Kriton

Folks, While the forum was down over the weekend, I had an opportunity to catch up on a some reading over at the AVSforum, and there was a thread over there that was titled, "What speakers disappointed you?" Keep in mind that I heard another Klipsch forum poster's B&W Nautilus speakers this last Saturday that really were stunning, made me start to question my purchases and staunch loyalty to the Klipsch brand... Klipsch is pretty much at the head of the list, downright bashed almost from the initial post (see secodn page of the thread for the start of the comments), as harsh and bright and disappointing to the majority of the posters. There are few valiant (and well thought out) efforts to retort that are shot down, but generally...they dislike Klipsch - a lot. Now in fairness, somebody has a paroblem with just about every speaker made. Comments (paraphrasing) that PWK sacrificed tonal balance for efficiency in his speakers, an unfortunate engineering choice - and the same old "Heresy, Scalas and Belles were made to be center channel speakers and therefore are so bass shy that they are useless as stand a lone speakers", and my favorite was one post that said that Klipsch speakers were the "second most over-priced speakers on the market" - I can just guess what the first was... Are we missing something here? Are we, the general collective Klipsch buyers/refurbishers/owners/fanatics just wrong? http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=649149&page=1&pp=30 I would like to hear some opinions... K

Picked up my black H2's over the weekend in Little Rock from Kaiser and SETI, and boys, they are spotless and perfect in all respects. I put them next to my project H2's and the difference is like night and day, the new H2's are just as clear as a bell. They are definite black beaties these, sequential serial numbers, smell like they were just painted. I wanted to thank Kaiser and his lovely wife for being so gracious to my wife and I, inviting us into their home and going out of their way to pick up this pair of speakers for us in Hope...If there is anything I can do to help these folks or my other friends here on this forum, I hope that you will ask. SETI made some cd's for me to take home , and I listened to them all the way, it was a hoot - Japanese techno/funk/punk - it was awesome and I really appreciate the time and effort that went into this. Thank you Amy for your patience. If you guys have a chance to pick up a pair of thes elast run, brand new in box H2's, I highly recommend it... K

AMY! Kaiser just picked up my black Heresy 2's from the factory, holding them for my trip tomorrow! WooHoo! K

Hey, question - what is the natural color of boiled linseed oil? I have a pair of CW2's that were birch raw, but since the grain was coming up, I sanded them up lightly, put some clear oil stain on them and waxed them up - the oil did not darken them much at all...if I decide to go over them with BLO, what can I expect with any color change? Thanks, K

No, that looks like a crushed in dust cap, I mean an actual wrinkle across the face of the cone... I will try to find a picture, but if any one knows what I mean... K

Now that a lot of folks are unloading the RF series of speakers I have noticed a lot of cerametallic cones that are for a better word, wrinkled. You know the ones, they have waves on the cones or folds in the material? Not tears exactly, but just strange undulations? How are these caused? Are they fixable, do they effect sound ( quite a few folks claim not?) Just curious? K

"H"eresy "B"irch "R"aw K

OK, just to get back on target - How much are the new Crites tweets, will they drop into the old rear mounted K-77's location without modification, and will they also work with existing crossovers? Lastly, what kind of rope caulk does Bob suggest we use on them? (Just kidding.) I think I know the asnwers, I just want to confirm! K Edit: Also, I think the question was asked, but how do these new tweets compare to the CW2 and H2 tweets of the later variety in extension and specs?

I listened to several of Orff's other works, Antigone and some small violin peices, and I was not overly fond of them. I thought they were, perhaps in an unfair comparison, pretty dull and somewhat pedantic compared to Burana. Perhaps it was unkind of me to characterize the rest of his output in such fashion, I just didn't care for it, and it did not as you point out, receive much popular or critical acclaim that I have found. Haven't listened to "schulwerk", didn't know he wrote such things, apparently a relatively popluar method of teaching? Love Satie piano, very impressionistic, very melancholy. K

OK, see that gives me a place to start - Try these on for size - Look for some Debussy, say "Clair De Lune" and the like, also look for R. Vaughn Williams, I think you would really like it. I have never been a huge fan of Camille - maybe just my classical versus romantic leanings... DMan, my wife plays the piano, has since 3, and can play a mean Rachmaninoff, which also happens to be one of my favorites - get a copy of Horowitz playign the Rach 2, and you will never listen to another recording of it, I promise. Then again, being from Ft. Worth, the ol vampire Van Cliburn makes a passable Rachmaninoff too! LarryC - Love Wagner, can't get enough - but my butt is getting too old to take the marathon 6 hour operas anymore - once saw the whole ring cycle over a week...man that was good stuff! I have a few Wagner interludes and prelude compilations, but they are mainly "Valkyrie" aka Apocalyse now mass consumption discs, made by Szell and Cleveland I beleive, but I have not found any that are worth a damn since then... Just so much good stuff, so very little time... K

