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Me too. The speakers could be immediately pressed into service in my garage. As they are now, they would class up the joint. A little help from @Chief bonehead, @djk, or others with information about the malignant horns and drivers that have sprouted on top of the Smurf boxes, would be appreciated.

I can tell. Your hands are shaking.

You're welcome. I try to do my part.

We'll know soon what this was all about, as my offer was accepted. It appears to me that @bhendrix is correct. If so, my modest investment seems safe. Depending upon what arrives, I may use these in my garage or make new 3/4 Baltic birch plywood cabinets for my younger son to use in conjunction with a TH sub. The squawker driver seems larger than I suspect it really is. I'll post photos of the Frankenheresies when they arrive, as well as after any transformation. Psychologically, this was a relatively painless purchase since @The History Kid's payment for a Technics turntable was languishing in my PayPal account. Just don't tell SWMBO that there's been no net reduction of audio stuff. Actually, these two Smurf coffins take up more space than a single TT. This might be a good opportunity to try @ClaudeJ1's "Super Hereseys."

Off to Home Depot for a new door bell kit and AC filters. Door bell lasted over 29 years so....... As Mark would say "Taco Tuesday" alas I'm doing my protein diet so no tacos for me

When I first added an outboard amp(B&K Reference 4430) to my AVR(Onkyo TX-SR705) in my main HT rig, the difference was immediately noticed, at low and high volumes. Only a select few AVRs have been equipped with power supplies that approach or surpass what is in your B&K. Bill

Let me know what you find out, I may just have an extra k-63 laying around if you need / want one..

Whew! I start Monday. Firm job offer came first by phone then email today...

Another for @MetropolisLakeOutfitters Pictures suck but I'm happy with the grain pattern and the Forte's are rocking!

That is remarkable..... Most of my Honda customers get about 5 years out of the factory battery. 5 years does seem to be the norm that I see... MKP :-)

My explanation is that it's all about the micro-dynamics. Horn speakers reproduce the extremely small differences in dynamic shading that are crucial in rendering musical instruments in a life-like way. This is maintained even when you're not in the same room as the speakers — our brains still get enough of that information which completes the illusion that we're hearing real live musical instruments. When we listen to an audio system that omits those micro-dynamics our brains fill-in the missing information, but only to a certain degree. When we're not in the same room as the speakers our brains are not able to add enough of the missing info and we immediately become aware that we're listening to a sound reproduction system.

You could probably use your teeth.

supplies are running low... I do not like coffee ! maybe I can make it till morning !????

One of my trucks had a battery last 10 years...2006 Chevy Silverado with 240k on it. I replaced the original last year. I also got 10 years out of a Honda motorcycle battery, a battery tender was always connected to it.

Reminds me of my 2008 Kia Sportage battery....This past spring the ORIGINAL battery would no longer hold a charge, so I had to buy a new one...the ORIGINAL battery had lasted 9 years, and over 125,000 miles...at first I was PIZZED, then realized how long it had lasted, and how many miles it made it through...ESPECIALLY since the first year of its life the battery was seldom used because I actually bought that NEW 2008 model in March of 2009, so it had been a VERY good one! So, when I went to purchase the NEW battery, I really felt OBLIGATED to Gripe about how long it had lasted, saying (tongue-in-cheek) "You would THINK that a car battery would last longer than 9 years and 125,000 miles, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Thanks for posting this link I was looking for it yesterday.

I was beginning to think that I was pretty much alone in my thoughts on this subject. It's nice to know that perhaps I'm not alone. Your first comment about "fidelity is not even on their list of goals of producing music recordings" is precisely the problem. Any professional culture that reinforces the idea that fidelity really doesn't matter is fundamentally flawed. That's what I was referring to in my comments about mastering culture. The entire mastering culture is apparently geared to mess with your music...no matter what...and the more that they mess with it, the more credit--and therefore money--that they get. Conversely, if they don't mess with the music, they stand to lose their livelihoods, or at least that's the belief that apparently keeps those practices recurring again and again. I do understand how this culture comes into being: it was once my job to understand those kind of processes and undo them. But it's extremely difficult to do this, however. The same type of destructive "memeplex processes" come into play in the judging the design of hi-fi sound reproduction systems and design of its components by both designers and buyers, but for very different reasons. When I look at mastering processes, historically these have been "save the day" processes for typical music recording screw-ups, but now the mastering function has grown into some big "Mr. Fix-It" culture that believes that it's the "creative mastering" itself--and not the musicians' creations (i.e., the music)--that are responsible for the financial success of the albums. This is the problem. I know of at least one music production company that doesn't do mastering: they instead record, mix, and then put the tracks on their website for sale--no mastering. Talk about a threat to the way of life of an entire profession. Chris

