Ki Choi

Maggie 3.6Rs would have been a better plannar speakers to compare to the Belle Klipschs. But at the end of the day, one would hear flapping noise of the diaphragms from any full range panel speakers when playing ultra low notes in respectable output levels - having had Maggies, SoundLab A1s and still have the Quad ESL-63s, ESL-63USA Monitors, and 988s in my house. Belle Klispchs are totally different. I still have the Belle Klipschs and got rid of the Maggies. Ki

Guys: I could't take the Khorns on the airplane, unfortunately. So, let me know your recommendation for a set of noise canceling headphones. I spend long hours on airplanes and do like the size my son's iPod Nano. iPod seems to be a good alternative to entertainment program on the airplanes for its convinence but I'd like to find a good set of headphones to go with it (other than the Bose option...). Thanks, Ki

One more thing... Their serial numbers are faded and can't make the letter out. It's 1R470 or 1P470 that put them mid to late '70s. Ki

Guys: I went home for lunch and fixed my avatar with the shocking likeness to Maron (not that I didn't like the looks...but) and took few photos of the problem veneer. The previous owner's two year old wanted to see what was behind the veneer and did an excellent job at peering it off. I am not sure if the little one was satisfied with what he found though but fortunately his butt was protected by the Pampers. Ki

Thank you guys. The Belle Klipsches are in Oiled Walnut finish but I will let you know their model and serial numbers. It would be ideal if I can remove the top sections on both speakers and send them to you for refinish. I guess as long as both speakers have newer veneers on the top front sections, it wouldn't be too bad. Will show you some photos tonight. Guess sick minds sometimes not only think alike but do look alike as well... Ki

SBW: Thanks for your reply. I am interested in taking the top section that are open to dust - clear the crossover, etc. and take the top plate off to be re-veneered. I will not need to get to the bass bin. I am trying to see about having the long 1/2" face section of the top plates face section above the grille redone if I can find a person who would do the work.

You are correct. Somehow, most of the deals on Audioweb are SCAMs from SE Asia using phony escrows and/or requiring direct deposit to Indonesia bank accounts, etc. Even the deals supposed to be from US, once you contact them, they are overseas sellers... I would recommend staying away from Audioweb until they clean it up. Ki

Hi, Someone earlier described the steps in how to take the top section of Belle Klipsch off for cleaning the insides but can't find it in the archive. Could you tell it to me again with the tools I might need? Thanks, Ki

I second that, D-Man. Two things came to my mind: The room is definiately a limitting factor and the other is the power amp. Although I realize the sensitivity of K-horns, but my K-horns driven by the AudioPrism Silver Signature Debut in Triode mode (~18W/ch) can only tickle my pant legs in my room (~19'x26'x8') ... but when I drive them with the HK Citation IIs with 60W/ch, they do flap. Ki BTW, I see you are in the Seattle area. I live in Sammamish. Let's hook up.

In my continuing madness, I added non-Klipsch speakers in my music room moving the Khorns to the back of the room with no good corners. The back wall is sloped in the middle so I couldn't push the Khorns to be flush with the surface. In addition, I have a door for at one side so one of the Khorns are not only away from the back wall but about 3' away from the side wall. I have set them about 8' apart. I am getting more usable mid-bass ~50Hz region than when I had them sealed properly in good corners in the front of the room. In addition, I was able to aim the speakers at my listening position and now I get the ghostly imaging on top of the satifying bass. It just goes to show you that room and speaker placement has 80% impact on good sound. Ki

My favorate simple and pure Redbook CD set ups: Meridian 500 CD transport (or any other reasonable DVD or CD player with digital output) -> Meridian 518 Digital Attenuator (with system remote for volume control) -> Bel Canto DAC 2 -> HK Citation II -> Khorns. Even simpler, Meridian 500 CD transport -> Benchmark DAC1 (with a front volume knob but no remote) -> HK Citation II -> Khorns. Ki

So then... any thoughts on Citation 12 amp with the K-horns? What's a good price for it? There's one for sale locally in Seattle. Ki

RPLACE: Did you by any chance keep the drivers from your damaged Academy? If so, please let me know if I can buy them from you. Let me know via PM. Thanks, Ki

I too would like to see the photo of the three K-horns in action! Thanks, Ki

If you have electrically noisy environment, you would have problems either way. I would vote for having long interconnect over 35' long speaker cables. Remember, your preamp has relatively low impedence of ~100ohms (in some SS gear, ML 390S, as low as 6 ohms) connected to high input impedence of ~50K on the amp side. So interconnect cable impedence would not make much differences (did you look at your amp's input circuit - with high resistance resistor in series with the input signal?) Whereas your speaker input impedence is around 8 ohm range... even with 14 AWG speaker cables at the lenght of 35' it would not be good. Although the pros use balanced interconnects in most cases, they run long interconnect cable in favor or long speaker cables. Matter of fact, in most pro applications, they put the power amps as close to the speakers as possible. The Abbey Road studio has their power amps under the speaker stands with short jumper cables from amps to speakers and long interconnects to their console elsewhere. My 2 cents. Ki

The company I work for is the largest Eddy Current probes and instrumentation equipment mfger servicing majority of world's nuclear power plants for steam generator steel tube inspections. One can imagine it's a tightly controlled and regulated industry - no room for errors period. We deal in electrical measurments beyond the audio frequencies using wire and cables with almost no cost concerns - similar to the nutty audio world. Our main concern is with shielding from electrical noise in the analog probes and keeping the lengths of wires to the minimum. We use no esoteric wire and cables - just funamentally sound physical construction that meets our electrical engineering standards. If those fancy wires and cables made any differences in performance of testing for safety of your neighborhood nuclear power plants, NRC would have wrote them into the regulations... Ki Remember, there's no wire or cable better than not having to use them at all - or at least kept them to the min. Ki

