bill rawls

Let's see...400sq/ft room.....80 subs@at least one sq/ft footprint.....oh well, if some is good, more is better and too much is just enough. Bill

Tony, We are happy that you posted good comments for vintageamplifierrestoration.com. Working with you is a pleasure and we welcome clients with the appreciation of vintage equipment such as yours. Not to abuse the forum for advertising, but as far as I know we are the only means of having a vintage amplifier totally rebuilt (all components replaced with audiophile quality components) at affordable prices. This is only possible because of our love of the equipment and putting over 40 hours into the rebuild of equipment (such as your Mark IV monoblocks) at a reasonable cost. We hope that you continue to enjoy our work. William and William vintageamplifierrestoration.com

We are all here to help. Most of us work hard and we play hard. Just as in NASCAR we bump and rub - it is all in good spirit and fun. At the same time we help each other. I think this is understood. We do not need self-apointed forum monitors. If you don't want to play with the big boys, stay off the playground. I don't take offense if someone pokes at me and I mean no offense if I bump someone else in a curve. It is how men work and play. Bob G will let us know when we get out of hand. Regards, Bill Rawls

djk: First, a MC2200 does not have meters!!!!!! Second, I blow 1 amp fuses all the time with my Belles (added in-line fuse) using amps as small as MC225. Maybe you need to hook speakers up to that amp. Regards, bill rawls Klipsch Belle Klipschorn Altec A-7 MC2105 MC225 Dynaco Mark III's Dynaco ST-70 Audio Note Kit 4 and a lot of 1 amp fuses......

Just my thoughts, you might be overdriving the input stage to yur power amp. and introducing clipping there. If so you would blow tweeters at normal loud listening levels. i.e. your signal is clipped no matter what volume you set your amp to. it could happen... Regards, bill rawls

to TheEvan: Not taken as nagging, just good information (never liked smashin' pumpkins anyway)lol The only point I was trying to make was I got Klipsch for their ability to do 120 db peaks, which I felt I needed to be able to do 113 to 115 db peaks-not continuos. In my humble opinion 8 watts would never do to recreate realistic or close to realistic levels. I recognize there are many SET 5 - 8 watt people out there and that is fine, just won't make me happy and didn't want someone else to get a lot of money in a small amp. Just my opinion. I have a Vintage Amplifier Restoration business (started it after I retired, got bored) and service and sell tube amplifiers. Most of the small tube amp people I know have converted, or gone to a two way setup after listening to really good solid state amps in the 50 to 100 watt range. As I said earlier, I have tube amps - they are all up for sale: MC225 (2) Dynaco ST-70 (1) Dynaco MKIII (2) Audio Note Kit 4 (1) I will be more careful with my hearing, thanks to you. Baton Rouge not too far from here, did you go to N.O. for the party? Regards, Bill Rawls

live rock music 90-130 dB 8-0.3 hours TheEvan, Read the chart and text more carefully, The quote above is from your reference! The other items are average levels, not peaks. Thanks for the link, shows us we can blast our Heritages at 120 db peaks and be just fine. 75 piece orchestra = 130 db peak Loud Rocker, Bill Rawls

Happy Birthday Paul, Thank you for the way you have influenced my musical life. Hope you are still listening to music. What is your favorite music? By the way, what was the influence in your life that lead you down the speaker road? There are no words to express the joy you have given me. Best Regards, Bill Rawls

Gee mdeneen, You have my interest now, what is this TV set you mentioned? Regards, Bill Rawls

Response to mdeneen "Anyway - - I'd be curious to know how you compare your A-7's to your K-horns - - you have some VERY serious rig there, man!" There are certain instruments, sax being one, that I prefer on the A-7's. They just seem closer. The K-horns seem to have better bottom, maybe need to breed the two and see what comes out. The A-7's were one of the first true high fidelity speakers that came my way, were originally part of a PA system in a high school rock band and the plywood has been battered pretty good. The multi-cellular horn on top just makes my big toe pop up in my boot though. Have a Gibson Lucille and a funky Kramer Ferrington on the electric side and a Yamaha 12 string (strung as 6) on the acoustic, Gives great sustain and few dead spots and a nice neck for fingerpicking that way. Have the same Fender twin I used in high school. It was new then and so was I. Later added two 16 ohm JBL single 15" scoops with JBL 2420 drivers for the top. Have played music through them, but they are mainly for my loud guitar playing. Anyway, The K-horn and the Belles - The Belles first, are still the overall favorites. This Klipsch guy had something special and I am glad he passed it on. I guess the experience of being on stage in the middle of the music is why I like lots of db's and feeling the music as well as hearing it. The Klipsch can recreate that feel. Hearing is fine by the way, 110 to 115 db, if limited to an hour at a time does not inflict permanent hearing loss, but there are a couple of hours recovery time. Regards, Bill Rawls

