LonestarBlues

Kev313. Put Seunsom has excellent feedback on Audiogon-54 positive/ no negative. And on Audioweb-33 positive/1 negative-the negative feedback was not from me. I met Put about 3 years ago. He is very knowledgeable about stereo equipment. But my experience with him was not so hot. His family has a Chinese restaurant located on FM 1960 West in Houston(Northwest part of Houston), he is a manager. He & a partner buy & sell stereo equipment. They have space in a warehouse several miles from the restaurant where they store their speakers. Put lives in a neighbor- hood over by the Astrodome, which my brother says is kind of a rough area of Houston. My brother lives in Katy, a suburb 20 miles west of Houston proper. Put & his partner place ads in the Houston, Dallas & and San Antonio papers requesting to buy certain brands of stereo equipment-Klipsch speakers being one of them. Three years ago I was interested in two pair of speakers that Put had advertised on Audioweb- a pair of walnut Klipsch Cornwalls & a pair of walnut JBL 250 TI speakers. The ad had expired several months previous to me contacting him. I emailed Put asking if the speakers were still available and what condition were they in. Put's reply was that both pair of speakers were in excellent condition. I live in Corpus Christi, 4 hours south of Houston. I made arrangements to meet Put at his restaurant on a Friday afternoon to go listen to & inspect the speakers. Put told me he would have some equipment on hand so I could listen to the speakers. I met Put at his restaurant. We took my car to drive to the warehouse. On the way to my car, Put stopped at his truck and pulled out a cheap boombox radio/cassette player. He mentioned he forgot to bring any speaker wire. We got to the warehouse and the speakers were not easily accessible They were on pallets, tightly squeezed together. There was not much room to manuever and inspect the speakers. The walnut Cornwalls were not in excellent condition, I would have rated them a 5 on a 1-10 scale. One of the top front corners was dinged very bad-looked like some one had hit it with a sledge hammer. I went ahead and listened to the Cornwalls. Put robbed 1 piece of speakerwire from the back of a LaScalla to hook up 1 channel of his boombox. I declined on the Cornwalls, they had been rode hard & put up wet cosmetic wise. I wanted to listen to the JBL 250 TI speakers- mulitiway tower 14 inch woofer/8 inch midbass/5 inch midrange/1 inch titanium tweeter. The JBL speakers were wrapped up in a massive amount of plastic bubble wrap & packing tape. Put did not have a knife or scissors to unwrap the JBL's. Being a blue collar guy, I always carry a small Buck knife in my pocket. I cut the tape and removed the bubble wrap. The walnut JBL 250 TI were a 7.5 out a 10 scale cosmetic wise, had some dings & scratches but nothing major like the ragged out Cornwalls. The JBL's are a 52 inch tower-the left side of the speaker is vertically straight. The right side slopes down at an angle-14- 1/4 inches wide at the top sloping down at an angle to 22-1/2 inches wide at the bottom, the speakers weigh 126 pounds each. Retailed back in 1991 at $2499 for each speaker. They are a good looking speaker. I had to move each speaker off the pallet to listen to one speaker at a time with his frickin' cheap *** boombox to check to make sure all the drivers were working. I liked the JBL's, but they had loose binding posts and a sloppy refoam job on the 14 inch woofers. Put was asking $1600 for the JBL's and refused to negotiate. I had $1600 cash on me but I did not think the speakers were worth his asking price. I politely told Put he could keep his speakers, I would find something else. He said fine. He asked me to drive by a Sam's Warehouse on the way back to his restaurant so he could pay a bill. No problem, I took him to Sam's. Back at his Restaurant we b.s.ed about stereo equipment. When I was getting ready to leave, Put asked me how much I was willing to spend on the JBL speakers. I told Put $1200 cash and I pulled out my wallet. He agreed to my offer & I paid him. We drove back to the warehouse to load up the speakers in my 1983 El Dorado. We put one speaker in the trunk. We attempted to fit the other speaker in the back seat. It was too big and would not fit. I had a trailer hitch on the Caddy, but no ball and did not have a hookup for signal lights. Uhaul was closed by this time. So it was too late to go there, rent a trailer/get hooked up for signal lights and get a trailer ball. My brother was out of town so I did not have the opportunity to spend the night with him. Put and I agreed to me coming back Monday afternoon to pick up the JBL speakers. He gave me my $1200 back. I asked him if he wanted a deposit to hold the speakers. He said no. I drove home Friday night and was going to have Uhaul install a signal light kit Saturday. I had a ball for the trailer hitch at my house. I woke up early Saturday morning and was perusing various audio websites while drinking my morning coffee before I was going to head out to Uhaul. Well Put had listed both the Cornwalls & JBL 250 TI's for sale on 2 different websites- Audioweb and another one. This pissed me off severely since we had a verbal agreement on the JBL's. He knew I was serious as he had $1200 cash in his pocket Friday night for his speakers. I offered him a deposit to hold the speakers & he declined. I decided right then he could keep his frickin' JBL's. I never went back to Houston. Put had stated in our phone conversation that he would have some stero equipment on hand to listen to the speakers. The boombox in my opinion is not proper equipment to audition speakers with. I am a very easy going laidback person. I did not complain about his frickin' boombox. I was not a happy camper having driven 4 hours one way to listen to his speakers with a cheap boombox. I thought it was very unprofessional of him not to have the stereo equipment on hand like he had stated he would. Perhaps my experience with Put was an abnormal occurence. Caveat emptor-let the buyer beware. Regards, Mike

