fgarib

LOL! If he hasn't, make sure he stays away... you'll turn into a (barely) breathing cesspool of slime! :0) In all seriousness folks, I'm just really sorry that there aren't more hours in the day... it is amazing what a difference the networks have really made. I could go on and on about the crystal clear highs, and BEEEAUTIFUL mids... and on and on about how I'm hearing things in music that I just didn't hear... But you've heard alll of that before... and I don't want Dean to shoot up his prices for my next order! So I'll just say two things: First of all, I've never really understood what people meant when they talked about separation of instruments in the soundstage until I plugged these in. It is simply uncanny how much you can "see" where the different instruments were meant to be in the presentation. Which, I guess means I'm now "seeing" things in my music that I never did before! My Khorns are along a relatively small wall (just over 14'), so I can only imagine what a longer wall would do to the soundstage! Secondly: Before these networks ended up in my speakers, I had quite the experience with them in a dark musty electrical engineering lab in Princeton University. I had sent the email order to Dean while I was still in Pakistan and planning a work trip to Toronto. Got there, (eventually!) sent in the payment, and realized that I had to be in Princeton, NJ for work, and the shipping works out much cheaper there, so I had him send them there instead. And one glorious Monday towards the end of March, FedEx delivered! Coincidentally, my bro-in-law is a PhD student there, and I asked (read: got on my knees and pleadingly grabbed his knees till he said yes!) if we could take these networks down to his lab and put them up on the oscilloscope. He agreed (mainly, I think, because he wanted the use of his legs again!), and off we went. Anyways, since I'm not a technical person at all, I had very little clue initially about what he was doing and how, but eventually an EE friend of his walked in and his jaw literally dropped. Turned out, this friend, an Indian was an audio enthusiast, and he had never ever EVER seen a winding job on the coil that was hooked up to the meter. He was just soooo amazed at the handiwork, and kept claiming that he had tried to do it numerous times, and to get it this good, it might take weeks, not days. Anyway, to make a long story short, I did manage to end up spending a couple days in the lab (not at a stretch, mind you!), and it was ROCKING to see the different frequency ranges that go into the different drivers and convert that into a frequency response curve. As I said, I'm not the most technical of people, so, though mundane sounding to the likes of most on this forum, I was like a kid in a Klipsch Kandy store! All those things that I had heard about (roll offs, responses, band pass, high / low pass) were right there in front of me! Anyways... that's enough typing for now! Music awaits! Fauzi

Hey there Shawn, "You can get away with it and if that is your only option then don't worry about it" I did raise the L/R's so that they are now only about a foot apart. I think I still prefer the soundstage that I get with them on the floor, but I'm going to run it like this for a few source materials and then put them back on the floor and check them out. "Make sure you are using the PWR trigger not the programmable trigger." I am using the PWR trigger and I did pull the block out! (Though it did take me a few seconds to figure out that it comes out! ) And nothing seems to work. I tried to change the polarity, but it was late at night and I think I tried the reversed polarity in the other trigger... will give it a shot tonight. Panorama: I'm going to try doing it and also further tuning the entire set up with the Avia DVD that I got. I bought it along with the SPL meter, and if this is the improvement I've got with the SPL, can't wait to try the DVD. BTW, one question that'll probably end up being theoretical in nature. I messed around quite a bit with Logic 7, both Music and Film modes. What are the differences? I was watching recorded episodes of Jail Break last night (not the most testing of sources, but hey! I needed to catch up!) and I found that L7 Music is far more enveloping mode. In fact, it felt like L7 Film was very "forward" biased.. IOW, it didn't seem that the surrounds played much of a part at all. Now since these are download episodes, I don't imagine the encoding would have come with it... So I'm thinking that the Lex sees it as a 2 channel source. Why then would there be such a HUGE difference in how Music parses it and how Film does? I'm sure I should be posting this on SMR's forums, but I'm hoping that more people would end up seeing these posts and buying into Lex products.... no matter what current Lex owners think about the upgrade policy to the MC12HD!!! Thanks once again, man. Fauzi PS: Where can I get some information on the theory behind surround sound in general? It just seems to me that so many people understand the nitty gritty behind it, and all I can talk about is how much better it sounds... will check out the DC-1 document that you mentioned. PPS: And I did get the REL set up. It's definitely not easy getting a subwoofer seamlessly matched, but I think I'm on my way there... Can you tell I'm loving life these days? EDIT: PPPS: What Lexicon amp are you selling? Been looking for an LX series amp for a long time... Wanted to buy it used.

