Ski Bum

You'll get the butt callouses built up soon enough. Get bike shorts w/ pads (don't cheap out), and if that's not enough you could swap the saddle out. WTB and Serfas make some comfy saddles, at least according to my butt, just make sure to get one of the narrow ones (better for dudes, better for long rides). And hybrids dorky? No way. Maybe to the fat loser babies who never get off the couch. That bike you got looks like a blast to ride, nice choice, and nice deal.

Yeah, my bike is in tip top shape, it's MY frame, as in my creaky bones...still rip around on it a lot. It's a blast to ride, and so easy to cover lots of miles (across town and back, probably 8mi round trip, and a lunch break since my last post. Just another crappy day in Colorado. (Sarcasm font)

Similar case here, only problem is that my frame has deteriorated over the decades. But I love just looking at the thing, she's a beauty (Ritchey Road Logic low serial # hand made by Tom himself, gaudy but patriotic red-white-blue fade, set up long, low, and racy). Lightweight, hardtail 29-er with more comfy geometry and 'good enough' components should be right in the OP's budget and perfect for his needs.

Off loading the deeper bass via high passing the mains and using subs will reduce cone motion of the mains and help clean up the mid bass. Slightly better dynamics too.

Not sure about gravely voices, but listen to the decay of cymbals. Low bit rate always screws them up to my ears. Wait a minute! I'm stone deaf, and you were asking of those with good ears.

Can I turn up the thread rating to 11? This thread deserves it. Very informative and useful. General thanks from the peanut gallery. Carry on.

Agreed, tubes are the icing on the cake.

Yes I'm afraid thats going to be a better answer for what I'm looking for. Room acoustics is a black hole to me. Don't even know where to start. If you really want to start down the acoustics rabbit hole but don't want to scour the interwebs for second hand info, get Toole's book Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Speakers and Rooms (not the end all source, but an excellent introduction), and some sort of rta gear (REW plus a calibrated mic is the cheapest, and amazingly full featured). It's not as intimidating as you may think, and the dividends are huge.

Unused power is unused, but given the transient demands of music and the logarithmic relation of spl to power, it's better to have too much than not enough. Considering the quality of your (OP's) rig as is, you will likely get more detail in your two channel music by addressing the acoustics of the room. Ideal speaker placement, a couple diffusors here, a couple bass traps there, and voila. It would do wonders in the detail and clarity department.

Holy cow, I'm in agreement with Russ! I do notice a notable difference between a 50 watt receiver, which I can take to it's limits, and amps capable of a couple hundred watts, which are just unflappably clean not matter how far I turn it up. But I agree with the other posts too. If it's a power thing, you'll need to kick it up an order of magnitude, not a puny 35 watts. High pass the mains so power is even less an issue and add some subwoofage seem more to the point.

How much distortion are we talking about? I didn't realize this was an issue. They don't seem to make external low power home theater amps though. You get a 5-7 channel amp and it's nearly always going to be 125-200 watts per channel. Even with inefficient speakers and playing at pretty high levels you're not going to constantly be running it at 2/3 power. Don't get lost in the weeds. All amps, even class A types, exhibit rising noise at diminishing power levels, as the inherent noise of the component parts starts to dominate thd/noise measurements at such micro-watt levels. Fortunately, that's only a problem if you're running genuinely high sensitivity speakers (think active rigs with fully unrestrained cd/horns). Once you go from micro watts to milliwatts, as would happen with less sensitive speakers, such potential problems are already in the rear-view mirror so to speak. I'm sure it's more than usual but unfortunately the posted numbers seem to be bloated and exaggerated though. Good examples: http://www.soundandvision.com/content/klipsch-thx-ultra2-speaker-system-ht-labs-measures Measured at 92 db. 97 is what is claimed. http://www.soundandvision.com/content/klipsch-reference-rf-83-speaker-system-ht-labs-measures 94 vs. 100 claimed. For comparison, B&W CM9's measured at 92.5 from the same lab. Martin Logan Motion 40's are 91. Paradigm Monitor 11, Series v.5 were 93.5. This is exactly why I suggested "real/realistic/conservative" sensitivity numbers for that power calculator. Forte II are ~95.5 db/w/m, not 99 as claimed. It's pretty much that way across the board with Klipsch, at least the ones intended for domestic use.