Hello Tom. If there are still any Klipsch logos left, I would like a pair for my Cornwalls. Thanks. Regards, Mike

I like and respect both NOS Valves and Jazzman. I will probably get flak for this, but here goes. Both of you need to lighten up, grow thicker skin and quit with the insults. Just agree to disagree. Life is too short for such trivial b.s. I am pretty much just a lurker and not a prolific poster. But I have seen the verbal warfare between other forum members in the past. And I can remember Kelly leaving several times because of disagreements that escalated and got out of hand. It would be nice if old MobileHomeless would return. I did not always agree with him, but Kelly was both knowledgeable and entertaining with his prolific writing style & humor. I would welcome Kelly's return. I am still too much of a tube novice to know if there are sonic differences in rectfier tubes. I have never rolled tubes in the Moondogs. I need to buy a spare backup set of tubes for my Moondogs. I have Sovtek 2A3, Brimar 6SN7 & Mullard GZ-37 rectifier. The only tube rolling I have done is in my Welborne Labs Revellie preamp-I have 3 sets of 6SN7 pairs-JAN Philips WGTA, Slyvania chrome domes & RCA Redbase 5692. Currently running the RCA tubes in the Revellie. I plan on trying out a Sovtek 5AR4 & or JJTesla 5AR4 & NOS 5AR4 sometime in the future. Also going to try Electro Harmonix 6SN7 & some other NOS 6SN7 tubes & a pair of NOS 2A3 tubes. I just don't want to spend an arm & a leg on NOS tubes. I am still reading and researching about the sonic qualities of different brands of NOS tubes. I always liked the Saturday Night Live skit with the line Simmer down now. Maybe that humorous line is apropos to this disagreement. Regards, Mike

