jhoak

Sorry but my futzing with pictures horked up my original post. I've now reloaded them and I'll start from the beginnging. First up is 2 pounds of nice ground round browning up. While the hamburger is browning I took a few minutes to slice 2 pounds of stew beef in to smallish chunks. While I was slicing I removed most of the fat and all of the non-yummy bits. Here's the stuff destined for the Crock-Pot getting warm while the meat browns. All of the meat is it the pan becoming brown and yummy good. Also in there are a couple of healthy pinches of kosher salt. Here we have a medium to small yellow onion just dying to be disected And on to Page # 2

The XDA-1 is no longer available from Emotiva. They do show up pre-owned fairly often at $150 to $175. Many who bought the XDA-1 (myself included) were disappointed with the fact that the USB input could not handle higher bit rates. There is talk of a new DAC (XDA-2?) coming but no word of when.

Quick and easy pasta for the single guy. I did this ahead of MNF the other night We start by sweating a smallish chopped green pepper and about a half a chopped white onion in some XVOO along with a healthy pinch of kosher salt. Once the onion and pepper have softened a bit in goes a teaspoon of minced garlic (right out of the jar) and a palmfull of oregano. Give that a few more minutes over low heat and then toss in a couple of Italian sausage links that have been cut in to around 3/4" slices. and give them a few minutes to brown up. In to the pool goes a big jar of your favorite red sauce. Ragu was on sale this week BOGO so being single, unemployed and cheap it was today's choice. Move the pan over to the left side burner because it has much "finer" heat control and let simmer for a while. An hour or so later it's time to dig out the ancient Calphalon pasta pot. In goes a gallon of water and a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt. It takes a bit to come to a boil. I didn't want to subject my camera to the steam produced by boiling spaghetti so there are no photos of that process. And just a few minutes later the "single guy" is rewarded with a big bowl of spaghetti and red sauce with Italian sausage. A generous dusting of shredded parmesan reggiano and let the gluttony begin. No pictures of the "place setting" or the "wine". Truth is the place setting was at my coffee table in front of the TV and the wine was a bottle or two (or more) of whatever beer was on sale this week. Beck's I think. With a belly full of pasta, Italian sausage and beer sleep came early and very VERY sound. [|-)] Of course I doubt that you would have wanted to be around me the next day. [:$]

AHHH... The things we'll do to ensure "domestic harmony". Perhaps had I been better at it I wouldn't be on the hunt for wife #3. [] You have several options to make your oak speakers black. Unfortunately none of them guarantee an "easy" path back to the oak finish at some point. Option 1 (and probably the best) would be to advertise your speakers locally as an "even trade" for a pair of black Forte' IIs. You might get lucky and find someone who's wife is sick of the big black boxes but could live with something in a nice wood grain. Option 2 would be to paint them. Not hard to do but you'd need to research what type of paint is easiest to remove at some point in the future. Even then it's very likely that some of that paint will enter the pores of the oak and not completely come out when the time comes. Option 3 would be to wrap them in a black vinyl veneer. Parts Express sells a "black ash" self adhesive vinyl veneer in rolls. I've used it on a couple of speaker projects. It does come back off fairly easily using a heat gun to soften it up but can leave patches of adhesive that have to be cleaned up with some manner of solvent. What that solvent would to the oak finish underneath becomes the question. Please take some well intentioned and hard learned advice. Do whatever it is you need to do to accomodate the "better half". The color on the outside of the cabinets has no effect on the sound that they produce. If painting them purple is what it takes to make her happy then do it. They'll sound just as good.

First of all "burn-in" with plasma TVs is long since a thing of the past. The recent models do show some "residual persistance" but it goes away as soon as something else is displayed. I've had my LG 50" plasma for almost 3 years and there is absolutley no "burn-in" at all in spite of being left on a static image (my HTPC) for hours and hours. Based on my experience I recommend getting a TV with a VGA input. I tried a number of different HDMI video card solutions and always had really bad overscan issues. It wasn't util I went back to a VGA connection running at 1920 X 1080 out of the VGA port that I got a correctly proportioned image on my TV. It's nice to have a "Plan B". I think that a plasma set gives a better picture if and only if the "outside" light in the room is well controlled. If you have lots of windows or lots of otherwise outside light coming in you're probably better off with a good LCD set. I watch NetFlix and Amazon feeds by way of a Roku box or the HTPC in my living room on the 50" LG plasma and I'm generally quite pleased with the picture. In the bedroom is a 32" LCD fed by a Samsung networked Blu-Ray player and a feed from the Roku box. It looks pretty good too. The best picture of all bar none is what I receive "over the air" by way of a cheapo antenna from my local broadcasters.

