Olorin

Fini, I love Rip for ripping and Max for converting; both are at sbooth.org. I like to set Rip to use iTunes as the metadata provider, then extract to a single .wav with a .cue file. Then, open the .cue file in Max and convert to Apple Lossless. If you set up Max right, it will create a playlist in iTiunes named for the album, and then it will drop your .m4a files into the playlist. It's really slick.

Exact Audio Copy --> FLAC for ripping and archiving, and Nero for disc copying. If you'd like I can take EAC screenshots from my laptop over the weekend.

I like. Can you give some more details on the build? What material you chose, why you chose it, etc?

Sadly, they were dropped hard enough in shipping that the top right edge is separated on one speaker, and the other speaker has some scars and probable separation. I've considered removing all the drivers, pulling on some nitrile gloves, and caulking all the interior seams with PL or a silicon caulk; it would be an easy fix, and if it's a fail, I'm out about eight bucks and three hours of time, but if it succeeds, I'm a veneer and stain from some really cherry looking and fantastic sounding units. I guess I'm thinking as I type here, but when I look at it that way, trying to save them seems like a no-brainer. I have to laugh a little, since in reading your reply I think I must have overemphasized the "loud" in my preferences. I do love that I can take them to club levels, but what I love most is HOW the Chorus IIs sound, and a huge bonus that they sound that way all the way up to stupid levels of output. They just sound great at any volume, and most of my use is really pretty moderate. I'm getting the impression that the Scalas aren't better than the Chorus so much that they're just a different kind of really good. If that's the case, I'll put the effort into saving these cabs and carry on being happy with what I've got. I really would love to hear an all-horn system some day, but having a system that's at the level of the one I have, I think getting to the next level might be a whole lot of resources that will yield just a little gain. Thanks for taking the time to weigh in and give your perspective. I really appreciate your helping fill in some of my knowledge blanks.

Thanks for the replies guys. Yes, I find myself at a crossroads. I have a fine setup with my Chorus II/Academy/Quartet set and do really like the way this generation of Klipsch sounds. However, my Choruses were damaged pretty badly on their way to me, and while I've lived with it up to now, lately when I push them I can hear the damage. One cabinet definitely leaks and the other one probably does, and it's clearly audible, so I'm weighing rebuilding the Chorus cabs versus parting out the Choruses and selling the Academy and Quartets to fund some La Scalas while using the Heresys I already own for surround. So yeah, I'm curious, and I'm noodling. Either path is a fair amount of work, and I'm the kind of guy who likes to have some idea of where I'm going to end up before I start a project. Since I've never heard Scalas in person, I'm not sure if I'd be going from where I am (or should say where I could be, were my Choruses in proper trim) to someplace better, someplace almost as good, or someplace that's the same only it's different. My use is about 50% casual TV watching, 35% filling the house with music while I do things, 10% movie watching, and 5% really listening to the music. I do love the way the Choruses sound. They have tremendous detail and clarity, and can create an expansive sound field. No only that, but they can really crank. They get loud, they get really loud, they get ridiculously loud, they get stupidly loud, and then they get louder, and they never really lose their composure. It's interesting you mention the detail of the Scalas. The Heresys were the first good speakers I owned, and I'd always been under the impression that the Heresy shares a sonic signature with the Khorn/Scala/Belle/Cornwall family. When I switched from them to Fortes, I immediately thought one of the great things the Fortes offered was clarity, finesse, and detail that the Heresys lacked. They didn't exactly stomp the Heresys, but they outdid them in that respect -- they were just clearer, more open. On the other hand, the Heresys had more midrange impact in most movie sound effects than the Fortes had. The Chorus then did everything the Forte did, just bigger. I know it's not really fair to compare Heresys to Choruses and the La Scala would be a better head-to-head. If the Scala has all the detail and expanse and finesse that the Chorus has, though, while retaining that big high-impact signature, and they don't give up anything in the sheer "how much air can I move and how hard can I move it" department, they might be just what I'm after.

I see you have both La Scalas and Chorus IIs in your stable. How would you describe them relative to one another?

You're entitled to your opinion, but my experience and a good deal of forum lore indicate that the Academy, Chorus, Quartet, and Forte all play quite well together.

I've done it. One of these days I'll do it again.