Hello guys, thanks for responding. I love country music and have some friends that also love it. I have some friends that would rather face a herd of charging rhinos than listen to country music. Jtice, yes I forgot to mention Bluegrass-the roots of country music. Will The Circle Be Unbroken is a classic gem. The song Murder on Music Row was written and recorded by a bluegrass band-don't remember who. Alan Jackson & George Strait covered it. It was a controversial song taking a jab at Nashville. Some radio stations refused to play the song. I found it very funny when Alan Jackson & George Strait performed the song several years ago at the CMA award show. They panned the audience while the song was being played and there were numerous country artists mouthing silently to the camera-no not me-as in they were not murderers of country music. Kelly Willis is excellent, I bought some of her music back in the early 90's when she had a Nashville contract & I have her current music also. She now lives in Austin and is married to one of the Robison brothers-Bruce from Bandera, Texas. Both Bruce & Charlie Robison are excellent singer/songwriters of Texas country music. Charlie is married to one of the sisters from the Dixie Chicks. Hobbit, I am a big Marty Robbins fan. I forgot to mention him. Fini, I will have to check out the Asylum Street Spankers. We have an FM radio station here with a Texas Radio format. They play 80-90% Texas music-blues, country, rock. It is an excellent station and I have been exposed to alot of new Texas country artists. We have a club, The Executive Surf Club-bar/ restaurant/outdoor patio for music. They support and book a wide variety of the Texas groups. Bands I have seen at the Surf Club Jimmie Vaughan(Stevie Ray's older brother), a badass guitar player in his own right. Steve Earle, Junior Brown, the Derailers, Dale Watson, Ian Moore, Dick Dale, Charlie Robison. Ray Wylie Hubbard is a Texas gem. He wrote the song Up Against The Wall Redneck Mother that Jerry Jeff Walker had a hit with in the 70's. Ray Wylie was a Texas Outlaw who thumbed his nose at Nashville & did not become a mainstream name because of it. He has kicked his bad habits-booze & drugs and has been putting out good music-country/blues storytelling songs. His new cd Growl has a very good song on it called Screw You, We're From Texas, the song is about Texas music. It is a tongue in cheek song & you might have to be a Texan to fully understand the song. Us Texans are very proud of being from Texas. Some people can sometimes mistake that pride for arrogance. Sometimes it can be arrogance & we need to be slapped down & be put in our place. I have lived in New Mexico-Clayton, west Texas-Lubbock & Midland. and now again in south Texas-Corpus Christi where I was born & raised. I worked in the oil & gas business for 16 years with Amoco Production Co. in natural gas processing plants. Due to the volitle nature of the business I had to transfer numerous times to keep a job. Was laid off in 1997 when they shut down the 2 post world war II(built in the late 40's) gas plants. Too much money to retrofit the compressors & other sections of the plant to meet EPA emmissions. Amoco sold the leases & natural gas and tore down the plants. I don't know if people in other states in the good old USA have as much pride in their state as most Texans do. My best friend Carter has been in the Navy for 19 years and is going to retire in November with 20 years. I have known Carter since we were 6 years old in the 1st grade. Carter has lived in San Diego, Cal. & Fallon, Nevada for the majority of time when he was not out on 6 month sea duty. He is currently living in Fallon, Nevada. It is about 70 miles east of Reno. The Navy has a large base there. Carter still considers himself a Texan even though he has not lived in Texas for 19 years. Most Texans have this mindset. Well enough of my rambling for now. Regards, Mike

Hello fellow Klipsch speaker enthusiast. Does anyone out there like real country music? I am from Corpus Christi, Texas located on the third coast-Gulf of Mexico coast-the Redneck Riveria. I enjoy a wide range of music-Jazz, Blues, Rock, Motown R&B, Classical, New Wave,some Punk and Real Hardcore Honky Tonk Country music. I am not talking about 99.9% of the paint by numbers crapola pablum that Nashville currently tries to push off to the public as country music. I am talking Webb Pierce, Faron Young, Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, Bob Wills, Wynn Stewart, Ray Price, Lefty Frizzel, Hank Snow, Buck Owens, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash, Charlie Pride, Mel Tillis, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Paycheck, Vern Gosdin, Gary Stewart, David Allan Coe, Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette and countless others. Plus the present day country acts that still carry on the tradition and play real country muscic. Nashville's majority present day version of country is really pop music or pop country. It ain't real country music in my highly opinionated opinion. Some of the pop country is good, but the pop crap should not dominate country radio. It is a crying shame when old musicians and new musicians can't get radio airplay because they are too country for present day pop country radio. I just prefer real honky tonk old style country muscic. I am 44 and top 40 music when I was growing up was widely diversified. Rock n' roll, pop, Motown R&B soul etc. Top 40 now is Rap, boy bands-NSynch, Backstreet Boys etc., girl bands-Brittany Spears etc. Most of what is played in top 40 country radio today sounds alot like 70's rock & pop music. There have been a number of songs speaking of the current situation in Nashville-my favorite being the cover tune Murder On Music Row by Alan Jackson & George Strait. Texas country musician Dale Watson has several songs- Nashville Rash, Country My ***. Heather Myles-Nashville's Gone Hollywood. There are more real country musicians here in Texas than in Nashville. Some of the present day country acts I like- Dwight Yoakam, Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Dale Watson, The Derailers, Heather Myles, Mark Chesnutt, Vince Gill, Allan Jackson, David Ball, Marty Stuart, Aaron Tippin, Billy Joe Shaver, Randy Travis, Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, Junior Brown, BR-549 and numerous others. Shania Twain is a perfect example of Nashville pop. She is a very good looking woman in my opinion. Her first couple of cd's were actually country with a little pop. Well she is married to Jeff Mutt Lange, a famous rock & pop record producer-AC/DC etc. Since they have been married they have been a very successful team in putting out slicker than owl sh$t pop country that sells out the wazoo. Shania Twain is in my opinion a perfect example of style over substance. They use her good looks to sell her marginal slicker than owl sh$t pop. She is like cotton candy and has no redeeming value in music. Someone like Heather Myles who had a top 40 country song 3-4 years ago is too country for radio airplay. She is from the Bakersfield, California area and carries on in the honky tonk Bakersfield sound of Wynn Stewart, Buck Owens & Merle Haggard. This rant has been fueled by a six pack of Rolling Rock Pale Ale beer. Regards, Mike

