Marvel

Do a search on these forums for Decware Zen amps and you should turn up something. They have been mentioned a bit here and there. As I recall, most thought they were nice, but still too low powered, except for use on the horns with moderate listening levels. Marvel

Metal horns can tend to have a (YES!) metallic quality. Actually they might ring a bit, the horn resonating with certain frequencies. Many people use a caulking amterial on them to help prevent that, and a search for caulk on this board would help you find what folks here have tried. The fibreglass horns wouldn't do that as much. Some have made the mid/high horns out of wood, but that requires some interesting skills. I have a link to a site at home that has the steps one guy used for making wooden horns. Lot of work. Marvel This message has been edited by Marvel on 11-30-2001 at 06:02 PM

I thought it was very telling in January when Bill Clinton told the news media that there would be a slowing of the economy. Not because of anything that Bush or the Republicans were doing, only because he new it wouldn't last. Couldn't we get back to something more fun, like audio, tubes versus transitors, copper wire/silver wire? KHorns/LaScalas/Belles/Cornwalls/Heresies? Next thing you know, we'll start talking about religion. Marvel

Believe it or not, recording studios face the same problem, it's just that they spend big bucks for the design ahead of time, or they spend big bucks for fixing it all later. The '70s had most studios killing the room acoustics as much as possible, and then adding reverb, echo, etc., back in electronically. Explains some of the dullness of those albums. Listen to early Elvis recordings (I'm not THAT old) done at Sam Phillips Sun Records, and they are remarkably alive. The floors had linoleum and lots of reflections. Most new studios have a balance of recording areas to control the reflections and ensuing problems. The 'sound' of an instrument is more than the note it actually produces. All the overtones, harmonics, and room reflections give it is sonic character. Humidity and air pressure in a room also make a difference. Is there no end to this madness? Marvel

Gretsch made great instruments, and as folks in Georgia know, they are alive and well in Savannah: http://www.gretsch.com/index2.html Cheers, Marvel This message has been edited by Marvel on 11-24-2001 at 11:23 AM

The Audio SPace products are available in the US. The price is around $1000 for the little Houston. Here is a link to the company in HK: http://www.topintl-audio.com/eng/index.html Love those Moondogs, too! Maybe some day. Marvel

Wolfram, Wish I could understand more German. How much would those amps cost in US dollars? I have been tempted (hard when there is no money after just dropping a bunch on new computer hardware) to get the Sound Valves VT70i. This is and updated/new design of the old Dynaco ST70. EL34 output tubes, 35watts per channel. The Kit is $899 (ouch!!!) They had bought all the old Dynaco stuff when they originally went out of business. All made in the US, except the tubes I'm sure. http://www.soundvalves.com/vta70i.html Have a great Thanksgiving everyone, and for all those from other lands, thanks for the input here. Marvel

Part of the reason Cat7 would cost more than Cat5, and even more than Cat3 (used for telephones), is that there is a bit more copper for a given foot of wire. There are more twists per foot, giving it more noise immunity/rejection. The capacitance difference is especially important in digital signals, because you are talking about square waves. We're talking ones and zeros, on and off. If the capacitance is too high, the signal basically just gets shunted to ground, and won't go the distance. Audio being a sine wave (okay, a very complex sine wave) has less trouble with higher capacitance, but will still roll off the high end for the same reason. Speaking of cables, has anyone seen the interconnects that say they have a twisted pair for noise rejection, but are still an unbalanced line? Sounds like a marketing scam to me. They are around $25 a pair of cables. RCA connectors on each end, a braided shield, and a twisted pair for the cnter conductor(s). Seems that without going into/coming out of a transformer or using an electronically balanced I/O, it would be worthless. Marvel

DATs only record 16bit audio, the same as standard audio CDs. They work like a VCR in miniature, with a rotating head, so they can get a high enough data rate. An ADAT XT20 uses 20 bit, which gives a ton more detail. Folks who now use hard disc recorders or record on their PCs often use 24 bit/96Khz AD?DA converters. Incredible dynamic range and headroom, NO wow and flutter, almost zero noise. Big multi track recorders like the ones Sony uses for studio work run around $150k each for 48 tracks the last time I looked. Still not talking about outboard gear, mix desk, speakers, microphones, janitor, maintenance, rent ... Only someone with a rich uncle can go into the studio business. Then you still need talent. GIGO. Eats up disk space like crazy. All those master tracks get dumped back down to 16 bit for the CDs. What a shame. Marvel

As Gil points out, the high end starts rolling of with age, whether you listen to loud music or not. I have always been an acoustic musician, so things never were very loud in a performance situation. I think that hi fidelity audio is a little bit of an acquired taste. Like, I thought at some point in the past that Boone's Farm wine was good too, but it would probably make me gag if I tasted it now. Same way with audio. The little Sound Design, that must have had all of three watts output (and not SET output), with little cheesy speakers. Wow! It was good at the time. Marvel (52) Don't know how I could be this old, as it seems like yesterday I was listening to PP&M and the Kingston Trio to learn guitar!

