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Those weren't raisins.

I will sum it all up. Under most conditions, good quality amplification will provide better dynamics, more punch/slam, and in many cases, better detail, all without breaking a sweat, than most flagship AVRs are capable of. Even a 2 or 3 channel amp running the fronts and center will lighten the load from the AVR's remaining channels to provide better dynamics for them. Your system, your $$$, you decide. Bill

Jimmy must have been stoned?

Hey all and a happy taco Tuesday.... The Boss and I have had our hands full with all the BS of life.... shop, kids, house, mom and more shop. We are leaving today to go on vacation. This is our 1st real vacation in 19 years. We are off to Niagara Falls. Getting ready to roll out now. We rented a 2017 Dodge Ram truck for the adventure. I'm sure the Pilot would have been ok... but not taking chances with it. OK guys, we'll check in later... MKP :-)

Love this thread then! Yep, 45 rpm and loving the sound my Rega RP 6 brings to my ears.

True! Im so happy with my tutorials. I have a monster from Emo! Their multichannel amps are killer, haven't heard the new ones. Hope the cast iron holds up for a decade or two!

I wish I'd jumped before they went SMPS and raised their prices.

Im a monoblocks kind of guy when it comes to a two channel setup or a multitasking room that also incorporates a HT system. What you say is so very true, so many companies ID offer 30 day return no questions asked, thats how I found Emotiva. About $40. To return a heavy XPA-5 (5 channel A/B amp. Small price to pay to find out weather or not you can live without the new sound. Still have my amps.

You did have an "end game" that was accomplished. You are able to "retire" and you realized the need to leave SoCal. Two missions accomplished! I can only imagine your mind spinning with many thoughts and with a type of buyers remorse. You managed two life changing events simultaneously - retiring and relocating. And you basically did it alone. That would play with anyone's day to day perception of "what just happened" or "what did I do". I agree with Jimbo on taking care of yourself and/or exercise. The day after I retired I started walking 5 miles a day, every day. That at least gives you a perception of purpose every morning. Just don't let the abundance of idle time steer you in destructive directions. Reason enough to keep idle time as fulfilling as possible. Hang in ---

Steve, if you don't mind my advice.....take care of your physical self first, and your mind will follow....Do you exercise? Do you need to lose some weight? Are you sleeping OK? These are just a few things that can really help with your attitude and ability to motivate yourself. Is there a music store in town? A bar or club where they have jam sessions? Try to connect with folks with the same interests. JMHO

Do you need separates? No. Would you want separates after A/B'ing your setup with an AVR? Yeah, probably. I know I did.

IMHO, Jimi Hendrix, himself, was not a GREAT guitarist...INNOVATIVE, yes...and he deserves THAT credit...but GREAT?? Just look at how many REALLY GREAT guitarists there were around prior to Jimi's death...Chet Atkins and Les Paul (himself), to name JUST TWO of them! And that is just in ONE genre of great guitarists, not even including any of the truly great CLASSICAL guitarists who were around at the time. There are VERY FEW of Jimi's studio recordings with REALLY CLEAN picking going on in them...and more often than not, the quality of the studio recordings left much to be desired...especially in the mix-down end of things. IMHO, the studio is MOST OFTEN the place where the BEST recordings SHOULD come from, simply because there are more options to do things correctly in the studio, AND more options to lay down additional tracks to be included into the final stereo mix. There are exceptions to this. For instance, Savoy Brown...a band that ALWAYS sounded better "live" in concerts than what they laid down in the studio, IMHO! Some performers absorb crowd energy and it shows when they are playing live. Jimi Hendrix was one of those performers, too! Unfortunately we have been left with very few live well-recorded performances of really great quality by Hendrix...his life was just cut too short....too soon...in his performing years to have had enough well-recorded material of his "live" performances. Of those which DO exist, Band of Gypsys is IMHO the best.

I thought of posting that in my last post but I wasn't sure if you were concentrating more on two channel. An XPA-3, XPA-5, or amp of that nature would be a nice investment. Good luck with your search. Tim

I took this photo with a Q500 drone at Port St. Joe, Florida two weeks ago. The old San Blas light tower is center.

