ByteWrangler

100 miles? 10" snow? Piece o' cake! Lemme tell you about the time I drove 1200 miles (each way) to North Dakota in December to pick up a pair of Klipschorns, starting the day after the biggest blizzard in decades. Made it 45 miles in 2 hours the first day. My neighborhood streets were still solid ice when I got back 4 days later. Or better yet, not. Hope the trip was a good one. I can tell you it's worth the effort. I'm sure you will agree soon. Tell all!

Don't touch it if it has to be shipped. Ever heard of a "loose cannon on deck"? From Wikipedia: "The term originates in the Age of Sail, and wooden men-of-war. When a storm began, all cannons had to be securely fastened and lashed in place. A gun that broke free of its lashings would roll uncontrollably around the deck with the motion of the ship, causing havoc. A loose cannon, weighing thousands of pounds, would crush anything and anyone in its path, and possibly even break a hole in the hull, thus endangering the seaworthiness of the whole ship." Transformers are pretty massive. That's exactly what you have here.

Another possibility is the foam tape used to seal between pickup beds and camper tops. It's about 1/4" thick, and 1 1/2" wide (I think), and has adhesive on one side. One roll is plenty for a pair of speakers. You can get it from places that sell camper tops, maybe elsewhere. Clean all the dust and grime off the wood you'll apply it to so it'll stick well. Wrap it around the edge of the tailboard and secure the front and back (not the edge) with a few staples or maybe thumbtacks to 'help' the stickum. Just stick it to the edge of the top and trim to width with a sharp single-edge razor blade or box cutter. Works great as long as the walls are within 1/4 inch of true. You could probably use 2 layers if needed.

I can't say I notice any difference with audio only. It sounds great either way. It turns itself off at the slightest provocation - change disks, it turns off; change the display mode and it turns off. It survives changing the volume and changing tracks, though.

Yes! Turn down the volume!One huge difference between Bose 901s and these is that the Klipsch speakers are far more sensitive. That is, they are way better at converting electrical energy from the amp into sound energy you hear. Probably by a factor of 10 to 100. You won't be able to stay in the room with them when your amp is running more than a few Watts output. Seriously. Both these are 8Ω speakers. If you drive a Belle and a Khorn off a single amp channel, together the two will be equivalent to a single 4Ω speaker. If your amp was happy driving two Bose 901s per channel like this, it'll laugh at these. If you have an amp setting for speaker impedance and are using either by itself, select 8Ω, if using both at once in combination, select 4Ω.

Welcome, Don. Congratulations on your find. I, too, have a set of 1980 Khorns in oiled walnut and they look and sound spectacular! They still have all-original type AA crossovers; replacing those (or just the capacitors in them) is a project for the future since they still sound great now. I drove to North Dakota, rented a trailer and hauled them back to Oklahoma a year ago in December. They were worth it. The Klipschorn footprint is an irregular pentagon shaped like a stylized house. The "roof" of the house-shaped pentagon is the part that fits against against the walls with the "peak" in the corner, each half is 22". The "sides" come out from your wall at 45° for 12 1/8", and the front of the speaker is the "floor" of the "house", it is 31 1/4" wide, meeting the sides at 90°. Here's a picture of a Khorn "top hat" upside-down, with dimensions, that should make the above clearer. I had to add a little width to move the speaker forward because of trim molding in the corners of the room, thus the added strips of wood. Is this what you were looking for?

Use speaker wire rated for in-wall installation. It's available at the big-box home improvement stores, as well as various other places.