Bill, "Hey Fauzi...that's MY story!" You're so right... it IS your story. You're the one that set me off after I followed your post about your all Heresy HT. If you remember, I did post along in there and told you that I was experiencing similar issues. I don't have it "dialled in" just yet.. but I'm leaps and bounds ahead of where I started. BEST 50 bucks this forum ever convinced me to spend! -Fauzi

Shawn, Heeey! I'm so glad you showed up, because I say it over and over, but it's you that I have to thank for convincing me to get the Lex... It's amazing how OBVIOUSLY better it is compared to many of the other processors I've had. Another tweak you can try which can be very effective. Put the Lex. in Logic 7 Music... Gonna give that a shot tonight... Been dying to plug in Norah Jones' Come Away With Me. Will get back to you about it. Are you running 5 or 7 speakers? 7. Had the KHorns in the front temporarily till I got DeanG's x-over plugged in. That's something else I did last night (Man, oh man was I busy! Check out my post in the 2 channel section. Anyway, I replaced them with an old pair of KG2's that I have, paired it with an RC-3 Center that a friend gave to me, and two pairs of non matching (non-Klipsch) surrounds for the sides and rears. Just got a brand new REL Stampede which I posted about in the SMR forums, and am right now in the process of setting that up. Next thing I'm going to do in the next couple of days is replace my sides to a pair of SS 5's to match the fronts. The rears I'm going to leave as they are. Just for kicks, I put the KG's on the floor, and the center on top of my 62" Rear projection Toshiba... So there's a gap of about 3' between the top of the KG and center. This I was told was a complete no no... But it just sounded so darn good. I never realized what was meant by a wall of sound. What do you think about that? BTW, is your MC-8 v1 or v2? V2. I have LIVE in there, but I have yet to mess around with it. Can't bring myself to spend that extra 500 bucks on the mics. Any way that you know of to get them cheap? I'm sure my daughter would love it... but I can think of at least one other person that might love it just a tad bit more! BTW, I can't seem to get the darn triggers going. On my previous receivers, the 12 v trigger outputs were little headphone type pin connectors (I don't know the technical name of that pin! ). On the Lex, it's that removable terminal. So I took one end of that old pin cable that I had, and spliced it and put in one side into the + and one into the - of the PWR trigger. The other side of hte cable, I left as is, and plugged it into the amp. Nothing... I figured that should do it but it didn't. What am I missing? Also, I could never get Panorama to work previously with the KHorns, but I figured the trouble was with the corner placement of the speaker... I tried for a little bit last night with the KG's... still no cigar. Any ideas off the top of your head? Will mess around with it some more anyway... but if you anything springs to mind, let me know. -Fauzi

Dear Mr. Wescott, Your crossover networks for my KHorns have been causing a rift in my marriage, and my new baby girl refuses to recognize me. I've grown and unseemly beard, my ears ring whenever I'm not listening to them, and I've developed a slight twitch in my left pinky finger. I smell, I can't find my toothbrush, my boss has been looking for me, and my customers have written me off. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for rectifying my life! Regards, Fauzi Garib

