Benesesso

Just bought my first big HDTV (Panasonic 65" plasma), so I thought I'd ask about "virtual surround sound" from a stereo system. A few years ago Dolby had their "Virtual Speaker" chip, and there are other devices too. My listening position is along a wall, and I don't want to add a bunch of cheap rear/side speakers--don't have that much room for them. I also want to keep using my 2A3 SETs. Sitting in a sweet spot isn't a problem. Advice?

Just bought my first big HDTV (Panasonic 65" plasma), so I thought I'd ask about "virtual surround sound" from a stereo system. A few years ago Dolby had their "Virtual Speaker" chip, and there are other devices too. My listening position is along a wall, and I don't want to add a bunch of cheap rear/side speakers--don't have that much room for them. I also want to keep using my 2A3 SETs. Sitting in a sweet spot isn't a problem. Advice?

Thanks for the replies. I want to try something acoustical, not electrical, first. Will report back soon.

So far my only mod. to my old '70's Klipschorns is the addition of the 1 uF cap. ala Al Klap. Big improvement for most CDs and DVDs, but some are just too bright in my room. My G. Wright 2A3 SETs and preamp do not have tone controls, so can I simple use a switchable resistor when listening to the bright stuff, without hurting the sound? If so, how would I connect it--in series with the tweeter or across the two wires? Any idea of what values to use?

Thanks. OK, no graphic equalizer. The added capacitor works by removing unwanted frequencies which are below what the tweeter can handle, and allowing more of the high freqs. to reach it. Al Kap. on this forum has commented and run a lot of computer tests on the idea, and attempted to explain it in simple terms such that non-electrical guys like me can get an understanding of the improvement of the sound of a Klipschorn. I'll never understand HOW it works, but it does. MOST of my CDs/DVDs sound better, but some of my favorites are just too bright. I temporairly disconnected the SET amps and am using an old Yamaha SS integrated amp. which has tone controls. On those bright recordings all I have to do is cut the treble by one or two clicks, and of course the Yamaha SS doesn't have the super-clean sound of the SET's, even with the tone controls set at neutral. Guess I need a tube preamp that has tone controls built in. Time for an internet search.

I'm running a pair of 1970's Klipschorns driven very nicely by Wright 2A3 SET amps and a Wright tube preamp. I added the 1.0uF caps. to the AA crossovers ala Al. Kap's advice. They extended the high end noticeably (big improvement, thanks Al !). Very happy with the sound on most CDs/DVDs, but some of them are recorded with a lot of high end, and the sound is just too bright for me (69 year old ears). I think I need to add some kind of tone controls so I can reduce the treble a little on these hot recordings--the bass is fine. Not looking to spend a bunch for this. Is a cheap, switchable-out graphic equalizer a good method, or is there a better way? Thanks.

Klipschorns with a little help from Universal Studios (Sensurround Earthquake). For bass you can REALLY feel.

I'm in a real quandry now. A few years ago I was all set to buy a pair of Al's "original crossovers, but then I read where he was hard at work on the ES idea. So what to do? I am using a pair of George Wright's 3.5 watt 2A3 amps, which are fine and loud enough with my stock Khorns (only mod. is the 1.0 uf cap. addition which really opened up the high end). I see that Al's website has a good/better/best list, with his Univ. model as good, the AP12-350/ES5800 is better, and the "best" is his ES400T + ES5800. I have to wonder how much volume I'd lose with his better or best combos, but I sure don't want a crossover that sounds "worse as the volume gets louder". What does the AA do at higher volumes, when the 1.0 cap. mod. is done? I don't think it gets worse as the volume is turned up, but my ears don't hear some of the finer things I read about, like tube-rolling..

This is what a pair of Universal Studios "Earthquake" (Sensurround) flare extensions look like, with wife standing inside. Note the Khorn in back. If you feed them ice cream it's amazing what you can get away with! Benesesso

A bit off-subject here, but some may find it interesting. Way back in the 1960-70's, WCBS-FM in NYC had something called "The Young Sound". My friend worked at the company in NJ that made the tapes for them. WCBS insisted that the phase of both channels be "in phase". I don't know what HZ was spec'd., but anyone who has done head alignment for high-freq. response will know how difficult something like phase alignment was, trying to adjust the heads with screws. The tape-duplicating place had something like 18 or 20 big Ampex recorders, and all of them plus the master had to be in-phase. IIRC, the requirement was caused by the FCC requirement to not degrade the mono FM signal when stereo FM appeared on the scene.

