D-MAN

Sorry to hear about your driver - I don't have any advise, but I can certainly relate to the problem... I heard some "scratchy" distortion coming from one of my midranges drivers which were less than 6 mos old, so thinking that I had simply overdriven it, I promptly ordered a new diaphram for it. When I put the fresh diaphram in, it was about half as loud as the "bad" diaphram (same magnet). Brand new out of the box. I could not live with it, nor really fix it. I gave up and replaced the whole thing with a new driver which seems to be just fine - albeit an expensive "fix". Good luck with that one, I've been there... DM

My initials were taken, my name was taken, so I took this as it required ZERO imagination and was therefore easy to remember. D.A. Moore

I have my corner horns in the "TV room" and have 2 pair of 15" woofers sitting on the floor in front of the big screen pending storage. I noticed the screen was quite fuzzy and out-of-focus at the bottom. Moved the drivers, and it straightened right up. That's what I get for being lazy! DM

I hate fasting bass! I don't even like the ones on a diet!

The 2-51's pair, Dude. I am assuming that you are talking a matched pair here. If not, nevermind... The rating is not referring the output capability of the tube(s). It refers to the electical parameters (biasing) required for proper operation of the tube(s). In this case, the pair with the closest numbers is the correct choice. Therefore, you should expect to adjust the biasing "less" to balance the matched pair of tubes and experience a better "match" output between the tubes, that is, each tube shares the load equally so that one isn't doing more than the other, etc. Biasing the tubes is supposedly easier when closely matched parameters are used. I hope I put that together in a sensible manner, it is a complex subject. DM

What I would call "fast" bass: That which makes the effect of bass notes "punchy". The upper and mid-bass frequencies that provide the "punch", direction, and tonality that fully describes stand-up accoustic bass (as an example), its distance from the recording mike, the nature of the playing and such. It seems that most of the accoustic power that provides "punch", i.e., sharp low frequency notes resides in the mid and upper bass range rather than the extreme low end of the bass range. Of course, a combination of the two would be the best bass reproduction. Without the "punch" freqencies, we get a less clarified, less solid and less convincing low note. Bass notes lacking "punch" frequencies could be defined as sluggish, or slow or otherwise convoluted and less clearly presented. I would regard "fast" bass as being a good thing worthy of seeking out. That's what I think... DM

Oh, P-L-E-A-S-E! Audio is bad enough, but politics?! Now I know that you guys just love to stir it up! SHEESH!

---------------- On 2/6/2004 9:50:43 AM Griffinator wrote: Hell, with all the weirdness in that family, I doubt anyone would bat an eyelash if Michael started sporting phony breasts! ---------------- Michael Jackson IS a BOOB, phony or not!

Basically all of the Klipsch Heritage series horn-based line tend to be RELENTLESSLY REVEALING and will glaringly display the shortcomings of the source gear. So if you go there, go with some quality audio gear. Otherwise you may likely regret your choice of electronics. DM

Dude, my Solen caps say "made in France" on them. But Canadians are lovely, too. DM

My Mac has both RCA and XLR inputs so I have tested both many times with various cables, of course, just trying to answer this very question. I knew some dudes selling various cables who were willing to let me test them out before I bought them. After many different cables I have finally arrived at 1/2 meter pure silver XLR connects as the best of the bunch (and they were actually the cheapest of the silver types!). I do not consider it to be just hype because I checked it out for myself A-B-ing them back and forth. I gave all of my previous copper cabling away as it is not up to the standard that silver cabling presents. The only real recommendation(s) that I would make is two fold: 1) stay as SHORT in length as possible for both types there is a noticable difference between 1/2 meter vs. 1 meter cables regardless of the type 2) go for pure silver wire in either type again a very noticable difference DM

The dust cap can be re-glued. Parts-Express sells the glue 5.95 per 1 oz. bottle. part# 340-076. Good luck

A good solid GROUNDING of the entire system would definately improve your system. Go there first. Double check the AC outlet ground plug for correctness and operation. Some end up either unconnected to real ground or wired live. Additionally, if it turns out to be RF interference, shielding or replacement with shielded cabling on all cabling is in order. If it is the AC supply having "hash" on it you can get an AC Isolation Transformer installed. They are not what I would consider cheap. This will prevent most nasty things from coming from the AC outlet into you gear and out of your speakers. This would be a good bet, but go for adequate proven grounding first. DM

Well, we don't have a one-channel section - that would be the most appropriate. It seems we audio fanatics do occasionally explore other interests... DM

I kid because I love... Some of my favorite composers are French... Solen capacitors on my ALK crossover... What about the Statue of Liberty? DM

Hi, Larry, Now that you bring it up, I didn't actually notice a break-in period or at least I haven't noticed an time-based improvement. That's not to say that there isn't one! I was convinced that I had a winner in the first few notes when they were new so any further improvement is just additional gravy... but I truly did not notice any change. Which brings up another point: being that silver is subject to oxidation, and silver oxidizing faster than copper, how long do they last before signal degradation occurs due to oxide build up? Are we going to become locked into a cycle of constant replacement (gasp!) ? DM