Thanks for the insight, tk. I have kind of an odd setup and am trying to decide the best approach to permanantly eliminate that hum. Great to hear about their service, too. Here's what I'm doing; Rube Goldberg would be proud: My preamp (McIntosh C33) is too old to have a remote. The HDTV (Mitsubishi 37132) does not have variable audio out (why the &%#%@ not??!!? The 13-year old Sony CRT it replaces did!!). The preamp and Oppo are about 20' (as the cable runs along the baseboard) from the TV. To use the 2-ch stereo for the TV's audio, I needed some way to make the volume change using the TV's remote, so I bought a cheap Denon receiver that has a remote (DRA-37, about $200 Internet), and set that up as the TV's "AVR" and ran the preamp out thru long RCAs to the main stereo. Now, the TV controls the Denon's volume setting. TV ======> Denon =======/ 35' /==========> C33 ===> Amp & Klipschorns This worked pretty well. Now, with the introduction of the Oppo, I added: TV <-----------/ 25' /-------- Oppo ======> C33 ------ indicates the HDMI cable, ====== indicates an RCA stereo pair. Note the nice long TV > Denon > C33 > Oppo > TV loop. I'm sure this is the problem since disconnecting the HDMI from either end, or only partially plugging both the long RCA's so that the shields don't connect, fixes it. The easiest "proper" fix would be to just use another set of speakers and drive them directly with the 50W/ch Denon, disconnect the long RCA pair, and be done with it, but I'm trying to avoid the extra speakers. I just love stuff like this!

The Oppo 980H arrived as scheduled on Friday and I set it up and started using it that evening, and continued much of the weekend. Very, very nice sound, unquestionably better than what I had. It drives the Mitsubishi LCD perfectly at 1080p thru the optional 25-ft long HDMI cable. The video quality is quite good, but I haven't done a direct comparison against the old DVD player. It played everything I've thrown at it:: CD, DVD-A, SACD, DVD and home-burned Audio CD - without dropping a bit, near as I can tell. It's easily worth $220, delivered, including the long HDMI cable.[Y] On the down side, there is a noticeable hum when the HDMI cable is connected. Disconnect the HDMI from either end and no problem. I'm sure this is a ground loop since the audio out from the Mits is also connected to the 2-ch preamp by a long pair of RCA cables. This needs to be dealt with - maybe lifting the shield on one end of those long RCAs will work. Can you lift the chassis ground on one end of an HDMI cable? This is designed to be a DVD player with extra attention paid to the audio section. Audio playback is superb, but the user interface has some shortcomings as an audio CD player. For instance, after loading a CD, it automatically starts playing Track 1 with no way around this other than standing with the remote poised. Much of the time this is fine, but with my old CDP you could have it do that, or start paused; the latter is good when you want to start with a different track. It also does not appear to support Indexes. These are an under-utilized feature of CDs to be sure, but I have some disks with them and do use them occasionally. The time display shows track elapsed time only; sometimes I like having total time or remaining time. It really wants a video screen for much of its user interaction. Because of the hum issue, I prefer to leave that disconnected most of the time. [N] These complaints are minor, and some of them may have solutions that I just haven't found yet. Time will tell. It is very slow to load compared to the old CDP. Part of that may be because it's a universal player and it has to figure out what's loaded before it can decide what to do with it. Overall, on the strength of its sound and picture quality, it's a keeper. [Y] It's certainly better than what I had, and I'll probably get used to the lost features. [edit] OK. I found the counter mode. Pressing OSD (On-Screen Display) on the remote cycles through Disk Elapsed, Track Elapsed, Disk Remaining, Track Remaining (not necessarily in that order). Perfect! Pulling the the L & R RCA audio connections partway out so that the shield connection is broken but the center is still connected eliminates the hum. So far, so good. [Y] [/edit]

Ding-dong-dang it Mallette! Based on no more than your review, subsequent comments here (and elsewhere) and a comparison of features on Oppo's website, I ordered a 980H a few days ago, sight unseen and sound unheard. [] I was starting to think about a new CD player anyway, and at $169, why not? It should arrive Friday; I'll let you know if you're in trouble! I originally thought about the 981 but since this is intended primarily for audio rather than video, the 980 seemed to be the better choice. I did, however, spring for the $36 25-ft HDMI cable so I can connect the 1080p Mitsubishi LCD panel and "sample the wares". If it's sufficiently better than my pedestrian JVC DVD player it may become the DVD player of choice even if that means pointing the remote in another direction. I plan to wait for the BluRay - HDDVD war to shake out and go for an HD source in the next DVD player. Maybe Oppo will have one then, too.

