Jump to content

Deang

Heritage Members
  • Posts

    26077
  • Joined

  • Days Won

    9

Posts posted by Deang

  1. About a month ago I posted that I was buying an Anthem AMP1 45 watt tube to mate with my RC7's. I had commented that if I didn't like the bass I would take advantage of the RC7's biwirable crossover and just biamp instead - putting the AMP1 on the horns and my Luxman 200 wpc SS amp on the woofers.

    The experiment failed miserably. In fact - it sounded pretty bad. I'm not even going to waste keystrokes trying to describe the sound - but trust me - it don't work.

    So - I just put the Anthem 'tubey' with the RC7's and left it that way - giving my ears a chance to get used to it. I tried running it with my Boston PV1000 sub and ended up liking the sound better without it. This kind of surprised me.

    Well, Now I had this extra amp I wasn't using, and a sub that was just sitting there. I had recently upgraded my DVD player to a Marantz DV7010 and got thinking that I was really only a preamp and speakers away from another decent system.

    While I was shopping for a preamp on AudioGon. Earle Decker decided to sell his B&K 4420 - and always wanting a good MOSFET amp - I gobbled it up. I got lucky and found another Anthem Pre1L and scooped it up.

    That left getting the speakers and I was just about out of money. What to buy? I decided on a set of SB2's to mate with the PV1000 and B&K.

    After trying every different combination possible I ended up doing the following:

    We live in a Cape Cod and so the whole upstairs serves as our bedroom - below is the system I built upstairs:

    Klipsch RC7's

    Anthem AMP1

    Anthem Pre1L

    Anthem CD1

    Toshiba DVD Player

    27" Mitsubishi

    Downstairs system:

    Klipsch SB2's

    PV1000 Subwoofer

    B&K 4420

    Anthem Pre1L

    Marantz DV7010

    32" Toshiba

    I will probably upgrade those SB2's to a set of RB5's before January.

    What I think is that tubes sound magical. I don't have the lower end control that the B&K or even my Luxman gave me - but I don't care. The lows are good enough and the mids and sparkling highs make up for it in spades. I have no idea what people are talking about when they talk about the 'rolled off highs of tube amps'.

    The downstairs system is primarily for HT now - though the SB2's sound surprisingly good hooked up to that B&K 4420. It's a nice dark, rich sound.

    ------------------

    deanG

    This message has been edited by deang on 11-12-2001 at 12:07 AM

  2. If the speaker is rated at 8 ohms as a whole - what happens to the impedance of the drivers if I biamp?

    I am thinking about driving the woofers on my RC7 using my SS 200 watt Luxman - but running the horns with my new 40 watt Anthem. I would just use the already in place connectors faciliting the biwiring option. Know what I mean?

    But I'm wondering about the impedance. Since I'll be using two seperate amps - does that mean the impedance will go to 16 ohms and so cut my power in half?

    ------------------

    deanG

  3. The RF7 is 102db/w and the RC7 is 98db/w - isn't 4 db/w a fairly substantial difference?

    Looking at them, the only difference is that the RF7 has the 2 10's and the RC7 has 2 8's -

    It would seem that if the RF7 is more efficient because of the 2 10's - then we should expect to find them overpowering the horn somewhat - but that is not what I hear when I listen to them. They are very well balanced.

    If we say the RC7's are less efficient than the RF7's for the same reason (because they have the 8' instead of the 10's) - than we might expect to have the horn overpowering the 2 8's - with a balance tipped to the highs. But I don't hear that either when listening to the RC7's.

    What accounts for the difference in efficiency?

    Is the horn in the RC7 'throttled' back somewhat using the crossover?

    ------------------

    deanG

  4. ... and was just curious what some of you think about that.

    I will be using the Anthem AMP1 with 40 watts pushing my beloved RC7's and I truly have no idea what to expect.

    I mainly did it because I already have the Anthem Pre1lL and CD1, and at the time I bought them I could not afford either the Anthem tube amp or the hybrid design they make.

    I recently ran across the AMP1 at a fantastic price and could not pass it up. I'll still have my Luxman M117 200Wpc SS amp and I figure if I disappointed with the 'punch' factor I can always biamp - using the Anthem on the horns and the Luxman on the woofers.

    At any rate - what is the verdict? Are the differences in tubes vs. SS overstated?

    let the flames begin Smile.gif

    ------------------

    deanG

  5. I like to watch movies after the kids go to bed - and well - the one year old likes to stay up with me. She always seems to be on a different schedule.

    Debbie usually can get her asleep around 10 or so and will lay Temple on the couch. The problem with putting her in her own bed is that it resides on the second floor and it's just not really safe to do so since we are downstairs.

    Deb will then hop on the computer and I'll pop my DVD of choice in - and then come the complaints. "Too loud...still too loud...lower...lower" - and right about the time the volume level hits the acceptable level - I have to press my ear against the drivers to hear anything.

    I decided I need a set of headphones.

    I learned that most decent headphones are designed for listening to music and not watching movies. Why is this a big deal. Well, I wear glasses. Most headphones I tried out were horrible when wearing glasses.

    Most headphones designed for my budget did not sound all that good - or were very uncomfortable.

    Now a funny thing is - I remember many years ago that decent headphones always sounded better than decent speakers. And very good speakers were usually compared to headphones.

    I spent all day looking for a set under $100 that could best my Klipsch and I couldn't do it!

