Islander

Now here's a political twist to the story. The original plan was to have the SRBs manufactured in one of the eastern seaboard states and have them transported by ship to Cape Canaveral. They would have been wider and have been manufactured in one piece. However, the congressman from Utah lobbied successfully to have his state get the job. The constraints of train transport required a re-design, resulting in boosters that had to be re-assembled after they arrived. The joints were sealed with O-rings. You may recall that a failed O-ring was the cause of the Challenger disaster. The O-rings performed adequately in ideal conditions, but the weather was colder than usual for that launch. During takeoff, one of the cold O-rings failed to seal properly, allowing the fuel to leak out and causing an explosion that killed all seven astronauts. Some horse's *** set that whole process in motion...

Actually, the Chinese invented bureaucracy, around 200 BC, during the Qin Dynasty. Had to keep the Empire organized.

According to the Heritage Series manual/leaflet, if the speakers are more than 18-20 feet apart, you may want to consider adding a center speaker. Generally speaking, as long you're getting a proper stereo image, you're okay. Another way to look at it is that they should be roughly the same distance apart as you are sitting from them, eg. 12 feet away = 12 feet apart. Since all rooms and speakers are different, there are no hard and fast rules, just guidelines to give you a starting point. Then you shift the speakers (and your butt) around until you're happy with the sound.

Sure, but do they rock like the 5.6.7.8's?

Your Scalas are looking good and that room likely has really good acoustics. But I just have to ask, are those tribbles trying to hide in the bass horns???

It is easy when you have an acoustic scalpel for surgical audio trimming. []

According to the Heritage manual/leaflet, Klipschorns need a ceiling height of at least 8.5 feet, because of the height of their tweeters.

Wotta score! Happy listening!

This is an audio forum. Petty political insults don't belong here.

Congrats! How are you liking them?

No respect... []

I usually set the volume so the dialogue is loud enough to be heard clearly and the explosions are as loud as the director wanted them to be. If you find the effects are too loud, as they can be with some movies, see if your DVD player or receiver has a "Night" setting, which will reduce the dynamic range, so the loud parts of the soundtrack aren't WAY LOUDER than the dialogue. The feature is intended for late-night listening without disturbing anyone trying to sleep. My Yamaha receiver has separate "Night Cinema" and "Night Music" settings, both of which are adjustable for more or less reduction in the dynamic range. If you've been able to match levels between your speakers, they're compatible in that way. You'd only need to consider changing speakers for timbre matching purposes.

Hmm, never thought about guns. When returning to Canada from the US, I was always happy to see the sign that said "Welcome to Canada. Handguns Prohibited."

Hilarious!!! And here's a serious tip: if you get pulled over after dark, turn on your interior light. Any policeman is understandably nervous when approaching a strange car in the dark. If the interior light is on, he can see who and what is in the car. Lowering the policeman's stress level is always a good thing. It could mean the difference between a warning and a ticket, or between a ticket and a butt-kicking. [] [*-)]

"You can spend too much on them???", asked Charlie Sheen... Seriously, you're doing a really good thing, plus you have to respect your nephew for motivating himself to straighten out. Best of luck to both of you.

Thanks for the offer, jerol, but those images look to be good enough quality. I've saved them and I'll see how well they print out. UPDATE: I printed them out. The pricelists are fine, but the La Scala page is a little fuzzy. Would you be able to do a higher-res scan and post it? Thanks in advance.

Probably, but showing a product that's unable to do what it should seems like it would plant a (possibly minor) negative image in the minds of prospective customers. I mean, why's there no equivalent of the guy hanging from the girder by his hard hat in the ad? Or maybe I just have too much time on my hands...

Thanks so much, Jerol! That's my 1974 LS-BBs exactly, with the removable tops, no risers underneath and the pie-shaped badges.

I'll be checking out the shower on the top of a local mountain. Interestingly, your link led to a page with a link to a magnet company advertising "super strong" magnets. The attached picture shows the range of shapes these magnets are produced in. But if they're so strong, why didn't they all fly together into a lumpy magnetic mass?

Wow, just when you think you've heard every variety of trickery! Hope that works out for you. I guess you've given the case a shake to see if there's actually anything in it. Man, this Internet anonymity makes some people think they can pull off any kind of crap. If we all lived in the same village, there likely would never be any kind of fraud. Not more than once, anyway...

Thanks for the images, Jerol! Got anything on the La Scala?

Heinlein's immortal wisdom... Have you read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars), or for the nearer future, anything by William Gibson? Gibson invented the cyberpunk genre, but oddly doesn't even own a computer.

I'm glad I subscribe to TV Week. Every night, I check the evening's programs before turning on the idiot box. Many nights it doesn't get turned on and I hear some great music instead. Remember the "Crap on TV? Great!" thread?

Just bought a copy today of the Flaming Lips CD Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and was surprised to notice it's about 6 dB louder than most of my other CDs, meaning comfortable listening levels called for the volume to be 6 dB lower than usual. On the first listen, it sounds quite good, though, with good dynamics and a "big" sound. Cool lyrics, too. It's from 2002 and doesn't seem compressed like some of the new CDs I've read about.

In my 1974 La Scala, with the handy removable top, you can see the woofer compartment cover board, with the AA crossover on a separate board. This picture shows the original caps and K-77 tweeter, since replaced with Bob Crites's Sonicaps and CT125 tweet.