newmm

I did listen to both RB61 and RB81, not at the same time though because RB61 were sold before RB81 arrived, in a retailed store with my own musics for half an hour. All the music played were orchistrated from classics to modern soundtracks. Then I purchsed RB81 and have owned RB81 for a month. RB81 is not drastically superior to RB61. The soundsatge of RB81 sounds wider and I believe why Kilpsch prices them quite different and I will enjoy RB81 over RB61 for long run sonically. But I must complain that RB81, so is RB61, is too bright(or detail) in high in my taste and therefore causes listenng fatigure in time. It seems designed for a large room with many people talking around while listening. I have other studio monitors which are more balanced between detail and fatigue.

Recently, I puchased a pair of M22V2 from Axiom and have been very frustrated. Its db drops sharply from 120Hz(70db) to 80Hz(55db). I think It is due to smaller woofer, about 4 1/4" across, than spec said 5 1/4". Axiom tech said 5 1/4" was measured on the surface. I will return them back. Then I went to a Klipsch dealer locally to audit RB-61 and RB-81. But Only RB-61 available for listening. I will go back to the store to try RB-81 next week when they receive it. I have a tech question, RB-81 has 8' woofer + 1"tweeter with crossover @1800Hz. Is it possible to make 8" woofer reproduce upto 1800Hz sound accurately ? Thanks

the ddts switch box is stilly imo, why can't they integrate it into the back of the ddts in the first place? I mean whets so hard about adding a lil button on the front and 3 more mini jacks in the back. This would not change the way the ddts looks. Furthermore i can't stand the way it looks, it feels really cheap, there is no display, its sits upright (what is up with that?) Its very light weight which is also unattractive. I dislike the fact it uses creative labs stupid 3 channels in a 2 channel input jack. Thats very non standard and it will not work with any other 7.1 soundcard other then the ZS. Nor will 7.1 speakers work unless they are the gig works or inspires. If Klipsch makes the 2.1 ultras I will make a 7 speaker set up, but I wont be able to use the ddts for that. ===================================================================================== Creative is the king in the pc sound business, at least for now and in the near future. No ones come close enough to threaten its position so far. However, it comes long way. The major reason is the complex pc environment. Speakers and receivers are much easier to forcus on. Like many users know A2/ZS should have better sound than average dvd player, at least as good as ddts/dd5.1. I mean we shouldn't need decoder/receiver at all in PC, just speakers. But they will come up something better periodically to maintain and/or grow their bussiness. What we are talking about will more or less reflect upon their new products.

agreed + I would like to see standard anolog input with a switch feature so EAX still works. Also minijack input/output is stardard for MM not mono RCA, i think that needs to change. ====================================================================================== ddts comes with a break box. It functions as a multiplexer to allow you switching manually between ddts preamped output and preamped output from soundcard or any other preamped output, such as receiver. If preamped output is selected, it will bypass dtss and then let it drive speaker amp directly, like ultra. Well you can argue why not integrate it to the ddts box and then allow users to switch among them using remote or front panel. But that will make the ddts box not so sexy. I think Creative uses minijack to minimize the size of the box for MM applications. It is more so that 1 minijack can hold upto 3 channels so far, may be 4 later. For preamped signals, it seems a good idea, particularly for MM. So creative cares about what its products function and look too.

---------------- On 2/18/2004 3:14:26 AM newmm wrote: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ with this receiver, I can bypass the amp and just use the decoding since the ddts just aint cuttin it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ How could you possibly do that ? ---------------- This receiver has preamp outputs for all 7 channels which allows for the speakers to be powered by an external amp(eg promedia ultra). And for the price, you can't beat that with a stick ======================================================================================================= I mean if you feed dd/dts compressed signals to ddts for decoding, then ddts would do decoding and preamp as well, regardless you like it or not. There are only 1 set of 5.1/6.1 preamped output from ddts. Or maybe you can open the box and design a circuitry to tape the decoded_only signals from the box.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ with this receiver, I can bypass the amp and just use the decoding since the ddts just aint cuttin it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ How could you possibly do that ?

DD5.1 has no mutiplexer or breakout box, like ddts-100, to let you select different audio input. Or you can buy one from radioshock. You soundcard must use coaxial or optical cable to send audio pcm/dd/dts to dd5.1., and then let it drive your speakers. The only catch is when you play game, the most sc don't encode audio into surround as dd/dts. They just downmix to stereo in pcm. So very poor quality. Or you need manually change the connections.