T.H.E. Droid

Don't expect hi-fi range performance. Optical 16mm soundtracks weren't good for more then 10K-12Khz, the mag stripe a little better. As someone else mentioned, mag striped 16mm was used heavily for news gathering until video tape became portable enough to use in the field. You have to get into better quality theater amps for hifi and still you're not going to see true 20-20Khz frequency ranges. Not that you can't enjoy that amp anyway with some vintage equpment, but I've got a pretty good collection of sound 16mm shorts and they are a lot of fun to watch. (for you other old geezers, I'm talking boxes and boxes full of those great films you used to see in school, like "A visit to the Lionel train factory" or "How plants reproduce" or "Passing Laws in Congress."

When I went into my 80's KHorns to check the woofers, I used a shorty screwdriver to make sure the mounting screws were tight. No problem to get to the far ones, but you have to feel for them.

Some pretty interesting mods. On an esthetic level, I think you've managed to take Klipsch's most attractive speaker and make it look like a 1970's jukebox, which I'm sorry to say is not a compliment. You also mention you added side-firing tweeters to "assist imaging". Sorry to break this to you but that's a great way to destroy the imaging and probably create some nasty room nodes at the same time. Klipsch heritage models have a lot of phasing problems because the drivers are not phase aligned. Adding extra hf drivers pointing in off directions can only make the problem worse. Case in point are Bose 901's, which are about the poorest imaging speakers of all time. It also appears you cut a hole in the central woofer bin and then put some vents to the outside, apparently with some gizmo to only allow air to move out. That destroys the acoustical properties of the bass section, which must be tightly sealed to work properly, and goes one step farther and creates a loose half-wave acoustical rectifier. I'm betting the bass sounds different to you because it is now resonant at a fairly high frequency, creating a big hump in the bass while killing the overall performance of the bass section. Putting the cabinet up on feet will also alter the bass response. It's great you've been able to save an old beat up pair of Belle's, but I doubt anyone familiar with Belles would want to be the next owner.

I have a pair of C1's and a few years ago, on a trip shopping for 3-series reference stuff at a Klipsh dealer, I just happened to listen to the C3's with my test CD's. I had no doubt whatsoever that the C3's had a tighter and better defined sound stage, and the bass was a bit cleaner and tighter. I put the improvement in the soundstage to moving the mid and high horns to the front of the cabinet to reduce diffraction. I chalk the bass improvement to the tighter MDF cabinet and a better woofer. I think the main difference between the C1 and C2 is to front mount the drivers and eliminate the rear hatch, which should also show the improved sound stage. When I get around to rebuilding my C1's, I think I'll do the C2 improvements and see if it helps. I'll also do a bit of searching here and see what other simple improvements can be made, especially a better woofer. My C1's are in fine shape electrically and mechanically, but need new veneer and a set of risers.

Nothing moral about it, smoking is dangerous for the smoker and anyone else in the vicinity. I'm not familiar with any case of cancer transmitted to a third party by eating too much, getting a divorce or drinking booze.

I picked up some new film scores recently on CD: Sherlock Holmes "Game of Shadows" by Hans Zimmer- This soundtrack really pops off the speakers. Of the titles mentioned, the best recording with a huge sound stange and instruments that really sparkle. As with the movie, the music has a lot of energy and the eastern european themes are played by some surprisingly good musicians. Sometimes Hans can get an orchestra to literally "growl" with some surprising impact, and they've managed to capture an impressive dynamic range without having the recording fall apart. War Horse by John Williams. I associate John Williams with very strong, memorable themes that become movie icons. There are none of those here in this forgettable score. The music works well in the movie but not when standing alone. Save your money and buy the movie on DVD when it comes out. Recording wise, it's a bit flat and one dimensional. Hugo by Howard Shore. This is also not terribly strong music thematically, but it's a very chaming score that is pleasant to hear. It's interesting that the Hugo story takes place about the same time as that in "The Artist" and both films have a central silent film theme, but the two are very different. The recording is competent and you can clearly hear the different instruments. The Artist by Ludovic Bource. This is much more in the silent film style than was Hugo, although the arrangments largely updated for modern tastes. There are some more authentic silent era arrangements included, which help contrast the styles. The recording is cleanly done, although a bit antiseptic. This soundtrack is fun to listen to even if you haven't seen the film yet. The Tudors Season 4 soundtrack by Trevor Morris. Of the four seasons of the show, I thought the season 4 music stood out as the best. Because of the way these shows are typically blocked, the pieces tend to be short and to the point, and there is fair amount of repetition, but it's still an enjoyable listen. It's cleanly recorded and has a good soundstage, but as TV series go, it's not terribly "deep" in terms of instrumentation.

