Underhanded Penguin

And believe it or not, in my small room, these went flat down to 35 hz.

Didn't want to take up more bandwidth, but just wanted to share with you guys my new 2 channel babies: http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=47827&pageNo=&num=&sessionID={5273DE61-545C-4638-81A5-61D43773A70B} I know I'm asking for it, but I'd take these over RB-75s any day. -UP

Front of room.

Close up of drivers.

Thought I'd share with you strangers my new bookshelves. I'm finally at a point in my 2channel journey where I can say I'm done for at least a year. The only thing that's gonna be replaced is the transparent musicwave cables. I'm upgrading to Musicwave Plus. All comments welcome. Cheers. -UP

Here's more pictures: http://www.cinenow.com/us/reportage.php/sid,832/

Well I already know the sub300 is $2000 CAD MSRP at my dealer. The sub500 will probably be around $2500 - $3k CAD. What's awesome is it's fully remote controllable, and has 4 fully customizable presets you can call up at the touch of a button.

Hey guys. HAs anyone seen or heard the new Dyanudio Subwoofers? I heard they were watt for watt and driver for driver some of the best subwoofers on the market. I wouldn't be surprised. Looking forward to pick one up for my Contour 1.4s. Check them out: http://www.dynaudio.ch/pdf/DYN_news_1103_new.pdf You need PDF reader. -UP

I have had a different experience with the speakers in question. No doubt the 802s are good speakers but are quite source dependant and can sound bright with the wrong components. Personally I do not know why they made Rotel to pair with B&W. It makes for such a bright sound. Rf7 is a great speaker especially for the price. For the money I'd probably take the Klipsch over the B&W. But man, the contour 3.4s are on another level. I personally own the contour 1.4s and pound for pound I would pit it against a lot of floor standers from other companies and bet on it to win. The soundstage and bass of the Dynaudio drivers really have to be heard ot be believed. My small 7" driver on my 1.4s puts out better quality, quantity, and depth of bass than my RF3s. And the highs are just so extended and transparent without a hint of brightness. Source matters here as well. I'm powering with an arcam integrated amp. I suspect the reason for your dissappoinment with the contour 3.4s has to do with the components and proper break in time. I can only tell you from my experience, I would pick even a Dynaudio Audience (lower line) floor stander over Klipsch reference or B&W. Then again, I just do not like the B&W sound. (Especially for the price)

Title says it all. The owner of the audio store I shop at happens to be the lead engineer on a new series of Duntech speakers using morel and seas drivers. I previously had never heard of Duntech before. I had my heart all set on getting the Dynaudio Contour s1.4 but then heard these new Duntech speakers and they blew me away. IMO better than Special 25s. Of course the owner agreed. (he designed them after all) These bookshelves go down to a true 37hz flat. They are about as big as Special 25s. If anybody went to the CES last year, it was actually the model that was on display. The finish is an exotic Brazilian Rosewood. It's beautifully crafted but a little too flashy for my tastes. The only reason I'm willing to compromise the looks is because it sounds so crazy. This model hasn't even gone into production yet. There's only two of these in the world right now. Well if anybody cares, I can send pics but I dont have any space to host. The woodwork is gorgeous.

Chris, Gamecube is a good recommendation. They have a good selection of games for kids. Having said that, I would worry about putting any video game through your plasma because a lot of video games have menus and interfaces that remain static on the screen. If this stays on the screen for a prolonged period of time, it could start to burn in. (Similar to computer monitors and hence the need for screen savers)I do not believe plasmas have any special techonology that would make this effect worse, but ruining a plasma display costs a lot more than ruining a monitor or regular tv. Take that with a grain of salt as I know people do play video games on plasmas. It's just do you want to risk any amount of damage to your precious plasma? Maybe by a smaller cheaper crt for video games? Can anybody chime in who has experience with this? -UP

Hi Pete. I swear I had this problem the first year or so. I've had them for about three years now and without changing anything, the problem has mysterisouly disappeared. The only thing I could attribute this to is break in. They are not as harsh anymore. Has anyone experienced this? I'm using my RF3IIs as mains in an HT with Denon 1802 receiver and some noname brand of biwire cable. -UP

I'll chime in first: Transparent Power Link Super > Arcam CD73T > Transparent MusicLink IC > Arcam A80 > Transparent Musicwave (soon to be plus) > Dynaudio Audience 52 SE (soon to be Contour s1.4) on Dynaudio Stand 2.

If it's the newer RB series (15, 25 ,35 ,75) then you should be fine as the port is front loaded. Having said that bookshelves are not the most ideal place to put speakers because of imaging, soundstage, height, and resonance limitations. Good quality stands are the way to go. The location of speaker in a room will affect imaging and soundstage. The soundstage can be affected by the height of the speaker. And if the speaker is not placed on a good vibration isolating surface, it can affect the imaging and control. Okay now having said that, it should still work fine if you put it in a bookshelf. All it means is you will have less flexibilty to tweak your sound. Then again, you may not be as nitpicky as some serious audiophiles. -UP

Hey Theears. Have you ever heard Dynaudio subs? There's a new one coming out soon called the sub 300. Pretty modest amp but supposedly their subs do for subwoofers what their oem woofers did for speakers. Which is super tight clean deep accurate bass for the buck. Just think if their bookshelves go down to 40hz what their subs could do... I'm just going by word of mouth here. The owner of the store I shop at listened to them recently and said he preferred it over martin logan subs and that they were among the mostm usical he has ever heard.

