Tom Adams

Off-topic reply first 'cause it's more important - Ray, I too am sorry to hear of your situation (ged, is "situation" a sorry a** attempt to soften unemployed or what? ). Last October my company announced there would be a RIF starting mid November and continuing thru the first of the year. Don't know how you feel, but I think I have a sense. For many of us here it's like being on death row and not knowing when they're coming to take you to the electric chair. From what little I know of you, you seem to be a quality individual with a good sense of humor and marketable skills. I'll say a little prayer for good luck. On topic - FWIW the car we bought is an Acura 3.2 TL-S and actually that B*se system doesn't sound too bad as long as it's not pushed. But then I get in my Chebby pickemup truck and realize how "soft" that B*se system is. I mean, I don't have a killer system in the truck, but it ain't shabby either. The big difference I notice is in the quality of bass. The B*se is boomy and mushy whereas in my truck it's solid, has punch and deepness without the boom (10" sub in ported custom box driven by 100W RMS mono amp). It's as though the general populace is being tricked into thinking that just because they're hearing this sonic "booming", that means their XYZ speaker is making a lot of bass. Anyhow, the system in the Acura is passable (for now) and its deficiencies are more than made up by the car's ability to haul booty-butt!! Tom Adams

sorry...wrong thread. This message has been edited by Tom Adams on 12-19-2001 at 01:11 PM

ROTFLMAO.... After being away from the forum several days, I come back and this is the first thread I pull up. Seriously, no disrespect guys, but it is rather funny in the sense of not only how far off-topic this has become, but also in how you guys view the "labels" we tend to use. Egg-head engineer, computer geek, knuckle-draggers, and various other discriptive words. Might I suggest that it's not so much the use of the "label", but the context in which it is said? I mean, being an engineer, I've been referred to with various labels and it doesn't bother me - unless it's said purposely to berrate me. Anywho.... So what the heck is a web cam?? Tom Adams

I come before you a humble, Klipsch loving man seeking your absolution and understanding... You see, three days ago my wife & I bought a new car. And, well, it came with this stereo you see and ever since then I've been just down right distraught. 'Cause the stereo is a, a, <gulp>... ged, please don't make me say it. It's a, ba, ba, ba.....Bose. Oh woe is me...... Tom Adams

Nice - very nice indeed! Simple & elegant. I noticed that you got the WT-46809 (I have a 46807). Do you plan to connect a PC to it? Just curious since that's really the only major difference between the two sets. Or was there another feature that drew you to it? Tom Adams

Thanks guys for the compliments. I had a couple of issues with the final product, but nothing I couldn't live with. What you can't see is all the nice cable routing provisions they made, how they re-attached electrical wall outlets & cable outlet to the back of the base cabinet instead of just cutting access holes, and the nice rollout shelves (behind center 4 doors) for the equipment. The installers also made sure the base cabinet was level in both directions and square before attachment to the wall. aab3rd - the sub is to the right on the other side of the fireplace. It's not the optimum location, but will do for now. Actually, the optimum spot is to the left of the opening in the photo. It's a corner that's juuuust big enough for??? An SVS sub. Mr. Blorry - I aquired the Cornwalls after the contract for the wall unit was signed and the design decided. Besides, the wife was very definitive about the asthetics of the wall unit. And since she's never griped about my spending our money on my audio stuff....well, I think you get the picture. Hell, she's even letting me use another room in the house for audio only! Don't worry - next house will have my Cornwalls as the main attraction. Mike - Yeah, my Heresy's have the 1 inch risers. Tom Adams This message has been edited by Tom Adams on 11-19-2001 at 12:50 PM

Well gang, here it is. After almost 6 months of waiting, my custom wall unit is finally installed and all my equipment finally has a permanent home. The equipment includes: Mitsubishi WT-46807 Denon AVR-3300 Sony CDP-C350Z 5-disc CD player Toshiba SD3109 dual tray DVD player Sony SLV-780HF VHS video deck Nakamichi 480 cassette deck Klipsch Heresy LF & RF Klipsch RC-3 center Klipsch RS-3 surrounds Klipsch KSW-15 sub And yes, my cherished Cornwalls have found their new home in the vaccuum cleaner room awaiting a tube amp and my dual turntable. BTW, the wife commented that the width dimensions of the Heresy's didn't seem to fit the space on either side of the wall unit real well. My response was, "Yeah, I know. That's cause I sized it for the dimensions of the RF series." Then I ran. Tom Adams ps: Sorry Fini - the wife had all my socks in the wash, so none are in photo. This message has been edited by Tom Adams on 11-18-2001 at 06:30 PM

I think we all agree that Klipsch speakers (as well as other horn loaded speakers) are very revealing and accurate speakers. And, generally speaking, more so than the vast majority of direct radiating speakers. In fact, many of us here have noted that with Klipsch speakers, the sound of a poorly recorded or engineered CD (album?) is exacerbated. Whereas, once again - generally speaking, direct radiating speakers tend to be a bit more forgiving of poor recordings. So, the question is, is the accuracy and revealing nature of Klipsch speakers a good thing given the plethora of recorded music out there that's par at best? Tom Adams

