chuckears

Not sure you could classify The Sixth Sense as a sleeper film... it grossed nearly 300 million at the box office domestically, and 380 million overseas...

Quiz Show - directed by Robert Redford, a riveting dramatization of the quiz show scandals in the late 50's, specifically Charles van Doren's run on the show "Twenty-One" Searching for Bobby Fischer - One of my favorite sports films; and if you disagree with my defining chess as a sport, it's more about fatherly expectations, and includes training, the "slump", and more edge-of-your-seat drama than some of the athletic-oriented films That Thing You Do - Tom Hanks directorial debut - about the "one-hit" Wonders, and featuring a very catchy tune, and some warm nostalgic nods to the early 60's Intolerable Cruelty - one of the Coen Brothers less-lauded films, a terrific satire of divorce among those of means. Plus it features the lovely Catherine Zeta-Jones... Galaxy Quest - warm-hearted spoof of TV space fantasy fandom and the egos of the performers from the shows - with some surprisingly good special effects when it gets real

I bothered with this show for about three years; I tuned in a few times this year, but have found the results to be so skewed to teenage girls and their texting skills, am completely bored with the competition aspect of it. I like hearing some of the creative song renditions, but it looks like it's all being so heavily produced now, we are unlikely to hear a brilliant performance like David Cook's Billy Jean a few years ago...

The Academy crossover sends the same signal to both woofers; I built an outboard crossover a few months ago, working off of the original crossover schematic that many upgraders here on the forum have used, including Bob Crites.

I had a single crack at one of the screw-holes in my tweeter, as well; it seems it was overtightened either at the factory, or by the previous owner messing around with it. You could remove the terminal cup in the back, but you would have to have a small wrench handy to disconnect the internal wires that go from the terminals to the crossover network; if memory serves, there is not much "play" in the length of these wires, which is why you would have to loosen them up. The next obstacle is going to be the foam pad that is most likely double-folded, and fills that interior of the cabinet between the drivers and the back of the box... if your hand is small enough, you might be able to scrunch it down a bit and access the back of the driver you need to check the connections on... it is pretty tight in there, so take it slow and patiently. And you might need a flashlight. Or, you could try using your fingertips to "finagle" the offending driver out, but be careful... you would want to have the front of the speaker facing up, to prevent the weight of the magnet from dropping the driver forward and down. I was not able to perform this procedure on mine, due to how well the driver was sealed/stuck in place. I am not aware of an online manual that would describe the inner workings of the Academy... I'm guessing that speakers are too simple to warrant an actual service manual, compared to other components with many circuits and moving parts... Hope this info helps...

Congrats on your score; it took me several months and many disappointing near-catches to finally nab mine for my Forte mains HT... and the previous poster is correct about the drivers. The same signal is sent to both woofers, so their response should be roughly the same. When you check for loose wires, I would start by removing the tweeter first. You will have to angle it slightly to get it through the opening. If you can't see the woofer terminals through the tweeter hole, and have to remove one of the woofers, you might have to reach in and push up on the woofer magnets to dislodge them - mine were sealed in pretty tight by pressure or adhesive... The crossover is screwed to the top of inside of the cabinet, towards the rear and above the terminal cup. Hope it's an easy fix!

jdm56, So glad your niece and family and friends made it through the storm OK... did they have a vehicle with them left intact? The video and photos of the plethora of mangled vehicles are incredible...

I've been in the area since 1969, and while there have always been severe storms and tornadoes, the frequency of these powerful, deadly storms with monstrous tornadoes has increased nationwide in the past few years.

http://cmsimg.news-leader.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?NewTbl=1&Site=DO&Date=20110522&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=105220802&Ref=PH&Item=12&Maxw=640&Maxh=410&q=60 Thankfully, my city of Springfield was not in the direct path of the storms, but my mother worked at (and thankfully retired from) the hospital that was blasted by the tornado that went through - and seemingly wiped out a third of - Joplin last night. My thoughts and hopes go out to all of those affected, and here's hoping for a more calm remainder of the storm season (which seems to be for a larger portion of the calendar year, as global temperatures continue to rise).

JerolW got it right; I would probably go with the flank, although you will need to trim off the silver skin if it hasn't been trimmed already, and try not to get too thick of a piece - those tend to have more fat and silver skin in the layers.

