maxg

Fully agree that classical sounds great on Klipsch but I am not sure you can blame that on your change in listening habits. 10 years ago I almost never listened to classical - now it makes up the majority of my listening. Yup! We's a gettin older and aint that a fact! Changin' music Lowerin' volume Thinin' hair Spreadin' waist Lookin' tired Feelin' achy Gettin' nostalgic (and even that aint what is was!!) Them darn kids!! ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Thank you Forrest for exactly pinpointing what being a bigott is all about. Your post is something I would object to on several levels: - all Liberals are Homosexual Oh please!! - Hissy, Venom spitting Homos There is just nothing to say on this - we have no common ground. You are obviously using the fact you assume Rat's intent to vent your own intolerance in an offensive way. I guess it is not easy being in the closet...

Cluless... I know this is going to come as something of a shock but I read Rat's post as the equivalent of meatballs in California... assuming he meant morons, thick-heads and some such. I am not saying that I do not know the ****** - homosexual association but that it never crossed my mind that that was what he might mean. On reading his post I could see no reference to Homosexuality in it and therefore presume I was right. I should add that had his post contained derogatory references to Homosexuals I too would have taken offence at the language, and indeed the message.

Basically same speaker different box - which is why they are almost indistinguishable both in numbers and sound. The finishing on the Belle is much nicer and therefore more expensive. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

This was supposed to be in answer to the "Faggots in ... endless post but I pressed the wrong button it seems - silly me!! ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

****** in England is a small meatball like foodstuff of which the most well known Make is Brains Faggots - I kid you not. *** - the short form on the other hand is a cigarette. This caused some confusion and consternation in a meeting in New York when I announced I was leaving the building to have a quick ***. What this has to do with anything I really can't imagine - put it down to the lighter side of life.

Jazman, Just out of interest what phono-stage are you using? Does your pre-amp have one already or are you going for a separate unit? My quest, in conjunction with the cartridge is a phono stage that wont break the bank (my existing Pro-ject phono box just wont be up to the job). It seems there is a plethora of phono-stages hitting the market right now and the reviews are almost useless (they love them all). Any thoughts?

Jazman, Funny things Heresy's. I have found that risers add to their sound in certain rooms and detract in others. In my living room I tried a pair of stands with risers built in first and then tried them on our cupboards mounted much higher but flat and they sounded better in the latter configuration. From memory you can see in my profile how they are currently mounted - a very non-audiophile positioning but it works for some reason. It may be those darn solid floors again that cause this - I dont know - but I can tell you that the sound is markedly better in this configuration that with the risers and stands they are supposed to have. Just some food for thought. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Jazman, I am also on the lookout for a cartridge and am considering the Shelter units which are a little above the amount you are looking to spend, however. During the course of my investigations one cartridge keeps coming up as real bargain and that is the Denon 103. This is well within your price range (at about $350 over there although it seems cheaper here for some strange reason). I have heard this cartridge on a Rega 250 arm (on the much mentioned, by me, acoustic solid machine) and it sounded truely excellent. An interesting link for all things cartridges is http://www.high-endaudio.com/RC-Cartridges.html The guy is a bit snotty but he does give you the top down cartridge story and rates the 103 very highly indeed. Hope some of this helps. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Now come on Kelly it is not as bad as all that. At least there is no gun play on a discussion forum! So, there are people on this forum that hold views I am diametrically opposed to, so the veneer of civilized exchange of views is sometimes microns thick it doesnt really matter all that much. We come together sharing a single commonality in our ideologies - that of horn loaded speakers from Hope (good name). If you object to the other stuff - ignore it, if you dont - chime in, but don't for heavens sake take all that knowledge of yours off into a corner again. How else are we going to learn about the latest and greatest in tubes and cornwalls. BTW - Arco has just finished bench testing his new SET creation. I dont know much about it except it has a massive 1.5 watts of power and weighs in at a mere 120 lbs!! Hopefully he will get on and let as all know - now that has got to be worth hanging around for!

Thanks Pete, I had never noticed variations in my mono recordings - I will check it out tonght (I tend to sit in the sweet spot to listen and dont move from there except in case of an earthquake - happened once - I thought my sub was playing brilliantly till I realised what was going on).

