jdm56

When it comes to subs, I think twins are, if not the only way to roll, certainly a good way. You get more output, lower distortion, and if set up right, you can sometimes get smoother response. Or at least, that's been my experience. It can be a bit of a pain setting up two, though. Unless you're the type of demented individual (audiophile!) who enjoys such things. I'd say setting up two is about four times harder than setting up one.

Hm...I guess that would depend on who you asked.[^o)] According to my sweet, domestic queen it is interfering with the rest of the day. (There's been a ceiling fan sitting in it's box outside my oldest son's bedroom for a month or more, waiting for someone to put it up.) But from my point of view, it's the domestic goddess doing the interfering -in the rest of my day !

Do you ever wonder if some of us become addicted to music? Because it seems to me to have certain drug-like effects. Not necessarily any music on any system, but once a threshold has been reached in terms of how much I like the music and the quality of reproduction, it definitely can do...something, to or for me. And I need my fix almost every day! I crave it and look forward to it. Just the thought of getting home and getting comfortable in the man-cave with some music washing over me...I'm definitely on dope here! But I don't want to get off of it. I just wanna get off on it!

Your room is a bit like mine (16x18.5x8.75). Some dimensions are just a bit like kissing cousins...they're too nearly related! I suspect the worst thing with mine is the niche built into one of the long walls. It sets back another foot and a half, floor to ceiling, and angles out to join the room propers' wall at 45 degree angles. Essentially, I built a six foot parabolic reflector into a long wall. Not good, especially considering that factoring the niche into the overall room dimensions gives me 17.5x18.5x 8.75. Again, not good at all! But after fighting it for ten years and even giving up on it for two-channel music, I finally found the solution...speakers that sound wonderful in this very difficult room. I'd tell you what they are, but I don't want to be a flame-starter. Check out my profile if you're curious.[:#] Regarding your la scala's, I meant no offence...just reporting my experience with them. I had a pair of LS2's in a very good sounding room and the bass was shelved down about 6-9 dB below the squawker from about 200Hz down to 50-60Hz where it dropped like a rock. I only used a relatively inexpensive digital amp with them so maybe that was the problem, although the same amp did bass just fine with other speakers. And I know bass performance can be very subjective. One person's thin bass is another's fast bass. I think I know what you mean about the la scala "improving" your subs, though. I felt the same way. I used a pair of Velodyne DLS4000R subs with the LS2's I had, and those subs never sounded better than they did with the la scala's. It seems that even when using subs, bass character can still be defined by the main stereo speaker pair. It must have something to do with the leading, transient, percussive sounds of bass instruments that are still reproduced by the mains.

Well, if you're not confused and/or disgusted by now...here's another two cents worth: I think the best advice you've got so far is to keep your room's dimensions mathematically unrelated. In a nutshell, no identical dimensions or dimensions that are one-half, one-quarter, one-eigth, etc. of another dimension. As for size, yes, the la scala is a bit big for your first room size (13x14), but not for the second (14x25). Big physically, but not big in the sense of too much bass. If you are intent on keeping the la scala's as your main l&r speakers, I would just make the room as big as possible, keeping in mind the "sound" advice to watch dimensional relationships. Do some research on small room acoustics. It's very fascinating stuff! And one more thing: Be prepared to add a good subwoofer or two. For one thing, the lascala does not really do any deep bass anyway. And for another, I've found them to be very effective in difficult rooms for smoothing and extending bass response. Good luck!

I use a pair of Velodyne DLS-4000R's, which are quite similar to the DEQ-12, and they have been very good. I know they don't have the extension and output of some subs, but they are very good sounding. They don't misbehave, and the remote really is nice -it will spoil you!

My gosh, she's everywhere!

Wow! The new RF7 II is gorgeous. Looks like it would hit like a 9 pound hammer! Personally, I really like the all copper cones much better than the black dust caps, and the 3/4 grill - it shows more wood, and wood is good. And I like the footers much better than the "toes" of the RF83/63 etc. I just wish they'd either put them all four out, like the back, or all four in, like the front. I guess that's getting nit picky. At $3198, it's awful close to cornwall III pricing, though. I wonder how the two would compare head to head?

One little detail to keep in mind: Bose 901's list for around $1500. Last I looked k-horns list for $8000, LS2's for $6000. BTW, I owned k-horns for six years, but I admit, I don't listen to a lot of Cannon recordings.

I'm not sure about the Duet, but multiple Squeezebox Classics can be sync'ed together to play the same music and be controlled by one remote.

