Def Leper

Don't ever be surprised by what imaginary people do.

Doesn't look like any 1980 Belle I've ever seen. Isn't that a "borrowed" picture of the new LaScala?

I've done a lot of 'glass work in my time, and your first mistake was getting only a quart of resin. You might be able to get away with a gallon for two speakers, but five quarts will be closer. As you've already discovered, the key is to mix the proper amount of hardener, mix it thoroughly and quickly, and avoid injecting air into the resin. Your boat guy doesn't seem to have done fiberglass work before and gave you bad advice. Brush out a fairly generous layer of resin first and then lay the cloth on top, press in well, and then brush in more resin to saturate the cloth. Get a $10 hot air hair dryer to hit the resin with very hot air to drive out the bubbles. (A propane torch works well too, just don't hold the flame on the resin too long.) If you squeegee resin over dry cloth, you'll never get the air out. What you then end up with is a leaky surface that will wick water into the voids between the cloth and cabinet, causing wood swelling, rot, and failure of the plywood plies. Don't forget to watch your working time. The resin also likes to flow out and it's pretty easy to end up gluing your project to your work surface if you aren't careful.

When I picked up my Heresy speakers, they were the perfect size to replace my old JBL floor speakers in my home theater, so I bought a couple of nice mission-style small tables to bring them up to the right height for the TV and installed them as mains. Well, you know the drill. Replace something in your system and that triggers an chain reaction that sucks all the $$$$ right out of your wallet. The JBL center and surrounds are so less efficient than the Heresy's that I had to dial in a huge level differential. And frankly, the JBL's just sounded dead against the Klipsch. Anyway, I took a trip up to the Klipsch dealer to see what he had that would work well with Heresy-1 speakers, and ended up with a nice demo RC-35 and a pair of demo RS-35's at a great price. (Well below what Klipsch is selling refurbs for on ebay.) I took them home and plugged them in, reset all the relative levels to zero, and shazaam! The new speakers are a great match with the Heresy's efficiency-wise, and just blow the JBL's away in every aspect. The surround channel now sounds much wider and spacious, and center channel dialog has that crisp sound that helps you hear and understand what is being said. Indeed. the JBL center was thin and reedy compared to the Klipsch center, and voices are now much fuller and more natural-sounding. Good job Klipsch. Amazing that these contemporary speakers integrate so well with 24-year-old Heresy's.

yep, voice of the sewer copies with what? Clock towers on top? (clocks fell out of the holes?) Guess they look like K-horns to someone who saw a picture of one once in a magazine.

Listen to the birdies sing: Cheap, Cheap, Cheap. The unfinished birch heritage were the cheapest. Not everyone who wants the Klipsch sound could afford to pay for surface treatements that have no effect on the sound, and therefor no audio bang for the buck.

What an intellectually dishonest and insulting bit of propaganda. Rule number one of the militant homosexual handbook is to attack anyone who does not want to be exposed to gay sexual material as "predudiced" or "insecure." I would submit that if you take the homosexual theme and portrayals out of this film, there wouldn't be anything left to make a film about. What could this film possibly teach that can't be taught without the homosexual content? The story, the characters, and the thematic content are expressly contrived to make the film sensational and controversial. One poster mentioned Walk the Line as not emotionally stirring as Brokeback Mountain, and yet Walk the Line is a true story about actual people who dealt with real issues and had real failures and successes in their lives. That's true drama. Brokeback Mountain is cheap, senstational pulp fiction that is just packaged to a higher standard than usual.

I don't know, why doesn't Chevy put a Chrysler Hemi in the Corvette? Just because something is good doesn't mean it is exclusively good.

I had a good laugh seeing several rows of the disk in the "Family Favorites" rack at my local midwestern Meijer's store. Boy will preacher Bob be mad when he shows this one to mamma and the kids!! I personally have no desire to see it based on the subject matter. I have the highest regard for the director but a well-crafted story, first rate acting and the stamp of approval from the Academy can't generate any interest from me to see these two fine young actors groping each other.