CutThroat,Ron Welborne had 2 pair of NOS RCA Redbase 5692 tubes listed at $48 a pair on his cable remnant closeout sale. I snagged a pair and someone else bought the other pair. Being the tube nube that I am, I had read that they are a good tube. I did a little looking around at various tube resale sites to discover that $48 a pair was an excellent price. I am still learning about tubes and tube equipment. I had never rolled tubes before. Started out using the JAN Philips WGTA 6SN7 tubes in the Revellie for several days. Switched out to the Sylvanias for several days and now have the RCA 5692's in the Revellie. I still need to buy a spare set of backup tubes for the Moondogs. I have been reading about the various sonic attributes of different brands & vintages of NOS tubes. I have not made a decision yet in what I am going to buy. I just don't want to spend an arm & leg on some of the real high dollar tubes. Regards, Mike

I picked up my first tube preamp from Audiogon. A used factory assembled Welborne Labs Revellie to go with my Moondogs. I really like the preamp except for one thing-the dual volume Goldpoint stepped ladder attentuators. There are 24 steps & the first step from off-no volume to the first step is too large db wise. The manual states there are 2 db increments between steps. There is no such thing as low level listening with this preamp. I am used to low level listening late night when I was using my Mcintosh C 38 preamp. I am glad I live in a house. The Revellie & Moondog combo through Cornwalls or other Klipsch speakers would probably not be apartment friendly. This is my first experience with stepped volume control. The other tube preamp I was looking at was the Wright WLA 12. It has a switch on the back of the unit that reduces the volume level by 8 db. Something like that would be nice in my opinion on stepped volume controls. But I don't have the technical smarts to know if something like that would work with stepped volume controls. And if it would work how much db level decrease would be needed to work. Any of you knowledgable guys care to comment. Thanks. Regards, Mike

Congratulations CutThroat on your Moondog purchase. You got those Dogs at an excellent price. I also have a factory assembled pair of Moondogs with the ultimate upgrade package-Sovtek 2A3, Brimar 6SN7, Mullard GZ-37. I picked up a used factory assembled Revellie preamp 2 weeks ago off of Audiogon at an excellent price. The Revellie is my first tube preamp, I like the Welborne's with my 1977 Cornwalls. I have 3 set of 6SN7 tubes for the Revellie-JAN Philips WGTA, NOS Slyvania, don't know what year vintage-has yellow printing on tube-FA in yellow square & AAK underneath the box, the top of the tube is silver & the base is brown. Is this Slyvania a chrome dome? The Philips top of the tube is also silver. I picked up a pair of NOS RCA Redbase 5692 tubes from Welborne Labs at a really good price-$48 for a pair. I still need to pick up a spare set of tubes for the Moondogs. I have an intermittent microphonic tube in my right channel Moondog. Most of the time it doesn't act up. I don't know if it is one of the Brimar 6SN7 tubes or the Mullard GZ-37. When the tube is microphonic, I can gently tap on the wood base of the amp and it quits. I have read about the Halo tube dampners and I am thinking about buying some. I envy you guys that have amp building and trouble shooting skills. I am a tube novice, never built any tube amp kits-don't know how to solder. And I have zero knowledge for trouble shooting. Enjoy your Moondogs Cut- Throat. Regards, Mike

Hello guys. Thanks for all the help. I have solved the ground loop problem with Y'alls help. I hooked up the sources one at a time. The Mcintosh MR 77 tuner is the source causing it. I have a spare Technics ST8077 tuner from the late 70's-early 80's. I hooked the Technics tuner up and it does not cause the ground loop hum and there is no bleed through with the Technics in the system. I removed the cheater plugs. Don't know why the Mcintosh causes hum problems. I will hook it up to my alternate Mcintosh solid state system. The Mcintosh is in the same rack and hooked up to my 1983 Cornwalls which are on the opposite long wall from the 1977 Cornwalls. I bought the Revellie used from Audiogon. Again thanks for the help. Regards, Mike