Anyone know approx. how many plastic parts there are inside an Omega Zip-drive thing? Not counting the disk itself, which was hard-stuck inside it, which suddenly made me want to "see what was inside", there are a BUNCH of gears, etc. The drive simply couldn't withstand an approx. 80 MPH collision with a hard floor. *ALL* of the internal parts were suddenly external. But *I* felt better---much better!

I've been trying to follow this thread, but I'm not sure I really understand it. In my case, I would think that whatever waveform I get beyong ~15k Hz wouldn't matter, because I don't think I can hear up there anymore. So, what can I expect different CD players to dound like with the same "regular" CD in them? Right now I'm using a little JVC XL-P81 portable CD player. Would something with a tube output sound noticably better? If so, why, because from what I've read here the waveforms on the CD will be faithfully reproduced on the JVC. FWIW, I cannot hear any differences when I roll tubes in my Wright 3.5's, driving Khorns.

Rick, Thanks for the info--I had no idea the voltages were that high.

Welcome! I flew on USAF C-130's way back in 1963 with a flight engineer named Candelaria--called him Candy. Can't recall his first name right now. Any relation?

If you want the brass color to be a bit different, ask your friend to cast the horns from a brass alloy with 15% max. Zn. The color will be closer to 24k gold (redder than the usual 40% Zn yellow brass color). Polish them good and then use clear spray lacquer to keep them looking good.

Thanks for the reply. Guess I should have paid more attention in the "basic electronics course" I took a long time ago, as I don't recall the teacher saying a whole lot about electrolytics except that they "go bad" often. Didn't think I'd ever need an advanced electronics course as I concentrated on metallurgy, mechanics and acoustics. Guess I'll have to hunt down that teacher and make him listen to some Bo$e noise for a couple of hours.

Finally got around to copying some old VHS tapes to DVDs. Noticed what appeared to be some periods of AC line noise. Hmm, sounds like the problem a small fish-tank heater caused on our radios and TV when I was about 16 years old. Soldered a small capacitor across the AC power line to the heater-end of problem. Mother thought I was a genius. Fast forward to this AM. Dug through my very limited supply of electronic junk to find a few small caps. Looked up on the internet to get some idea of what value to use. Found articles recommending everything from 0.1 uF to 300 uF for the whole house. Dang! Decided to try a 22 uF cap. that had a nice high rating of 350 volts. It *was* an electrolytic, but since I really don't know the difference about them I thought it would work fine. Remember guys telling me that AC Hz is "so low it acts like DC with a cap". Great, and since I use a transformer to step the 220V of Italy down to 110, I figured I'd put it across the 220V side--no sense in letting any noise get into the 2500 watt trans., right? PLUS, it's only 50 Hz over here, so that much closer to DC. Thought about using my larger 47 uF cap., but decided to try the smaller one first. Hooked it up and plugged the trans. in. POW!!! Lots of smoke too--all in the first second! As per the song, "Baby, What a Big Surprise"! Cap.was still too hot to touch after 2 minutes. Nowthen, where did this former genius go wrong? I don't suppose it was just a bad cap.(yes, I hear the laughter). Benesesso

I am presently running two 2A3 tubes (one per channel) that have very different Gm values, but I hear no difference in volume (preamp knobs set ~ the same) or "clarity" in my Wright SETs. Shouldn't the much lower value have less output for the same input, or is it simply a case where the lower tube can't make the same "full-power" wattage of ~3.5 watts? I think I'm only running a watt or less on most music. Benesesso

Unfinished birch Khorns, perfect cond. $925 in 10/1982 Bunch of genuine Universal Studios Cerwin Vega "Earthquake" subs $100 ea. in 1980 (and again in 1983). Sold a few for $500 ea! Benesesso

My listening room has lots of hard concrete faced surfaces. I notice a big difference in the sound of my old Khorns depending on which trans. taps I use. On the 8 ohm they sound "overly bright" to me (am using the 1 uF bypass caps-real cheap ones). But on the 4 ohm taps they are *perfect*. Hope Al K reads (and comments on)this! Benesesso

