JohnA

Different amplifiers with similar specs can sound different. The difference nowdays is pretty small, though. The things that make one amp sound different from another usually can't be measured, yet. A THX certicied part is usually very well made, but it is more a certification process with expensive royalties required to display the symbol and claim the certification. In many cases a non-THX component will be a superior product.

Kippyieh, Yes your ears will get conditioned to a sound just like your nose will no longer smell ammonia after a while. I, in fact, expect the entire audio chain to relay the source as unadulterated as possible and choose my components with that goal in mind, after I filter out the ones I am unwilling to pay for. I DO NOT want any "conditioning" of any sound from any component. If the recording sucks, so be it. Toss it and get another. You cannot recapture the the "intention of the original artist" in a different room with different gear. Don't try. Try for the least degradation you are willing to afford. Doug is a friend and gives good advice. The components that transform the audio from one form to another are usually the most important. Start with speakers. All components have specs and they can be used to select one over another. Beware of the gear with the "best" specs. The measures required to achieve great specs often makes for a lousy sounding component. Amplifier harmonic distortion is a good example. It can be reduced to detection limits, but if you do, the amp will have other forms of distortion caused by the huge amounts of corrective feedback needed to lower the distortion. Feedback is putting the output signal back into the circuit at the beginning in a way that cuts distortion. There is an inevitable time delay from the putting output back into the input after the signal has already gone through the amp. It can never be perfect. Look for an amp that has a distortion no lower than 0.05% and no higher than 0.5%. Other specs to look for are a damping factor greater than 80, but over 400 is not necessary. Power should be calculated based on your speakers and room size. No Klipsch I know of can make use of more than 100 watts (100 will hurt). Even with your R?-3s, the first watt is the most important. Try to get an amp that is made to operate in Class A up to a watt. This is esoteric and it's called "biased to run in Class A up to x watts", but it's a way to get an amp that is cleaner in the first watt. All modern solid state amps run in Class A down low and Class B higher. It's called Class AB and it's very efficient. Noise and hum will be specified, but again, don't go for an amp rated at 120 dB signal to noise ratio, too much feedback. 90 to 100 dB is probably good enough. Lots of amps are called "High Current" these days. There is no standard for what that means. It's supposed to imply the the power supply and cooling is big. IMHO, "high current" should mean an amp can put out twice its 8 ohm rating into 4 ohms, like theory predicts. In practice, 1.5 times into 4 ohms is likely all you will see. In your price range, ignore "high current". CD and DVD players will all have specs that look much the same. You'll just have to listen to them. Burr-Brown DACs are good ones to have. Others are probably as good, just stay away from $100 DVD players. THX is a set of standards and it costs $$$$$ to get a product certified, mostly for the royalty fees. Non-THX gear is often better. Finally, regardless of any of the above, listen to all of the components with your speakers in your room. Make sure it sounds good there. Have an agreement that you can return the component if you don't like it at home.

I would hardly call audio boutique owners/employees professionals. They are always snobbish. The one I use had that same attitude and whined incessantly about my La Scalas until he came over to upgrade my ACT-3. When he heard them through the gear he sold me, he liked them and quit his *****in'. He had never heard La Scalas in any other setting but a club where they were driven so hard the KLiP circuit stayed activated the whole time. They are surely tizzy like that. I grew up near Nashville. More studios had Klipsch than just about anything else back then.

I was going to let this slide, but I just can't. 1 watt is one watt whether it comes from a tube amp or a flying saucer. If a tube amp seems to get louder than a SS amp of the same rating, it comes from one of 2 places. Primarily, tube amps don't clip as hard as SS amps and when they do, the distortion is mostly more musical sounding even harmonics. Generally, tube amps don't clip as hard as SS amps because they can't generate the VHF required to make a true squared-off wave top. Secondarily, a particular tube amp may also be more underrated than the comparison SS amp. A clipping SS amp is a nasty sounding beast indeed. It will generate lots of harsh sounding odd harmonics and they will go way up into the HF. This is one big asvantage tube amps have. If you overdrive them, you don't mind it much.

My pair were dead quiet with no hum or hiss while connected to my La Scalas. With my ear against the upper grille, I could just hear something. They had more than enough power, even for movies. They did not sound as clean, clear or smooth (or maybe sweet) as my John Curl designed Parasound amp. I thought they were gritty or dirty sounding. At first, they seemed quite competent, but when listening for a long time, or critically, the "dirt" showed.

Frzninvt, You are remembering the Genesis Physics Corp. IIs or IIIs. the IIIs were 3-ways with nauseating green foam surrounds and an 8" active and 10" passive radiator. My friend had IIIs and I've spent many hours in front of them.

+3 db is twice the *power*. +10 dB is twice as *loud* (and 10x the power). A 2000 watt amp is just 4 times as loud as 20 watts. 20 x 10 = 200 x 10 = 2000.

