Professor Thump

Michael, You crack me up. What is the count on the collection now. I think you were just around 100 pcs at the Pilgrimage. Have you posted your collection on the forum? I am too lazy to search...

To be honest Matt I can't think of any papers that explain why horns work off the top of my head. There are a lot of AES papers on compression drivers from Henrickson, Czerwinski, Voishvillo, and Keele. But many of those will get technical real fast. The other funny thing is that if you have designed compression drivers you will realize that it is next to impossible to know everything going on inside the compression zone. This is because you can get a microphone down in the slot of a phase plug. So modelling is the next best approach. You can find some more stuff on compression drivers on the web. I found this one quickly in Google. http://www.melhuish.org/audio/horn.html

Loud and Clear is correct in the fact that there is considerable difference in the two models. The quality will be excellent in either. When I design this family of speakers I had at my disposal a large arsenal of Klipsch drivers, especially in the area of compression drivers. You won’t find many home speakers in the industry that have true compression drivers with a 12 to 1 ratio of compression. This is what the RF -63/83 and RC-64 give you. You may ask “what will this compression driver give me?” Dynamics! This is what Klipsch is famous for… You will notice that you are really at the concert with a RF-63. Please understand that the RF-82 is one of the flattest speakers in the family of Reference 4 product. But when you really crank it and you have a snare drum rap you are going to get a little compression in the sound. You won’t know what this is like until you hear the other models. From a room you would hope to sit back at least 12 feet from the fronts since the 63 is really tall and the sound source is also really tall. You won’t be disappointed if your room is smaller, you just won’t have the optimum setup for these speakers. The RF-82 is one of my favorite speakers primarily at lower volumes. But if I am looking for dynamics I will use the upper models.

You might be able to lay a cookie sheet against the heater and wall to direct the heat rising away from the speaker. Professor "Rule of Thump" If it is too warm to hold your hand on the speaker surface then it is too hot. ...or you never do any manual labor...[]

Most of the sales are direct from Amazon or Klipsch. There are some retail spots but I am not privy to the details. They keep the engineers in the dark dank cave where there is no light. Course we don't like light anyways cause it ruins the picture on the big screen... You need to Stick it... In your ear!

Steve, I am so sorry for your loss. All of us at Klipsch sends a big hug.

Last picture of the full screen wall. More to come...

Here is the front wall where I will project the video and a cut out for a THX 650 box. Middle top is a bracket I made to support center channel. I made it a close as possible to the ceiling so the screen could be high. You can see the gold spray paint where the screen would go. I found it helpful to position the room by painting lines for the screen and viewing area.

Here is the beginnings of command central. You can see I hate extension cables and power strips. I put lots of outlets in the equipment rack to the right and the alcove. The sump pump had room above it so this is where I built the equipment shelving.

There is an office to the right behind that wall that I finished out. You can also see the tile I laid on the floor. I really like the results of stonework when I got done. You can also see a problem I had. I wanted a small bathroom on this level but I wanted the theater room as big as possible. So my wall had additional braces accross the framework for solid support.

This is the only window that would add light. I boarded it off to black out the room and for security plus the alarm. I have never really done any framing but I sure learn a lot when I got done. I wish some things were more square, but I will probably be the only one to notice it.

Here is a 90 degree angle shift to the furnace again with the plumbing.

In the first two pictures you can see the skeleton as the walls go up to cover all the mechanicals. The furnace is always a big problem, due to Noise from the blowers coming into the room and Noise going out via the ductwork. I haven't totally solved this problem since it is expensive to do properly. There is also the concern about proper ventilation of the furnace for code. We don't use it for heat, just circulation, due to the wood stove. In the second picture you can see furnace ductwork and plumbing for the house. This was the biggest problem. I have 9 ft ceilings but the mechanicals drop it down a foot. So I built around it. I also had a 100A disconnect box from the main so I didn't have to run wires all the way to the garage. Best money I ever spent. Need an outlet...Just run it to this box. All the runs were less than 50 feet I would guess. The best tools I bought were a nail gun and a laser level sight. The room is not perfect but it is turning out better than I would have expected.