Out of curiosity Theears, does the knight shadow keep up with your contour 1.1s? Specs wise my a52se's are pretty close to your 1.1s. It has the 1.3 mk2 woofer and a contour S series-like esotec tweeter. So if it mates well with your 1.1's then it should be great with mine. I'm just worried about the speed and musicality. Because I've heard the True Sub Signature before and it went hard and low but didn't strike me as exceptionally fast. It could have been the setup but I don't know. I will look into the super and knight shadow although knight shadow is hard to find these days in toronto... Thanks guys... the search continues...

So let's hear it. I want something super tight, super fast, and tuneful for music. I don't care so much how low it goes. As long as it goes down to about 30hz +/- 3db. Budget is about $800 USD. It's going to be used in a bedroom system. Recommendations so far: Rel, B&W ASW 600 series, ML Grotto. I'm leaning towards Grotto. Theears please don't say Descent or Depth. It's out of my price range. They do sound super good though and I love the looks. They are the best for music that I've heard so far. And oh, it's gotta be smallish. SVS is out of the question. And I am a skeptic that they would match well with faster speakers like dynes or electrostats. Correct me if I'm wrong. -UP

I listened to the special 25 on many occasions. It is easily the best bookshelf I've ever heard. Actually it's the biggest bookshelf I've ever heard as well. In my opinion, it blows away the RF-7 in every aspect for music. Even on deep bass. This puppy can hit low!!! Weighs a ton too.

Theears is quite helpful from time to time. I've voiced my opinion on his bragging more than once. After a while it just becomes something you expect so it doesn't bother me anymore. I think he's a good person deep down anyways... Buuuuttttttt I could be wrong... Hey Theears, have you heard the Audience 52 Special Edition? It's the best under $2k CAD bookshelf I've ever listened to. Close to Contour sound quality in an Audience cabinet. Needless to say I'm a converted dynaudiophile.

Yeah musicwave plus sounded greeeat on regular dyne 52's! But if I remember corectly they were double the price of musicwave. Regular Musicwave was 'good enough'for me. I never thought I'd spend close to 500 USD on 2 10ft runs of cable. That's like the price of the promedia ultras. The shop I get stuff at had Transparent Opus MMs. It's half a year's salary for me.

Okay being a Klipsch owner myself, I realize how bad this post is going to be, but I just put together what I consider to be the best sounding 2 channel bookshelf system for the money I spent: Arcam A80 integrated amp Arcam CD73 Transparent Musicwave Interconnects Transparent Musicwave speaker cables Dynaudio Audience 52 Special Edition NO SUB NEEDED My Klipsch still has its place in HT!

Okay Al. So it wasn't a very controlled test to your standards. But using the same amp and same speakers, the guy disconnected the generic brand while playing music and connected the transparent cables. The process took about 20 seconds for both sides. Volume was the same and qualitatively (according to my own ears)the vocals opened up and detail and clarity improved. It was enough to sell me. But no it wasn't a proper A/B test to lab standards. The difference was honestly big enough so that I was 100% sure it was not placebo. It's just my account. Feel free to completely disregard it. I'm happy with my cables. The point I wanted to make is just that cables can make a difference. And oh the equipment was dynaudio 52s, classe amp, classe cd player, audioquest something cables (dunno what but it was pretty generic looking) and the transparent musicwave plus 8ft w/ spade connections. Sorry I don't know the model numbers.

I was a skeptic that cables made any difference at all until recently when I had the chance of A/B ing two cables at my local dealer. It was between generic cables and Transparent musicwave plus on some dynaudio 52s. He switched the cables on the fly and the difference was very obvious. Detail and clairty improved and sound opened up. It almost sounded like a completely different speaker. Mind you these cables cost about $1400. So that was enough to convert me. I bought the Musicwave which is a lot cheaper. It is a definite improvement IMO. Not just placebo. Having said that, the price of some of these cables are rather ridiculous...

Oh my cd player has volume adjustment when connected in analog. But I guess not all cd players do. Good point. I never adjust tones though. Flat is always best imo.

Hi guys. Forgive my stupidity, but I'm about to buy an amp for my bookshelves. I plan on getting a preamp eventually, but if I'm only using the speakers as two channel and I only have one source: a cd player, then what good will a preamp be for me? I guess what I'm trying to ask is what else does a pre/pro do besides dsp, signal/source switching, and speaker switching? Can I use my speakers without a preamp for a while? Thanks. -Stupid Penguin