Islander

[] Right on,NOBODY will outo me,nobody. With all my commercial subs and now the TC Sounds ,Sound Splinter and RE Audio I will get...NOBODY competes. [6] And my 306lbs sub...it is a start....my next one will be over 500lbs. You kids watch out,and after...bigger. All this in 800cu ft of space ! I am aproaching car like SPL ....and concentration of audio gear. [] This long weekend I will be building two subs....TC Sounds moving the air.Next weekend...abox for a 18" Sound Splinter...and go from there. In ONE year I will end up with at least 10-12 DIY subs added to my 29 commercial. Beat that...HA. [8-|] Acting like a spoiled brat...it is fun. It's good to hear that you're enjoying your money and keeping the economy moving at the same time. Seriously! Some people with money just sit on it and it does nobody any good, including themselves.

If your kids reach age twenty-one without any jail time, I think you can take a little credit as a good parent.

On a related note, here's a news item titled "Do You Know an Identity Thief?": http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/banking/credit/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5177076

I wonder how long it takes for that automatic splinter maker to activate? Man, get those monsters off that cheap a$$ table before you regret it! That's right! I sure wouldn't sit on that table, and each of those speakers weighs as much as a small person.

Having lots of money and no-one to say "Maybe that's a bad idea..." to you now and then has predictable results. If any of us were in our early twenties with as much money as these girls, we might embarrass ourselves just as badly. As well, it seems Lindsey's boyfriend dumped her after she came out of rehab because he found she wasn't as much fun sober as she was as a drunken party girl. When all your friends are rich wasters who are famous and respected by wannabe rich wasters, if no-one else, you can see how easy it would be to go astray. The young millionaire with a bit of maturity and common sense would seem like the odd one out in those circles. Even so, Jessica Alba and Hilary Duff seem to be able to keep it together and show some class. But they don't hang around with Paris, do they? And no, I don't read the fan mags or People magazine, all this gossip is on the MSN homepage every day.

Let us know how you like your Scalas. You may be surprised at what your Bottlehead can do with them!

My favourite ZZ Top tune, always played real loud!

Then there's the story of the time Les Paul passed by a bar and an unknown starving guitarist called Jimi Hendrix (may have been using his original name then) was auditioning. Les thought he was great, but didn't have time to hang around. He returned later, assuming Jimi had been hired, but the manager of the bar said that guy was too weird for his bar and he had no contact info for him. Jimi struggled for a few more years and eventually made it big, but his career (and music history) would likely have gone in a different direction had he connected with Les. For an example of Jimi's jazz direction, check out Rainy Day, Dream Away from Electric Ladyland.

No new material for a long time. Are they still touring?

Anybody remember Dale Peters from James Gang? James Gang (Joe Walsh, Jim Fox and Dale Peters) played a few years ago on the Drew Carey Show as themselves. Joe had an occasional role as a friend of Drew's. Dale still sounds good on those old LPs. Tony Levin is also great. I'm surprised no-one mentioned him. He's played with Peter Gabriel and many other big names.

Trey, you have mail.

According to Wikipedia, Chris Squire bi-amped his bass, probably one of very few players to do that. In the video concert House of Yes, recorded at the House of Blues, Chris also played a 2- or 3-necked bass. Pretty innovative player. If you're a Yes fan, check out that video. From Wikipedia: Style Squire's bass playing is noted for being aggressive, dynamic, and melodic. Squire's main instrument is a Rickenbacker bass (model RM1999, serial number DC127), which he has owned and played since 1965. The RM1999 was a budget, monophonic version of Rickebacker's 4001 stereo bass. This model was imported into the UK by Rose Morris Ltd (hence the RM prefix on the model number) and, according to Squire's official website, was only the fourth bass of its type to be imported into Britain from the United States. This instrument, with its warmth and distortion, is a significant part of Squire's unique sound. Squire obtains his distinctive tone using only the neck pickup of his bass. In fact, according to John Hall (Rickenbacker CEO), the treble pickup (bridge pickup) of Squire's RM1999 is completely disconnected from the bass's circuitry and has been for many years. Another major factor in Squire's sound is a technique known as 'bi-amping'. By splitting the signal from his bass into dual high and low frequency outputs and then sending the low frequency output to a conventional bass amplifier and the high-frequency output to a separate lead guitar amplifier, Squire produced a tonal 'sandwich' that added a growling, overdriven edge to the sound while retaining the Rickenbacker's powerful bass response. He also uses fresh strings for every show. Squire (who is self-taught) was also one of the first rock bass players to successfully adapt electronic guitar effects such as tremolo, phasing and the wah-wah pedal to the instrument. Squire's vocals are also key to Yes' music, providing important harmonisation with Jon Anderson's distinctive countertenor.