Dean, I am not sure quoting Exodus is a good idea to back up your position. I seem to remember that in Deuteronomy that they also recommend stoning for a variety of offences including homosexuality and extra martial affairs. Judging by the divorse rate in the US I think you are going to need a lot of stones - maybe a good time to get into the quarry business. One further thing: "Speaking of Neanderthals -- if one had you cornered behind one of your Cornwalls, and was swinging a big stick at you" Neanderthals were not the brutes they were painted out to be in the 1920's. Things have moved on a bit since then. The best way to deal with a Neanderthal would be to give him a beer and sit him down to listen to your system - I would suggest Mozart's Saltzberg symphonies, Beethoven's 6th or Straus Waltz's - especially the Blue Danube. As for the whole gun thing - I come from a country (England) where not only are the population not armed but, until fairly recently, neither were the police so I am totally against them on principle. As a matter of fact even now only certain divisions of the police carry guns and that is as it should be. As others have stated I am sure that if I had a gun it would be of more of a danger to either me and my familly (or to inocent passersby) than to any potential assailant. In the above example with 6 potentially murderous assailants - if they were - how many would you really expect to deal with before they overpowered you anyway. I would always want to rely on the police for help rather than my marksman's skills - it is, afterall, their line of work. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Seriously confused now. I have several records that are mono from the 1950's. How do they play through the stereo? The exact same signal is being sent to each speaker - resulting in an image that appears to be exactly in the centre of the 2 speakers (fortunately) as opposed to the perfect silence I should be getting if I have understood all your posts. Another question: If I have 2 subwoofers, mounted for arguments sake under the speakers playing say 50 Hz and below the wavelength should be around 16 feet. Assume the speakers are 10 feet apart and I sit less than that distance from their centre line (say 8 feet). If I understand it correctly there is no way I can experience cancellation as the waves should meet be before they meet each other, whilst, a listener positioned 4 feet further behind my can have cancellation. Am I missing something or have I found a way to stop the bass waves travelling out of my appartment and bothering the neighbours? Told you I was confused... ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

I tend to enjoy these wide ranging discussions - it is certainly eye-opening to see other people's opinions and beliefs but I would concur that this route can lead to serious problems on a discussion board. If you take a look at audio-review the place is a mess - almost dead. The trolls have taken over completely and there are almost no posts relating to audio anymore. I am saddened by this as that was the first audio-board I ever registered with (about a week before this one) and, at the time, it was a really good source of information. Now it is total dross and I have stopped posting there altogether. I think ocasional truely off-topic posts can be fun - as long as they are the exception rather than the rule. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

"There is more to sound than 'accuracy'. I believe you can have 'accuracy' to a fault." Fully agree - Tony (the guy that came with me last night) has a pair of Quad 989's that are famed for their accuracy, if not their musicality. He loves the sound whilst I have to fight the overwhelming desire to kick them whilst listening. There is something quite surgical about their presentation that I find truely off-putting. You just cant relax with them like you can a Klipsch.

From CNN Europe this morning: "LONDON, England -- A previously "lost" painting by the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens has sold for $76 million at auction -- nearly 10 times its expected price. "The Massacre of the Innocents," painted between 1609 and 1611, was bought at Sotheby's in London by an anonymous bidder for £49,506,650 ($76,730,700) after the price rocketed during a frantic bidding war. It was the third highest price paid for a painting. The most expenive is Vincent Van Gogh's "Portrait of Doctor Gachet" which sold for $82 million in New York in 1991. " Seems like a hell of a lot to pay for some extra sound absorption if you ask me... ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Well I said earlier I was clueless so I might let him answer for the both of us... Actually I am currently wearing a host of labels which I never knew I owned but there you go (wife bought them). It seems I am more trendy than I thought: V-neck Loose fitting T-shirt type of affair - Armani. Banana republic chino trousers but with that useless map pocket thingy on both legs. Timberland deck shoes (very comfy). No socks and Marks and Spencers briefs (pack of 6 or 12 or something - UK equivalent of KMart I believe). And I was doing so well till we got to the underwear. BTW - Fini - I try to get into the wife's underwear often too - but only when she is in them at the time and not with much success. Still last time I did look what happened - one daughter - now just over 14 lbs and eating us out of house and home. Just shameless aint I - any excuse will do to show her off...

