Kriton

Hmmm...that is a hard question(s). First, I have thought about bi-wiring the RF-7's and have not yet done it - as I use my RF's for HT most of the time (right now), I haven't felt the need. However, if I start listening to more music down there, I will definitely try it; the general concensus around here is that bi-wiring is nonsense, BUT it isn't quite the same with the Sunfire...try it and let me know how you like it. As to the 400 v. the 200, I think the 200 will give you the wattage that you need, but as was stated up above, the RF's are pretty power hungry, and the way I saw it, if I am going to pay what I paid, I want some **** headroom (censored myself). Also really depends on the price you get it for - I got my amp in pristine condition for under $2k as a demo with full warranty. Can't beat that with a stick. Did I tell you that this thing runs warm? I mean lukewarm, almost room temp. even when pushed hard for hours...it is amazing. My Yamaha 5280 receiver would get far hotter than this as a receiver, almost burn your hand when you touch it...the Sunfires are just pleasant to the touch, and if you hate heat, and the deterioration that can cause, get the Sunfire. I have seven speakers tied into the thing right now, including the H2's as rear back surround speaks, and it doesn't even break a sweat. I just got a Denon universal DVD player, and the SACDs I was never able to play before are fantastic, just can't get enough; Sunfire pre has an "8-channel" mode, that they claim give you a straight shot through the pre- (no coloration or DSP's), and the sound is awesome. Don't have any opinions about the pre-amp, as I have not used any other fancy dedicated preamp, but I will tell you that I have used Yamaha's zealously for HT for at least 7 years, currently have two, and the difference between the 225 watt Yamaha that I was using first for a receiver and secondly as a preamp for the Sunfire, and the Theater Grand IV is astounding...no un-needed bells and whistles or DSP's like Yamaha just straight on simple controls and sound for days. Well...I like my set...YMMV K

Oh man, do I have a story for you! I saw this movie when it was in limited release in the theater way back when. My date was an artsy music major type who I thought would dig a nice art-film. < It was our first date.> I left the theater wanting to wash, scrub raw every part of my body - and so did my date. We didn't talk for something like an hour on the way home, incredibly uncomfortable. Then, we just started analyzing the hell out of this thing, how the color of the costumes changed depending on the room that the characters were in, the dish washing boy soprano that carried redemption and innocence, the cannibalism and its symbolism, the grotesque sex scenes while full frontal were not titallating but desparate and lonely. The idea of killing someone by force feeding, kind of like pate, and the trip in the truck to the library as an escape to paradise...weird but brilliant in a sick twisted and beautiful way. Forgot the girl, remember the movie like yesterday. K

Thanks for the words of encouragement, the wife is doing fine; I am the one that needs serious professional help. The Heresy's sound good, I really had a hard time distinguishing from H1 and H2's in my less than perfect listening room. I have torn the H1's apart to redo the cabs, so I can't tell right now. The finish on them was some nasty dark laquer stain, that was left on wet too long and caused all sorts of crap to hard into the surface, so it is not smooth, you know what I mean? They will be very pretty when I get them done, I think...gonna paint/stain them black, after I get rid of the nasty brown stain best I can. If anyone sees any more drivers like these, let me know; I am curious what other opinions are... K

Ok, I am an idiot, lets just establish that, I was right out on the driver compliment, and I thought so earlier... These Heresy's have the following drivers: K77M tweeters with metal horn K52H driver screwed on to an k700 metal horn and K22E square magnet woofer with an E-2 crossover... Serial is 157Y569 I tried to get the picts up, but my batteries are nuts...but anyways, that is the story - what do I have? Thanks... Bruce

Mike, thanks, I am still in denial - took me till I was 35 to get married the first time (her first marriage too - no other kids, etc.)due to my occupational mental block against successful marriage in any form, and I tried to explain to her that I have spent my entire post-pubescence trying *not* to get anyone pregnant, and it is kind of hard to just change directions. Slammin, aint that non-WAF thing niiiiceeee? I just have speakers and wires everywhere, she might not go for that monstrosity...!! Still, it looks mighty pleasin'... K ( Will try to get some picts of the frankenspeaker up tonight...

Uh...pictures? My speakers or my wife? By the by, she is pretty fine - and the MA in opera performance goes a long way too. As a matter of fact, she has been telling me that she is laden with our first child, and the way the numbers are adding up, PWK may have had something to do with it in SEPTEMBER in Hope...now that is something! She won't let me name the child PW though, I already asked... Top that. K (Edited to change the month we were in Hope! I had forgotten, now that is bad!)