I turned the system off and disconnected the cd & tuner interconnects from the preamp input. Turned it back on & the hum was gone. Had a little faint white noise from the tweeter if you put your ear right up next to the speaker. I posted over at the SET forum at the Asylum to get help also. I emailed Dave sK, the guy at the Asylum who had hum problems with his Revellie and reduced the hum on his. Ron Welborne is off to Lima for the Midwest Audio Fest & his answer to Dave sK was to lift the ground on his amp. Thanks for any help, advice & guidance. Regards, Mike

The hum is from both channels with the system hooked up with my Mcintosh cd player & tuner. I can hear the hum from across the room in my listening chair. My room is 25'L x 19'W with 8' ceiling. I have 1977 Cornwalls on the long wall 16' apart toed in. I can hear residual hum when I play music. The solid state Mcintosh preamp had a very slight hum when you put your ear right next to the speakers with no music playing & no residual hum with music playing. I used cheater plugs on both the amps & preamp and it did not quiet the hum down. The guy on Welborne Labs forum that had hum with his Revellie said that he grounded his cd player and changed to a better shielded cable to quiet the preamp down to a residual hum with his ear right next to the speaker. How does one ground a cd player and what size wire would I use? Would it be similar to grounding a turntable? I am also getting bleed through if I have my tuner turned on the same time my cd player is on with the cd source switch on and no music playing. The Mcintosh was dead silent with no bleed through. Thanks for any suggestions to help remedy this ground loop problem. Regards, Mike

Hello, Fedex delivered the Revellie preamp this afternoon, no manual. I hooked the preamp up and it has a very excessive loud hum that is unacceptable through my 1977 Cornwalls. No hum like this with my Mcintosh solid state preamp. I have read on the Welborne Labs forum at the Asylum that the Revellie preamp is prone to ground loops due to the the use of input transformers. Ron Welborne suggested to that individual to lift the ground on his amps. Does this mean using what I call a cheater adaptor-3 prong grounded cord into a 2 prong adaptor plug for use with outlets that do not accept grounded power cords. I tried the cheater plug adaptors and they did not quiet the hum any at all. Thanks for any help to help me solve this problem. Regards, Mike

Hello, I bought a pair of NOS RCA 5692 redbase tubes from Welborne Labs for $48 a pair today, he had 2 pair & both sold. I am going to use the RCA in the Welborne Labs Revellie preamp when it is delivered at the end of the week. The Revellie will have the stock JAN Philips 6SN7 tubes & a pair of NOS Slyvania 6SN7 tubes. I am a tube novice and don't have any experience tube rolling. I want to buy a spare set of backup tubes for my Moondog 2A3 amps. Don't want to spend an arm & a leg but want to get some good tubes. Currently have Sovtek 2A3, Brimar 6SN7 & Mullard GZ-37 tubes in the Moondogs. I remember Kelly stating that he liked the Sovtek 2A3, but did not like Sovtek 6SN7 or 5AR4/ GZ-34 tubes. Are the Sovtek 6SN7 or 5AR4 really that bad sounding? Sovtek also makes Electro Harmonix 6SN7 tubes which are supposed to be an upgrade. Any NOS tube suggestions that will not be be super expensive. Thanks for the help. Did a little searching at the Asylum for info after I first posted. Gordon Rankin of Wavelegth Audio thinks the Sovtek 5AR4 is a decent tube. Pland who has posted here says it is decent and also Jim McShane-Citation rebuilder says it a decent tube. I might as well try it out since they are inexpensive compared to NOS tubes. Regards, Mike

I purchased a used Welborne Labs Revellie tube preamp-factory assembled off of Audiogon to go with my Moondog amps. It is a 6SN7 tube preamp-solid state rectified. I know tube rectified has been stated here as preferable. Will arrive via Fedex Air next week. I have been using my Mcintosh C 38 preamp with the Moondogs since July with good results to my ears. I will have a tube system with my 1977 Cornwalls & a Mcintosh solid state with my 1983 Cornwalls. Will be the first time in 27 years I will have a system with no tone controls. I am not a purist and sometimes run the Mac preamp flat & other times adjust the tone controls to my tastes. It will be interesting to hear the difference in sonics of an all tube system. I am still a tube novice and prefer the sound of tube gear. The Mcintosh solid state still sounds good to my ears, very smooth solid state that mates well with Klipsch heritage speakers. I am not a golden eared audiophile just a music lover that likes good gear.

