kfoss99

In case any one has one of these and wants to ship it to Mike at Radio X Tuners, I will vouch for the excellent work that he does. He did some "emergency" work on an old Fisher for me and his work was quick and good.

I think I enjoyed the music on my low-fi systems more than my current system. All the times I listened to my Radio Shack Amp, CD Player, and Turntable hooked up to a pair of JBL Bookshelf speakers I never complained about the sound quality. I do now with my RF-82 speakers hooked up to a Fisher 500C. It reveals a whole lot more detail, much of it good, but some is horrible. The music really brings the enjoyment, but good sound makes the music even more enjoyable. I'm trying not to let poor sound interfer with my enjoyment of good music.

Fellow turntable brothers and sisters, I have a Yamaha YP-211 belt drive turntable with a S-type tonearm that needs its Audio-Technica ATN110E stylus replaced. It appears to be the U.K. version of the 120E, which seems to be getting good reviews on the Internets. I can replace the stylus for $40 or buy a new cartridge (at twice the price, at least). I need something that is forgiving on surface noise and can help in reducing inner groove distortion. I will, at the same time, get the proper instruments to balance everything as best I can. Should I replace this stylus? Or should I buy one of: Shure M97xe, Ortofon 2M Red, AT120E, or AT440MLA, all within my price range and well regarded? Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving, K Foss

Thanks to everyone who replied, For a total of $15, I got a new belt for the YP-211 and with a little effort got the platter off and the new belt put on. It has a blue Audio-Technica cartridge on it and it plays very nicely. The cart should get me through the holidays and I'll pick up a Shure sometime in the new year. Craig from NOSValves just finished restoring a Fisher 500C for me and I think this pair hooked up to my RF-82s will give me years of enjoyment.

So, I am need of a second TT. My current one is hooked up to the computer to duplicate and archive some of my LP collection. A friend gave me an old Yamaha YP-211 that needs a new belt and, probably, an upgraded cartridge. I was also looking around in my mother's basement and found the old Realistic Direct Drive turntable that I used as a kid. It stopped working properly over ten years ago. I like direct drive tables and am interested in bringing it back from dead. How much is it get one of these fixed up, if needed. Also, if it will cost as much as a new TT, are these 1970s vintage tables worth it? Thanks for your assistance, Karl

This is the setup I have at home and I am very happy with it. The RF-82 with or without the sub is a great music speaker. The RC-62 is great for television and movies, it reproduces crystal clear dialogue. I have a poor setup for the surrounds, but they catch me by surprise every once in awhile. The control panel on the sub is very useful in getting the exact bass level and sound you like. Hope this is of some help. KF

So the K-horns were 100% 1977 stock electronically speaking? As far as I know, yes. Greg wanted me to hear stock K-Horns.

Sorry for the late reply, I have no computer at home. The lowdown on the low end is this: The MCMs are best, probably, but they are a concert speaker. They are just set up in Greg's shop and I've never given an extended, focused listen to them. My guess is they could be used as a defibralator. The Jubilee bass is very focused and deep. The speaker seems to produce the bass, unlike the K-Horn. For someone wanting hard hitting bass, this is the speaker to get. The K-Horn bass may be as low as the Jubilee, but it is ethereal, it seems to be OF the room. Listening to it, I thought kids raised on car subwoofers would think it has no bass at all. I'm not sure that is the case, the K-Horn seems to use the room more for bass production than any of the other speakers. I hope that helps, Karl

Hi Guys, First, a very big thank you to Greg for giving me the opportunity to hear K-Horns for the first time and Jubilees, all in the same afternoon. Also, MCM's He's posted a much more technical thread earlier this week. He has more details than I will post here. The K-Horns were stock 1977, except for the awesome reveneer. They had the K77 tweeter, K55 midrange driver, and K400 metal midrange horn, AA crossovers, and K33 woofers. That means something to a lot of you, not so much to me. The Jubilees are OEM with K402.K69 drivers and passive networks built by Dean Wescott. He deserves a lot of credit. We played music at 3 ohm resistance. Everything was driven by Greg's Scott 299 fixed up by Craig at NOSValves. He deserves a lot of credit. Music was played on a Denon CD player. For comparisons, I listended to Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" on Sony gold compact disk and one of Jackson Browne's recent realeses. Very basic comparison, the K-Horns were like a piano. Every instrument can be clearly distinguished from others. Much like separate notes of a chord on a piano. The bass did not hit me square in the chest, but it's there, somewhere. It feels as if you can be anywhere in the room and the bass is somewhere else. To me this seemed to be like a live concert. There was rarely a bass thump, except on a kick drum, and that was natural sounding. If one wants to learn a part of a song, the K-Horns give great clarity and timbre for the musician. The bad thing about the K-Horns are that vocals seemed to be shouty, much louder than instruments in the mix. Probably, due to the recordings, most people don't have K-Horns, and might need louder vocals for average speakers. For instrumental music the K-Horns were great. The Jubilees, on the other hand, were like organ music. Or, like a LP record recording. Sounds blended together. "Take Five" sounded like an entirely different recording. The bass hit me where I sat. This may be based on K-Horns using the room to extend bass and Jubilees don't. I'm not sure. This was my second time hearing Jubilees and I was able to get a great first impression. Vocals were much more mellow in the mix, compared to K-Horns. When I hear Jubilees in a different room with active crossovers, I was not impressed. They had great bass but seemed harsh. Not at all this time, all the instruments melt together, you could tell them all apart, but they seemed to be playing a song. On the K-Horns, it was like a group of guys playing there part, but not together as a band, maybe, separately in the studio. Its hard to explain. But it's like this: An organ is to a Jubilee is to a vinyl record as a piano is to a K-horn is to a CD. I liked both K-Horns and Jubilees. They are equally good but different. We should all be proud and humbled to be able to hear such great speakers that Paul Klipsch desgined and Klipsch manufactures. If I were to buy either K-Horns or Jubilees, I don't think I would. I have my dreams on LaScala IIs. K-Horns need good corners and Jubilees just won't work as presently designed, in anything but a stand alone home theater room. The horn is massive! All things being equal, with a perfect room, I'd probably go with MCM's those things kick some &!@! Thanks again to Greg for letting me hear all his great speakers. Merry Chirstmas everyone, Karl