Some years ago one of the motorcycle mags. ran a bunch of drive-chain lube tests. They measured the chain temp. and amount of stretch after running it in a rig of some sort, and then left test samples somewhere (outside-?) for rusting resistance. WD40 ran very hot and had a lot of chain wear-but it doesn't claim to be a lubricant on the can--at least it didn't back then. I don't know what they claim now, but I remember that Honda's policy was that it would void the chain warrantee if WD40 were used instead of an approved chain lube for some of their bikes/trikes/4 wheelers. BUT, the interesting thing for this forum is that the cycle mag. noted that WD40 DID provide some amount of corrosion protection for chains-which rust fast if dry. Benesesso

A long time ago I was having a problem with a Phase Linear 4000 preamp. A PL tech. advised me not to use "contact cleaners", but just spray a little WD40 or CRC on the contacts-even for microvolt signals. Been doing that ever since-it lasts many months indoors. I even spray car/motorcycle battery posts and terminals BEFORE hooking them up. Works good on tube pins too. We wouldn't need it if all the manufacturers used gold plating on connectors like the telephone people do.

I used eBay's escrow the first time I bought anything there. I have a lot of old Superbeta tapes, and my VCR died. I didn't want to try a used machine, and new Superbetas are scarce. I found a new one (a Sony)with only a few bids, so I entered my "max. secret" bid with ~2 days to go. I *really* wanted this machine, so I entered a pretty high bid. Near the end of the auction someone started running the bids way up-right up just past mine. Then, with only a few minutes left, he retracted them. The auction ended with me winning, but right near my mex. bid. Naturally I smelled a rat. The seller (Vietnamese guy in CA) wanted his $$$ quickly. I stalled, trying to get a response from eBay (right!). Did some detective work and found that the retractor had just recently used that eBay name. His old one was almost identical to the sellers! Finally got eBay to get involved-said they warned the seller and banned the retracter. We agreed on a compromise price, and I used escrow because I obviously didn't trust the bas*&$#. The VCR was brand new and is still working fine.

Yes, around Christmas my wife and I drove up to Wolfram's place in N. Germany (from N. Italy) and bought his Wright 2A3 SETs and the Wright preamp. This was the first time I had listened to any tubes since I sold (practically gave away) my Dynaco ST-70 way back around 1967. The stock ST-70 simply sounded awful when driving AR-3's, which were very power-hungry. For many years I had been using a Dynaco ST-150 (ss) driving Altec VOTT's (~1974-1982) and then my present Khorns (1982-now). The difference between the ST-150 and the 2A3's is like night and day. I don't think I've listened to anything else! Well, I did perform a little experiment with one of the Wrights. I asked G. Wright for instructions, and then converted one to use a #45 output tube (~2 watts vs. 3.5). I had intended to convert both of them, but I just couldn't hear any difference between them, other than the fact that the 45 didn't go as loud. I never heard any distortion at all. I don't think my ears are as sensitive as some other people, and I wasn't able to A/B them rapidly. But I also can't tell any difference between different tubes that's I've rolled, including 12AU7's and 6SN7/5692-they all sound the same to me-probably a good thing! Just to see what would happen, I hooked up the #45 to drive one of my big Earthquake subs. These are also folded horns, with 18" drivers and HUGE magnets. It drove it pretty well-not too loud, but I didn't hear any distortion at all. I tried a CD with very low bass, and it went all the way down, very clean. But of course the volume couldn't compare with what I get with the 75 wpc Dynaco (I now use that amp. to drive the Earthquakes). SO, I converted the Wright back to the orig. 2A3. Guess I'll have to sell the few #45s I bought. So there are at least 2 pairs of Khorns in Italy! Benesesso

I had a good friend who was in the tape duplicating business for many years. I must strongly disagree that high-speed duping causes a loss of highs, lows or anything else! I've heard such tapes that sounded GREAT! One time I went with him and a small crew to the Allen Organ Co. in PA. to record their early version of a "Moog" synthesizer. We recorded on an Ampex at 30"/sec. with Sony condenser mics., and the 7.5"/sec. copies were FINE! Getting good results was always a trade off among S/N ratio, freq. response and distortion. You had to give something up in one area to gain in another. The various noise-reduction methods were a God-send.