Islander

According to Paul McGowan of P&S Audio, when listening to a stereo source, a dual-mono amplifier does sound better than a stereo amp with a shared power supply. Monoblocks are slightly better than dual-mono. The big jump in sound improvement is from stereo to dual-mono, and the jump (step?) to monoblocks is also there, but it's much smaller. He knows a lot more about this than me, so I'll go with that. As for listening in mono, there should be no difference, since as the real Duke Spinner and captainbeefheart posted, both channels are carrying identical program material. It's tempting to put "identical data" these days. The only difference could be that mono blocks are generally fairly high-performing units, benefitting in other ways than channel separation. With some companies, there are directly comparable dual-mono and monoblock units, but much of the time this is not the case, making apples-to-apples comparisons difficult or impossible.

Welcome to the Forum, MikeFrank! That’s a beautiful speaker. Happy listening!

For anyone who hasn’t heard about this, here we go. The old cast aluminum K400 horn did indeed ring when struck, if it was out of the cabinet. Once it’s secured to the motor board and supported by the bracket near the back end of the horn, the ringing disappears. Eventually, the cast aluminum K400 horn was replaced with the resin/plastic K401 horn, which has all kinds of stiffening ribs on it, so the issue, minor as it was, is completely gone. Dynamat and similar products are made to be applied to the inside of car and van door and body panels, so that they don’t resonate at the very high volume levels that some enthusiasts like. It may seem satisfying to “address a long-standing issue with my speakers”, but PWK was satisfied that once the K400 horn was secured to the motor board, there was no issue. If one of the more knowledgeable members knows more than this about these horns, feel free to jump in and correct me. To me, what encouraged lots of folks to do minor (and occasionally major) mods to their speakers was the way the HF section was open at the back, like a hot rod with the side panels of the hood, or even the whole hood, removed so you could see the amazing state of the engine, or the speaker. The newer La Scala IIs and LS5s are closed at the back, and we rarely hear about anyone opening up the HF section to modify the squawker, tweeter, or crossover. Could it be that the factory would prefer that people just enjoy listening to their expensive speakers, without trying all kinds of tricks that take the sound away from what PWK and Roy worked hard to perfect, within the economic constraints of commercial production, of course? Can you imagine how Roy feels when he reads things like, “These are great speakers, but of course I could barely listen to them until I did x or y to them.”? It’s not just Klipsch speakers that get these odd mods. A couple of years ago, I read a review of a certain non-Klipsch speaker. It had the bi-wiring arrangement, with each upper and lower binding post connected by a strip of metal. The reviewer actually stated that, “These are good speakers, but of course they sounded like crap until I replaced those cheap metal straps with the excellent Brand Z connecting links.” I might have gotten a word or two wrong, but that was the reviewer’s opinion of the speakers. Misinformation like that is no help to anyone.

The guy who bought my Heresy IIs lives up-Island, but after a message telling me that he was very happy with the speakers, I don’t think he’s been active on the Forum. Pity.

When a crossover causes a drop in signal strength, is it as a fixed amount, or a percentage of the signal strength? In other words (deang doesn’t need other words, but I like to be sure I’m talking about the same thing that you are), if the XO causes a .1 ohm loss at 1 watt, at 100 watts is the loss still .1 ohm, or is it 10 ohms?

Unfortunately, that video is not viewable in Canada.

The mother of a close friend of mine live to her mid-nineties, and died a few years ago. She'd been a professional keyboard player for many years, but in her later life, dementia badly affected her memory and cognition. However, once she was sitting at an instrument, it all seemed to come back, and she could play and sing like she was fifty or sixty. She lived in a long-term care home, as they're called here and now, and she continued to entertain until her last few months, when she was in poor condition. From all I've read and heard about this, all I can conclude is that we're all different, and aging affects us all in different ways. Using your brain and living a healthy lifestyle, with good food and activity, helps, but genetics plays a big part, and some of us are luckier, or even much luckier, than others in this regard. Play the hand you're dealt, and play it well. That's the best we can do.

Some speakers are designed to be placed at some distance from walls and floors, but Klipsch speakers, especially the Heritage Series models, are designed to use the walls to improve the bass response. The prime example is the Klipschorn, of course, but all of them should be located near walls and corners, except for the Cornwall, which can be placed in a corner or along a wall., because that's how they're designed.