Last week, got the out-of-print EP "Rude Girls Ride Free" by the Taxis at the local Goodwill They were a ska band out of Portland, Maine ten years ago. $1.99 at half of, turned out to be $1.05 with sales tax. There was some interesting items at the Goodwill, I'll have to check in on occasion.

I posted a similar message last week. Amy said new shipments are arriving in November for ProMedia. Probably, will have to order directly from Klipsch Online. Check out the ProMedia sub-forum for her exact response. -KF

Today, September 29, I went online looking for Klipsch ProMedia 2.1. They aren't anywhere to be found. Are they discontinued? Is there a change in the lineup or is Klipsch getting out of the computer speaker business? If you know, let me know. Thanks, Karl

Warning to all Klipsch speaker owners, Save your money and don't purchase the new Metallica album. It's clipped in the recording and the loudness is maxed out all the way through. I spent $10 on it and don't feel ripped off, but am very disapointed. I'd like them to release a well-recorded album. This has almost no bass, just like their early albums, but with the added loudness and distortion. Just awful! Who is to blame? I thing Warner Brothers may be, "Color Blind" by the Robert Randolph Band is almost as bad; just shouting out from the midrange. "Death Magnetic" and "What's the Story (Morning Glory)" by Oasis are the worst sounding albums I've heard. I like them both, but really have to limit listening to them. The songs are solid Metallica songs, but it is almost unlistenable. The distortion is even noticable on my 2 watt per channel, $10 computer speakers. On my Klipsch system at home, I played it at 15 notches below what I normally listen, -70db instead of -55db. Which is proven here: http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=deathmagneticreplaygainay5.png Sorry for rambling, but wait to see if a decent recording is released. -Karl

The local record store owner told me he uses 50/50, rubbing alcohol and water, I used the regular 70% on a couple stacks and it works well. I take a spray bottle and spray down an old white t-shirt and wipe off the record. Best part is it dries very quickly. I clean against the groove, from inside out. Is it better to go with the groove, around the record? Thanks, Karl

I like both CDs and LPs and have, roughly, an equal amount of each. But I like LPs more. Some of my CDs sound better than my LPs and vice versa. In a perfect world, on a perfect system, with a perfect disk I have no doubt that the CD is scientifically better. But, I like the minor pops and clicks, I like having to turn the LP over, taking care to put it in its sleeve, the smell of the vinyl, the smell of the cardboard, spending two hours in my local used record shop and sorting through thousands of records to find five I never intended to buy. I like the memories of doing all of this since the time I was six, or so. In antiques they call this "Patina," right? LPs are not perfect and because of it I like them, most of the time. I have no connection like that to the CD medium. I'm sure many people have similar feelings for both medium. Maybe a new thread would be fun about why we like which medium. Hopefully, keep it light. Some of these discussions get heavy, man! Thanks, Karl

Since I was mentioned, I'll toss in my two cents about the Jubilees. This is what I have to compare them to: My own RF-82, and Greg's MCM, custom LaScallas, Heresies, and my buddy's KLFspeakers. So, my Klipsch knowledge is intermediate. Take that for what it is. The common source for most of my listening is Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms, heard on all but the KLF speakers. The Jubilees sound impressive, we sat too close to them, maybe 8 to 10 feet away. But they will blow you away, like the old memorex ad, with the guy sitting in his chair. It wouldn't take much to blow your ear drums out listening to them. You can impress a lot of college freshmen with these. But, for multiple reasons, including a grounding problem, they didn't sound great. Greg's custom LaScallas were crystal clear and hard hitting, simply the best speaker I've ever heard, but probably five times more expensive than the Jubilees. The Jubilees didn't hit as hard and sounded a bit muffled/grainy. But, again that is an unfair comparison. Comparing them to the RF-82, Heresies, and KLF is not an equal comparison in any way, but it seems the separate tweeter and squaker in the Heresy makes that speaker a little bit more clear than the Jubilee. The height of the high-end horn is nice and high, it is large enough that it is at ear level, pretty much, if you are standing or sitting. They are big,ugly, and look cheap. That's not a problem if you have the space and are single. But, not having heard K-Horns, I don't know if they sound so much better to make the aesthetic differences worth while. If the K-Horn sounds 90% as good, why would Klipsch make the Jubilee available for the home market? It really seems to be a less practicle loudspeaker. As I found for most speakers, the room and proper settings make the speaker. So in a different setting the Jubilees may be great. But, I didn't hear it.