Trey, would you be willing to sell one of those 1980 units? I have a pair of 1974 La Scalas and I'd like to get another Scala for a center channel. BTW, which crossovers do they have?

Yeah, what he said. [] A "vertical Heresy"? That would be cool, but if it was priced at $900, like a regular Heresy III, it might be a hard sell.

8 hours? Road trip! Get going!

That's a really pretty pair of La Scalas and I'm sure they sound great. Congratulations!

I paid about that for my 1974 La Scalas last year and was happy to, since they were only minutes from my place. If those 1994s are local to you and in good shape, that's a really good deal. With speakers that big and heavy, transport/location is always a factor in the total price.

Hmm, that supports my theory that almost everyone's luck averages out in the long term. Terrible things often happen to lottery winners, for example. Has anyone else seen instances like that? Don't wish for too much good luck. You may pay the price one day...

It depends on where you're sitting in the room. If you're within 6 feet or so of the back wall, 5.1 is ideal. If there's lots of room behind your listening position, 7.1 may be better. In a 7.1 setup, your surrounds would be to the sides and just a little behind you and the rear surrounds would be near the back wall, ideally at the same width as your front speakers, but at least 5 feet apart in any case. Would this make sense in your listening room? Personally, I used 7.1 when I had the sofa in the middle of the room and it sounded good, but, because of the layout of the room, the front speakers were too close together. When I shifted everything in the room 90 degrees to the left (moved the TV and system center from the north wall to the west wall), I was able to move the main speakers much further apart and the system sounded a lot better. However, the sofa is now less than 4 feet from the back wall and 5.1 works just fine in that situation.

You want to match the Q of the peak. To do this, you will need a measurement tool that can detect the Q. A 31-band RTA is not going to be sufficient (if that is in fact what your friend is bringing). If you'd like, my measurement rig will automatically do all of this for you. [H] When doing EQ, just keep in mind that it takes time for the resonance to build up all the way. If you notch out the resonance frequency so much that it measures flat, you're going to have a big hole at that frequency for the time before the sound builds up. So instead of trying to make it measure a flat frequency response, just notch it out until it's not annoying anymore. I'm trying to sit down and try to quantify what constitutes a "natural" reduction based on the measurements to see if it's possible to find some kind of psychoacoustic trend...I do know that making it measure flat never sounds good. Based on what you wrote a few months ago, Mike, that's what I did and it's working well. I treated the room with "bass traps" made of Cor-Plas in two corners and beside the bookcase in the third corner. There's no fourth corner, since the room opens to a corridor on that side. Then I connected my old EQ to the subwoofer, not the main speakers, since since I figured the La Scalas weren't having much input into the annoying bass resonance at 30-35 Hz. As you suggested, I just dialed down the response at 30 Hz by 4 dB, although the peak at 35 Hz was 11 dB above reference level (the EQ has sliders for 30, 60, 120, 240...Hz). After trying a few settings, that was the one I settled on, because it gave the most natural-sounding bass. There's still a narrow peak in that area, but there are dips above and below it, so pulling it down further would just make the dips worse. Perfectly flat response was not possible, so I settled for the best-sounding compromise and now the room only shakes if the recording engineer wanted it to. It's no longer annoying and I'm happy with that.

James Gang, live or on record.

Very pretty, with and without the grilles. And that finish doesn't look like plywood, either. Makes my '74s look homebuilt.

A pretty cool system, obviously!

And then there's the "Spanish lisp", making Barcelona sound like "Barthelona" and Jerez and Ibiza sound like "Hereth" and "Ibitha". I was told there was once a king of Spain who spoke with a lisp and all his loyal subjects began to speak like him so he wouldn't be ashamed of his way of speaking. Could be just a story, but many Spaniards do speak like that.

Actually, I like my black La Scalas. If they were medium-coloured veneer, they'd be pretty but they'd look like quite large pieces of furniture. The black colour makes them look a bit smaller and almost disappear against the wall. Almost disappear, I said...