PrestonTom

I do not doubt that he is nice fellow. However, it is still the case that electrons do NOT know about the "direction" of the cable. It really is as simple as that. My friendly suggestion is that you put the time and energy into obtaining well-reorded music. That will make a difference in the sound. Good luck, -Tom

" I thought for sure you were talking about PAWTUCKET (or CENTRAL FALLS)" SixCats, Sounds like you live on the CT/RI border, I am not far away -Tom

The "B" style cabinets (with the collar in between) do look nicer. My opinion: don't change it. -Tom

Congratulations on your new arrivals. Actually I will give advice that is a bit at odds around here. I would suggest not doing a thing to them for the next several months. Simply get used to them. Take some time on positioning them both in the the room and relative to your listening chair. This can easily go back and forth for a couple of months. Try rearranging the furniture also. I am serious. This could have a much more profound effect. Enjoy, -Tom

I agree with the above. Curtains will be of limited use. They can be imprvoved if they are lined (heavier fabric) and if they are spaced at least a few inches away from the wall. There may have been stuff behind the curtain that was useful. Let me note, when you hang long curtains (esp with spacing behind them) these can be a very real fire issue if they have not been treated in some fashion. Good Luck, -Tom

Seriously, get the shortest cables possible and do NOT pay more than $25. Enough of the snake oil ..... If you want better sound, then get carefully recorded music. -Tom

Bobs2010, Good luck on your sales; however, I agree with the others that there are a number of good amps & pre-amps out there. I will also note that it was a pretty cheap shot when you attacked Klipsch & the website & the Webmaster. The forums are provided as a courtesy. The forums are also undergoing an upgrade. So cut some slack. I am sorry if this service (in your case being used for your own want ads) is inconvenient for you. Personally, I find it hospitable that Klipsch provides us this source of entertainment. -Tom

m8o, We are not laughing at you. Maybe we are laughing at the situation. Really there is no difference due to the direction of the interconnects, plain & simple. There may have been some other things that got "jiggered" around when you did this. Who knows what... I am bringing this up, since I hate to see people send money on dubious devices and snake oil. There are things one can do to improve the sound, but "directional" interconnects are NOT on the list. It bothers me that money grubbing manufacturers are tricking the unaware into things like: expensive speaker cable; cryogenically treated anything, etc. That kind of exploitation really bothers me. Good luck, -Tom

With all due respect, you have got to be kidding. Perhaps you did hear some difference. Perhaps there was a better connection after you unattached & reattached the connectors. Seriously, Do you think the electrons ( and the copper) "know" the difference? Good luck, -Tom

We must remember the wavelengths involved.... A corner loaded horn is not (and should not be measured) in an anechoic environment. Most of this discussion is confounded since you are really talking about the cabinet/room as a system. This is about room acoustics at these low frequencies. Good Luck, -Tom

I guess it is all in the eye of the beholder. The FR measures do show a difference but what is the interpretation? The K77 has a flatter response then poops out more quickly (at about 17k). While the other has a more extended bandwidth, but it is ragged. One interpretation from the measurements would be that many of us do not have much hearing up at 17-20KHz. So we are proabaly not missing much. I won't even bother belaboring the point that any music energy up there is going to be fairly attenuated anyhow. In that case, the less ragged FR of the K77 "might" be better since that is still in an audible range and there is music in that region. The IM distortion (which I am glad you ran) looks more similar than dis-similar between the two. Actually it does not look to bad in either case. The impulse and the boxcar at 5KHz are difficult to interpret. First they don't look that different, since some of what you are seing are reflections. Again they seem more similar than dis-similar. It is difficult to tease apart rise time from bandwidth. Essentially a narrow band process will always "ring" with the ring time (rise and decay) being inversely proportional to the bandwidth. But both these tweeters have enough bandwidth so I am not sure that is the difference, Additionally, the "apparent" rise and decay can be influenced by phase shifts between the components (perfectly normal in a linear device and absolutely not perceptible at these high frequencies anyway). One other difference is the sensitivity of these two, which is clear in the first graph. Since the freq response is different between the two, a typical measure of sensitivity (or efficiency) is probably not appropriate. At a crude level, do they seem to be "equally loud" with a broad band signal? Good Luck, -Tom

