JJkizak

I recently installed the new Dean networks into my 1965 K-horns and Cornwall speakers. Voices got cleaner, drum cymbals got cleaner, low frequency voices really got cleaner from coloration, the Cornwall center speaker improved about a million percent (embelishments are deserved. My living room walls are tongue and groove pine with carpeted floors 24 x 12. I listen to the stereo cd's in the PLC-II mode with crummy solid state amps. But I do wonder if new speaker drivers would clean anything more up. Just a thought. I did kind of blast Dean for not putting his name on the networks. Maybe it would be some kind of copyright violation? JJK, a satisfied customer.

I am also curious if a value can be placed on the difference in sound quality, for instance: 1%,.01%, .001%, .0001%, .00001% etc. and can I hear the difference between .001% and .0001%? I wonder. I also wonder about tubes as I have vast experience in tubes. I had a Fisher, Heathkit with KT88's and they both were very muddy. I went to the solid state Denon and the mud went away. The difference was the transient response, rounded square waves in the tube models and nice crisp square waves in the solid state models. Also no hum and no hiss. Now everybody here is selling their grandmother to get tube amps & preamps. What am I missing here? I never had to replace transisters due to wearing out but once a year it was all new tubes to bring everything back into spec. To due that now would cost me thousands per year. Tubes, no matter what brand, slowly loose their conductance and values, and that's a fact. That means every day you crank them babies up the performance is slightly degraded. How can you live like that? Well today I have a 30 watt amp and tomorrow I have a 29.95 watt amp. and the next day 29.945 watt amp. What about your sub woofer? does it have tube amps? what about the DVD player?What about the tuner? What about your Toslink circuits? What about your HDTV? Why aren't their tubes in the Mics? All of your CD's, DVD's, and tapes are recorded with solid state equipment. How do you get around that? I do know tubes and I can tell you that I have replaced more 12AX7's than you can imagine and that's when they made good ones. In my days a 6L6 was a crap tube used in cheap amps. I replaced KT66 and KT88's once a year and sometimes they wouldn't last that long because of gas. The tube amps always had problems going in hyper-oscillation roasting the components with the slightest speaker imperfection and mismatch. Never could get rid of the hum and hiss at max volume levels. But I do like old cars, especially L88 Corvettes. JJK

Just recently hooked mine up (Corwall) and they are identical. JJK

What gets me is buying a new one every year to keep up with the technology. First it was progressive, then upconvert, then playing all formats, then HD-DVD, then Blue-ray HD dvd, then HD-2K DVD, then HD-4K DVD, then HD-6K DVD, then HD-8K DVD, Then Dolby, then DTS, then THX, etc. Thats about 30 grand just in DVD upgrades. I would sure like to see some accurate evaluations performed on these things kind of like Consumers Reports but I don't think people can afford to buy them just to test them out. I know how all of the 200 dollar ones work but what about the 1500 dollar ones. Then you buy an 800 dollar unit and two years later it isn't worth throwing in the trash. I'm going on my 3rd DVD player in 3 years. I end up giving them away to my family. K-horns deserve better than this. JJK

What possibly could be the difference in sonic quality between a $1500 dollar Denon DVD player and a $150 dollar Denon player? I fear not much. And they are solid state so what does that do to the all tube setup? JJK

It's still slower than a year of Mondays. JJK

Three years active US Navy kitty-cruise. Didn't hear K-horns until I bought them in 1965. JJK

Actually bullets are spun and usually precess to the right, but the same amount each time so once you sight the gun in it's the same every bullet. If the bullet does not spin it acts like a knuckle ball, that means you don't know where it will end up. This is the same for big guns like 12" on battleships. JJK

The Mesa/Boogie must be good. I just saw it on the Paul Mcartney DVD video "at the some kind of club", I forgot the name. JJK

You might want to check the Mcmaster Carr web site as they have everything you need. The problem is the cost of the cameras which do not include the lens, the bnc cabling, the power for the cameras, the mounts, the stepping unit, the recording VHS VCR, etc. If you have more than one camera you need a stepping unit that cycles between the cameras for a small amount of time. They also sell a CRT and an image splitter if you want to look at all of the cameras at the same time. Black & white is cheap and color is very expensive and the quality is VHS so it really sucks. They also make special units for you computer and if it's a Dell they are probably going to require special Dell drivers which you might be creating a nightmare. Keep them separate. JJK

The new version of Nero (6.6) supposedly will exact copy a DVD without affecting the anti-piracy codes and also Samsung is coming out with a recorder that can do the same thing. I assume that the cd's are in the same boat. I use "Record Now Max" or "Nero" to copy CD-r's and if there is copyright protection they will not copy. JJK

Yes, XP is 4 gig total and Win2K has a special download update to boost it to 32 gig. You end up typing something into the boot section to get it going. I believe it is available on the Supermicro website. JJK