It can't be fixed. Pack it very carefully and send it to me for disposal. No charge! Send the 2105, too. [] Seriously, Sorry to hear your problems. Before giving up and sending it to a shop, you may want to try cleaning all the switches and pots using a good contact cleaner. I have no idea about Milwaukee, but Audio Classics in Vestal, NY (near Binghamton) and Terry DeWick near Knoxville, TN specialize in repair/refurb of classic Mc units units like these. It's probably worth shipping it to them. Both are highly regarded by the Audio Karma McIntosh community. Haven't used their repair services myself, directly, though, so no first-hand experience, but I did buy a refurbished MR73 from AudioClassics earlier this year and it works great. They say it meets original specs; I have no way to verify that, but have no real reason to doubt it (AM sensitivity seems a bit low, but don't have an antenna other than the built-in rod in amongst all the old iron and cables, either). Either shop will give you instructions how to pack. If you still have the factory double-wall box, use that to ship it. If you don't, it may be worth ordering a replacement from the factory (not cheap, but...), or maybe you could borrow one. It's easy for the front glass to get broken in shipping if not packed well. Best of luck!

Y'all. The same meaning as "you all", but distinctly different.

How it looks in the living room or bedroom is not the point; how cool and "flashy" it looks in the store or catalog is. Once it's sold and taken home this isn't the manufacturer's problem. Besides, there's always black electrical tape.

Does Richard Carpenter still live there? I know that Karen died quite a few years ago. Whether he's good or not is a matter of opinion. Sorry - couldn't resist; I'm feeling like a smartass this afternoon. [:$] Seems you'd want a cabinetmaker rather than a carpenter for this, though. Should be a breeze for any half-decent one.

Good heavens, man! What are you thinking??? Turning an amp on its side creates a 90° phase rotation and, worse, will make the sonics vertically polarized. This will cause the soundstage to become jumbled (all the instruments will seem to be piled on top of each other) and destroy all openness to the sound as the lows are crushed by the highs that are now sitting directly on top of them (or vice-versa depending on which way you turn it), making the ones on the bottom flat and the ones at the top unstable. You might be able to avoid some of these problems by laying one of the speakers sideways on the floor with the other hung sideways from the ceiling above and listening while lying on your side, but I'm not sure if that will help or not. There is a reason that all good amplifiers are wider than they are tall. If an amp were meant to be used this way it would have little feet on the end. j/k, of course! [] The only thing I'd be concerned about at all is cooling.

The Golden Ratio, BTW, is determined by X / Y = (Y / X) + 1 which works out to about 1.6 : 1. Practical-sized rectangular rooms with dimensions near Golden Proportions could be approximately 8' X 13' X 20' 6" 9' X 15' X 23' 10' X 16' X 25' 6" Even if those dimensions won't work for you, they may give you an idea. Mine are on the short wall of a roughly 15' X 27' room with 9' ceiling. It has plaster walls (sheetrock ceiling) and hardwood floor mostly covered with rugs, couch and loveseat, large windows and French doors with sheer curtains (usually closed) and various wood bookcases and pieces of furniture, and no specialized room treatments. Driven with 50 W/ch, they sound great; even playing LOUD the amp stays cool, so it's not working very hard!

It's always best when the snow starts after you do your traveling! Love the Smokies! Going to be in Wear's Valley for our yearly Labor Day Weekend get-together with friends from High School and earlier - this will be our 34th annual End of the World Party. Bet it doesn't snow on us, though. I hope not! [ap] [au] [ip][][pi][bs][:S][C][C][][li][st][H][ip][D][8][bs] ... [8][bs][C] ... [8][bs][C][C][C] [au] [ap]

Actually, he says in the narrative that the equipment is in Bluefield, VA, which is astride the VA-WV line and well south of Morgantown. Used to hang around that general area long ago and love West, by God!, Virginia; my wife is from Morgantown. Nice looking Belles and cabinets.