Mike, The mids are definitely screw on k700 metal horns, but now I am not entirely sure they aren't 53's instead of 52's, I will check when I get home... I really don't know what to think of these things...I got them way cheap for a fix up job ($200.00) about 1/4 mile away, and they are excellent shape, the guy never even took the grills off as far as I can tell...and he got them in the service overseas...Wife thought they were ugly.. As an aside, I don't get these wives, man. You met my wife...she was crawling on the floor in our living room last night helping me hook up balanced cable from amp to pre-amp for a couple of other Heresies as rear back effect speakers, stringing speaker cable all over the place, and seemed to actually *enjoy* it...certainly loves the sound. As far as I am concerned, there doesn't appear to *be* a WAF factor here... I will let you know what I discover this evening, and thanks for the reply... K

Hey ya'll, In trying to figure out what this speaker that I have actually is, I have a request. It seems I may have picked up a pair of the maligned Heresy 1.5's, at least that is what it appears...the compliment of drivers is as follows: k77 metal horn square magnet tweet k52h screw on driver mated to a k700 metal mid horn k22E (I think) square magnet woofers E-2 crossover, on wood piece Butt-joined cabs with screw off back... First, is this the franken-speaker H1.5? Second, in the pair of H2's that I have, the crossover is mounted to the back of the plastic cap - what year did that start? Third, I have been told that the "E-type" crossover was the H1 and the E-2 was the H2 - how could they have used the E2 with the above driver compliment, and still have it sound correctly like an H1? Fourth, would any of our scholars be willing to conceive a permanent thread that would go through the applicable years of the various models of Heresies, Cornwalls, etc, and list the different years of production of different models, changes that were made to the drivers and crossovers, with numbers of drivers and length of production in that configuration? Maybe even a brief statement of the reason for the change and the success or failure of the modification? Even subtle changes would be historically important to vintage owners and collectors? I would be more than happy to lend any time necessary to creating this archive of knowledge and learn about the history of these things too...It would incredibly helpful. Thanks! K

Mr M, Thanks for the reply. Is that what I could expect if I bi-wire? It will tone down the tweets? I have been itching to try this but I just couldn't get around to spreading that many more wires around my already infested HT set-up... How are you liking your DeanG mods, M? I guess I was just too used to the RF-7's being harsh (which they were), but I miss a little bit of that sparkle they used to have...is it just me? You are using two SF amps with your HT set-up? Wow, I am not utilizing a tenth of the jiuce my 400~7 can put out, I am sure you have headroom a plenty! One of the things that bugs me with my amp is that the amber light/gauge on the front of my amp reads all the way to the right, in other words, I have buried the needle...that is unsettling. I called the company, when I could actually talk to a human, which has been difficult at times, and they said it was a joule meter and was just for show, I could send it in to be recalibrated but it would cost me, etc etc. Other than that, the stuff is rock solid and good looking; I just want to make sure I am utilizing it to its full potential. K

Hey IKF, (and McGoo, if you are following this) - There have been several threads about bi-wiring speakers lately, the gist of which has been that it doesn't change the sound to bi-wire. That being said, the Sunfire is a little different; have either of you tried the voltage source, current source outputs to bi-wire your speakers? I know that the manual suggests that you put one source to the woofers and one to the HF, due to the warmer tube sound allegedly had through one source with the punch of the solid state other source? Sounded a little like snake oil, what do you think? I have read the white papers on this effect, and it sounds marvelously plausible, but so does 400 continuous watts through 7 channels from a 120 wall outlet, and that just aint right, so... I have not tried this, was wondering if you had and what you think; does it make a difference at all? Thanks, K

Hey, That is great, I love my setup, you will enjoy the hell of them. I have not set the SF up with Heritage yet, but that is coming... Let us know how it goes, and check the firmware on the Sunfire Preamp to make sure you have the latest firmware...it made a big difference. K

Hey, I have the 400~7, and I have not found a flaw yet. Running the RF-7's with out effort, and seems very well built. Been happy so far, so you have my vote. K

I understand, wasn't bumping you, just kind of strange that the seller doesn't do a little more work to get the highest return on their auction...after a recent bad experience, I know that all the picture sin the world won't make up for someone being sneaky. They look nice, love the cane grills too (just like my CWII's). I will keep an eye on them. K

Need a heck of lot more pictures than that to tempt me, and the year, and... K

OK, Samsung, got ya...why do you like these players? Give me some background, please. K

As another non-sequitur, thread robbing moment - what do you guys think of Joss Stone? I heard some of her stuff recently, and thought she was pretty darned good...then I heard when she made the album she was something like 16? Deep raspy voice, just can't fantasize cause she is underage! Just wanted to know what you thought. K