Since the last RC-7 rolled off the line in 2006 and the warranty was 5 years it is most likely to be out of warranty. Before I made the deal I'd call Klipsch and see if the replacement tweeter is still available. If it is and the cost isn't too bad you can order it from Klipsch and do the swap yourself. We're only talking a screwdriver here. Even if you have to buy the tools it's bound to be cheaper than shipping a 42 lb. speaker to and from Klipsch. Not to mention the damage risk. Good luck to you sir. I've never owned one but I've had the pleasure of hearing a couple of RC-7s. They really are spectacular and well worth a few $$ to get usable again.

If you still want a XDA-1 watch the For Sale area (The Emporium) on the Emotiva forum. They show up there fairly often at $150 to $200. I just went and looked and 2 of them have been offered and sold in the last couple of days. They seem to sell pretty quickly there.

These get good reviews from their users and you certainly can't beat the price. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882780078

Well I certainly never intended to "hurt" you at all. I hope you know that. What is it you're wanting to do with the XDA-1 DAC? I've had a couple of them which have come and gone. In my case had they handled the USB connection better I'd still have at least one here. At it's price point nothing else comes even close performance wise for everything but USB. I never tried to use my XDA-1 as a "preamp". I always kept the volume level on at 100% and fed its output in to whatever I was using as a preamp at the time. As a DAC and ONLY a DAC sitting between a decent CD or other "digital" transport you simply won't find a piece of kit that sounds any better. If you're wanting to stream from a computer by USB look elswhere. I like the HRT Music Streamer devices for USB to analog conversion of high quality FLACs. If you're looking for a "full featured" preamp that just happens to be a good DAC... Well... Again... Look elsewhere. The Peachtree stuff looks nice. I've never owned or heard any of it but from what I read it's a great value The XDA-1 is what it is. A good DAC and nothing more. Is it worth the $200 cost of admission? Oh HELL yea. So long is that's all you're asking from it. Now all of that said I have a friend who has an XDA-1, an ERC-1 and a pair of Emotiva's TOTL self powered speakers... What are they called? Airmotiva or Airmotive or something like that and he swears that it's the best sounding system he's ever owned. I haven't heard it yet but I know that he has the XLR outs (I built the cables for him) from the XDA-1 going to the speakers and the RCA outs going to a pair of HSU subs I was hoping to get up to his place today or tomorrow but with my Dad being laid up I doubt it'll happen.

It ain't like he's never done it... [] It'll be Tuesday at the earliest before I can get my hands on the Mirage subwoofer. My friend is out of town for the long weekend. The Dayton plate amp in my subwoofer has both high level inputs and outputs. Just for grins a giggles I'm going to dig out some speaker wire and try it parallel and pass-through and measure the resistance at the receiver. I'm currently hooked up using the low level sub-out connection from my Onkyo receiver. Were I a betting man I'd wager the farm that there will be very little if any difference between the varients. Either in resistance at the amp or sound quality. That'll have to wait until tomorrow though. I just finished mowing the sub-tropical jungle otherwise known as my overgrown lawn in the 90+ degree Florida heat. There's a beer (or 2...or...7) in the fridge with my name written ALL over it. I'll be back to you soon.

While there are many MANY varients a "preamp" it is a device that sits in the signal chain between the source devices (I.E. turntable, tuner, CD player, tape deck, etc.) and the power amp. The most basic functions of a preamp are to provide source selection and volume control. Some also add tone controls, tape deck switching and rounting and good number of other functions depending on the preamp. $45 for a functional Marantz 3300 is probably a fair to good price but not what I would call a steal. It was pretty nice in it's day (mid-70s) but considering it's age it would probably need a rebuild to sound it's best. Many of the 70's Marantz slide controls have either failed or become really noisy by now. That model has 4 of them. They can be made functional again with a bit of effort Based on your post it would have added nothing to your system. You didn't miss out on anything in your situation. If you were looking to build a nice "vintage" 2-channel music system it would have made a good starting point once made fully functional. Add a source or two, a nice power amp and some speakers and many are amazed as to just how good some of this old kit can sound.

I don't know for sure. It only makes sense that doing so wouldn't change the load on the amp. On the few systems that I've helped set up with high level inputs only I always put the mains on the "A" speaker outs and the sub on the "B" speaker outs. I have a friend with a Mirage sub that he's not using right now. On the high level side there's only inputs. I may borrow it from him and and see if it changes the load presented to the amp. HMMM... Now I'm curious.