Visually well done as always with Spielburg but certainly not one of John Williams' better scores. No strong themes stand out and the cd is truly forgetable without the movie. This is one where money is better spent on the DVD when it comes out.

Anyone who espouses tobacco use on the forums is a turd and should be banned. Why don't you peddle your addiction elsewhere?

I certainly don't recommend any kind of A/V receiver. You even need to beware of some products advertised as 2-channel (like Yamaha's lower end receiver) which has a subwoofer output and really doesn't sound good with stereo sources. For some reason these products seem to have a lot of tone-altering crap in the system that wants to push bass out the subwoofer jacks, and if you're not running a subwoofer, you're not getting good audio. There is almost always a good supply of older and vintage equipment available on Craigslist and ebay at very reasonable prices with the caveat that older units don't tend to have remotes. Look on the garage sale area here, too. I recently bought an excellent Linn preamp which has a very good phono section and one of the best remotes I've used. The seller was also offering a matching Linn amp so the combo is an example of what I'd consider audiophile grade equipment for under $700. Most of the cheapie 2-channel systems at places like Best Buy have phono preamps but you probably won't be happy with the sound They usually have pretty crude monolithic amps that push 2% to 5% distortion at louder volumes (regardless of what the specs claim). The alternative is an outboard phono preamp which allows you to use the turntable with any line level input. My living room system has a Cambridge Audio Azur 640p, which can handle moving coil or moving magnet cartridges.

I'm never surprised at what I can hear on a recording on a good set of speakers. Things like iffy edits on a master tape (can cause a "skip" type sound )or a bumpy edit can cause a tape lurch and flutter. Noise in the studio, bumps and thumps by the musicians. I have one recording where I can hear the rumbling of the a/c system, another where I can clearly hear some street traffic outside, and even one where the conductor leading a Mahler symphony grunts and sings his way through it (all off key, of course). When I can identify positions of oppsies, I listen on my other system and confirm the noise is recorded.

Probably wouldn't recommend routing wires through the center of an air-core inductor, but other than that, there should be no issues. You can't couple enough energy from a crossover coil into a straight wire to produce anything you can hear, especially an iron core inductor. Nothing in there to produce any heat at normal listening levels.

Have you ever run into a recording that is awful but you just listen to it over and over again? I'm listening to a CD that I transcribed from the LP version of Roger Corman's "Battle Beyond the Stars" soundtrack. It was one of James Horners first (if not THE first) soundtrack recordings. Since it was a Roger Corman film, it's very easy to tell that Horner had very little time to rehearse the musicians and few retakes. The musicianship is pretty bad but you can certainly hear Horner's strong musical composition, many themes that were carried into Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan and later scores. The engineering and pressing was also of surprisingly good quality. It is said that James Horner really hated this score and fought it's release later, most likely because of the poor quality of the musical performance. This forgettably derivative drive-in movie also featured artistic design by none other than James Cameron, who went on to become the exact opposite of Roger Corman-- the producer and director of the world's most expensive films.

Brunswick with that nifty 3-way reproducer that many own but few can figure out how to use properly.Seriously though, lots of good stuff out there and at a reasonable price. Look for manual and semi auto tables with belt drive. If you get a newer table like Pro-ject you can get a bit more support from your dealer. Just avoid those trashy USB and cheap DJ models. You can spend a fortune on a vintage table and get something the doesn't even play well, like those heavy idler drive transcription tables. They're built for severe daily duty in radio stations and not for hifi.

In my experience the 112's are capable of developing a clean, solid soundstage that the 601's (with their direct/reflecting design) could never hope to achieve, so you might be better off keeping the 112's as main speakers and using the 601's in the back of the room.

I'm interested in getting a matched set of Genelex Gold Lion tubes for a pair of amps. The prices seem reasonable and I wondered what experiences other forum members have had with this brand. Tubes are KT88's.

