Islander

Years ago, I worked with a guy who, over a long period, had owned a Harley Sportster, a BMW R100RT, and a Honda Gold Wing. He was amused at how each of the three bikes had rabid fans, all proclaiming how their bike of choice was The One True Bike, and all others were just pretenders. Silly, right?

That's the problem in eastern Canada, too. People sometimes avoid white cars, because the rust is more noticeable on them. The new ones are much better, but back in the Seventies and Eighties, most cars and vans would eventually rust out. Some brands are more susceptible, but I once saw a Roll-Royce with the body rotted right through, just behind the passenger side rear door, with black tape to cover the hole. Supposedly, there's a different chemical that could be used to thaw the ice on the roads, but the salt is so cheap that every city and township keeps using it. Or maybe they're being bribed by Big Salt... Just trying to start a conspiracy theory, lol.

For the longest time (decades, actually), I thought that the words "rape, murder" were "Hey, Murdoch!", so I really wondered why "'E's just a shot away"? If 'e was just a shot away, I wouldn't be yelling out his name. Rock 'n roll can be so confusing... This is how a good hi-fi helps eliminate misunderstandings. One friend of mine wondered for the longest time just who was the "Secret Asian Man", and why were they giving him a number and takin' 'way his name?

In most of Canada, Victoria Day, also called May 24th because it's around that day, also called May 2-4 among those who like to pick up a 2-4 of beer (case of 24) for the long weekend, is the unofficial start to summer. This is because it's the first day that even overnight frost is very unlikely, so it's the earliest date for camping out, planting seeds, or motorcycle races. All that adds up to make the 3rd weekend in May pretty significant to all kinds of Canadians, for all kinds of reasons.

Exactly! Plus it's not always simple to make a perfect replica of a factory built speaker. Keep checking all the audio for sale sites, and keep saving up your money.

I thought high ceilings were good for that airy sound.

Ideally, the "lines of sight" for the speakers should cross slightly ahead of your listening position, according to PWK in a 1951 issue of The Dope From Hope. That may sound extreme, but it gives the widest area of stereo effect. I was dubious until I tried it with my JubScala IIs. Rather than trying to aim the speakers by measuring, it's much easier to just use a laser pointer on the tops of the LS cabinets, at the front, in the middle. They're very easy to aim correctly that way.

Gordon was looking really old for the last ten years at least, but metaphorically, he died with his boots on. By that I mean that he had a number of concert dates lined up when he died. Gordon Lightfoot never retired.

Nah, I just read a lot, he said. And I've never been to the Himalayas.

Yeah, the fecal transplant concept. You'd need to be mighty sick before signing for that... That reminds me of the old joke about the prison camp. The Commandant has all the prisoners marched out and formed up in rows. Once everybody is in place, he yells out, "Today is the day to change underwear!" Prisoners: "YAY!" Commandant: "!st Row, you change with 2nd Row! 3rd Row, you change with 4th row!" Prisoners: "BOO!!!"

So are there lots of shroom pickers? And do they have to fly them in, or do enough Americans step up to do the job? I suspect it's the latter.

In the Himalayas, the tribesmen recycle their tea. It turns out that psilocybin is not absorbed by our bodies, but is excreted in our urine. I think you can guess where this is going. Yep, once the tea has done its work, it's caught, in a cup, maybe, and passed around again. I don't know how many times it can be recycled like this, but I think two or three times may be what I read long ago. I hear the recycled tea also whitens your teeth. That's what the Romans believed.

