skonopa

And right next to your crack-pot tin-hat conspiracy theories. [+o(]

You'd need a spectrum analyzer Ohhh! Signal genreators, spectrum analyzers, base station emulators! I probably got nearly a million dollars worth of this equipment in my office right now. WiMAX base station emulators/signal generators don't come cheap! [] But yes, as was already indicated, the sweep generator will generator a range of frequencies or "sweep" at set intervals. It is used to test and align a reciever to ensure it is accuratly picking up the correct frequencies. In the case of the specfic unit mentioned, it is designed to run through the TV and FM signals.

That and the pic of the lawn furniture is really funny. It's just not as funny when it's happening at your house , glad no one was hurt. Yeah, it was kinda funny, but in the end, I was not to amused, since it was my area that took the direct hit from this earthquake. I've seen first hand some of the actual damage that earthquake did around here. Thankfully my own house came out unscathed as well as my office building, but cannot say that for some of my friends, though. That grocery store there in Mineral that got thoroughly trashed may end up having to go out of business. It is estimated to be about $100,000 worth of damage there and the owner just found out his insurance won't cover earthquake damage. I guess his only hope is if he can get some kind of disaster aid. This severe weather that we had yesterday did not help matters either. I lost power at both work and my house. In fact, I only finally got power back this evening, nearly 24 hours later. Now we got this hurricane bearing down on us. We can only thank God there were no fatalities and from what I understand, no major injuries either (there were at least 23 reported injuries in the immediate Fredericksburg area alone). Damage in this area is now said to be running into the millions now. That's some pretty d[st]mn expensive lawn furniture! They have to tear down a building over in Culpeper, which is the next town over (about 30 miles from my place), due to it being to unstable and concerns if the wind and rain from Irene is going to make it worse and actually cause the building to collapse. Many schools were due to start Wednesday, but most, if not all, had to delay until at least today. Some of the schools where were more seriously damage will have to wait until after Labor Day. Maybe even longer.

I think people are really taking heed of this. Friggan I-95 was just PACKED with traffic heading north. Usually there is hardly any traffic on the north-bound side and everybody is heading to the beaches instead. Also, I wanted to put gas in my truck and all the gas stations were completely out here! The WaWa next to my office building was literally backed-up with traffic. It is going to get real crazy around here over the next couple of days. First thing tomorrow morning, I need to get the trash to the dump (I hope the dump will even be open tomorrow). Hopefully, I can find some gas around here for the truck (should've done it Wednesday, but forgot, with all the exitment with the earthquake and such around here). Thankfully, I am far enough in-land and high up enough from the river that I don't have to worry about flooding. The wind may be another story, which reminds me, I need to go and store the furniture on my deck in the shed, so it all don't get blown away. I also wanted to go see a concert on Saturday night, but I may end up bagging that idea due to the weather. No way, I am driving up there to Springfield in all that wind and rain (some 40 miles north of here).

There are now some real concern that with some these buildings destablized due to the earthquake, the rain and wind from this storm may exerbate the problem. Bear in mind that many of these building in this area are pretty darn old. We are talking pre-Civil War and in some cases, even pre-Revolution. Thus there are buildings in this area that are nearly 300 years old, and thus were never designed nor retrofitted to withstand any serious earthquakes. There was only one other earthquake in this area of this magnitude and that was back in the 1870's. I am quite familier with how things can be around here in a hurricane, though. Isabelle is still talked about around here. I ended up missing an entire week of work due to all the power outages and damage that occured after that one. I am certain that there are some folks on the west coast and perhaps even in Japan that are thinking "Awww, did all those poor wittle people get sceered by one wittle earthqwake?", but hey, it is turning out to be some serious stuff around here with real damage - more than just some lawn furniture getting knocked down.

Yeah, I've seen that before - real cute... More like: And showing a car nearly completely crushed when part of a building facade toppled. Thank God there was nobody in that car or anybody happened to be walking along there. Yeah, I know those over in the People's Repuablic of California are getting a good laugh at this, but there was indeed some real damage and a few injuries that occured because of this. Thankfully nothing truly catastrophic and no deaths, though. It really is quite unusual, although not unheard of (I do remember feeling a smaller one in 2003 in this area) to get earthquakes around here, but they are now saying this was most likely the most powerful one that was recorded in Virginia's history.