I wouldn't care if they were pink. As the Stones say, Paint It Black, Duratex, that is.

I'm just jealous that none of my speakers are Sonic Blue.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/122625970370 @Youthman these photos look familiar. Michael, apparently someone in California has the same living room as you!

OK they are saying once again that hearing loss can cause you to lose your mind, leave you swatting at invisible bugs, muttering and mumbling. So what Thebes. It's a risk we are willing to run cause listening loud through refrigerator sized speakers is the way to go. Hey I own several pair of the same thing and I'm not about to argue. But. Yes there's always a butt and with Thebes it's getting larger every year. So in my musings and meanderings I've actually reached the conclusion that playing music fairly loud through high-quality components and recordings is actually a proactive solution to dementia. Think about it. Good music, properly rendered opens up your mind and mental faculties like nothing else on this earth. Regular exposure opens up the heart , the mind, and often, the libido. On the off chance that it, and not your totally obnoxious lawn mower or leaf blower, visits you with hearing loss, your stimulated memory will overcome this loss with good vibes remembered and never forgotten. So rock on my brothers and sisters. It's good for you and your mind. And the next time you see some old person in a home dancing by themselves to a tune only they can hear, don't jump to conclusions. They may just be an audiophile reliving a particularly wonderful moment in music.

Good for you that you learned that hard lesson before that particular lp. Music and my tools I don't even lend to family anymore, not out of selfishness but preservation after years of loss.

You've got it bad. If you were to stop cold turkey, your head would explode.

@DizRotus I have the receipts for my La Scalas that I bought there if you want the address, I'll dig'em out , hopefully they're not too faded. And yes they were on the east side of Woodward. I think between 12 mile and Catalpa.

No need to edit for me. I was just having fun.

Today looked like an overcast day in Amsterdam so I thought I would jet on over to the Berner Oberland Region of Switzerland: https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/live/webcams/#webcam-jungfraujoch-top-of-europe It's pretty dreary weather there today as well, but what is cool is that Jungfraujoch is the highest situated camera where there are clouds at 4100 meters and you can barely see, but if you scroll down to the lower cameras you can see the clouds at the top, but a clear picture at the various spots lower. Btw, it's not a video but a few minute old 360 panorama that on a clear day is spectacular--Again, almost like being there. I did a screen capture there the other day of a rainbow:

Cherry just shipped.

More than once I've noticed the "live music" next door phenomenon with horn-loaded speakers.

Buya.com? Ahh.. found it.

Good match for the Emotiva blue on your electronics!

I have a separate account for online transactions money is swept in and out but nothing extra left there. Works well.

Just received this B&K AV125.5 power amplifier to try out in my HT. It'll be a few days before I can get it hooked up, but I can hardly wait. The power supply is way beyond anything I've ever seen in a receiver.

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This begs the questions...... "What's So Sacred About Our Recordings?" I say the "Devil" is at play in many of our recordings and "Fidelity" is not even on the list of goals in way to many of them..!!! "Do you believe it is a Sin to Re-master them..?" "If we have a weapon to battle this Devil and attempt to undo/minimize the "Devil's" works are we in reality "Not Sinners" but instead are we not trying to rescue the "Good" from the "Evil" done upon it..?" miketn

That ad makes me feel like I need to go take a shower. A scalding hot one...