Scott, Good Question. At the driver end of the horn you have a small volume & high pressure. This helps minimize the impedance mis-match between the driver's material and the air. It is the impedance mismatch that causes the inefficient transfer (so the 2nd law still holds). The displacement of the driver is relatively small (so the driver remains in its linear range). As the volume increases (traveling down the horn away from the driver and towards your living room), the impedance becomes more like the open space of your living room. In essence, the horn acts to "transform" the impedance. What is critical here is the issue of efficiency. As this increases, distortion decreases. All this, and you get a nice low frequency response also. Good Luck, -Tom

You are asking a tough question, but you are on the right track. You need to determine what the problems are first and then plan your attack. Room treatment is certainly a good idea. There is quite a bit of info over at Audio Asylum (along with quite a bit of voodoo). This should get you started. You are trying to achieve two inter-related goals. The first is to tame room modes (resonances) so the frequency response (of the speaker/room considered as a system) is somewhat uniform. At low frequencies, this is not trivial. The second is to tame excessive reverberation time. Again, at low frequencies this is not trivial. Individual treatments have (one of) three goals: absorb the sound; reflect the sound; or diffuse the sound. With that in mind, I would suggest doing some research (and there is much info on the Web) ahead of time. Hopefully, you could do some measurements of the room also. This may be a bit more than you bargained for; however, the treatments can be expensive. So a focused approach will be ultimately economical. But the good news is that this approach will have a significant impact on the sound, much more than many of the other things that people do to their setups. There are also issues of "deadening" the sound to make your listening environment quiet, but that is another topic Good Luck, -Tom

Kudret, You have confused me. When you converted the AA into an A, what is the problem. Are you looking for newer parts or more exotic brands. I would think that if you are handy enough to convert an AA into an A, then it should not be a problem to swap (freshen up) the caps in the crossover. It is not clear to me, that there is a benefit to replacing inductors or autoformers also (unless you are doing a re-design). Good Luck, -Tom

That room is amazing!

I agree with Gil about the difference between steel wool and a scotch brite pad. One thing keeps coming up on the forums that bothers me. The issue is adding stain to your mix of oil and Turpentine. I beleive that if you add /apply stain, then the surface must be treated first. This could be a good cleaning or a light sanding (I said light). If stain is applied to to a dirty surface (or worse yet, one that has had furniture polish with silicone applied) then the stain can be quite uneven. Although this is not as problematic when diluted in the oil. I guess I am leery of adding stain to your "once a year" treatment. On a positive note, there has been some good advice given. Good Luck, -Tom

Jeff, You are correct, it is not a craze. It is a reasonable question; however, it is also a difficult question. IMHO, it should be certainly obvious that distortion is never a good thing and certainly should not be hoped for in an amp or speaker. When the system is driven hard, distortion will occur. One non-linearity comes from clipping. This can have different origins (lack of transient levels of high current, etc). With tubes the result tends to be even harmonic (with a 1 kHz tone ---- distortion at 2k and less at 4k and even less at 6k etc). With SS the distortion tends to concentrate at the odd multiples. This later case is perceptually more aversive and probably more noticeable (there are qualifications on this statement of course). Unfortunately the degree of distortion will vary as function of overall level. Since not all of it is due to clipping (possibly coming from"crossover" distortion and other sources), different amps will behave differently. As one might expect, manufacturers can make these measures in the region where their equipment is most linear. This is compounded, since the measures are made with a dummy load having a uniform impedance. This is certainly not the case of a real speaker (along with its crossover). So the measure now becomes even more complicated if you include the speaker. Incidentally, it is the mechanical portion of the system (the speaker) is probably the biggest source of distortion. THD is simply a sum of the distortion at all the harmonics without regard to whether it was even or odd. One should not go to sleep at night with a happy smile because there amp is distorting at even harmonics. The goal is to get rid of as much distortion as possible. This is why high efficiency speakers are so attractive. It is also why they can be so revealing of bad components in your system. IM distortion can be a real pain - it also sounds bad. These are a variety of combination & difference tones (distortions produced) when measured with a multi-tone input. The spec that is typically given only performs the measure for specific combination. An additional wrinkle is that, IM distortion can vary temporally. This is more difficult to measure and is referred to as Transient Inter Modulation distortion (TIM). Some (including PWK) thought this was a particularly nasty form of distortion. The list is not complete, there are other kinds of non-linearities ......... To my knowledge, no one was actually done a systematic ranking on what levels of the different distortion components are most aversive. That would not be a simple measure since the domain is potentially quite large and probably interactive. To no ones surprise, you need to listen to the amp with your speakers and at your preferred levels etc. I hope this gets people off the bandwagon that some distortions are "good" (add to the "musicality"). They are not to be sought after. Avoid them! The original recording had the real musicality of the musicians and their instruments. If it is not there, then get a better recording. Good Luck, -Tom