It rattled up this house pretty good. I was in the basement gettng my bicycle out to ride back to work when I started hearing all this racket! I was like "what the hell is going on here?" until it dawned on me that we were experiencng an earthquake. I bolted right out the back door, as I could've swore I thought this place was coming down. This lady that live in the house behind me come running and screaming out of her house, just completely freaking out! I am actually surprised that nothing fell down or broke in this place, they way it was shaking things up here. Fredericksburg is not all that far from the epicenter. And now we got this friggan hurricane that is forcasted to hit the area this weekend. Oh boy - fun times indeed!

I saw your e-mail and meant to comment on it, but i'll comment on it here. I friggan LOVE Jackson Hole and will go back in a New York minute! That has to be one of the MOST AWESOME ski hills I've ever had the pleasure to lay down some turns on! I bet that music festival was awesome and glad you had an excellent time. Sounded like there were some really exquisit performances, and getting to enjoy them in such an awesome alpine setting like that had to be really cool. You should've took a ride up and back down the tram, as the views up there are really awesome (and for me, the skiing was just friggan unbelievable!): Of course, being a skiier, that was the reason why I was at Jackson Hole... []

Actually, your amp should work just fine for the RB-61s as well. I figured that going from the RB-41 to the RB-61 may be to much of a jump finacially, but if you can score a pair for about the same price as the RB-51s, then I'd say go for the 61s. It really does not take much power to drive Klipsch speakers to effective listening levels, so the approximatly 35 or so watts that your amp will produce for 8-ohm load will be plenty enough. Heck, there is one guy that is driving a pair of RB-61s with a dinky little 2-watt Bottlehead tube amp! The reason why I am estimating around 35 watts or so is because the RB-x1 speakers present an 8-ohm load, but the specs show 50 watts into a 6-ohm load, so realisically, you will probably be getting around 30 to 35 watts or so out of that thing, and even that may be generous as they tend to inflate those rating at times. Of course, compare that to the 200 watts/channel that I am driving a pair of RF-7s with in my upstairs rig.... [] I sure as hell hope the neighbors like Sonata Arctica! [6]

I am not familier with that Edifier R501 equipment. Can the subwoofer be used 'stand-alone' in that it does not need to be used with the satellites. Sometimes, those Home-Theater-in-a-Box (HTiB) the speakers and sub need to be hooked up together via propriatary cabling in order to work correctly (Bose, given how expensive thier Lifestyle systems are, are notoriaus for this). If the sub can be used as a stand-alone powered sub, again, certainly does not hurt to at least try it. I can't imagine that it is that great of a sub as far as subs go, but since you have it, might as well at least try it. This is valid only for RB-41, or i can use it for RB-51 too? That is valid for any of the speakers you may get (RB-41, RB-51 or whatever else you may end up getting in the end). I still think that if you can swing it, go for the RB-51s. 'B' - you should be able to use the RB-51 with your amp. Your amp should be able to handle it, provided that you keep your volumn at reasonable levels. You can certainly try 'A' but use RB-51 instead of RB-41 if you can swing the extra cash. As long as you don't cranking things up to ridiculous levels, you should be fine in that you won't "break" anything. Certainly worth trying and you can always upgrade things in the future as you go along and get more money (i.e., better amp, better sub, etc). I am guesing you are pretty young, so you should have plenty of time to piece together a system of your dreams as time and money allows. A pair of RB-51s will certainly be a good start.

Yeah, I've just heard about this over on the Ultimate Metal forum that I also like to frequent. Major bummer indeed.