Ram is only one of the important things in the chain. Processor speed, hard drive speed, ram speed, amount of ram, SATA drives, DMA settings, SCSI drives, network speeds, etc. I do video editing with a P-4 3.4meg 800 with 2 gig of ram on an Intel 875 board. Matrox Parhelia 128meg video card with 4 outputs, three monitors and one tv out. Video rendering is the most demanding operation you can have on a computer and I wish I had dual processors with 8 gig of ram. Some video editors use 16 gig of ram with the Dual Supermicro boards. Rolling titles, still pictures, and tricky composites suck up ram so fast that a lot of the complex areas of the timeline have to be separately prerendered to avi and re-inserted into the timeline so the total render has enough available ram to complete. The processor is going nuts during the render and often heats to the limit, even with a super fan. Overclocking would melt the processor unless liquid nitrogen was used. (Kits are available by the way) Keep in mind that Windows XP paging file only allows 4 gig of ram, Win2K up to 32 gig. Programs running in the background also suck up ram and can be viewed by hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del in the Task manager and you can delete programs that are not being used if you know what they are. A reboot will bring everything back to normal. I will sometimes delete as many as 10 programs in the task manager to free up memory including printer spooling, dual monitor programs (22 megs of ram), Shuttle pro, some sound card stuff, etc. My Sony Vegas editor will open up with about 350 meg of memory usuage on a 1.5 hr clip, then as the render progresses hit about 1.4 gig at the half way point then max out about 2gig very quickly. This is with hyperthreading also. One other thing to mention that with the rapidly oncomming HDV stuff some people are going to 4-stack SCSI raids (1 terabyte) that will transfer a full 160 gigs faster than an eye blink. JJK

I have the DVD and it was fantastic though only in 16 x 9 digital but very good quality. I played it in 5.1 and the sound was excellent. The drums on the John Mcglauglan? song were super. One of the best DVD's I ever have purchased. Only negative is some of the "Clunky" menu work and the extra guitar solo section was a bust because they do not start at the beginning of the songs. Looked to me like the menu work was done by a kid. JJK

There are some widescreen movies that exceed the 2.35 x 1. (2.66 x 1) is the old Cinemasope aspect and some older big time flicks use this format and sometimes they will cut off the sides to make it 2.35 x 1. Sometimes they don't. I used to shoot the Scope format in 16mm film. The taking lens says 2.66 x 1. All of the newer setups are somewhere between 2.5 and 2.35 x 1 and depending on what jerk is converting it depends on how the letterbox ends up. Typically they will cut off 10% of the sides during the conversion from film to video. JJK

The letters "2Q" are stamped into the metal label. I didn't know what it meant, "Dean" didn't know what it meant, and Klipsch didn't know what it meant. But whatever Dean made to replace it worked better. The man who tested the network from Klipsch is on a paper stick-on label. You might contact a 90 year old guy (if they have one)who is working at Klipsch in Hope, Arkansas to find out. It controls a K-33J, K55V, and K77. It measures 11" x 5.5" x 1/2" and is black painted plywood. JJK

I have an old 1965 Cornwall 2Q you can have for $10.00. You won't like it though as it sounds like mud. And its 40 years old. It measures 11" x 5.5" x 1/2". It was replaced with a "DEAN" unit which totally blew it away. JJK

Understanding and trusting your measurements is a tough one to handle with the multimeter if you don't have some kind of formal education in electronics.The difference between a terminated or bridged measurement, what is an ohm, what is a volt, what is ac, what is dc, can your meter take a measurement without loading down the circuit, how accurate is the meter, and sometimes if you have vision problems the terminals you want to measure are so small you can't even see them unless you have a 5" magnifier with a light. Like "Oddball" says in "Kelley's Heroes" "We modified our tanks to go backwards faster than forwards in case we get ourselves into trouble we can get out of trouble faster than we got in." May the electronic gods be with you. JJK

A Bell Labs paper in 1935 suggested the wall be 25 to 30 feet. A smaller speaker can be used for the center channel as a fill in like Corwall, etc. Mine are 24 ft apart with a Cornwall center channel. JJK

Well at least you won't have to stir your coffee. JJK

If you like Eric Clapton you will love the Crossroads DVD (5.1 or DTS)and 16.x 9. JJK

The former owner probably put the glass tops on to set equipment on so that the equipment would not damage the finish. Used lots of glue so it would not rattle. One way is to sand it off with the new type DA's with the holes in the discs and electric powered being carefull then refinish as it looks like you will have to anyway. Or apply some veneer over it. The problem is the glue is bumpy and irregular so it must be removed. Nice project. JJK

One of the strongest things to repair that with is a small fibreglass repair kit. But then you have to touch up the finish. JJK

Dean: I would have said something more detailed earlier but I'm still fooling with many things.The new networks definitely moved things in a positive direction but my acoustics in the living room are not good and I am still learning different settings in the 7.1 mode which is the only mode that I do not like. The DE, DTS, and PLC-II are what I am using for just ordinary CD's. The equalizer settings are pumped up at 30 and 60 hz and also 16khz but I can't hear a thing (not the equipment but my actual hearing range) over 12.5khz. I will try some different setups in the next few weeks as time allows. One thing for sure, I will not put the old networks back in. Oh yes, the new networks are by DEAN. Also comtemplating a new DVD player that plays CD's. JJK

What are you going to use to play them? JJK