    Some of the highly rated ones sounded very mediocre to me. The bass on both the Grados and Sennhiesers sounded artificial and exaggerated.

    The surprise of the day were the Sony MDR-V600's. A full size, very comfortable fold up design. A very crisp and clean sound.

    Highly recommended

    ------------------

    deanG

  6. Today started out pretty much like other days - listening.

    Ever since I traded the RB5's in on the pair of RC7's I've been becoming more and more aware of the differences.

    The one and only area where I had felt the RB5's actually sounded better was in the balance of sound. The RC7's seem a little 'hot' sometimes. With some material they come off sounding a little 'thin' - as with most things related to sound it is difficult to peg down.

    Now I had been using the high pass crossover on the sub and with the RB5's this certainly was the superior configuration. Using the high pass with the RB5's really opened them up. The high pass on my sub is 6db/octave @90Hz, which I believe put the RB5's down -3db @45hz. I'm usually not a big fan of the high pass but with the RB5's it definitely sounded better using it than running them full range.

    So...when I hooked the RC7's up I just figured on using the high pass again - I mean, sounded better with the RB5's - so it's bound to sound better with the RC7's right?

    Well...huh... I got to thinking (still trying to recover) - and was looking at those bad boys and thought that maybe I was cheating them. Even though they are only rated to go 3 cycles lower than the RB5's - there is a lot more speaker there. So I figured what the hell. So, out with the high pass and in with the full range signal.

    Too my dismay the 'all there' sound is back and though still a little hot at times - it certainly sounds better than going through the high pass on the sub. Where the RB5's benefited from having the bass knocked out from under them - the RC7's almost seem to need it.

    Any two-way speaker benefits from the reduction in IM the high pass provides - but then I guess the 2 1/2 way RC7 isn't your typical two-way either.

    ------------------

    deanG

  7. that if you use those rubber doo-hickeys they send with the speakers - and stick them to your speaker stands (so the bottom of your speakers don't get scratched) - and then later decide to move the speakers and remove them off the stands - that the damn little rubber doo-hickeys will take some of the finish off of the veneer!!

    Decided to flip my RC7's yesterday just for grins and when I flipped them over I noticed damage to the finish on the bottom of each where the rubber made contact with the veneer.

    This sucks big time to say the least.

    ------------------

    deanG

  8. Got the call today that my RC7's came in. So, packed up the RB5's and took 'em in for trade. Brought home the RC7's, twirled the horn around, set them babies up on end, and then fired them up.

    So...what does this new horn give me that my RB5's didn't? Is it really apples and oranges? I don't think so. I was pleased to find that the sonic signatures were practically identical. As a matter of fact, using the RC7's as mains sounds very much like RB5's on steroids - which is exactly what I was hoping for.

    Two things very noticable as compared to the RB5 is the RC7's smoother overall response and the complete lack of strain at any volume level. A wonderful wide open sound.

    As far as I am concerned - this new driver puts Klipsch over the top, and I really can't think of anything under $4K that can compete with these speakers. Now, if there is an under $4K set of speakers that sound better - then they are going to be powered by $10K worth of electronics.

    Klipsch brings me 'high-end' sound for much less, and even throws in the dynamics the 'high-end' designs lack.

    Couldn't be happier.

    RC7's reviewed with:

    Luxman M117 200w amp

    Anthem Pre1L preamp

    Anthem CD1 cd player

    Marantz DV7010 dvd player

    ------------------

    deanG

  9. i just replaced the cabinets of my klipsch RB5 monitors. after i got into the box i was surprised to find very little damping (speaker enclosure material). there was just two pieces of foam, rolled up and stuffed behind the drivers - there was quite a bit of exposed MDF.

    Well...while i was putting things back together i decided to 'remedy' the situation. i unrolled the foam and used it to actually line the inside of the cabinet...then i used the packing material (foam like, but not really foam - thin stuff), rolled it up, and stuffed it in behind the drivers - pretty much the way they had it - but it's much more dense.

    At any rate...it certainly sounds different...but i don't really understand what i did. it almost seems as if i have lost a little midbass.

    ------------------

    DeanGW

  10. I'd like some further discussion about this. It's an interesting idea - especially for those of us who are subwoofing with monitors. A monitor oriented person like me has no use for the RF7 - since my subwoofer is handling the lower octaves.

    If I want to 'upgrade' to the 1.75" horn. I mean - there is no RB7.

    The real question is what impact does the crossover have on the sonic signature of the RC7? With the 2nd driver only going up to 550HZ - would this create a slighting more forward sounding midrange?

    If one were to turn the horn so that the speaker could be used in a vertical fashion - can we be sure the screw holes would line up?

    And the bigger questions for me are:

    What do I gain from this configuration over my RB5's and what would I lose?

    And now that I think about - why isn't there an RB7? I guess it's really hard to improve on already existent perfection (RB5 Smile.gif

    DeanGW

    cwm13.gif

    This message has been edited by deang on 06-30-2001 at 08:32 PM

  11. can't you cram that thing into my beloved RB5's? And what about my beloved RB5's - don't they get a facelift or anything?

    Any of you Klipsch boys feel like taking a shot at comparing the sonic signatures of the RB5's or RF3's to the new RF7's?

    with the diaphram on the tweeter so large why didn't you drop the crossover a little...hmmm.

    ------------------

    deanGW

×
×
  • Create New...