This week I'm enjoying: The Chronicles of Narnia Soundtrack Harry Gregson-Williams CD Film Soundtracks Harry is a film composer who is steadily gaining inertia as he gets new opportunities. He's done some good stuff already such as the Shrek animated films and Kingdom of Heaven, and the Narnia soundtrack has allowed him more budget and the ability to add extra texture with vocals. As with the film, there is a constant tendency to remember the Lord of the Rings, but that's understandable given the similar genre. Harry's no Howard Shore yet, but his soundtrack can certainly stand on it's own. The only disappointment is the usual inclusion of caterwauling pop stars to "qualify" the disk for the mindless, earless pop crowd. Dumping the pop crap and adding more of the soundtrack music would have been much appreciated. Alanis has apparently taken "one hand out of her pocket" and is sticking it out for cash. Recording is typical-- a bit too compressed but listenable.

I'm sure Klipsch speakers are only unhappy when they're doing nothing. Besides, natural sounds can cover a much wider spectrum than music, especially garage band music like the Doors or BonJovi.

Just being a dealer doesn't mean that someone has the slightest level of expertise in setting up a sound system. Usually the worst sounding systems are in dealer showrooms anyway. I don't think this is the case here, though. I think you are simply being lied to by someone who doesn't know anything about klipsch heritage products. Anyone pushing Bose is only interested in the highest profits anyway, and depends on a steady stream of ignorant people with credit cards.

I bought the single disk version also. I believe the extra disk was the one that was available while the movie was in theaters, wasn't it? Not worth the extra cost IMO. I, too, was disappointed with the lack of DTS. No doubt about it, Jackson and the studio folks cheaped out on this DVD to try to recoup some of the extra costs associated with Jackson's excesses in making the film. I certainly am not interested in buying an extended version of the film at an inflated price. If PJ is thinking "LOTR" extended version, he'll be sorely disappointed with the sales. I'd be more interested in buying an edited version !!!! While the extended versions of the LOTR series are welcome and have a lot of added detail that makes the story and characters even more interesting, King Kong is essentially a 1930's special effects thriller. Although Jackson tries hard, the characters are fairly one-dimensional and extending action sequences ad nauseum doesn't make up for the simple characters and story line. Best things about the movie: Naomi Watts, Evan Park and Thomas Kretschmann. Simply stunning color palette and landscapes by Andrew Lesnie, Grant Major, Simon Bright and Dan Hennah. Scariest native baddies of all time. Makes up for all the white people in blackface and coconut bras in all the old serials. Some amazing 3D CG artwork. If Peter Jackson had cut this film down to 118 minutes and produced it in IMAX 3D, they would have had to put pooper-scoopers in the theaters. The artistic touch of Alan Lee. You can see his fingerprints all over the design of Skull Island. Worst things about the movie: Jack Black and Adrian Brody. The Jack Driscoll character is written as a caricature of Peter Jackson (and Orson Welles) at their most obsessive. Jack Black simply can't carry it off. Adrian Brody is miscast, knows it, but apparently needed the money and wanted to be able to kiss Naomi Watts. Long, grinding, unnecessary action sequences. Multiplying a good thing by 100 doesn't make it 100 times better. Four T-Rexes aren't necessarily better than one, especially when our logic tells us that one should be dining on ape meat within about 20 seconds. While you can get away with this stuff in an alternate universe like the Matrix, this stuff gets boring real quick when it's drawn out. Hit the fast forward, please. Jerry Bruckheimer-style violation of physical laws. We wonder why Naomi's arms didn't come off when Kong pulls her off the sacrifice altar. The ropes are so big we can see them from 1/4 mile away, yet her sockets are stronger. Add to that the extreme shaking and pounding from being slapped around by a monster ape and you end up with distracting disbelief. A cheap, third-rate DVD release with zero extras.

That explains it. To them, Bose probably sounds like a cash register opening.

Listening to: Penguin Cafe Preludes, Airs and Yodels Not sure where this group fits in: Acoustic experimental? CD Popularized in the movie "Napolean Dynamite" was the group's hallmark tune "Music for a Found Harmonium" and this album has 19 short but snappy tunes, an interesting variety of textures and some interesting sounds. Not an earthshaker for recording quality but not bad either.

I recently purchased some of the Wendell cane to recover my Cornwalls with mixed results. First, it does look pretty good but it does not match the original Cane and IMO doesn't even come very close. Be very aware that the the weave in one direction is a paper material and the warp is a plastic material that is very shiny. If anything, it needs a shot of dull-coat. Second, the material is very thick and stiff, and it does not roll over the edge of the grill back board easily. It's quite a handful to mount. A heat-activated glue or contact cement is pretty much a necessity and if you don't get it aligned the first time.... well. Third-- This is not an acoustically transparent material. I'd say the material is about 60% solid, so there will be plenty of attenuation. I haven't had a chance to evalute how much it affects the sound but will get to it as soon as I get a break.