Mr. P, Yep, I agree that there is a great deal of overpricing and that there is a point of diminishing return on the investment (reached rather quickly in this case!). Like alot of this hobby, it becomes a matter of taste and financial means. The interconnects that I am using are advertised as being pure silver wiring and silver solder to gold plated plugs. I A-B'd them against all comers and my audio buddies are now all running silver cables of various brands, too (or at least as much as they can reasonably afford). So far everybody likes the Kimbers the best for the RCA type plugs. I have only tried the 3 brands that I mentioned. Whether the performance is worth the investment, I will leave that up others... As I mentioned before, its a controversial subject, but I have some first-hand experience that may help inform someones opinion so I wanted to share it. I am impressed by your reply and wish that others would also allow for practical experience as well as the theoretical. I personally think that the physics involved clearly back up the results that I have experienced. I recommend that if anyone doesn't believe me, work out a deal with someone to borrow them and do the A-B thing to be sure... DM

Chris, I built a set of prototype cornerhorns and went "my own way" on the top end. I have found a good ABS horn with a cutoff of 400 Hz with a 2" throat which I use a Selenium driver with a fc of 400 Hz and an ALK xover of which I would recommend all three. The mid horn is smooth, natural sounding and I would say that its only drawback (IMO) is that the dispersion pattern is to wide (I got the 90x40). They make a 60x40 that I wish I would have got instead (for my room). 17.5" wide by 9.5" high, 9.5 in depth if I remember correctly. If you are building new, then the dimensions won't be a problem; if replacing then I don't know I think that Klipsh is not as tall. At any rate USSPEAKER.com sells P-Audio horns (2 models) that fit the corner horn bill at least for me... Dana

Many here (who shall remain nameless) have pooh-poohed the idea that anything other than a simple cheap copper wire is a waste of money. I ABSOLUTELY DISAGREE with them (they also seem to have an engineering background - possibly a clue!) I run silver interconnects and am firmly sold on them... regardless of what you may read in this forum, IMO silver IS BETTER, you CAN hear a difference, it IS better than copper in the smoother frequency response, tighter bass, better "imaging" and noticable increase in gain. What I regard as better "clarity" with everything that one would expect from that (more "black space", tighter imaging, cleary defined sopundstage, etc.). I run silver as short as possible between my CD player and from the preamp to the amp. I am running fairly good gear into corner horns. I have experimented with many different brands and types and have arrived at my favorites and recommend them. All of my friends have also been converted because we are not afraid to test and experiment. Here's what I know firsthand: I've tried both Kimber 1/2 meter and 1 meter silvers and Audioquest silver 1/2 meter. Kimber won on the RCA connect side of things. Gave the Audioquest connects to a friend who liked them, but he has never had anything other than Radioshack cheap stuff to compare them to. Of course that's an improvement that he can hear and he's now a big silver fan too. A-B'd the Kimber 1/2 meter silvers RCA against silver XLR (I can't remember the brand but they make transformers) connects same length and the XLR's won (but not a real easy call). I even ran them at the same time (pre-amp to amp which has 2 sets of connects)as an experiment. Now I run the silver XLR 1/2 meters by themselves as I think that is the "cleanest"... DM

Gil, post away! it's all resource. Now about the French in general: - they're FRENCH so what do they know?! Name one good thing to come out of France that isn't food... DM

The XLR is a 3 wire setup. This serves to keep both positive and negative conductors separate from the true ground wire, as RCA type plugs do not have a separate ground wire due to only being 2 wires a positive and a negative. Less signal loss and less interference from outside sources that way. I have found that there is a slight difference between XLR and RCA interconnects even at short distances even as short as 1/2 meter, but don't take that as gospel, that's just my opinion. This is the preferred connector for professional applications and most high-end audio rigs. DM

Why is it that the people who know the least want to tell you the most? and the biggie: why aren't hemorroids called ASTEROIDS?! DM

I recently put in a new diaphram in a 2" compression driver, and whereas the voice coil on the diaphram was coated in fluid, the air gap on the magnet structure definately was reasonably clean and dry and had never been opened before as I bought it new. I will research further, but that has been my experience... Are anybody's tweeters leaking oil? (must be British). DM

p.s. to my knowledge, it does not fill the air gap. ...that would be messy for sure. DM

The ferro fluid is an magnetically attracted oil composite that transfers more heat from the source to the surrounding air than an uncoated source would by itself. Technically it does this through convection in that an oil absorbs (or draws) heat and therefore tends to hold it better than most other things. Being that the oil coating is very thin it tend to loose the heat faster in that it has a large surface (repectively) exposed to the air which would hopefully be cooler than the heat source. It also resists evaporation. It is the heat "drawing" action of the oil that makes it useful to "cool" a voice coil where it is "painted". It has very little effect on "damping" if at all as it doesn't actually touch anything or restrict movement in any way...although it could present a very slight surface dynamic (air resistance) that could possibly be measured and regarded as "damping". I would not know if you could actually hear the difference. DM