I took a week off from work and drove from Oklahoma to North Dakota in December to pick up some Walnut Khorns. It was worth every minute it took and every nickel it cost. And the frostbite. Left Tulsa the evening after the biggest blizzard in years and made it as far as Bartlesville (about 45 miles) before the roads froze into sheets of ice. Watching a pickup do a slo-mo 360 in the street in front of me was the final hint that it was time to stop for the night. "Tiptoed" north the next morning on the (fortunately, nearly empty) skating rink they called highways, and things got progressively better for about 80 miles, then clear sailing. Oddly, streets in towns were far worse for ice than rural highways. Temp peaked somewhere just above freezing somewhere in Kansas or Nebraska but dropped to 7° F by the stop in Fargo. Next morning was 2°, and it dipped to -8° on the way to Minot. Brrr. It started snowing while picking up the U-Haul, and the rental paperwork was all fouled up. Backed it up to the garage to load the speakers - jockeying a trailer back into a driveway from an icy hill was fun, too. Snow got steadily heavier while packing. Backtracked to the agency to finish the (still fouled up) paperwork, then headed home in snow after an unsolicited $30 discount on the rental for the hassle, I guess. Bismark was in the balmy 20s (and not snowing!) thru the night. Uneventful trip back with an overnight stop in Nebraska and getting sidetracked and dumped onto residential streets in Topeka early the next morning when I was in the wrong lane for an exit and pulling a trailer, but got back on course with help from the GPS (thanx, Garmin!) Our neighborhood side streets were still caked with ice when I got back. My wife and I unloaded the trailer with the help of a borrowed hand truck. Those suckers are heavy! After some minor woodwork to make them seal snugly into the corners, playtime! Wow! Best of all, ND was the only state I'd never been to before!

I've been using an MC250 with new (to me) never-updated 1980 Klipschorns for almost a year, and they sound wonderful! I bought the 250 new in 1971. It's all original and met specs when last checked in 1994. Still looks good. Wanna trade? I'll pay shipping both ways! [] Seriously, though, the MC250 and a C33 sound fine with Heritage, but why downsize? At $1000 you won't be way ahead after buying - and probably paying to ship to Alaska - a piece of 30 to 40 year-old, less powerful, used gear. The vintage stuff is indeed cool, but still!

Maybe the Second Hand really is the second hand and the clocks without one only have first and third hands. At Goodwill you can sometimes find secondhand clocks with a second hand. And who's on first?

[]

Khorns are so efficient that any McIntosh SS or tube amp should be just fine. They sound great with an MC250 (50 W/ch, SS), which is probably the least expensve Mc out there. Stay away from the MC2KW monoblocks (2,000 Watts each) because they would probably be a bit much for the Khorns unless you want to try to put them into low earth orbit or turn the cabinets inside out! []

Wouldn't that be f11? IIRC, back in the day, commercial photographers would take test Polaroids to zero in on lighting and settings before shooting for real. Just out of curiosity, how does the latitude of a good Canon or Nikon digital camera compare with film like, say, Kodachrome 64? To keep the topic audio-related, latitude of film is analogous to dynamic range in audio - greater latitude means that a film can distinguish small variations in light levels over a greater range. That is, film with great latitude will have bright areas that aren't washed out while detail is still visible in deep shadows. K64 was (still is, I guess) wonderful stuff - I used it all the time before the kids were born, then switched to prints. To make this appropriate for the 2-Channel forum, um..., uh..., does anyone know if anybody makes a digital camera for stereo photography? There. [*-)]

This is certainly true for me and, it seems, also for most people because a throw-away digital shot costs nothing. You can, in many cases, review almost instantly to see if it turned out or not and reshoot, and most digital media holds hundreds of shots, so you seldom "run out of film". Result: take lots and lots of pictures and use the few you like. On the other hand, film is a much more limited resource; each shot is costly because you pay for the film and processing - and often printing - for every shot you take, good or not. A botched or just ho-hum shot uses one of those precious 20 (or 24 or 36) frames on the roll, and even if you brought more film, you still have to stop and reload at the end of each roll. Also, you don't know if it turned out until long after the fact, so you tend to be more careful with each. I find that if there's something I really care about but won't have another chance at, I'll carefully compose and sometimes adjust settings (the camera itself does a darn good job metering light and focusing in most cases) before shooting. The rest of the time, I just take picture after picture, keep the one or two I like and delete the rest (or archive the chaff along with the wheat all on a 50-cent CD that holds hundreds). With film, I considered a 20-shot roll with two or three really good pictures on it a good roll; with digital, that might be one or two out of several dozen. It's all good, though.