RichardP

I will cite new releases from two perennial artists, to balance the archeological recommendations of some posts.[] 1. REM - Accelerate. First release in a while, and it sound much like the old REM of the early 90s. Most are quite accessible and catchy songs, and fortunately no ponderous ones, which was a problem for me with some of their earliest albums. If you are an REM fan, you should like this one. 2. Sheryl Crow - Detours. Some tracks have the classic SC signature sound, and some are not even recognizable as her. A rather mixed selection. But as above, if you are a fan, you will still like it. Note: the first track uses a weird compressed, AM radio effect, which is sure to send the audio obsessives (like us) rocketing off the couch to search for the sound problem. All other tracks sound great.

You don't mention what you had before, but horn midrange and tweeters are known for a "forward" sound, or might be described as having "presence," which means to many persons, stronger emphasis on mids and highs than they might be used to. Human perception is not absolute, within physical and anatomical parameters, of course, so the shrill sound you describe may be simply the result of years of being used to another type of speaker sound, which may have emphasized the bass and de-emphasized mids and highs. Note that your previous speakers may not have been "accurate," as measured by flat frequency response, so a new speaker that is on paper more accurate would sound different, as possibly bad, upon first comparison. That said, it is also very possible, as the other person mentioned, that the recordings you are using for testing are, in fact, poor recordings, Hard rock or metal or any music that is a "wall of sound" probably do not make use of the subtle abilities of accurate speakers compared to, for example, quieter songs with piano, acoustic guitar, or any more "airy" compositions. Older recordings on CD from the 80s or early 90s often did not sound that great sonically. I suggest trying many types of music, expecially new recordings, as it should take a little while for your perceptions to adjust to the new sound, and different music may reveal good qualities of the new speakers that you may have been missing in the old ones.

I'll bet he had a heck of a stereo system.[]

I am pretty sure it's an Australian slang for barf. It was a line in the '80s Men At Work song "I come from a land down under..where beer does flow and men chunder..."

Oy! Trying to read it makes me want to chunder.

Believe it or not, that was the first Hendrix lp I owned, purchased by mistake, thinking it was mainstream JH. Wasn't into the soul R&B of Curtis Knight, so never listened more than once. This is a nostalgia thread indeed.

My friends and I wore out the grooves of our Rainbow Bridge lp in 1973. To us this was better than any other Hendrix, and I still think so. Your amazon link is for the movie of the same name; I am not sure that a CD of the RB lp is available, although some of the tracks appear on later repackaged collections. We saw this movie in '73 with, shall we say...appropriate pharmaceutical enhancement (we were 16-17 years old), and thought it was the most profound mind expanding movie we had ever seen. Not seen again until about 2003, when I bought the video on a lark. I watched it with one of those same friends, and we guffawed at the silliness of the hippie pseudo-philosophy. My favorite scene was the woman who was informing the other commune residents about her communications with the aliens: "What do they think of LSD?" "Oh, they approve of it." Haw-haw! Regardless, the music from the album Rainbow Bridge can almost trigger a nice flashback, and I endorse your recommendation.

BIG congratulations! Having the subwoofer portion of that system myself, I know the whole thing must be an awesome experience. You have what could be the very best home theater system there is, for all practical purposes. The price, while more than what the average person would think of spending on a HT, is awfully low, considering the quality of sound and completeness of what you get. Aside from your own enjoyment, you can count on some seriously impressed friends. What kind of electronics are driving it?

Michael Colter and Sunspot42: Fantastic lists and even more fantastic descriptions (and jeez, SS42, what an incredible first post). We always need better attempts on the forum to verbally describe the aural nuances we hear, or try to hear, in music recordings, or specific instruments or points in a track to listen for. Thanks for your exceptional posts.

seti's quote [That too sexy for my shirt song by whoever it was that was terrible.] That would be "Right Said Fred." I can't believe I know that. [:$]

I am sure that hundreds of songs could be nominated as the worst, but one that amazes me, because Amy Winehouse won a Grammy, is that "rehab" song. I thought it was a completely ridiculous and bizarre topic for a popular song ("...make me go to rehab...I said naw, naw, naw").[:S]

If, by "35MM" you mean film, the answer is yes, and probably about the same percent who still prefer vinyl over CDs. And they give similar reasons...that the older technology has something they like or want that the new technology does not have. To clarify my earlier post, only the D40 cannot accept older Nikon lenses. All other digital Nikons accept the older lenses.

That is true of the D40. It will only work with new "G" lenses, which are made specifically for digital bodies, and do not have an aperture ring. Aperture on those is set by the camera thumbwheel. The D40 is the first Nikon camera body that won't fully work with any Nikon lens made since the '60s. Nikon just released the D60, a digital body for about $700, which is a couple of steps up from the bottom-of-the-line; next in line are the D200 and D300, around $1700, which are as much as anyone, except for professional photographers, would ever need. Its a very difficult call, between Nikon and Canon; neither is head and shoulders above the other on any important dimension. That said, listen especially to Michael Colter, he is a pro photog when he is not at the office.

