emdeebee

I will bump these with an asking price drop to $2,100.00 OBO. Still pick up only I'm afraid. Marty

About 60 - 65 miles, I'm in suburban Seattle

I'm somewhat reluctantly offering my Belle Klipsch for sale. Here's the history on these. In 2005 I went to the most local brick and mortar outlet for Klipsch Heritage, Bry's in Marysville. I wanted Klipschorns, but didn't and still don't, have proper corners. So I went there in search of Belles. This was shortly after it had been announced that they were stopping production of Belles. They only had a single Belle they used as a center for a pair of Klipschorns. In order to save some money off the full price of a new pair of Belles, they ordered a new (2005) in the same oak with cane grill as the floor model. When it arrived, it had a black grill, and cane was no longer available. So I went to black grills. The owner of the store, the father, was the "Klipsch guy", not the sons who then and now run the store. So the father took this one on himself, and he upgraded the floor model with a new mid driver to match the 2005 speaker, as well as new (2005) crossovers, and new HF and LF five way binding posts. I'm not sure of the actual year/age of the floor model, it may be late 90's to very early 2,000's. They are not a perfect match, but they don't sit side by side (except now when I have them in a spare bedroom) so to my eye it's a reasonable, liveable match. The lighting for the pictures I'm posting here make it look like two completely different finishes almost. When seen together, in any kind of decent light, they are a pretty good match. In taking these poor pictures of them, I noticed for the first time that there is a ding in the edge of one of them. It looks to have been touched up (not by me), so I presume that was the floor model. It's small, but it's there so I want anyone interested to be aware of it going in. I have zero interest in shipping these, so I'm looking for pick-up buyers. I'm asking $2,100.00 OBO. I apologize for the quality of the photography! Marty

Good find! That was an interesting, entertaining, good watch and listen as you said.

Can't go wrong watching anything with Bogart. That said, I love light hearted films best, so my two fav's are; Some Like it Hot, and Midnight Run.

A bit lengthy, but I really like Built to Spill's live cover of Neil Young's Cortez the Killer.

What is your previous points of reference? Tube wise, very limited, only two in fact. I grew up doing all my listening on my Mom's early 60's Packard Bell tube console (unfortunately it wasn't vintage gear, I was listening in the early 60's), All of my own gear had been solid state until about nine years ago when I got the itch to try tubes. I bought a used, modified Jolida 302B, and really enjoyed that a lot. Then a few years ago, I got what I deemed to be a reasonbly good deal on a demo CAD 120s, and the SLP-05 preamp. I like it a lot, but bang for the buck, I got a lot more out of the Jolida for a lot less cost. I'm an admitted tube rookie, and most likely with more comparative listening to other tube gear, I might become disappointed. So, in order to prevent further damage to my bank account, I think I'll avoid that!

I have a Cary CAD 120s upgraded to mk II, and I'm really pleased with it. I have belles, and a couple of non klipsch speakers I use it on, with great success. I do like the ability to switch between triode and ultralinear mode, and really have two amps in one. Numbers wise, it may seem to be too much power for high efficiency speakers, but I'm very pleased with how it sounds with my belles.

This is from the City of Hope website: http://www.hopearkansas.net/pview.aspx?id=6508

Craig Chaquico - Acoustic Planet

The 55 has both a "bi-amp" and a "dual-amp" feature for two channel use. The bi-amp uses bi-wiring with the A and B speaker terminals to power the HF and LF. The dual-amp feature dedicates all of the amplifiers to the main speakers for increased power in two channel listening only. I picked mine up a few years ago, based strictly on the buzz here on the forum. No question the best most pleasing audio bargain I've ever encountered. Marty

I have a pair of the Wyred 4 Sound SX-1000 monoblocks. I purchased them for another application, but I have tried them with my Belles. They are north of 500 watts per side at 8 ohms, which seems like massive overkill, but they do sound really good on the Belles. I can't speak to any of the other Wyred products as I have only heard the SX-1000's, but I could comfortably reccommend them. Marty