Hello all! I'm just soooo excited that I haven't slept all night... and the first thing I wanted to do was post here and get some feedback from you folks and send my thanks for all the help I've been getting. First the background though: I've been slooooooowly building my HT for the past couple of years, and it all came to a peak last year when I finally purchased a Lexicon MC-8 Digital Controller. Since then, my mains have been switching back and forth between a pair of KHorns, and an old pair of KG's that I had laying around, and I kept experimenting with all the available time that I had, which was just not much. But that soon ended after a few weeks, when my wife got pregnant. Even though her pregnancy was very smooth, her demands (as husbands with wives who are / have been pregnant know very well) just shot up! So I had to spend a ton of time with her, and even when we watched movies together, NO TWEAKING WAS ALLOWED!! Fast forward a few months, baby comes, diapers fly, sleepless nights abound, and, to make a long story short, I didn't have time to so much as scratch my head, let alone mess around with the HT setup. Also, in the middle, I was travelling continuously for almost 3 months, so that didnt' help my cause either. Anyways, yesterday at 4:00, my wife and BEEEEAUTIFUL baby daughter boarded a plane to visit my inlaws for 2 weeks, and 4:17, I was in front of the tv, tweaking, modding, adjusting... The only different thing I did this time, was spend a loooong time calibrating distances and levels. And for the first time, I ended up using the SPL Meter (Nady, not Radio Shack) that I bought a couple of months ago... .... My God! I think I saw Him. The experience was just unreal! I had used my ears to do the setup when I first finalized the setup, and it was nice and all... but nothing like last night. The illusion of surround sound was eerie almost. There were just no speakers in my room. Now if you see my earlier post about lacking punch in my HT, you'll know that I was on the verge of being very very disappointed with my setup and the amount of money that I had spent on it. So the moral of the story here is: Don't trust your ears to do a setup. Be sure to have the right tools for this job. There's not much to this post... I just HAD to get this off my chest to people who would understand the feeling that i'm going through. My eyes are shutting down from lack of sleep, I can't concentrate at work... but I can't wait to get back in front of my system again. Regards, Fauzi

Hey there, Just checked up the specs on your receiver. There's no reason that you shouldn't be getting a significant "wowing" experience. Might be unlikely, but even the best of us overlook the slightest, smallest things. A quick list off the top of my head tto check: - Phase correct on all speaker connections? - Sounds like an HT setup, so are the speaker distances / levels calibrated? - You CAN hear the test tones in all the speakers, right? - Center / mains are timbre matched? - Receiver calibration is geared towards your listening position? - All modes from your receiver sound bad? If there's even a single mode that sounds good and has the punch and results that you desire, all hope may not yet be lost. - This is a tougher one, but from what you can tell, is is possible that the room is just not meant for HT? Numerous reflective surfaces, too dead / too live, etc.? - Are the mains broken in yet? Since these are new, and since you're running mainly on HT (where the mains are on reduced duty), it may take longer to open them up, should they so require. The reason that I'm mentioning the above is because the worst possible thing that you can do is spend money on it and still be disappointed. I've been through it and I know the terrible terrible feeling you get. Let me know about the above, and perhaps we can move a little further. -Fauzi

Shawn, Mississauga, ON L5B 3Y7 Canada, Thanks Fauzi

Hey there, Shawn. I'd be interested... depending on how much the shipping to Canada is... and depending on whether it's still available or not. Can you let me know? I live in Mississauga, ON. Perhaps, you can ship off the AE900 in the same package too? -Fauzi

Def, LOLLLL!!!! Looove the analogy! And you hit the nail on the head, when you said "over-testosteroned! I've been brushing up on my Stereophile-speak and AV-Weekly-lingo, and prepped a couple of comments, no matter how much I like his system... which I'm sure I will, because from what I understand, Naim is, errr... a "name" to be respected... The trick is to make the comments start off as compliments... but then stick in a phrase or two in there to make 'em think! - "Wow, dude! Lucid! Very transparent! But, err... is it me or is the midrange just a touch, ummm, spongy?" - If it's toed in: "Man, i think you're toed in too much... the sweet spot could be sweeter." - If they're not: "Dude, gotta toe them in... the sweet spot could be sweeter." - On a nice acoustic guitar piece: "Man oh man, you can hear that bow gliiiide on the violin strings! WOW!" - On a rock piece: "Man, I never realized Bonzo's played the congos in this song... or is that the snare?" Of course, then I gotta work in words like, "Sloooow, stunted, shuddering, airy, boomy, emancipated...." And I'm trying to work on my pensive drawl as i say these words... Any more suggestions on Stereophile-speak? Keep em coming... Wednesday next is d day! -Fauzi