Hey DD2 - Actually, the testing wasn't too bad since the equipment was laying about on the floor and easy to get to. OTOH, my ears took a minor beating. I mean, +10 volume into a pair of Cornwalls is freakin' el-oh-you-dee LOUD!!! I can't say beyond a shadow of a doubt that there's no short in the surround wiring, but I really don't think there is cause the unit keeps playing when the surrounds are wired "backwards". I'm also certain I tried every possible speaker connection combination. But now that you've put the bug in me ear, I might just try hooking up the Heresy's as surrounds and the Cornwalls as mains and eliminate the RS3's from the equation. Hmmmmm.... Well crap - gee thanks DD2, now I got more testing to do. Sheesh. Tom Adams

In preparation for the installation of my new wall unit (it's finally here - YIPPEE! ), I decided to perform some experiments to see if I could isolate the source or conclude what was making my Denon 3300 shut itself down. Taking DD2's advice, I tried various speaker hook-ups to the Denon in various combinations. For the test, I used my Heresy's, the Cornwalls, and the RS3's. In a nutshell, it's got to be the Denon's surround 'A' out that's the culprit. Here's what I tried: First of all, using 9v battery, speaker polarity was verified to rule out incorrect speaker wire hook-up to speakers. Side note - banana plugs made all this testing so much simpler. Thank ged they were invented. 1. All speakers hooked up "by the book" (BTB). Volume increased progressively. At -19 unit shuts down. 2. Surround speakers and mains swapped with wires hooked up BTB. Volume increased progressively. At -18 unit shuts down. 3. Mains & surrounds swapped back to their proper hook-up with mains hooked-up BTB. Leads for surrounds are switched - i.e. positive speaker lead to negative Denon output and vice versa. Volume brought up progressively to +10 and held. No shut down. 4. Mains & surrounds swapped using hook-up described in #3 above. Volume increased to +10. Again, no shut down. 5. Mains & surrounds swapped back to their proper hook-up with all speaker + leads connected to the Denon's negative outputs and vice versa. Volume increased to +10 and no shut down. 6. For verification, many of the above hook-ups were tried again and each time, I got the same results. BTW, I didn't mention the center channel, but its speaker leads were also moved from positive to negative along with the various combinations of hook-ups I tried. One thing I haven't tried is the 'B' surround outputs. Not sure I will, but now that I've mentioned it, it'll probably bug me. The main thing is that I know it's not the speakers for it didn't matter what was hooked up to the Denon's surround 'A' output "backwards", the unit would always shut down. Now, why it does that is waaaaay beyond me. All I know is that I need to hook-up my surround speakers "backwards", if you will, in order to keep the Denon from shutting itself down. Of course, this means I'll have to also hook-up the mains & center "backwards" as well to preserve correct phasing. Tom Adams

Mmmmmmm....McIntosh. Very nice setup Kevin. You did a nice job with cabling - it's there, but it's not there. I'm assuming you used some type of wire loom wrap??? Looks like a great room to kick back in. Thanks for the pics! Tom Adams

WOW Chris - very nice! It looks like you sized the TV opening for a (future) widescreen. No?? The lighting on top of the cabinets...how did you achieve that? Tom Adams

Ok - before Chris gets a response from the seller, here's my bet of what's *really* being sold: (1) Klipschorn bass horn (1) Klipschorn squawker/tweeter horn (1) Klipsch shorthorn (1) Klipsch Cornwall (1) Klipsch Model H Anyone want in on the action?? Tom Adams

Mike - From the photos and description there's not (2) each of any one speaker. In fact, it looks like this guy is getting rid of (5) different models of Klipsch speakers. That, to me, is a bit bizarre. I mean, what kinda system would you have using (5) different models of *any* speaker? Personally, I wouldn't bid on this unless I was looking for a match for any of the models in the set. Besides, once I got this set, I'd drive myself crazy trying to find matches for each one. Tom Adams

Heck boa - several of us were also promised T-shirts and what-not for beta testing and providing feedback on the new website several months ago. Not sure about anyone else, but I haven't seen my freebie yet. Tom Adams

Most excellent Davec! Thanks for letting us know. BTW, after I tear my system down for re-installation into a new cabinet, you gonna be avaiable to help me hook mine up??? Tom Adams

You're welcome TTK. Wish all the questions I deal with at work were that easy. BTW, the babe's name in the video is Helena Christensen and yes, both Chris and the tree were lucky. And the sand and the photographers and the set people and the..... Tom Adams

Chris Isaak. Tom Adams This message has been edited by Tom Adams on 10-23-2001 at 03:10 PM

Thanks guys. Although I pretty much knew the answer, it's still one of those things that, due to wording, kinda throws you off for a moment. Does that make sense? I mean, it's like they purposely word it to confuse you. Ok, maybe it's just me. "I'm not paranoid - I know they're out to get me!" Tom Adams