Mcintosh and Klipsch are a natural sonic match in my opinion. Very smooth sounding solid state amps. I own an early 90's MC 7150 amp-150 wattsx2, C 38 preamp, MCD 7009 cd player, MR 77 tuner, Pioneer Elite PD 65 cd player & a pair of 2A3 SET Moondog factory assembled amps with ultimate parts upgrade. Previous to buying the Moondogs last July I was running both sets of Cornwalls with the Mcintosh through a Niles speaker selector box, used a pro gear 1/3 octave Alesis M-EQ 230 equalizer (30 bands per channel). I was in hog heaven. I bought my first set of 1977 Cornwalls from a guy in San Antonio. Andy ran tube gear in several different systems. The Cornwalls were in his second system-EAR 859 SET integrated amp & EAD transport & dac. This was my first exposure to tubes & I was impressed. Two years later with all the talk about tube gear on the two channel forum I decided to dive in and buy a tube amp. Bought the Moondogs last July off of Audiogon. I took the eq out of the system and have been using my C 38 preamp with either the Moondogs or the Mac amp. 1977 pair are hooked up the Moondogs & the 1983 pair are hooked up to the Mac. I listen to the Moondogs 99% of the time, I think they sound better. But I still sometimes unhook the the interconnects to the Moondogs & hook up the old Mac. It is a good smooth sounding solid state amp. I still use tone controls on my Mac preamp, sometimes I run it flat other times adjust the tone to my tastes, a big no no to some purist. I just bought a used Welborne Labs Revellie tube preamp off of Audiogon to go with the Moondogs. Will get it via Fedex Air next week. It is a solid state rectified 6SN7 preamp. Will be the first time in 27 years of audio that I will not have tone controls in a system. I am not a golden eared audiophile, just a music lover that likes good gear. In my subjective opinion there is no absolute best out there in audioland. It all boils down to personal preference in what you like. Solid state or tubes can sound good.

Congratulations on getting the Cornwalls. Tubes & Cornwalls are con mucho gusto sonicos. I have 2 pair of Cornwalls-1977 & 1983. Just bought a pair of Welborne Labs Moondog set amps. I like el tubo de un aparato electronico amplificador. I picked up an electronic Speaking Franklin Merriam-Webster Spanish-English dictionary at Office Max for $79.99 on sale, $20 off. Spanish professor-professor de ingles. Growing up in South Texas I took Spanish lessons in Elementary school. Picked up lots of cuss words as I got older. I have always regretted not learning enough Spanish to be able to communicate. I want to be able to communicate effectively with my Mexican hermanos-brothers & sisters. This electronic dictionary will be a tool to help me learn Spanish. Well enjoy your Cornwalls, they are an excellent speaker. That was $375 well spent. Regards, Mike ------------------