Hello all, I've been popping my head in and out of these forums trying to learn from your guys, and picking your brains now and then with my NUMEROUS questions. Well, here's my latest question: An "audiophile" friend of mine (notice the quotes!) recently challenged me to a shootout of his el cheapo (read: lower end) Naim System, consisting of a NAIT 3 integrated and Naim speakers (don't know the model, but I'm assuming they're the Intro 2's.) against my soon-to-have-the-DeanG-Xover-Mods-That-I-Bought-3-months-ago updated Khorns and an SS Mac 6400 integrated amp. Now frankly, I'm not the competitive sort, nor do I have any desire to get sucked into a subjective discussion of, "Dude, check that bass out!!! Can't you hear it?" But he insisted that he's going to kick my system's a$$... so in my earnest desire to not let you forum members down without a fight(and, in part, because of my ego just exploded) I agreed. Note that this is not going to be a technical contest in the slightest... No measurements to speak of... Even the sources, interconnects, software.. all of it will be variable. He'll play his music, on his cd player, in his room at his house, and me at my house, with my music, and my cd's / vinyl. Thus, this is completely geared up to be an evening of frustration. I think the schedule is that he's going come over one night next week, and then we're going to go over to his place soon after that. Now from what I can tell, this guy does not know the first thing about, say, the effect that the room itself has on the sound... or what makes up a good crossover... or what a midrange is, for that matter. However, the one thing that he does have going for him is that he has a TON of money, and knows that Naim is a darn solid brand. So, based on the reviews he's read, and the advice of his high end audio supplier, he has bought this system used, and plugged it into - get this - a square listening room. And apparently it sounds phenomenal! So my question is this: What the heck do I say to the guy... I have a feeling that nothing you can say will in any way, shape or form start to convince him that what he's listening to coming out of the Khorns is actually a really well rounded sound, and not only bang-for-buck-wise, but objectively it's a kick *** system. I think i'll just have 2 scotches for every one that I serve to him at my place... that way the evening will be less painful at his place with his jibing on and on using words that he's just learned in the June issue of Stereophile... Look forward to hearing your opinions. -Fauzi

Hey all.. just wanted to add on... that friend of mine who was going to give me the SC-1 Center... Well, it turns out he's a much better friend than I thought! It's actually an RC-3! I was most excited when I saw it. Is that going to over power my KG's in the fronts? Thanks, Fauzi

Max! You and I had this discussion once long ago, (you probably don't remember), where I had said that after "Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking," Waters has put out one mediocre album (referring to ATD) and then kind of disappeared. You then replied stating that this is by no means a mediocre album, and I have to thank you for that. Since that day, I have plugged my ATD cd (can't find the vinyl where I'm at.), and it has hardly left my cd player. Simply brilliant! Although, i have to be honest! As much as I do love ATD, Pros and Cons still ranks amongst my favorites. As for the rest of this discussion, Animals is one ROCKING album, and I agree completely that this is an album that you either LOVE or DETEST... No middle ground. I for one, unlike the reviewer in the article, always felt that the centrally driving creative force in PF was Waters and not Gilmour. In fact, I've barely heard any PF since A Momentary Lapse or Reason, and frankly don't really care too. It maybe good music to some ears, but to me, it's just not what Floyd used to be. BTW, Wish You Were Here is a really good album too... There's a lot of seething politico-social bitterness in that album too, just like Animals or The Wall... And, I personally feel that the sarcastic tone of "Have a Cigar," is, to date, unrivalled... "Oh by the way, which one's Pink?" Anyways, just my $0.02. Thanks for the review... interesting reading. -Fauzi

Hey there, You mentioned that the THX Ultra manual states that the wide dispersion should be along the sides... I was wondering that very same thing and am planning on putting them like that... with the SS5's along the sides, and the SB1 Bookshelves behind me. Why had you done it the other way around? Also, I understand the Dolby labs states that the rears should be above ear level... Why is that though? Intuitively it sounds to me that all speakers shoud be AT ear level and, therefore, at the same level to give a better illusion of surround. Doesn't that make more sense? Just wondering, as I'm in the process of changing my HT setup also.. see my "Adding Beef to my HT" post in the HT forum... so any help is highly appreciated. Fauzi

