bigpants_ku

I've got a 10" Mirage ported Sub that's about 8 years old. I like it. I've just moved and my new HT is twice as big as my old one, and I fear the 10" won't be what I want/need (<--who can tell the difference between "want" and "need" in this hobby, anyway?). At first, I was just going to replace mine with a huge ported sub, but then I decided to be an adult, and do some research. Over the last few days, I've been fortunate enough to make it to a few high-end stereo shops and try out several subs. I've been listening to some sealed and ported subs, from Martin Logan, Klipsch, Velo, etc etc. I found that like the accuracy and punch of the sealed subs, but I also like the depth and "acoustic persistance," if you will, of the ported subs. I'm seriously thinking about running one of each in my new HT when I get it done, so as to enjoy the acoustic benefits that each has to offer, and I know others out there do the same thing for the same reason. Here are my questions: 1) If I do one of each, should I just keep my 10" Mirage, or will I be be missing the lows in my new big room, and need to just go get a RT-12d? 2) If I do run two subs, how do I hook that up, there being only one SW pre-out on my AV Receiver? Thanks!

I need you all to prevent me from developing buyer's remorse (which I don't have, for the record) I've been calling around looking for a store that keeps a floor model RC-64 that I could listen to for about a week and a half, as I'm interested in getting one for my new much bigger home theater. I finally found one at Nebraska Furniture Mart in Kansas City. The salesman tells me Klipsch is either making a new model or the store is not carrying them anymore or something, because they've been marking them down (sale sign was for $695) and closing them out. He sold his last two NIB ones today at a discount, and offered to sell me the floor model for $299. I listened to it for 30 minutes, music, movies, different combos of speakers with it, it alone, etc, and it sounded great. I also looked it over and found a few small scuffs on the edges of the back where some lazy employee had probably shoved it against shelf edge when installing it in the HT demo room. They kept the grill on it and nobody had dented any of the speakers or anything--they all looked great. So I took off with it for $300, no manual, no box (but I'll still get the factory warrantee--I assume). Knowing these things are selling at most dealers I've called for around 7 hundred bucks (MSRP=$899), I just couldn't say no. It's a black one and won't match my cherry RF5s, but it will be back in my media wall and the finish won't really show anyway. What do you all think? Good call by me?

Your best bet is going to be an in-home demo. What I would do is get the Klipsch, and take it home and listen to a few things with both speakers, and then you'll know. If you can't appreciate the difference enough to justify the price, then take it back to Big Box. They should have a 30 day return policy- just tell them you took care of it, but you didn't get the sound you were looking for, etc.

If you look lower on the auction page, he corrects that and says that the 64 is not included, you have to scroll down. I think those auction titles are impossible to change on ebay once someone has bid on the item. As for me, I don't think I can drive to Dallas for the 83's alone- my wife admits we need a bigger center channel, and might go for the package deal but she'd rather me find a deal on a 64 and get the 83's if my RF-5's prove to be insufficient for the new HT room we have once we have a new center (a 64 hopefully) and a new and bigger sub. (I'm still considering my sub options and hope to demo a velo and a RT12-d, and maybe a JLA sometime this weekend if all goes well on my trip to the city- meaning I hope to minimize my time at this wedding and maximize my time at the stereo shops!)

Wow. I want to buy them. I live about 8 hours away from you in Holton, KS. WAF on this is going to be low, and gas is high... I would like the RC-64 too- are you still not selling it? If get her a card and a backrub...I may bid yet!

Thanks for the advice on the speaker placement and I think a better sub will be needed, and in the future. With regard to the lighting, sorry, again I wasn't clear. The flourescent lights are on a totally separate circuit from the can light circuits- they're all or nothing and with parabolic grids, so you flip the switch, the room is bright, with no hot spots in the ceiling. This would be when using the room for get togethers or whatever (not for TV). Then there's the can light circuit that's dimmable, so you can flip off the flouros and adjust the cans to your HT preference. I hear you guys on the drop ceiling. There is a big beam that sets about 5 feet from the media wall, and from it to the media wall, I'll have a drywall ceiling at a down angle to the media wall which will eliminate parallel horizontal surfaces and hopefully enhance acoustics. However, behind that beam, I'll be using the drop ceiling. What I'll do is weight them down a little on the edges from above if they rattle, and if it persists anyway, I'll drywall there too, as much as I hate doing freaking drywall, especially over my head. If I drywall, I'll run wire or at least conduit to make future projectors less stressful intalling. As far as the perforated screen, I'm not there yet. I'm running a Mitsubishi 52" DLP HDTV that sets in the media wall and the screen will be flush with the wall. In the future, a perf with center behind would be very easy to do. I won't probably be in this house longer than 5 years or so, as my wife and I are looking for land nearby on which to build, and that house will have a dedicated HT room designed before a shovel even goes in the ground. I'll probably save the projector for that house, but time will tell. Acoustically, this room is less than perfect (it's essentially half of a full basement, and is a HUGE family room, serving as a HT, a bar, a poker room, a pinball room, and a fireplace nook) so I don't want to pretend that this room is going to be the be-all and end-all of HT's. Yet, at the same time I don't want to sacrifice sound quality of the source- if the room messes up the sound so be it. I'll post pictures and a floor plan as soon as I dig my scanner up (it's still packed somewhere!)

