the plummer

Lurch: You are exactly right. Further review of the owners manual from Sunfire states exactly what you said about the amp reading the signals and rejecting them if they are too similar (as I understand this concept). The difference in the XLR and RCA in this situation is incredible. After reading the posts from several other Audiopheliacs I have now come to the conclusion that even though I am only using about 6' of cable with either the XLR or the RCA on my main amp, I am now in search of a powered subwoofer that uses the same XLR connection, as It will be located a much greater distance from the main componants. I have visited Sunfire's web site and I am going to take a serious comparision between the best that Klipsch currently has to offer and Sunfire's due to the XLR connections, by the way I will also make sure they are used correctly. I believe that I probably don't have to concern myself with matching timbre due to the extremely low frequencies that I am seeking to achieve. Thanks for the help, Now can anyone please help me with this goofy SB Audigy 2 that I keep complaining about. (I know you have to be smarter than the equipment). See ya.

I'd like to put my two cents in on this one as I am doing the same (designing a new home, with theater included). My first imperession is to put the theater in the family room as this lends itself to ease of being on the same floor as where you would have formal entertainment. I.E. guests would not be comfortable in venturing through the house to watch a movie. Plus a fresh drink is an inconvenient venture upstairs. Although the upstairs lends itself to an easier room to dedicate to a theater as the rectangular shape is about the right aspect to for corner placement and side speakers as in a 7.1 configuration. My choice would be to eliminate the fireplace in the great room. I know "OUCH". But, Just think about this for a minute. Consider the guests comfort, your comfort, and maintaining the public part of your home as public. A good example of this is your upstairs bathroom is trashed from the kids and you don't have time to clean it before your gathering. If your theater is upstairs, that's where you are going to send your guests for relief. The other issue, that I partially eluded to earlier is as follows. Have you ever tried to arrange a room full of furniture with two focal points. One being the theater screen; the other, the fireplace. This is difficult enough with just a television and fireplace, much less trying to find optimal placement of speakers and ideal seating arrangements. I think that your guests would appreciate not having to huff a flight of steps to watch a movie, get a drink, go potty, or leave early as this would be a disturbance to you also. I hate to say it but the fireplace has to go, unless you plan to mount the screen above the fireplace and configure the center channel on the mantle above the fireplace. This is considering that your not planning to have in-wall speaker placement. Just my two cents, good luck.

I appreciate all the help with confirming my suspicion, albiet what I feared. Both a huge money issue and probably months of convincing the powers that be that a major change MUST occur for the continued search for the Holy Grail, Sonic Clarity and the feel of sound reaching the soul. Of which, in my experience, Klipsch has been one of the few, if not the only speaker that truly reaches the core of your soul. But, I have not heard from any computer savvy guru's about my problems with SB Audigy 2. If I don't solve these problems soon, the powers that be is going to make me remove the computer from the HT totally and move it to the basement office. The thought of that sucks as I am sitting on my couch right now composing this message while listening to vintage Flim and the BB's (this is some of the best test CD's I have been able to find, their entire playlist is a constant testament of true quality sound reproduction), If the computer gets bannished to the basement office, I probably won't be doing much more surfing. Help please!!!!!!

Nicholtl, How are you using XLR's to your speakers. Aren't they high level output and require good speaker wire to drive the magnets.

Hey, When I bought that new Sunfire Theater from Ultimate Electronics, I made a pretty sweet deal. When the deal was done, the salesman tried to sell me these new fangles special cables. He said that the Monster cable was the only brand cable made and I had to buy them because they make a huge difference. At $100 per 3' cable (the system requires 5) I opted to pass. Thinking that sureley Radio Shack had the same thing for cheaper. Boy did the salesman argue and try to pressure me into that purchase. When I got home, I just used the old RCA Jacks that came with my old Adcom system. I was fairly impressed for a few months. Then the urge to fool with the equipment hit again (this usually happens twice a year). I broke out my owners manual for the Sunfire and discovered that the "Special Cables" that could only be purchased at that time from Ultimate Electronics were nothing more than Balanced XLR Microphone cables. I drove to my local Radio Shack and bought 5- 15' cables for $15 a piece. Came home and hooked them up. WOW!!! What a difference. This was one of the best things to reduce hiss that I have ever tried. I can now throttle up to about 80 - 85% volume with NO audible hiss. I can't imagine how the $100 cables can make any more improvement. Lets hear from others if your stuff is capable of or you are currently using the Balance XLR cables. See Ya The Plummer.

