Edgar

Jennifer (Loni Anderson) or Bailey (Jan Smithers)?

Got an email message from my sister, who lives just west of St. Louis, saying that it woke her up this morning. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/nmhwb0418a.php

A few months ago I signed up for a Comcast special deal; cable TV, internet, and VOIP telephone for $99. The deal also included free HBO, but I didn't care at all about that, so Comcast didn't bother to give me a cable box since I wouldn't use it anyway. When the first bill came in, it was a whole lot more than $99, so I called to find out what was going on. They checked into the matter and found out that because I did NOT have a cable box, the $99 deal didn't apply and I had to pay the regular price for each of the three services. To get the $99 deal I HAD to take a cable box. It sits in the closet, unused. Greg

I am an engineer who had the opportunity to visit Bose in an "official" capacity several years ago. I discovered some very interesting things. 1) Bose has a lot of money, and as a result they have some of the BEST engineering tools I've ever encountered anywhere. 2) Bose builds toys. That's not intended to be an insult. Mattel builds toys, too, and there can be some real high-tech involved. So if you think of Bose as a manufacturer of "high-tech toys", many things start to make sense that didn't in other contexts. 3) (I only have this story second-hand.) Apparently many years ago Mark IV Audio (parent company, at the time, of Altec Lansing, Electro-Voice, University, Dynacord, Klark-Teknik) employed a leading industry guru in "auralization" technology -- 3D modeling of acoustic spaces. At some time he was hired away from Mark IV by ... Bose. I wish I could remember his name. Greg

Last time my body was in that position while riding a motorcycle, it was a dirt bike, and I was upside-down (but the bike was rightside-up).

I'm in Northern Vermont, so I can identify. I'm so fed up with Winter. I just got off the phone with someone who has a job in San Diego. It's so tempting. Greg

No, you're right; they really do require special care to prevent breakage or scratching. Yes, I forgot to mention that. I have an old spaghetti pot with a very unflat bottom, and cannot even bring water to a boil in it on a glass top. But flat bottom pots are not difficult to find nowadays. Greg

I'm with you on glass flat tops. I've used gas, coil electric, and glass electric, and my favorite by far is glass electric. You have to be careful not to drop pots on or scrape them across the surface, but for me the ease of clean-up and good looks make it worth the effort. I never bothered with special cleaners. Dawn dish soap and water for most clean-up, burned-on food comes off with a razor-scraper followed by a bit of extra-fine polishing compound (the same kind you use to buff-out the paint job on a car) and some elbow-grease. Any streaks left behind clean-up with Windex. Greg

I use Opera, so I'm in the same predicament. I have to insert explicit commands for line breaks, etc., and inserting URLs is a real pain. For others in the same boat, here are a couple of basic commands. Be sure to include the < and > symbols. For a line break, type <BR>. For a new paragraph, type <P> before the first word and </P> after the last word. For lots of other commands, go to: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_primary.asp. Greg

Make certain that the concrete is absolutely dry. Get a can of waterless hand cleaner such as Goop or GoJo. Apply liberally to the spot by hand (the cream will become liquidy -- that's good) and rub it in with a brush. Let it soak for fifteen minutes or so. Hose off. It might be necessary to repeat the process one or more times, just make certain that the concrete is dry before reapplying. Greg

The model seems to do reasonably well between about 70 Hz and about 400 Hz. Below that, perhaps system resonances come into play. Above that, perhaps the effects of horn folding come into play. That's just conjecture on my part. Greg

Interesting. Here's my HORNRESP models of KHorn (black) and Jubilee (gray), 4p (anechoic), compared with the measurements. Horizontal scales are approximately the same; vertical scales very different.