Ok - its morning and I am sober. One or 2 points to clarify: Fart - I lied - refers to the end-rant statement, sadly the rest is all too true. The reason I took my ex-KHorn owning friend with me is because he has a good working knowledge of speakers (built a pair himself as well as much modifying his KHorns). Both speakers were functioning properly - all cross-over points were firmly connected and in both of our opinions the thing was working properly but sounded bad for some other reasons. The reasons, I am sure, are a combination of his front end along with the solid floors and other room acoustic issues. The reason I cannot factor that out of the equation is that my house is constructed in much the same way and although I have much more furnishings to absorb the boom I fear I will still face huge problems - especially on the front end. I had figured that I would simply be able to swap out the Heresy's for the next model up in the Heritage range and merely have a few tweaks to perform to get the sound I have now but better, bigger and louder. I realize on reflection that this was hopelessly naive. There is a quantum leap from Heresy to LaScala and that will reflect itself all the way up the chain of components right to the source. In other words I would be opening a real can of worms here and be moving to far away from what I actually want - i.e. to listen to music each night to relax. I foresee that making a change of speakers will mean months of listening to a system as opposed to listening to music. As regards getting these speakers to my house to try the guy lives on the second floor of an appartment building with no elevator and a winding staircase. It would be a lot to ask to get him to cart them down and over to my house on the off-chance they will sound better in my environment and I will buy. Overall then I have concluded that I will be a Heresy/Rel owner for the foreseeable future and will live with the smaller imaging that provides. I am, of course, left wondering if Cornwalls, Fortes or Chorus might be a better match but I think I need a break from the frenzy of speaker analysis for a while. Finally thank you all for acompanying me on this short but frenetic journey.

rant "I know I should be relieved really. My findings have saved my a good $750 in that I am staying with my Heresys for the foreseeable but somehow I am utterly depressed. Went over to check out the LaScala's with a friend (who had KHorns and switched to Quad 989's). First we tried out the TT - playing though his Quad pre mated to a SET amp with some weirdo tube running at 15-18 wpc. We played DSOTM (always seem to these days - Greek recording like my own) and it was embarrassingly bad. The highs were piercing, mids strong and pronounced but the bass was non-existent, and when I say non-existant I mean........well.......lets put it this way.....my Heresy's WITHOUT the Rel sub blow the **** out of this thing. Actually I cant say there was no bass at all - something was booming and farting around the room - I am just not sure what it was - either the bass or an errant dog. OK - obviously something wrong with the TT - switch to the Meridian CD transport with the separate DAC and separate jitter box (!!?? Huh), Started with three blind mice tester CD that I also own - track 2 - midnight sugar. Listen to the Double bass the owner said. What - that twangy thing in the background said I. Its the cables - we was using crappy ones - half an hour changing them - retest - better but no banana. OK something is going seriously awry cos right now this system sounds worse than the standard car stereo in the Land Rover. Disconnect everything and reconnect it cos this guy maybe drinks at lunchtime if ya know what I mean... Nope. Stimied - no idea where to go from here (other than for beer - several of them so far and home to listen to my current system which sounds absolutely brilliant right now (love beer)) Now I know that LaScalas are better speakers than Heresy's - have to be ....right? Well on the evidence so far...........not for me.......apologies to all LaScala owners but either this guy really dropped his balls on the front end or there is something wrong in the state of Denmark. As his front end cost 8 times what mine did there aint no way mine is gonna do a bang up job. Maybe its the solid floors - it aint the rest fo the accoustics - I tried every distance from 1 to 5 meters from the centre line between the speakers - was worse in some areas - but was bad in all. All I can say is - absolute f**k w**K S**t p**s and bollocks! One seriously gutted listener - I had the money burning a whole in my pocket too!" End rant Fart - I lied ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