Welcome to the forum Mongo171. Here are the instructions on how to post pictures here: http://community.klipsch.com/forums/t/146759.aspx An alternative method would be to host the pictures somewhere like Photobucket, Flickr, or Picasa (there are others too) and paste links to your photos in your post. The advantage to this method is that you can link multiple pictures in a single post. If you use the attachment method here you can only have one photo per post.

Don't do that. It can be a tough way to make a living. I've been out of work for 16 months now. Besides... I don't want any more competition. If I don't find something soon I may have to go back to construction work.

I don't recall seeing (at the time) any production subwoofer or plate amp that had speaker level inputs AND outputs that didn't have some manner of high pass filtering. Many were at a fixed frequency but a few of the better ones (read more expensive) the frequency was variable along with the low pass adjustment to the sub. It's pretty easy to apply fixed high pass filtering. Variable? Well... Not so much. I installed a nice little Polk 2.1 system for a client. Somehow I managed to either hook it up wrong or had the subwoofer set wrong. I don't remember now. A few nights later he was entertaining a dozen or so guests. After more than a few cocktails sombody decided to crank up the tunes and the little Polk satellites puked their woofers on to his living room floor. Those early sub/sat speaker systems absolutely relied on the high pass filters to ensure the survival of the woofers in the sats. Let's just say that I didn't end up making much money on that install. [:$]

Take a look at the manual for the Dayton model you referenced. It says " The signal to the L/R speakers will be shaped by an internal 6 dB/octave 125 Hz high pass filter. Here's another current Dayton model that has the speaker level high pass filter set at 90Hz @ 4 ohms or 180Hz @ 8 ohm. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=300-803 Sunfire did it a bit differently on this model with the high pass filter at 70Hz but this time at line levels http://www.sunfire.com/manuals/True%20Subwoofer%20Signature%20Manual.pdf I had a generation or two earlier version of the Sunfire sub referenced above. KICK @$$ subwoofer in a teeny tiny little box. I haven't been able to locate any documentation for the GR Research amp that I had but I'm pretty sure that it had high pass filtering on the speaker level connections. The current model does not speaker level pass through. (I.E. only speaker input connections). It's been a lot of years since I've been subwoofer or plate amp shopping. What I'm seeing in current products is either no speaker level connections at all or input connections only. That's not how it used to be. I suspect that's because 99% of all AVRs and preamps didn't have sub-out connections. In the days when subwoofers first became popular most buyers had to rely on speaker level connections. For most of the time I've had subwoofers here they've been IB constructs. I usually ran one of the Behringer crossovers with a sub-out connection driving some manner of pro amp. I never did worry about passing bass frequencies to the mains that they couldn't play. I just always set the crossover point to the sub at a little above the -3dB frequency of the mains. That always worked well for me. I guess I'm living in the past. [:$] That's nothing new. []

Both of the last 2 plate amps I've had specifically mention a "high pass" filter in their instructions. One was the Dayton that I have now and the other was a couple year old GR Research servo model. One of them had a fixed high pass filter at 125Hz and the other eas variable with the crossover setting on the amp. I don't remember off of the top of my head which was which. I'd need to dig out the instructions to confirm I would think that there would be some manner of high pass filtration on speaker level connection. Otherwise you'd be passing a full range signal to the satellites. Some of the smaller ones can't handle much in the way of bass content.

Obviously I can't speak to all plate amps but I did that with my 250W Daton amp and it worked fine. At the time I had a AVR with bass management and an all tube 2 channel system. I ran line level from the AVR and speaker level from 2 channel amp. The subwoofer was the only thing the 2 systems shared. On many if not most the high level inputs there is bass management built in to the plate amp. If you set the amp crossover at 80Hz everything above 80Hz will go to the mains and below goes to the sub. Where I ran in to a little trouble doing this was that my AVR wanted to crossover to the sub at 100Hz but my main 2 channel speakers needed the crossover point to be at 60Hz. Rather than fiddle with it every time I switched between systems I set it at 80Hz. Not "ideal" for either system but it worked out well and they both sounded good. I had to apply a few db of volume boost to the sub in the AVR because the 5.1 speakers were less efficient than the 2 channel speakers. Or was it the other way around? I don't remember exactly. [:$]

Very sorry to hear of the loss of your Father. My most sincere condolences to you sir.