So I spread out my front speakers and re ran audysee...I'm impressed! I ran all 8 positions covering my living room and cannot believe how good it sounds! I remember haveing trouble where sometimes the back speakers would be too quiet or the front too loud. Seems like by using all 8 poisons it got a great idea how my room is and it all seems to be in perfect balance. Going to be putting A1UC's blu rays to good use soon.

Chris: First, let me say that I wish that I could hear your Jubilee. (Even though I can’t fit them in any of my listening rooms.) Second, I’ll define a point of departure (for some, but not all). I like classical music and opera. Not pop music. I think it’s important for each individual to define “audio fidelity” or “high fidelity reproduction” based on their goals for their hi-fi system. Perhaps for a recording engineer that’s fidelity to how the master tape sounded on studio monitors. (I’m not a recording engineer – so I can’t say. Candidly, I don’t give a rat’s patootie about want a recording engineer wants – I care more about what the composer and conductor wanted.) Perhaps some are concerned with how disco music sounds in a discotheque. (I don’t know, and don’t care.) I’m not interested in pop music, which is largely created by producers and engineers using electronic technology. Rather, I’m interested in classical music, which involves instruments that have a natural sound. (We know what a violin sounds like.) Moreover, classical music recordings are based on natural instruments performing together – i.e., a performance in the “real” world. Pop music OTOH often involves engineers combining audio from different musicians in different locations at different times, and in many cases mixing in electronically produced sounds. How can someone discuss fidelity to the sound of the “original” performance, if there never was a performance of the music? What meaning does “high fidelity” reproduction (or “audio fidelity”) have for most of pop music? (I want to be clear about my perspective: I respect the fact that different people like different music. To each their own. If you like electronically produced pop music and your goal is for your home hi-fi system to sound “good” – I think that’s OK.) Which leads me to my first assertion. I regard as a “myth” the idea presented in the 4th video (posted by twk123) that the audio quality in all live performances has decreased in recent years. This has not occurred at my local symphony hall, where no electronic sound reinforcement systems are employed. There is no DJ (or sound board operator) involved with the live performance of classical music in its intended venue (at least in my local symphony hall and opera house). My goal for my home hi-fi systems is to recreate as close as possible the experience that I had in the symphony hall or opera house – or perhaps I should say an accurate facsimile. Because a full-scale orchestra cannot be reproduced with 100% accuracy via recorded music played on a hi-fi, this introduces subjectivity regarding sound quality (i.e., which compromises a listener prefers to accept). Moreover, different people have different sensitivities to various aspects of sound. (For example, some people are sensitive to spatial imaging, some not.) I believe that all technology associated with sound reproduction is imperfect. Some of these imperfections are immaterial to most people, whereas some imperfections make a difference to some people (but not others) based on their hearing and what’s important to them. (For example, some people want to be able to recreate the sound as loud as the original performance, some people don’t. Some people want to feel the lowest pedal notes of a pipe organ, some people are willing to sacrifice this facet of the overall reproduction. ) Each individual must choose the trade-offs that suits him or her. Because it is impracticable for me to instantly switch back and forth between a live orchestra and my hi-fi system, my memory must come into play. I attend live performances on a regular basis. I listen to my hi-fi on a regular basis. My assessment of whether or not what I’m hearing from my hi-fi system sounds like a live performance – or like a pleasant facsimile of a live performance – is more important to me than what some electronic test equipment indicates. My ears are “adjusted” - or “calibrated” – by virtue of my full season subscription to the symphony and opera. What I’m used to is the natural sound of classical music. That’s what I strive for with my home hi-fi systems. (Clearly this approach is imperfect – but that’s life.) In my listening notes from testing my hi-fi systems my highest rating is “excellent – magical”. In other words, to me the sound was astonishingly natural – and I was “drawn into” the music – and dare I say – it sounded good. No hi-fi system is perfect. I want the imperfections in my hi-fi systems to sound pleasant when playing classical music – not unpleasant. I want that “magical” moment when I’m listening (for example) to my SACD of Brahms German Requiem and I completely forget about the hi-fi equipment - because I’m moved by the music. If in my listening notes I consistently rank – based on many listening sessions over a long period of time – system configuration “A” (including a specific complement of tubes) as “excellent – magical”, and I consistently rate other configurations as something less – that tells me that configuration “A” is the best configuration in that room – for me. The sound of a symphony orchestra is complex, and a few published hi-fi specs like frequency response, signal/noise ratio, and THD do not capture all qualitative facets of reproducing this complex sound. And a calibrated mic and PC-based “room correction” software do not completely define a hi-fi system’s subjective sound quality. In other words, the sound quality of a hi-fi system is not completely defined by commonly published technical specifications. The differences in sound quality between hi-fi components is sometimes subtle – but it’s these subtleties that can make the difference between a hi-fi system “sounding pretty good”, and what I call “being drawn into the music” – i.e., forgetting about everything except the music. I use my ears to decide when I think that my hi-fi systems sound closest to natural music – vs. letting electronic hardware and software decide for me. (I imagine that some people’s ears adjust to sound that has been altered by some form of electronic processing. If you’re used to listening to an AV receiver (or pre-processor) that employs digital signal processing, then that AV receiver may sound “normal” or “good” to you – particularly if you are listening to pop music.) While science certainly has a role in the technology associated with hi-fi equipment, my belief is that people’s perception of reproduced sound can’t be completely explained by science. Hi-fi equipment is designed based on electrical engineering, and test equipment is essential in its development and testing. However, IME satisfactory electronic test results represent a necessary though not sufficient condition for good sound quality. The ultimate goal IMO is not to satisfy an oscilloscope or distortion analyzer or some software tool, it’s to satisfy a music lover. And that involves a music lover listening to the reproduced sound and either having a smile on their face – or not. This involves synergy between all hi-fi components, and the listening room, and the listener’s ears and brain. If “audio nirvana” is that subjective moment when a person “gets lost in” the music they love – and the rest of the world vanishes – then I submit that there are many paths to the top of the mountain. Room EQ. Tube rolling. Component matching. Cartridge pairing with music genre. Etc. It’s part science and part black magic. Moreover, different people enjoy the hobby of hi-fi by focusing on different facets (e.g., high tech digital cataloging and networking, spinning vinyl, rolling tubes, room EQ, DIY speaker building, etc.) Moreover, different people have different constraints, such as budget, room layout, available floor space, home decorating priorities, etc. (For example, I prefer traditional décor. I put original artwork on my walls. There is no way that I’m mounting foam panels in my living room. To each their own. I can fit tower speakers in my listening rooms, but not La Scala, Klipschorn, or Jubilee.) Bottom line, there is no “one size fits all” solution, or even approach to home hi-fi. IMO there is a significant subjective facet to the enjoyment of reproduced music in the home. If you achieve audio nirvana via room EQ – cool. If you achieve audio nirvana via tube rolling – that’s cool too. That’s my 2.5 cents for now. OP: Is this relevant to what you want to discuss? P.S. OP: You posted 2 videos. Suffice it to say that these two videos are very controversial, and have been hotly debated. (I’ve watched both videos a few years ago, and don’t care to view them again.) My recollection is that the methodologies of some of their listening tests have been questioned. For example: What is the provenance of the music samples? (Garbage in / garbage out.) How were the digital recordings manipulated? (I have concerns because the music samples apparently were manipulated by PC software, and this causes me to assume that part of what I’d hear might be artifacts of the PC software.) IMO, the fact that one video is titled “Audio Myths Workshop” and the other is titled “AES Damned Lies Workshop” raises a red flag regarding the impartiality of these investigations. One of the panelists, JJ, begins by telling a story about how he tricked some college friends with a fake listening test. Based on the panelists’ smirks, this further causes me to question their objectivity. One thing that JJ said that I agree with: “Everything can be steered.” “If you’re convinced that everything sounds the same, you’ll steer things that way.”