Our local juco has a small (probably less than 500 capacity) performing arts center with really nice acoustics. I've been there and seated mid-hall or there-about and the music from the orchestra sounded wonderful, just energizing the air all round. With my eyes closed I could not differentiate left, right or center of any soloist or section. Now, I'm sure if I had been seated up closer, it would have been different, but the point is 2-channel stereo can impart an unnatural degree of imaging precision that usually does not exist in most live music. Even amplified music, in a nice sounding reverberant acoustic, often does not exhibit pin-point imaging: We were recently down to Branson, and we finished up the day down at "The Landing". One of the local eateries had a duo (keyboards & electric guitar) playing some bluesy rock on their patio area. They were using a couple of big JBL stacks and the sound was LOUD & CLEAR, but from my perspective about 50 feet away, there was no left and right point-source. Those big JBL's just disappeared as sources of the music. It sounded great, but very non hi-fi as far as imaging goes. OF course, they may have been running both instruments into both speakers, but be that as it may, the sound was huge and reverberant and wonderful. It may sound like I'm advocating mono, which I'm definitey not. I'm just advocating "live"-like sound!

Good write-up, Dee. Your experience and impressions mirrored mine with the Squeezebox Classic I bought two or three years ago. Really well made and well thought out devices. I think they point to the future of music playback in the home. You really must try Pandora. It's free and the sound quality, while only 128kbps, is great. I'm really shocked at how good it sounds, especially in light of the bit-rate. I'm thinking of the upgrade to 256k... Once you get deep into music ripping, you'll see you've hit the mother-lode for obsessive-compulsive music lovers. I think there's no end to how much time could be spent tweeking playlists and metadata.

That's a good question. I had glass tops made for some of my CWD oak cabinets. I just put some "doilies" (I think that's the word.) under them. Looks nice. I'd think it would be good to let air get to the wood, but that's just a guess.

I'd like to see Bose promote the 901 more, too. The pair I have now, I bought in the fall of '09. I don't know how to determine date of manufacture from their serial number, but all the literature was dated '06 or '07. I would guess they are still a decent seller, but they may just be keeping them around because they're Amar's baby. Actually, I'd like to see them do an upgrade to Series VII status, since they've been stuck on VI for twenty-two years and counting. A more exotic cone material and an updated EQ would be nice. Maybe for their 50th birthday in 2018! Cornwalls and DQ-10's huh? A bit of a yin and yang there, too! Let me guess: Dahlquist for acoustic and corns for electric?

Excellent point. I think we can become too enamored of pinpoint imaging, where you can tell the exact location on the soundstage of every voice or instrument. It's a cool effect and I've been seduced by it too, by I just don't think you get it that much with live music. Maybe sometimes, but I find the best sounding live music has always been when it just energized the air and it seemed electric. All around you and alive. And that's what the 901 brings to the table. It's not a "front-row center" speaker, for sure. For that, there's nothing better than Klipsch, IMHO. The 901 is more of a mid-to-rear hall speaker. And I find I like that with a lot of music. In a perfect world I'd have k-horns in their corners and 901's suspended from the ceiling...Yin and Yang!! The Dynamic Duo!!!

HA-HA!! Yeah, I was thinking along those lines too! The 901 does seem to have a polarizing effect. Ya love it or ya hate it...and EVERYBODY's got an opinion! Regarding Bose customer service: My first pair of 901's, Series IV's from the late 70's, were sold to a friend. Later, when the foam surrounds rotted out, Bose fixed them (or replaced them - I forget) free. And a friend at work was telling me a similar story. When the rot hit his, Bose just replaced both speakers for free (if I remember right), with the latest series upgrade (IV to V in his case). How can you beat that?

Congratulations! Beautiful speakers!! ps - I think you've been through even more speakers than me in the last ten years. Can I show my wife YOUR track record the next time I want to buy another pair?

True, the 901 will rattle the rafters. So will big ol' horns. (The 901's just need more juice to do it.) That attribute alone does not a great speaker make, but it's certainly necessary if you like to hear music reproduced at life-like levels of volume and dynamics in your home. And it's one of the cornerstones of music reproduction that klipsch has built it's brand on. The 901 does dynamics, and it also does space, something horns often have trouble with. Low distortion? I dunno about that for the 901 as I have not seen a lot of published specs. All I know is they sound clean to me. I would not be surprised if they do have high levels of low frequency distortion, but subjectively, to me, they sound great. All speakers should be so distorted. I agree with whoever it was that said the reason there is not a world full of 901 clones is that everyone knows Bose will sue the bejeebers out of you. Geez, I think they even sued someone for using "901". Like they own the number!