The $150 price is for rental. The Sony for under a grand is pretty good for a portable DAT. Try this at American Musical Supply: http://www.americanmusical.com/item.asp?UID=2001110810032271&menu=&keyword=&item=TAS+DAP1 The Tascam prtable is about $1500. You can get their component models for around $500 on scratch and dent sales or whatever, like the D30 or D40. I have a D30 MKII, but is cost me about a grand three years ago. Excellent, but it only has line ins and outs (digital and analog) You can't hear it while it is running, as opposed to the ADAT (8 tracks, 20 bit audio). The transport in it is pretty noisy. Marvel

Theears, I actually like tubes. I actually like SS. As you have said, it is the music that counts. Unfortunately, the only tube gear I have at the moment is an ST70. It needs reworking. No offense to the TVA guys I know, but they have the voltage at the max here. The old, original parts won't take the punishment. There are way better tube amps and preamps out there, but I only paid $50 for it. Even if I spend another $150, it will be fien for me. I bought it used, and used it off and on for 15 years before it went into the closet the last time. Still working on building my LaScala clones, so the tubes will have to wait a little bit longer. More of my time is spent with my ADAT than listening in the living room. My monitoring is all done with small nearfields. Marvel

Tubes make the greatest impact on your wallet. Marvel

Reversing one channel's speaker leads will put the two channels 180 degress out of phase. Any material that was to be heard right in the middle would be out of phase left/right, and would drop in level by quite a few db. This would be most noticeable if you were stting equidistant from the two speakers. If you were off center a tiny bit, the phase relationships would be different. An old trick used in recording a large vocal group was to feed two speakers a mono signal, but reverse the polarity to one of the speakers. Have them facing each other in the studio. The single microphone would then be placed in the null point between the two speakers. People who weren't dead center could hear well enough to sing along with the tracks being played back, and have almost no level from the speaker playback. Saved the price of a bunch of headphones. Marvel This message has been edited by Marvel on 11-02-2001 at 04:36 PM

You can order an autoformer from: Universal P.O. Box 1300 Wylie, TX 75098 972 442 2231 voice 972 442 2233 fax Universal #3619 This is Al Klappenberger's replacement for a T2A out of an AA network. He would probably know whether or not it could be used for the T4A. He uses this for his LaScala crossover design that REALLY does sound good. You could contact him at alk@alkeng.com or visit his web site at http://www.alkeng.com/klipsch.html Or send an email to Trey Cannon at Klipsch and ask what they cost from them: cannont@klipsch.com Marvel

Mike, You might really like David 'Fathead' Newman's release of Duke Ellington material called Mr. Gentle / Mr. Cool. It is a '94 release on Kokopelli Records. He played with Ray Charles' band in '54, so he has been around a long time. Just saw him live this summer and all I can say is wow! This is the only album I have of his, and if any of the rest are like it, you can't go wrong. He plays sax and flute. Allan, Nice looking site. Cheers, Marvel

Jim, These are the values for the K-33-E: SPEC 15162 PART # K-33 RE OHMS 3.39 LE MH .96 QM 7.39 QE .410 QT .390 XMAX MM 8.20 BL TM 11.88 EFF % 2.91 FS HZ 34.46 MMS GMS 78.59 CMS mm/N .2714 RMS NS/M 2.3037 VAS LTRS 301.66 SD SCM 889.59 EBP 84.4 SPL dB 96.6 Wattage 150rms Download a copy of Winisd http://www.linearteam.dk/index.html (speaker design software), or other software and put in the parameters. Choose the box type (vented, sealed), and see what size it needs to be. If you are making a sub, you won't need anything but the woofer. I'm not saying it will sound good or do what you want, but it could be a start. BTW, Decware has some interesting plans for subs also, but they wouldn't match your speaker. Marvel

djk, I would like to place an order. Can you up that to 2.4 GHz for me while you're at it. My microwave is on its last legs, and I could use it for double duty as a satellite uplink. I could probably cook a whole cow on the hoof with that too. Marvel