Original WE753 speaker pic

Your not going with the flow here. What if that kid with a baseball bat breaks his arm on your mailbox and then sues? You will be on the 6 o'clock NEWS explaining why you so viciously broke that poor kids arm. JJK

Furlough – And Oh that BASS!!! So those banished KG4’s sitting in the exercise room. Well lets say theoretically of course when I was a lil younger than 16, well hypothetically my parents went on some vacations. In the younger years of these parental vacations they would hire someone to watch me and the later high school years I don’t recall but maybe there was zero to lil supervision at times, lil foggy here. There were the times before I was 16 that theoretically Mom’s grey market, used, older, but you couldn’t tell Mercedes would get lil workouts but just in the neighborhood. Don’t get me wrong I was a pretty good kid within reason at least up to a certain age, but kids... pay lots of attention to details and how things are left so you can put them back with no one ever noticing… ie. Don’t get caught. Those KG4's needed a workout as well and the hall pass is here. I knew where those lonely kg4’s were, and just where that JVC receiver was. CD player,... check. And let me say it wasn’t until years later that I realized just how respectable that JVC receiver was but more on that later. I know the KG4’s are high efficiency, no, not Klipschorn or Cornwall or La Scala or or or or… but this JVC just made them sing and oh that BASS!!! So the first time I remember setting everything up and throwing full throttle at these KG4’s it was in the great room/ family room what ever you wanna call it. I knew nothing at the time about placement in any regard but I just got lucky. So lets put some things into perspective about this bass. This decent sized home in a part of the country where things are affordable was on a five acre lot. This was in a out in the country but its still a subdivision neighborhood. Weird right? Now you’re thinking why the hell is he now rambling on about this property and how is this relevant to BASS. Well its relevant, so stop letting your mind wander. So yeah did I jam out some Led Zeppelin, some Orb, lil Hotel California,… I sure did. At this point I'm sure I threw my entire cd collection at these experiments. But this was late afternoon, after school, still daylight and very low likelihood of pissing off your neighbors time of day. So back to the rap music. Now it really kills me that I can’t remember what albums I played. But one of the NWA albums I remember. Nice production and killer bass. I was so impressed and blown away, and even more mad a Mom for banishing these speakers, that I decided to see how this bass was doing outside but with all the doors and windows shut, totally sealed home. Because inside the house the whole space time continuum was rippling with bass, or at least thats how I remember it. See I told you the property was relevant. So the house was set back, hard to see from the street with woods and trees hiding it except for two spots where a half moon driveway connected and more driveway connected to that and wrapped around and went to the house. I went out my front door and walked a lil… BASS. This is a BIG driveway folks, I cant stress that. I made it to the street, holy crap maybe I will piss off the neighbors because that bass. My inner smart *** told me to walk further down the street, I listened and yep the BASS came along following for a while before eventually puttering out. Now the me of today is more the purist don’t touch tone controls kinda guy, but not the high school me. He would turn up the treble and the bass. Fortunately high school me did know when enough was enough both in regard to volume and shaping tone. But as I am walking back to the house, vein of the plot in an 80’s movie when the kid finds out mom and dad are Russian spies…. Well yeah I’m totally wondering if Dad knew about all this bass or not? Had he been hiding this fact just how much these babies can rock or thump? Years later I did tell dad this story, the Mercedes story, and about most of the times I broke the KG4’s outta jail. He smiled and laughed, and frankly he enjoyed hearing the stories. And no, he knew they thumped, but had no clue about thumping all the way down the street. Thanks Dr Dre.