So, did anyone watch the Coronation of King George, err, King Charles the Third, on early Saturday morning? I'm not a royalist in any way, but I thought it was a historic occasion, so I'd take a look. I was impressed with the quality of the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) sound, especially when it came to the choir singing in Westminster Abbey. With the rear La Scalas complementing the front ones, it was a very cool immersive experience. I would have thought that with recording an event like that, which started outside, in pouring rain, no less, and then moved inside, that we'd be lucky to hear it in decent 2-channel sound, but it did seem to be in 5.1, and it gave me an appreciation for choral music that I didn't have before. In a first for Westminster Abbey, there was a gospel choir, consisting of 8 Black folks, 6 men and 2 women, dressed in immaculate white suits (one lady wore a long white dress) that made nearly everyone but the King and the top Church officials look very drab. The choir stood in a circle facing each other, on the floor in the area just in front of the pulpit, which was part of the large area in front of the altar. They just sang one song, mostly Alleluia repeated, but it sounded really fine. What made me laugh was the faces on the crowd behind them, most or all from the House of Lords and their spouses. They actually looked offended, like "Just who thought of bringing this kind of music to the Abbey?" It just might have been their King, so they might need to adjust their attitudes. Finally, the Scottish football fans at a Celtics-Rangers football match gave a rousing song to express how they felt about the Coronation. I think you'd have to be there in person to get the full effect of tens of thousands of massed voices raised in song for the occasion. Luckily, I was able to find it on YouTube. Here it is, for your listening pleasure:

Thus the expression, "Technicolor yawn"? That's not an experience that ever needs to be heightened in any way.

I hear the this is more like medium-strength acid, or "The Cid", like the famous Spanish knight, just to sound more sophisticated, or maybe just to let you know it's not just a cid, like any old cid, but THE CID. That's what I heard a long time ago, anyway.

Heresys are too much speaker for your house? No way, Mister Skinner. I've seen La Scalas in apartments. You just need a subwoofer or two to fill in the bottom end, then you'll get that punch without having to run the volume really high. Are you able to get the rest of your uncle's system? If you can assemble a system that's tried and optimized, that will save you lots of time in getting the system dialled in, right?

Does that actually work? So everything's stiff enough, even on rough terrain? Are the handlebars offset to match the top steering clamp's offset? I don't know the cycle term for the top clamp, but on a motorbike it would be a triple clamp, or in this case a double clamp.

Err, I'd be a bit hesitant to use a magic eraser. Those aluminum edgings are known to have a very thin layer of anodizing, which can be polished away. I tried a magic eraser, official Mr. Clean brand, to remove a stain on a wall. I soon had to stop, because it was removing the paint. Those Magic Erasers are very effective, but you have to be careful what you use them on. I'm just suggesting that you ask around and do a bit more research before doing anything to the edging. Those are rare speakers, so you want to be careful that you don't do anything to compromise their value. Maybe just try water and dish soap first, being careful not to wet the rest of the cabinets. Hmm, re-reading your post, I see that they have scratches, not the stains that I first thought they had. In that case, it's up to you to decide whether you want to remove the edging, have it buffed clean, and maybe ask about re-anodizing, because although aluminum does not rust (only iron/steel rusts), it can corrode pretty quickly, going dull within hours after polishing. This means that it needs some kind of surface treatment to protect it. Anodizing is one way, but clear lacquer is another option, ideally applied by a shop painter who knows what he's doing. Also see what other Forum members suggest/recommend. Meanwhile, how do they sound? Are you enjoying them?

We hi-fi enthusiasts are blessed. How, you ask? That would be because there's more than one HI-Fi Fairy. That lovely one (they're all lovely!) is now based in Berlin, but my system is so happy that other Hi-Fi Fairies come to visit it from time to time. If I ever get bored of that avatar picture, maybe another Hi-Fi Fairy will take her place.

Hi, carewser! The other member is MC39693, who lives in Victoria, I think over toward Cook Street, but I'm not sure exactly. He moved here a year or two ago. We haven't met yet. He has a Heresy-based system. As for me, I live downtown, near to City Hall. You're only about a 10-minute walk from me. And my kid lives in Toronto. I spent 30 years there, until I got bored of the place, and the winters were getting to me. I left a lot of friends there, though, and that's a drag. Talking about London Drugs, I have a friend in Nanaimo. We met on cross-Canada motorbike trips nearly 40 years ago. When I was living in Toronto, my friend told me he'd be buying a camera at London Drugs, which seemed strange to me. He said it was because there were few camera shops. Amusingly, after I moved to Victoria, I saw what he meant, and wound up buying two cameras there, as well as some computer accessories and some patio furniture, plus a microwave oven. It really is like a department store. I also buy some drugs there. So tell us about your audio system. Have you got any Heritage Series speakers yet? In my case, after wishing I could have La Scalas or Belles ever since I saw them in 1972, I finally found a pair of 1974 La Scalas that I could afford in 2006. A month later, I found the Forum, and discovered the worst pack of enablers I've ever seen. Within a few years, I had 5 pairs of Heritage speakers (2 pairs of Heresy IIs, the pair of La Scalas (bought from Q-Lectronics before they moved to Douglas Street. Great guys for vintage hi-fi gear!), a pair of LS2s, and and a pair of beat-up Belles from UVic). As well, I became just as bad an enabler as the ones who had motivated me, lol. So have you got any La Scalas yet? As long as your speakers fit through the door, they're not too big. That last comment is a bit of a joke/trick, because nearly all Heritage Series speakers are less than 24 inches/60 cm deep, so they'll fit in the space behind movie screens at cinemas.

