JBryan

PM'd - also, can you share a few more pics? Thanks!

A while back, I fit a pr of Khorns, a couple of amps and pres, a tuner and a R2R in a Rav4. Not too difficult but my friend, Bob had the large and quite heavy R2R in his lap for an hour or so and said he wouldn't wish that on his worse enemy.

Welcome to the forum - talk about pulling up an 'ancient' thread! I'm still using the XM26 w/45SET monos powering the Oris/AER horns and various digital amps on the bass bins. Honestly, aside from a few tweaks over the years, my main system is the same as it was 10-15 years ago. If I want to 'play', I have a vintage system where I change components every few months and a set up in the living room that's seemingly in constant flux. Hope you're safe and having fun!

I've run a lot of Mac gear through my systems over low, these many years and in my experience, the MC-30's (and the MC-225) are the most musical tube amps McIntosh has offered. The 1st 'nice' setup I ever bought was a pr of MC-30's, a MX-110 pre and a pr of Khorns I picked up at a 2nd-hand shop back in college. They sounded great together but when I moved away, I foolishly sold the amps, loaned the pre and left the Khorns behind, none to be seen again. Klipsch and vintage McIntosh tube gear compliment one another nicely and the MC-30's are some of my all-time favorite Mac gear... Joe's a pretty good guy too!

I have a pr of '87 Khorns I've worked through the bins and tops a few times and I never came upon any MDF - only plywood.

S'OK...my brother-in-law will never know and the search continues.

PM'd

I used 2 - 4'x 8' panels of 1" MDF and birch plywood, cut in half and married together with a sound-damping material (similar to Dynamat) sandwiched in between. I used maple blocks to brace and hold the corners together but they're heavy and a bear to move around. I was too lazy to veneer the birch so I just stained it to be slightly darker than the Khorns' walnut finish and painted the MDF to match the walls. Later, when I replaced the Khorn tops with Oris horns, I used walnut slabs on the top and bottom to enclose the bass bins and used walnut braces to attach the false corners to the bins (see avatar). The result was even heavier but to my surprise, they were more solid and much easier to move and position. As I recall, PWK suggested false corners if the Khorns couldn't be placed in solid corners and specified that the horns needed the extended 'wings' to complete the wave and get the most out of the bass. I found the wings not only lowered the frequency of the bins but also tightened up the bass quite a bit. The other bonus was that I was no longer constrained to the room's corners and could position the speaks to optimize soundstage, image and room acoustics. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend false corners - even with excellent corners in the room.

My doc cleaned out my ears once and I couldn't believe how much wax had collected over the years. I never experienced ear aches but occasionally, I'd get a short, sharp pain inside the ear so I should've paid more attention. The doc suggested that I use a syringe and squirt hot (tolerable) water in each ear canal followed by a mix of hot water and hydrogen peroxide and let it sit there for a minute or so. The peroxide will dissolve the wax - it'll sound like someone poured coke in there. Once the fizzing subsides, rinse out the ear with a few squirts of hot water from the syringe and follow up with soap (I do this just before I shower). Be careful not to push soap too deep in the ear and rinse it all out as it will irritate the canal and cause more wax to be formed. If you have swimmer's ear or have trouble getting the water out you can pour ½ a cap of isopropyl alcohol in and it will 'float' the water to the top and any residual alcohol will evaporate. Of course, alcohol will irritate the canal as well so use this as a last resort. I hope its something simple and easily reversed...Good Luck.

I have a CV-5 that I'll occasionally pull off the shelf. I played around with tubes a while back and found that Telefunken 12ax7's worked best with my TT setup. They tend toward clean and detailed which sounds pretty good through the somewhat warm PV-5's gain stage. On that note, I found the RCA triple mica black plate 5751 improved upon the originals a bit but most 5751's sound pretty close to each other in my experience and they used to be easy to pick up cheap at hamfests (I haven't been in years though) so no real reason to spend too much. PV-5's originally shipped with GE 5751 (which are fine tubes if a bit warmer sounding than the RCA's) but now CJ uses Gold Lions so that should be a good option.

