maxg

Kelly, I am currently in the class of having gotten used to my sub and the ambience it brings to the music but that is with the Heresy's. I plan to audition the LaScalas without the sub and then go from there. If I like the sound I will sell the Rel and re-coup some of my investment - otherwise I will just have to match it in as I did with the Heresys. Fully agree with your speed comments - another reason I bought the Rel is that it only has a 10 inch woofer and I reasoned that that would be able to keep up with the 12 inch woofers on the Heresy's. With the horned bass of the LaScalas I have no idea what will happen. I imagine the horn will be faster than the Heresy's woofer and you may be right that the Rel will muddy things up - the testing will tell. I have to add though, that proper setting up of a sub is essential in order to judge whether or not you like it. It took me a long long time to do this with many different locations tried, crossover positions set and volume level adjustements, not to mention assessing the different means of connection available. To illustrate the complexity I have 4 different locations in my room where the sub could go, there are effectively 24 cross over points and effectively a similar number of volume levels with, for me 2 different ways of connecting (high level RCA from the Pre or speaker level). That is 4 * 24 * 24 * 2 permutations - and one sounds best. Obviously you can cut the number of permutations down dramatically with some common sence (avoiding maxing out the volume, and the extremes of the cross-over - from 21hz to 100Hz) but even so I reckon I was left with 100 permutations to try. All in all it took about 3 weeks to get close and another 3 months to get it perfect for my ears. AS for the whole CD/SACD onto hard disk issue the fact is that I do not listen to them at all anyway. I am sure the quality will deteriorate in the transfer but I figure it will only be used for background music when we have company. If I want quality (which I do when I listen nightly on my own) I spin vinyl. No CD or SACD I have matches that quality. In that light I am not too concerned about losing quality of the digital recordings - the convenience will more than make up for it. Thanks for the input though..

Well these are very nice things to hear about my sub. To be honest I bought it not having even heard of the SVS option. All I wanted was a sealed unit sub (on the basis it would match the sealed Heresy better) and this was the one I found. I dont know about anyone else but when I went to listen to the sub in the shop I found it about as useful as a pair of glasses for a fish. Their setup was a surround sound setup using the LFE connection and playing a DVD (Terminator 2 if I recall). Mine is a speaker level connection for music only. I couldnt do a home demo so I kinda bought it on spec and it seemed to fit in nicely although it needed a hell of a lot of playing around to get the sound right. Its good to hear it compares well with other subs - I have only ever had rubbishy ones before for comparison and it certainly blows them out of the water (one KSW10 - sorry Klipsch - not your best effort and one Aiwa sub - just dont ask). Actually I still have the AIWA sub in the bedroom connected to the Aiwa all-in-one but pretending to be separates that used to be my main system. Havent I come a long way.. Now about those LaScalas.

Ohhhh - I would love to buy them - but I am in Greece. Shipping and import taxes would cost me thousands. Oh woa is me!!! Black too huh - goddammit that is the colour I want too... There is just no justice in the world. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

www.elusivedisc.com They do vinyl, SACD, DVDa, XRCD and most collectibles. They do not sell cheap vinyl though - most of their recordings are audiophile quality on 180 gram vinyl. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Mike, What I love about this forum is that there is always someone who has tried out whatever it is you are thinking of and knows the a-z on the answers. Thanks. BTW - would anyone like to guess how much a pair of LaScala's cost new here in Greece. Oh, and dont tell me to buy new - they are rarer than hen's teeth here.

I am currently in the process of selling off my Accuphase E211 amp as I never use it. (Part of me would also be glad to see the back of my SACD player, my 70 disk SACD collection and my 200 or so DVD video disk collection. A small part of me is even considering dumping all my CD collection (say 600 disks) to a large hard disk and selling that off too (the CD's not the hard disk).) Aside from the last 2 issues which is something I have not decided to do I am facing a question. Namely : Would it be a good idea to off-load the Heresy's as well as the Accuphase and go for a pair of LaScalas. I reckon that the money would be roughly equivalent. Of course this would beg other questions: If I were to dump the Heresy's in favour of LaScalas would I still need the sub (Rel Strata 3)? Will the Rel even be a good match for the LaScalas? I am assuming that my amplification will match the LaScalas well enough as they drive the Heresy's so beautifully. Obviously I will need to demo the LaScala's at home and that will answer not only the amplification issue but also the issue of room accoustics which is a concern. I doubt a few days will be enough to answer the sub question (it took weeks to get it to match in with the Herersy's properly). Aside from all of the above I face 3 other possibilities: 1. Keep the Heresy's and upgrade the Project TT for an Acoustic solid machine (www.acoustic-solid.de). 2. Keep the Heresy's and the Project and replace my push pull KT88's with a 300B or 2A3 based SET amp. 3. Leave my system as is (I love the sound anyway) and spent the money on something entirely different. Decisions decisions... Any thoughts? ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Dean - enlightening... One issue however: "since we abort (murder) over a million kids a year -- we have probably killed 100's of Einsteins, 100's of Beethovens, and who knows what else we have lost. God knows. It makes me sick even to think about it" Is the figure really a million? - I had no idea it was that high. I would doubt, however, that hundreds of Einsteins and Beethovens are being lost in this way each year simply because genius at this level has never been that common. It would be like saying we are culling hundreds of Hitlers, Stalins and Mao Tse Tungs - again, fortunately this time - they are not that common either. There is also a concern in my mind over the relative valuation of lives in this way. Does Einstein have a greater right to life than a simpler woman who is a good mother? Of course even with the million figure accepted it kind of pales into insignificance next to the estimated 70 million people in Africa who will die from AIDS alone in the next 10 years. Add in the people who die from starvation, malnutrition, typhus, cholera, typhoid, malaria, war and the myriad other causes and I think we have found a more likely source of loss of genius. It is a sad endightment of society that any child should be aborted, on many levels. Sadder still that such a large proportion of the world lives in abject poverty unable to educate, medicate, protect and even feed its children. Should I be wrong, and should there be a final judgement day how will we not, like Nebucanezar (spelling?), be weighed in the balance and found wanting? If the writing is on the wall I fear your abortion statistics are a mere sub-text.

They are appearing but slowly. Takes about 5 minutes between a reply being posted and my being able to see it. I have no idea how servers like this work but it is not something I have ever noticed before.

I see new replies to a thread - I click on it - and the latest replies are not shown??? I have tried hitting refresh a few times with no change - what gives? Clueless in Athens ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

I am quite surprised to find myself replying again to this thread but here goes: Roadhawk: "My position on monogamy is based on the Bible which I think you will agree predates any papal ruling." Think it depends on where you look in the bible. I seem to remember Rachael and Leah sharing a husband.. "My position on when life begins is based on the Bible, secular science and my own observations of my children's ultrasounds." Cant say I remember any statement in the bible on when life actually begins - where is this? "Neither view was formed or adopted as a result of any decree, teaching or ruling. " Fair enough. If ever there was an issue which is dependent on your morality or consience then the start of life/abortion issue is it. "If you want to get 100 people to form a little communist enclave, go ahead-noone will stop you. It's a failed system in theory because it cannot work without everyone's participation and to achieve this you have to force people to participate." Ever visited a Kibbutz? I think you will find that if those 100 people are volunteers and understand what they are getting themselves into you wont need force - education yes, force no. On the macro scale I would agree that communism has proven unworkable. "I am familiar with both the vices and the virtues of Jefferson and Franklin, but get real. Bill Clinton doesn't look like a saint no matter who he's standing next to." I am not sure there are any ex-presidents that are in line for sainthood - it does not seem to be a requirement for the job. "Finally, regarding your P.S.-I have no idea where you get the information you draw your conclusions from-the Institute For The Comparitive Study of Murder and Church Attendance? My gut instinct is you might find the per capita murder rate of Jews by Palestinians over the last several years gives us a run for our money. The Germans also had a pretty good turn at bat in the forties." Interesting that both your examples refer to countries at, or in, a state of war or virtual war. In comparison with all other first world countries I think you will find that America has both the highest church attendance and the highest murder rate. I do not, however, see the correlation which may in fact be your point. America also has the highest proportion of people that regularly wear a Stetson hat. "To answer your rhetorical question of why our murder rate is so high-it's because there are those among us who have used their free will to choose to do wrong." As a non-american I think I would point to the proponderance of weapons, in combination with the gulf between rich and poor in your society. You may like to take a look at the UK where they have simultaneously clamped down hard on guns whilst the economy is booming and the unemployment rate is falling. The rate of crime, expecially crimes of violence has fallen off dramatically. This has proved to be far more effective than any increasing of police numbers and changes to the punishments doled out. Of course higher Church attendance may have an impact on crime in as much as if I am going to break into someone's home Sunday morning may seem to be a good time to do it (a little levity). ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

If you can get hold of one to test I would recommend the Decware ZTPRE which I have. The great thing about this pre is that it is so flexible aside from the issue that it has only 2 inputs (which you can get round with an external selector). Out of the box (i.e. before you make any mods) you get the choice of 2 output levels, 2 sets of output caps and lower or higher bias settings. This makes it one of the most flexible units I have come across and means that it will work optimally with a wide range of equipment. I am sure that if you mail them they will tell you if they have anyone using your amp with the pre. They are at www.decware.com Good luck with your search. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

I think I see what you are trying to do - I am not sure that it is the best route however. Generically I have found that SS amps and pre-amps do not handle stereo quite as well as you might hope (although I can hardly claim to have tested them all). I would suggest, therefore, that you might be better looking for an external DAC to handle your digital connections. There are some external DACs that have passive volume controls on them allowing you to get away with no pre-amp at all. A quick hunt on the net came up with this: http://www.birdland.com/products/OdeonAg.html Of course if you get one without a volume control you could then go and get yourself a tube pre-amp to go with your tube amps. There are many external DACs on the market without a volume control which you could connect to, for example, the bottlehead foreplay pre-amp that is reckoned to be about the best value in tube pre-amps there is. Just my $0.02 ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Seems I am very late to this discussion and that is probably as it should be. I am not an American. I am not Christian. So I am hardly qualified to express an opinion other than this: What you are going through is what I would term an ´Only in America´ topic. Most countries have a ´default religion´ that is used in a variety of government, legal and fiscal declarations. For those not of the ´default´ set of beliefs it is generally not an issue - just a part of being in that country. It does not imply a differentiation on the basis of worth with those of other beliefs - it merely reflects the belief structure of the majority of the people in that country at the time the phrase or saying came into being. As an outsider I see an American obsession with trying to re-invent itself constantly to cope with the breadth and variety of its populace. This may not be a bad thing persay - but I cant help feeling that this way lies madness. To the outside world it is your actions, rather than your words, that are watched. America is the most powerful nation on Earth, and stands unchallenged. How about leaving God in your pledge of allegance and cutting down on consumption instead. A little less Gas, a little less water, a little less polution..... Just a thought. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

In biamping (Horizontal or vertical) which amp drives the midrange? I suppose this isnt the time to bring up tri-amping?? Once amp for each driver seems like a pretty cool idea to me. Of course with the Heritage range you can only use one amp unless you are using an external crossover - or did I get that wrong too? ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Kelly - it has happened to me before but never to this extent - my wife thinks I am cured!!! Jazzman - Whilst I agree with the law of diminishing returns I am sure the improvement in doing my suggested upgrades would be a whole new level of listening. I like to think of them as on hold rather than cancelled and I am sure that if I found a pair of LaScalas locally I would buy them in a flash for the right price. Fini - in a word - no. Maybe get back into computing now I have bought a digital camcorder (it is killing my current 500 MHz Pentium 3) but Salt and pepper shakers just dont do it for me. Alan - right with you there. But I now have over 300 LPs many of which I have still not heard (bought over a manic 6 week period). Mallett - not big on the mystical east - too much inner searching for me. I have no need to find myself as I am usually where I last left me. Ommmmmmmmmmm - where are my orange robes when I need them?

Kelly - it has happened to me before but never to this extent - my wife thinks I am cured!!! Jazzman - Whilst I agree with the law of diminishing returns I am sure the improvement in doing my suggested upgrades would be a whole new level of listening. I like to think of them as on hold rather than cancelled and I am sure that if I found a pair of LaScalas locally I would buy them in a flash for the right price. Fini - in a word - no. Maybe get back into computing now I have bought a digital camcorder (it is killing my current 500 MHz Pentium 3) but Salt and pepper shakers just dont do it for me. Alan - right with you there. But I now have over 300 LPs many of which I have still not heard (bought over a manic 6 week period). Mallett - not big on the mystical east - too much inner searching for me. I have no need to find myself as I am usually where I last left me.

So here I am with Heresy speakers and a REL Strata 3 sub connected to 45 wpc monoblock (push pull) KT88 based amps, a ZTPRE and a project 4 TT. Hardly the last word in HiFi. I know exactly the upgrades to make: 1. Replace my Heresy's with LaScalas. 2. Replace my push pull amps with SET (probably 300B based), and 3. Replace my TT with an acoustic-solid Edition. The problem? I lose the desire every time I listen to my system. I am not saying that I have perfect sound (it could do with being a bit bigger and airier) but it is so close to my ideal that the thought of the additional expenditure suddenly doesnt seem worth it. Maybe this is just a phase, maybe I have reached as far into this hobby as I care to - I do not know. I do know one thing however. It is a long time since I listened to the system and heard anything but the music. Last night after feeding the baby I put on a 1959 ´Orthophonic´ recording of Beethoven's Pastorale. It is hissy (from the original Tape rather than the vinyl which is in perfect condition) but the sound is the stuff that transports you from this place to somewhere magical, and that, I suppose, is what it is all about. One of the results of all this is that I have been posting rather less on here than previously. Sorry guys - just dont seem to have anything more to say on matters audio. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Crash - I know what you mean about the Heresys. I have measured mine down to 47 Hz at the listening position which is way better than they are supposed to be - driven by tubes of course. But, if you do add the right sub you would be amazed at the difference. For me the REL Strata 3 does the job. Most of the time I forget its on - Often I have to go over to it to make sure it is playing, but, when I do switch it off the difference is immediate and very apparent. You can get a lot of bass (relatively) out of a pair of Heresy's in the right room with the right amplification but when you do add that sub it really rocks and sounds much closer to the rest ofthe Heritage range. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Some great poems, but not too many limericks it seems. Well here is an attempt: There were 2 Klipsch speakers in Greece With Tube amps, just one a piece That played through the night set the music alight and gave me a bless-ed release or, My speaker of choice is the Heresy Which is something of a Klipsch legacy It plays really loud And makes a man proud When coupled with tube amps for delicacy That will do for now methinks ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Well if you really want to get into headphones then take a look at Stax products. These are not cheap but they come with their own amps (usually) and the top of the range even has tubes!! I have one of their lesser pairs (the Basic 2) and it simply blows everything else out of the window. Just a thought. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Well there are no corners in my house so either throw in a set of false corners with the KHorns (preferably marble - about 4 inches thick) or I will go for the Belles. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Get the Belles - worry about the amplification later. They will play fine with your current setup, but as Dean says you will experience another level of listening if and when you eventually get tubes. One thing - I think the Belles will have less bass than the KLF30's. From memory they go down to 45 Hz. If it is a problem for you then you may need to look at a sub as well. SVS are a popular choice and I find the REL Strata 3 a good match for the Heritage sound - may be a bit small for the Belles though - I run mine with Heresy's. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

AS MH indicated I think that push pull may be your answer if you want to go tubes. I have a pair of push pull KT88 monoblocks (about 45 to 50 wpc). I do all my listening at 70-90 db (at the listening position) but we did try my amps out on a pair of RF3's and the volume went sky high. I didn't have an spl meter with me at the time but I would guess that we hit something over 110 db at the listening position. Actually it was more like 95 db at my listening position but that was because I ran into the garden to protect my ears. Are you sure you want to do this to yourself. The levels you are talking about WILL cause permanent hearing damage - especially if you do this on a dialy basis! ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

Interestingly the loudness button is still a feature on Accupase integrated amplifiers. In the manual they are very clear that this is for use only at lower listening levels and is there to compensate for the listener's ear being unable to pick up audio spectrum extremes as the volume drops - or some such thing. Personally I was never a great fan and I think it died out of common use simply as a result of the preponderance of sub-woofers that effectively made it redundant - SVS or otherwise. ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm

That Cantata is just about the best anything I ever heard but you are right Christos - between us we need to find a new copy. As for the Pomp and Pipes I trust that you will bring it with you to the ACA meet at my house whenever that happens...really want to test out my Rel Strata 3 sub on some serious bass - if only to rattle the rafters a little. 8-) ------------------ My System: http://aca.gr/pop_maxg.htm