Sulaco

I have the same "hollow" sound with my Rc-25.

If you really get a 60% discount, that means that BestBuy is paying less than that for these speakers, since they still have to show a profit on a sale. On the SF-1, you get a $150.00 markdown. That means they pay less than $100.00 for a speaker they sell for $250.00. I bet they actually pay less than $50.00 for this speaker. That just goes to show you how much Klipsch (as well as other companies) actually has in these speakers. Pretty depressing.

I have it also and love it. Alison is one of a kind.

I have tried all of what you said. The Marantz is the only common when the problem occurs. It is a hissing sound, not a low hum. I spoke to a guy I know who works for Marantz Professional and he said he was aware of a problem with some Marantz A/V Receivers having the same type of noise in the surround channels. I tend to believe what the guy said now, considering it came from not one, but two people affiliated with Marantz. As far as what happened with the receiver when he used it as a pre/pro, I don't know why he would say that other than it happened. It wouldn't make sense to knock your own product if it were not true. And what does being in the 2 channel forum have to do with anything? My problem with this unit was/is in 2 channel mode!

I have RB-5 II's. I would like to reiterate that I do not hear this "floor noise" with my HK. I only hear it with the Marantz. I have everything hooked up exactly the same way. I tried a Toslink cable, analog, other CD's, etc. Everything points back to the Marantz. I spoke with the guy who owns the local shop I got it from and he said they were having some problems with noise out of some receivers. I am looking for a replacement for a faulty HK, not something else with its own problems. I guess I have to pay thousands of dollars to get an actual quality product these days. *sigh* I hooked the HK back up and will just deal with it until I come across something that will work. Any good suggestions for a sub thousand dollar A/V receiver that EXCELS in 2 channel and still works well in SS modes? I want something with DD PL II, DD, DTS, 100 watts or better, low THD, and at least one set of multi channel inputs (SACD/DVD-A) and a set of pre-outs that will actually work with an external amp. The guy at the local shop also told me not to use the pre-outs to hook to an amp. He said he did this and fried the receiver. Thanks again for the help guys.

I am demoing a Marantz 5300 A/V Receiver. I am noticing some "noise" in 2 channel that I did not notice with my HK 120. Can anyone tell me what this might be? I would expect a much better performance from Marantz.

The Yamaha would be a definite step up from that Panasonic. If home theatre is your gig, go for it. But, don't expect it to excel at driving your mains for music. At least, not compared to something a little nicer. Good luck!

I dodn't read all of the replies, so I am sorry if I repeat anyone. I can't afford a big screen TV, so I can only relate second hand what I think and what I have seen. I was at BestBuy the other day and was comparing all of the TV's. I started off looking at the non-projection TV's with HD and then with wide screen's. The Sony 34" or 36" (can't remember which) HD widescreen was amazing. It was very bright and the picture was extremely crisp and clear. In the 40" and up range, out of what was available, Mitsubishi and Panasonic had the brightest, crispest picture in projection TV's (HD or not, widescreen or not). The LCD's and Plasma's all looked pretty bad to me. They were not very bright and the resolution sucked. If I had 2 grand to blow, I would have the non-projection Sony widescreen. That thing had the best picture out of every TV they had (heck, it looked better than ANY TV I have ever seen!). In my opinion, projection TV's still don't compare to CRT's. I think plasma's and LCD's also have a ways to go before they look as good. They did have some type of new rechnology plasma or LCD (forget which) that was really bright and clear, but it was very expensive also.

I hear good and bad things about Yamaha (just like everything else on the market, everyone has a varying opinion). But, most people who own the lower end Yamaha's say they are decent for HT but not so great for music (2 channel). I personally have not heard this unit. If you can afford a little more, the Denon AV-2803 can be had from buydig.com for less than $600.00 and it is a top-notch mid-fi A/V receiver. I wouldn't go mch lower end than this level, though. Hope this helps. BTW, what is your present setup and what are you looking to get out of your setup once you upgrade your receiver? Do you listen to much music, or mostly SS?

