Islander

I've run into this very issue just recently. A Class D type amp that was reviewed by Stereophile as having "inky-black silence" and being "subjectively quiet, producing some of the 'blackest' backdrops I've heard" puts out a noticeable buzz throught the La Scalas, but the same buzz is almost totally inaudible through a 91 dB sensitive Paradigm speaker. It's not enough to make the system unlistenable, but it is something I'm trying to get rid of somehow. However, the amp improved the transparency of the sound and the 500Wpc does lend a seductive authority to the sound, even at low volumes with acoustic music, so I think it's a keeper. What did you find bad about the Klipschorns powered by the 400Wpc McIntosh, or did the listening room make it impossible to tell?

Richard Gere, Tina Fey, Drew Carey all wear glasses. They're all pretty cool. (Well, Drew's cool in a geeky way.)

Never mind the poseurs, how are you liking your Ortofon? I'm wondering if I should upgrade from my Shure M97xE. Islander, off-topic again...

Still injured, still exercising. Actually, I was showing off for one of my models at a photo shoot at the Parkwood Estate in Oshawa, Canada's Motor City. It was owned by Colonel McLaughlin, who built the first Buick cars in Canada and is located in the same city as several GM plants. It's a popular spot for wedding and model shoots and I think the first X-Men movie may have been shot at the main house.

Well, Dr Who, I'm jumping into this pretty late, but I have a certain amount of experience of injuries. I worked in heavy industry as well as racing bicycles and motorcycles, so I've bent and broken a few things over the years. Speaking for myself, I got away with strains, bumps and bruises until I was thirty-three. That's when I started breaking something everytime I fell. I stopped racing regularly after that. If you have joint issues, try Glucosamine and Chondroitin. That stuff works for me. Anyway, you mentioned what is sometimes called "muscle balance". That's for real, and certainly affects your posture. Each muscle group has an opposing muscle group. One is to bend and the other is to straighten, so you have have to exercise them correspondingly. Just as you have to do as many tricep extensions as you do bicep curls, you need to do as many back flexes as you do crunches. Those trunk exercises like crunches and back flexes are good for posture and digestion, since a strong trunk keeps all your organs where they belong and work best. Five or ten minutes of crunches and back flexes three times a week is sufficient. You will notice the difference. To do back flexes, just lie across the bed face down, feet over one side and head over the other (won't work too well if you have a single, quite well with a queen size) and try to raise your shoulders off the bed. You'll feel the flex all the way down to your waist. Start with 10 or 20 crunches and flexes and add a few every week until you reach 100 or so. It's good for you. You can knock them off before you get dressed in the morning. The first picture shows me at my old job, giving an apprentice an "atittude adjustment", so you can see the size of tools I used. The second one shows me after I was badly injured in a highway crash and had been using a wheelchair for five years, due to partly paralyzed legs. Six years later, I'm still using the chair and I'm still doing pushups three times a week. And I'm 56.

If they were horn-type, they'd be pretty bulky, but really rad-looking! (Does anyone say "rad" anymore?)

Blue-painted? That would be the Picts or the Scots. We Hibernian Celts never went further in battle-style than lime for our Mohawks (to look taller and fiercer, of course!) The lack of clothing other than a torc around the neck may have been scary on more than one level, however... Sir Islander I stand corrected but forsooth is it not moot what colors or paint these savage barbarians may wear. They are soon sent off with a quiver or two from good English longbows. My Lord Thebes, I crave thy forgiveness for digressing from the topic at hand. And by the bye, I told of a time a thousand years before the longbow and long before the English, whom our blessed monks later taught to read and write. There was no Dark Age on the isle of Erin. However, as to a time when a tawdry troubadour truly tried my long-suffering ears, a decade ago I was confined to a hospice for half a year to heal from grevious injuries suffered upon the turnpike. For four of the months I spent there, the lout who didst occupy the litter next to mine wouldst all the day long visit upon his fellow wounded a cacophony from his booming box. He seemed to possess few ballads, perhaps only the contents of a single disc, containing a collection of wails by one Neil of Diamond. Never again do I wish to hear that one's attempts to entertain, which rather than giving pleasure, cause his listeners to call for barrels of mead, that they may forget his assaults on their senses.

Reference was made to PWK's system in an article in the April 2007 issue of Stereophile entitled Upward Mobility: The article states that Bell Laboratories originated the idea (with three channels) in the 1930s and that "Paul Klipsch revived this idea in the late 1950s, performing a series of experiments that led him to conclude that using three loudspeakers to reproduce two-channel stereo signals offers superior results." "Although Klipsch was enthusiastic about the benefits of his 2, 2, 3 approach (two recording channels, two transmission channels, three speakers) - claiming that "All the stereo recording systems are amenable to using a derived central channel and the expense is small for a large gain in stereo geometry" - the idea of using a third loudspeaker did not catch on and the concept faded from view. If this was due, at least in part, to a third loudspeaker and amplifier being financially and domestically unacceptable in the early 1960s, then the arrival of home-theater systems in the early 1990s - equipped with a center-channel speaker as standard - represented an opportunity to resurrect the concept. This was duly exploited when Michael Gerzon presented a paper describing an elaborated 2, 2, 3 system at the 91st Convention of the Audio Engineering Society in October 1991."

Things seem to be a lot different in Australia...