First off... Welcome to the forum. No. Changing the value of the cap will move the crossover point. You can run 2 or more in parallel. I.E. 2 - 4uF = 8uF or 4 - 1uF = 8uF Member BEC shows 8uF Sonicaps as available. http://www.critesspeakers.com/prices-capacitors-and-induc.html Edit to add: I don't have the schematic for the KG2 but in a first order 2-way crossover changing the cap value from 8uF to 10uF drops the crossover point from 2500Hz to 2000Hz. You risk damaging the tweeter by asking it to play lower frequencies. Not to mention the potentially negative impact on the sound quality.

Going back a week and thinking about their favorite Friday lunch Mom and I have hatched a plan. Even though he's on track to be released on Saturday Mom and I are going to sneak him out tomorrow and have lunch at their favorite diner. It's doubtful that the floor nurses would allow it even though he's set to be cut loose the next day. I understand completely. They have their jobs and their orders to consider. Allowing one of their patients to leave the facility is probably NOT one of the things that they're allowed to authorize. I don't care. I mean who's going to miss him for an hour or so. Bringing some "normalcy" to his life means more to me than whatever orders the nurses are under. Besides... What can they do? Go ahead... Sue me for taking care of my Dad. I have nothing... You’ll spend an @$$load in legal fees and end up with nothing at the end of the day. I kind of like the “Mission Impossible” aspect. It’s been a lot of years since I “liberated” someone from a hospital for a few hours. It’s a long story. It was a lot of fun at the time even though it ended up with me getting in a lot of trouble. With any luck at all Dad will once again get to enjoy his favorite Friday lunch and I won’t end up in the Polk County lockup. Here’s hoping.

I too am very happy that he's "on the mend" and doing quite well. Don't be fooled. I ain't all that "good" as sons go. I just happen to be "available" right now.

A quick update on Dad Today marks 1 week in the Life Care rehab facility and 10 days since his knee replacement surgery. By all accounts from the therapists and nurses he's doing remarkably well and progressing at an excellent pace. This morning a staff member (I'm not sure what her actual job function is) stopped by and chatted for a few minutes about his release from rehab. She asked him "when would you like to go home?" His immediate reply was "yesterday". Right this minute it looks like he'll be going home on Saturday. This is GREAT news. If so he'll get to be home for Mom's 74th birthday dinner. Yesterday they took away his walker and he now relies on a cane for the extra support while walking. Even with the cane and the 10 day old knee I think he's getting around better than was before the surgery. Today I took him an old wood cane that we think might have been used by his Grandfather (my Great Grandfather) in his later years. We can't confirm this but if true It's probably pretty "special" for Dad to have it. Once home he'll have regular visits from a physical therapist to continue the strength and flexibility exercises. There has been no word as to how long these will continue. Dad has a follow-up visit with the surgeon next Wednesday. I'm expecting him (the surgeon) to be astonished at Dad's progress. Thank you all for the prayers and positive thoughts to date. I'm certain that the collective "positive energy" from family and friends has eased his pain and accelerated his recovery Please continue to pray and send good thoughts for a quick and pain free (as much as possible) recovery.

When my 20+ year old 40 gallon water heater took a dump a couple of years ago I did a LOT of research in to replacing it with a tankless unit. In new construction or a major remodel tankless water heaters are usually a good choice. They tend to be a lot more energy efficient than traditional water heaters. Gas fired ones are the better cost wise if you have that option available. I don't have gas available to me here so I've never really done a cost analysis for my house. Where they fall flat is as a "retrofit". For electric units the cost of upgrading the electric service generally costs more than many years worth of power savings. The electric ones draw a butt load of current and require some really big wiring to feed them. Much bigger wiring than a traditional water heater. I really didn't have the option (or the $$) of rewiring my house to accommodate a tankless heater. I installed a new 50 gallon water heater and called it a day. Back when I was working for my Dad (a General Contractor) we built several houses that had gas fired "point of use" tankless water heaters. The one house that comes to mind had 4 of them. A kitchen and 3 bathrooms. Reports from the owner were that they were wonderful. Instant hot water and low energy costs. To my mind tankless water heaters just make a lot of sense. It seems kind of dumb to me to spend money to maintain a big tank of water hot even though it's not being used. I wish I had the option and the coin to convert. If it's something you're seriously considering I can hook you up with my brother. He makes his living doing energy research for the University of Florida and is really good about telling someone what makes sense and what doesn't energy wise.

For 10 million dollars you can hurt my feelings any time you'd like. []