jhoak

Probably a stupid question but... Why not "Y" cables? I'll only be listening to on source at a time. I'm I missing something completely obvious?

It was. I've got a copy. It was in a boxed set called Murmurs of Earth. A 2 disc copy of everything on the "golden disc" and a nice book. It's a nice listen but kind of tough to dance to [] It looks like it's "out of press" but there are several available used.

I used a UPA-2 with Cornwalls for a couple of months. For me it was a good match. The UPA-2 is very neutral. I never felt that it added or took anything away from the music. Good dynamics and LOTS of headroom with Cornwalls. Unless you're planning to (1) damage your hearing (2) completely piss of your neighbors or (3) launch the cones in your Cornwalls across the room the XPA is WAY overkill. The UPA will drive Cornwalls to painful sound levels with ease. Mine barely got warm after hours of play at fairly high volume levels. I'd still have mine but I came across a pristine Marantz MM9000 and there wasn't room in my cabinet or my budget for both amps.

http://www.nsta.org/store/product_detail.aspx?id=10.2505/9780873552097.4

Thanks! I've got my fingers and toes crossed hoping that it will all come together as well as I hope. A few years ago I had an Outlaw 950 paired with a Marantz amp (same model) driving a 5.1 JBL Studio Series system and there was just something "right" about it. I've been watching agon - vgon - CL - and ebay waiting for the planets to line up just right and all of the right bits and pieces to fall in to place. I guess it was this weeks eclipse that did it. In the end I got both pieces for $850 total delivered to my door. I really doubt that I could find a receiver that will supply the same sound and feature set for anywhere near that price. I'd thought about one of the "T-Amps" but I just can't seem to wrap my brain around digital amplification. I mean I've worked so hard and spent so much $$ trying to get back to an "analog" sound. I'm not sure that one of those would do it for me. On the other hand it's "background" music for pete's sake. We're not talking critical listening here... As I typed this I had one of those "DUH" moments. Either up in the attic or maybe in the shed I have an old Yamaha 2-channel receiver. IF I can find it and IF it still works it may just be my answer. And at the best budget point of all... FREE. Worst case a few squirts of De-Oxit and I'm in business. Gotta go... Time to start digging through the years of accumulated crap in the attic and shed...

In the next week or so I'm moving from my Yamaha receiver (RX-V2600) to a separates system consisting of an Outlaw Audio 990 and a Marantz MM9000 amplifier. I think the main listening area will be just about where I want it to be. These guys will be driving a pair of La Scala mains, a pair of Heresy surrounds and an Academy center. That leaves the the rest of the house. I have five other pairs of speakers around the house all hooked to a Niles 6-pair switch (volume controls on each pair) with no way to drive them. The Outlaw has a "Zone-2" output but it needs an amp to make anything happen. The "whole house" speakers are background level quality and volume levels. Of them the best are a pair of JBL in-wall speakers in the kitchen. The rest are either low-dollar in-walls or small bookshelves. The switch does impedance matching so I don't have to be too worried about a picky amp. Any recommendations for an amp to drive these without pouring a load of $$$ in to them. I'd like to stay right around $100. A bit more is possible. A bit less is even better. Oh yea... Keeping the Yamaha for surround duty is not an option. It's being donated to my "financially challenged" but hopelessly home theater addicted son. Yea I know... I'm a good Dad. Hey it's the least I can do... I'm the one who got him hooked

I'd say it depends on what the asking price is.

I have a pair of 83s with AL crossovers and they're screwed down with 4 wood screws in each crossover.

I'm after a nice finish... not a career [] I guess I should clarify what I'm doing. I picked up a pair of beater La Scalas recently. I've cut the tops off and built "top hats" in the style of La Scala IIs. The top hats were built with 3/4" oak veneerd plywood & MDF and I'm in the process of veneering and edge banding the everything not already covered in oak. I'll be staining them with a 2 coat process of MinWax "Special Walnut" and MinWax "Red Mahagony". This will result in a color that matches the audio equipment stand that I built (also of oak) earlier this year. I have not yet applied a finish to the stand, waiting to see what I ended up with on the speakers so that it all matched. As an F.Y.I. I plan to veneer and stain my Heresys (83 HBRs) and Academy to match. All five will get matching grills probably black but the jury is still out on that. I have a good bit of experience with various finishes. Mostly urathanes but a good bit with spar varnish and a few pieces in tung oil. Right now I'm leaning toward 8 to 10 thin coats of satin urathane once the color has settled in. Oh yea... Thanks for all of the great input. This thread has been exactly what I asked for... Enlightening! I do think I'll pass on the "rancid polecat grease" though. It sounds like it might be tough to wash off of my hands [:|]

Yep... Looks like that will do what I want. I looked at Monoprice but I totally missed this one. THANX!