A good, comfortable chair is harder to find than a good woman. You know you're a true man when you can weep after your favorite chair takes the big sleep.

Make up your mind. If missing a 'bit' and 'smidge', you must be able to tell the difference, eh? If I look into the crystal ball, I see a Bose system in your future. [6]

I doubt you'll get oral cancer, stink up the place, or get drunk and fall down (bashing your head open) with your new purchase, so it seems like a very good trade-off to me. If you actually are spending $75 a week on beer and cigars, you should do everything you can to enjoy life in the little time you have left. []

I'm using my Heresy's in my home theater system as mains. They are on stands that are actually mission-style side tables that I got at Target ($100/pair on sale this week) which matches my decor. The tables bring the horns up to the midline on my projection TV, give me one small drawer each for storing remote controls, and a shelf below for displaying knick-knacks. Although I have a dedicated subwoofer hookup in my 7.1 system, I've found that it isn't very active with non-dolby sound sources, and moved the single-channel sub connection over to a 2-channel feed from the front channel preout connections. This works with every source (including stereo music) and gives much easier to control bass levels. I suspect this is because my amp only sends bass below 80hz to the sub output in the normal hookup but the sub likes a full-range signal, which allows me to tailor the crossover point with the frequency control on the sub. That's very useful with varied source material. Compared to my Cornwalls, the Heresy's never seemed to have much bass anyway, and this setup has proved to work well in my home theater system for everything including movies, TV and 2-channel music. That is not dust you see in the image. It is special audio-damping silicate powder that I get from a guy in Oklahoma that helps improve bass response. At only $1,000 and ounce, it's done a lot more to improve the sound of my system than my $9,000 speaker cables.

Ya'll might want to revisit it ten years down the road when you don't need a constant barrage of explosions, people in rubber suits, people walking on ceilings firing machine guns in slow motion, etc..... While Dickens wrestles with some of the weightier issues of the time, Austin, in true feminine form, looks at some of the social modes and inheritance laws that had such profound effect on the women of that era. There isn't a single visceral element that will interest typical contemporary film goers. It's a historical drama steeped in interesting music, costumes, dialogue and social intercourse. For those who enjoy taking a peek back in time, it's a film with high production values, delicate, respectful cinemaphotography, and gentle-handed direction. I do agree with Amy, though-- It's a bit rushed compared to the miniseries, showing the inherent problem with compressing complex stories for feature fims. For those of you who enjoy films like Nicholas Nickleby, Elizabeth, Henry V, The Lion in Winter-- It's a must. But if you're more into movies Gladiator or Troy, it will be a bust.

Ein Straussfest II, Erich Kunzel & Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Strauss Festival, Telarc CD Follow up to the very successful Ein Straussfest, classic waltz fun with plenty of sound system destroying pops, bangs and whinnies. Guaranteed to make Granny's false teeth pop out when set at volume 7 or higher. (Volume 4 with Klipsch speakers.)

You do have a right to decide who is living in your house unless you want to rent it to them. I'm sorry I'm not going to live long enough to see WASPs' become a minority group in this country and start to get some direct experience in why these laws exist. Anyone who needs to have the basis for anti-discrimination laws explained to them needs to be on the receiving end. No doubt they'll squawk louder and longer than anyone else.

Yup well said. But I take offense of the motorhead statement my previous hobby was drag racing [] No offense meant, me too. Was that picture shot at Lapeer? I'm still in the auto trade and spent the last three weeks tossing around the latest and greatest stuff up at our Northern Michigan winter test site.

Like most male-dominated hobbies, audio forums can (and do) quickly degenerate into testosterone-peeing contests. At least audiophiles tend to be a bit more polished than motorheads and bikers, so the arguments have more words with many syllables (and often accompanying charts and diagrams) but the resulting melee tends to be similar. This pretty much runs the same gamut on other forums like camera/photo, vehicles of any kind, guns/firearms, hunting, sports, etc. Don't forget to add a dash of sexism, too. What I do love about reading audiophile forums is the mysticism and fantasy aspect of $6000 speaker cables and all the other claptrap that people find to pour their cash into in a quest for the "I'm better than all of you" King of the Hill "mountain climber" aspect, typically male and a bit embarassing for those of us who simply want to enjoy the music.