hannan36

I you're into Live Music, try www.archive.org. It's a site that has thousands of live shows available for download for bands that have given permission to make audience and soundboard recordings available. /Ken

Frank Zappa - Civilization Phase III Frank's last work before he died. A project long in the making, referred top as his master work. Mostly Frank playing synclavier, it's described as an "opera" about a group of people who live inside a piano. No singing, just some dialog between pieces. Great stuff, fantastic quality sound. Highly recommended. /Ken

I guess I need to post my recommendation here: The Radiators - Earth Vs. The Radiators: The First 25 ( DVD) This is a great DVD filled with more than 2 hours of live footage from the 25th anniversary concerts at Tipitina's, New Orleans, featuring The Radiators, in January 2004. This DVD is highly recommended since it features the band in their natural element, which is playing music LIVE (similar to say, the way Grateful Dead live concert experience differed from their studio efforts). Category: Music & Concert Sub Genre: Rock And Roll, Blues, Music (General), Blues Music, Music. Some call this music Fishhead Music, which describes the funky, swampy, rock'n'roll style that makes this band special. Their proposensity to improvise and sheer talent make this one of the hottest touring bands in the country, and a must see live. Very nice sound Dolby surround sound and amazingly crisp video! Guests include Gregg Allman, Mark Mullins, Karl Denson, and George Porter. Duration: 148 mins To order, go to http://www.rads25.com/ For more information on the Radiators, check out http://www.theradiators.org. I'd recommend this even if I didn't have a chance to win a T shirt /Ken

Cool. I saw the Rads at Tipitina's at their 25th anniversary shows in January 2003. What a great club not the mention an incredible city! /Ken

The Radiators - Earth Vs. The Radiators: The First 25 ( DVD) This is a great DVD filled with more than 2 hours of live footage from the 25th anniversary concerts at Tipitina's, New Orleans, featuring The Radiators, in January 2004. This DVD is highly recommended since it features the band in their natural element, which is playing music LIVE (similar to say, the way Grateful Dead live concert experience differed from their studio efforts). Category: Music & Concert Sub Genre: Rock And Roll, Blues, Music (General), Blues Music, Music. Some call this music Fishhead Music, which describes the funky, swampy, rock'n'roll style that makes this band special. Their proposensity to improvise and sheer talent make this one of the hottest touring bands in the country, and a must see live. Very nice sound Dolby surround sound and amazingly crisp video! Guests include Gregg Allman, Mark Mullins, Karl Denson, and George Porter. Duration: 148 mins To order, go to http://www.rads25.com/ For more information on the Radiators, check out http://www.theradiators.org. I'd recommend this even if I didn't have a chance to win a T shirt /Ken

I'll second the Sony recommendation. They made good reliable CD players for the car. You get what you pay for though. If the ES models are still available, they are good quality Sony's and can be had for around $300. If you didn't mind the factory unit, you should be able to pick up a replacement from a junk yard for cheap money too... /Ken

I use all Klipsch speakers in my car stereo setup. 4 ProMedia 4.1 satellites & a KSW-10" subwoofer speaker in a custom box powered by 2 car amps (Kicker and Precision Power, 1 for the sats @ 40W RMS, 1 for the sub @ 200W RMS). Head unit is an iRiver CD/MP3 player. I also put a headphone amp btw the head unit and the amps to compensate for low output from the cd player. In my opinion, the system sounds great! The ProMedia satellites are rated @ 4 Ohms, which is perfect for car audio. One of the Klipsch writeups on the guy who put a 4.1 in his SUV said a friend just removed the speaker plate from the sats and mounted them in the doors and stuff. I tried the original setup of a complete 4.1 ProMedia powered by a 1000 Watt inverter, but the sub/amp died after a couple of months (presumably due to depending on the on/off nature of the inverter when I engaged the ignition, and not using the on/off switch on the control pod...). So I replaced the 4.1 sub/amp with real car amps and a better sub. Glad I did. The front speakers are mounted w/ velcro on the dash of my truck. Rears are mounted above the rear window. That said, I think Klipsch would have a great market with car speakers... /Ken