The pad connects into the speaker wires themselves, so you don't have to get into the circuit board. However, with one tweeter and one midrange, you'll need two L-pads as was already mentioned. If you only want to use one L pad, consider using a resitor network instead to adjust the tweeter output. L pads are pretty cheap. They do have ganged L pads , but I didn't see any with an 8 ohm and 16 ohm. Depending on how they are built, you might be able to get ganged 8 ohm and ganged 16 ohm units and reassemble them into ganged 8/16 ohm units. Parts Express: http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?srchExt=CAT&srchCat=196

Can't agree more. I wanted to update my CD player to one with balanced outputs and a good DAC. HK was selling HD990 refurbs for $420 on their web site. Big bonus with the HD990 is DAC inputs so you can use the CD player's DAC with lesser components. Unit is well built, looks nice, and sounds great. The DAC noticably improves the sound of my old Sony CD400 player.

I'm trying to think about what you'll gain by getting a tube amp in that price range, and I honestly can't see how you'll do better than Cambridge Audio's top of the line integrated amp.

Adcom uses high quality components, which should hold up well. Unless you are having problems with noise and hum, I doubt you need to replace anything. If you're considering recapping, buy an LCR meter and good soldering iron that is temperature controlled. If your pulled caps are testing within tolerance, STOP, there's no reason to continue. And make sure those big supply caps are shorted and discharged before testing.

Sensitivity has more to do with the ability to pick up the station, not the quality of FM decoding. The stereo FM signal is not a simple RF analog of a stereo audio signal. The main FM signal is actually the L+R channel signals combined. That makes it compatible with older monaural FM demodulators. To get stereo FM, a difference signal (Left minus Right) is modulated onto the sidebands of the main signal. You can't hear them directly. The FM tuner demodulates (removes the FM carrier) this sideband signal, then takes the mono (L+R) signal and combines with the difference signal (L-R) which elimintes the right channel info. It also inverts the difference signal and combines with the mono signal (L+R) -(L-R) which negates the left channel. Those two derived channels become the Left and Right analog audio. Since you're receiving the monoaural signal OK, and the stereo light is on (which means the tuner is seeing the sidebands), somewhere in the tuner there is something going wrong with the inversion and summing process. On older equipment, the tuner is usually made of discrete components, meaning that something may be broken or mialigned that can be corrected. On newer equipment, FM demodulation is usually performed in a single integrated circuit that is not repairable. A technician with the proper FM alignment equipment can probably repair and/or realign your tuner.

I think you'll be disappointed. Your Cambridge is an excellent amp. I run the same on my audio-only system along with a rebuilt Scott LK48 tube amp, HK990 cd player, turntable and Thiel loudspeakers. Frankly, the only difference I can hear between the two amps is the slight hiss from the tube amp (which is typical of tube amps) and the inability of the tube amp to drive the speakers to the same bass levels as the Cambridge. Not that I don't like the Scott, but after listening to many different tube amps over the past few years (like Audio Research, McIntosh, Rogue), I just can't hear any real difference between good quality SS equipment and tube equipment. In your budget range, I think you're better off spending some money eslewhere.

I looked up a bit more information on this "new" cd format, and found that it's not a new format at all. It's just a different die material for the disk. I also found the claims to be absurd, and apparently written by someone who has no idea how digital technology works. There were no substantive technical tests, such as a bit to bit comparison of an SHD and conventional disk, which would be the ultimate test. And the subjective "audiopile' report, well, read it yourself: " I heard more definition, more air, smoother textures and nuances, a lot more depth, reduced digititus of all types, more of an analog sound and feel, bigger dynamics micro and macro …the whole ball of wax. I put some L’Art du Son on the SHM-CD for even better results. " That's pure audiopile mumbo jumbo, right down to the application of snake oil. I'm sure I won't be wasting any money on this "technology" anytime soon.

Well, with only one post to his credit, apparently he made like the neighborhood dog, left his pile on the lawn, and moved on.

Because you don't really know your way around electronics, you really should take the equipment to a technician if possible. You can get a pretty nasty shock if you don't know what you are doing and I'd hate to see you get hurt.

As you said, you know "where and how to escalate the issue with the retailer", so my real question is why you are involving the forum in what is a disagreement between you and the retailer? I'm not even sure that Klipsch corporate customer support is an appropriate place to go unless you have a warranty issue. So what is it you really want here? I doubt you're going to raise an army of consumer activists to march on Klipsch. I also doubt you will have potential customers running away from Klipsch because of a vague, anonymous rant on a public forum. Will Klipsch yank the dealership from your adversary? Also doubtful. Since you know where and how to escalate the issue with the retailer, I suggest you quite wasting your time whining, man up, and deal with the people who sold you the product. (or send it to Klipsch for service if it's not working properly.)