Audible Nectar, Thanks for the confirmation of my beliefs. I am interested in custom. In fact I noticed that there are a couple of ebay sites selling plans for both khorns and belles. I thought about bying a set of plans, but there's always that buyer be ware fear in my bones. If I decide to do this, I'm not very intelligent about crossover's settings or speaker selections. What if I built a folded woofer center channel and used the same drivers and used a powered, adjustable crossover, such as the automotive freaks use to adjust the crossover points at will. I could also use the same plans to build a freestanding horn loaded sub correct. I had some success with building a sub as a late teen. I used a plan from one of the audophile mags. of the late 80's. I bought two Radio shack 15" speakers (I know, that was a waste of money). I placed them into a cabinet that I made from A grade 3/4 plywood. This measured 36x36 on the top. It was 48 inches tall and had a 12" square port in it that I boxed in 12" deep. I then played Holst, The Planets. could not tell it was on, except I was able to feel the base in my parents basement over the Chorus 1's. I have since dismanteled the sub when I moved to a 900 sq. ft. townhouse. Once there, I got into another money pit. Salt water fish aquariums. I cut a hole in my staircase 48X48 and set a 55 gal fish aquarium in the wall and framed around it. I left the bottom 24 inches high as the access to enter the stairwell to maintain the aquarium. HMMM, what to do with this big hole in the wall under the aquarium. Ah Hah, I need a sub.... I remembered the homeade sub. I cut the face with the 15"s down to fit sideways under the aquarium. I placed a set of "barn door hinges to hold this heavy door up and mounted a touch latch on the other side. By this time the Radio shack speakers had been stolen as they were being used as sub speakers behind the seat in my old chevy truck. (I know, How the hell did you get them to fit. Ancient chinese secret.) So I bought a pair of MTX Terminator 15" woofers and placed them on the door. The stairwell acted as a giant woofer cabinet. (It worked well enough that my hermit crab used to think there was an earthquake every time I cranked the stereo as he would run around the bottom of the aquarium in a complete panic. Back to the folded woofer sub. I wonder why no one makes on for sale, like say Klipsch. Since they are the benchmark for horn loaded woofers. Maybe because Horns are so directional. what are your thoughts.

I have been using an Adcom AC Line enhancer for about 15 years. Works great. would not tell you which one i have as it is buried behind all of my other gear. This one has a neat feature it has a time switch to turn your amps on 10 seconds after everything else powers up to avoid surges. Likewise it turns the amps off thirty seconds before turning everything else on to avoid that nasty "pop" that destroys drivers.

well, I have not used a SPL meter since we moved to this new house, but I use to have a Equalizer with a spectrum analyzer built in and I am so familiar with my system that I can usually set it by ear and do a very close job at getting it right. Your right, I have all of my sunfire settings at large except for the center academy I set it to small. This causes the processor to throw everything from 120Hz and below to the subwoofer. I guess carver's a pretty smart feller, huh. I have pulled the sub away from the wall about 12 inches this helped a little. I'm guessing that the SW10 is too small. I recently called Klipsch and inquired about how to find a dealer that would hook me up with a cinima KPT-684. He said that I can't purchase one because I don't own a professional theater. I don't understand what it matters if a man has money to spend on something that he really wants why the seller would possibly say no. I'll be able to end aroud that problem though. One of my employees parents own the local 5 plex theater and their going to build a new one soon. Bet I get my new sub. My living room is a little small, but like most new homes it has an open floor plan. The kitchen, dining room, and living room are one great room with a vaulted ceiling. Approximately 450 sq. foot. On to another problem, being virtually computer illiterate, I bought a new Dell 8300 with a wireless keyboard and mouse. I made sure it had a good sound card in it. They installed a SB Audigy 2. This is really neat when it works. I put a movie in the DVD-R and then I have to mess with the Audigy every time to get any sound out of it. When I install my Eagles Hell Freezes Over DTS DVD, the computer stops at every track and tells me that the hardware cannot support DTS. I press play and it works fine until the next chapter. I am currently using the digital out of the computer to the digital in on my Sunfire. Another problem when I do a test on the Audigy 2. I hear the test say "Left Front" in the left speaker, a short pause, then "Right Front" in the right speaker. then nothing else. The moniter then hilights the speaker to be tested, but I hear nothing. Kinda odd though. I get true separation on all channels when playing a movie though. Incidentally I have the moniter that came with the computer sitting on top of my 36" Sony XBR and have my settings set to have both moniters on the same screen. I would recommend this set up to anyone, as a movie can be runnining on the Sony while I am computing on the other. any thoughts would be great.