That is the part I really struggle with.

Heck yea and it can do it while only consuming 370 watts. It's a virtual perpetual motion machine

I sure hope so.

Mike, Hopefully you didn't have to manually enter the settings. Which brings up this offer- If anyone needs the Xilica settings Chris A helped me with let him or me know. We would be happy to share if you wanted to play with them. Trent

Have fun Mark, pretty cool place. I was swamped with work, but got away last week to San Antonio Tx. It was awesome. If it wasn't so hot, I could live there.

I don't think it's purely about output. In my limited experience and a lot of time spent over at AVS forums the larger centers tend to have better sound quality. Fuller with more depth and able to reproduce deeper male voices more naturally. When I have read comparisons by users of larger and smaller centers in a given line, Klipsch RP included, many tend to prefer the sound quality of the larger ones.

I just got a lead on an Emotiva XPA 2 in SC with a year left on the warranty for $500. I figure i'll give it a try and if I cant hear a difference i should be able to recoup my money pretty easily.

I installed the settings Trent and Chris came up with lastnight and I have to say they sound excellent. I tested the settings on music I have heard a million times and to my ears nothing sounded veiled, everything was there, bass, vocals, micro details, air. I still have Crites passives but I am selling them because the sound of the Xilica is in another league IMO and it can handle the power I'm using where the Crites can't. I had to make huge adjustments on my c50 pre amp to make the Crites passives sound good. I have the passives for sale if anyone is interested in them but I can tell you I wish I went with the Xilica for the start. If I where to use passives I'd be talking to ALK and see what he has to offer. Mike.

Again Mark, you assert something that you say is true until it is proven false. I've done that due diligence that you refer to and I can tell you that the assertion that you make is not true in my experience. Since I now use REW's EQ facility, it includes an optimizer that produces the best set of PEQs based on the target curve that is user controllable, and it can do it all in one step if you so choose. An operation that used to take hours or days is now done in a few minutes--and I've used it to help almost a dozen guys dial in their Jubs successfully (remotely online), i.e., this isn't a trivial subject. The REW EQ facility is very powerful and really quite easy to use, especially if you know what you're trying to achieve with it. (It's one of those "AIs" that Elon Musk has warned us all about ) Mark, we've listened to your "arbitrarily minimizing the use of digital filters because it 'veils the sound'" argument for many years now (perhaps as much as 10)--on this forum and in person. The reason why you apparently feel "picked on" is because the argument itself is getting a little worn. The reason why I called it into question in this otherwise excellent thread (thanks Trent...and I apologize for this distraction) wasn't because I'm not trying to be friendly, it's because I'd like to move on and not continuously debate that notion's merits yet again in every good thread on active crossovers. Use of active crossovers is a subject for which I've invested a fair amount of time and effort into clarifying what actually works and what doesn't work--not only for my personal needs but for others' benefit, too. Let's move on. Chris

I recently acquired the Heresy II's in rare mahogany with old-school grill covers in absolutely mint condition and a new Yamaha a-S501 integrated amplifier and AT LP120 turntable and AT120eb needle. When I played with the dials and first heard Tin Pan Alley on vinyl I absolutely dropped my jaw at the crystal clarity of the sound. Then I played Antonio Carlos Yobim and it was absolutely blown away at the 3D clarity and live-like sound. I can't imagine how the III could sound any better but I'm a beginner. I will say this though. I just came off from owning a pair of Klipsch The Sixes and this Heresy II setup absolutely smokes them in every regard. The sound is spine tingling while the Sixes sounded excellent, but more muffled or as if a towel is in front of them by comparison. It just shocks me to hear how beautiful sounding the Heresy II's are. I just attended an audio show and they had a headphone setup with tube amplifier that cost $55,000, yes 55K and I swear the Heresy II rig sounds unquestionably better and more 3 dimensional compared to those headsets. I tried others headsets that were $8,000 but still the clarity isn't like these Heresy II's. Perhaps it's the way my room is set up. I went to Ikea and acquired two laptop stands costing $4 each because my Heresy II's never came with stands. Although they are up at a pretty steep angle, they are very bottom heavy and can hardly be pushed over even when trying. I have soft cloth under them to help absorb any vibrating. The Heresy's have a very live-like soundstage to them but they don't sound harsh at all! Quite the contrary they sound extremely soothing and the base is tight. I'm not a numbers kind of guy, but I just listen and try to share what my ears tell me. I recently visited the Magnolia room to listen to B&W flagship speakers costing $10,000 and another B&W costing $1,800 and the 10k Model sounded much better because it had detail and brighter clarity but once again, these Heresy's at home just sounded better than all of those to me. My room is bizarre. It's about 10x30 and my ceiling tapers in like the inside of a pyramid because it's an A-frame. I'm nowhere near as experienced as you guys are, but the Heresy's are amazing speakers!

