Olaf

discorules Yup, when I adjust my treble and bass or EQ,I always use the drums and cymbals as a reference. A drumkit pretty well covers the whole frequency spectrum. From the lows of the kick drum(not as low as a bass guitar or pedals on an organ) to the the ride or crash of the cymbals. The toms and snare are in between. If someone is familiar with actual drum and cymbal tones then they can get a very accurate tonal adjustment on the amp settings. Works for me!!!....:-)

Colin Yep, I wasn't inferring that the speakers perfectly reproduce the sound of cymbals. I merely demonstrated the natural brigthness of a good quality cymbal and how the RF-s's bring out that attribute. Cymbals need to be bright sounding and near the top of the frequency spectrum to penetrate through todays ampification systems when playing in a live situation. You're right that they(speakers) will sound bright to someone who has hasn't alot of experience listening to live music or like my example of listening to dark sounding or inferior stereo systems and speakers.

I'll bet it's the DVD player too. Try tuning in to an FM station and see if there's a difference. From what I understand,Klipsch and Denon match up quite well. Thats why I'm going to buy a Denon in the very near future and then eventually a good poweramp. I had the problem with harshness when I used my Yamaha 596. I deep sixed it and now I am using my 21 year old reciever with my RF-3's. That took care of the harshness and now they sound just incredible.

fire pinch I bought a set of RF-3's a few months ago and I'm very pleased with them. Sounstaging and imaging are the most important things to me when I listen to music and that's one of the reasons I bought them. That is one of the attributes that give recorded music the almost live experience. You want speakers and other components that reproduce that ambient and spatial sound that you hear when listening in a live situation. You will find though that it also depends on your music source. Some albums.cds and tapes have very little soundstaging or none at all. It depends on how the sound engineer mixed them in the studio. I have found that jazz has incredible soundstaging with a sense of 'space' between the instruments and proper stage placement. I have my speakers set up almost identical to samuelr's and the imaging is excellent on most music sources. The RF's are very detailed in sound and sometimes you can almost hear the air transferring between the drumheads when a snare drum or tom is struck. The highs are very crisp and natural sounding. You can hear a guitar players fingers moving across the fret board at times. Vocals are almost scary and the vocalist seems to be in the same room as you are.On certain effects you will find yourself looking around your room as though someone else may be in there with you. The performance of the RF's also depends on the reciever or amp. They don't seem to match up very well with lower end Yamahas(which I learned the hard way). But then that is a characteristic of many components. It's only normal. I will soon be buying a Denon DRA685 reciever because that is supposed to be a great match for the RF's. I understand they have a warm sound and help to produce a fine soundstage. Here's a funny thing that happened a few weeks ago. Some friends stopped in and of course I had to show off my RF's. After listening a while,the one said"They sound good but they're too bright.' I walked over to my drumkit and crashed a few cymbals and asked him "Do still think they sound too bright?" His jaw dropped in amazement as he realized how accurate the RF's produce the highs. He then said "no way,I didn't realize cymbals were that high pitched." He was just used to listening to dark sounding speakers. Anyway,don't be afraid to buy them. They are a huge bang for the buck and I'm sure you will be pleased. They are simply outstanding in their price range.

For all of you who are familiar with 'Crazy Eddies',he's back in buisness and on line at crazyeddie.com I checked some reciever prices and they are indeed 'insane.'

I should have thought of this one on my post lastnight. 'Mike Oldfield'.....'Tubular Bells.' Very low pipe organ frequencies and I think there's a new remastered version on cd.