I have that recording too, and it is quite nice! I like Szell on some of the bigger more grandiose recording, the Cleveland Orch never let him get too far out of bounds, and that group is as good as they come, IMO. My suggestions for someone looking for some good classical music is go for some soundtracks, some good collections or samplers. The labels are the important thing in that case, for instance, the Naxos label put out several discs which were called things like "Adagio Chillout" or some such. They are wonderful collections of some really good music, not the best, but certainly not the worst place to start. I recommend the Amadeus soundtrack(s) for a good compilation of music, St. Matin in the Fields with Marriner is top notch and they did an excellent job in that recording. The soundtrack for "Tous Les Matin Du Monde" (A French film with Gerard Depardieu) is excellent for early cello music (and some of that Lully I mentioned earlier). There is a soundtrack from a movie call "Aria" (a real treat for opera lovers), that is a nice truncated opera selection ending with Caruso singing "Vesti La Giubba"...that one has Leontyne on it two or three times, one of them is singing the Leibestod, which I recommended above. Soundtrack from the movie "Shine" would be one I would look at; I wore out my soundtrack from "The Piano", Michael Nyman, very repetitive and very listenable stuff...that is the place to start, then go from there... When I want to check into a new series of works, I look at the samplers - for instance, just picked up an SACD classics sampler from Acoustic Sounds, and some of it is nonsense, but there are some real gems... Finally, if you want to follow classical music in the world, and pick up a good disc every month, I recommend the BBC Music Magazine. I have been a subscriber for years; you get a glossy professional magazine every month with a CD of recently recorded classical music of different composers or performers, usually top notch by professional orchestras and recognized performers around the world. Christmas disc around C-mas, etc. The magazine reviews new discs, talks about the state of classical music and opera from a European bent of course, and lists concerts and appearances around the world. Very cool, and at something like $7.00 a month, very cheap IMO. Some of the discs that I have received from the BBC are my very favorites. Check it out. http://www.bbcmusicmagazine.com/ K

Actually D, it is all of those things - specifically: O Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (Fortune, Empress of the World) is technically the first and last chapter of the work - If you really read the history of this piece, and of Orff himself, the whole thing is just weird with a capital W. Most of the bawdy and very earthy poems to which this was set were found high in the mountains buried in the floor of a monastery presumably buried there by the monks of the place...making the whole thing kind of sacreligious. Orff himself never really wrote anything before or after that was worth a damn, and he said himself when he was interviewed about writing Carmina that he felt "an unseen presence moving his hand..." You hear that swan roasting alive and you will believe it... K

This is such a wide open question that it really defies an answer. It really depends on what kind of music you like, and what kind of mood you are in... I find that I have a certain number of genres that I listen to frequently, and within those genres, I have multiple recordings of the same piece over and over again, different conductors or time frames. If you are into deep orchestral richness, then pretty much anything by Wagner will suck you in and hold you there. If you are into sweet music that is recognizable and beautiful, then I would have to say Ralph Vaughn WIlliams comes to mind (Lark Ascending and the like), if a tone poem sort of music grabs you, then Respighi's Pines of Rome has always had a soft spot with me. The art songs of R. Vaughn WIlliams are awesome too, particularly the "Songs of Travel" (Brynn Terfel does these marvelously). AND anything by Aaron Copeland, "Fanfare for the Common Man" to "Simple Gifts", the stuff is wonderful; music of our century and easily idenitfiable. I personally like opera and oratorio; if you want a peice that is more modern lovely music, then by all means check out the Faure Requiem (Pie Jesu is sweet and sonorous), but if you are looking for a ball buster that is not frequently performed due to the size of the required choruses, go Verdi Requiem (Confutatis is one fantastic piece of music - if you dig bust out bass). The church music of Walton and Herbert Howells is excellent as well. Different time, different intention, good stuff. I have great organ works which will blast you out of the room, or works for solo cello, it just really depends. There are times, I want to put on a powerful peice and just set the room on fire, and others I want quiet reflective mood music, all up to your tastes. Carmina Burana was mentioned, and I heartily second the piece, I probably have 10 different cds/SACD with that recorded; each are different and some are hits and some misses - for the singers it is particularly difficult. The roasting swan is weird and morbid and wonderful, very scary stuff. Imperatrix Mundi has been recorded for use with more commercials it seems than just about any other piece of music I have heard in recent times. As far as opera, I lean toward the performers specifically, again depends on your taste. I like opera singers who sing like there is no tomorrow, hold nothing back - that kind of singing is just not taught any more in my opinion, so the performers of the past are my favorites; check out Leonard Warren (baritone)(research him on the net, he has a "society" that has published a three cd set of his recordings that is wonderful and will give you sound clips to hear first), Ettore Bastianini (baritone), Franco Correlli (tenor) (who died last year FYI), Jussi Bjoerling (tenor), anything by Leontine Price (the Leibestod is one of my particular favorites), Jesse Norman, Callas - I have really taken to some new stuff by Renee Fleming (especially her Mozart and Brahms lieder)... Now as far as older works, I am fond of chamber music, Lully, Corelli (the composer) and polyphonic Palestrina notably. As far as more modern things, I really like Eric Whitacre (his cd with the Brigham Young choir is stunning -ask Woodog, turned him onto it and he loves it...) Guess that might not have been too helpful. If you want specific recordings, I would be happy to oblige. K EDIT: See, I love Bolero by Ravel! I think it is a repetitive peice but it is still quite nice, and I see the ladies in the salon at the first performance fainting! It is all just personal taste! Oh, don't forget Holst Planets, Handel's Water Music, Mussorgsky's Pictures....

