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kevco

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  1. The neighbor hasn't been home, she's a nurse and works odd shifts. I think she also spends much of her free time at her boyfriends place. Her house is detached, but only about 16 feet from mine. My speakers are placed so that one is on the wall closest to her house and the other is is on the perpendicular wall facing the street. The stereo field bridges the corner between the two walls. Although both speakers are buzzing right now, the one closest to her home is twice as loud. If I switch them, whichever is closest to her house is louder. I am not aware that the buzzing has stopped since my first post.
  2. No rats thankfully. I haven't had time yet to remove the back covers to try the foil idea yet. A general search of AM band showed no sign of interference that could be linked to the buzzing of the drivers, but moving the speakers shows more noise the closer I get to my next door neighbors house! I guess it's time to knock on her door... I listened to two records last night while having dinner and sound isn't noticeably effected in any way. That's good. I must say that I am a bit concerned that my home is being bombarded with enough amplitude to cause this. I hope I am not exposed to anything that could harm me or my family. Anybody know how much juice is required to get those drivers to buzz loud enough to be heard when my head is 6-8 inches away?
  3. The neighborhood is 60-odd years old, the houses close together, the power transmitted atop short, rickety poles, but they're about 70 feet from the speakers with a brick house in-between, yes it could be generated anywhere. My home has been mostly rewired with Romex, but God only knows what's hiding in my neighbors walls! I have no antennas, so that can be ruled out. I'm going to try the AM radio trick as soon as the rain stops and see what happens. Thanks for the idea, Tube Fanatic! Oh, and the lamp stays..it wasn't plugged-in in the first place.
  4. Last night, I leaned down to plug in a lamp..while doing so, my head came close to the face of one of my Forte II's. I heard a buzzing sound coming from the speaker, but none of the amplification was powered up. I removed the grill and the sound was definately coming from only the mid-range driver. On inspection, the other speaker (8 feet away) was doing the same. The stereo has not been used in three days. I disconnected the speaker wires and shut off power to my amps...the noise continued. I pulled plugs throughout the house, wall warts, space heaters, all off. I even went so far as to shut off the main breaker to the house...the noise continues through BOTH mid-range drivers, and is still happening this morning! I'm thinking I've got some kind of radio frequency or electromagnetic interference happening or perhaps static electricity (the air is very dry and if I pet my cat, he gets zapped, much to his dismay). I am not near any radio towers, high tension lines, sizeable transformers or cell phone antennas...Any thoughts here would be greatly appreciated. I have had no trouble driving these speakers with less than 2 watts of single-ended triode power, so I figure the amount of juice to cause those drivers to emit a buzz from 6-8 inches away is pretty miniscule, but it definately never happened before as my head has been in that air space plenty of times!
  5. Has anybody recapped a Fisher 400 before? My bias circuit is fresh and functioning, multi-section caps are original and have reformed to spec. I want to simply replace the coupling caps and those in the phono section. My question is: What type of caps should I use? I have seen some anecdotal evidence that Orange Drops will best keep the original warm sound of this unit, but as this unit is a keeper, I have no problem dropping a little cash on some more exotic caps if any particular type seems to be well suited for this unit. Although putting $100's of dollars woth of caps into this piece would be silly. I have seen paper in oil, various foils in oil or wax, polyester, polypropelene, Auricaps, Sonicaps, and even (I think..) cornflakes in napalm. Uh...Too many choices here. Any experiences? I'd like to keep it sounding a bit warm, but not distant or fuzzy. I'm not trying to impress my frinds with fancy brand names, just want it sound as good as possible. Thanks.
  6. DIYTube ST70, Aric 3.6 preamp, Klipsch Forte II's. A brilliant setup on a budget! I've seen Mac owners hang their heads in shame after hearing it!
  7. I'm enjoying a similar renaissance with some old tube gear. I've been driving my new Forte II's with my Dynaco ST70 HotRod for a while now, but today I finally finished my (very) amatuer rebuild of a Fisher 400 receiver that's sat dormant for months in a corner. Wow! That old Fisher was meant for these speakers! It's 27 watts per channel were never very potent connected to my old Mirage two way towers, but these high efficiency three ways just take it to new heights. I honestly have no need to turn it up past 3, and it goes to 10! The Fisher is controlling the large woofers very well and imaging beautifully. It's FM tuner is also amazing, highly sensitive and with excellent separation. It has no trouble pulling a station that my Marantz 2275 can't get even with an amplified antenna. It's just really a top notch piece of (what I guess many audiophiles would call) consumer electronics, but honestly if mated to the right speakers is capable of serious audio reproduction. Yes, perhaps it's sound is a little too warm and it would never be considered "fast" in it's sound reproduction but hey, for $350 plus another $100 in assorted capacitors, diodes and tubes this thing is great fun and a wonderful casual listen. I'd recommend one to any Klipsh head who wants to hear what tubes sound like, plus it's a really nice looking machine!
