Leaderboard

I've got another pair of Forte Is and they're walnut and mint. So that makes this pair somewhat less desirable even with the upgrade. Plus, I am not fond of black speakers this large. The Walnuts are elegant and beautiful. And since I only use them at low levels in my bedroom in the morning their sonic abilities are less important to me. I'll still have my Cornwalls, KLF 30s, CF3's, KG5.5's, Heresies, etc. At this point in my life I am probably done collecting so it makes sense to loosen the gate at the corral. The only thing I covet now are LaScala's and a big McIntosh Amp. And after what's been happening on Wall Street lately, my Govt Cheese Retirement plan won't allow for either of those. And I'm more or less a 2CH guy anyway. My HT setup is KG 5 fronts, a 13 inch sub and a C-7 center. My house is a bit funky and open and doesn't really allow for the whole shebang. And then there's that whole "wife" thing. All of my gear will go to my only kid when I croak and my guess is that she'll sell all but the Cornwalls or CF3s. I don't need to burden her with more things to put on CList. I never paid much for any of them, except the Walnut Fortes. Those set me back 400 bucks. HA! And the KLF30s were $800. But that included a c-7 center. HAHAHA. Everything else was idiotically price by idiots who had no idea what they owned. Marantz 2240 for 40 bucks, for example. Mint. Prob more than you wanted to know, but I'm in front of the CWalls with a beverage or two, relaxed and a bit bored. Be well.

I have been amassing these amps since October of 2013 and just received the final one last week. The tower consists of 7-Crown K2's , 3-Crown K1's , 3-Crown D45's , and 2-Crown CT8150's. It also has 2-SurgeX SX-1120-RT's to protect the amps and an ADJ switch to control some external server rack fans in back just in case it does get a little warm in there .

Oh my . . . So this is what all the fuss was about. I do not have these dialed in. I don't have the entire signal chain clean either but I am floored. I gave the 2800 and another 300 for a Technics SL-1200MK2 with a Shure M44g cart and two thick 30ft Apature accu-flow cables. With speakons. Nicest guy I have ever met from a listing. He is tracking down two Plexi tops he had cut for them. I have no idea what I am doing I just know I want more! Thank you to everyone who nudged along this acquisition. I have a difficult time coming of my money. This feeling is like the first day of 60 deg weather after a long winter.

My red PA5 arrived a couple of days ago and got it hooked up this morning. In my case I am using it in my time alligned Klipschorn with K402s two channel setup. The PA5 is running the K402s with a Crown driving the bass bins and an Ashly 3.6 SP active crossover. I have been using a Schiit Aegir with the K402s since I got them. After spending a bit of time getting the levels correct and letting the PA5 play for an hour or so I sat down and did some listening along with my violinist wife. I played a variety of recording including orchestral recordings, and then went back to Aegir and listened again. My wife and I usually pretty much agree when listening to stereo stuff but in this case we were in total agreement. The Aegir came off as less detailed but with a warmer more pleasing soft sound. The PA5 was incredibly detailed. I could really hear articulations in brass and winds and background sounds popped right out. At first listen the Aegir sounded more corrct in how orchestral instruments should sound but after going back and forth a few times I think we both agreed the Aegir was coloring the sound while the PA5 was more neutral. Both are great amps and present a nice holographic sound stage. Either amp would keep me happy for a long time but right now the tiny PA5 is going to remain in the system for a while. The picture below shows how tiny this thing is, dwarfed by the Ashly and less than 1/4 the size of a small Sony blu ray player. $350 shipped from China, an astonishing value IMO!

I was thinking that Roach clips might not have a good connection, what with the tar on them. So Chorus II and Forte II do not need tweeter protection?

Alligator clips...