Thanks for the info, but I guess I did not explain myself quite right. I don't really "crave" base, like a 16 year old in a japanese sports car cruizing with the windows down looking at everybody one at a time to see if you noticed him in all his coolness, but rather I want DEEEEEEP base. The kind you can feel, not necessarily hear. But, I don't think you would understand that seeing as how you own what I have only dreamed about. Your bio reads like a wish list for me. On to the other problem. I read an article years ago in either audiophile or stereo review, or some place like that. In which the author claimed that the center channel should be the best speaker in the house as it is used most, with the widest range of sound being produced. From cymbal crashes to Nuclear explosions. If the camera is trained on the explosion, the front speaker has to re-produce the bulk of it. Most center channel speakers are only designed to reproduce somewhere in the middel spectrum, I was always told they were to reproduce voices. I can attest to this as when I perform a speaker test with pink noise, the center channel sounds different. I tried once years ago to trade one of my rear channel's Heresy II's for the center academy and was wowed by the difference, but nearly destroyed my television with the magnetic interferance. Now I hear that a bucking magnet can be added to any speaker to eliminate this. I also tried to use my SW10-II subwoofer's internal crossover and using the sub on the center channel then coming out of the sw to the academy, but again couldn't tell if it was on or off. I wish I could convince my other half that we need a Belle for the center channel. any thoughts on convincing her that a belle is a fine piece of furniture or somehow it will improve her life or something like that.

My experience is to concurr with the turning off the amps first to let them discharge power before turning off the pre-amp. I don't know how to do that if you are running a receiver though. To save you from having to remember shut down order, or heaven forbid your significant other just shutting the system off and damaging your speakers, ADCOM makes a nifty AC line enhancer that when you power off your Pre-amp it automaticly shuts the amps off first. Then it shuts everything else down about thirty seconds later. I have used this with great success for 15 years now and have never damaged any speakers. Good luck.

check with your home state's attorney general's office. there may be a "lemon law" on record. this means that if a product has been in for repairs three times for the same problem, you are entitled to a refund or brand new product. Maybe just threaten the customer (NO)service representative with this information and you may get a desired response. Good luck!!!

I have been building my theater since I graduated high school (at least I have my priorities right). In the late eighties, I purchased a set of Chorus I's. I thought I was being investment savvy, as I was unable to tell the difference in base response between them and a set of LaScalla's on the floor. (saved a thousand bucks). What a dumb aXX I was. I really wanted a set of Belle's. Now my wife crabbs about the size of these things much less the Belles I showed her. Anyway, I digress. I would like to know first if there is any base enhancing upgrades to my Chorus I's that I have not been privy to. I would also like to complain about my poor choice in a subwoofer. A SW10-II. can't tell if it is on or off. Also my Academy does not seem to have the base punch a center speaker should have, since it does most of the work. wondering if I purchased another Herasy II to complement and bi-wire it to the academy if that would help with the lacking voice projection and lack of base and poor front soundstage. My choice of rear speakers seems to be perfect. a very nice set of Heresay II's. These baby's thunder. I was very unhappy for years with the performance of my system until I purchased a Sunfire Theater grand II from (dare I say) Ultimate Electronics. Please forgive me this was a $7500 processor and amp (450 watts RMS on five channels (Wow)) that I stole for $3500.00 I think. This baby woke my entire system up. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the length, I'm kinda wordy anyway.