Don't laugh! The introduction of the 901 was, afterall, the antithesis of "normal" speaker design, including horn loaded types. I've had several pairs (original Type I's from 1968, and a "test" pair of the new type VI's about 2 years ago). Whether we (as in the Forum members) like the 901 or not, it still stands to reason that is is one of the "significant" speakers designed and produced. And I will agree with the comment about power and amp quality.... In order for them to work properly, the do require a good amp, proper placement (heard that before... LOL!!), and above all, the application for which they are being used. They have been in constant production since 1968, as in 42 years. Other than the Heritage series, that's getting up there.... That being said, and this being the Klipsch Forum, I have always suggested that before one makes a "decision" regarding the 901's and their ability to make coherent noise, one has to actually listen to a pair, properly installed, using a good quality amplifier, etc. I would say that they are not as bad as we are often led to believe. They just have major weaknesses that, unless properly compensated for, they will sound like crap. And that, of course, is the problem. In most instances when we "encounter" the Nemesis 901, it is being used in a crappy room, improperly placed, crappy amp, etc. If one thinks about it subjectively, just imagine your Klipschorns not properly placed in the corners, and... with a $199 all plastic amp.... Just some thoughts for Sunday morning. Check out my system profile![] I wasn't cutting down the 901. It's one of my favorite speakers ever, at any price. And I agree completely with your comments. It's all in the set-up. Same holds true for all speakers; horns, and any kind of di/bi/omni polar or "Direct/Reflecting" especially. Klipschorns are the best sounding speaker I've ever heard -in the right room and set-up. So why don't I still have mine? I could not get them to sound like they should in our new house. In the old house they rocked: 12ft ceiling, lively, open ended room and good dimensions. In the new house they had to go in a closed, less lively room that had less favorable dimensions (16x18.5x8.75 feet). And they sucked -for $5800 speakers in 1999, anyway. In the same room, my 901's sound amazing. Best bass I've ever heard in my house. They sound like live music. Not like speakers. I'm absolutely in love all over again with them. Can't quit listening. And my new Adcom 5500 really lights their fire. I'd highly recommend the combination. But I digress... I like Seti's choices. Here's my list, in no particular order Klipschorn / AR1 / Quad ESL / ADS L200/300 / Bose 901 / Bose cubes / B&W 801 / Mirage M1 / JBL monitors / Ohm "F" ...that's 10. All lists should be ten! I can't think of anymore at the moment.[:S] ;

I would definitely put the mighty klipschorn higher up the list. I'd also put the Bose 901 on the list. And the original Advent. And how about the ADS mini-speaker? (L200?) Bose cubes?? ...maybe. I guess you'd have to define "significant". [:S]

Did your mama ever talk about a big curly-headed dude from Indianapolis?[]

Ah, very interesting! I used to have a couple of surge protectors from Radio shack that had some switched outlets, but the sensitivity of the switching function was adjustable. They both eventually got to where they would not switch anything off or on regardless of the setting. It would either stay on all the time or stay off all the time. I wonder if I'd get a pop or a thump with that strip like I do now if I don't power up and down in the proper sequence? ...probably would. Thanks for the heads up, though. That looks like a good buy.

Nah, no problems. The amp is brand new. It's just that the feel and sound of the power button does not inspire confidence, that's all. I've not even read of the power button being an issue, for that matter. I guess I worry too much.[^o)]

I'm sure this question has come up (probably many) times before, but if I tried to search the archives, that's kind of like work, plus if everybody did that, there would be no new posts. So. Is it better to leave my big, honkin' Adcom 5500 on all the time, or should it be shut down when not in use? The power switch feels a little chintzy so I'm kinda scared it'll break. But then I hate to leave the amp on 24/7, suckin' juice for no good reason. It's got no 12V trigger and I've got no power controller with a 12V trigger'd outlet, so that is not an option at the moment. Thanks.

I would think they'd push the Reference series toward the Paladiums with styling cues and filtered down technology. Maybe an RF-83 with 2 horns. We must have the same crystal ball (mine's the ACME Futurama 2000) because mine is showing the same thing. I see tapered cabinets similar to Palladium but I think they might go 2.5-way crossover instead of 3-way. I'm eager to see them, whatever they are and whenever they are.