When Greg says you can take up his offer to visit his shop, he's telling the truth, as he always does. I live about 10 minutes away and have visited him three times this year and more on the way. He is as good of a guy as his work shows. I can also tell you that he refirbushed his shop with the same maticulous detail he puts in to his speaker restorations. If you dig Klipsch you owe it to yourself to bookmark his restoration webpage.

I think my original post was misleading, I was looking for specific songs for the specific events. But, I went over the top 200 list with my fiance and it helped us get an idea for those songs. I don't think the d.j. wanted us to put together the whole play list, just give him the first dance, father/bride dance, last dance, entrance songs, etc. He also wanted to know what songs or genres that should NOT be played. I've got it all figured out now. The best part is that the wedding party is going to be introduced with a classical piece, then my wife and I will be introduced to Stevie Ray Vaughn's "Pride and Joy," that should knock the socks off the 80 year olds in attendance.

Colter, I know what types of music my fiance likes, she (we) particularly like the Talking Heads, so we'll be playing that for sure. The problem is that my taste in grunge and metal is not shared by her or my guests. For the most part we're going big band and oldies, because everyone likes them, and especially big band music is easy to dance to. Thanks for the suggestion on letting the photographer know what's going on -Karl

So, I got an e-mail from our wedding D.J. today and he wants to know what music we want for the wedding. I like a lot of music, but most of it is not danceable, and if my fiance will not listen to it, it is unlikely I'll be able to have it at the wedding. If you can help me out, what music did you have at your wedding that you liked? Did you hear something cool at a wedding you attended? Any help is much appreciated.

I want to thank Greg for having me over and listening to the La Magic La Scallas before they are shipped over seas. It was my first time hearing La Scallas and, also, tubes. They are as beautiful souding as they look. With them located in the corner and with the bass bins rear firing it was like having two 15 inch subwoofers in each corner, but the vocals came through crystal clear, and the high drum symbols and keyboard notes never drowned out. I have never heard anything sound so flat from the lowest notes to the highest, usually something is compromised. Paired with the two 60 watt push-pull mono-block tube amps he had there is NO static/white noise, my fiance may kill me, but I will become a convert to the tube side. We listended only a little while, but we heard excerpts from one of Donald Fagan's CDs, Dire Strait's "Brothers in Arms", and the Eagles "Hell Freezes Over," amoung others. One thing that Greg did not show a piture of is the 3/4 inch plexi-glass placed in the top of each bass bin that allows one to look into the dog house. I want to thank Greg for being a very gracious host. This is the second time I've had the pleasure to see his shop. He sent me home with some Klipsch souvenirs, a 1974 issue of Rolling Stone with a Paul Klipsch article and a signed copy of PWK's biography. After reading the bio I think I need a house with a large enough listening room to set up a three speaker stereo array that PWK was fond of, maybe two KHorns and a center La Scalla?! I'll have to save my pennies. Anyway, Greg is a great host and he and his wife are nice people, I hope some of you have had the chance to meet him. He is a great ambassador for Klipsch and PWK's advocacy of horns.

Zevon was the keyboardist and, i think, also a song writer for the Everly Brothers. Zevon's sons "A Certain Girl" was written for the Everly Brothers but they never used it.

All of you two-channel guys seem to be tube guys, too. I have been listening to a lot of Warren Zevon lately and the first verse of his song "Carmelita" is: I hear Mariachi static on my radio/And the tubes they glow in the dark/And I'm there with her in Ensendada/And I'm here in Echo Park So, my question is, is he referring to a tube amp? I know very little about them. Also, are there any other Zevon fans around? I started really listening to him last year and he has quickly become a favorite of mind.

Very nice article. In 1981 the Record Connection in Waterville, Maine opened up, the year that I was born. I grew up a block away from it. It is still open and he never liked selling compact disks because the customers didn't talk about the music. He supplements selling LPs and CDs with books, now. I'm sure I've bought over 100 records and many CDs from him over the last 20 years. It smells just as the write describes in that article.

I agree with Islander, take your time. If the F-2 speakers are bigger than you like, look in to the Reference or Synergy bookshelf speakers. If that doesn't work, try the RX line or in-wall speakers, they are more costly, but have a much smaller foot print. I don't think Best Buy carries the Reference or RX line, so search for your nearest Klipsch dealer and take a look and a listen. If someone from Best Buy saw the room, see if he can bring a pair of the F-2 speakers over, you may like them and purchase them. At the very least, you'll have a benchmark. Good luck -Karl