There are many forum members swearing by taking the two 1N3996 Zener diodes out of the circuit, just unbolt one of them from the bracket and let float to remove from circuit. I was intrigued so I felt like taking some distortion measurements to see what is going on. In theory these diodes should not be doing anything unless you reach a peak voltage of 5.737v to where they would start to conduct and clamp the signal there, nothing higher can pass. In terms of RMS power it works out to a maximum of 2 watts going into the tweeters. Testing confirmed that the diodes indeed do clamp the signal exactly at 5.737v. BUT there was an unexpected outcome to taking distortion readings below this value. Voltage readings are taken at the tweeter output across the diodes. They are peak voltages unless otherwise stated. What I found was surprising. I didn't see any difference at 2.8v, both with and without diodes had identical distortion profiles. It's when you start to reach about 4v where things start go awry for the circuit with the diodes. As soon as you near 4v distortion starts to quickly build up with increase in amplitude. The pictures below are the difference between the network with and without the diodes at 5v. The zeners are clearly starting to do something at 4v, I am guessing it's the very beginning of their 'knee' where very little current is starting to pass and the diodes are somewhere in their dynamic impedance range, datasheet shows 300uA they are 100 ohms and linearly decreases impedance vs increase in current, at 600mA the diode is .2 ohms. Regardless of the mechanism they just don't clamp at 5.737v, clearly current is passing at lower peak voltages, I am seeing 4v is where the difference is happening at. Now you might say to yourself that's still a lot of power. 4v peak is about 2.8v RMS, or 1 watt power. But you must remember dynamic range in music. If you are hovering around say 1 watt at the input of the crossover network, 20db dynamic headroom, a heavy crash cymbal may push a peak transient over the 4v for a very short period of time. 20db is 10x, so for 4v that's only around 400mV. I may be completely wrong but I can completely see even though we know the average power into the tweeter will be low, there must some signals passing over the 4v. Members have made it quite clear that taking these diodes out have impacted the sound positively, so they must be misbehaving during even modest play levels. My engineering mind was doubtful, the diodes are suppose to clamp at 2 watts and up, certainly must not be heard at in home listening levels, well it turns out that distortion is increasing rapidly at anything over just 1 watt or 4v peak into the tweeter. You may not be averaging 1 watt into the tweeter but you may hit it with dynamic music. If for whatever reason you are blasting away and you happen to reach the clamping voltage peak, distortion grossly increases, at the point of clipping you are already at 5% THD and it just gets worse from there. Clearly in home listening is reaching the point where these diodes are creating distortion and effecting the sound quality. You can see the higher harmonics jump right up at 15kHz and 20kHz.

I talked with Jim. Seems like very nice guy. Ordered the kit. Got it a few days later. Replaced the Type B Oil Can crossover caps with his kit. I can say it was a huge difference. These speakers don’t hurt my ears now. The clarity is better. Soundstage better. Everything is crisper and more accurate. Transparency was the biggest gain. But all in all I am surprised to the details that has come out. The Type B is as simple as a Xover as you’ll find in the Klipsch line. I do have some Vcap ODAM’s ordered. It’ll be interesting to see the difference. In Xovers the ODAM’s are my go to. The Highend Vcaps are just to expensive. I do have them in the Amps and preamp. ODAM’s seem like a good compromise. At the end of the day. Jim’s kit for my speakers were well worth the price.

For one of my TX acquaintances. Knew what it was, but didn't know if the cables brought it up so for @oldtimer and that poodle, and that friggin' disease/flu/virus/bio thingy.

You've been busy, lots of nice adds. Hope your father is OK.

I'm using Amazon Music Unlimited. I already had an Amazon Music subscription for my Echo, so it was an inexpensive upgrade to go to the Unlimited level when I got my Bluesound Node. I've been happy with it. I can't think of anything I've tried to find that hasn't been available, and everything is CD quality or better. Most of what I listen to is High Res. They claim to have some MQA, but I haven't found any so far.

I don't see anytjing to indicate actual damage.

That is totally awesome!

Here is a socket for the 211-2, which is a festoon type bulb. Looks like just what we need. https://www.ebay.com/itm/3x-42MM-Festoon-Bulb-Socket-Base-Holder-Metal-Contact-for-LED-Halogen-Lamps/183980436091

A brilliant debut album - every track is memorable Electro Synth from 1983 by an Australian band, done in the Australian way Over the years the track Send Me An Angel has been covered by other artists Artist - Real Life Title - Heart Land Album ID - https://www.discogs.com/master/81749-Real-Life-Heart-Land

Yep @Dave1291 tethering from my phone right now and it's at 2.xGB of use. First time in a decade of project-fi/google-fi that I won't get $ back. I'll pay a little extra this month. This thread has been all over the rink lately, good stuff out of several genres that are distinctly different to me personally. Been using the same cd's over again after I moved the pc out of the little room into the den. With the Polk's in the corners they make a sound that belies their nameplate and size out here. It's 2.8GB now, got to keep it under 3 before the 5th and that bill starts over. It's one heck of a time to try and be frugal! * Wow @MicroMara you've made that museum piece awesome!