The Heresy is a fine speaker. It is a very good value (interms of price to performance). However, it is bass shy. This can be partially helped by room placement (near the floor to help re-inforce some of the lower frequencies). Expecting a superb bass from such a small cabinet will not be solved by pouring money into an amp. The speaker is simply not designed for that. The money would be better spent on a sub. Since the cabinet is fairly efficient, a noisy amp (or other components) will be revealed. So I would not bother with spending money on big watt amps or on high current amps. Choose one that has a clean signal when playing just a few watts. IMHO, this can certainly achieved for well less than $1K. I would also suggest not limiting yourself to tube amps. Good Luck, -Tom Amps that I have direct experience with & enjoyed with a Heresy include: Harman Kardon, Luxman, and Adcom. These were various models from the 70s & 80s and are quite affordable and available.

The unfortunate thing is that it seems that Shawn (SFogg) got chased away by the bickering. The reason this is unfortunate is that Shawn clearly has an engineering background and is able to explain many of the issues at a conceptual level. This is fortunate since many on the forum do not have the necessary math & physics. That is not a jab at anyone, it is just difficult to communicate these concepts without using a blackboard & equations. That said, I think you should listen to what Shawn is saying. If there are unfamilair terms, then by all means ask for a definition. Unfortunately, the hostility of the discussion prevents others from learning. You really should listen to what an engineer has to say about what is essentially an engineering-issue. Unfortunately, I do not have the patience to clear up some of the confusion about signals, systems, & measurement. If I tried, I would have to listen to a bunch of attacks, fuzzy thinking, & venom. I won't bother. Good Luck, -Tom

That really is a stunning room. I fully appreciate the amount of hard work you have put into this project. Thanks for posting the pictures. Good Luck, -Tom

Good luck on your search for them. I do agree with Max that the specs do seem incredible. In looking at them, I noticed that the efficiency is measured in a "typical" room (not anechoic). I am not questioning that decision, since it sometimes needs to be done. However, that can sometimes add 2-3 dB when compared to a more conventional measure. Also the phrase "usable" bandwidth is difficult to interpret, especially since they seem go so low in frequency. Again there may be an implied room/setup issue. I am not trying to knock them, but they do seem incredible. Have you ever had a chance to listen to them? Good luck, -Tom

I think you have hit it on the head. You may want a non-auditory effect, like "earth shaking". In which case coupling to the floor might make sense. But that, of course, has little to do with accurate sound reproduction. Think about it, the energy coupled to the floor and transmitted by the floor would be horribly band-passed and distorted. Why would you want to make this part of the sound re-production? I would think that you would want to minimize this. Good luck, -Tom

The answer is a simple one. It was nothing "sexy". I simply moved my K-Horns to the long wall and placed my listening chair to be at a tangent to the face of the speakers. In effect, I simply followed the instructions. The improvement is real. Notice how I have not used the following phrases: 1. The sound is more revealing 2. cryogenic 3. Skin effect 4. Oxygen free I'll stop there.... Good luck, -Tom

DrBill, I am glad to hear about your "problem". The thread has wandered, but I am interested in your thoughts about the new tweeters. Were the old ones bad? Is it simply more HF extension or what. I guess what I am asking is if you could be more specific about the nature of the improvements. There are other alternatives out there and I am wondering how to choose between them. Thanks, -Tom

Meagain, You need to follow Andy's advice very carefully. There is a difference between re-finishing and "applying the annual coat of oil to the cabinets". If you are re-finishing the surface must be prepped. This is certainly true if there is a stain in the mixture. As I said in one of the other threads, the rules change if you are applying this mixture over a non-oil finish (e.g. lacquer), or if the surface is dirty or not uniform, or if furniture polish with silicone has been used. Good luck, -Tom