Fuzzydog, my point is not to argue about why I feel a separate amp is beneficial, what I can say is that Derrick posted that he regularly turns his receiver up to 0db, If I go anywhere under -20db my head almost explodes. I had a Yamaha RX-V2700 which supposedly put out 130 wpc into 8 ohms. When I A/B'd the receiver against my Sherbourn SR-120 which puts out a bench tested and real 125 watts across the front three and 75 watts for the other four channels there was no competition, leading me to quickly rid myself of the Yamaha. I have yet to hear any other receiver even come close to the punch my Sherbourn has. My volume dial goes to 100 and I have never run it past 25-30, literally my window glass shakes at that point. I have heard a lot of high power AVR's and only the Sherbourn has satisfied me. My receiver weighs in at 73lbs and is built like a tank. From the specs and reviews lately, I would say the Anthem receivers are pretty darn good. Instant gratification comes with a real power amp to run the mains. Like I posted earlier, if you try the Emotiva and do not feel 100% impressed, ship it back and pay nothing. There are plenty of used Emotiva amps on Ebay, Audiogon, etc. Other than a switching power supply switching on and off irregularly and covered under warranty I don't recall ever seeing an Emo amp go bad. A pair of Emotiva UPA-1 mono block amps $400 on the Emotiva forum if you are interested. I have owned two pair of these and I have nothing but praise for the power output and low noise floor. Nice price too. http://emotivalounge.proboards.com/thread/49997/fs-upa-amps-mint-condition Also, there is a Sherbourn power amp listed on US Audiomart for under $300. 200 wpc at 8 ohms, I have never used the speaker terminals but from what I hear they are straight forward and take up to 12 awg wire. It also offers balanced or unbalanced inputs so you can use XLR cables if you prefer....I prefer. http://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649363500-sherbourn-tst-2200-power-amplifier/images/1577372/ Tim

Just last sat night I was watching a special on Sound City Studios where many artists were speaking including Fleetwood Mac and how they formed Opend my eyes up on some things I did not know

Not his, but the type he used. Mallette can tell you who belongs to the scrolls. Nancarrow was native to Texarkana.

Congrats to oldtimer. It looked like a wonderful events and now there is a backup bartender for Hope.

Any chance you sold root beer with floating raisins on the side of the road during the summer of '73? That photo never could be developed...

I don't believe receiver specs unless they are accompanied by a bench test with all channels driven. I think most receivers are heavily overrated and are not even close to putting out the claimed power. I think most people would benefit from the addition of an outboard amp, even if it is only for the front three channels. The only job the amp has is providing power, especially in dynamic peaks of HT. If you have the money to invest grab yourself a nice Emotiva XPA series amp and try it out. You have thirty days to try it and return it if you are not happy with the addition. If you keep it then you know you appreciate the additional power. Tim

Again, a tough question. Being an outboard amp proponent, I vote yes if you want to extract what those RF-7II's are capable of. Good quality amplification is pretty cheap on the used market. Bill

That's just part of my soul leaving my body from being photographed.