Curious about the tuning of those bass bins... did you conduct any measurements to see at what point those begin to fall off? Those mid-horns are beautiful, and I have to agree with your assessment of the importance of the midrange in this type of design.

Moll was one of Cobb's "projections", which tend to be aggressive towards anyone who seems threatening or out of place, like the people on the street bumping into Ariadne in her first foray into "architecture", and the angry mobs seething toward the dream hotel in the opening sequence (projections subconsciously created by Saito - Ken Watanabe's character). The "Projection Moll" was not necessarily indicative of the real person, who - according to Arthur - was "lovely" (before being messed up by staying in limbo too long, then subsequently bringing the idea that Cobb planted in her mind back to reality). You should really watch it again, and pay close attention to all of the incidental dialogue, which helps to set up the rules and ramifications of the subtle mental invasions. My favorite film of 2010 - story, audio quality, visual effects, and sheer inventiveness. There really isn't any other director working on the same level as Christopher Nolan right now... I can't wait for the next installment of his Batman series.

Still the best film of last year, for me...

I am a moderate-volume listener, but like acoustic music at live-sounding levels, and would be running them as the mains in my modest home theater set-up. Is there any cost-to-performance value between the AA, Al-3 through -5 series that would qualify as the best value, given my stated listening preferences?

If I were to acquire a 41 year-old pair of La Scala's with the original type A crossover network, I would definitely upgrade... I have noted that the AL-3 is a lot more complicated than the more simple A or AA's, and am wondering what the extra circuitry in the AL-3 accomplishes, and which would be more desirable?

I use two of these... extremely reliable, and most likely helped to save my rack full of gear from a whole-house power surge a few years ago when the weather head was struck by half a tree during an ice storm... http://www.ecoustics.com/htr/reviews/1106

My Hsu TN1220 was a very musical sub; I had it set up with my Fortes for 2 channel at first, then later as part of my HT setup. It was crucial to use the Hsu "bass optimizer" unit that they recommended to balance out the physics of the over-damped tube that was the TN1220 - it added an additional 5 Hz to the bottom octave for me. When I had it set at 40 Hz, with my Fortes taking everything higher, it was the closest to the elusive "live" sound I ever heard from my system (it was all helped by the $3500 McCormack amp/preamp combo I had at the time). I bought the Hsu VTF3 a few years later as a second sub, and it helped to balance out the sound so that the bass was no longer locatable. For music listening, and with a good setup, I found my Hsu subs to perform very well with Klipsch. I no longer have the units, having built my own for my HT, to reach down and pick up the sub-20 Hz material on DVD and Blu-Ray film material. But I would never accuse Hsu subs of not being musical, at least when properly set up...

Just to chime in with what others have said: I have owned a pair of Forte I's for over 22 years, and nothing I have heard during that time period, with the exception of Klipschorns, has made music come alive, or fill a room, like the Forte, and this includes modern speakers costing over $5,000/pr. They are very sensitive to upgrades... the better the source and amp, the more they will perform for you.

Finally had a chance to put the QSC-RMX2450 running my two home-built subs through its paces. I solved the fan noise issue by swapping it out with a quieter unit from Digikey - it isn't silent, but it is barely noticeable, much quieter than the central air running in my house. I put some small pieces of black tape over the power and signal lights, and they are no longer an issue. I also introduced the Samson S-Convert to the signal path between my Anthem Processor and the QSC, to bring the line level up to the professional level that the amp expects. I have been thus far been impressed with its effortless ability to keep up with everything I've thrown at it. I balance both subs independently at reference level, then when I run them both, it adds up to a gain of about 4 dB over reference, which I turn down to just 1 or 2 dB over reference; after viewing some very bass-heavy Blu-Rays (Pirates of the Caribbean, Iron Man II, Inception), I have been struck not only by the performance, but by how cool the unit runs. My Crown K1, which did not use a cooling fan, ran very hot after such material - I would swear that you could cook an egg on top of it after a vigorous sesssion. The QSC is barely above room temperature on the top of the enclosure, and never seems to break a sweat. This is hard to nail down, but I do notice a little tonal difference in the bass between the QSC and the Crown, as well; I would have to characterize it as a little more balanced with the upper range of bass I'm throwing at it (in the 50 - 70 Hz range); I was concerned at first that the Samson S-Convert was cutting off some of the very low content, below 20 Hz, and I was hearing the mid-bass more because of it, but a check of frequency sweeps running in increments between 5 Hz and 80 Hz indicates that I am not losing balance in the lowest frequencies. I view it as another splash of water on the frequently re-kindled "all amps sound the same" fire... I'm just surprised to notice it with a unit driving just the lower frequencies. I look forward to continuing my listening evaluations; a LOTR marathon is due, I think - I haven't had a chance to watch the entire trilogy on Blu-Ray yet...