The first "Wishbone Ash" album which is available on CD. Nothing really pounding but very tasteful and clean and lots of it. There's something on that album for almost any taste. Some fantastic blues,a little jazz and scatin and good old progressive rock. A great album!! Phenomenal bass playing and there's even a bass solo. I seen someone mentioned Kings X. There one of my favorites.

buylow As you can tell by my previous posts,I've been using a 21 year old Onkyo TX-3000. That old fossil totally destroys that Yamaha. I would buy another in a N.Y. second if they had decent speaker terminals on the new 2 channel models. They're lousy for bi-wiring. The good folks here on the website gave me alot of suggestions and I'm still considering a new Onk.,but it has moved down below the Denon. When I first turned on the Yamaha with the RF's it sounded like somebody scraping their nails on a chalkboard,...absolutly awlful sounding!!! It will be awile until I buy a Denon because I would like to hear one first,but there are no local dealers. Yamaha RX-596--Harsh,shrill,tinny, overly bright and on and on.... Discuss politics and current events on 'Pipebombnews.com.

Gentlemen, I have not a doubt that the higher end of Yamaha's amps are very excellent. I must agree that the lower end do sound bad because the RX-596 I have sounds like s**t. (I will give it one more chance after the "break in period" with the new cables) I appreciate everyones suggestions and info about the Yamahas,but I am just looking for a straight 2 channel reciever to replace what I an using now. I have my HT in a separate room from my 'stereo' and the 'stereo' is what I do my critical listening on. iluvhifi I'm glad you mentioned about the Denon being 'too warm.' That is what I'm looking for in a reciever so you just about sold me on a Denon!...:-)

It has now been almost 2 months since I bought my RF-3's and these are my latest observations... Since my last post on this thread I have bought 12 gauge Acoustic Research speaker wire and have biwired the RF-3's. The improvement is quite good with the Onkyo receiver. As time goes on,I like the RF's more each time I listen to them. I don't know if it because of the controversial 'break-in period' or my ears adjusting to them,but the whole audio spectrum has improved. In a few more weeks,I'm going to reattach them to my Yamaha and see if the harshness has subsided. If not,I will be looking for another new reciever. I have been researching for the past few weeks and decided I will give the Denon DRA-775RD a listen to. I was going to just buy the Onkyo-8511 but it does not lend itself to bi-wiring with the cheap push-terminals on the receiver. If I were to describe the RF-3 sound it would be like this...Crisp and airy with live sounding presence with very good depth,punch and sound staging. I'm very pleased with them, even using them with a 21 year old reciever. They are worth every nickel!

I have heard of a solution for the brightness. I don't have personal experience with this and it's just a suggestion.... If they are the original Heresys with metal horns, some of the brightness can be reduced by wrapping the horns with 2 layers of 'Mortite Caulking Cord' It's available at most hardware and home improvement centers. Perhaps some of the more experienced Klipschsters will know more about this method.

I got my copy yesterday and some of those top rated speakers are very surprising.....301's????? I think those testers are tone deaf. ;-) Then I got another shock...they tested beer too. My two favorites both showed up in the rankings. One (Sam Adams) came in first!..:-) The other (St.Pauli) was near the bottom. They were supposed to be beer experts,but I wonder if the guy who tested the imports had a cold or something.

Thanks for advice folks. BobG Here's and idea I came up with,but I don't know if it will work. I have a Pioneer A/V reciever that I use for my HT. It has the same type of terminals so I was able to experiment. The 12 gauge wire fits into the hole but with some difficulty but it can be done. Do you think it would be feasible to perhaps splice the other cable onto the main one going to the terminal and then solder it for a secure connection? John, I thought of that option too,but it's my understanding that using both A and B causes extra stress on the amp and may cause overheating and thermal breakdown. I think it also reduces the power of the amp. I don't know if that applies if you do it in a bi-wire fashion on one set of speakers though Boa I'm going to check out the flextips. I looked on the site but couldn't find them. I'll look again because I'm sure they're on there somewhere.

Hey Cuz, Geeeezzzz, when I saw the title of this thread(HornEd sees Red),I thought it was about your meeting with 'Red McCombs!'....;-)

I listened to an Onkyo TX-8511 yesterday and I would like to buy it but it has a problem. How can I fit bi-wire 12 Gauge cables into those stupid little push terminals? There is not enough space in the terminal to hook two cables. Is there a way I can bi-wire it? Is there such a thing as a Y shaped pin-connector? I've always figured out ways to solve these types of problems,but this one has me stumped!!

a typical Lafayette (?) stereo I remember the Lafayette equiptment. When I was about 18 I had my sights set on a Lafayette 4-channel system that I wnted sooooo badly. It was about 600 bucks and I saved all my money to buy it. Then I had to make a big decision. The stereo or a new drum kit? I bought the drum kit,at least that paid for itself many times over!...:-) I can remember the Arvin stuff too, along with the 'Electrophonic and SoundDesign.