Sure, just let me know when. The Scalas put a smile on my face every day. BTW, I was at Lyle's yesterday and picked up the Neil Young "Live at Massey Hall 1971" CD and DVD. Haven't played the CD yet, but the DVD is certainly the best live recording I've ever heard and maybe the best recording, period! I had no idea Neil was such a good piano player and acoustic guitarist, and it all comes through.

First thing I did was replace the caps in the AA crossovers of my 1974 La Scalas and I noticed an immediate improvement in clarity. Next, I installed a pair of CT125 tweeters, which helped even more, with a more natural decay on each note of music and more realistic highs, particularly on cymbals and the like. The tweeter volume seemed just a little lower than the K-77s, which made the bass seem a little more full, a good thing to my ears. The speakers sound good from low levels all the way up to pretty loud. I understand that some other crossovers sound better at high volume, but not so good at low volume. For my listening, jazz, some rock, some movies, mostly low to mid volume but occasionally pretty loud, I'm really happy with this setup.

Blue-painted? That would be the Picts or the Scots. We Hibernian Celts never went further in battle-style than lime for our Mohawks (to look taller and fiercer, of course!) The lack of clothing other than a torc around the neck may have been scary on more than one level, however...

So there's your line to your date: "The listening room is clothing-optional. It's not me, it's the tubes!"

Don't apologize for your humanity (or humaneness), Michael. It's not just you, and I wish it was everybody. It would be a different and better world...

I just got back from London Drugs, the one on Yates Street in Victoria. The salesman tells me that they don't stock Heritage speakers, but they can bring them in on special order. He had no price list and would have to call in to get prices. Also, the CEO of London Drugs has a pair of Klipschorns in his home system.

I can see animals like that hog being a problem and the possible necessity of killing it. An adult has the emotional maturity to realize what taking a life entails. Things are a lot less clear for children. For an 11-year-old to fly an airplane or climb a mountain is an achievement that could be rewarding and fulfilling and be of benefit. Sport hunting is a whole different thing and should be reserved for adults, IMHO.

Good point! I was going to add, this is not an Inuit child learning to shoot a caribou or a seal to provide food and clothing for his family. And whether the animal is beautiful or ugly, an attraction or a pest, is irrelevant.

Child learns the "joy of killing" at age 5 and kills (really) big game by age 11. Am I the only one who finds this disturbing?

No, pot's not legal here, but the pot smokers aren't doing crimes to pay for it, unlike the IV drug users and crackheads, so the police set their priorities accordingly. Grow-ops are a different story, though, and are ranked with meth labs for police action. There seem to be more grow-ops and meth labs on the mainland, though, since the population's far larger.

I can't speak for Heresies, but most Heritage speakers seem to have much less of an issue with a "hole in the middle" due to wide speaker spacing. The Klipsch speaker manual is the first one I've seen that recommends placing speakers along the long wall of a room. Try them and see what you think.

I've heard hammers called "knockometers" and precise types sometimes call adjustable wrenches "disgustables".

"Money" by The Flying Lizards. That's one of the worst.

Tried a couple more things. The arrows on the WireWorld cable refer to the direction of signal flow. I hooked up the cable "backwards" and the noise was very slightly louder. The cable was laid out on the floor in front of the system with no loops or coils and not near any devices. Then I removed that 20-foot cable and hooked up a 2 meter (6.5 feet) long Electrohome Pro Series cable. I've had good results with them in the past, but it made no difference this time. Finally, I stopped in at the local Yamaha dealer. The salesmen suggested that I hook it up to the rear channel pre outs, so that would eliminate the main pre outs, the main speakers and the main speaker cables. If that reveals nothing, they asked me to bring in the amp so they can try it on their gear and because they're very curious to see it. In the next day or two, I may be able to find the source of the problem. I hope you're right, Max, that it's something simple.

I was wondering what that avatar image was. Although I'm from Ireland, I grew up in Quebec City and Victoria reminds me of it, with the old buildings and (slightly) hilly streets. Not nearly as much snow, I'm happy to say. There are a couple of Klipsch Heritage dealers near Vancouver, but none that I'm aware of on the Island. I got my La Scalas (used) at Q-Lectronic here in Victoria. They're a vintage hi-fi shop. They have lots of used mid and high-end stuff including Klipsch sometimes and seem to know what they're talking about.Their site is at http://www.q-lectronic.com/ , but it may not be completely up to date. They're at 1545 Fort St in Victoria and their number is 250-595-5312. Sound Hounds is a high-end dealer for lots of premium stuff, as well as a fair selection of used gear. They're across the street from Q-Lectronic, at 1532 Pandora St (it's one of those 5-corner intersections) and their number is 250-595-4434. Their site is at http://www.soundhounds.com/ , but it's just links to the websites of all the many lines they carry. If you're in Victoria another time, it's definitely worth your while to check out both shops (Sound Hounds is not open Sundays and Mondays, Q-Lectronic is not open on Sundays). I live about 5 minutes drive from those shops, so If you like, you can contact me and have a listen to my La Scalas. You might like the Heritage sound.

Three hours, hmm, Campbell River, maybe? Waddya know, Copperpot, I'm not the only islander. My buddy in Nanaimo missed out on a pair of Fortes at a really good price last year because the wife thought they were too big for the family room. Have you ever seen any Heresies for sale up there? I'm thinking of getting a pair or two for surround speakers, but I'd like to find some on the Island. Just saw in a real estate ad this morning that Vancouver Island is as big as Holland. A lot more hilly, too.