JohnA

I say subwoofers (2) and center, first. Surrounds could be a $20 RatShack speaker for a while, if they become important. Since Belles are so powerful and low distortion, you'll need 2 powerful subs to have a chance of keeping pace and having low enough distortion to blend in. SVS can be bought online and is said to have subwoofers that can fill the bill. I use a pair of VMPS subs and a 400 wpc amp with my La Scalas. When in the corners the VMPS can match loudness up to my personal limits, even on Stone Temple Pilots. I use a KLF-C7 as my center. It is not a perfect match, but is close and sounds great. It can match the La Scalas to the levels I can tolerate, as well. John This message has been edited by John Albright on 08-20-2002 at 04:54 PM

Since you're increasing the impedance of the speakers by 33%, you decreasing the amp's outpot by 33%, or down to 97.5 watts. What speakers will you be using? It Klipsch, you COULD operate on 1/10th of that power. I'd suggest looking at a 50 to 60 watt Yamaha, Sony, or the like. John

You may have to chase the wires to the woofer to confirm what may be out of phase. Check everything carefully. Each of the drivers have a red spot on the + terminal. The Type AA is a fairly simple network with no phasing tricks. + from the input terminals is plus through to each driver, even though the squawker runs through the autoformer. Here is a copy of the schematic. John This message has been edited by John Albright on 08-19-2002 at 09:47 PM

Look at pro audio gear like Peavy, Crown, Quest or QSC. Distortion and sound quality don't apply in this application. Buy tough. John

I believe you're looking at a trip to Circuit City to see what they have. Speakers make the most impact on sound, so I'd look for a pair of SB-1s for about $200 and go from there. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1372419389 Nad L40s are cool, but hard to get in your budget. Used Advent receivers are really nice, too; can't find a pic. John

Sulfur Hexaflouride? SF6. It's a strong dielectric and is used in switchgear for high voltage transmission lines. It supresses the arc between contacts when a 500 kV T.L. trips. John

I don't think there are any natural instruments with fundamentals above 6k. That means all you'll hear from a tweeter by itself are harmonics. It will sound very strange indeed. John

Even the mods to "improve" tube amps fall into the category of a hobby. Most people wouldn't want to pay a professional electronics tech the $$ he'd want to do it for them. The same thing would apply to SS gear. Still, many of the same things can be done to SS amps. Parasound unofficially told me I could "sweeten" the sound of my 1203A and 1000A by biasing it deeper into Class A (raising the power level where it transitions into Class AB). Different signal caps, bigger PS caps, bigger heat sinks (fan?), could all improve a SS amp's performance. You really need to know what you're doing before modifying an amp. John

Worse yet, the Japanese pronunciation (correct) is Go-jira. John

Hey Ray, have you seen the Avantgarde trios? Those are "an interesting architectural statement". I'd love to hear a pair. http://www.avantgarde-usa.com/images/greentrioroom14_sm.jpg I believe BobG once stated that Klipsch had measured some difference in sub drivers after some use. I believe woofers might have a "new shoe" syndrome and "break-in" with some use, since they move relatively slowly. Gil's testing would seem to put the lie to that theory, though. John

You're correct. It's generally not worth the bother to swap to the solder terminal K-55-Vs. I can't hear the difference in mine. Others can. How high the -V can go depends on the horn and how forgiving you are; the response is falling after about 3k. I'm sure you noticed. The horn can trade dispersion at high frequencies to get on-axis gain at those frequencies. Klipsch' K-400 does that. John

It sounds like you're describing a phase plug. It reduces cancellation and smoothes frequency response. John

Speakers don't break-im, your ears do! You slowly get used to the new sound. The insulation of the wires does NOT charge. The signals are AC and change from positive to negative several time a second; any "charging" that might have been done is instantly undone! Tha capicitors do not need "forming". This is urban ledgend (I checked the search engines). If an AlO layer was required for a capacitor to work, and the layer "disolved", at any place, the capacitor would instantly short and fail. The liquid Ray described is, in fact, the dielectric. The popular foil and paper in oil capacitors, whether the aluminum motor-start caps Klipsch used to use or the mythic Jensen Copper foil types, use oil-soaked paper as the dielectric and the oil further serves as a cooling media. These caps certainly do not use AlO for their dielectric, yet are still said, in legend, to need "forming". Bullsh**!! John

Well, If I had anywhere to put them and any way to get them here, I'd have already bid. I hate the thought of shipping them common carrier and a Road trip from Tennessee to NH doesn't sound so good either. John

Thanks! O.K. I've seen the TV model in pictures, but thought they still had the rear slot. What might they be worth? John

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1372111382 Are these normal Shorthorns? They are not what I expected. Where's the rear slot? John This message has been edited by John Albright on 08-08-2002 at 09:44 PM

Doug, LOL! It ain't legal to write it, but it's said all 'the time! John

I think you need to go tell your story to a Dr. You might have bruised a kidney or the like. Fainting is pretty serious. What do your parents say? John

A fast acting fuse will be fine for a temporary cure. A fast acting fuse blows the second its current rating is reached. A slow acting fuse can tolerate rated curent for a few seconds to get you past a musical peak before it blows. John

Concrete floors and walls will be best. There won't be any resonance in the floor or walls. Concrete walls will prevent sound from "leaking" and disturbing neighbors, too. Of course, you'll have to fover any wall system with something to control high frequency reflections. John

The magnet doesn't affect the power absorption rating. Yours are small because they are very powerful, but also expensive, so you don't see them often. AlNiCo magnets are also small amd expensive. John

The crossover point of of the woofer moves one octave from where it's supposed to be; down I believe. John

You can use the Belles and La Scalas together, but you'll likely need another amp. The K-33 is a 4 ohm driver. Putting it in a basshorn raises the effective impedance to between 6 and 8 ohms. However, below the cut-off frequency of the bass horn, it is effectively 4 ohms again, Two in parallel presents a 2 ohm load to a single amp from 60 Hz, or so and below. John

ROTRLMAO! John

In my own experience, Woofers are blown by overpower and tweeters are blown by clipping. Ray, Your K-33s can be rebuilt by Klipsch for about $75 each. Since they are bad, take them out and test them again to be sure. If they are still bad, but the cone out of one and see if the glue holding the voice coul onto the former softened and let the coils of wire slip out of place (or melt in two). John