I agree with the idea of having high-mounted speakers for similar reasons. The oddly popular idea of having the tweeters at your ear level makes no sense to me. I've tried it, and the effect it gives is that all the musicians are sitting down in front of you. That's fine for acoustic folk music, or solo harp, or buskers, of course, but every other kind of music is performed on a stage, which is at a higher level than you, so you're looking up at the players, unless you have box seats, naturally. That's the reason that I put the K402/691 tweeters of my JubScala IIs on top of the complete LS2 cabinets. This also locates them about even with the centreline of the 65" TV, which is a bit high, because it's sitting on a Belle Klipsch. It makes a great combo centre-channel/TV stand. The effect of this arrangement is that you look up, like you would in a cinema or music hall. That more closely approaches the real thing. It also approximates the height of the tweeter horns of actual Jubilees, which should be a good thing. Besides, I have no room for the HF cabinets anywhere else, and JubScalas look really stubby with the huge horn on top of the roughly two foot/60 cm. tall bass horns. There's a couple of pictures of that arrangement floating around, so you may have seen it. However, having speakers all the way up at the ceiling is overdoing it. This is because an actual music hall is far larger than most living rooms. The ceiling-mounted speakers at a music hall are above the orchestra, but still as far away from you as the musicians. Ceiling-mounted speakers in most living rooms would require people to crane their necks back if they want to look at the speakers. Think about the difference in angles between PA/sound reinforcement speakers and you'll see that you'd probably need a 30 foot/9 meter long room to get it right. As well, modern pro sound systems are line arrays, which have a very long vertical dimension, unlike a typical home speaker. The pro speakers give you the sound from several heights, for consistent sound level at various distances from the stage. The ideal in home speakers, on the other hand, is a point source of sound, not at all what a line array does. As well, in a home situation there is generally just one row of listeners, once again different from a concert hall situation and its special audio system needs. The idea of the ceiling-mounted subwoofer would be a non-starter in most homes. After you'd bopped your head on it a few times, you'd bring it down. Besides, the idea that a room has to be big enough to allow for the very long bass sound waves is easily disproven by checking out some high end headphones, which can produce plenty of deep bass. It makes no sense to me either. How can a 30-foot long bass sound wave fit inside a headphone ear cup? And yet it does. Besides, bass is not some abstract substance that exists apart form the orchestra or band. It comes from bass instruments, so the sound should at least appear to come from their direction. In my system, the subwoofers sit on small tables on thick Neoprene pads, which does two things: first, it reduces the floor bounce/early reflections that you tend to get with floor-mounted subs, and second, it isolates the subs from the floor which should reduce the thudding bass that could keep my neighbours awake, since I live in an apartment. So those are my thoughts about those ideas.

Thanks, Randy, that's helpful. I didn't realize there were so many Forum members in Canada. I'm in Victoria, and unfortunately, there's only one other member out here.

Sure, Viagra and Cialis can be helpful, but music has brought many more people into bed than they ever did. And once in bed, it has enhanced many, many, experiences.

It's said that we die twice: once when our body stops, and a second time when our name is mentioned for the last time. With that in mind, say his name often, if only in your mind. He seems to have been a big part of your life, so keep him in your life by thinking of him often.

I just came across this retrospective of Christine's career. It seems appropriate to play it now. Christine McVie -- Fleetwood Mac's Secret Weapon:

Mozart? If he wants head-bobbing, try some rock and roll! Or even head banging music, but that might damage the equipment, as much as the rats. Also, anyone who has an African Grey Parrot or a Cockatoo knows that they can not only bop their heads, they often can dance, transferring their weight from foot to foot. I know that, and I don't even own one. This scientist needs to spend more time outside the lab! When I looked at the bottom picture, my first thought was, "That poor creature, with some kind of implant on its head!", then I realized that it was a human, so I lol'd.