First, to immediatly answer this. The reason why people say that the 4" cone woofer is not good for 2.0 stereo config is that you are not going to be getting a lot of bass out of that. That is why some indicating getting a 2.1 setup, with a subwoofer for the added bass. If you really do not want to use a sub and can spare the few extra dollars, I would move up to the larger RB-51s. The general rule when it comes to Klipsch is that the bigger is indeed usually better (assuming you are not attempting something ridiculous like trying to cram a pair of KHorns into a 10 x 10 foot room). I think in the long run, you will be happier. Okay, to anwer your original post, as long as it is working properly, that amplifier you have should be suffice. It certainly will not hurt to try it out for now and see how it sounds. It may be worth considering an upgrade in the future or if you are dead set on 2-channel stereo, perhaps seeing if you can find a dedicated two-channel receiver/amplfier instead. Just for comparison, my current two-channel rig, I got a Cambrige Audio Azure 640A that I picked up on liquidation when Tweeter went out of business for $300 (those things are normally $600 or so) powering a pair of KEF K140 speakers that I found at a yard sale for $50. I am actually impressed at how well that little rig turned out sounding. Source is a Pioneer Elite universal player that I also got on clearance for $200 (normally that unit goes for $1000). So yes, I think what you currently got would be an excellent start and certainly does not hurt to try it out.

Understandable. Hell, I run everything, including "regular TV" through my rig, even the evening news. But yeah, there is a reason why we call it "Comcrap" around here. Quite a few folks where dumping them around here and getting DirecTV instead, or jump to Verizon FiOS when it becomes available. I am hoping they will get FiOS here in this neighborhood. I am still using Comcast for my internet access, but I am getting my TV through DirecTV with the locals coming in through the roof antenna.

Or back in 1995 when a boy scout tried the same thing.

Finally! I scored a pretty nice deal today at a local yard sale. I was going to go spend a day at the river like I usually do on these friggan hot days (today, with the humidity and like, they said it was actually around 110 degrees) Well, while driving through that neighborhood near the river, I noticed a yard sale and saw what appeared to be some speakers. Turned out the guy had a pair of Pioneer CS-402 (or something like that), which I passed on, but he also had nice pair of KEF K140 bookshelf speakers. He was hoping that nobody would buy them, but I made an offer of $50 for them and he took the deal. Not only that, also scored a pair of some nice sweat pants for $2 and he even threw in a free watermelon! After spending the day at the river (boy that is another story I am going to have to tell! Thing ended up getting pretty darn exciting there later in the afternoon! [] Have you ever seen a river rise nearly 6 feet in less than 30 seconds before?), I took these speakers home and cleaned up the dust out of them as best I could and hooked them up to my little two-channel rig down in the basement. I was really amazed at how good these things actually sounded. Yeah, they are not going to pound you with the bass, but the mid and highs was actually quite nice. That Cambridge Azure 640A with its 75 or so watts of power had no problem powering these things to satisfactory levels (despite thier being a somewhat ineffecient 89 dbs/watt/meter sensitivity). First, using the Pioneer Elite universal player I have in that rig, I tried a CD Introitus - Elements: The female singer really sounded good on these things on this album. I was actually pretty impressed with how good the bass on these things actualy sounded (what bass there was). I then tried some vinyl with Synergy - Audion: This also sounded quite good with these speakers (granted, I am using a pretty cheap Technic table). I will have to hang on to these speakers for the time being. If I ever want to sell them, I could easily get my $50 back.

Tell me about it! In fact, it was a football game that happened to be on that I showed when people did not believe me that I could pick up HD with the roof antenna. In fact, it was after watching a Superbowl in full HD TV that convinced one of my friends (actually his wife. She kepted going on and on about how you could see EVERYTHING so clearly, even right down to the individual blades of grass in the field) to upgrade their's to HD. That is one of the reasons why I am also using that add-on OTA module with me DirecTV receiver, in that the DVR functionality will also work with the local OTA. Yes, I like to still watch The Price Is Right as well as sometimes catch the local news and a few other shows now and again. The PBS channel is just absolutly STUNNING here in full HD on the ariel. Pretty cool that you are going to rig up a camper trailer with Klipsch and HD TV! That will be pretty sweet for the football tailgating.

a beard's effect on room acoustics, hmmmm--where is doctor who when we need him? Except he doesn't have a beard! []

Sweet! Glad to hear they work. Those Chorus IIs are highly regarded on here and you really did get an excellent deal at $100, even as they currently sit, dog piss and all (especially since they are working - but if they weren't, replacement parts are not difficult to find and would not take much to get them to work). Also to add - from your picture, they actually look to be in pretty decent shape.