I rip and encode with Max. Max contains a GUI front end to the cdparanoia library and seems to produce very good rips. It uses Musicbrainz for CDDB information, and I find MB to be spotty at best, so I use an Applescript to get iTunes' CDDB information from Gracenote and use it to populate the tags. Compression is Apple Lossless, again done by Max. iTunes is my library manager. My music server is my MacPro tower with a 500 GB drive on it. I have about 400 CDs archived (all personally owned) and the disk is about 40% full. I share the iTunes library and my wife can listen on her Mac and I listen on my laptop, also through iTunes.

I read the desciption and it's clear that they increase the separation between you and your money.

This might be outside your box, but personally I like the old stuff. I'd keep the KV-3 and build around it with KGs that are to be had to a pittance through Craigslist and whatnot, and upgrade the electronics with the savings.

IMO, stick with an RC center.

If you knock the dust off the top of the terminal block, one side should have a red plastic top and the other a black. It can be really hard to see if the lighting is poor or you're looking from a bad angle.

Myself, I tend to think less in terms of middle/upper class than in terms of working and investment classes. You've got people who trade their time for a salary or who run a business from which they make their living, and then you have people who have great wealth coupled with the option of not working -- entertainers, very successful businesspeople, executive, entertainers, or folks who by amazing hard work and intelligence (or luck of winning the genetic lottery) gather all the income they need from returns on investments. You make a great point and the way you've framed it is certainly sensible.

$250k a year is definitely into the skinny part of the desirable side of the bell curve, but it's still solidly middle class.

and i respectfully disagree with you. The craftsmanship is gone. Yes there is a new set of tools, and if those tools were applied correctly, it would open up an entirely new creative direction. But the simplicity with which a digital camera can perfectly expose a frame ... is not used to allow the photographers more time for creativity .... it is used to pump out mass produced images. And I have to agree with Colter .... no amount of photoshop can make up for crappy light. We have art directors having us shoot at noon on a sunny day. There is no fixing that .... But the better way to think of it is .... There is no reason to HAVE to fix it ..... we did not need photoshop before ... because we were given the time to get it right in the field. Let me put it another way and see if we can bridge this disagreement, and if we can't, then I'm done, because I don't understand why we're disagreeing. I actually think we agree more than we differ, but find ourselves separated by a common language. The fundamentals of good photography are the same whether using film or digital. A good photographer is a good photographer whether using film or digital. A good photographer takes the time he needs to get the shot he wants, regardless of whether he's using film or digital. A hack is also a hack, whether using film or digital. All I'm saying here is that the tool doesn't make the artist, and it doesn't break him either. It's up to the photographer to apply the craftsmanship, whether he's using film or digital.

The Academy is a fine center, but not for the true Heritage. I ran one between Heresys and didn't like it. Between Chorus IIs or Fortes, though, it's fantastic. Congrats on your Scalas. I'm in agreement with the shaven-headed fellow from Maryland with regards to advice for your setup.

It was 1990 or 91 when I pulled a phone number off a "Stereo for Sale" posting on a bulletin board at Cal State Chico. A former serviceman was attending on the GI Bill and had brought a Yamaha CD player, Nakamichi cassette deck, honking huge Kenwood receiver, and pair of Heresys back from Germany with him. For reasons I don't recall, he was selling them. I'd heard Heresys once before and the way the guy had them set up, they were horrible. I'm not sure what prompted me to go give these a listen, but I'm glad I did. They were my main speakers for about 14 years until I bought a pair of Fortes. Then I got a pair of Chorus IIs (more or less ruined in shipping) and an Academy, and about a year later I snagged a pair of Quartets and another Academy. The Chori and the Quartets are now in storage (but they have plans), my wife uses the Fortes in her office, and I use the Academys as bookshelves in my living room. The Heresys rock the garage when I work on the cars, and the neighborhood gets to enjoy them when we have our annual 4th of July block party.

Same vibe here ... I still work as a 1st assistant for one photographer ... We go out in the summers and do dealer brochures for Honda motorcycles on location. I tend to say that digital took the "Craft" out of photography. I feel it is still a profession ... but the dedication to craft and making a quality product has been thrown out the window. More and faster are the only concepts left in professional photography. I understand where the two of you are coming from, but I respectfully disagree. The craft is the same, but there is another set of tools. Just as it took more than a camera and a darkroom, it takes more than a camera and Photoshop to make a good photographer.

Getting good scans is as much an art as a science, and if you're looking to make archive-quality scans, it's well worth employing a professional to do it. You need somebody who really understands digital color management if you're going to get it right.

Advanced readers see the shape of the word as much as they see the letters that make it up, while less advanced readers assemble the component parts of the word. Most adults ought to be advanced readers, but apparently 45% aren't.

Excellent.