Answering Michael's questions: My current setup is with a Mirage sub (10"), and the Denon AVR 2800 reciever. The surrounds I'm using are the Klipsch Synergy SS-1. I didn't plan to upgrade those at this point, unless they end up sounding weak in this room. I think the Mirage sub will be enough for this room, but I'll move it around a bit and make sure. My plans include wall sconces x 2 in the front, and some NeoFlex LED neon tubing tucked down behind some trim above and behind the seating area. Both of these decorative lighting applications will be on dimmers. There will be 2 kinds of main lighting in the ceiling: all-or-nothing parabolic grid directed flourescent, and can lighting on dimmers. I'm putting in an acoustical drop ceiling in most of the room, so adding a projector in the future will be a cinch. I have already run and dropped CAT 5e ethernet cable to the media wall, which will pipe internet to a Linux MythTV box that my wife built that serves both as a computer for browsing the web, etc on the HT setup with a wireless keyboard/mouse but also as free TiVo and an access point to our file server that has endless MP3's stored on a 600GB hard drive. And to clarify my speaker location question, I understand the height issues for the center channel- what I'm looking to make sure, is that it's ok for the Left and Right main speakers to be slightly in front of the wall that the center channel is mounted in. In essence, is it ok for the left and right speakers to sit 10 to 12 inches in front of the plane of the center channel speaker?

Hi everybody- I'm new to the Klipsch forums, but not to Klipsch. I discovered Klipsch in college in '99 and have loved every Klipsch speaker I've bought since. I have finally joined the forum today to ask for your help, and I apologize in advance for the length of this post and the number of questions I have, but please bear with me, and I'll set up my situation. I've just bought a house with an unfinished basement, and I'm in the process of finishing it now, and am about to build my walk-behind media wall in the home theater area. Not quite the dream HT location, but not too shabby, either. This is going to be a sweet room. I'll try to post my room plans if I ever find/unpack my scanner. (Just moved in, had a baby, and remodeling, etc.--you get the picture). It is MUCH bigger than the area I had set up at my last house (see my HT setup for that smaller room in my signature), and before I build the media wall, I need to be sure of the size of my center channel speaker which will have a nice custom-built-by-me home right above my TV. Obviously I need to plan those dimensions now, so I need to be sure what speaker I'm upgrading to. The high-end audio snob at the nearest metro area super crazy high-end audio store wants me to put in a vandersteen vcc-5 (price approaches $2k) but I'm planning on ignoring his horn-hating ways and I think I'll get a Klipsch RC-64. I'm wondering if it will balance with my set of RF-5's. I'm currently running them with a 1999 Klipsch Synergy SC-1 which sounds good, but I'm pretty sure not really approaching rc-64 quality and is probably too small for the new digs anyway. I think that this room (see description below) might be hungry for me to upgrade the RF-5's to RF-83's, but that can wait until I A) demo them somewhere, and get my wife's permission, and C) get the room done -- because they're not setting in the media wall I'm trying to plan like the center channel is, and it will be at least 2 months before I turn it on anyway. So here are my questions: 1) I need a new center channel, right? 2) It's Ok for the center channel to set above the TV (both flush with the wall) and the front L and R speakers to be in front of the wall slightly, right? 3) If I get the RC-64 will that be too big for my RF-5s and if so, should I not just get it anyway and plan to upgrade the RF-5s to 83s? 4) My new room is 17' wide and roughly 35+ feet deep- it will be physically separated into 2 rooms by furniture, and there will be a large sectional for the HT part of the room. The right wall extends from near the right speaker the whole length, but the left wall opens out into a bar area about 5 or 6 feet from the left front speaker. Given this situation (I'll try to post a floor plan and media wall elevation soon) should this room be given bigger speakers (83s?) or will the RF-5's be enough- I liked their sound at my last (smaller) place. 5) Since I haven't had a chance to demo the RF-83 yet (and might not for a long while, since I live in the boonies and work a lot and am working furiously to finish the basement) , compared to the RF-5, is it noticeably better, making the investment worthwhile? Will the bigger room size increase the noticable difference? 6) If I upgrade to the RC-64 and maybe the RF-83, will my Denon AVR 2800 be enough to drive it? If not, any recommendations? (A little bird told me that newer Denon AVR's are poorer quality, and that I should go with Marantz, etc.) Please feel free to respond to as many or as few of these questions as you have knowledge about! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR HELP!