Islander

Max, your message came in just as I was posting mine, so I hadn't read your description of the sound. At any rate, it appears that chap needs to upgrade to Jubilees. Does everyone agree?

Thanks for sharing, Max. Those are some serious-looking power amps and cables. Did the system sound really good, or can that be assumed?

Thanks for the info, Groomlake, but I don't have the skills or location to use a spray gun (in my condo). I was just wanting to do a little touching up until I'm ready to take the speakers to a woodworking shop to have panels added to the sides and have the complete cabinets refinished. If it's done by pros, it'll be a lot more likely to look like a factory job. Not likely to happen until next year at the earliest. I don't listen at high volume that often, so the bass bin flex isn't really on my mind that much. I'll email you another time about the part numbers.

Is that Black Again stuff suitable for the outside of Black Birch La Scalas? Mine could sure use a touchup or two, and Sharpie marker isn't the best way to go...

A very Happy Saint Pat's day to all those who are Irish or wish they were! Hmm, maybe I'll pop the Pogues in the CD player.

That Klipsch model sounds like a Raw Birch La Scala.

speakerfritz is right, check the info on the back of your units. BTW, 120 volts x 15 amps = 1800 watts, not 1600. In any case, if you have a 1250 watt sub, you should probably connect it to a different circuit from the one your amp is on.

Just checked TV Week and there's nothing on tonight worth watching, on any of the 80 channels. Excellent! No reason to turn on the idiot box. Here comes a great evening of listening to music. The neighbour's away, so some of it may be pretty loud. Alright! Just thought I'd share this with you.

Buckeye_Nut is completely right!

In a local music shop, I recently picked up a 4-CD set of Stephane Grappelli tunes from Membran for only $15.99CAD. Membran have a series of 4-CD sets (from many famous artists) in cases that are barely thicker than single-CD cases! They're at www.membran.net and they call them the Quadromania series. This one is marked "24 bit 96 kHz High-End Mastering" and includes music from 1935 to 1991. All the music, even the earliest, sounds really clear and the case doesn't seem as delicate as many double cases. The CD case comes in a heavy paper sleeve, so the plastic case isn't even getting scratched.

My friend in Calgary tells me at least one pickup truck lands on its roof every week. The cowboys think pickups are sports cars...

Actually, if you're already thinking of upgrading, you don't need to keep all your components comparable, price-wise. If you get an opportunity to pick up something that's a level above the rest of your system, don't say no, just upgrade everything else when the time comes. Upgrading in a few big jumps is less costly than upgrading in a lot of little jumps. At the same time, it's about the music, not the hardware.

You're off to a good start. Enjoy your music while dreaming of a pair of Heritage speakers. Oops!

I had a Yamaha RX-V392 and when I replaced it with an RX-V750, the sound was a little different, possibly less warm but more clear. Anyway, the 750 drives a pair of La Scalas really nicely, with clean and quiet sound, and it drives 5 Paradigm center and suround speakers really well also. The Synergy Series are different from the Heritage Series Klipsch speakers, though, so you might want to try the receivers at home with your system if the dealer is willing. If the sound of the Yamaha goes well with the sound of your speakers, I think you'll like everything else about it.

Thanks for the interesting info, pauln! I wasn't aware that anyone had measured the gravitational vector, although (like many good ideas) it sounds so obvious when you mention it. Gravity is pretty mysterious for something that's so easily measured and obvious to see. Right now I'm reading a book called The Fabric of Reality, by David Deutsch (Penguin Books, ISBN-13: 978-0-140-14690-5, ISBN-10: 0-140-14690-3), which is very thought-provoking. The dedication reads: "Dedicated to the memory of Karl Popper, Hugh Everett and Alan Turing, and to Richard Dawkins. This book takes their ideas seriously." I suspect I'll look at the world in a different way when I finish reading it.

If the Sun somehow instantly disappeared, would the Earth continue on its orbit for another 8 minutes? After all, gravity should travel at the speed of light and not any faster, so the information that the Sun's gravitational field is no longer there could not reach the Earth in less than the roughly 8 minutes that it takes light to travel from the Sun to the Earth. It'll be great to someday know the answers to questions like this and why coathangers seem to multiply in dark closets.

Tidy job you did! I've got wires hidden behind bookcases, behind curtains, covered with white split wiring loom (as camouflage against the white baseboards), etc.

A long time ago, someone told me "Cheapskate pays twice!" After I realized I'd wasted money on cheap tools, lighting or camera gear, hi-fi gear, etc. a number of times, I really have to agree. Buy what you really want the first time, it's actually cheaper and less aggravating.

For most music, the La Scalas need the help of a sub. After a lot of tweaking and repositioning, I've got relatively flat response down to 25 Hz (except for a 30-35 Hz peak). If the sub is switched off, the bass is pretty thin, but with it on, bass instruments sound fairly realistic.

Glad to hear the reset improved your sound, Kain! As for the left-right difference, I had that with my previous speaker layout, with one speaker less than a foot in front of the wall dividing the living room from the dining room and the other speaker with the nearest wall ten feet behind it. In that case, the speaker that was more in the open needed to be set +0.5 dB with the one near the wall at 0 dB. Now they're in a more symmetrical layout and both are set at the same level. As for your setup, when you're within 1 or 2 dB the differences will be less noticeable. 0 and -1 should be slightly better than -1 and -2. After a certain point, some of the improvements are not due to what you hear, but what you think. If you think you have addressed every detail as well as you can, you'll be more relaxed and enjoy the music more. Happy listening!

I like my vinyl! It seems to sound a little more "live", with the fine nuances of the music being played, the slight hesitations and corrections by the musicians, being audible. When I listen the the same performance on CD and LP, the CD sounds "canned" by comparison. If I have no LP for comparison, though, the CD may sound fine. Although the deep silence at some points may not be realistic, it seems impressive. However, as someone pointed out, there's never a real silence in any recording space, what with musicians having to breath and move, for example. TIn addition, the availability of lots of used LPs in good condition at very low prices means being able to collect lots of good sound for not much money. On the other hand, it's a nuisance having to get up every twenty minutes or less to change the record. When I have a friend sharing the couch with me, the CD is often the way to go. As well, if I'm not in the room with the stereo, knowing the CD will stop and the player will turn itself off after a while lets me concentrate on whatever else I'm doing. Both formats have their place, and not all music is available on both formats, so I'll be listening to both for the foreseeable future. Of course, there are also DVDs. Being able to watch a concert as well as hear it is something you can't do with vinyl.

Sometimes it's simpler to move the listening position than move the speakers, but I agree with Mike about the advantages of having pairs of speakers equidistant from the listening position. Sometimes the surround imaging is more convincing with a symmetrical speaker layout.

Exactly! Try that and see how it sounds to you.

Mark says alright!

It can't be good for the bass efficiency, either. The La Scala IIs have a thicker bass bin for this reason. I plan to eventually have an extra sheet of 3/4" birch ply added to the sides of my speakers (and have them refinished at the same time), and others have done something similar.