Hello all! After reading silversports "Where's the beef" thread (http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/thread/742582.aspx), I've been really digging into my HT setup. I now have the following questions: In that thread, it was mentioned that along with the timbers of the various speakers in your setup, the sensitivities should also match. Now in the hodgepodge that I call my HT setup, i had a whole melee of different speakers... For my fronts, I had the KHorns, (un)matched with a KEF Reference series center channel. For the sides, I had my old (and kind of gold) Infinity Sterling Series 3-ways, and for the rears I had my KEF surround speakers. For my amplification, I am running a really nice NAD C252 (I think that's the model number) 2 channel power amp for my fronts, and a Rotel 1075 5 channel for the surrounds and center. All of this is being run by a Lexicon MC-8 processor. I don't know if this is the sort of mix and match that people do, but I was getting sick of it... There was just nooooo punch to speak of. So my question is more of an opinion-seek. I've finally decided to do this: a) improve my speaker placements. Already I'm starting to hear a difference. (And this is where I would like for you all to chime in) Change my speakers: I'm going to move the KHorns out of my HT. I really feel they belong in my 2-channel with my Mcintosh solid state... I feel I get more bang for my buck there. Therefore, for my fronts, I'm going to have my KG4's that I had lying around the house. And hence, my HT will unfold as below: Fronts: KG4 (as mentioned above) Center: SC1 (belonged to a friend who was nice enough to just give it to me... LOVE LOVE LOVE friends like that!!) Sides: A pair of SS 5's that are sitting with a dealer close to my house. Rears: A pair of SB 1's that are also with the same dealer. Opinions? From my understanding, the sensitivities of all the above mentioned are in the 92-95 range. c) Finally, the question I had was about the gains in my amps. The Nad has a variable gain connection in the back, where I can fix the preout to that and adjust the gain with the little knob in the back. How do I get it so that the gains of the Nad and the Rotel to match? I'm actually quite excited to move on with these changes so I look forward to hearing from all you out there. -Fauzi c)

Hey there, Which Focal / JM Labs is he offering? As much as I LOVE Klipsch, I had a chance to audition the $5000+ Elektra for a couple of weeks at my place, and still smack my lips thinking about that time! But the lower end ones ( namely the Cobalt series) are nice, but not worth the money at all. I've heard most of the current range of JM Labs, and think that anyone in their right minds would think they're phenomenal speakers.... depending on the price that you're getting... Best of luck. Fauzi

Silversport!!! Thanks soooo much for putting this topic up. I've been thinking about writing about this for the longest time, but between my new baby daughter / not being able to verbalize my problem, and general embarrasment at having paid too much for a HT that I'm not getting my bang out of, I kept putting off the post. So I've been trying all the things that have been mentioned here and they are starting to make a huge - correction, HUGE - difference for me too. However, one more question to you all helpful folks out there. First, here's my setup. Main L/R : Klipschorn Center: KV1 Sides: An old pair of Infinity Sterling Series Rears: KEF Reference Sattelites Amps: Rotels for the surrounds, NAD for the mains AVR: Lexicon MC-8 My question is that I'm looking to replace my Infitnitys with a pair of KG 4.2's that I have. But I've been putting it off, because I wanted to get some opinions as to whether it's more important to match the sensitivity of the SIDES with the fronts, or the sensitivity of the REARS with the fronts? IOW, should I replace the KEF's or the Infinitys? It's my thinking that the side speakers in a 7.1 setup are more important (relatively speaking) for the overall effect. Am I wrong in saying this? I know I'll get responses that I should replace both sides AND rears, but it's tough getting Klipsch used in Pakistan! Help is HIGHLY appreciated. Regards, Fauzi

Upside down! Waaaait a minute... would that work? That sounds actually like a perfect idea, if speakerfritz wasn't kidding. Would that effect the sound at all? Fauzi