Atta Boy Ray, Nice reference. I wonder how many people are taking their tweeters out and placing them on top of the enclosure (elevated of course) and aligning the drivers with the squawker? I am thinking about it now and will probably have to try it just to hear the difference. If anyone has already done this, come clean and tell all. That tweeter sure is way up in there. Screwdriver in hand, Bill Rawls

mdeneen, Sounds like you and I have a lot in common on preferences. Tubes to me can be used in the mid and high end, but due to the damping, or lack of, not in the low end. I am designing the tri-amp with solid state because tubes offer no sonic gain here ( in my humble opinion ), although I do use them with my guitar for tone. You nailed the damping question square on the head. I want my speakers to have as close to the original output as the source as possible. I know that certain tubes have a certain sound ( You can even vary the bias by 5 to 10 ma. and hear changes ) and many of them are pleasant, but I do not believe pleasant and accurate are the same. Likewise just any solid state amp. will not do, the design must take a lot of things into account that is not always done with commercial products. The RCA is a three year old surround sound amplifier that was sold in home theater packages with some small atrocious speakers, but what I like is the National output chip. Their circuit needs the signal caps replaced, The feedback pole capacitor doubled in value to extend the low frequency roll off, and the power supply filters bypassed with .1 or larger up to 10 mfd. poly caps though. a very inexpensive tweak to get a very nice sounding 20 wpc amp. Amp and caps should be in the less than $150.00 range (about the cost of a good matched NOS 7591A pair.)

ROWOOO, The two meters (maybe a foot or so less) is by choice for several reasons; To minimize the effect of room reflections, The SPL level, They are angled to put each ear on axis with the drivers, The room is about 32' X 24', the Belles are on the short wall spaced so they make an equilateral triangle with my chair. I prefer them as close to the wall as possible with the aforementioned toe-in. The chair elevation places my ears on a level with the squawker and tweeter. I'll drop the discussion on time alignment for the present(gotten out of hand) until Klipsch furnishes data such as group delay in their crossovers for each driver, impedance curves,etc. I change amplifiers constantly, the current lineup on hand: Mcintosh-MC2105 (completely rebuilt with 1% low noise resistors, poly and styrene caps, and critical adjustment of D.C. offsets (non is provided by Mac), must be done with resistor selection on long-tailed input differential in power amp.) Mcintosh MC225's (sometimes bridged sometimes just one) also rebuilt and critically adjusted for DC and AC balance. Mcintosh MC2505 (same rework as 2105) Dynaco ST-70 (also rebuilt) Dynaco MKIII's (acquired a pair that had been sent to Kennedy audio for board, triode,component up-grades, etc.) Audio Note Kit Four (stock) Mcintosh MC250 (same rework as the 2105) and, no laughing here, an RCA RV-9910 inexpensive home surround sound amp. Sources are several CD players with no pre-amp between them and the amplifiers (except the 2105 which is an integrated amplifier.) Speakers currently: Vintage K-Horns (stock) Vintage Belles (stock) Altec A-7's (stock) In the works: Tri-Amp based on National Semiconductor's LM3886 ( the samples from National are in the mail and should have this working around the first of April ). K-Horn utilizing vintage JBL components ( this is an ongoing project and should be finished by the end of April ). "God knows that I love my music" Bill Rawls