That's just hilarious - karaoke amplifiers! PWK would be spitting nails. K

Didn't PWK know this? Why did he make all those H1's and Corns for so many years if this was such a big deal? I know the H2's and CW2's are flush but surely he would have fixed that sooner? K

Hey Arky! Thanks man, I think that we have gotten it worked out, sounds like SETI and Kaiser are going to make a road-trip of it next Friday if that is cool with Amy.. I really appreciate the effort though! Fantastic having folks that will do this for me, and they will not regret it! I really enjoyed these guys in Hope last July, and I was disappointed to have to tell SETI that my wife didn't have any sisters, alas! Unfortunately, she will be unable to attend the June gathering, as she will be about two weeks away from the birth of our daughter, our first who is due on the 28th of June. Right now, she is still saying I can come (as she will be surrounded by my family and hers - but that is still way cool ), but I may be sacrificing a little marital bliss for that one, and I am not going to take that chance for obvious reasons! We shall see what the weather brings... Thanks again, we will let everyone know how it goes! K

Amy! Already DONE! Kaiser, you have PM... Thanks guys...and if we can find someone closer...so Kaiser is not out that trip? But if we can't I will be eternally grateful! K

Kaiser! That would be awesome! I am hoping that AMy is cool with the week wait, I will e-mail her and find out...I hate to make you drive that distance man, while I don't have a problem driving to Little Rock, I don't want to put you that far out. Do you know of anyone closer to Hope that I can beg? Mike, it was a mistake purchase really. Got in under the wire for a pair of the factory Ebay Heresy II's in black lacquer (always liked back), that were listed as refurbs, but really how far from perfect can they be if they are coming from the factory? Frankly, I did this in order not to have to deal with other folks junk, my last H2 purchase was a disaster, and I just want a pristine pair of H2's before you can't find them anymore without dings and chips and other disrespective nonsense. I know that as long as i have them they will be well cared for, and will see a lot of action as my second or third system, with Rach 2 blaring all over the place. Thanks for the replies, K

RichardP, OK, not an expert here, and I read a whole bunch of people talk about this player. There were two issues. First, some folks were experiencing "macroblocking" on some plasma sets, where the Faroudja chips had a peculiar way of showing black blocks on the screen during ceratin sequences. I am not entirely sure what that was all about, but it didn;t happen across the board, as some folks claimed it was intermittent and other claimed it happened all the time. This was an specific filter issue, as I gather; I ahve never experienced any problem with the picture quality, quite the contrary, it is pretty damn good. Apparently, from my research it really only effects DLP displays, but you can look into that. Macroblocking shows up as dark blotches or blocks in scenes on DVD's where the screen is mostly black or dark, and is a known problem with that particular Faroudja chip. Again, not a deal breaker for me, never noticed it...has frankly more instances of that with my Toshiba than with this thing. Secondarily, with the HDMI thing, there was a glitch in the on/off fucntion fo the player under certain circumstances when using the HDMI connector...here is a quote form AVS forums: ""I have discovered that the problem that jonnyozero3 first reported yesterday is a reproducable flaw in the Denon 1920. When a disc is stopped during play, the unit will go into RESUME mode. This is obviously a common feature on most DVD players. However, on the 1920, if you should decide to turn the player off while it is in RESUME mode using the discrete POWER OFF button on the remote, the player will not power up again without removing AC power to the unit (plug - unplug). This is reproducable 100% and applies to DVD's and CD's. "" Apparently, there is a firmware fix or something that can be done to fix this, but again since it didn't effect me, I didn't worry about it. Yes, there have been problems with it, and every other much more expensive player out there, given the changing display formats, etc. BUt again, this is not a $1500.00 player, and I like a lot of the folks elsewhere, have put this in place as a stop-gap while the industry gets there heads out of their A$$ and figures out what the next best is going to be. In that function, the Denon is pretty hard to beat for the price. The audio performance is stellar, but don;t take my word for it, go research it! Go to www.avsforum.com and do a search for Denon 1920, you will find the thread. Hope this helps. K