Hello y'all. I am very happy and pleased with the purchase of the Moondog amps. I am now a tube believer. As much as I loved my Mcintosh MC 7150 amp-150 watts x 2 solid state. The Moondogs are vastly superior in sonics. The Moondogs are much more natural sounding, have greater detail, greater dynamics, wider soundstaging & imaging. I am not a headbanger but I sometimes like to listen at loud levels. The Moondog's 3.5 watts x 2 will get very loud indeed for my listening tastes. My listening room is 25'-6" long x 19'-6" wide X 8' tall. My 1977 Birch Cornwalls are on the long wall approximately 17' apart. Both are toed in, one is in the corner- a little over 2' out from the corner. The other Cornwall is aganst the wall-a little over 1' out from the wall. My Barcolounger is across the room against the opposite wall in the sweetspot for optimum sound. I had intended on buying a FTAudio LW-1 passive preamp. I talked to Paul Lam Tuesday of last week. He is located in Canada and does not accept credit cards. Payment with Postal Money Order or Cashiers Check only. Price-$495+$20 shipping-Total-$515. I had to go over to Rockport Wednesday morning to help out my 79 year old Aunt Reba. A guy was doing some home repair work across the street from her. He rang her doorbell Monday afternoon asking for work. She let this stranger come into her house twice & advanced him $563 for some exterior painting to be started Wednesday morning. I wanted to check the guy out & make sure he was legitimate. He never showed. Got a call from a buddy of his at 10:30am saying the guy was in Jail outside of San Antonio & he wanted Reba to bail him out. I told him no. Five minutes later Donald called supposedly from Jail wanting to talk to Reba, wanted her to bail him out. Gave me a real sob story of a sick daughter & other problems. Could not start work until he was bailed out of jail. I did not buy his story & told him to stop the Eddie Haskell routine. I asked for a refund of the advanced money realizing Reba would never see the money again. I told the guy never to contact my Aunt again & not to set foot on her property or it would be considered tresspassing & the Police would be called. We filed a Police report. The neighbor across the street had advanced the guy $300 & work was not completed. The guy had filled out a contract on some notebook paper with his address & phone# & signed it & stating he had received $563 from Reba. Reba also signed it. Outlined the work that was to be done. I ran a reverse phone search & the house was in someone else's name. He was driving a small truck. My Aunt did not know the what kind. I drove by the address the guy had given & wrote down the license# of a gray Ford Ranger in the driveway & turned it over to the Police not knowing if it was the same truck or not. That truck was pulled over late Wednesday afternoon & it was the scam artist & his buddy. They were arrested for theft by deception & were also in possession of crack cocaine & drug paraphenalia. My Aunt dodged a major bullet. I think they thought they had an easy mark, 79 year old widow living alone. Most likely would have robbed or burgalarized her house. The neighbor across the street also pressed charges. No telling how many others in the Rockport Country Club neighborhood they scammed in getting money upfront & never completing a job. The Chief of Police in Rockport lives 8 houses down from my Aunt Reba & her neighbor Alby. He took a personal interest when he found out it was some of his neighbors that had been ripped off. We talked to him & he stated they would do their best to find the guys. Well they wound up in jail really quick. Rockport is small town of around 5300, 35 miles from Corpus Christi where I live. I had planned on sending a cashiers check for the FTAudio LW-1 passive peamp this past Wednesday. But looking out for my Aunt was a much higher priority. Fedex had tried to deliver the Moondogs last Wednesday afernoon. They left notification that a delivery was attempted & the package could be picked up after 6:00 pm at the Fedex hub. They were open to 6:45pm. I showed up at 6:05pm and picked them up. Thanks very much to Kelly,Ron Welborne & all you others who helped me get the amps up & running. I was going crazy & getting frustrated when I could not get the amps to fire up & play music. I am a anal retentive perfectionist. A personality quirk or charecteristic I inherited from my dad. I can sometimes drive family members & friends crazy. For now I am going to continue using my Mcintosh C 38 preamp with the Moondogs. Economics dictate that I cannot spend the money for a good tube preamp right now. Instead of spending $515 on the FTAudio LW-1 now, I think I will forgo that purchase & apply that money to a good tube preamp such as the Wright WPL 20 sometime in the future. I own 4 cats & they get off to the fresh catnip that is grown for them in the backyard. Listening to music I love through the Moondogs is sonic catnip to my ears & brain. Regards, Mike ------------------

I have a question regarding the amps? Does Ron Welborne make a tube cage for the Moondogs. I know you are thinking heresy, You want to cover up a beautiful amp with a tube cage. Well here is my dilemma, I own 3 cats who spend 80% of their time inside. My stereo equipment is in a oak entertainment center 6 foot tall x 60" wide x 16-1/2" deep. It is open on both sides & has 8 compartments of various sizes. I have the Moondogs in the top center & left compartment. It is 56-1/2" off the ground. The compartments are 18-1/2"w x 14"h x 16-1/2" deep. My cats do get on top of the entertainment center. I don't know if they would ever mess with the amps or not. But I am concerned. I don't want a fried amp or cat. Stevie Ray my male Siamese would be the most likely candidate to pull a stunt. If Ron Welborne does not have anything, does anybody have any suggestions as to something I could fabricate and look good. How much high voltage does the Moondog put out. I am apprehensive about leaving the Moondogs on 24 hours x 7 because of this. I don't want any of my little buddies to get hurt or killed and have a fried amp or amps too. My outside cat one eyed Jack does not like the stereo, it sometimes freaks him out. I adopted Jack back in October, he is blind in one eye. He was abused and living underneath a storage shed in my backyard. I remember seeing him when his eye was a bloody mess. He was scared shitless of humans. A little regular food, water & some love won him over very fast. Thanks for any suggestions. Regards, Mike ------------------ This message has been edited by LonestarBlues on 07-13-2002 at 02:16 AM

Hello Danny. I am listening to The Best Of Freddie King-The Shelter Records Years. I like the new Flatlanders of course I am probably prejudiced since I am a Texan. I lived In Lubbock, Texas from Dec. of 1988 to Aug. of 1994 back when I was in the oil & gas industry working for Amoco Production Co. Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock lived in Lubbock back in the early 70's & cut an album that did not sale very well. Rounder Records rereleased it in 1990 & renamed it More A Legend Than A Band. All of us South Texans that were tranferred out to West Texas did not care very much for West Texas. West Texas is ugly, dry & flat. You have cotton, cattle & oil & gas as your main industries. There is not a whole lot to do out there. That is why Lubbock has produced alot of good musicians. Texas Tech University is located there, population is around 195,000. Listening to some Al Dimeola-Electric Anthology right now. Ed the 6SN7 tubes are all Brimar, the CV378 tubes are Valve Electronic & Sovtek 2A3 tubes. He did not have the stock 6SN7 tubes. Regards, Mike ------------------ This message has been edited by LonestarBlues on 07-11-2002 at 06:11 PM