Well I had to do a search to figure out what "BLO" was. Thank you! That helps. (for the lazy or google challenged it's boiled linseed oil)

I have a LG Blu-Ray player with 5.1 out (7.1 actually) and an old Yamaha SACD/DVD-A player that I want to hook to the 5.1 input on my Outlaw Pre/Pro. I've been looking for switching solutions but without spending a boatload of $$$ I'm striking out. Does anyone make something that will work without plunking down a pile of Benjamins?

When you see OO or WO we're talking oiled oak or oiled walnut but oiled with what? Olive oil? Canolla oil? Motor oil? What weight? Crude oil? Enlighten me please?

I just picked up a pair of 83 La Scalas (happy Father's Day to me) with AL crossovers. It pretty much goes with out saying that 26 year old crossovers can stand a bit of a "refresh". On top of that the ALs are not exactly considered to be "stellar". After plunking down the cash to buy these I don't have a whole lot of $$ left for crossover upgrades. I figure that Dean or ALK are out of range budget wise. I do own a pair of uninstalled CT125 tweeters so a pair of AAs or perhaps A/4500s would be a good choice. What I'm looking for is "best bang for the buck" without breaking the bank. Any and all input is greatly appreciated!

I just picked up a pair of 83 (Y serial #) LSBR La Scalas (happy Father's Day to me) in what can only be described as cosmetically "rough" condition. They're going to be a total refinish job. I'm really interested in seeing what others have done with theirs. I have a decent collection of woodworking hand and power tools and my father is a retired carpenter / cabinet maker (with an amazing set of tools) so there's not much outside of the realm of possibility. Inspire me

I had the HBRs for sale for $250 to $300 ant various sites for a month and didn't get a single bite. At that point I figured that they were pretty much worthless to anyone but me. They were even posted here without a single reply. Oh well...

I've got a pair of CWOs (black grills) as mains and HBRs (cane grills) as surrounds. Since most of the rest of the wood pieces in my living room are walnut or cherry (darker woods) the HBRs really stand out. I figure I can either veneer the HBRs in walnut (I'm fairly handy woodworking wise) or I can build new cabinets and veneer them. Either way they'll get new black grills to match the CWOs. Is there a "market" for empty 83 HBR cabinets with cane grills? Will I kill any value the HBRs had by veneering them in a wood and finish that doesn't match the labels? Guide me...

I just unboxed mine and hooked it up. At the moment it's spinning the DVD-A of Clapton's Reptile while I read through the manual. I haven't seen any video yet (that's tonight... I'm deciding what to play) but I have to say that the DVD-A playback is VERY good. Every bit as good as my Yamaha DVD-S2300 was and I thought it was the end-all-be-all. I'll give it a good workout across all formats this weekend and report back...

I've kind of sat back and watched this thread unfold. Let's just say it's been VERY interesting I guess that there's a couple of things that I need to clear up... 1) I'm not actually "devastated" by his evaluation of my system. That's called "sarcasm". I knew going in that he was going to be critical. How else can he justify a mega-dollar investment in something that sounds like total crap. Tis the nature of Bose-aphiles. I'm pretty happy with my current system but I know that there's room for improvement. Improvement that I'm always in pursuit of. That's whats great about this hobby. There's always and I mean ALWAYS one more tweak. 2) I have no intention of attempting to help him find a better path. It's completely up to him to educate himself. If he feels like his bloze system is the end-all-be-all of audio good for him. That means he's happy with his choices. After all isn't that what all of us are looking for? To be happy with the choices we make? In answer to a few questions... He's a coworker. We're "friendly" but not "friends". He knows EVERYTHING, he's done EVERYTHING, and he's been EVERYWHERE. If he owns it it's the best that's ever been... PERIOD. I'm sure all of you have come across this person at some point in your life. I make my living in the IT world. In my world we speak often of "three nines" or "four nines" and the costs associated with that last .01% or .001%. The audio world is very much the same. You can fairly easily get a system to 98% of "perfect" but that last 2% comes at a HUGE cost. At least in my case "happiness" comes from breaking a big smile when a song I know and love comes out of the speakers. The last 2%... I'll leave that for th folks that can afford it. On the other hand... There's a pair of Belles in MA that I'l give my left nut to own. MUST MAINTAIN CONTROL... MUST MAINTAIN CONTROL... Where's the xanax?