Those little Reference RB speakers are quite nice. I really liked the pair that I got to listen to a little while back. However still rocking with these RF-7s now for 9 years! (I dug out my old receipts - date purchased - 04-13-02). Geez! I cannot believe it has been that long - I still remember the day I brought them home - but I digress.... Still love them to this day and STILL amazed at how awesome these things sound, even after listening to some pretty darn nice rigs in the time since. Oh yeah. Compared to B&Ws, those Klipsch are going to come off sounding much more dynamic and yes, the highs will be that much more pronounced. First, as was already mentioned, you may want to experiment with placement. Also certainly worth investing in a decent pair of speaker stands for those things as well. Just a real quick Google search turned up something like these, which seem pretty decent. As for the breakin question, the jury is still out on that one. There are those that think the sound does seem to "settle in" and gets a little warmer as everything loosens up. There are others that think it is all placebo and it is just you (as the listener) getting used to the new speakers and the new sound. That is one reason why I prefer dealing locally if at all possible with major speaker purchases, so I can listen to them for a week or so and see if I still like them afterwards (allow some time to get "settled in" with them). If I don't like them, then I can return them locally. Well, smaller bookshelf speakers, by their very nature, is not going to produce thundering bass. Another reason why it is worth investing in a decent pair of stands, as it may help a little bit. In addition, you are listening to them through a little Bottlehead amp, with what - 2 watts - of power per channel? Those things are not exactly known for getting the most out of the bass response out of a pair of speakers. In addition, the reference series can be somewhat difficult to drive at the low end due to a fairly low impedence curve (at least that is the case for the RF-7s, which is why I have a 200 watt/channel B&K Reference 200.7 amp on mine!). Actually, I was tempted to buy one of those Bottlehead kits myself just to try my hand at building an amp, plus it looks like fun to play with. If you need more bass, then you may have to seriously look into adding a sub or get a beefier amplifier. Again, experimenting with the placement of the speakers may help as well (which, along with getting some decent stands), I would try before spending the money on sub or more powerful amps (especially if you really like that Bottlehead amp and wish to keep it).

Well, hook the friggan things up and see if they work! Heck, you probably could turn around and resell them and get your $100 back if you must.

Geez! After all that and you forget a couple: On a clear drive, you can seek forever They tell me to back-up my drive! Where is the reverse switch? There are only 10 types of people who know binary. Those that do and those that don't.

I get my local channels OTA for free (I am not going to pay the extra money that DirecTV wants to extort out of me, plus the quality is actually much better OTA than via satellite!). In fact, when my DVR/receiver died (the one with the built-in OTA receiver), DirecTV wanted to replace it with one of the new ones without the OTA receiver, so I made them supply me (for free) the add-on OTA module. After having the new deck built (which is where I had the satellite dish mounted), I needed a technition to come out and repoint the dish for me (after I've remounted it on the corner of the new deck). He has never seen one of those OTA add-in modules before. He asked me what the heck was that I had stacked on top of my receiver and I told him what it was. I am actually kinda surprised a DirecTV tech did not know what one of those were. Apparently nobody asks for them or <conspiracy_theory>DirecTV would rather try to keep people from knowing so they can upsell the local channels for a monthly fee instead of people getting them off the air.</conspiracy_theory> In my case, when I bought this house, it already had this huge roof antenna, so I kept it and it still works perfectly! I am able to pick up every darn channel out of D.C. and on good days, even Baltimore! The only downside is that when the previous owner installed it, they did not put a rotator on it, thus it is fixed towards point to D.C. Would be nice to be able to turn it around and pick up the Richmond channels as well at will. When I had the all this exterior work done the previous fall, the contractor wanted to take it down. I told him hell no! I still use it to get local High Def TV. He honestly did not realize that you could pick up HD TV with those things, until I showed him. He was floored by the picture quality on my big 55-inch Mitsu TV. When all the new siding was all done, he told me that this is the first time in quite a few years that he actually PUT UP an antenna! Everybody else that he delt with asked to have them to be taken down. I've seen that same type of antenna that you made before. Pretty cool what a few dollars and a couple hours of time will do.