I've got an 840C, and overall I'm pretty pleased with it. Mine has been a little finicky though. It will occasionally give the "No Play" read out when a cd is inserted, and I'll have to open and close the tray, sometimes two or three times, to get the player to recognize the disc. This seems to happen more often to older discs, though it even happens with new discs, and all my discs are clean and I'm fanatical about their care and feeding![] So this is a puzzle to me. Aside from this quirk, which may be unique to my player, I can recommend the 840C. However, It's a distant 2nd place for me, to my Rega Saturn. I totally love the Saturn, and it's a flawless performer! Marty

I've got a few pairs of speakers, and I'd like to be able to rotate them more frequently. To do this in a time saving manner, so I don't end up spending a bunch of time realigning the various speakers with each switch, I'm looking to see what others might use to mark the placement of their speakers. My listening room has a synthetic berber carpeting, and the only thing I've tried, and not too successfully, is painters tape. Does anybody have other, better methods than tape? Marty

How about "Mind Excursion" from the Trade Winds? It's not british, but it is from the 60's and has "injun" in the lyrics. Marty

Thanks Doug! It's absolutely my preference to run them with one per channel, to make them an extension of each main speaker. As you pointed up in your Beatles example, I'd hate to meld left & right information, when the original intent of the recording was to have it to one channel or the other. Thanks again for your response. Marty

I'm very subwoofer challenged and need help with a couple of questions regarding connecting two subwoofers in a two channel setup. I'm using a stereo preamp that has balanced and unbalanced outputs. I'm using the balanced connections to connect to my amp, and want to know if I can use the unbalanced connections for the subs. My other question (assuming the answer to #1 is yes) is since I want to run two subs, connected to the low level RCA connectors, would I need to use "Y" connectors at the preamp, and feed both left and right channels to both subs, or could I use a single wire on each, and only run the left channel to one sub, and the right channel to the other? Thanks in advance. Marty

Hi Jay, The CS2's require bi-amping, and use a Behringer DCX2496 for the crossover. I'm using class D amps, Wyred 4 Sound SX-1000 mono blocks for the lows, and a Bel Canto S-300 dual mono stereo amp for the mid/highs. I use my Cary SLP05 tube preamp, and it's a really great sounding setup. Marty

I'm using a pair of open baffle Emerald Physics CS2's right now. These are a lot of fun. They're two way speakers, with two 15" woofers, and a shallow horn (waveguide) for the mids & highs. They have tremendous bass, and mine are far from the listening hours the manufacturer reccommends to achieve optimum performance. I enjoy these a lot, and they are quite a change of pace from my belles. Before I got these, I thought my belles were just right, now, I'm certain that I want to add a good sub or subs to the belles. The superior bass of the CS2's has shown me what I'm missing with the belles. If I can find the right sub/subs for the belles, they'll regain their rightful place at the top of the list! Marty

While I'm for the most part content with the bass from my Belle's, I am leaning towards adding a sub to pick up that small portion of the lower end I know I'm missing. I only use them for music, no HT. I'm open to any firsthand experience recommendations for a sub with Belle's. Thanks, Marty

Congratulations! I'm looking forward to see what your impressions of the palladiums are, especially with your Aragon amp. These are already rapidly climbing my wish list! And don't sweat the investment.......that's what student loans are for!

Hi Silverduece. I have a pair of palladium 1K's with XLR inputs that I use with an Aragon 28K Mk II preamp. I use XLR to RCA converter plugs I bought at Guitar Center, and use RCA interconnects. This works beautifully, sounds great! Marty

The Doors "Waiting For The Sun"

Jeff, you're totally on the money! I've known it all along, but seeing it in black and white, it rings true! I have in fact talked to my real estate agent this evening, and am now going to look at houses.....with perfect corners of course, I still aspire to K-horns someday! I know I'll only regret it in all those extra hours of commuting! But, when I finally do make it home, I'll be able to listen at the volume of my choice....at least as long as I can stay single! Thanks for the help. Marty

Yeah, I know that the house route is the way to go. Unfortunately, I've lived in (not as an owner) the same suburban community since 1968, and it's not only home, it's logistically great for me. While it was a slightly upscale suburb when we moved here in 1968, it has taken off and greatly outpaced the overall price increases in the puget sound area. So I'm not in a position to buy a house here, and I have to weigh the logistics of moving to a more remote location to buy a house versus staying "home" in a condo. Decision time is coming in the very near future. Marty