Well,I'm not going to get into politics here.(even though I agree Cinsneros is a crook) For those who enjoy good political discussion,debates and the latest news go here... http://www.pipebombnews.com/bbs/latestr.cfm Cousin HornEd LOL...I have roots from the same area in Europe too!!! I'll bet with all those 'Swedish Ladies' you weren't even aware of the blizzard! :-)

I never heard Heresy 2's,but the bass player in one of my old bands(mid '70's) had Heresys and LaScalas. He would alternate them in his van off of a 4 watt per channel Pioneer SuperTuner and those babies howled!! Actually,I wanted a set of Heresy 2's but the dealer said he couldn't get them so I bought RF-3's which were an excellent choice.

kenratboy Check out Jim's McIntosh amps. I think his post was meant for you anyway. :-)

I spent all afternoon auditioning recievers. I listened to Marantz,Kenwood and of course Onkyo. I wanted to hear a Denon but all the local dealers went out of buisness. I liked the onkyo 8511 the best,but there's a problem with it. The stinkin' speaker terminals are the push type where you snap and lock the wires in. That will be a major problem for bi-wiring. The holes are so small,I wouldn't know how to put 2 ,12 gauge cables into the tiny terminal hole. Help!!!! Anybody have any ideas???? Suggestions please!!! Jim I know McIntosh are asskickers,but I haven't heard one in 23 years. I forget what they sound like.

Yeah HornEd!!! We don't only share the same 'hat,' we also share the same first name..lol It not fun being a Swede. The real reason I picked the cool hat is because I'm a Minn. Vikings fan and history buff. They left me down(again) just like my Yamaha receiver did....arrghhhh Well,my CR copy didn't show up in the mail today...darn!!;-)

I recieve Consumer Reports also,so I should be getting it today or tommorow. Here's the problem I have with their rating system; Even though they put them through extensive lab testing they don't do the most important test. They don't really 'listen' to them and judge them on actual sound. I used will use their criteria on their lab tests to narrow my choice down,but I won't rush out and buy them on their recomendations. It's the actual sound that really counts and they don't judge them that way. Speakers sound different regardless of the specs.

I thought it would be interesting to find out how we have upgraded our systems through the years. My first stereo that I bought with my own hard earned money was when I was in high school('72). It was a quad(remember them?) Panasonic 'Whitney' model. It was $200 and it was a 4x10 watt unit. It had 4-6.5 inch full range speakers (aarghh) and a BSR turntable. It took a beating and I still have it in the attic. Everything still functions on it.

TechSpec If you make enough posts,someday you will have the same caption as Ray and others. When you reach a certain number of posts your caption will change. I think there are 4 different levels. Right now we are both 'newbies 'because of the number of posts we have made. We could still be 'newbies' for years to come. It depends on the amount of our activity. Have fun and keep posting.:-) They are fine folks here and someday you and I may join the elite 'No lifes.' :-)

Klipschguy My curiosity got the best of me and I hooked the Yamaha back up with new cables to see if there was an improvement. I tried it for a few days but I couldn't take it. That thing has more problems than I thought. The tuner won't even bring the FM stations in stereo. I did try something different,I noticed that by adjusting the loudness control it took some of the harshness out. But the difference wasn't enough to cure the problem. I guess I really got a lemon and it's out of warranty. Last night I hooked my old Onkyo back up and it sounds great. That thing is 21 years old and it's starting to talk about it's age. There are a few lights out and I have a bad input I can't use. This afternoon I'm going to look at new recivers but it could take me months until I make up my mind which one I want.