Hello all, I have a wonderful living room / drawing room area in our new house.. And it's slowly and slowly and steadily getting very nicely done up also. Now I'm going to try to explain the setup as it is, because I have a unique idea about the placement of the Khorns. The room itself is approximately 30' long and 13.5' wide, with a wonderful full-width nice cut into the short wall on one end. Now this niche starts at a height of almost 3' from the ground and goes further into the wall for another 4-5 feet. So, in short, the dimensions of the niche in question are 13.5 ' wide x 4-5' deep x about 7 or 8 ' tall. My idea is to put the Khorns in there. Now the speaker would already be starting at 3' off the ground, and the squawker is at 3.5 ' (am i correct?), so that would put the level of the highs coming out at 6.5 ft. So, unless a really tall person is standing, that would probably be too high for anyone's ears and thus really hurt the imaging for any sort of critical listening. My question is, because of the depth of the room, could this be worth trying? Any input is highly appreciated..as always. REgards, Fauzi

Soulbabel, I just kinda flew through the topic, so I don't know if your main problem has been rectified or not. I really really think that your issue is nothing more than a short. I used to have the same problem and it took me FOREVER to figure it out. And the exact same thing; where at a volume peak, the receiver would shut down... So all I did was to unhook every single connection (speaker - wise) including behind the speakers, and took extra care to separate each portion of the naked wire. Give that a shot. I don't care how bad the combination of speakers and receivers is, what you described just should not happen. Keep me posted and let me know what happens. On the other hand, if you've solved the issue already, ignore this message entirely! Good luck, Fauzi

RTTR! Oops! I guess I just read page one of this post! [:$] Sorry to hear about your troubles. As good as the combo is, I'm prone to agree with some of the others. No matter how far you have to travel for NAD, getting treatment like this is just not worth it. I would STRONGLY recommend telling them you want to cancel the order and get a full cash refund immediately. Knowing retaling like I do, they probably won't want to give any money back, so, at the very least, you can push him enough to give you a *SIGNIFICANT* discount on either this combo or the CD player. Just be in their face repeatedly about how this is the worst treatment you've ever gotten and that NAD would be very unhappy to hear some of the things that I have to say. Trust me when I tell you that they can not afford an unhappy customer like you. Milk it! Good luck, man. Hope to hear the good news soon. Fauzi

RTTR, Congrats on a GREAT amp! I have the exact same model for a couple of years now, and am very very happy with it. It's light weight kind of throws you off, but when you hear the amp... SMOOTH! You know you can actually get it going without a pre amp... It has two inputs in the back from the pre amp... Fixed and Variable, I think. So you can actually plug the CD player directly into the Variable side and control the volume with the variable level knob. This is just a temporary solution, till the preamp actually arrives... but till tehn, at least you can hook it up. Good luck and enjoy! Fauzi

Colterphoto! Thanks for the input. Unfortunately, I don't have the room for another Heritage in my HT setup, nor does my wife have the patience, nor are the Heritage available readily in Pakistan. The only other option that I have is a KG speaker that I have, or someone on this forum guided me towards the KV5 (I think that's the model #). How do both options sound? Fauzi

Bill H. wrote the following post at 04-09-2006 6:37 PM: The Klipsch ebay store is selling the Philips Pronto remote. It has gotten good reviews. http://cgi.ebay.com/Philips-ProntoNEO-Universal-Remote-Control-from-Klipsch_W0QQitemZ9705118503QQcategoryZ61320QQcmdZViewItem Guys, I used the Philips Pronto for sometime and actually ended up getting quite used to the thing. It was nice that you could program your screens completely and customize them to your individual needs. However, the one thing that got really really REALLY old was having to look at it while "pressing" the buttons on the screen. Since there are no raised buttons on the face, you have to look at the remote to press something. And when you're lying in your favorite relaxing chair watching a movie, it gets annoying having to get into such a position where you can see the button you're pressing AND point it to your HT units at the same time. Which is why I thought about investing in an RF extender so that I just continue to lay there.. the lazy a$$ that I am.... But iended up buying Universal Remote Company's Customizer and am VERY VERY happy with it. Just my 2cents.. Good luck. Fauzi

Taking this discussion a little off track: How would the RC-35 match with Heritage fronts? -Fauzi