I am going to have to post the results in a separate thread so you dont all have to keep scrolling back and forth due to the size of the picture in my original post. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Not just in Athens - he lives in Glyfada!! - not more than 10 minutes from my house. Thank god I have the Land Rover - they should fit in there. Dont know what he is planning to buy - I will find out tonight - hopefully Tony is coming with me. I had arranged to go to Tassus House tonight to get some listening done on his system - ah well - will have to be another night I suppose. I suppose you want me to ask this guy to join the ACA.... ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Well I am off to hear a pair of LaScala speakers tonight. All being well by later on this evening they will be mine. Of course relative to the prices in the US this is probably horrendous at about $2200 but here in Greece it is a steal - especially as I will sell my Heresy's for around $1500. If everyone could cross their fingers / pray to their gods / make a small sacrifice on their altars W.H.Y. Not that this is important to me or anything. Of course how I am going to explain this to my wife is another matter... ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Kelly you are a riot. Wonderful descriptions (mental note to move the figurines from the top of the speakers). As for the dress sense of your typical audiophile I would say that in general (judging by my new found friends in the Audiophile club of Athens) clothing aesthetics are not a major cause for concern. Most seem to dress to fit into the environment rather than make some kind of personal statement. Jeans or beige trousers are de-rigeur although you dont see as much corderoy as you used to. None seem to wear T-shirts or other items advertizing their favorite high end stuff (as yet) so that is probably a good thing. Cant say I am filled with an over-riding urge to get Klipsch labelled tops, nor, for that matter Armani labelled items but that is me. Fashion is generally something I leave to her ladyship - I am clueless. One thing Kelly - you will be pleased to know I do not own any polyester. Not a fashion thing - just makes you sweat like a pig in summer in Greece. And finally a discovery channel factoid - pigs dont sweat apparently - Gorillas do - in buckets but not pigs - wonder where the phrase came from. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Has anyone here ever heard or even heard of the Shelter 501 or 901 cartridges. These are the units the supplier of the acoustic solid TT's is recommending as the best thing since sliced bread (or a pair of 501's for that matter). I dont know enough about cartridges to know if these are a good buy or not. They are BLOODY EXPENSIVE!! We are talking about over $600 for the 501 and over $1200 for the 901 so I would kind of like to know they are the latest and greatest before I take the plunge. Last time I bought a TT I got the whole thing for less than the price of the 501! Anyone? ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

I attended another meeting of the Audiophile Club of Athens. The system was as follows: Martin Logan SL-3 speakers, driven by Parasound HCA 3500, Symphonic Line 'Enlightenment' preamplifier (+MC module), Teac 700 (soon to be replaced...) transport, Monarchy 22B DAC, Michell Gyrodec t/t, Rega RB300 arm with VdH MC1 cartridge Interconnects: StraightWire and AudioQuest Speaker cables: AudioQuest 'Gibraltar' Speakers were well positioned (almost in the middle of the room and well away from the side walls), everything was properly warmed up and the source music was of suitably audiophile quality. The owner was quite forthcoming over his efforts to get the sound he wanted and an extremely good host with all the requisite drinks on tap (so to speak) and plenty of nibbles available - a really nice guy. I arrived fairly early - whilst he and another member were playing around fine tuning the TT. The CD was playing in the meantime. To be frank the sound was not great but I put that down to the fact I am now not a fan of CD. After what seemed like an age we finally got the TT up and running playing various weirdo turkish recordings I was not familiar with. Hard to tell on the quality of sound (bizzare instruments) but it didnt strike me as anything special. Eventually I got the owner to put on DSOTM. He has exactly the same recording as I have - the Greek EMI 1982 pressing and I settled down expecting to hear something really impressive in keeping with the size of his speakers, amps etc. not to mention the striking looks of his TT. You can imagine my disappointment when the sound did not deliver. Can you spell Rolled off? I could not believe my ears. I have always though that tubes were rolled off (and therefore assumed my own sound was - being all tube now) but here I was in front of some fairly serious looking SS equipment wondering where all the highs went. Not only that but there was a distinct absence of bass. All I can say about the mids is that they were there but in a not too involving way. After a while I began to suspect my own biases were creeping into this. glancing around the now filling room, however, I noticed that no-one was really listening to the music. Everyone was dispersed in small groups chatting. This is a very expensive way to get background music in my opinion. As an aside I ran one of the other members home. He owns a very very good record shop (a good guy to keep friends with!!) which I frequent whenever possible. We stopped off at my house to listen to my system (which he liked) and during listening he came up with several explanations for what we just heard at the club meeting. He knows the owner very well. Apparently the guy bought most of the items independently on the basis they were going at half price or less. He then effectively through the lot together in the belief they would sound good. For what its worth I have heard his system: System: Unity Audio Fountainhead sign. speakers, driven by McIntosh 352 using Technics SP-10 Mk II with Morch DP-06 arm and Grado RS cartridge Interconnects: Synergistic Research 'resolution' and XLO 'signature' Speaker cables: Yamamura 6000 Power cables: Essence and it was absolutely beautiful to listen to (you can see my comments and others at http://aca.gr/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14&sid=b6f82e8096e92f1f14c640be316a2da2 In leaving as we were discussing my upgrade plans he gave me one of the nicest compliments I have yet received about my system. "I dont know much about imaging, staging and the size of the sound Max but I do know I could listen to your system all night." Now wasnt that a nice thing to say. Cheers Tassos. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm