maxg

Too funny.... Go have a look - there is a ladies section and I will put them all on their best behaviour for you - promise.....

I am quite exhausted now - []

Craig - I think you're gonna love it. There is now a Klipsch welcome forum too - by heavens these guys move fast.

They got so excited at the prospect of all these Klipschites coming over they just made me a mod!! How funny it that!!

There is a new audio forum at http://hifitalk.forumotion.com/index.htm which is, frankly, a total riot. I think you have to join to even browse - but it is worth it IF YOU ARE VERY BROARD MINDED. There is no **** of words and no rules on topics in the off-topic forums. Discussion titles couldn't even be listed here. IF YOU ARE NOT EASILY SHOCKED it is a lot of fun - and there are plenty of audio topics to boot - although they desperately need more - its only been going a few weeks, Anyway - consider this a heads up - and dont blame me if you leave in a catatonic state of shock after 5 minutes. That's all - hope no-one minds this blatant ad. Apologies to any that do - I am sure Amy will delete on request.

See if you can guess what I am now........I'm a zit!!!

Thanks Larry - I was beginning to wonder if anyone even opened this post as the views show as zero.

First one is to the audiophiliac blogger at CNET - seems to be quite a fan of Klipsch speakers: http://blogs.cnet.com/audiophiliac/?tag=cnetfd.blogs In that blog he mentions an article on the growth of vinyl sales from Time magazine - just for convenience it is this article: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1702369,00.html Funnily enough there seems to be a kids market for vinyl afterall. Was MP3 one step too many down the convenience over quality route one wonders. The kids seem to think so.

"Motor is new and the platter wobbles with or without belt attached and with or without outer platter attached." I am no expert on suspended designs but if the sub-platter is wobbling then it sure sounds like either the bearing or the centre spindle is the issue. If it is the centre spindle then one would expect the wobble to be consistent - in other words the same part of the platter dips or rises all the time. If it is the bearing then the wobble is probably not consistent I'd guess. If you have consistent wobble then I would surmise that inserting something between sub-platter - like a tiny wedge - could level the main platter for you and mask the effects for playback. Just as a thought - are there any alignment marks for the platter / subplatter? My table has them for perfect alignment. Might be a factory supplied wobble....

The torquiest (?) car I" ever owned was the old V8 Landrover Discovery. No idea what the figures are for it but I rarely if ever climbed to the dizzy heights of 2000 rpm and with the low ratios engaged it was just silly. Off road when confronted by a mountain it always felt like there were 2 options with the car: Climb over the mountain. Throw a rope around the mountain and move it out of the way. I now drive a 4.7 litre V8 Grand Cherokee. That too has lots of torque - but nothing like the Discovery. It also happens to use almost exactly half the gas around town.

A wanker is one who masturbates. It is a derogatory term as oposed to here in Greece where it seems to be a term of endearment and most commonly heard amongst close friends - the Greek version that is.

You could probably add concertos, trios and quartets, Sonatas, Ballet music, suites and marches. Then I noticed you have baroque but not classical, romantic and modern as periods. If you wanted to be pedantic you could also break down concerto's (violin, piano, cello etc.). Chose Opera as it happens which is probably correct although concertos as a whole run it a close second.

Which version is it? Is it the sound track to the film or the version done entirely by the Who? I have (or had) both. I might have given the Who version to a friend.

The Zu mod is certainly interesting and SHOULD be sonically superior to the 103R. The problem is entirely practical - it is a naked cart - all the bits exposed and I have broken too many of those in the past to consider them. Note - I said SHOULD above - not IS - it may not be and certainly its relative performance will vary from implementation to implementation. As regards the match of the 103 (in any of its guises) to Rega arms it does work fine - as others have testified, BUT you need to hear it on another arm to ascertain as to whether it is an ideal match or not. I have heard the standard 103 on many arms over the years. The best non-linear implementation I have heard was on an Origin Live (Silver I think) which is a high apparent mass, heavily modded Rega. Interestingly - for reasons I am not sure about, it was a better match for the Project 9 arm than the Rega 300 when both are in standard form. I think the Project 9 may have a slightly higher apparent mass than the Rega but as to whether that accounts for the difference or not I am not sure. If I ever get some funds together I will grab a 103R and have a play on my arm. The 103 I have now was always supposed to be temporary anyway (an experiment) - it just stuck because it plays so well and is the reason the Shelter 901 is in the drawer.

Robert, Just tried to make a donation but the system doesn't seem to have any way to deal with non-US citizens. Any other way of doing this? Cheers Max (the elder)

By Jove Basil - what a terrible tale of woe unbounded. So the TT is out of sorts is it? I noticed from an entirely cursory glance through your missive that you neglect to mention the cartridge thingamabob attached to the end of the arm. Might that not be the source of your troubles? One hesitates to mention but I have found that these arms are somewhat fussy when it comes to the cartridges they mate with (and who can blame them?) but from the sounds of your issues it would appear to be somewhat similar to the strange case of the "Grado Dance" wherein an entirely unsuitable type (towit one grado) was mated to an arm such as yours and proceed to jig and dally about like whirling dervish. Definitely not the sort of ballywho one wants on a gramophone, of course. Just a thought - 'course a nice mat can't hurt but I would wager the cartridge is the primary culprit here. Come to that - how old is the aforementioned cart. They dont last forever you know - not like back in the day of the Raj. Back when I was a lad they were handed down from father to son.......