THE 90's So up to this point , I enthusiastically used Dad’s KG4’s whenever I could. But never really tested the throttle too much, it was all still within reason. Then my dad got another job we moved to this gorgeous house that from an audiophile’s standpoint that had so many great rooms with great stereo potential. I know you know what I am talking about here. You go look at a house, condo, apartment… whatever suits your needs for shelter… but nothing is ok till you have pre-determined that you have rooms you can work with for your two channel room or where ever you are going to place your home theater. Maybe you make up excuses to your wife about some problem with this house you two are considering buying. But the real story is there wasn’t a good room for your gear. Well this house had great rooms. But,… something truly sad happened in this new gorgeous house that Mom toiled over her decorating. She decided that the “big speakers” were too big. Its kinda funny typing the words “big speakers” and “too big” as the whole impetus of this thread is because of, and will involve more of soon, don’t worry… but yeah CORNWALLS. Don’t get me wrong these aren’t Klipschorns but references using the phrase “gorilla in the room” should duly be changed to gorrillas plural for many models of Klipsch speakers. But, back to the sad moment in time for the “too big” KG4’s. They sadly went to live in solitary in the climate controlled exercise room in the corner covered up. Yep, you read that right, no need to check… they were not even allowed to be hooked up in the exercise room. They just got to stand in the corner with a dunce cap on that ok was just a sheet or something, but they got sentenced to 20 years to life… with potential for furlough and or release… but more on that later. Ok ladies and gentlemen lets have a moment of silence for my Dad’s KG4’s and their banishment of solitude (Yeah so we didn’t use the exercise room too much ok, back off)… Ok silence over because this whole time period for me musically is one of rapid change and decades later I am happy to say its never slowed down. So there was a whole deep Pink Floyd time period that I forgot to mention in junior high. Thank god for cassettes and generosity and trading music. Younins.. think Napster… real younins think torrents, youtube etc. I got really into the beatles, classic rock, Hendrix, radio stations weren’t lame. This all kept happening quickly and evolved into Nirvana, Alternative, NIN, yes rap is still going on here deal with it, beastie boys, NWA, Led Zeppelin. Here are the KG4's by the way

Talk of Eico HF-81s reminds me of Kelly aka @mobile homeless. He was a big Eico fan. There's a lot to love about their excellent SQ despite their somewhat humble beginnings. Plus, it's always nice to be reminded of Daddy Dee,

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

Rockhound, I think you need my 362/682 setup......or at least just one pair of the 362's with the 682's! Hogfan

I just wanted to give a big thanks to @ClaudeJ1 for having me over to give his system a listen this week. In a word, WOW. In many more words Synergy/Unity horns really are something else. Some of the strongest locked centered image I have ever heard in a speaker, extremely precise 3d if the recording has it in it. It was a strong reminder of the low distortion and high dynamic sound of large format horns that I have been missing for a few years since selling my Jubscala. They play at a some of the same magic tricks in the midband that other point source speakers do like widebander/coaxial speakers while retaining that dynamic slam and speed of horns it's really something else. Claude's room was well set up and integrated I'm sure the entire surround system would have been WOW as well though we stuck to 2 ch+subs. Claude also shared some reference tracks with me as a well, and yes that Drum track is outright explosive. Thank you again for the opportunity to hear these wonderful speakers, it certainly gives me a lot to think about as to where I want to go system wise in the next few years.

The interesting thing is that virtually all classical recordings--and especially those with orchestral instrumentation--are categorically subject to heavy-handed amounts of mastering EQ, over and above the RIAA emphasis/de-emphasis equalization curve for vinyl in this case. How could this "audiophile" hear all that sonic bliss with a creatively EQed 1960 recording that was transferred to vinyl (i.e., not the original analog tape)? It's an incredibly poor choice to use in this sort of situation. The placebo effect is a notably strong and frequently seen factor among those that never really stopped to learn about physics, psychophysics and engineering of audio reproduction...and this is yet another example in that long list of audiophillery. PWK had a special device for just those type of situations... This is another disability among those that aggrandize the importance of really trivial audio components: the idea that audio reproduction can be made "better than life". However, I find that the only thing you can do is to try not to degrade the music any further...or to repair damage originally done in the name of "commercialization", like unmastering source music with huge amounts of impressed mastering EQ. Chris

Solar power brightens the sound, no need for new caps when running solar.

Ok the article was kind of funny but the comments, oh man the comments are pure gold. NoFunnyStuff is my favorite so far, little did I know that my peasant and unwashed ears could not possibly enjoy the finer esoteric arts of cable construction? This is one of the best: "Are your speakers laser aligned with your listening position for both azimuth and inclination?" Translation- "I paid a guy $4000 to put a laser pointer on top of my speakers to make sure they were pointed at my head."

Chris, why do you still use the Jubilee if the new center is... smaller, and better? Is there a downside to your new center?