JohnA

I pretty sure "S" means 1977. John

My experience with speaker cables, including Monster and hand braided CAT-5, is that above 14 guage, for 10 or 15 foot runs, there is no difference. I believe Monster Cable is 12 ga. OTOH, I have been able to hear an improvement between good and very good interconnects, but the difference was small. I define good at about $20 a pair vs. very good at about $80 a pair (I have only 1 pair at $80). The small difference may even be due to the interaction between my preamp and power amp and might not be audible on your equipment. My recommendation is to buy the best interconnects and cables you're willing to afford and later try some better ones if you just can't stand not knowing if there is a difference. John

You're looking at a Heritage speaker with a letter code for the date. If I'm not in error, S = 1977. That should be a good year for Heresies. John

Time for me to chime in, it seems. I have 2 of the older Larger Subwoofers in the vertical cabinet. Due to a past session with my air guitar, they now have a set of Mega woofers in them. Mine are powered by an Acurus A-250, capable of about 450 watts per channel into each sub (@ 4 ohms). That's not too much power. Scott, you'll eventually want to get lots more power, for the time being, it will work. I'd also recommend getting a pair of 40 of 50 Hz low-pass F-mods from Harrison Labs to use as your "electronic" crossovers and bypassing the internal crossovers. F-mods plug into the amp's inputs and the interconnect plugs into them; they're neat. 90 Hz is too high for the Chorus so you'll have a big bass hump where the two overlap. "Mr. Scott, I need more power!" Start saving for a gorilla amp, like that 555. John

The dome is a dust cap and will not affect the sound of the passive radiator. If it bothers you try pulling it out with a piece of duct tape or a straight pin (use both gently, of course). John

Olaf, A+B powering 2 pair of speakers MIGHT cause problems for SOME amps. Bi-wiring using A+B will be exactly like bi-wiring with A alone. Properly done (no shorts), bi-wiring will not change the power the amp produces, the impedance it sees, or cause any harm at all. John

Doug, It is my understanding that teenagers are High impedance, High inertia devices. For this reason, your need a seperate and powerful motivator to get them working! John

Does your Onkyo have "A" and "B" speaker outs for the speakers you want to bi-wire? If so, put one wire in each and set the selector to "A+B" John

Gil and Ray did a great job! I'd like to add that the 2.83 volts is a further standardization, because no speaker is a uniform 8 ohm load. Using 2.83V RMS is an easily measured, precise calibration point. The common statement is "104 dB @ 1 watt @ 1 meter". However, the Heritabe Klipsch typically vary from 4 ohms in the bass to 32 ohms in the midrange. Since power is volts x volts/resistance, if the resistance changes, the power input changes. Measuring only voltage (rather than power that really has 2 components, volts & resistance) is a simple, reliable calibration standard. John

I'd tried something like that on Yahoo!, but didn't find what i needed. I am pretty ignorant of musical scales and need more obvious information. I tried your google search and MAY have seen what I was looking for if I understood the meaning of the scale/octave numbers. Apparently, a piano can hit 25 Hz. Thanks! John

That would make the bass tuned three octaves lower than a guitar. Does that sound right? John

Shock-Late, You seem to be rapidly heading for McIntosh (used?). In the meanwhile I'd try some MOSFET amps like the Parasound HCA-1500 (and higher model numbers), or B&K. Next would be Aragon, even their old 4004. Are these available in Belgium? John

I'd like to be able to afford fair! Have you considered false corners? They worked very well in Mr. Paul's house. John

Hi Doug, I saw that! It's sort of demented isn't it? John

Klipsch uses autoformers to (generally) lower the output of the squawker to match the rest of the system. The higher impedance caused by this is an undesireable side-effect that usually has no effect on system performance with SS amps, but MAY cause amplitude response errors with some types of tube gear. Al Klappenberger has "discovered" a somewhat better performing autoformer than Klipsch uses, for a nominal price. Exotic autoformers could always be used, but I have no idea if the results would be audible. Al's replacement networks are quite good. John

I know the standard guitar tuning (E A D G B E) is tuned to A = 440 Hz. What is the fundamental of the others? What about an electric bass (E A D G)? Is there a good source of this information? Online? John

Well, Jo-Jo, You need to be a little more specific about your interests. There are a bunch of engineers here that will tell you how a clock is made before telling you the time. John This message has been edited by John Albright on 06-25-2001 at 11:51 AM

I like it. Very clean and neat! John

Hi Doug, The things that have been audible to me in SS amps have seem to be affected by damping factor, headroom and recovery from clipping. I had one amp that was slightly brittle, but ususlly when loud (slight clipping?). Of those, factors the power supply affects recovery time and maybe headroom with some speakers. It's one of the primary design parameters in a high current design (as is extra or high current transistors in the output stage). With Klipsch speakers, loud is 1 amp or so and 100 watts is 3.5 amps/channel, so, even is your Klipsch had weird low impedance or phase shift between the voltage and current curves, a so-called low current amp would rarely be taxed. Damping factor is often audible. Going from 60 to 800 was readily detectible. The amps ability to recover from clipping is usually audible, too. Clipping usually occurs when the power supply is exhausted (rail voltage exceeded by output waveform, I think). If it is slow to recover the amp will continue to distort after the cresendo. I have a cheap receiver that does that. My Parasound amps carry very high current ratings, but have no information about the conditions under which the amp will flow that amount of current (1 ohm for 1/2 second and 1000 Hz?). I think a "high-current" amp out to put out at least 1.75 times the 8 ohm clipping power at 4 ohms (if not 2x like Ohm's Law predicts). Mine don't, they run about 1.5 like the H-K you're looking at. You won't know if it sounds better untill you try it, but I doubt the high-current part of the design will sound different in your case. I'll bet you'll hear the damping factor first. John

Sometimes tape can also be used to pull out a dustcap, too. However, unless it just killing you, I'd leave it alone; it doesn't bother the sound of a passive radiator. John

Klipsch speakers don't need a break-in any more or any less than other speakers. I believe most of the break-in occurs within a new owner's ears. However, I have read a measurable break-in happens with subwoofers and I suppose that extends to woofers as well. The audible effect should be small at best. John

The pro subs usually don't go as deep as home subs do, but they will work and will likely get louder. John

Klipsch uses autoformers to lower (or raise, as the patent goes) the output of a driver, or drivers to match the output of the other drivers in a system. The manipulation changes to apparent impedance of the driver affecting the other components in the network. John

DWK, The 275 watts is the unit's power consumption, not output. I had a '75 CA-800 integrated amp until 2 years ago, it was rated at 45 wpc in Class AB and 8 watts in Class A. It met distortion specs at 60 wpc. If your A-500 (CA-500?) is from the same series, I'd bet on a 30 wpc rating. John

The K-33-E is the best woofer for the La Scala basshorn. The K-43 pro woofer is said to have higher output and will therefore sound warmer. Nothing can be done to make the bass go deeper, the basshorn size controls that. You'll need a killer sub, or two (I use 2), to match output and distortion of the La Scala basshorn. Check your woofers to see if they are K-33-Es and if not, upgrade. John