  8. Thanks! There's always something I haven't checked....One of the old spring bindings had bit right through the copper of my speaker wire to the center plastic tubing causing a diminished contact. A new pair of pin post plugs on the wire and all is balanced! I tip my hat, sir!
  9. I have just added an A/B switch box to my system that for the first time will allow me to play my Marantz 2275 receiver through my new Forte II's. The speakers have been pushed by my modded Dynaco ST70 for about a month with great success. The 2275 is a pretty old girl and has served me well since an extensive recapping about a year ago. It has never seen high efficiency speakers though. I noticed pretty quickly that it's available power will drive the Fortes to unbearable levels with only a moderate spin of the volume knob. It's pretty obvious to me that the soundstage is balanced to the right side a bit. Lead vocals seem to eminate from the right of the soundstage on pieces where I know it to be centered. The sound, while not as smooth and detailed as the tube amp is good for rock music, and the extra power delivers tighter bass response than the Dynaco. When I switched back to the ST70 the sound was once again centered as it should be. The Marantz is obviously the culprit. Even a slide of the balance knob did not equalise the sound. The volume seems to be equal between the channels, yet placement of vocals and some instruments in the soundstage is skewed to the right. I never noticed this effect before with this unit, but then again it was never coupled to such fine speakers. Anybody have any thoughts as to what may need to be addressed? I tinker a bit with the simpler circuits of tube gear, but solid state repair is probably out of my scope. I am capable of changing capacitors however if I know which ones I'm after. A $300 bench test and repair bill is not yet in my budget, but if that's what it takes...All ideas greatly welcomed.
  10. Although there is probably very little connection to the Bose speakers of today, I have been reasonably pleased with a pair of mid 80's 501 Series IV's that I grabbed at a Goodwill store for $20 about a year ago. I meant only to sell them to some some retro stereo boy for a bit of a profit because they looked brand new, although bathed in synthetic teak wallpaper. It turns out that with proper placement they sound pretty good. Their direct reflecting design has tweeters pointed off in all kinds of directions which somewhat alters what we would call imaging, but induces an interesting effect at mid volume. I just never got around to selling them, so here they sit, next to my Forte II's, in all their vinyl clad glory. I've heard worse.
  11. I have edited my post, I never intended to sound negative. I apologise, if I have.
  12. I've tried to get a good look at the back panel of this unit, and have not yet been able to find a photo with enough detail to show it's connectibilty options. Is toslink the only input available for home audio users? Would this unit become in essence the only preamp in the system? I will investigate it further, as this is a serious jump in technology for a home anologue user like me. Seems to have an amazing amount of features though. *I apologise as my tone was not pleasant, I guess my reply didn't sound the way I meant it to. I have rewritten my post. 6L6GC, your account of the Behringer is amazing in it's detail, and you have obviously learned a great deal about it.
  13. Wow! I really enjoyed those interviews. Thanks for the link, and to the original poster as well.
  14. Uhhh...Thanks for summing up my quest for world conquest....Have I somehow bored you, Artto? Is it time to put this thread to bed? I see that you are sympatheitic to my plight, yet I now feel like a scolded school boy who has folded his test paper into a lovely airplane...I'm picking up a used high quality EQ in a couple days from a friend, we'll see how it goes. I'm also planning on using my Fisher 400's preamp stage as a temporary sub for my linestage just for sh*ts and giggles to see how it all sounds with exactly what I want, IE: a bass and treble knob. 99db. speakers have a known ability to expose low quality components, and difficult masters. Have they exposed me as a guy who just wants his system to sound as excellent as he can afford? Hmmm.
  15. What model Conrad-Johnson preamp has tone controls? I don't know all the models but mine didn't have any. Thanx, Russ My error Russ, although some phono stage equipped CJ preamps had variable RIAA curves, apparently none had tone controls. It seems that what I remembered to be tone control on a friends early 80's CJ pre, must have in fact been a balance knob...[:#] So sorry!
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