Islander
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Posts posted by Islander
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Its all fun and games until someone looses an eye.
Or there Heritage speakers !
Good point! I debated getting involved with someone who lives near me, as she'd been in a bitter palimony case with her ex that made the newspapers, and she got half a condo out of it. I don't want to lose one of my Scalas!
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Don't laugh, but these two songs affected the direction of my life...
Don't Dream It (Be It), by Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I took "Don't dream it, be it!" as my life motto and it's worked out pretty well so far.
Imagination's Real, by The Kinks. That song helped inspire me to return to motorcycle racing after a six-year layoff. To my surprise, but not my imagination's, I was actually faster the second time around. More mature? No, that couldn't have been it...
As for songs that take me to another place:
1983...(A Merman I Should Turn to Be), by Jimi Hendrix
Tarkus, by Emerson, Lake and Palmer (it's a whole album side, but it's not at all too long)
White Punks on Dope, by The Tubes. When you see the stage show that goes with it... First the stagehands assemble a really high stack of amps, then Quay Lewd (Fee Waybill as the glam-rock star in 14" platform boots) starts the song. Halfway through, he leans back against the amps, and they tumble down onto him until he's buried. Sirens go off, red lights flash, and scantily-clad nurses carry him off stage. He struggles back to his feet and resumes the song. The instrumental break in the middle is when this happens and it's a real driving refrain that is pretty exciting and stays in your mind. Yesterday on YouTube I saw Nina Hagen performing White Punks on Dope in German, although she calls it TV Glotzer. It still rocks, even without the stage show.
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Installing a complete crossover, new or rebuilt, requires only a screwdriver, so you won't need to send away your speakers. If you want replace just the capacitors (or "caps"), all you need is some basic soldering skills.
Since the caps are usually the only parts that deteriorate with age, that may be all you need to change. Much less expensive than replacing the whole crossover, and you will notice the improvement in the sound. I replaced the caps in my '74 La Scalas' crossovers last month with new Sonicaps from BEC (Bob Crites), another forum member, and was very pleased with the improved clarity.
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Bob's Your Uncle? That would be Sook-Yin Lee, the singer of that Vancouver band. She later became a MuchMusic VJ and now does a show on CBC radio. She recently starred in Shortbus, possibly the most daring Hollywood movie in recent memory. She's still a better singer than actor.
Carol Pope, of Rough Trade. Remember High School Confidential?
Norah Jones, of course.
Annie Lennox will always be a star.
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Are you using a CD and an SPL meter to get those numbers? I'd like to find a CD with test tones that cover most of the audio range. The only one I have just covers the range from 10Hz-200Hz, which is fine for setting up the sub, but I'd like to get an in-room response curve for my speakers.
Is anyone aware of a CD or DVD that has test tones (not sweeps) from 20-20KHz?
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"So it appears that any time misaligment in Heritage speakers is so minimal as to be inaudible to most untrained ears"
Or it is audible and some don't recognize it for what it is. Not many have heard the difference between a time aligned K'Horn and a 'regular' K'Horn for example.
" and is less noticeable the further the listener is from the speaker. "
That wasn't exactly what I meant. I meant the demonstration of one of the ways to hear the effects of comb filtering is harder to do the further away from the speaker you get.
"And yet the pro cinema Klipsches have built-in delay."
They don't have built in delay. They have available delay settings to be using in the digital crossovers that are paired up with the cinema speakers which are bi/tri/quad amped in many situations. There is no advantage on its own to having drivers out of time alignment. Digital crossover allow the drivers to be time aligned. As such that ability within the digital crossovers is used as it takes the problems of misaligned drivers out of the equation.
Shawn
Thanks for clearing that up, Shawn. I guess Klipsch assumes that anyone reading the specs of pro cinema speakers knows what they're looking at, unlike a newbie like me...[*-)]
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TWO THINGS................A big block Chevy in a Goat.................that baby should run; I have considered doing a GTO myself, and to tell you the truth, I would also go to a Chevy engine, I really like small blocks for handling purposes, a 350 stroked to 383 would be my first choice..................What beautiful Khorns those are................NEW or Pre-Owned....................Fine looking speakers..........lucky bass turd..................EH !!!!!!!!!!!!