I am very happy, and very pleased with my setup and the way it is performing! There is a place in Boise called The Stereo Shoppe. It's much nicer than any stereo store I've ever come across- even in other states. They have two very nice listening rooms- one with very nice McIntosh gear and one with a very nice Integra Atmos setup. Everything used separates in their primary listening rooms. Both rooms are well over $100,000 I'm sure. Heck, the McIntosh room has like $30,000 speaker cables to the front mains which are B & W 800 D3's!!! That being said, I'd put my current Klipsch Jubilee/Emotiva/Parasound/Xilica/Yamaha/Oppo setup up against anything they've got at this point! And personally, I don't know of anyone first hand that has a nicer setup that I've actually seen or heard in person. I know tons of people that built unimaginable theaters in their houses and then suddenly got cheap when installing the gear!!! Chris A made the magic happen without ever stepping a foot in my house! His instructions were easy to understand and the results are breathtaking. He also left me with the knowledge that I could probably come pretty close to duplicating it if I absolutely had to. I guess you could say he was able to do it "blindfolded" and taught someone to fish. I sincerely appreciate his help and value is knowledge and willingness to share. If I'd hired someone to do this it would have cost a small fortune and I probably would have learned nothing. Sincere appreciation is noted!!!

Chuck--i thought we were brothers? Calling me a drummer? When I was a little kid, my grandma would sit me on her knee and say, “BigStewMan, when it seems that all hope is gone and things couldn’t get any worse, just tell yourself, at least I’m not a drummer."

Man, I'm diggin' the new distressed oak finish. Well done Klispch!

They're here. They look and sound AMAZING.

Just one of our weekend rituals.. I crank tunes and they dance.

(Update- page 3 for REW curves and Xilica settings for my particular room from Chris A) 'm up and running!!! Everything went smooth today with the delivery. I was listening within an hour. A great big thanks to Chris A for his knowledge, help and Xilica settings!!! These things are awesome!!! Huge thanks to Cory @MetropolisLakeOutfitters it was an awesome purchasing experience. I ended up talking to him on the phone several times. Super guy and knows his stuff when it comes to a special order like this. Since I bought Jubes from him he even gave me a killer deal on the Xilica XP-4080 and a couple of Parasound A23's. Now that I'm broke, lol, I'm going to retire down to the dojo and have a listen. My first impression is these things look big and sound concert big. I was very nervous selling my Klipschorns, but these Jubilees are definitely the next step, and it's not a small step! The bass kicks you in the chest and they actually dig pretty darn deep into the 30hz range. Drums are unreal through these things!

Probably $800 for the right amp from a forum member. Any more than that and I'd likely just spring for new.

Play it safe and don't worry about weather, rent or borrow a van. A passenger van with seats removed or folded will much more comfortable than an all metal, two seat work van. Did this for Corns, KC-Minneapolis-KC and Belles, KC-Chicago-KC. Much better with greater peace of mind than blankets, tarps, tie downs, etc.

OK, I stand corrected. Gibbons must have been stoned.

Their speacs say 140 watts per channel 2 driven. Total of 850 watts for the unit. That leaves 63 watts each for the remaining 9 channels. https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/AV-Receivers/Elite+Receivers/SC-99#Power

Please attach the link with the specs of this AVR, Id love to read this. Im not a believer. Ive been involved with audio for over 30 years. Please show me. Thanks

Thanks for permission...and remember that you gave it, too...

two skateboards and a length of twine.

If you check out the Fry's ad in the morning, many times shipping is still an option.

In short, HD Tracks has good and bad files to download from a SQ perspective. If it was poorly mastered, making it HD will not correct that. I have not used HD Tracks in a long time and use some other sites. I am happy with being all digital and have not seriously considered converting to other media. You also have to look at what you listen to. A lot of what I listen to is current music and is not on vinly or RR.

I will be at an undisclosed location in the Northwest. Matt at Klipsch has arranged an even bigger event for 2024, the Great EKLIPSCH. It will commemorate the 7th Anniversay of the Klipsch Museum of Audio History. There will be a total EKLIPSCH over the Museum in Hope AND he Klipsch HQ in Indy. The duration will be twice as long as the one this year. Travis