pretzelb

THe tracking number doesn't pop up until it actually ships, at least that's what seems to happen. After checking a few times I saw a shipping number. I even caught it when I had a number but FedEx didn't have it in the database yet. Now the problem is catching the FedEx guy at the door. They require signature.

I would think you could Google around and find a medical diagram about the ear canal. I haven't looked at such a thing since being a small child in the doctor's office but I think eventually the canal gets so small that nothing can pass through. I'm not even sure there is a connection to the throat. But could you get an allergic reaction to cause your throat to close? I suppose anything is possible. You could get one from something you eat too. Most importantly, if this is as bad as you say, why bother? Nothing wrong with headphones that go outside the ear. Life's too short to torture yourself over something as minor as a listening device. If we were talking about a fear of flying and your job required flying then I could see you trying to get over the phobia but for something as minor as headphones I'm not sure it's worth the bother. I like Klipsch and I don't want to run business away from them but I just see a strange priority order going on here.

Now I'm really depressed about my source. I had not heard of the Xonar U1 but the Predator must be nice. /Edit - With the DAC on the Predator, why do you need the ASUS Xonar?

I'm debating going this route. I don't like returning items if at all possible but there is no way to know ahead of time in this situation. One thing that worries me is after researching a bit I'm not sure I have a good source to test with as my iPod isn't really that great and the pocket amp I have is pretty cheap.

I went to the Cowon website the other day and looked at the specs for one of their players - it was an impressively long list of features. Some were bogus in my opinion (software to create mp3 files) but you still could tell that this was something geared toward the audiophile more than mainstream users. If I were in the market I'd have to consider one. I do know that on the head-fi forums you see Cowon in lots of people's signatures. The only issue I would see being possible is user interface. My first dap was Creative Labs and after a while I gave in and got an iPod. I hate all the hype Apple gets but they did do a great job on the interface.

You sure you want to go down this path Dreven? Like anything audio it's a path paved with information and money that can overwhelm even the bravest! Having said all that I'm no expert. I've read many a post on the topic enough to know I don't have the time to get into it full speed. Before you do anything you should look into your recordings. How are you recording your music? Even going with a certain recording format can make a huge difference. I think this also drives your selection in a player. For example, some find the Ogg Vorbis format to be what the require but few players can handle it. Even if you go with run of the mill mp3 you stlll have various encoders that some people will swear by. And changing your recordings can alter your file sizes which may dictate what player capacity you need. This assumes you don't want to bother with loading/unloading songs on to the player which is something that annoys me but probably not others. I do think you need to consider the file format first since it's like the foundation of a house and can alter your player choices. Have you considered a pocket amp? I have a very cheap one and it makes a big difference in some of my headphones. With an IEM you need to pay a bit more so you can get one with adjustable gain but amps can really improve things dramatically. You do lose some portability but just a little. One other thing to consider is line-out. This is huge for many, especially those with amps. I've read tons of opinions on the topic. Nice thing about the pocket amp is you can bypass the amp of your player and switch in the amp you prefer. You can even get an amp that is good for it's bass. You can find line out cables even for the iPod. I do fear if I get either the Image or the Custom 3 I will itch to get a new pocket amp. Good luck.

Something you read often when reading headphone forums is how everyone has a story about a friend who has the default headphones that come with an iPod and can't imagine ANYTHING being better. It's a lesson that I try to remind myself of all the time. For example, you find a good headphone (or speakers) and think you're cool - until someone lets you hear what it would be like if you added an amp to your setup. Even with my cheap Grado SR-60 I was able to add cheap PA2V2 amp to get a big improvement in performance. If you get into enough you'll start looking to upgrade cables and such. Which is why the Image vs Custom 3 debate is a tough one for me. I'm convinced sound quality is all important but when it comes to headphones or IEMs, comfort is a big deal. I'm listening to some borrowed beyerdynamic DT 250-80 and they sound pretty good. But I know that an amp would improve them dramatically and that maybe some other brand would sound better. But I also know that for the same price it would probably be splitting hairs unless I really need something like extra bass or something.

I think this is what is driving me nuts. I've sometimes thought that something could not be any clearer and then I've been proven wrong time and time again. In this case I wonder if the dual driver of the new Custom-3 will be what makes the Image seem "unclear". If you read reviews on any similarly priced IEMs that have been around a while you will eventually start to see a patern that usually justifies a price difference. But you don't know until you compare. Please do post more or as much as you can. It would be great if someone with some other IEMs would buy a pair and write some comparisons.

Well I suspected that going with another receiver would only be a lateral move so it's nice to hear that confirmed. To show how deep my ignorance goes, I didn't know about SS amps and preamps until today. Needless to say it's a bit scary trying to figure out a good match with such little knowledge. I did look at Audigon and saw the PS audio HCA for $525. It did seem like a good deal. But after browsing a while I think one problem might be that (unless I'm mistaken) an amp / preamp setup is not going to allow me to continue to use my setup for home theater. I'll continue to browse around but I'm pretty sure the better half won't put up with that.

Well, I can't argue that putting the money for home improvement is probably the best move. I was going to say the iPod can be great fun though as I've jumped on the bandwagon myself with an 80gb. I was going to say the 30gb is probably good enough (at least it looks like it would be for me) or that even a Nano would be great for someone who is out working a lot (I find the Nano to be more durable personally). One thing that I never thought I'd like is podcasts. I found a few that specialize in specific types of music that are just really fun for me to listen. It's like being able to tune into a far away radio station or getting free music.