OB, I had a 383 stroker in a 66 Nova that I sold at the beginning of last summer. Peppy little engine but no substitute for cubic inches. Weight and handling is never a factor for me because quite frankly all these 40 year old cars handle like crap anyway:)
You're right about that. I recall an episode of CHiPS where Ponch had a face-off with a hill racer in a Camaro. Ponch brought out his '55 Chevy from his bad-boy days and it was scary to watch that '55 skidding around the California canyon road. Handling has come a long way since then!
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Thanks for the responses. There are some very knowledgeable dudes (and dudettes, I'm sure) on this forum.
So it appears that any time misaligment in Heritage speakers is so minimal as to be inaudible to most untrained ears, and is less noticeable the further the listener is from the speaker. And yet the pro cinema Klipsches have built-in delay. In a typical cinema setting, most listeners are probably 20-200 feet away, so why would the design engineers feel the need to address this "problem", unless they were expecting an audience of sound engineers, each with his favourite sound meters in his pocket?
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Many speaker designs try to compensate for time discrepancies between drivers by placing the tweeters back from the front of the enclosures, in some cases even having a separate mid/high cabinet that can be slid back and forth or tilted very precisely, depending on the listening distance, to ensure that all the musical notes arrive at your ears at the same time.
Then I look at the La Scalas, with the tweeter driver about three inches back from the front of the enclosure, the squawker about two feet back, and the woofer about three-and-a-half feet back, and don't hear any "time smearing". Could it be that time alignment just isn't a problem in typical listening situations?
Then I looked at the specs for the Klipsch theater speakers and noticed that most of them have built in delay between the drivers. In the case of the 3-way Jubilee 535, it's 3.5ms for the midrange and 4.6ms for the tweeter.
My question is this: is there any built-in delay in the Heritage speakers between the drivers, perhaps in the crossovers? Or does something in the cabinet design correct for horn dimensions that look like they should cause a large time misalignment?
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Get a second surge supressor instead of an extension cord and plug in your sub where it's most convenient, ideally on a different circuit from the rest of your sound system, or at least into a different outlet.
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Well, that's clear and it makes sense. If you have monoblock amps, you could put one on each speaker cabinet (or even inside, if there's room) and run them with very little cabling between amp and crossover, but someone is likely to comment that amps should be on the floor resting on spikes to isolate them from any vibration.
In hi-fi, as in everything, there is no ultimate...
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Has anyone seen an impedance curve for La Scalas with AA crossovers? I'm curious to see it.
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You mean the plastic pie-shaped one? You can get the bronze-colored metal 2006 Jubilee logo, as it's called. It's pie-shaped and nicer than the old plastic one. Part #070249. Peel-and-stick to attach it. It's just a little smaller than the original, but you can use the old sticky stuff as a guide to place it correctly (although it's bet to clean off any excess with alcohol).
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Going from a $15 power bar to a Tripp Lite Isobar Ultra surge suppressor gave me cleaner FM sound and blacker blacks on the TV. Moving the sub to a different outlet further reduced FM noise.
Moving the electronics and turntable to a different circuit, away from the sub and computer, as well as adding a second Isobar Ultra for the sub, reduced noise even further, even surface noise on LPs, to my surprise. Perhaps the turntable cartridge is sensitive to noise because its signal is so highly amplified relative to CD and DVD players.
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That rule makes perfect sense for HT use, but for music, Heritage speakers like to be much further apart. Having them that close makes for a compressed soundstage when listening to music, although it places movie sound where it belongs. With my old Audio Logic speakers, the same narrow placing worked well for music and movies, but with the La Scalas, it seemed that I had to make a choice, so I went for a better music soundstage and an overly wide, but not too distracting, movie soundstage.
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That may have been ambiguous. It's best to put as few electrical and electronic devices as possible on the same circuit as your receiver. Some items that will put noise into the line include your subwoofer, computer, fridge and dishwasher, for example. A surge bar with noise filtering will help.
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Yes, it is better to plug the sub into a different outlet, or even a different circuit if your home's electrical layout permits it. If the sub has a Class D amp, it may put some electrical noise into the line, so it's better if it doesn't share an outlet with your receiver. If it doesn't share a circuit with your computer, that will also be likely to reduce noise.