What, no "crispies"? Fiddling-around with a KT DN6000 RTA at work one day, I was surprized to find very strong ambient content below 20 Hz. It was the air conditioner. I was never conscious of it. Greg

Yeah, but which sounds best; dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate? Do you use ply-chocolate or medium density fiberchocolate? Greg

Exactly. If a person was to carry an RTA around with him everywhere he went, he would be amazed at the constant bombardment of low frequency content -- slamming car doors, passing semi-trucks, ventilation systems, etc., etc., etc. -- that goes totally unnoticed because it's just "there". But record those very same sounds and play them back on a system with deep bass capabilities, and the low frequencies sound overblown and unnatural, even though the system measures flat. The thing that I like about horn-loaded bass is that it does not call attention to itself. It is there, it's not weak by any means, but it blends in with the rest of the audio instead of shouting over it. It's loud when it needs to be loud, and quiet when it needs to be quiet, and it doesn't waste any time transitioning between the two. The only direct radiator systems that I've heard that come even close were those with huge radiating surfaces. Greg

Oh, Roy, I just got this mental picture of a Jubilee constructed entirely of chocolate. Brought a big smile to my face. Greg

OK, just checking! Seriously, Keele is very pragmatic about speaker design. If his goal is to maximize efficiency, then that's exactly what he'll maximize, in a very objective fashion. Give him a different optimization parameter, and he'll do whatever it takes to optimize that. As audiophiles, we exist in a slightly different world, one that is far more subjective. Greg

That paper was written in the 70s. The laws of physics have changed since then. [] I used to work with Don Keele. I think that he would find your comment to be humorous. He has forgotten more about horn physics than most of us will ever know. As with all things "audio", there is more to it than just the math and the measurements. It is the intangibles that we enjoy. Greg

It is. 2nd order LR is two cascaded 1st order Butterworth. 4th order LR is two cascaded 2nd order Butterworth. And so on. Looking more closely at the Dx 38 user's manual, I see that it offers 4th order Butterworth filters in the crossover functions, but only 2nd order in the filter function. So it's not quite as easy as I originally thought, but it can still be done with a 4th order Butterworth crossover, two 2nd order lowpass filter sections, and two parametric EQ sections. Greg

You can construct 48 dB/octave (8th order) Linkwitz-Riley crossovers by cascading two 24 dB/octave (4th order) Butterworth filters. The Dx 38 can do 24 dB/octave Butterworth filters, no problem. Greg

I have no experience with this. Didn't Bruce Edgar mention that adding reflectors at the internal horn bends improved the bass cabinet's HF performance? As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. No arguments here. Greg

Another possibility. Keele's equations show a mass rolloff frequency of 177 Hz for the K33E woofer. If you can find an old Electro-Voice EVM15L (361 Hz), or a current DL15BFH (314 Hz), you might get a few extra dB above 175 Hz. Note that the current DL15ST (187 Hz) and DL15Y (268 Hz) are not as good as the DL15BFH in this respect. You might also have to adjust the back chamber volume. There are undoubtedly woofers from other manufacturers that will provide similar performance. I'm just more familiar with the EV products. Greg

For goodness sake, please DON'T cut the HR9040As. They're becoming as scarce as Faberge eggs and I'd hate to see a pair destroyed. I cannot comment on your other questions, except to say that the 9040A might look very strange mounted atop a KHorn or Jubilee bass cabinet, because the "lips" will overhang the front of the bass cabinet by quite a bit. That seems to be the hardest part of living with these horns -- aesthetically it is difficult to match them up with any kind of "box" cabinet. Greg

If you're willing to go outside the Klipsch line ... http://www.electrovoice.com/download_document.php?doc=1669 http://www.electrovoice.com/download_document.php?doc=1672 http://www.electrovoice.com/download_document.php?doc=1681 These are all in the ballpark to fit the width of the La Scala bass section. Greg

Exactly. That is what I thought I was trying to say in my original response, but frankly I didn't have my brain completely engaged and missed the mark on a bunch of things. Among other things, I failed to distinguish between the radiation pattern and control of that pattern. The pattern is determined by the "cone angle" of the horn. The frequency below which the horn can no longer control that pattern is determined by the physical size of the horn -- larger horn means ability to control to lower frequency. Ever post a message without completely thinking it through, and then wish you hadn't? That applies to my original response. Greg