Islander

Cool bands, seti! Polysics really bring back the Devo style. Last Japanese band I saw was Shonen Knife a few years ago, but they didn't make it onto the Island for last year's tour.

It's hard to gauge their looks at that age. Most babies look like Winston Churchill. Good-looking kid, though. Congrats!

Wow, NS1000Ms! How are you liking the sound of them? One of the editors of the UK magazine Hi-Fi World has a pair and they're discussed occasionally in that magazine.

You could always replace your K400/K-55s & K-77s with a pair of K510/K-69As. That gives a major improvement, especially if you go to bi-amping, but it gets somewhat more expensive.

You can see in the pictures that show the left side that his bike has the factory "cowbell" horn. More cowbell!

If you really want made-in-USA speakers, get some Klipsch Heritage ones. They sound great and are made in Arkansas.

That looks like some sort of heavy duty broadcast turntable, built to stand up to rough use by over-caffeinated late-night DJs. Hope you can get it sounding as cool as it looks. Is it belt drive, or idler drive, or what?

The problem with the Cadillac "4-6-8" engine was that it didn't have intake valve actuators on enough cylinders, so when it was running in the 4 or 6 cylinder modes, it had an unbalanced firing order, resulting in vibration and other problems. All reports indicate that the new Chrysler take on the concept has addressed those problems, resulting in a smooth-running economical engine.

Good lord, man. I just reviewed your system profile. You're telling me you can operate all that with ONE BUTTON? Dave Only two buttons to start up my system. One button turns on the Dx38, then the power button on the receiver starts the rest. The sub EQ is plugged into the receiver's switched outlet, and the power amps are connected to the receiver's 12V trigger outlet. I thought about connecting the Dx to the receiver's other (2-slot) switched outlet, but the Dx manual states very strongly not to defeat the 3-prong connector in any way. The EV dealer agreed with that advice. I don't mind, two buttons aren't much trouble. Once the music starts, usually from the tuner, the sub turns itself on, and another day of music listening begins.

Heritage speakers are great in home theater applications. Many forum members have them. Some started out with a pair for 2-channel and just added surround speakers as needed. I'm using a pair of 510 JubScalas for mains, with Heresy IIs for center and surround, plus a Paradigm sub. The combo sounds excellent, whether for 2-channel or 5-channel.

Was 4' 33" recorded on a Steinway?

With most AV receivers, other than fairly high-end ones, the total power is a bit of a fiction. 140 watts x 7 channels doesn't equal 980 watts if all are driven at the same time. The power supply seems to be the bottleneck. You may get only 70 watts per channel when driving all 7 channels. However, when driving only 2 channels, you may get well over 140 watts to those 2 channels. When driving 2 channels, it may put out not 140 watts, but more like 190 or 200 watts. The good thing is that Klipsch speakers don't need huge amounts of power to play loud enough for most people. If after listening for a while, you decide you need still more power, it's easy to add a power amp, either stereo for just the main speakers, or multi-channel to drive all the speakers. It would be connected to the receiver's pre out connectors.

If you like No Doubt, check out the Rock Steady Live DVD. It has the most realistic concert sound I've ever heard.

Hook them up and see how they sound with the gear you've got. I've driven my Heresy IIs with my mid-line Yamaha receiver and with my high-end Yamaha MX-D1 power amp and they sound good either way, although the better amp naturally allows them to sound better, more clear, in particular. You may want to get a setup that allows you to add a sub. Heresies and La Scalas really benefit from the help of a subwoofer.

So you herded up your horde to hie them to their humble habitation, far from the hooves of the humongous hurtling herd? Had the honcho himself not heard the hullabaloo, who knows but his hereditary hominid horde might have heard their last hurrah. And been heedlessly hammered into the humid humus. How humiliating... 'Twould have been a dire, depressing, destiny for your dynasty. Stop me, someone!