Hey all, I am desperately looking for someone who might be able to pick up a pair of Heresy speakers for me from the Hope Distribution warehouse in Hope, AK and hold on to them for like a day or two, so that I may come and personally get them and save the possibility of shipping destruction! In order to pick then up personally, I would have to do it on a weekday before 3:00 p.m. which would shoot a whole day of work for me...I need to come get them on a weekend if it is at all possible, so if you can pick them up say Friday next week, I can come get them next Saturday? Shoot, I could do it tomorrow if I could get this done today. I am hoping Amy will be cool with this, but I need to get a line on someone there to pick them up for me. I have GOT to get some word on this right away, as I have bene working with Amy to get this done, and while I would pay the requested shipping to Dallas, I just don't want these things destroyed by ignorant shipping gorillas. They are boxed and ready to go, all I need is someone to pick them up an hold onto them for me. I will make it up to you, I promise!! PLEASE PLEASE! Thanks! K

True true, but if the original poster is like me, I didn't have the time nor the opportunity, nor the location to try out everything I wanted to hear...So I got online and did research. Go to the audiovideo forums, and do a search (their search engine *works*) for your query and see what everyone has to say about what is out there. I have heard Oppo is good for video, excellent in fact, but I don't think I have heard anything about its audio quality. I do know they are supposed to be a great bang for buck. Some of the cheaper players are good, I don't personally consider a $300 player cheap when the formats are about to change, and when DVD players can be had by the scads for $100.00. Heck, the Toshiba I and van have/had are good machines, DTS/DD 5.1 etc, but mine didn't have SACD which is the one audio format I wanted to try, and I find after the upgrade that there *is* a marked difference in the quality of players. Probably the filters, and such. For audio, I am very new to the whole SACD/DVD-A thing, and it is amazing - put in Pink Floyd Dark SIde last night for the first time in SACD, and it was nuts...you literally hear the bells and gongs in separate channels at the beginning of "Time" - I was giggling like a girl...very cool. Remember if you go SACD, and I was recently made aware by another forum member, DVDA, you will need to obtain the necessary RCA patch cables to go from each channel to your amp/receiver (yes, 6 separate analog cables) and your your amp has to have the right 5.1 decoder inputs (6 separate RCA in analog jacks) or it won't do you much good to get the player, as those formats are analog only, and require separate jack inputs. Try the audio circle forum and the audio karma bunch too, great sources of information. Good luck! K

Looking at your system profile, yours looks a lot like mine (more audio than good sense) - what I didn't put on there was the old 36" TV I watch right now (saving pennies). If you are looking for a decent DVD player for audio (or video for that matter) I have been very pleased with my Denon 1920 - which I think you can get for around $300.00..Picture is excellent for the video and the thing is a universal player, meaning it will play DVD-A, DTS-A, MP3 and SACD (which is what I really bought it for). The Denon excells at SACD, sound is just awesome. Now the 1920 has had some reported problems with a glitch in the HDMI circuit, but if you don't have a fancy HDTV, then who cares? I bought this one for under $300.00 and it is a stop gap while the new formats settle down (did you guys hear about the PS3 having "optical disc" format problems which is pushing the release back AGAIN! Bluray may not have this sewn up just yet!) Oh, and as an edit, I replaced my Toshiba 3750 with the Denon, and I wasn't expecting much, I mean how much better could the Denon be right? It was light years better than what you have, seriously. SO that is my suggestion....can't go wrong with your set-up. K

OK, now this might just get me in some water here...but good grief, how could I give my cash to a person with such atrocious spelling, grammar and punctuation? I know this is "just" the internet, but how could a business possibly be taken seriously with responses like these? Is it just me? 13 pair? P.T Barnum was on the right track, me thinks. K

TREY! Go to his website at www.nosvalves.com - his addy and phone number are there for you! K

Banana plugs now have a sound, and somehow sound different on one end as opposed to the other? Damn, I just bought mine (which I got massively used and very cheap) because they were locking and had a clean appearance, as the backs of my speakers are slightly exposed due to the lousy room I have my theater in...seems to me this whole thread has taken a turn for the strange? And as far as Radio Shack, hey baby, I live in that place - and I would prefer their gold connects to anything else, mainly because I can get them NOW, and not have to wait through the internet quagmire and shipping delays-but don't kid yourself, they aren't exactly cheap...but as Trey says, "electrons don't know no difference..." Now how 'bout them little stands folks use to suspend their speaker wires off the ground? Now there is a piece of equipment that I want to GET... http://store.acousticsounds.com/browse_detail.cfm?Title_ID=15470&section=equipment K