@oldmako

Um, much easier to lose an alligator clip than a hemostat, and Radio Shack always had a nice selection.

Back in the day we always used roach clips because a high roach is easier to deal with than a high alligator, and if they go to sleep the roach is easier to move.

Made me think of this, but not for temporary wiring...

I really don't mind if they lose the next game, it was a fun season, no matter the end

I only mentioned Spotify as I know that's one app built in to my UHD player. Please don't turn this into a thread that needs to be locked. 👍

Cool how captainbeefheart's posting of his test results on this little mod on the Technical/Modifications forum has taken on a life of it's own. I wonder how many folks who have contributed to that thread that is mostly way over my head have actually tried this simple little trick? Enjoying my LS's more then ever. Listened to a recorded concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra last night and it was quite breathtaking on these speakers.

I've had an uneventful couple of days. I managed to split some wood w/o setting myself on fire or bashing appendages with the maul

Not really buying Spotify's stance that it is not up to them to vet Joe Rogan's speech.

#561 bulb is a 12.4 watt bulb at 12.8 volts, gives us a current of 970mA Let's convert the bulb to an operational resistance of 13 ohms. 2 watts into the tweeter for protection is 500mA Not sure what the cold resistance is of the bulb, someone seems to have written .6 ohms, sounds about right. Just a guess but at the 500mA of current we know the bulb won't be 13 ohms because it doesn't meet the 970mA spec needed for 12.8 volts across it giving us the 13 ohms so we are probably around 6-7 ohms at 500mA? The best way to tell would be to adjust a current source to 500mA into the bulb and see what voltage we end up at across the bulb, that would give us our answer to how much protection it actually adds in terms of impedance and voltage drop. Should work quite well for tweeter protection so long as the cold state is fairly low like the .6 ohms stated.

Polyswitch’s don’t clamp like Zeners, they slowly increase their resistance until the trip point. That is why they are usually bypassed with a resistor for audio use. They also need a cool down period to re-establish their thermal cycle.

https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/search/&q=561&author=djk&search_and_or=or

We all appreciate the work you have done. Good work.

bought this one as well L.R. Burnside " come on in "

bought this SACD a couple fo days ago Mighty Sam McClain " Give it up to Love "

Thanks. Jantzen Z Caps from Partsexpress. I got them because they are reasonably priced, easy to get as I already needed other stuff from Partsexpress and they are rated high on Humble homeade hifi. The new caps are quite a bit larger than the original caps, so they do not fit on the boards. I also needed to double up most of them. I could have made it work with zip tied and hot glue, but it is much neater and more organized to do them this way.

I will be sure to report back. The level of support and enthusiasm here is encouraging.

And the award for longest subject line of all time goes to...

I went through great pains to obtain a very nice pair of Altec Model 19s. First thing I did was a full recap. So, I’ve been trying speaker placement, different amps (tube and SS) and acoustic treatment. The Altecs are fantastic sounding… BUT…I’ve made a huge effort to make myself love the 19s more than my Forte III. I have them set up for easy A/B auditioning. For me the Forte III win. They are more forward, detailed and, most of all, cohesive. I’ve read the 19s are the pinnacle of speaker quality but I have to remind myself the Forte III are modern $4k speakers (msrp). They are REALLY good. I’ve owned and compared dozens of speakers and the FIII are the best I’ve ever owned. Am I crazy? Am I missing something with the Altecs? It COULD be the room and placement but, as I said, I’ve done a lot of experimentation (not easy with 150 pound speakers!). Damn. I just love the Forte III. A lot. They image and have incredible intimacy the Altecs seem to lack. I’m listening to the F III now. Just magic.

Ah yes, Alligator clips. I guess you could burn those tweeters out if you really tried but don't think it's needed here.

Crown amplifier - at least 300 wpc at 4 Ohms ---best check with @Westcoastdrums he had an XLS -2502 for sale in the Garage Sale , could be sold ?

Here we go! BTW, JohnJ is off line w/cable issues.