My main problem with tube amps (and remember I have sunk some funds into them too, MC225, MKIII's, gone through the capacitor and power supply tweaks etc.), is the bottom end. They tend to track the impedance curve in acoustic output. I think a MOR position would be bi, or tri amping. The MC225 has a sweet midrange and fair upper end. I do not dislike tube amps, just recognize them for what they are. Distortion factors can be deceiving, if it is below .1% I am happy. Extremely low distortion factors seem to go hand in hand with large (greater than 20db) amounts of feedback which have their own problems. The speakers always have the dominant distortion numbers in the reproduction chain. I like to play Tina Turner "What's Love Got to Do with it" and feel the drums and bass attack. I sit about 2 meters from my belles, I prefer them to my K-Horns (go figure), and like the peaks to hit around 113 to 115 db, this requires at least 40 to 50 watts (116db would require 60 watts). The fretless bass on some of Morphine's recordings is also nice. It is also a good peak range for the 1812 overture, lots of dynamics here. Once again these are just my views and I would not attempt to impose them on anyone else, but people new to good audio should not be too impressed with 300B's etc. and spend a fortune on something that will always leave them wondering why the speakers don't sound like a live performance. Thank you guys for the wonderful opinions, I just thought things were getting a little dull, and wanted to wake up the intellect I felt was present here for the benefit of non-technical readers. They need to know that if they hook up their inexpensive RCA RV-9910, They will still get great sound from the Heritage line. The RCA RV-9910 by the way uses a very good output chip (National LM2876, configured at 20 watts on the front speakers. This is a very inexpensive amplifier with surprising sonic ability in the Heritage. I have ordered samples of the LM3886 from National Semiconductor and am in the process of designing a tri-amp for the Belles that will by-pass the stock crossovers. I will let you guys know in about a month how it sounds. Any technical people out there please check out this chip and if you have comments or suggestions, please let me know. The only way we grow is to know. Long live high efficiency speakers, Bill Rawls

While it is true that rooms and any reflecting surface create standing waves that will add to or subtract from the radiating source, you still end up with the best mix if you start out with the best mix. A good analogy is a photo copy machine. If you use the gest origional, you get the best copy. This is the philosophy I have and once again it is a measureable fact of life. God I love America, Bill Rawls

And then there are those that prefer champagne. I'm sorry if you guys prefer tubes, but the fact is that a tube amplifier has an acoustic output that tracks the speaker impedance curve - due to the low dampning factors. This is a measureable fact of life. The bad reputation solid state got was in the 60's,70's and 80's. Even sone of the power I.C.'s being used now are better amplifiers than most tubbe amps. The Mcintosh unity gain tube amps and the Quads that use unity gain (i.e. chathode feedback from transformer windings), to the output tubes handle the complex speaker loads better than the tubes stages that do not. Tube amps color the sound and this is a measureable fact. I am of the school of thought that a system should reproduce the source as closely as possible and high quality (i.e. high slew rate, low T.I.M.)solid state amps do this. It gets down to wether you prefer accurate reproduction, or a particular amplifier signature. I knew this would heat up the board, but I go with what can be measured and doccumented. Love America and Different Opinions, Bill Rawls

You will find a nice technical report and listening test on Cornwalls at this site. It's a shame you have to go overseas to get information like this. http://www.belgaudio.com/kcmap.htm Regards, Bill Rawls

Klipsch used to warranty their drivers for life, then people started using more powerful amps, i.e. greater than 12 watts. Shortly thereafter, Paul added the tweeter protection. The older tweeters (cylendrical magnets) are irreplacable. I would protect my tweeters at all cost. Regards, Bill Rawls

I have K-korns and Belles. I have tube and solid state amps. I listen to loud music. Tubes will not do. You need a high quality - late model solid state amp with at least 50, preferably 100 wpc. I know this makes a lot of people angry, but it is true. Check out this web site and see why tubes are not a good choice. http://www.belgaudio.com/kcmap.htm If you borrow amps and listen you will see, I mean hear what I am saying. Regards, Bill Rawls

Before buying a tube amp, you might go to this site (http://www.belgaudio.com/kcmap.htm). They test a set of Cornwall's, but also have some very interesting information (measurements, not opinion)on the inherent nonlinearities involved with tube amps. For accurate, flat response a quality solid state is the only choice. I have several of both and prefer the solid state on my Belles. Now I'll duck as the flabby bass nonlinear tube guys attack. Regards, Bill Rawls

Save yourself some grief. Use only the driver the design calls for. There are too many variables involved in enclosure design to change driver parameters. An enclosure is a critically tuned device and any deviation changes the entire design. Regards, Bill Rawls

Owners of, or anyone contemplating purchase of Cornwall's should check out this site. (http://www.belgaudio.com/kcmap.htm) You will find a complete analysis, frequency response, impedance curve (which is explained so as not to confuse anyone), etc. This is the kind of information I would love to have on the Belle's. Regards, Bill Rawls

Also use the "hop to" customer service. There are some promedia problems and solutions there. Regards, Bill Rawls

OOps