OK, look, I wouldn't ask if I hadn't done lots of research and still don't have a clue... So, what is the general concensus for the best relatively cheap DVD/SACD player out there? I want the DVD to be able to do DTS and DD of course, but I am really interested in a good SACD/DVDA\Redbook player too, that won't cost an arm and a leg, this close to the death of SACD and the advent of the new DVD formats? I have been looking at Toshiba, Denon, Sony, and Samsung - The Denon 3910 looked great until I saw the retail was 1500! And I do not have a need for HDMI right now (listen to music mainly) so it appears that I wouldn't have any on screen displays with an HDMI compnent? What's up with that? Any ideas? K

OK, you guys force me to go on a spout here... If I had the choice, I would want the voice of Leonard Warren, probably the greatest operatic baritone (IMHO) of this century, incredible range, wonderful lyricism, made even the hardest stuff sound absolutely effortless...died from a massive heart failure while on stage at the Metropolitan Opera while singing "La Forza Del Destino", singing something about how welcome death would be...then fell over in front of 3000 people...ever since then, the Met makes sure to have a doctor back stage at every performance... Coming in second, would be Ettore Bastianini; another opera baritone,...this guy was an animal - he literally could make you think he was going to tear your face off with his voice..snarl and growl for days. Fantastic stage presence in the few things I have seen...got throat cancer and it killed him. Coming in third would have to be Mel Torme, not called the velvet fog for nothing - smooth, silky and effortless.... K

I have not heard the Ultimate Receiver, but I really like my TGIV set-up..like has been said it is almost so easy to set up it is stupid. I had a Yamaha higher end amp for a while, and that thing had all of these bells and whistles, sound stages and effects, crazy stuff, the manual was something like an inch thick. The worst thing with the TGIV is the part of the manual on the remote control (Sunfire badged Ultimate Remote), since that thing could run a small country... Very easy to set up, connectors are pretty logical and heavy duty, good looking peice of equipment, oooh, and it has pretty blue lights!!! YMMV. K

Well, I guess there are no guarantees with any private purchase, through paypal or otherwise. Being a private sale, I just don't know what to think. BUT, it isn't anywhere near $1800.00! Thanks for the reply! Anyone else have any experience with this? K

Hey, I have an opportunity to pick up a good center channel speaker for decent price. The seller wants to sell me the thing by FEDEX COD, in other words I pay when the item is received. Anyone ever bought this way before? What are the pros and cons of doing a transaction like this? Can I open up the received box before payment to inspect that it is what the seller says it is, and in the correct condition before forking over the cash to the deliveryman? What is the recourse if granny's petrified undies are in the box instead of the speaker? Just curious, K

Hey, that is interesting...I guess my first question is, will a speaker made for the European market work with our voltage amplifiers? I know nothing of this, so I am just curious...is there any difference if they are not amped (liek the computer Promedia line)? Second question, will they be available to servicemen on base? I have several friends on military bases in Europe, and I am sure that I could convince them to pick me up a pair of these, and their shipping privilileges are pretty liberal...at least they were before the war...Hmmm... Now the question is, would they be worth it? What do they sound like? Surely they are not going to hit the market without a few reviews? WHo designed them, JAMO? Guys in Hope didn't say anything about these speaks...so it must be...are they "toned down" for the more discriminate European market (sniff sniff)?? Do we have any specs, materials - anything? Lots of questions here... K

Thanks BS for adding to the discussion, I guess I got carried away a little higher, just hate when people set out to make other folks look stupid. I agree with you on blocking the ports...the egg crate stuff I am using from Parts Express is not high end foam by any means as this was more of a test... but the foam that Klipsch is using on the CWIII is the same heavy tempurpedic-like egg crate that is used in the RF-7's...it appeared to be as thick as the stuff used in the RF-7 and it clearly covered the inside of the cabs, which are the same apparent size. The only surface not treated was the motorboard, that I was able to discern. As I said I did not get a chance to see in the test cab to notice if the foam was placed on top of the shelf, and that is a question I would like to answer. Due to the fact that this is a test job, I did not (thankfully) use adhesive to apply the foam, just a wall stapler with 1/2"staples that can be easily removed. The foam is only down to maybe an inch above the port shelf and no lower, so as not to restrict the ports. The foam is easily an inch at the highest tip of the egg crate, and I did have a problem with stuffing the mid-horn back in the case. I did not remove any foam behind it however (as Mike suggested), and I was going to ask if it was necessary to do that...the horn is snugly held and the magnet is directly in contact with the foam. Is this a problem, does the mid really need need to be self suspending? What are the pros and cons? In your opinion, what should the effect be with placing foam in this cabinet, what should I be hearing, if it is working well? I have not had a chance to do any critical listening at this point, but I can say that the sound I am hearing so far is more ...detailed (?)...on a blind test my wife thought that the modified speaker sounded *louder* on first blush...but I don't think that is it, I think it was just clearer, if that is possible. Any opinions on what the foam should do from a hypothetical point of view? K

Rethought my response - edited to eliminate overly vicious rebuff. Mea Culpa. K