Islander

The musician's opinion of the cover: IMPORTANT PERSONAL NOTE FROM CHARLES I recently made a CD for a Japanese label named 'Venus' entitled "But Beautiful." The recording is being marketed in a manner that I strongly disapprove of. The photo on the cover of a young woman in varying suggestive positions is inappropriate and distasteful to me. I had no say in the choosing of the cover, and had no idea that they would market it in that way. I endorse the music therein, but disapprove wholeheartedly of the cover. I am sorry for this distasteful display connected with my music. I am about the music, not pornography. Sincerely, Charles McPherson I found that comment here: http://www.charlesmcpherson.com/ With a list price of $51.99 for that CD, I'd expect the music to be pretty good: http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/6859551/a/But+Beautiful.htm

As you may know, Jimi Hendrix was part Cherokee Indian. For this album cover, he asked the artist for an image that would reflect his Indian heritage. It appears the artist was unclear on what sort of Indian he meant... Nice cover all the same. Great album, too.

One of the English hi-fi mags, Hi-Fi World, perhaps, tested the Fatman amp (which appears almost identical to the VUUM amp) this month and liked it, but they tested it without the speakers that come with the VUUM unit. The magazine is on the newstands at the moment.

You can get a fancy-looking Jubilee? Not that I have the budget for them, but have you seen one, or can you post a picture of one? Everyone raves about the sound, but many grumble about the looks of the Jubilee. And I'm still trying to figure out the year of my Heresy IIs. Where's HDBRbuilder when I need him?

It's quite possible that air molecules stick to adhesive tape, but if the layer of air is only one or two molecules thick (since air molecules don't necessarily stick to each other), you'd never notice it with the naked eye, and it would be pretty hard to feel it.

The K-77s in my La Scalas varied about 2-3 dB from each other. I replaced them with BEC's CT125 tweeters which were within 0.5 dB of each other and sounded much better as well.

Thanks for sharing. That kid's got mad skillz! Plus he's determined enough to keep at it until he succeeds. Respect!

The cabinets have mitered corners, if that helps at all.

Speaker break-in is for real. I even noticed it with a pair of H/K computer speakers. They improved over the month that I had them, but the computer that they came with was defective. I sent back the whole package and a new computer arrived with new speakers. Out of the box, the new pair sounded bright and annoying just like the first pair did initially, but soon broke in and started sounding, well, as good as small computer speakers sound.

Heritage goes well with Heritage. I really like my Scalas, but the whole system moved a leap ahead when I replaced 4 Paradigm Atom surrounds with 2 Heresy II surrounds. With 2 Scalas and 2 Heresy IIs, it seems like everything fell into place and now I have bigger smoother sound even at low volume.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Tarkus is a favourite of mine, even if I don't listen to it that often. It's interesting to look at the wordless story on the inside of the gatefold while listening to the Tarkus side. For the unfamiliar, the first side is one song, in seven parts, that the album is named after.

Thanks for sharing! Nice to see Mr. K in a relaxed mood. Hmm, he was only wearing one watch.

In the early 90s, I ran into them once or twice and so did some of my co-workers. I listened to their pitch in a Canadian Tire parking lot (sorta like the US Pep Boys and Home depot combined, but on a smaller scale) and the speakers didn't look bad. I'd done some sales by then, and these guys were better salesmen than the truck drivers they were claiming to be. That was my clue. There was a TV item around that time that said they were a big outfit based in Chicago, but there may well be lots of small groups doing it, if the Australian brand name is any indication.

Saw this list of dubious brands on Craigslist Toronto: http://toronto.craigslist.org/ele/351332767.html

DD, you see how the numbers don't conform to the typical arrangement. I'm guessing that w/o refers to a work order or production run. That number does appear on both speakers. They both have that same 11-digit part number and the 5-digit serial numbers are on a separate line, with the w/o number on a line below them. If they turn out to be 1996 models, it would be cool to have some relatively young speakers like that.

Friday night I saw Holly Cole with her six-piece band (Aaron Davis on piano, plus drums, bass, 2 sax players and a trombone player) and they were all great! It was the first night of Victoria's week-long JazzFest International. Lots of stars performing (Sonny Rollins, Freddy Cole (Nat's bro)), as well as lots of lesser-known acts. She was a big change of pace from Teenage Head, who I saw a few weeks ago. Might catch Aki Takase tonight. Sunday afternoon, MotoGP on Speed Channel. I hope Rossi wins!

And I thought the Age of Magic was long past...

As I've mentioned in other threads, last week I became the happy owner of a pair of Heresy IIs. Naturally, I wondered what age they are, but when I checked the part/serial numbers, they didn't seem to match any of the lists I've seen, having more digits, for one thing. I searched through all the related discussions (just so you know I did some homework before asking this question) and I think they may be 1990 models, but that's sort of a guess. I haven't taken out the drivers to see what's marked on them. Here's the relevant info: They're marked H II Fin. Blk Part # 09000351210 Serial #s 37804 and 37805 w/o 6943 All that is on a paper label. The binding post plate is square and has Heresy II molded into it in raised letters. Do these numbers make sense to anyone? Thanks.

You mean we're all here because we're not all there...

Cautious is smart. I never go to a concert without earplugs in my pocket. Even extras, in case I meet a hot fellow music lover... (who's not a fellow, I should add)

Have you looked at Vann's, http://www.vanns.com/shop/brand.jsp ? They claim to be a Klipsch authorized dealer and charge no sales tax or shipping.

Belles were introduced to address the WAF issues of La Scalas. They're prettier and don't extend into the room as far as Scalas do, while having comparable sound.

Generally speaking, you won't get "kicking-hard" bass at low volume, unless you have the bass turned up so loud it will sound terrible at normal volume. That's why some pre-amps and receivers have "loudness" controls. Hard music usually wants high volume, soft music sounds best at lower volume, IMHO.

That would be the usual 4-string bass guitar. Quite a few bass players use a 5-string, which goes to around 30 Hz. Test tones can damage your hearing? Hadn't heard that, but it makes sense, since white noise at 65 dB sounds as loud to me as music at 85 dB or so.

You could go for a Yamaha MX-D1 amp. 500 watts per channel, .003% THD, 120 dB s/n ratio. HiFi Trader carries them and I'm pleased with the one I got from them. I'm using it to drive the front speakers only, while the RX-V750 powers the center and rear speakers. However, you may run into some level matching issues with that much power, if you can't dial up the rear channels enough and dial the front channels down enough. I had to replace my Paradigm surrounds with Heresy II speakers to get enough volume on the rear channels.