You definitely don't want to try to run more than 15 amps on a 15 amp circuit, or you'll be tripping the breaker or blowing the fuse. 15 amps on a 120-volt circuit equals 1800 watts, so you should be sure the current draw is below that, leaving some room for the higher momentary draw of musical peaks.
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lumi, you only need to hook up to the red receiver terminal because there's only one sub channel.
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As for minor tweaks, my logic is that a tweak that provides, say, a 2 percent improvement is inaudible, but if I do five tweaks of similar effectiveness, that adds up to 10 percent, which will be audible.
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Bigger speaker wire means less resistance, but more capacitance. I think the sweet spot would be somewhat smaller than an inch in diameter, uless maybe you're wiring a very very large speaker for stadium use.
Six gauge is probably as big as anyone would ever want.
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You might want to put those speakers on casters just so they're safer and easier to move. There have been a few pairs of La Scalas shown on the forum with rollers under them.
Looking forward to seeing pictures of them. Just be sure you're wearing something when taking the photos, thanks!
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I think that's called hard-wiring and is considered the best-sounding but least convenient way to hook up your speakers. Were you thinking of running some heavy-gauge speaker wire into the amp housing and connecting it directly to the circuit board? If you're willing to go to the trouble, there might be some improvement in the sound.
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My experience in condo living is similar to that of mdeneen. Concrete high-rise condos can be pretty quiet. When I moved to Victoria, BC, I was warned away from wooden buildings, because they're like living in a wooden house in that you can hear your neighbours around you as if you were sharing a house with them.
In a concrete building, it's a different story. We've only had serous complaints about one owner in our 51-unit 9-storey building, because he blasts his music at 4:30am when his drunken friends are over. There's a band on the 5th floor, and one little old lady thought there was some banging in the pipes, but it turned out to be the drummer. No other complaints about them, though.
My unit has two apartments below it, but none above or to either side. Even so, I keep the volume moderate after 11pm, and usually save really loud volume (ZZ Top La Grange, for example) for mid-afternoon when it's not likely to disturb anyone.
More than music, I think it's the bass-heavy movie soundtracks that would be the most annoying to neighbours. During some movies, it feels like there's an earthquake going on. I've got all my subs (one in the livingroom, two in the bedroom) on inch-thick neoprene rubber pads, and hopefully that keeps the excess bass from travelling through the floor. I know all my neighbours, but don't ask if they can hear the music, in case I don't like what they might say. Over two years so far with no problems.
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I'd suggest 2-sided tape, which is easy to fix if you don't get them on straight the first try. Photo mounting glue can be useful, as it comes off with practically no residue. It's a quick-dry substance that comes in a tube, and is often used to attach credit cards to paper forms. You know, that funny rubbery stuff. I've even used it to glue surround speakers to their brackets or stands, or a small center channel speaker to the top of a TV, since you can separate the parts later with no damage to either surface (in almost all cases). You just have to keep the parts stationary for 5 minutes or so, until it dries.
I'm mentioning this because I got one of my nice peel-and-stick 2006 Jubilee logos (which resemble vintage '70s badges) on a little bit crooked, and I'm not sure how to get it off without any problem in order to put it back on straight.
Speaker Wire for Dummies, By A Dummy
in 2-Channel Home Audio
Posted
If you want to come as close as possible to eliminating speaker wire and all the debating that goes along with it, you need Flying Moles!
Flying Mole is a Japanese company that makes very compact mono amps that are available with brackets to attach them to the outside or inside of your speaker enclosures. The 100-watt units are only $375 apiece and apparently sound pretty good.
See: http://www.flyingmole.net/products/m100dcseries.html
From their homepage:
For Audiophiles, Hard-Core Audio Geeks and Stereo Addicts:
This is the perfect amp for the high efficiency loudspeaker crowd; it was designed and voiced with such speakers in mind. In other words, think single ended triode and you will get the idea of the kind of palpable images and rich harmonic textures it generates. The amp's high resolution, speed and complete lack of grain make it an ideal match for the most revealing of electrostatic loudspeakers. If you like wall-to-wall soundstaging with finely layered depth, you will be shocked at how much of both you will get. The M100dc+'s strong Power Supply gives it some of the best bass around, so it is the perfect outboard amp for a passive subwoofer as well as bass amp for a biamped system.