The KSW-10 sub was the closest approximate match I could find too, though mine says "K-1070-A" vs "K-1070-K" that's on the specs page. I currently have this speaker in a sealed enclosure for my vehicle, and it sounds very good. But I've been wondering what performance would be like with a different enclosure. Sealed is supposed to be "tighter", but Klipsch made the KSW-10 with a passive radiator (gotta plug my favorite band - The Radiators with that statement), so adding a passive radiator would seem like it's probably the best thing to try next. /Ken

I acquired a 10" Klipsch woofer and I'm wondering what speaker model it came from. On the speaker is the following: KSW-10K-1070-A-121042 I'm wondering what type of enclosure would be suitable: sealed, ported, or if it needs a passive radiator. Anyone know what this speaker came out of what type of enclosure is recommended ? Thanks! /Ken

OK, I understand the difference now. Makes sense! I suppose the question becomes, why isn't sensitivity listed for something like the RSW-10 ? I assume it must be because it doesn't matter much since it's an amplified sub, vs an externally powered sub speaker. Thx KEn

What is the difference between Sensitivity and Max Acoustic Output ratings ? Seems like older models use the Sensitivity rating in speaker specs, but newer use Max Acoustic Output ratings which makes it hard to compare. For example, how would I compare 2 woofers with the following ratings ? MAX ACOUSTIC OUTPUT: 109dB @ 30Hz 1/8 space, 1 meter vs SENSITIVITY: 95dB @ 1watt/1meter Thanks, Ken

The 4.1 sub in the truck did not perform well at all. Performance may have been affected because of the modified sine wave power supplied by the inverter to the sub/amp, because the 4.1 system sounds great in my garage - which is why I thought of putting the 4.1 in the truck in the first place. On the Klipsch home page, the marketing writeup of a guy who installed a 4.1 in his suv said he had to add another sub, which sort of backs up my claim of not enough bass w/ just a 4.1. I don't have the room for another sub however, so I'm using what's considered a quality amp and sub. The amp is rated at THD: 02% and S/N Ratio: >110dB. I think a primary reason for needing more power is to overcome the sound-proofing that was put into the vehicle. Ford went to great lengths to make that interior quiet (and as sound absorbing). The satellites always sounded sweet, both w/ the original amp and my old Hafler. imho. /Ken

More bass, yes. The 4.1 sub just didn't cut it in the truck. I also think the satellite speakers sound much better w/ the car amp.

Update: - I removed the 4.1 amp/sub from my truck. Simply not enough power esp for the sub in the truck environment - kept the satellites - installed my trusty old 4x20W RMS Hafler car stereo amp (Hafler was a division of Rockford Fosgate) to drive the satellites with - installed 10" Precision Power sub with a 200W RMS PP car amp The system sounds amazing now. /Ken

I followed you up to: You have only yourself to blame. For a dead, 6 month old product? Okeedokee...

I tried, believe me. I didn't have success getting to a return authorization rep, and ended up w/ the supervisor. "Too far out of warranty" to do anything, even after I said I'd just toss it given the fixit price to buy another (which I won't do) price ratio... :-( Oh well.

My 4.1 died on me last week, not the one I used in the car, but the first one I bought in October '03. - Started getting chirping sound out of 1 satellite - shortly after that, no sound. The light on the control pod was out, and the amp part of the sub was very hot. - fuse looks fine, I think. Used a tester to measure continuity through the fuse; both sides have power, so power is getting through. This 4.1 was a Reburf that I got directly from Klipsch, with a 90 day warranty. Almost 6 months old and 3 months out of warranty, Klipsch customer service says they can fix it for $50, and I pay shipping to Klipsch. Probably costs about $20-25 to ship it, for a total of $70-75. This for a Klipsch refurb of a Klipsch refurb... seems to me the likelihood of it dying again would be high, and a waste of $. When I learned the cost, I cancelled the return authorization. For not much more, I could get another refurb with a 4 speaker bonus. But I don't trust these units. I'm really disappointed with Klipsch's customer service. /Ken