Pete, Your fans must have been better, newer, or a different model than, the one in my (used) RMX2450... it literally sounded like a small vacuum cleaner was running when it was turned on. Painfully obvious, even to my wife, whose hearing is not nearly as acute as mine. The $8 Digikey fan I put in its place has no whine, just a low-pitched whoosh from the air movement. Since these amps are made for live music, stacked in a pro rack, I'm sure it is not a concern of the fine folks at QSC, but for home use, at least for me, the noise was way intrusive, espcecially during quiet passages in music or film. Glad these are working out for you; mine is powering my two subs, and I have not yet had a chance to hear everything of which it is capable...

Interesting you have run into this problem. When I first started with an active crossover I had some issues which led me to the S-convert. But, I found that box to have a 'popping' sound when turned on. I ended up sending it back and just working with direct connections from consumer to pro audio. I have not run into the issues you describe going from my Integra, via XLR, to my active crossover and then to the amps. I have checked with others that have gone direct from a pre/pro to an amp and they have not mentioned the issue as severe as yours. I wonder if it depends on the particular source component. Next week I am going to go from my pre/pro to a Behringer amp for my passively crossed effects speakers. I hope I don't run into that issue. I do know there are some pro amps out there that allow you to switch the sensitivity to match consumer gear. Right now I don't recall which ones, but I have heard or read about some. You might want to look into that to solve your sensitivity issue. Interestingly, none of my amps are at maximum sensitivity. The highest setting on any is half way on the amp. Otherwise, they are too loud and out of balance in the other direction. My Crown K1 had a switch for higher sensitivity, but it still required being turned on full, with the settings I previously described. Perhaps subwoofers require a higher output signal than full-range speakers? Not too worried about the "popping sound", since I tend to leave my processor and amps on all of the time, which will include leaving the S-Convert turned on...

I used a Crown K1 for my subs for years; when it tanked, I replaced it with the QSC-RMX2450. First complaint after turning it on was the fan noise; terrible loud, but I solved with by swapping it out with an $8 replacement from Digikey. The fan is still audible, but is a quiet whoosh as opposed to a whiny vacuum cleaner. My next two issues with the unit are: 1. How bright the power and signal lights are; my equipment rack shares the same wall as my display, and the lights are distracting when watching anything, so am going to address that with either window tint or a dry-erase marker, and 2. The lower line level from consumer gear vs. pro amplifiers; with both the QSC and the Crown before it, I had to turn up the gain on the amp all the way, and set the sub output in my HT processor way higher than 0 to get the proper balance. This seems inefficient to me, so I have a Samson S-Convert on the way (similar to the ART Cleanbox, but without the sub-30 Hz cutoff), and am hoping to find a better balance with this. I am otherwise very pleased with the aesthetics, build quality, and sonics of the QSC.

We've grown so accustomed to listening with the 5.2 system all of the time, we can barely tolerate or even hear the output from the TV speakers...

The QSC is in place; after replacing the horribly loud cooling fan with a whisper-quiet unit from Digikey, I am very pleased. A solidly-built piece of equipment that I hope I don't have to lift up out of the rack again any time soon... Just waiting on the arrival of a Samson S-Convert to bring the line level up from commercial to pro, so I don't have to crank the gain up full on the amp (had to do the same thing with the Crown K1), and hope to be subwoofage-satisfied for a while...

My Crown K1, which powered one, and later two, home-built subwoofers has played out on me; after two days of fast and furious research, I have decided to replace it with the QSC RMX2450 - 750 watts per channel into 4 ohms... should be here next week. I'm curious as to whether there are any current owners/users of this unit... my only concern is for the fan noise, but understand that can be swapped out with a quieter unit...