This is the video for the first song by my friend, the Hi-Fi Fairy. The Hi-Fi Fairy, dusting the K402 tweeter horn of my left speaker, is my avatar. She moved to Germany and her band is called SOSOSO. I recommend full screen and subtitles, because half the lyrics are in Japanese, and the English parts can be hard to make out. She speaks English, French, German, and of course Japanese, so I can forgive her accent in English. I don't know how her German sounds to a German speaker. The song is called Do Demo lijian. SOSOSO -- Do Demo lijian:

As it happens, there's no need to have a sub (or subs) that matches the rest of your system. Timbre matching is irrelevant, because the sub operates in a different frequency range from the main speakers. Also, with the grille in place, any visible differences are much less noticeable. Based on personal experience, I recommend Paradigm subs. Before I got the La Scalas and fell all the way down the Klipsch rabbit hole (see my system description to see what I mean), I had some small Paradigm surround speakers and a front centre speaker and was happy with them. Later, after I got the La Scalas and sold the Paradigm speakers, I got a smaller used one of their subs, the PW-2100, which could go down to 23 Hz. I used that sub for years happily, then I decided to go for it and bought a pair of new Seismic 110 Paradigm subs, which are rated down to 18 Hz, and have 850 watt amplifiers, as opposed to the 400 watts of the old PW-2100. Wow! With the deeper and more solid bass, the difference was night and day. If you can fit one of those subs in your budget, you'll be set for a long time. With its 10" driver, the sub is very compact, so it's easy to find a space for it. Its cabinet is an aluminum cylinder, instead of a rectangular box, which does two things: it reduces unwanted vibrations inside the cabinet, and it has a curved top, so nobody will be putting drinks or plants on it. If that model is out of your reach at the moment, check out some other models. Paradigm has a very wide range of subwoofers, with prices from $499.99 to $12,999.99 for the top one, with six drivers. Those prices are in Canadian dollars, so discount them by roughly 30% to get the US price. One of those subs should fit your needs. https://www.paradigm.com/en/subwoofers

Okay, finally got around to it. Using C weighting and with response set to Slow, my upper limit for volume is 90 dB. That’s pretty loud, and I don’t listen at that level for long. 65-75 dB is more typical. Very late at night/very early morning, l sometimes go as low as 55-60 dB. This is with the SPL meter next to my head at my listening position, pointing straight up.

With my bedroom system (Yamaha RX-V750 AVR), plugging in headphones cuts out the speakers, but since the subwoofers are fed by the Pre Out terminals, they stay active. The first time I plugged in the phones, I was really impressed with the bass response, then I took them off and realized that the subs were playing pretty loud. If you’re not disturbing anyone, it’s a pretty cool effect.

Actually, they do make me feel the beat a bit. They’re AudioQuest NightOwl Carbon headphones, and when combined with the DragonFly Red or Cobalt DACs/headphone amplifiers they do have surprising punch for headphones.

If you want some real no-speed-limit fun, why not check out a track day at Nelson Ledges, the great track in northern Ohio? It has lots of high-speed sweepers and has recently been repaved. It also has a good long back straight and is possibly my favourite track. I raced three 5-Hour endurance races there in the Seventies and two 24-Hours there in the Eighties, as well as some sprint races, and enjoyed every lap, even the ones in the rain and the dark.

On closer inspection, I see what you mean. It does look like a Photoshop job. What's extra crazy is some of those motorized bar stools. They're sort of meant to be pit bikes, but of course some of them have big engines. Here's a particularly crazy one: https://silodrome.com/hoss-fly-big-block-barstool/ On the other hand, this one looks practical and useful:

An RD400-powered Honda Minitrail? Is this yours? Is it actually ridable?

I get really annoyed/frustrated when I’m around people who loudly talk over each other, so that only the loudest one gets to finish any story or even any sentence. But I guess that’s a separate discussion.

One important question: are we measuring at listening position, or 1 metre/yard in front of one speaker? Since this is a subjective question, should I just assume that the level at our ears is being discussed, without precise regard to the sound level at the speakers, since everyone’s room is a different size and shape, with a different degree of liveness?

Pink Floyd Back Catalogue: I've got the same picture on my living room wall, in a similar size. It sits above a larger vertical picture of Jimi Hendrix in a military-style jacket and playing a dark sunburst Stratocaster. Both pictures are lenticular, for a sort of pseudo 3D effect. Why not? Nice Industrial Scala, too.