Kevin S

I personally would like to thank Klipsch for not having availability on Belle Klipsch's at this time. You see, after selling my Klipschorns about 5 years ago, I had decided to come back into the Klipsch fold. I planned on purchasing a pair of Belles for fronts and three Heresy's for center and surrounds. When I ordered, I was told of the delay on Belle's, but went ahead and ordered the Heresy's. I put the Heresy's in the L/C/R position and was so happy with them that I cancelled the Belles, and bought two RS-3's as surrounds. All in all, Klipsch's cost themselves (and saved me) about $3800.00. FWIW, I have owned Heresy's, Cornwalls, LaScala's, Klipschorns, and KG-2's and have had family and friends purchase KG-1's, Forte's and KG-4's. IMHO, the Heresy's mated with my current HSU-VTF-2 subwoofers offers the biggest bang for the buck. ------------------ L/C/R: Klipsch Heresy II Surround: Klipsch RS-3 Pre/Pro/Tuner: McIntosh MX-132 AMP: McIntosh MC-7205 DVD: McIntosh MVP-831 CD Transport: Pioneer PD-F908 100 Disc Changer Turntable: Denon DP-72L Cassette: Nakamichi BX-1 T.V. : Mitsubishi 55905 HDTV: RCA DTC-100 Surge Protector: Monster Power HTS-5000

Many less expensive receivers and some tube amps (such as Conrad Johnson, I believe) quote power spec's using a low end frequency cutoff higher than 20hz. I suspect that their power and/or distortion levels deteriorate quite rapidly below their cutoff point, so they raise the point to where the specs are better. I personally would not consider one of those receivers except for spare room/background music listening

Sorry about that. I thought that you had posted the info. because you were selling the speakers.

Need a little more info on the Belle's. How about finish, model and serial number designations from the back of the speaker for starters. Thanks.

I believe that CR uses rotating the speaker as a way of measuring the on & off axis characteristics of the speaker. I believe that CR's criteria is that a flat frequency response average thru the measurement window would give a speaker a rating of 100. How much a speakers response deviates from flat results in a rating, such as the 76 received by the Klipsch speaker. So, for example, a speaker with limited dispersion may well measure great on axis, but as the speaker is rotated off axis, the measurements will naturally suffer. This poor off axis response will negatively affect the rating. Horns, by their very nature, limit the off axis dispersion, thus the generally poor measurement (and rating) under CR's test.

If I'm not mistaken, CR rotates the speaker while keeping the microphone in a fixed position for their test. I do not recall how far the speaker is rotated in degrees. But in any case, I think you will find that speakers with wide dispersion characteristics fare better in CR's test and those that are directional in their output. As we all know, Klipsch prides itself on "controlled directivity". I believe that is why all Klipsch speakers I have ever seen tested by CR rate very poorly relative to other speakers.

For anyone who is interested, Phil H. checked things out for me and as it turns out, not all dealers are on the Dealer Locator. He is working on the situation.

How about if you purchase an item from a dealer who is not on the dealer locator, but your Klipsch boxes have the shipping labels still on them from Klipsch to the dealer?

I too would like an update on the status of the Heritage line. I placed an order for a pair of Belle's and 3 Heresy's about a month ago. I just received the Heresy's and was told at the time of placing the order that the Belle's would be manufactured in August. Would like to know if that schedule is firm. Thanks.