Thanks for your inputs. The deal was from Audiogon.com and I paid with Paypal balance (and not credit card...) The seller did send me a message after notifying him that I would pursue Paypal for refund and learning that I only had a week left to file any claim with Paypal). I also tried my last effort to resolve the issue as reasonable people... At the end, I told him... all I wanted was a working transport that I thought I was buying...no more, no less. He claimed the UPS is reconsidering the claim. It seems bleak since the box had no physical damage... I will keep you posted as it developes. Ki

Was there a thread discussing the comparison between PWK Center Channel concept to the modern ProLogic IIx by Fosgate (?) and James Bongiorono's Trinaural Processor? Thanks, Ki

So Dr. Bill, I am day late and dollar short I guess for one of your beautiful black boxes. If you still have one, I'll take it. In the meantime, please send me the schematic and the parts list. Is it significantly different from the PWK's schematic on DFH? Ki

Can some of you give me advice on how to handle the refund on faulty good received? I purchased a used Meridian 500 CD transport from Audiogon for $500. I made $540 Paypal payment per seller's request to cover the CD transport, UPS and insurance. At the time of Paypal trasfer, I requested double box for safe shiping. The transport came in its original box (and not double boxed) without any visible shipping damages. When I opened the box and fire it up, it had problems with drawer making abnormal noises and not latching its drawer shut(it flys open when tilted forward) - certainly not in the condition as advertized. I immediately sent the seller a note and filed a shipping damage claim with UPS. UPS instructed me that the shipper must file the claim. So the seller had filed the claim but it was denied (perhaps due to lack of physical damages to the box). So I had asked him to either repair the trasfort to its working condition and send it to me to close the deal or send me the refund minus the shipping, insurance and Paypal fee - thinking that I was being reasonable. Here's his reply: "UPS has denied the claim. Because of that, I will not be able to give you 100% refund. This is the best I can do: 1- refund $350 OR 2- refund $175 + you keep the transport Hopefully we can deal with it professionally and find a settlement. **** happens and I am taking a bigger loss here." He had further delared in subsquent email, until I accept his offer, he will not respond to any of my emails... So I replied: "With all due respect, I am not sure how familiar you are with the legal aspects of this transaction but let me make it clear: You have the Meridian 500 transport and the money. You must either send me the properly working transport as advertised in the Audiogon or send me the refund. Again, you chose the means to ship the good and bought the insurance. I did not dictate either UPS or insurance. As far as what UPS will do or not regarding the insurance claim is between you (the one who bought the insurance) and UPS (who provided the coverage). Please respond by this Friday March 11, 2005: 1) You will ship me a properly working transport after the necessary repair or 2) You will refund the $540 - $40 = $500 via Paypal Regards, Ki Choi" Let me know your comments. Ki

When I did a White Page search on this guy from msn.com, he showed up with a real address and phone number in CA. I felt sad for the guy thinking he is either very naive or extremely stupid being so blatant - using real name and exposing his home address... Maybe his aol address had been hijacked... I don't know. He replied to my inquiry regarding the $5000 B&W he is willing sell for $1700 with same photos with SN shown on expired eBay listing: Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 07:55:03 EST From: Brianpettit@aol.com To: kichoi@alumni.duke.edu Subject: Re: B&W N802s $1700 All headers Hello , First of all i want to thank you for your interest to buy my product . As attach you have the only pictures that i have with my items . I want to inform you that i want to finish this deal using a 3rd party agency ( escrow service ) because, as you know i suppose , is the safest way to finish deals on internet . Using this service , you can verify my item 3-5 days before i receive the funds from them , because you will send those money TO THEM AND NOT TO ME and they will secure the money for you . The item was sent to them , when i decided to sell it , so for the moment is the only way to finish this deal together . If you are still interested to buy my product please let me know as soon as possible so we can proceed the transaction . I want to thank you for your time . Have a nice day ++++++++++++++++++++++ As they say, if it's too good to be true, it isn't... Ki

I have been following an interesting eBay auction for the Heritage 7.1 system: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=61378&item=5751513044&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW And I see the same deal offered by a real person who's obiously a pontential scammer: http://marketplace.consumerreview.com/cgi-bin/classifieds/classifieds.pl?db=Audio&website=AudioReview&language=&session_key=&search_and_display_db_button=on&results_format=long&db_id=10941&query=retrieval This poor soul is also trying to scamm with a pair of B&W speakers... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14996&item=5751207238&rd=1 http://marketplace.consumerreview.com/cgi-bin/classifieds/classifieds.pl?db=Audio&website=AudioReview&language=&session_key=&search_and_display_db_button=on&results_format=long&db_id=10940&query=retrieval And let me know what this Brian guy had replied to my inquiry about the speakers... It is sad. But for certain, someone's going to get taken. Ki

Bill: I took a deep breath and stepped away for at least a full min. This is not easy turning one's head away from any Klipsch speakers - not to mention such a nice looking pair that are currently missing in my Heritage collection. However, you are correct. I should look around my area for them instead. Fortunately, there's a pair of Cornwalls for sale on the other side of the Lake Washigton... Ki

Thanks Dean, I needed that. But... I think I can drive down to the Bay area in less than 14 hours from my house. Maybe I can talk Hoggy into a roadtrip. OTOH, it will still be an overnight trip regardless... It would sure do look good positioned both sides of my living room fireplace though... Ki

This is a bad, bad place for me to hang around. Can someone help me buy them and transport to Seattle? Ki