- Win a Free Klispsch T-Shirt - Uhh...a what kind of t-shirt? [^o)]

I like Pulse the best, but Roger Waters' "In the Flesh - Live" is also very good. He's the only Floyd present, though. It is interesting to compare the two interpretations of the same classic music.

Michael: there is a "Hum FAQ" thread at AVSForum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=322698 Coincidentally, Hum Faq is also an delicious Thai dish.[]

Nice tee...uh, I mean tweeters, too! [:$]

I recommend the do-it-yourself option first; if it doesn't work for some reason, you can still look for a replacement PR. The cigarette (rolling) paper idea seems good. Take the speaker out of the cabinet (it's passive, so there are no connections inside) and use white glue and the papers to seal up the hole from back and/or front. It doesn't need to look good, as it will be in the back of the cabinet anyway. All that matters is that the hole is fully sealed so that no air comes out. The passive radiator simply uses some of the back pressure from the active woofer to provide a little bit of bass extension. It's not like it will be throbbing in and out several inches like some competition car sub, it just vibrates a little in normal operation.

They look in decent shape, originally raw birch (HBR) that someone has stained in walnut. Local pick up is highly preferable, so you don't risk shipping damage. Seller has many positive feedbacks, so there shouldn't be any concern over trustworthiness. His Buy-It-Now is a little high for the birch model. You might contact him and offer a lower but decent price, with the mutual benefit of local pick up, which will save him the effort and materials for shipping, and he may end the auction early at a price you are comfortable with. It won't jeopardize anything to try. They will probably go for between $375 and $500 if the auction proceeds as usual.

The only multichannel 5.1 recording (to my knowledge) is the new "Love" DVD, remixed from the original master tapes in a "mash up" style, where snippets of some songs are overlayed onto other songs, or used as lead-ins to whole songs. It was remixed by George Martin, the original producer/engineer for the Beatles, and his son, for the musical part of a current Cirque du Soleil act in Las Vegas. It was actually initiated by George Harrison and the CdS founder, before Harrison's death, and had the blessing of remaining Beatles or widows. If you have a home theater 5.1 set up, the sound is amazing.

As a rural resident outside DSL and cable's reach, I have wondered about the same thing. Other than DirectWay, which is affiliated with DirecTV, the two other services that come up via google search are www.wildblue.com and www.mybluedish.com. It seems they all work the same, as mdeneen describes, with downloads from the satellite, but uploads via a phone line. In those, you pay for the level/speed of service you want. The cheapest package, $49, downloads at 512kps, which, if it works as it should, is not as fast as DSL or cable, but a heck of a lot faster than dial up. You can also check out generic details of satellite internet on wikipedia.

I think you will be able to create a very decent 5.1 soundfield, even if it is not optimal or true to Dolby DD5.1 specifications. Most of rear channel material from movies is ambient sound, and only occasionally carries a lot of info, like a plane flying over front to back or vice versa. You mention delay adjustment on your receiver; that can be important, although the delay difference between a speaker 3 ft away vs another 5 ft away may not be great. Perhaps more important is the output level of each speaker. Hopefully you will be able to adjust it for each rear independently (I think some receivers may adjust rear levels together, not independently). I think you will be able to get a very nice surround sound experience. Before I had my all Forte/Academy set up, I too had paired the Forte L+R with KG 2.2v center and 2.2 rears, and was quite pleased with them, once I tweaked the levels of each. While the Forte and KG lines are not ideally timbre matched, they all still use horn mid- and/or high-freq drivers, which will certainly match better than a horn and some other format driver.

Bass output of any speaker is highly dependent on room acoustics, room dimensions, and placement of the speakers. Perhaps the most influential variable in your case, however, is the amount of bass in the recordings. Your classical, country, and blues choices may simply not have a huge amount of low frequency material, at least not compared to some type of thumpety-thump hip-hop material, or low frequency special sound effects in movie sound tracks. Lots of new popular music has considerably higher bass levels than similar music released 10 or 15 years ago or before. Regarding your other questions, it is my understanding that new capacitors or crossover work would mainly affect higher frequency characteristics. I am using '89 Fortes which I am completely happy with. As far as the receiver, it will make little difference, unless yours is not functioning correctly. On this forum, there are many who are obsessed with reaching audio nirvana, and will try anything to make even the slightest improvement in their system's sound. In my view, once you have a decent system, the main determinants of sound quality are in the recording, the acoustic space, and the listener's brain.

I'm not that big a fan of old westerns, but two "new" ones I recently got through Netflix were quite good: The Jack Bull (1999), with John Cusack, and Monte Walsh (2003), with Tom Selleck. Both have very good stories and spectacular scenery. Surprisingly, both were made-for-(pay)TV. I would reallly never have guessed that, as the production values were equal to any theatrical western I have seen. I have heard that the original Monte Walsh, with Lee Marvin, is good as well.