For those without a multimeter but with an spl meter, try this calculator. I've found it to be pretty close to actual electrical measurements. Be sure to select "near a wall" in the speaker placement box, as the calculator seems to produce more accurate results in my experience, and also use real/realistic/conservative sensitivity numbers.

It really depends on the room size and speaker placement. I've had my fortes in a variety of rooms, paired with all sorts of amps. Shoved deep into corners in a modest sized room, the cabin gain will allow a couple sweet single ended watts to take you pretty far. But power needs go up rapidly as the size of the room and distances from room boundaries increase. What are you working with in those terms? I kind of like single ended types over pp, and you may too. They do well in the ways you describe your rusty old dynakit, all I've heard image like champs.

Your speakers are bringing lower distortion and wider dynamic range, by wild margins, revealing these dynamic contrasts and giving a closer glimpse into the recordings than Yamaha NS1000 can do. Probably less "room" influence by virtue of horns, too, where the NS are spraying high frequencies everywhere. I mean, really, comparing a pair of Yamaha monitors to your Cinema style rig is kind of unfair.

"HERE'S JOHNNY!!" Hilarious! That awful family is so easy to hate.

Regarding overpopulation, from sources which are a hair more reputable than Brietbart.com, the global population growth rate is actually in decline. It's still an exponential growth rate, and I wouldn't want to be around at peak projected population of 14+B, or the following decline, but if current trends hold that's three hundred years from now. Ok, back to the music...

LMAO...... thanks, I needed that. Music tie in: remember how Midas' got his donkey ears? I still think Pan would take Apollo in a musical head chopping showdown. Pan played rock, and got the ladies juices flowing. He knew what it was all about. Apollo played foofy easy listening crap for the stodgy establishment, on some silly harp. Give me a break.

One might say that the group composing the military-industrial complex contains a high proportion of bandits with overtones of intelligence. Their ascendance has resulted in an unshackling of the power of the stupid to negatively influence our trajectory, and here we are. (Are you starting to appreciate that Cippola piece yet?)

Ah, yes...makes me think of this...

Once you reach certain tipping points on the compounding curve, getting that rich is automatic. What requires a defect in the brain is failing to realize this basic reality and acting appropriately!

They'll knock the US petrol industry down but not out. Companies like Chevron may be attractive buys in the coming year or so, but I wouldn't try to catch a falling knife, as they say, better to see what shakes out in the near future.

He's Italian, although he had a stint at UC Berkeley and other US schools as a professor of economics. I think he wrote it in the late 70's, early 80's, so not only is there are cultural but time context to consider. And yes, it's completely satirical. Let it soak in a bit. It seems to me that in the context of Cippola's analysis, the Oxford definition reflects a more rationalist view that underestimates the true power of the stupid, as he described in the fourth law.

Compounding what? Interest, I assume? Europe is charging savers to put money in the bank. Some banks here in the U.S. are doing the same thing now. The current economic climate is absolutely killing pensioners and retired folk when inflation is greater than the interest rate on their investments. Agreed, the current situation is ripping off all the grandmas all across the country who are trying to live off interest. The smart grandma's got out of the bond game and have enough cash to live on for years, with the rest invested in an aggressive portfolio of top notch funds. Compounding of what you ask? Of whatever you have saved, assuming you have been taught the importance of personal finance, living within your means, and investing wisely. It take a decade or so to see the results, and the discipline required is not easy in today's 'keep up with the joneses' consumerist rat race, but it can be done. I'm doing it.

The economic doomsayers are like stopped clocks: right twice a day. They will inevitably be correct when markets correct, but the long term historical trend is up. Got time? Let compounding do the heavy lifting.

Mark, you sound like one of those short sellers on zerohedge. I do agree with your elucidation of The Golden Rule (He who has the gold makes the rules) and that capitalism must be saved from it's own excesses, but not your doom and gloom conclusion. Do you think folks like Warren Buffet share your concerns? No, they're on the lookout to add devalued companies to their holdings in a long term DGI strategy. Whatever falls out of the global warming stuff on the political side, there will be tremendous opportunities. It would take exceedingly severe and unlikely events to upset the whole economic applecart. Dave, here you go. It's short. Enjoy!