A vendor was selling a couple of Audio Desk units he had on display at last year's Capitol Audiofest for $2600 but that was still out of my budget and he was a bit vague on the specifics so I passed. He did mention that the price he quoted was only a few hundred dollars over his cost so I'd imagine you would have some wiggle room to negotiate with a dealer. Instead, I put together an DIY US set up w/80kHz tank, filter and pump for @$800. The tank is by far the most expensive component but I found a 10 liter tank w/timer and heater on sale through Amazon back in January for @$700. The motor was the most difficult item to find as I was looking for a 1/10rpm unit. I never could find one at a reasonable price so I ended up with a 1/3rpm motor and used gears to reduce the rotation speed - not ideal but it'll work until I get the motor I want. The filter and pump cost @$50 on A'zon and everything else I either picked up at a hobby shop and Home Depot or already had around the house. The US cleaner works great - especially on new records but I find it works best in concert with a vacuum RCM. If the record has finger prints, dust and dirt, etc., I clean it with the RCM first using AIVS (Audio Intelligent) enzyme cleaner, followed by AI cleaning fluid (#15 or 'Super' depending on the level of dirt) and rinse with ultra pure water used for surgical irrigation. I then run up to 5 LPs through the US process that takes about 10 minutes and for now, I just put them on a rack to dry. My next project is to build a dryer box that uses an AreoStat ionizing air blower pushing air through a plastic storage tub. I already have the blower, I just need to find some bellows and cut some holes in a plastic tub. The blower cost $20 (used) and I think I can find everything else around the house. Other than the obvious cost savings, I feel that the set up I put together works as well as the Audio Desk and has more potential - I can clean 4 or 5 records at a time, the DIY filtration system works far better so I can reuse the fluid longer and best of all, I can easily modify the set up if and when I come up with better parts, designs or ideas. I'm a bit of a tinkerer but there's almost zero skill involved - just a few 45 degree cuts, some screws and glue. The most difficult aspect is figuring out a design and finding the parts - after that, it just takes a few hours to put everything together. While it isn't very pretty and stills needs refinement, my US cleaner was easy to put together, works well and serves its purpose. Have fun!

I'd also recommend Terry DeWick (Dewick Repairs) in Knoxville,TN. He's busy (90 day backlog) and on vacation 'til September but does excellent work and is quite reasonable. http://www.mcintoshaudio.com/dewick_repairs.htm A few years ago, the rectifier on my Scott 222c finally died so I took the opportunity to send it and a 350B tuner to Terry for a checkup and some upgrades. He got rid of the often problematic selenium cap and beefed up the power supply considerably, replaced the out of spec resistors and caps, added premium caps in the signal path and gain stage and modified the amp to use EL-84M tubes instead of the more expensive 7189's. The only other thing I wish I had him do was to move the bias points and adjustment screws to the top of the chassis so I could more easily access and adjust the bias (which I've never had to adjust but its a PITA to check!). He discussed my options, made the repairs, brought both pieces back to spec and shipped 'em back to me for just under $300 total, including a new set of Russian EL-84M tubes. Everything has worked like a charm since and I'm delighted with his work.

I have/had a bevy of Thorens tables and always had fun with them and they're reliable and fairly easy to maintain/ fix when necessary. My 1st was a td-160 w/Shure Mk.III cart. I used it for years in high school and college but left it behind (along with my records) when I moved away from home and took a break from vinyl. Within a couple of years, I happened upon a great collection of 60's and 70's rock at a thrift shop and that very weekend, picked up a td-145 MkII at a yard sale (along with more records) and I was back in business! Soon after, I was finding Thorens tables right and left. I bought a couple of td-124's at the same Goodwill within weeks of each other; another 160 and 145 at yard sales (I'd given my brother-in-law the first as a starter) and finally, I bought a td-125 Mk.II w/Rabco linear-tracking arm from a gent along with most of his audio gear. I've given away or traded most of the tables over the years but still have a td-160, 124 and the 125 Mk.II (that still needs work - d@#n that Rabco arm!). I haven't used a Thorens in a while but find them extremely decent tables and I will occasionally switch one into my 2nd system just to make sure they still work and give it a listen. While they're not as easy to find as they once were and certainly not the best tables (the arms should almost always be upgraded to get the best sound) but they are tried and true and can be had for a song with a little patience - killer bang for the buck and I'd recommend them to anyone looking to wet their feet in vinyl. Have fun!

I set up my CF-2, 3 & 4's in my sister-in-law's HT and I'd never describe the mids and bass as 'muddy'. Have you checked the polarity - not just your wires but right up to the drivers? How about changing out the wires and cleaning the connectors? I doubt its the caps but its possible they've deteriorated after 20+ years and would still benefit from an upgrade. Keep us informed and have fun!

I have/had CF-2, 3 & 4's and while they all will sound good with @10 watts going in, I found that 25 watts and up are needed to control the woofers and 100 watts isn't over doing it and will provide the deepest and most impactful bass (especially notable with the CF-4 model). As your grandpa and others have mentioned, good quality tube amps are an excellent match with most Klipsch speakers but the Epic series seems to lend itself to SS and digital topologies that can provide more bottom end and control. Still, look for quality as you want to avoid the noise, strident highs and distortion prevalent in lesser amps. Have fun!