I got the trilogy on VHS for Christmas a few years back. It has been borrowed, watched, rewound, marathoned (sit down and watch all three), you name it and they still look and sound great to me. I must have gotten a really good set, because the rest of my VHS tapes wear out much quicker. I only have a HiFi VCR (not Super VHS) but it still looks and sounds good. I wish I could find all of my VHS tapes on DVD so I could get rid of my VCR, but I am not willing to give up the original three or the Alien trilogy. There is something about an analog (read snowy picture) copy of Alien (the 1st one) with crappy sound that just makes the movie really good IMO.

Yes, the "Sulaco" was the mothership in the original Alien movie. You are the third person in over 5 years of me using it on forums to guess it (and say so, anyway). My Sony DVD player is not a year old yet. It is last year's model, replaced with a silver colored unit for this year. Everything else is the same. It has a 192 kHz 24 Bit Audio DAC. Here is a breakdown of the audio specs; Audio Frequency Response (DVD, 96 kHz PCM) - 2-44,000Hz, ±1.0dB Audio Frequency Response (DVD, 48 kHz PCM) - 2-44,000Hz, ±0.5dB Audio Signal-to-Noise Ratio - >115 dB Audio Dynamic Range - >103 dB (DVD); >99 dB (CD) Harmonic Distortion - <0.003% I don't know what any of this stuff means. How does it compare to a "higher end" CD player? I use a Monster digital coaxial cable for my audio connection to the receiver. Would an optical connection be better?

Lots of good advice here guys. I thought about seperating my HT and 2 channel, but I can't afford to do that right now. What I am mainly after is a way to have the best sound possible out of my RB-5's without having to build another system. I really can't afford 10 grand on a sweet 2 channel setup at present. I can, however, afford a nice(er) receiver and maybe a nice source CD player. I am going to give the guys at Outaw a call and see what they have to say about the 1050. What do you guys think about upgrading to a dedicated CD player? Will it sound any better than my chain store Sony DVD player? I plan to also upgrade my speaker wire and the rest of my interconnects to at least some decent Monster cable. I am not a big fan of "audiophile" cables, though. Thanks again for all of the advice, keep it coming.

I think B&K is pretty much out of my league. The Outlaw is nice and the price is even nicer. However, I would rather go with a more well-known brand. Preferably something I can pick up locally for warranty purposes. Is Denon any good? I have heard that most A/V receivers don't do 2 channel very well. My H&K does 2 channel very well but isn't so great at SS. I would love to find an A/V receiver that will do both 2 channel and SS very well and still be affordable (sub $1000.00). Thanks again for the help.

I also have a Velodyne CT100 and a RC-25 with two RS-25's. I didn't mention them because I am only interested in improving my 2 channel sound quality. My HT sound is fine, but I want to keep the ability to play multi channel encoded media. I don't really have a fixed budget perse'. I will spend what I have to, but I would rather not have to spend a small fortune, hence my present system. I just want to improve on what I have. I am happy with the sound quality of the RB-5's, but I feel like they are capable of more.

OK, here is my setup; Harman Kardon AVR120 Sony DVP-NC655B (2) RB-5 II Monster Digital Coaxial Radio Shack 16ga. Bi-Wired When I hook everything back up, I will hopefully have a replacement AVR125 (my receiver is toast) and Monster 16ga. speaker wire (the cheap stuff). From this point, where should I start upgrading and/or improving? I want the best 2 channel sound quality I can get out of my RB-5's using an A/V receiver and without modifying anything. I am willing to replace my present receiver and my DVD player. I would not mind having a seperate CD and DVD player, but have been pondering the idea of a SACD and/or a DVD-A player. Ugh, lots of decisions. I don't have a lot to spend so I want to stay away from the high end stuff. Let me know if you need more info to help make some recommendations. Thanks.

Thanks for the heads up. I check and double-check all of my connections fairly regularly, especially when I am messing around with the stuff. I even unhooked everything but the source, receiver and speakers (single set of speaker wires going to each speaker, and only the fronts hooked up) and tried it that way. I also tried bypassing my surge protector and plugging the source and receiver directly into the wall. None of this made any difference. I hooked up my two surrounds and they did the same thing. I am almost 100% certain it is the receiver. As for the CD's I am using, I have tried over 35 different CD's and they all do the same thing. I think the chances of that many CD's being "off" is pretty slim. I am going to move everything into another room tonight and see if that makes any difference. If not, the receiver starts it's journey back to HK Friday. Thanks again for all of the help guys. Now I just have to wait a few weeks for my replacement.