Getting the SPL meter is the first step. Along with the receiver's test tones, that's all you need to balance the main-range speakers with each other. To match the sub to the other speakers, it's very helpful to have a source of tones below 200Hz, down to 20Hz or so. There are tone generators, but a test CD or DVD is all you really need. Sit at your listening position with the meter and see what it shows you. The more knowledgeable forum members may jump in and point out the weaknesses in this basic technique, but it will get you in the ballpark. It's a good idea to make up a chart and note the readings at each frequency, because it'll take quite a few tests to get the sub properly dialed in. First do a test run without the sub, so you see the response of the speakers and the room. You may want to use what you learn to find the ideal position for your main speakers. This would be the distance from the walls that gives the smoothest bass response, with the minimum of peaks and dips. You'll also find where the low-end response of the speakers starts to trail off. It may be somewhat higher than the specs would have you believe, but that's what the sub is there for. As a starting point, set the sub crossover in the receiver around the point where the speakers are down 3-5dB. Set the rolloff or hi-cut control on the sub itself all the way up and make your adjustments with the receiver. Set the sub's volume or level control around the 10 o'clock position and adjust its volume from the receiver as well. As for the phase setting, I'll let someone more experienced explain that more clearly than I could. When you run your test tones, you don't need to use high volume. 80-85dB is plenty. Your aim is to have a relatively flat or even response from 200Hz down to as low as your sub will put out in your room. Depending on the sub's abilities and the room's size, it will probably roll off around 25-30Hz. Since a 4-string bass guitar's lowest note is at 40Hz (a 5-string bass's extra string lets it go down to 30Hz), that should be enough for most music, other than some organ or electronic music. You will have some peaks and dips in any case, but do your level and hi-cut adjustments to try to minimize them. If there's a dip or peak around the point where the speakers and the sub meet, adjust the sub's hi-cut up or down as needed. When you've got it all set, the sub's sound should not be obvious. An acoustic or electric bass should sound realistic, not too light or too heavy. The numbers are all very well, but how it sounds to you is what's important. Finally, some may disagree with me on this, but I think that a correctly dialed-in sub should work equally well with music or movies. If the music sounds natural, the explosions and earthquakes will also sound the way the director wanted them to sound. Hope this is helpful.

Nice setup! I'm sure you'll hear lots of favourable comments from anyone who comes over, plus it should sound great!

What about the guy that got a pair of La Scalas for free because the little old lady thought they were her deceased son's end tables? She gave him $5 to drop them off at the dump.

Coytee, try setting the meter to x10 or x100, or whatever the lowest scale is. If you're using the x1000 ohms setting (meaning the scale goes up to 1000 ohms) and the reading is 8 ohms, for example, the needle will barely move, so it'll look like the reading is zero. Ohm meters are a bit like SPL meters, in that they have a selection of scale ranges and you have to pick the range that will keep the expected reading away from either end of that range, not too high and not too low.

Monster tried to serve him, but it looks like they got served!

Half price? Can you get Heritage speakers? Have you heard of a speaker called the Klipschorn Jubilee? [] As for subs, if both subs have the same amplifier in them, a sub with a 10-inch driver could have a faster, more musical, response than one with a 12-inch driver. I'm using a Paradigm PW-2100, which has a 400-watt amp and a 10-inch driver. It easily keeps up with my JubScalas, which are driven by a pair of high-power amps.

On a dark rainy morning, having to go to the living room to turn on my La Scalas is the only reason I get out of bed. Although they're heavily modded now, I felt the same when they were nearly stock.

I'm not a musician, but I'd think that what you'd look for in an amp for stage use, especially if you have to buy a stack of them, would be ruggedness, ability to run at near full power most of the time, and low cost. Very low distortion and noise might not be that important, unless you're playing acoustic instruments, where distortion is a less frequently used effect. For home use, the priorities are different. Low distortion, low noise, pleasing sound (or not many will be bought), snazzy or at least expensive-looking styling, to name a few. Rack-mounting lugs are rarely required. No amp can be all things to all people, so as Mark points out, the engineers prioritize what's most important to the intended customer and design accordingly. I'm generalizing, but that's the impression I have. Jeff, to quote, hit Reply, then highlight the passage you want to quote, then hit Quote.

The musicians use things like musical instruments and assorted distortion devices (trumpet mutes, effects pedals, overdriven amps, etc.) to create the sound they want. If they want feedback, they'll set up their gear to produce it. They are the artists and it's their art. The home sound systems, on the other hand, have the job of accurately reproducing whatever sounds the artists produced, without adding or subtracting from the sounds that are on the recording medium. For example, using an overdriven amp to reproduce the sounds produced by an overdriven amp would likely produce something totally unlistenable and not at all what the artist had in mind. To sum up, what's needed to produce the music is not the same as what's needed to reproduce it.

Could you put the subs on top of the La Scalas? If you raise the Scalas off the floor, their bass response will be weaker, and placing subs on the floor in a corner could make for boomy bass. Also, are your subs larger than La Scalas? Those would be some enormous subs!