Through trial & error, the help of y'all & Ron Welborne I am up & running. After changing both fuses I could not get sound. I started swapping tubes between the amps & I got one amp to play music. The other amp would not play. I took the tubes out, disconnected & took the bottom plate off again. The new fuse looked good but I went ahead & replaced it. That worked & both amps are working right now. Something I don't understand. When I had the left channel working on the Cornwalls. I could switch out the 2A3 tubes on the one working amp. One 2A3 tube had good sound, the other tube had constrained sound on the vocals. When I put that 2A3 tube in the the other amp it sounds good. I was playing the Flatlanders new cd Now Again with Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely & Butch Hancock. I have adjusted the hum pots & have not totally eliminated the hum. The hum is only there when no music is playing but it comes through the woofer, midrange & tweeter. Is this normal? I used to get a very faint white noise from the Mcintosh MC 7150 amp if you put your ear right next to the tweeter. The amp does have Jensen oil caps. Listening to some Freddie King right now. I love the blues & sounds really good through the Moondogs. Thanks guys. Regards, Mike ------------------

I called Ron Welborne and he suggested as you had Kelly to check the fuses. Ron told me to get 1.5 amp 250v slo-blow fuses. He suggested it could be a variety of problems-tubes, bad power switches, possibly damaged in shipping or sold an amp in need of repair. I have replaced the fuses. The amps powered up. The left Cornwall has an audible constant hum. The right amp has 2 tube glowing-1 CV378 & 1 Brimar 6SN7, cant tell about the 2A3 tube. The left amp has no glowing tubes. I let the tubes warm up for 10 minutes & tried to play a cd, no music will play. Thank you all for being so helpful & supportive. Also Ron said the amps are triple boxed from them. I am very frustrated. Regards, Mike ------------------ This message has been edited by LonestarBlues on 07-11-2002 at 01:00 PM

What is the posibility of bad or damaged tube tubes in shipping. I was not very impressed with the factory packing. The tubes were packed in their boxes inside a larger white box with a little amount of very thin bubble wrap. A small amount of peanuts & some wadded up paper. They could take a lesson from Mcintosh in factory shipping boxes. In my opinion the stryrofoam peanuts don't offer adequate protection inside the main large box. the very top amp had no layer of peanuts over it. It was flush with the top of large box. No way to test tubes. I am very frustrated & feeling a big pang of buyer's remorse right now. Regards, Mike ------------------

Yes the preamp to amp connection is correct. Do I need to unplug, disconnect, pull the tubes, pull the bottom plate & check the fuses to see if they are bad. This is my first tube amp & this is a very discouraging introduction to the world of tubes. Thanks for the help. Regards, Mike ------------------

I am at it again trying to determine if I have done something wrong in the hookup. Or if the amps got damaged in shipping. The 3 line troubleshooting on page 20 of the assembly manual. #2 Problem: No sound-Are tubes glowing? In my case no they are not. Are Your speakers properly hooked up? I think so. I had connections that were not compatible with the connections on the back of the Moondogs. So I cut them off & have bare wire wrapped around the Cardas + & - posts of each amp with the gold screw nut tightened up firmly holding the wire. No bare wires are from + & - are contactng each other. Is this an acceptable hookup? This assembly manual is lacking in giving any instructions for proper hookup, installation of tubes etc. Thanks for any help. Regards, Mike ------------------

He included a copy of the receipt. They are factory assembled 1/28/2002 There is no current rush, no sound from a source. I inserted the tubes in their respective sockets, hooked up to preamp, hooked up speaker wire and then inserted the electrical plugs in the back of the amps. Plugged in & turned the amps, preamp & cd source on. I am getting nada even if I leave the amps on for a while. Not shaking the tubes, moving them gently from side to side. Yes I am powering off when ever I pull the tubes or make any adjustments to speaker wire, interconnect etc. Regards, Mike ------------------ This message has been edited by LonestarBlues on 07-11-2002 at 04:00 AM