Just remember tblasing...you brought it up. Yes, I heard that story of someone using frozen chickens, but not sure it's true. There's very specific criteria for bird strike tests (we're engineers afterall) and everyone knows you use dead birds that are not frozen. However, feathers are optional (no shite). Typically for wing and tail surfaces, there is a so-called splitter behind the leading edge skin. The splitter is a flat piece of metal that is perpindicular to the leading edge skin. It's job is to aid in <ahem> dispersing the bird's energy. Otherwise the skin (aluminum) would have to be very thick. For canopies, it's a combination of thickness, multiple layers and angle that's used to not only dissipate the bird's energy, but to deflect it as well. And in case you're curious, the device that hurls these birds is an air cannon. Simple device really. Big huge air tank and a long steel barrel. Chicken goes in the breech, air is compressed, valve from tank to barrel whacked open and ka-BOOOM!! I think this is where the term smithereens came from. We also do bird ingestion on engines. Here the engine must withstand the ingestion of a certain size bird without frag'ing the internals of the motor. Typically the bird goes in and you see virtually nothing come out. There's also a test to determine how many birds can be ingested (flow rate, if you will) before motor goes KA-PUT. I've not seen this test, but hear it's very <ahem> interesting. Ok - back to work. Tom Adams

Last Sunday I rented "Along Came a Spider". In the setup I had the choice of "English 5.1" or "English Dolby Surround" and I chose English 5.1. My dumb question is which is correct? I mean, the "Dolby" light on my Denon came on regardless of which I chose. My HT system is a 5.1 setup, but it's also a Dolby surround system too. Maybe the rhetorical question that needs to be asked is why doesn't the industry standardize the phraseology for the audio setup? Tom Adams

Ahhhhh yes....I feel the preverbial off-topic tangent coming on.... Ray - I know you're trying to make a funny, but believe me, wiring (at times) is every bit as hotly contested/debated item as it is here. Everything from shielding to gauge thickness to termination to connectors...sheesh, I'm glad I don't have to deal with it (I work with aircraft systems -hydraulics, enviromental controls, etc.). Weight is always a big concern, so thinner gauge is always better except then it's more susceptible to breakage. And from what I've heard, pilots get a bit pissy when their display CRT's go <gulp> blank. Was in a meeting one time when they were arguing 22 vs. 24 gauge wire and one guy said, "Well hell, let's just go back to 12/3 romex then." To which some guy piped up and said, "Well, we'd certainly get the grounding hum outta the com system that way." The room cracked-up. Another major area of concern is HIRF (high intensity radiated field). You know, when you're flying your $40 mil corporate jet over in the middle east and some SAM site radar lights-up your aircraft. Seems that all those fancy Honeywell flght control computers we use have an issue with HIRF. Yep, nothing like seeing four large cockpit disply CRT's go blank to get the pucker factor at 10. Therefore grounding and sheilding are pretty important so ground braid termination and "hardened" connector shells are used and closely tested. We use some fiber-optic cables, but not much. And lord help us if an on-board laptop or PS2 or VCR or flat screen TV craps out. Hell, the crapper could be clogged up, but don't have the global communication system take a dump (pun intended). BTW, in flight our jets have an interior ambient noise level of a Lexus 430 at 60mph on a smooth road - I think the level we shoot for is 60db. The sound systems in these $30 to $40 mil aircraft are rarely high-end and use speakers like AudioVox and <cough, gag, choke, pah-toee> Bose. OTOH, I understand the guy who owns Peavy had a system in his aircraft that would thump with the best of the low-riding mini-pickups. Ahhhhh...what money won't buy. Tom Adams

Actually...OBL (in the photo) is in the perfect spot for.... LOI (live object ingestion). But that would only lead to FOD (foreign object damage). Which reminds me - if you ever get a chance, you should watch some bird strike video sometime. It's typically mono and won't show off your HT, but kinda funny nonetheless. You'd be surprised what happens to a 6 pound chicken when it hits a canopy at 400+ mph. One thing is for sure, those F-16's use SS amps and not tubes. <ducking & running> Sorry - working for an aircraft company will do this to you. :-/ Tom Adams

DD2 - That's a good question. Never thought of doing that. Word on the street is that my custom A/V cabinet will be in soon. When I re-hookup stuff I'll try this. Hadn't heard any more from Davec...wonder if he got it solved?? Tom Adams

Hey Doug - That is a logical conclusion/solution (as opposed to my black magic solution). Unfortunately, this (my?) condition is repeatable. In fact, when I brought home the new Mitsu Widescreen, I re-did the ends of my speaker wires and terminated them with individual banana plugs. I also inspected the Denon's speaker terminals for any "stray" wires. I then did the 9v battery test thing to determine speaker polarity (good ged...this is starting to sound like a controlled lab experiment ). I then hooked up the surrounds positive to positive and negative to negative. Powered up the Denon and the minute the volume was up to -20 IIRC, POOF - it shut down. Switched the leads, powered up the Denon and everything works up to ear bleed level. Swap the leads back, power up the Denon and POOF - it shuts down. Makes absolutely, positively no damn sense at all. :-/ Tom Adams