Ok, I switched the channels on the amp (left to right) and the soundstage followed suit. Where the main voice (which should be dead center) was shifted right, it is now shifted left. So, this tells me it is definitely the receiver, right? I also tried another source and it made no difference.

I don't want to use the balance because it lowers the levels of the other channel thus affecting the accuracy of the original recording. Plus, if it is a problem with the receiver, I shouldn't have to. I always use the 2 channel mode unless I am watching a DVD encoded for DD or DTS. Which leads me to another problem. I noticed recently (since I purchased my center and surrounds and have been able to make use of DD and DTS) that if I play a DVD encoded for DTS and DD in DTS mode, my bass (which I have going to my powered subwoofer) response becomes almost inaudible. I can turn up the volume on the subwoofer as well as the level on the subwoofer out (on the receiver) and get an almost audible signal, but nowhere near what it should be, nor where it is in 2 channel or DD. I called HK and talked to John who said I should send the unit to HK's service center and have it repaired/replaced. I guess I will be w/o a receiver for a few weeks. Maybe I will get lucky and they will replace it with the newer AVR-125. Thanks again for the help guys, and any other advice will be greatly appreciated.

I called Klipsch and talked to Steve and he said to try the same thing. He doesn't think it is a speaker problem (and I agree) but more likely either a source or room acoustics problem. I will try switching the channels on the receiver end tonight and see what happens. Can I assume that if the problem stays after I do this, it would either be a source (DVD player) or room accoustics problem? I have another DVD player and another receiver I could try out to eliminate the source issue. As for the room acoustics, I wouldn't know where to start other than just adjusting the balance (which I don't really want to do). I only have one source, and that is my DVD player which I use for audio CD's as well. Well, I have a TV and a VCR, but I don't really have any way to use them to test a good stereo feed. Thanks for the help.

I have RB-5 II's on 24 inch stands and am using a Harman Kardon AVR-120. I have the speakers bi-wired using Radio Shack 16 guage speaker wire. The speakers are about 7 feet apart and about 3 feet from the back walls. They are toed in so the tweeters intersect just behind my head in my normal listening position about 7 or 8 feet from the speakers. Between the speakers, I have a tv stand with a 27" tv and my audio components below it. The tv is about the same height as the speakers. On top of the tv is my RC-25 and just to the right (about 2 feet) of my right front is my Velodyne CT100. My RS-25's are mounted about 5 feet high on the wall opposite my front's and are about 8 feet apart. All of my other speakers use Radio Shack speaker wire and I use an assortment of Radio Shack and Monster cable for the rest (I am slowly upgrading). Anyway, all of my stereo (2 channel) material (with vocalist's, mostly females because that is what I have) plays back with the voice coming from just to the right of center. I can adjust the balance a little to the left and it helps slightly but I don't want to use this as a fix. I tried switching the left and right RB-5's but it made no difference. It is really annoying and takes away from the performance a good bit. Any ideas? Could there be something wrong with my receiver? Maybe something in my room is screwing with the soundstage? I have tried moving the speakers around to no avail. Thanks for the help.

I think the whole wiring thing is just a marketing scam myself. I mean, you may have 10 million dollar wires between your components and speakers but you still have good ole' solid copper throughout your house and tin spade connectors on your speakers. So how could it matter?

This is my first post here. I have been reading these forums for a while now. I just picked up an RC-25 as well and took it apart tonight (I have to take all of my new stuff apart for some reason). I noticed the same thing. The insulation Klipsch uses in this speaker looks like the stuff they use to package hard drives in during shipping. It is just rectangular pieces of foam crammed in the cabinet. It looks like they put a piece flat against the back of the cabinet behind the driver and then wad up three pieces and fold them in thirds. This they place directly between the magnet and the flat piece. It seems pretty cheap to me. I refolded them when I put my speaker back together. I couldn't tell any difference but my foam wasn't blocking my port either. Anyway, I did want to ask what you guys thought about replacing the hard drive foam with some real dampening material that actually fills the cabinet space. Would this make any difference?