Oh - you people are so 10 hours ago!!! Been there - done that..

I think I just de-tested that post.

Dave, Works fine with Filezila. Downloading the Handel now. Will let you know. cheers

I am not a big fan of talent shows persay - and I only saw this one through a recommendation through Yahoo! Watch not only the performer but the judges and the audience. PS - You will need reasonable bandwidth to see this. On the page are links to his performance in the final too - quite a different presentation!!

Agreed Mark - but the words "should" and "might" were important in my response. Note : I said nothing about colour or flavour from the amp - it could be as coloured or as close to "straight wire with gain" as you like. I also made no mention of the output stages on the source nor the imput stages on the amp for the very reasons you listed. Finally - I was trying to avoid expressing any kind of preference here - as you probably know I run an active tube based pre-amp and separate SS phono stage. I wasn't touting what I own as the right route for all which probably came across as recommending the alternative.

you mean like this?

A few true stories about the Police back in the UK: First story: Friend of mine's father was driving along minding his own business in his new 7 series BMW. Thing is - he was doing 110 mph. Police pulled him over and cop comes up to the window. He presses the button to wind the window down and the policeman asks: "Having trouble taking off wing-commander?" Second story: Another friend's dad had an XJS and a 928 porsche on order. On his last outing with the XJS he is on the motorway (freeway to you) and thinks - hmm - I wonder what she'll do? So he puts his foot down and heads home. He lived in a large farm house with a courtyard in front. Pulls in to the courtyard, gets out and heads into the house. He puts the key in the front door and 6 policecars arrive as he is doing so - along with a Police helicopter overhead. In court the police report said "We were doing 130 mph when he left us." He got banned for 6 months - the same day the porsche was delivered. Third story: I was driving a Ford XR2 - sporty small car in Europe - back in the day and all that. Anyway I am on the motorway and put my foot down. I am heading slightly uphill and the car speedo is locked on 99 mph and it wont go any faster. Just as I am wondering where all the power has gone I see blue flashing lights behind me. Pull in and wind the window down. Policeman comes up - looks in the passenger seat - looks in the back seat - looks in the trunk (hatchback) - "where is she?" "Who?" "Your heavliy pregnant wife." "Oh," I cottoned on and replied, "Oh crap - I thought she was in your car - you mean we left her back in the service station?" "I had you down at 93 mph," he said. I was seriously relieved as I thought it was 99. I didn't attempt to deny it and we both laughed and he let me off with a stern warning.

As others have said if you only have one line source with volume control then it probably isn't all that essential - assuming a normal line source with sufficent output to drive the amp at the volume you want. If neither your source nor your amp has a volume control - and/or if you have multiple sources then you do need some means of controlling the system. A passive pre-amp is exactly this - it allows you to switch between 2 or more sources and it allows you to adjust the volume. A passive pre-amp is probably the most transparent (or should be) item you can put into the system whilst retaining the above functionality. An active pre-amp is often not transparent - and adds "flavour" to the system. People choose different technologies of active pre-amp to get the sound they want - be they SS, tube or digital. Digital pre-amps are often bundled with signal processors that translate digital inputs into forms suitable for the installed amp (maybe analogue - maybe another digital format). The latter also often contain various options for adjusting the sound with built in settings (Hall, Cinema etc. etc.) that seek to mimic the sound you might hear in these venues. These are implemented with varying degrees of success. Aside from these functions many pre-amps have facilities for adjusting the amplificiation including such things as balance, bass, treble and even mids volume and so on. Some even incorporate equalizers of various forms. Whilst it could be easy to surmize that a pre-amp adjusting the nature of the sound (adding flavour|) is probably not a good thing this is not always the case. If there is an input impedance mismatch between source and amp a pre-amp may well serve to overcome this issue and hence improve the sonic result. Matching your amp (assuming it is not integrated) to a pre-amp can yield a striking effect on the sound. A combo of amp and pre-amp can produce a more acceptable sound than merely going from source to amp - of course it may not - that is for the individual listener to decide. It is also worth mentioning that a pre-amp can be used to ameliorate the sound coming from a poor source. It is not a fix of course - but you might find the original mix has, for example, too strong a bass for your enjoyment so you can make an adjustment for that particulare recording. Conversely if you listen at low volume levels you might find that a function such as "bass boost" is useful to get more of an impression of the sound at higher volumes. In a nutshell then, pre-amps are simply useful for a variety of applications. Whether it is better to have a separate one or one integrated into one of the other components in the system is, as ever, a matter for the individual owner of the system.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane Thebes. Ah - the good old days. Actually the taverna started even earlier than that - its referenced in the first line of that thread - but I guess the original is long since lost. For those that do not know this bar is as real and physical as the twins themselves. Make of that what you will....