Dr Who has asked me to dig up my photo's for basement "Man Cave" home theater so here they are... Sump Pumps and Furnace are something to navigate around. In between them I built a cut out for two purposes. 1. to make the room bigger 2. to have a better area for electronics and a big oak entertainment center that needed a new home.

Okay Dr. I have dug up some of the pics of my Man Cave... But I will start a new thread for that. http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/98009.aspx

[imageAttachment] Here is a distant view. You can see the fireplace/stove in the other corner. This always makes it harder to layout an AV system without making it look cluttered. I must have learned that from my wife. "See honey I am listening to your advice. I turned off the wife filter" Why don't you stick it... in the wall!

[imageAttachment] One woofer still needs a grill. Maybe some of you boys with Alpha toys have one laying around that you don't need.

[imageAttachment] Here is a view of the subs in the wall... By the time I get through with that wall it is gonna be swiss cheese because I still have a center channel speaker to mount. I have to decide whether to mount it below or above the TFT panel. In my basement theater I went above the screen because as a "rule of thump" the ceiling makes a better horn wall than the floor with furniture and stuff on the floors. It really sounds good there but that room doesn't have any WAF influence. She thinks the diffuser I made for the ceiling don't look good. I just smiled at her and said "But it will open up the imaging". She just rolled her eyes knowing that I am audio geek with no hope of changing. Gee Life is Good!

[imageAttachment] Well here are my photos of dry wall skills or the lack of them... We will see how it looks when I paint over the patch...

srobak, I am not aware of any retail in Chicago area. There may be some at the airport. Amy might know otherwise. This is a strategy that Amy recommended so Shure employees would have to buy Indiana gas to audition the product. LOL [] Actually both companies have a lot in common. We have employees from Shure, but for some reason they are NOT working on headphones. A midwest chapter AES was held at Klipsch and we had someone from Shure stop by who is a friend of Rick's. The audio society is such a small dedicated group of people. We will let you know. In the mean time why don't you buy a pair of IMAGE. We have a 30 day money back guarantee so you wouldn't be losing anything if you didn't like them. Of course I am confident that you wouldn't give them up. At least that is what I am hearing from most people who use them. So why don't you just Stick it in your EAR!

Yesterday was an exciting day at Klipsch. Aric and Jeff from Amazon.com came to our facility where we gave them the Klipsch Tour. After lunch we sat down in the library and Sir Tom Gospel, Dr. Brad Cochlea and I gave them the lowdown on our headphone products and how happy we are with the way they turned out. I showed them all the ear impressions that were taken at Indiana University for the study on fit with IMAGE and how deep you can potentially insert the PM's. We showed them our HATS dummy that we still need a name for and of course the Hemi and Full Anechoic Chambers. Jeff asked to shoot some videos of me explaining the products which will be posted on Amazon's website in the CE section. So it will be interesting to see how that turns out. Jeff also wants me to do a guest Blog on Amazon, so you should all give me suggestions on what I should talk about that interest you about headphones and their design and applications. I will keep you posted on developments and where you can see Professor Thump doing his “dog and pony show”. [imageAttachment] The guest blog at Amazon is now up. You can see the interview at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK3UB938ILAX44X

Steve, I don't believe I got your email. Are the dimension you are talking about on the center core of the eat tip or our nozzle on the chassis?

Justin, Thanks for the review. I can't wait to hear your audio analysis. What other headphones have you listend to or own?

Good Question... What did Tom do? Maybe Brad knows.

I agree with Marvel... Playing any instrument (exept drums) isn't a contest. Well you can play battle of the bands or Guitar Hero on the Playstation or XBOX but that is not what it really is about. Its about sharing your musical soul. That's where it is at. Music heals mental wounds uplifts your soul if you are the player or the listener. Either way there is a level of satifaction that can be obtained. It might be fleeting, this feeling of warmth you get when you hit the right notes but you live for those experiences. I put the guitar down for 10 years. I got busy with life, family and my job but I found out that when you are bummed out or happy music is the fuel for your soul. I now wonder why I put it down so long. I realized that bending those strings makes you want more of life. Maybe that's just me but don't be discouraged if you want to pick the bass up again. Just do it! You won't be dissapointed. And remember its now how good you are but how much you can get out of it especially if you are jamming with others.