OK, I hear ya on the MP3s. One of these days I'll get around to trying a good extracter like EAC.lame and check it out. re: speaker wires I'm using Monster already, the ones from Klipsch. The mini-stereo plug is flimsy, but the set definitely sounds better with them vs the thin factory wires. re: front speakers I failed to mention they are mounted horizontally on the dash, in each corner. The Rockford/Fosgate 'lectronic crossover doesn't do anything, based on testing in my garage. Not worth pursuing. I think I'm going to try to do something about the open port on the sub. It points backwards, under the rear seat where I think a lot of sound gets absorbed in the thick carpet and insulation, as well as the underside of the back seat. Need something to reflect the sound better, like a sheet of wood, or something... /Ken

The speakers on the dash don't affect vision at all. It's a big dash. But my wife doesn't like em there - thinks they're a safety issue. However, I'm considering moving them lower, just haven't gotten to it yet... As for MP3, I copied a few mp3 tunes my son had to a disc and checked out the sound. It sounded really poor compared the original. But I don't know the parameters involved (how the mp3 files were created). What are the recommended settings if I'm converting an audio cd to mp3 ? I'd like to give mp3 another try... I use an iRiver SlimX 400 portable cd player as the source for the 4.1. It's a nice unit, and sounds *much* better than the Sony D-NE710 I originally purchased and have since returned. The iRiver has a stronger output signal, and a lot more features. /Ken

... in the F150 Super Crew, the speaker setup is: Inverter for AC power in center console. Front satellites: 1 in each corner on dash, fasted w/ "industrial strength" velcro. They don't budge, and are easily adjustable for direction. Rear satellites: just above top of rear window mounted using Klipsch wall mounts horizontally off center by about 2' (allows headroom for passengers). Sub is in rear floor right behind the center console, port facing back. Picked up a "headphone volume booster" which helps boost the line out of the walkman, but it's battery operated and low quality radio shack. Distorts easily. Testing a Rockford Fosgate 'lectronic crossover which increases preamp signal a bit, and allows for more frequency control. Overall, for general rock n roll (Radiators, Grateful Dead), jazz (Bela Fleck), etc, the sound is very good. For harder rock, like Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, and the like, there's not nearly enough power. Too much distortion. My regular custom car stereo, with a 10 or 12" sub and cleaner power, sounded a lot better in this regard. of course, yammv: your actual mileage may vary /Ken

It's a philosophical thing (MP3 being lossy). And I drive a nice quiet Ford ;-) Speaker position is everything with this setup. Overall, however, there's not enough power when I really wanna crank it up. /Ken

I will never use MP3 technology for audio. My goal is to reproduce the sound as good as I can, and that excludes using lower audio standards like mp3, which is just a way to reduce file sizes by removing stuff "you probably can't hear anyway". I exclusively use lossless technology (.shn,.flac > .wav > cdr). Anyway, I removed the Sony D-NE710 and replaced it with an iRiver SlimX 400. The difference is huge! The system sounds so much better w/ the iRiver player, perhaps because of the variable line out level/increased output over the Sony. I can't find the output specs for the Sony, but the iRiver is about 57x, where x is mAw or something... /Ken

I burn wav files, sourced from flac or shn, of live music to cd/r. No problem w/ storage devices that cost about 25 cents each ;-) I don't mind carrying a stack of em in the truck... I wonder if the 4.1 I have has a problem. Sometimes it sounds great, other times, there's a lack of bass and distortion... /Ken

1 more thing: I don't use mp3, and do not plan to. Got WAV files and plenty of storage devices to carry em for optimal, lossless sound ;-) /Ken

Plenty of spare power on the inverter, could add more to the system. Seems like sound quality varies, could just be me, but...