Randy's not random, he's a well-known dude on the Forum!

Just like the Great Pumpkin only visits the most sincere pumpkin patches, the Hi-Fi Fairy only visits hi-fi systems with the most synergy. Do all your components play well together? Maybe, if you're very lucky and your sound system is very happy together, it might get a visit from her.

What, my speakers? If you go to my profile you can see the left one, along with the Hi-Fi Fairy, who's dusting the K402 horn. Since then, I made much better-looking bases for the horns. The bases are 4"/10 cm tall, 24" wide, and 25" deep, and finished in black. Nothing fancy, but they look good enough for my purposes. I'm planning to post a picture of the system sometime, but there always seems to be something more important right at the moment, so I don't have any great pix of the full kit.

Every company seems to be shorthanded these days. At the drugstore I usually use, the business hours are 9 am-10 pm. They sell all kinds of things, from clothing to cameras to computers, to Klipsch speakers. They even have a little listening room. However, the pharmacy section itself now closes at 7 pm, because they can't find enough pharmacists. Some labour problems take years to appear, and years to fix. Here in BC (British Columbia), a previous Conservative government decided that they didn't want to have too many doctors to pay (through our government-funded health system), and restricted the number of places at medical schools. It took a few years for the shortages to appear, but now many doctors are old and are retiring, with not enough mid-career doctors to replace them. As a result, many people can't find a family doctor, and the walk-in clinics are overwhelmed. The case with pharmacists is similar, and now the store can't find the people to staff the pharmacy for as many hours as they used to. The help wanted signs are all over town, in every kind of store. Back when I bought my first La Scalas, in 2006, Klipsch customer service was great, with friendly people who answered the phone quickly, and had the info you need. Later, in 2013, when I got the La Scala IIs and needed a little advice about their lacquer finish, the customer service was just as good, but it sounds like it has gone downhill in the last few years. The pandemic has to have been a factor. It caused changes throughout society and business around the world, and the effects will last for years. The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway shut down after 35 successful years, due to the reduction in the number of tourists visiting New York, because travel is down all over. In my town, Victoria, many businesses depend on the cruise ship traffic. This year we'll have over 300 visits from cruise ships, each one carrying 2,000 or more tourists looking for souvenirs. However, cruise ships were banned for two years, 2021 and 2022, meaning many shops closed, due to the lack of business. The few that could hang on will do well, but it's too late for quite a number of them. As for the comments that customer service is everything, I disagree. Yes, it's very important, especially if the products you're looking at are mostly the same. For some car buyers, for example, maybe they restrict their choices to Ford, Chevy, and Dodge. Then they choose which one to buy based on which dealership is the closest, or which has the friendliest staff, rather than on any technical or performance advantages. For them, the cars are basically interchangeable. However, when it comes to speakers, the higher-performance Klipsch speakers, especially the Heritage Series, are not interchangeable with other brands of speakers. To me, at least, their performance advantages, as well as their long-term resale value, put them in a league above other speakers. Some other premium products, like certain electronics or cars, can have a waiting list of a year or more, but their customers buy them anyway. The product comes first. Customer service is important, but it's not Number One. Hopefully, Klipsch (and many other companies) will soon be able to find the skilled and courteous staff they need. In the meantime, we enjoy our speakers.

I've read that an even bigger radio telescope is being built, or will be built, in China.