I just got back from visiting my parents and decided to help my father hook up his new iPod Nano to his stereo. My father has Heresy II's just like me but he drives his with an old McIntosh MC250 amp setup that he bought when I was in diapers. After some work I was able to get the rig working and I was blown away with how much better his setup sounded from mine. To be fair it could be partially due to the difference in room setup but I think the majority of it was the McIntosh vs the Yamaha RX-V995 that I have. So I started to get the itch again to try and get a better receiver or amp for my Heresy IIs but it's been a very long time since I've shopped for any stereo equipment. To tell the truth, I did some looking on the stores over the holidays and I was totally clueless what to even look for. I did some snooping in the forums for old posts and I think what most would recommend is another old tube amp of some sort. I'd like to get something modern if I can just so I can still support my home theater setup and have simple features like mp3 player integration that my better half enjoys. The other problem is that I'd like to keep it fairly cheap if possible and pay under $900 (which is what I paid for the Yamaha years ago) though under $500 would be ideal. I'd like to hear both recommendations on specific products and get general information on what I should be looking for. Links would be welcome though I don't think there is anything like "Amp/receiver for Dummies" around (which is about what I need). As I said, I'm pretty clueless on all this so nothing will insult me. I'd just like to have a bit of confidence when I go shopping that I have some clue what I'm doing. It's pretty hard shopping for something to drive speakers when the speakers aren't in the stores anymore.

I'm debating adding a PC to my HT setup and I'm suddenly worried about the shielding on my Heresy speakers. How much distance is safe for you TV and your PC with the Heresy's? My HT room is pretty small so I have everything fairly close together. Now that I think of it, I wonder if I should be concerned about my DLP TV.

I have an RC3 with my Heresy's and it's not a bad setup. I think an RC7 would be better but I didn't want to spend the extra cash. It all depends on how particular you are. I'm not as picky as most.

Near the end of Minority Report there is a sudden gunshot that startled me (I was in the other room and had begun to tune out the movie because it got quiet) but that's not a good example. I agree with others who bring up the battle scenes in Pearl Harbor. Another fun one is "A Bugs Life" with the grasshoppers flying around.

Thanks DD. I just got back from a local Klipsch dealer (soon to not be a dealer) and they recommended the Pioneer Elite DV45A with my DLP, but they really didn't have a huge selection. But since they did have my DLP hooked up to a DV45A I may take a few movies down and watch some key scenes. It's $500 instead of the $250 I was planning on spending so I'm not too excited about the idea. The only Panasonic they carried as the RP62 - but I could buy that AND upgrade to an RC3 for the same price as the DV45A. I wish I enjoyed shopping.

Here's a low end Klipsch consumer point of view. I just got back from a local store (Hillcrest High Fidelity) and found out they aren't carrying Klipsch anymore. A little research found that Tweeter bought them last year. I guess Tweeter decided (very wisely IMHO) to let the store continue to operate as it's own and not change it. This is why I always had different experiences with Tweeter and Hillcrest. Now, I loved this store because even though I bought Synergy or low end reference stuff from them, they always treated me well. Also, it was nice to have someone actually know what a Heresy speaker was. Now that I know I don't have them to take care of me, I am seriously considering jumping ship to something like Paradigm. I've been to Ultimate Electronics and they were barely a step above Best Buy as far as service and knowledge went. It's really kind of sad. Like one poster said, I've always taken some smug pride in knowing that I had a system that was not well known but in many cases vastly superior. Kind of like being part of a private club. Business is business so I understand that Klipsch has to do what they think is necessary. But if it gets too hard for me to track down a dealer who knows Klipsch and can help me with my purchases, then maybe it's time for me to switch. Maybe this tells me that I didn't belong in the private club in the first place.

Seems like the CP72 is going to hard to find. Most places are carrying the CP67K these days.

Ahhhh, universal remotes .... definitely going to be a future post of mine.

Did a quick search on the avsforum and it looks like the Panasonic models mentioned are all good and don't have the chroma bug (which I didn't know about until this post). I am tempted by the Denon but the price tag is a bit much. I'm also tempted by the 5 disc changer models because then I can get rid of my ancient Sony 5 disc CD player along with my current non-progressive scan DVD player. Thanks.

With my latest HT upgrade of the Samsung DLP I'm being told to upgrade my regular Panasonic DVD player to a progressive scan DVD player. I have a few questions on this: 1) What should I look for besides component and optical connections? You can get them with a 5 disc changer for pretty cheap ($200) imho. But they also have tons of other "features" that I'm not sure make a difference or not. 2) I've heard that if you use the component connections you don't get the image correction from the TV - is this true? My TV has Faroudja video processing. I did a test with expensive S-video and component cables (using current DVD player) and found the component cables gave more color, but then a salesman told me that component bypasses the Faroudja. 3) Is it worth getting a DVD player with something like a Faroudja video processor? It seems like the main difference between the $200 and $800 range is the presence of an extra processing chip. I think that's it. Mostly I'm looking for some simple explainations of the features from someone not trying to sell.

Just to add more history to this thread - my guess is that a full Heresy setup would be best. I did get some RS3 for surround and they are nice but can't compete with the Heresys. I could see the RS7 making a better go of it so maybe the corresponding center (RC7?) would work.

I've updated my profile with my local. It's basically the Dallas area.

Thanks for the info. I hadn't seen that site before. I can't imagine shipping these mama bears but I guess it does happen. Now to just make up my mind.

I've been debating selling my front and center channel speakers for a while but I'm hesitant because the best way seems to be Ebay. I would rather not use Ebay if possible (shipping my Heresy's is a scary proposition) so I was wondering what other methods people used to sell their Klipsch.

Great replies thus far - thanks. I don't use this forum much but when I do it usually pays off. The only question now is how to get rid of the exisiting equipment, which is always an issue for me. I may post another question. I might look into replacing the Heresys with some Reference speakers.