Bill, I just posted my 83 HBRs with Crites crossover updates in the Garage Sale section. I'm asking $300 but I'm a little flexible on that.

AHHH... Infinity speakers. I knew and loved them well. I had for a while a pair of SM152s. At the time they rocked my world. In retrospect they sucked donkey balls. Oh well... Live and learn. Nope... the 901s had absolutely nothing resembling bass. It didn't matter at the time though because they had this "way cool" reflective sound technology. I choose to refrain from talking about how much or how often I consumed "illegal intoxicants" but I'm pretty sure that they had a profound effect on some of my purchasing decisions at the time.

You know what's really funny is that I've done this before. A couple of years ago my sister and her husband were here for a 'movie night" and he made pretty much the same comments. I don't recall which generation I had at the time, Outlaw and JBL I think. Nice kit, I hated to sell it but I needed the $$$ more than I needed the tunes at the time. A couple of days later my sister calls me and says "you really screwed him up. I'm afraid he's going to go out and spend an assload of money on a new system". Sure enough he did. He bought a really nice Denon & Polk LSi kit that they still have and enjoy to this day. Is that a sucessful convert?

Oh I've "considered the source". I'm not a "Bose hater" by any stretch. In my opinion there simply is no better noise-cancelling headphones than the ones they currently sell. I wish I had a good excuse to buy a pair but I just don't travel enough any more to justify the expense. True confession time... I had 4 of their 901s (I forget which series) in my living room in the early 80's. At the time I thought they sounded great. Fact is they did. Somewhere along the line Bose gave up being an "audio" company and became a "marketing" company. Sad... I know that the reason the bass was "overwhelming" and the treble was "shrill" was because he's just not used to hearing anything below 100Hz or above 12kHz. Again sad... That said... I don't know what kind of AM radio was in a 66 beetle the one I had was a 68 and didn't have a radio but it did have a kick-*** 8-track player

A Bose disciple. Just so you know what he heard I have an Adcom GTP-450 preamp running to an Emotiva UPA-2 power amp driving a pair of 1978 vintage Klipsch Cornwalls. The Cornwalls are bone stock other than having had the crossovers updated (thanks Bob Crites). On the source side we have (a) A Mac-Mini containing “best” quality VBR MP3s of my entire music collection (5000+ songs), ( a Yamaha DVD-S2300 player (DVD – SACD – DVDA – CD) and © a beater Music Hall MMF-5 turntable with a Rega RB300 arm and a Shure M97XE cartridge. For the record I think it sounds very nice. I play it on an almost daily basis and thoroughly enjoy it. We started off with a couple of cuts off of the Mac-Mini which I confess I’m not that impressed with. I use it for “background” music only. Next came a SACD, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. And we finished up with selected cuts from 180g pressing of Santana’s Supernatural. His critique used words like “muddy bass”, “overwhelming bass”, “shrill” and “tinny”. The comment that cut the deepest was “Hell… I had an AM radio in my 66 VW beetle that sounded better than this. In his defense he does have one of the “mac-daddy” Bose systems that the local dealer did a “computerized speaker layout”. I guess I just need to sell all of this low budget crap and go out and buy myself a Bose system. L

I'm in the process of prepping my 83 HWOs to sell. Overall they're pretty nice but the logos are kind of tarnished (for lack of better word). Since they're just barely holding on by what's left of the glue I have no issues with pulling them off and re-glueing (hot glue) back on but I'm not sure what to clean them with. I'd like to see them nice and shiny like new but I suspect that it wouldn't take much of a cleaning agent mistake to destroy them. Any suggestions? THANX!