benklipsch

Okay - I think I found a little problem. Maybe someone here can tell me what the issue is. Here's where it melted a hole through the amp enclosure: And here's a closeup of the offending electronic units:

That's worth taking it to another house just to be sure. But my house was built in 1988, so its electrical system is pretty up-to-date. Also, it was working just fine the day before.

I posted this in the Sub category, but everyone's over here. Last night, my SW12 started producing a crackling and popping sound. I disconnected each interconnect one-by-one, ultimately disconnecting everything except the power cord, and still I get a crackling and occasional pop. I moved it to another AC outlet and got the same problem. Tried the cheater plug - same crackle. There were no blenders, toasters, dimmed lights, etc. that caused the problem, and it had been working fine up until last night. Is this a known amplifier problem? If so, how do I go about getting it fixed? or is there a replacement amp that would be a better choice? Thanks!

It's totally disconnected. It's plugged in with nothing else touching it, so the source of the crackling is coming from the unit itself. I tried a different outlet but got the same results. Tried the 3-prong to 2-prong AC adapter - because some people thought that might work - but it still had the crackle. Also, if I put my ear close to the speaker, I can hear a light hum, and I don't have the volume turned up very high. If it does turn out to be the amplifier, how much do those cost to have replaced? Is it worth fixing?

Checked everything - running unplugged from everything but the power plug. From a distance, it sounds like a scratchy record. Up close, it's an electrical crackle. I haven't done anything to it, just started happening. Any ideas?

Here's one of many old salts on the amp vs amp subject. http://www.mastersonaudio.com/audio/20020901.htm But he doesn't once mention the "oooh" factor of tubes, which is their main draw. What's that extra THD in tube amps? That's your buddy in the background saying, "Oooh."

I saw that one! The vodka expert was a real expert on vodka - was a professional taster of sorts. Other people involved liked vodka, thought they knew vodka, but turns out they didn't. So what does that mean? For someone who spends his waking hours profiling sound systems - I mean real experts with no day-job other than high-end audio - they might be able to score well in a blind test. Everyone else, that is, 6 billion minus 100, can't tell Levinson from Stolichnaya.

If you spend $1,000 upgrading something, it had better sound better than different. Trouble is, many times it does just sound different. Does a $2,000 system sound different than a $50,000 system? Probably. Does one sound better than another? The component manufacturers, audio magazines, and high-end music stores will do their best to convince you that big money = superior sound. ABX comes to a different conclusion. The experts now say that ABX itself is faulty and you shouldn't pay any attention to ABX results. Isn't there a show on cable called Mythbusters? This topic should go there.

Hey - you stole my metaphor!

I used to drive a sports car, could feel every bump in the road, every groove in the pavement - I could tell when I drove over a leaf. I drive a big, comfortable, 4,000lb sedan now, very tubey. Funny that engineers would be swayed by subjectivity. Not like them at all - usually quite objective those guys.

Want to raise hackles with an audiophile? Mention double-blind tests. Most audiophiles can't tell the difference between a $300 SS amp and a $50,000 tube amp in a blind test. There are differences in sound between amps, but whether they are better or worse is subjective. I can buy a new preamp that makes my system sound different - and if I paid $10,000 for it, I'm likely to think it sounds better, not the same or worse. But I believe that people like to hear distortion - hence the affinity for tubes. Adding "warmth" to a signal means you are adding something to the signal, and that, technically speaking, is distortion. Back in the late Sixties and early Seventies, the newfangled solid-state components provided clear, unadulterated reproduction of recordings. Gone was the "warmth" of tubes. Then - surprise! - solid state was criticized for being "cold", when, in fact, it was just being more transparent than tubes. And to make it worse, solid state clipping is notoriously painful, compared to the smooth clip that tubes provide. Since then, solid state hasn't done well in reproducing the pleasant distortion characteristics of tubes. But now digital amps can provide the clarity of solid state and some semblance of that tube sound - AND - with soft clipping. There's rumblings already of digital being the end of tubes and the beginning of high fidelity for everyone. Chips are cheap. The established audiophile industry would NEVER admit that a cheap chip amp sounds great. That would be like Exxon and Mobile producing a car that gets 200mpg. The best they will do is say such an amp "sounds alright for the money," translated: "It will never sound as good as an expensive amp." Which is why price is so important to audiophiles when determining the performance of a component. Many people believe that if you haven't yet spent over $1,000 then you aren't an audiophile. This is a verbatim question posed of my Heresys: "Did you pay over a thousand dollars for them?" The implication is clear: if it wasn't a grand, they're not worth listening to. Even the granddaddy of tubes abandoned valves for solid state. McIntosh stopped making tube equipment for what is it 30 years? - only to start making them again for the nostalgic trend. Why would they forsake their beloved valve disciples for the inferiority of transistors? Well, they didn't. They progressed with the better technology. But that won't make valve believers follow them, just as there will always be people who prefer carburetors to fuel injection. And that's the subjectivity factor that no argument can overcome. Take away the blind tests and objective performance data, replace them with glowing tubes, and the eyes glaze over. Objectivity gets left out with the cat. And like it was stated above, the objectivists are likely to be more satisfied with their systems than the subjectivists. Romantics and realists. Impressionists and realists. Optimists and realists. Who's happier? Who's more likely to cut his ear off than listen to another tube vs. solid state argument?

Does anyone have a current price list for Klipsch Heritage series parts? I'm considering using Corwall parts for a built-in system, so I don't need the boxes.