Oh tell me about it! Along the same lines, you should see this Muvico/Splitsville theater that was just put out across the street from my place just this Spring! Really nice seating througout, complete with marble floors and art-deco styling. In addition, in the upstairs "VIP" area (which is for 21 and up only), you can order beer and some really good food at your seat. I was actually surprised and impressed with how good the food was, and it was actually pretty reasonably priced. It was not really any more expensive than getting the same type of thing at any of the other upscale restaurants/lounges here in town. There are actually TWO theaters right here in my neighborhood. The second one is the older Fredericksburg 15 that was here for quite awhile. However, they recently pretty much renovated the place throughout and it really is quite nice (even complete with Klipsch audio!) Heck, it is even right next to my office building! I even have to cut through the parking lot of it while riding my bike to work! There were a few times I was tempted to sneak out during lunch to see a mantinee and grab lunch itself right there at the theater. I can certainly see on-demand TV becoming more common, though. Look at the success of Netflix, Apple iTunes, Hulu and the like. In addition, I actually have access to quite a library of on-demand right there on my DirecTV service (that I ought to take more advantage of). Of course, the DVR itself is really nice, as I can just go and set it to record what I am interested in and then watch it at my own convenience later on (not to mention getting to skip the commercials). Still, as was also already alluded to, I still think there will still be movie theaters of some form around. People will still want to experience the whole movie-going thing for the reasons already well stated above in earlier posts in this thread. In order to get people to come and make it the special event that it is, we will probably see more of the nice high-end features like the lounges/sport bars or the bowling alleys and such. Also, just hope that the movies themselves will be better quality. Granted, some of the recent flicks have actually been pretty good (although I am wondering if Hollywood is getting stuck in this whole comic book/superheros thing as of late, though, although I heard that Captain America flick was pretty good).

Probably because we've already seen that or some varient of it a million times before? Granted, it was funny the first couple of times, but it got old real quick. I think that one comment puts it aptly: "Ok for? real people: HOW MANY VERSION VIDEOS OF THIS FREAKING SONG IS THERE?!?"

Wow! Very interesting indeed. To bad to hear that there are fake/counterfeit copies of these fine headphones out there. To give perspective on the logo-fading thing. Below is a picture of mine, that I've had going on a good year or so now (bought at a local Best Buy shortly after these first hit the market, as I was in the market to replace a pair of Sony headphones that finaly died on me at the time) and you can see that the logos and the chrome are practically brand-new. There is a very slight wear on right side (the bottom part of the 'c' is somewhat missing. Bear in mind that I've been using these things just about every other day at the gym continuously for the past year, so these things get used and they get used hard! I cannot imagine a pair of the fake ones holding up that long given as hard as I am on these things. I don't have the original box on hand (although I might still have it around), but I do have the (albeight pretty dented up now) tin and the earwax cleaning tool as well the three pairs of extra eartips (although I've ordered some additional medium sized ones and already replaced one pair). The medium tips seems to fit me the best. As for the sound quality, I am still amazed at just how good thes things sound, especially for an $80 pair of headphones. When properly fitted, you should get good clean highs and mids. On a good recording, you should have no trouble picking out the detail in the music. The bass should have authority, but not overpowering. It should sound good, tight and clean, with no muddiness/distortion/boominess (again, assuming a good recording being listened to at a reasonable volumn). Don't expect huge bass out of these things (ala some jackass thumping the woofaz in thier car at high volumn). Sounds like those fake ones are using some cheap driver and very heavy on bass to the point of being muddy/distorted. As was already indicated numerous times, the only sure-fire way of ensuring you are getting a legitimate pair is to buy them from an authorized dealer, preferably a local one. Yeah, you are going to pay more, but at least you know you are getting good product. However, that being said, it is still nice to know if there is a way to tell the fakes from the reals, especially if somebody is looking to buy a pair second hand. Lets face it, everybody would like to save a buck here and there, so I can see how the $40 ones on eBay can seem tempting. Sometimes, when it comes to stuff like this, you are better to error on the side of caution. These things should last quite a while if taken cared of and it is sometimes worth it to just pay the extra money at the authorized dealers and be ensured that you got good, correct, legitimate product. Also, as was also already mentioned, sometimes the authorized dealers will have sales, especially if they need to get rid of extra inventory (typically when a product line is being phased out), so sometimes good deals can be had on legitimate product.