It sounds like you are talking about the Rebel/Shorthorn. IIRC, the Rebel was a kit and the Shorthorn was made by Klipsch. I doubt if you can find an old set of plans, but Shorthorns show up on ebay.com once in a while.

There are/were 2 Genesis speaker companies. One is Genesis Physics Corp. and the other is/was the old Infinity engineers that made hugely expensively systems that looked like the Infinity Reference Standard. I listened to the IRS a few times and hated it. The Genesis Physics speakers were moderately expensive consumer products. Generally they sounded good, but emphasized deep bass and had *hot* tweeters. My best friend from home had a pair of IIIs. They are still available from an old employee at www.humanspeakers.com.

I'll trade up to 2 K-77s for up to 2 K-77-Ms.

You can also have the *woofers* reconed for about $75 each. BTW, subwoofers are specialized speakers, normally in another cabinet, that only reproduce deep bass. Cornwalls do not have subwoofers.

I've been a fan of Boston Acoustics; I have a pair of A-40s that I like pretty well. They are a 2-way with a 6" woofer. I have a pair of Auratone 5CTVs that have a stunning stereo image and are a 7" cube, 2-way system. They are $$ and shielded. The Auratone 5C is the most popular studio comparative mix-down monitor. The 5C is a 4" one-way that sounds pretty bad, like Blose, but it's supposed to. Klipsch makes an RB-3 and the SB series. One of them will surely fit.

I believe you have what we have nicknamed Heresy 1.5. They are mid-80s Heresies with HII squawkers. Technically, they are '85 model HIs.

I think its a crossover issue. The Cornwall and Heresy crossovers are 1st order and will let some bass into the squawker, but not that much. If your caps have gone bad, the squawkers may have no protection at all and will clack as the diaphragm hits the phase plug. Find a good proaudio tech and have everything tested.

Steve, When your La Scalas arrive, please post pictures.

http://www.ctaz.com/~moonlite/subvmp.html Check out these kits. They will do what you want.

I have suX-P at work. It locked up and gave me a blank, grey screen 3 times the first day I had it (apparently MS got tired of blue screen jokes). They took my hard drive, wiped off 98SE and put suX-P on it and reinstalled it in the same machine. It's been trouble ever since. In 7 months we've had 2 service packs installed by remote control. I have a 10 Gb HD and roughly 100 Mb of data files and 7Gb of suX-P and Office XP. It's criminal! And Slow! You can't believe how slow!

Any Pro Audio shop can get one and install it.

I'm not sure why "linear" was added. Eighty or better is good. For me higher is better. Linear MAY mean that the amp's output impedance varies little with frequency.

"Tube amp pushing 35 watts" is not enough to tell anything. It is plenty of power, but may not sound good. That depends on what it is and how it's been cared for. You might consider a NAD L40 or its replacement the L70(?). They are modestly powered receivers with built-in CD players.

How about having Klipsch recone it? Others can also, such as Orange County Speakers in CA, or SimplySpeakers in Knoxville, TN, plus others. It wa made by Eminence. Call 1-800-KLIPSCH and see what new and reconing costs.

Actually, the problem is suX-P. It's as buggy as the first Win95, before 95a. Go back to 98SE.

http://www.ctaz.com/~moonlite/subvmp.html Try these kits. It's basically a screw it together for the complete kit. for the drivers and plans, you build and finish the box. If you do that, it could be any shape you want, if the internal volume is correct. None of these are powered. You will have to get an outboard amp. They do not need the equalization built into many subwoofer plate amps. You can use Harrison Labs F-Mods for a low pass crossover.

schalliol, All but one of your references are flat earthers. Even Paradigm provides no proof. Think logically. How many cycles are required for "break-in to occur? 100,000or 1M? How many times can a paper clip flex before it breaks? If it's 100k, how many seconds is that at 10k Hz? How many is that at 100 Hz? Even a million is just under 3 hours. Think. Why would a speaker manufacturer, other than Klipsch, want you to spend a week listening to their speakers before you listened critically and maybe returned them because you hated their sound? If you kept them a week and got use to the new sound you wouldn't be nearly so ready to return them and cancel the sale! Why *would* Paradigm want to keep from losing sales? If break-in were real and caused by movement loosening the driver's suspension, why hasn't someone become rich and famous documenting it and analyzing the optimum amount so speaker manufacturers can immediately delight their customers? "Where's the beef?"

Well, Mr. Hobbit, I liked one so much I bought another. One was just enough for movies and normal listening. Two will keep pace with my La Scalas to as loud as I can stand. They can easily be adjusted so that you cannot tell a subwoofer is in the system (until there is a deep pedal or synthesizer note). They blend well with the La Scala's horn-loaded bass. The distortion levels are quite low. The only powered sub I've heard that could compete was Klipsch's RSW-15, but I *think* it had higher distortion. Another plus is the cabinets have been redesigned and are lots more attractive now.