Just to be clear, I was not referring to your Heresy comparison. I found your videos with earphones very informative. Even if the earphones can't reproduce the feeling of spaciousness (to my ears) I can still hear how clear or discolored a sound is when comparing multiple speakers, how impressive the impulse response is or isn't, the bass etc. I was referring to the video, JBL vs Cornwalls. Even that video I find very informative. I would even say that by now I have a good idea when I listen to different speakers on youtube, because the empirical values grow and I can filter out certain sound influences by now. My post was really about how simple the music is often presented with the most expensive hi-fi systems. But there we are in agreement as I can see from your post.

I love your vinyl @Dave1291 At home it's not vinyl, but CDs, sorry. Fortunately, this is what Impulse does (or did) best: a beautiful box set with the complete recordings of Coltrane at the Village Vanguard and beautiful images https://www.discogs.com/fr/release/1196907-Coltrane-The-Complete-1961-Village-Vanguard-Recordings

Yea we have Amazon AU The Rush is supposed to be shipped from AU but that is the estimated delivery time Checked status - not shipped yet The Steve Wilson YES mix is from Amazon UK 🇬🇧 Don’t think this will ever come but will keep it in the system and bug Amazon with emails every now and then, for my personal satisfaction 🤪🤪

I was looking for a while to get a Sansui and several models were earmarked Then out of the blue I get a message to see if I’m interested in the Amp and Tuner as a pair As you can see the rest is history as they are in my audio setup Several photos of the inside can be seen on page 729 if you want to see

We have a public holiday falling on a Wednesday for Australia Day So I’m playing an Australian band and in the case of Split Enz from New Zealand that started careers in Australia Artist - Australian Crawl Title - The Boys Light Up Album ID - https://www.discogs.com/release/4998387-Australian-Crawl-The-Boys-Light-Up Artist - Split Enz Title - Collection Album ID - https://www.discogs.com/release/1831142-Split-Enz-The-Split-Enz-Collection-1973-1984

This was Vinyl I absolutely had to buy new! Till All are One!

See that sports fans? He's good. hahahaha Maybe! lol

MAN does this sound great! I'm like WOW!

Hi Everything I said about the Cornscala is wrong. It now has 20 hours on the caps and the highs have fully opened up. I was wrong...they are better than I thought! Any boom in the bass is now gone, the midrange has no trouble whatsoever making it up to 6000 with those fastrac horns, and the highs are fully extended. Cymbals sound like cymbals should. No harshness at all, well defined and musical bass. Imaging is very good. Maybe not quite as good as my Josephs, but hey, that is their strong point. However, the Cornscalas are do a very good 3D image depth and floor to ceiling image with the lateral soundstage a foot or two wider than the speakers. With a Citation II the clarity is simply unreal. The Josephs do not have this dynamic range. They sound nice, but sort of polite. And believe me, I love them and have lived with them for 5 years. All the discussion about crossover choice is familiar. I tried to sort it all out when trying to plan mine. Like I said above, I just built the one that gothover liked, figuring that he had heard many. It turned out great. I have attached a photo of how I built my XO. I like ground busses since I build tube amps all the time and use them. It allows me to see exactly what is going on, and that everything is star grounded. I am sure there are many ways to do this though. I just used Solens Litz air core coils on the mid and tweeter instead of foil because I live in Canada and Parts connexion was having one of their 15% off sales and they carry Solens. I am sure I could have used the foil ones and the speakers would have sounded very similar. Ditto the 600/6000 universal vs. the ES crossed over at 5800. I bet they sound pretty similar. Certainly both would sound great. At some point you need to just dive in, use good components, and build a pair. You WILL be happy no matter which path you choose. I agree though, try and cross the midrange at 5800 or 6000 and cross the woofers to mids at around 600. The K33 sounds great up there, they have no problems. If you look at the response of the fastrac horn with the K55 on Dave's site you can see that crossing at 600 is right where the combo flattens out. 500 will probably work, but there is no reason to go that low. Trust us, it sounds really good at 600 and 5800 or 6000. My 2 cents. Really, this is one of the best pair of speakers I have ever heard at any price! Are there better ones? Of course, there are always better ones. But you know, a lot of the stuff in Stereophile that sells for $10K a pair and up doesn't sound appreciably better than these. They certainly don't have the dynamics. I am sure they measure better, but who cares? These sound like music, and you are too busy enjoying the tunes to be wondering about whether there is a hump or suckout at some frequency. They just have that certain jump and they sound like music! cheers, Don