Tubnube, You would love the LaScalas. I'm still working on getting a pair. I currently have JBL 4311s (original fabric grills, from 1972), the 'Studio' version of the L-100s. They are only rated at 91db, and mine do quite well with big or little amps. The LS will take you were you want to be. Just think of them as headphones you sit between. Tubes are great, the "little city at night", and they help keep you warm in the winter! Marvel This message has been edited by Marvel on 10-18-2001 at 08:06 PM

Uh, Ray, A concert A is 440 Hz, so a middle C, slightly lower is around 261.?. I don't have my chart here at work. Guess this makes up for my trying to explain power/watts/dBs! Every octave up is a doubling of freq., so an octave higher than the A above middle C is 880 Hz. Going down an octave would cut the freq. in half. But really Ray, your exlanations are GREAT! Marvel

The K33-E, the speakers you would get from Klipsch, are made for them by Eminence. You cannot get them directly from Eminence, but only from Klipsch, as they are made to Klipsch specs. However, Eminence provided me with the specs: SPEC 15162 PART # K-33 RE OHMS 3.39 LE MH .96 QM 7.39 QE .410 QT .390 XMAX MM 8.20 BL TM 11.88 EFF % 2.91 FS HZ 34.46 MMS GMS 78.59 CMS mm/N .2714 RMS NS/M 2.3037 VAS LTRS 301.66 SD SCM 889.59 EBP 84.4 SPL dB 96.6 Wattage 150rms You might be able to get an Eminence dealer to order it cheaper, but at $100 each from Klipsch, it isn't bad at all. Marvel

Hi all, Still working on this project, just have other projects in front of it for a while. I have two more questions for those who are far more knowledgeable than myself. The LS horn flare isn't very smooth at all (I know, it was an industrial speaker first). After the initial flare (left and right) the horn stays the same as it comes toward the front (about 7 1/2 inches). Then it flares again, to the the mouth. I figured up the area for these three different sections, and figured out I could have the flare be more constant (or continuous at least) when I build them. As TBrennan says, he thinks they will go high enough to then cross at 500Hz anyway, but would this help out any? Someone had mentioned that adding the corner reflectors caused some funny output in the upper end, but this might be a better solution. Couldn't do what I have in mind on a stock LS, but these are starting from the ground up. Also figured I could make the cabinet just enough wider to make those side parts be 3 inches across instead of 2 3/4. Perhaps I will make these and run some tests, before I get the mid/hi horns. The other is the wood I was going to use. What I had thought was birch that I had purchased before, turned out to be 'golden virola' a wood from South America. It has very clean grain, and has nine (count 'em: nine) plies. all the same wood. It is used for cabinet making and furniture, but wondered if anyone here has used it before. The birch here is running around $44 a sheet, while the virola is only $34 right now. Thanks for the input, Marvel BTW, I got to hear John Albright's LaScalas a few weeks go. Sweet! Took over a David "Fathead" Newman CD of Duke Ellington songs. Sounded like they were playing in the room. ================= After reading some of DJKs old posts on another forum, I realized the reason for the two different flare rates on the LS. Still wonder about the sides remaining constant. This message has been edited by Marvel on 10-16-2001 at 07:49 AM

Maybe just have some of Handel's 'Water Music' on hand! I know there are a lot of variables in any speaker, and magnet size is just one. My son worked at a movie theater that had those JBL compression drivers that weighs in around 30lbs. They will empty your wallet quicker than anything. Marvel

A 30 ounce magnet for the sub. It is funny how things change. My old JBL 4311 Studio Monitors have a 25 ounce magnet on the tweeter. The woofer has a 6.5 pound magnet. How is the amp cooled? Some subs have amp compnents inside the cabinet, and actually use air flow through the port to help cool the amp. Marvel

djk, You are a hoot! Slon, Pay close attention to what djk says. He KNOWS pro audio very well. He may sound opinionated (who isn't?), but he does know his stuff. Most people on this forum (wonderful, caring, helpful), are in this for home use. It is a whole other ball game when you move to PA use. I used some home built LS cabinets for PA use once, and they were made by djk. They rocked, but I also only used them within their limits. Actually, I never pushed them very hard at all. They sure weren't stock either. You want to use them in an 11' by 15' rehearsal space? Watch out for open mics. Almost lost my hearing once with feedback doing a small room like that. (That was from some EV Eliminators from djk. The horns ARE efficient.