The_Shark

Tripod, Unless your receiver or TV has a problem the shock the cable guy received would have come from cable side. One way to check your side is to disconnect the cable coming into your house and take a voltage measurement using a multimeter from the center conductor to the shield (outside of connector) of the coax cable leading into your house. Judging from the severity of the shock described I would look for AC line voltage 110 - 120 vac. If you find a voltage present start disconnecting TV's, receivers, signal amplifiers, etc ... one by one rechecking the multimeter for voltage present each an is item removed. If the voltage goes away, the last item disconnected is the culprit. If it doesn't go away after all devices are removed start checking your wiring. If the problem is with a device, either the device has a problem or the AC outlet it's plugged into could be mis-wired ( hot and neutral wires crossed). This can be checked with a outlet tester, available at Home Depot or other building supply. Good luck, The_Shark

Dj, Hook your 4.1's to another sound source like a portable CD player. If the problem is still there take them back to Best Buy. Good Luck, The_Shark

Cleaner, Sorry to hear about your problem. Brace yourself for some more bad news. Your sub and possibly your control pod are bad. Also your satellite drivers are probably fried as well. I've repaired two V2-400 sets with the same exact problem. The good news is if you know someone with a soldering / desoldering setup and a little electronics experience you can repair it for around $50 to $75. This includes the price of new satellite drivers (last ones I bought were $12 each). Basically I had to replace a couple of IC's in the control pod and a couple in the sub. All were TLO74's 14 pin DIP's quad Op amp. The first one I repaired just over a year ago and is working fine. the second was my buddies that died in June. Good luck, The_Shark

Do you have the same problem with another set of speakers hooked up? If not, then it's the Klipsch's. If so, then it's your computer/ sound card. Double check all your settings and connections. Also make sure you don't have the digital out enabled on the sound card. If that isn't it try VIA Hardware http://www.viahardware.com. Either browsing the KT7 FAQ or posting on their forums might get you pointed in the right direction. Another thing you might check is that your sound card is not sharing an IRQ. Now days ACPI compliant motherboards will put more than one device per IRQ. When I first fired up the AMD system I built the video, sound and network cards were all sharing the same IRQ. This had some interesting results. Also some people say not to install Creative's Liveware, only install the sound card drivers. Good Luck, The_Shark

SilverFog, There are several contact cleaners that are designed to work without the use of a cotton swab. One that I've had good luck with is DeoxIt D100L from Caig Laboratories. The 7.4 mL vial actually has a small brush in the lid simular to a nail polish container. There are aerosols available but I've never had much luck with any of those. Also with aerosols you have to be careful because some will destroy certain plastics. I think we buy Deoxit through MCM electronics. MCM has a online catalog for anyone who is interested. The_Shark

Neil, Cleaning the connector won't void the warranty. Re-soldering the connector will. If you have any reservations then send them back to Klipsch. The_Shark

Neil, Sounds like a dirty connector, a bad plug on the cable to the control pod or bad solder joint on the DIN jack. First I'd try some contact cleaner and clean both the jack and the plug. If that doesn't work you could try re-soldering the jack to the circuit board inside the sub. The_Shark

Tom, Vacuum tubes are designed to dissipate / operate at a maximum wattage as with most electronic components. The problem with vacuum tubes as compared to solid state electronics is that they generate much more heat that solid state components. The heat a vacuum tube generates when operating in a non-ventilated enclosure can build very quickly. The problem is that the wattage a tube can handle is based on proper cooling to the tube whether it be water or air. If the tube is operating in a higher ambient temperature the maximum wattage rating is derated and effectively lower. If you look at a spec sheet for almost any power tube there is a power rating curve based on temperature. We have a problem at my work with a RF amp that is designed to operate at 40 kw but the water cooling system is under rated, so we only have cooling for 30 kw. In the summer we lose a couple of tubes due to warmer air temps where the amp is. The tubes maximum wattage is lowered because it can't transfer enough heat. Tubes should always be operated within its design tolerances or you can significantly shorten the life of the tube or cause other peculiarities. I'm not familiar with the exact specs on this amp, but I'm sure the 1 foot recommendation is for a non-enclosed enviroment. But based on other amps (100w or greater) I've seen ventilation would be prudent. The_Shark

Chris, I didn't word my post correctly. I don't actually work for Newark. We use them for a vendor, I'm in charge of four production cyclotrons (particle accelerators) for a company that make nuclear medicines. I'll be happy to fax you what I have in mind for models of the fans. The_Shark

Chris,

Chris, As Colin said good quality 4.7" muffin fans are fairly quiet. I'd say less noise than a computer power supply fan. Don't scrimp either get ones with ball bearings not the bronze sleeve, they last longer. Keep in mind cabinet design and fan mounting / placement are important factors. Poor design / placement (i.e. mounting fan on the interior) can cause the fan noise to resonate within the cabinet. Also be carefull of anything that might be loose and could vibrate. Like the glass doors you mentioned, good quality latches in conjuction with rubber bumpers on the corners can minimize vibration. Colin is also correct about the dust collecting so be sure to use a filtered intake vent. This will cut down on the dust drawn into your cabinet. I do like the idea of exhausting to the garage if it's possible. That would really be convienient. A short duct through the wall and mount the fans on the garage side. Heck that should take care of any noise or vibration problems. You will still want to have air intake inside. I'm sure you garage is not climate controlled and would be drawing warm air in the summer. And also tend clog the intake air filter much quicker. Cheers, The_Shark

Porsche, I checked Creative's website and as I thought the PCI 128 sound card has four channels. According to Creative the "Line In" jack doubles as the "Rear Out" jack and it is selected by the software. I would check all the control settings for your card. There should be an option to select 4 speakers, disable line in or enable rear speakers. Then it's just a matter of plugging those bad boys in! The_Shark

Coleman, That only leaves a couple more possibilities. Did you check the front/rear fade control on the Creative mixer? Is rear speaker plug plugged in to correct jack on the sound card (front = green and rear = black). Do any other speakers work when connected to the rear channel? If all the settings are correct and another set of speakers don't play when connected to the rear channel you might have a bum sound card. The_Shark

Mashei, You are correct the Creative Live 5.1 series does have the built in decoder and by using the Promedia 5.1's you'll get the same sound as if you enabled the digital out on the Live 5.1 sound card and used a home theater receiver or a set a powered speakers with the DTS decoder built in like the Altec Lansing ADA-890's. The only difference is where the decoding is taking place. In your case the sound card is doing the decoding. If you used the digital out then the DTS receiver would do the decoding. And no matter where the decoding takes place the final signal that drives the speaker is an analog signal. There is a digital to analog conversion that takes place before the signal is amplified and sent to the speaker. So you are currently enjoying full digital sound... enjoy! Hope this helps! The_Shark

Coleman, Go to the Creative Audio HQ and check your speaker settings, on mine its called Creative Surround Mixer. Make sure you have your speaker selection set to 4 speakers. If it is set to 2 speakers the rears won't play. There is also a test button on this dialog box that will test each speaker channel. The_Shark