. I think he is really on to something here. The guy at Spotify concludes by saying this: "All this is to say that yes, conventional wisdom is 'wisdom' for a reason. So if you’re getting older and can’t find yourself staying as relevant as you used to, have no fear — just wait for your kids to become teenagers, and you’ll get exposed to all the popular music of the day once again!" So research guy is saying people of different ages like different music, and people don’t like 70s or 80s music (without saying how he comes up with that notion). Spotify guy tells you that you are "iirrelevant" if you want to become relevant, have kids and listen to what they listen to. Spotify guy wants you to buy Spotify for your kids and you might as well have a listen too. None of them define what "popular" music is, other than to say that Spotify ranks the popularity of performers based on its users selection data. He gives no hint as to what percentage of users are below 30, below 20, etc. More importantly, he does not say that newer acts are always most popular, nor does he say that older bands and singers are always less pooular, but he tries to infer it because his whole misguided premise rests on this notion. He cannot say it, because in fact it is simply not true, and Spotify and Lavorgna both know that it is not true with music sales. Lovorgna concludes his little book report by saying "I'd also recommend trying avoid "lock-in" by listening to as much new music as you can handle." Stay young, be hip, become relevant again, listen to NEW music as much as possible. Whoops, now it is new music, not popular music. Why is that do you suppose? WIth streaming services their viability depends on getting new artists to list with them so that the demand for the new stuff will increase and more subscribers can be obtained, and it gives this business model more footing. Did you see all of the advertisers Lovorgna had on his blog for hardware used in connection with streaming? So what is popular music, is it really popular? It has to be popular with today's kids right? What else is out there, in terms of genres or classifications, and if I listen to that, how much in the minority am I? At what point am I no longer relevant? Those really are not the right questions, the question should be is streaming relevant, do streamers, specifically Spotify customers, reflect the real musical preferences of the under 20 and under 30 American market? The original blog post, and the "data" it was based on, are trying to sell you a bag of goods. You need to stream because it provides an easy way to stay up to speed with the popular music of today, AND, when you do stream you should do it on Spotify because we are going to be able to tell you who the hot artists are, and their hot tunes. The trouple is, popular music isn't what the teens and twenty-somethings are mainly listening to. AND, what America is buying does not line up with what Spotify claims are the more popular artists. Stay tuned. Edit: For clarity, spelling and grammar of a late night dictated post.

Raleigh Fingers, Vida Blue Those were great teams

I may give that Rendezvous rub a try. I smoke ribs (and brisket) fairly frequently, so I make my own rub. Since I don't skimp on the amount of rub that I use, I can make my own much more economically. I've been experimenting with rub recipes for several years with various levels of success, but I have one that I've settled on - a little sweet with a little heat. Come to think of it, I think I'll smoke a couple of racks this weekend - maybe I'll throw on a pork loin too

What I'm finding is that all of our ears hear differently and we each have our preferences on what sounds "good" to us. Sometimes I wonder if I have some loss of hearing and that's why I prefer a brighter sound. What I consider "bright" might actually be considered "warm"....I'm not sure. I just know for music, I have come full circle on two separate occassions and always come back to HK. Guess I should stick with what my ears prefer. I'm hoping to pick up the HK Signature 2.0 to see if there is any sonic benefit from going from a current HK receiver to an older HK Preamp. Honestly....I'm not sure it will make a difference. Maybe I'll be surprised. Jeff, yours were the only LaScalas I have ever heard. I absolutely loved the sound of them when I demoed them at your house. I could not believe how loud and crystal clear they were with such richness in the midrange. The ONLY thing that kept me from them for so long was they were "old school" looking and back then....I was a young guy. Fast forward a few years and I'll hit 40 in September so I guess now that I'm not a young hipster anymore, the LaScalas grew on me. If you ever get over to Plant City, let me know. I would be more than happy to return the hospitality and let you hear the LaScala Trio.

The first time I heard The Beatles "Love" on DVDA, in 6.1 surround sound, I was moved to tears! Even if you're not a big fan of The Beatles, this is an amazing accomplishment! A BIG TWO THUMBS UP.... Dennie