Parrot

Chris, The reason they want your bank account number, I kid you not, is because the fine print reads that they can withdraw money from your bank without your permission if someone claims that payment was made to you without his knowledge. For example, Joe Blow sends you $500 through PayPal, you send him the item he paid for. He goes to his bank and says he didn't authorize the charge. The bank contacts PayPal and your money is frozen "pending investigation," which is liable to take two months. If you do not have $500 in your PayPal account, PayPal will take it out of your bank account. I know it is hard to believe, but it's true. If you want to investigate PayPal's notorious "chargebacks" you should look at a couple of sites: antipaypal.com paypalsucks.com If you have proof that you sent the stuff, you may or may not be covered under PayPal insurance. But once I got burned from them, I ended my account as soon as I could.

arena, It isn't a valid way for testing tonal accuracy to compare a CD to someone's memory of a vinyl record on a whole different system. Besides, there are very few cartridges that are neutral. Probably a good way to check the frequency responses of the two machines to see which is the neutral one is to have a nice high quality source recording, say an open reel tape or a DAT tape, and burn it onto a couple of CDRs. Then switch back and forth from source to Sony to Rega and listen for which one of the two CD players is truest. It is unlikely that Sony has goosed the treble. Far more likely that Rega has put a hump in the bass response.

Paul Klipsch and Klipsch literature are not overly concerned with having an ideal sweet spot. Looking through artto's Dope from Hope package, for instance, there is a 1989 diagram of one of Paul's living rooms. You can see he wanted a room full of sound. There isn't a seat in this particular living room of his that is anywhere near ideal. The couches are perpendicular to the speakers, not even facing them. If you sat on the far arm of one of the sofas, with your feet on the cushions, you'd be in about the right place! In other words, real life and WAF are something to contend with, and PWK was no exception to this. Also, in some early ads for Klipschorns, you'll see one placed next to a window, or a glass door, with stuff that could vibrate on top of them, etc. Real world, normal scenarios, that is, not set up for ideal conditions but nevertheless perfectly acceptable. Klipsch literature pictured several recommended placements for "ideal" stereo geometry. Surprisingly enough, not all of them had the speakers all the way in the corners. But all the layouts have the speakers on the floor, against the same wall, and toed in about 45 degrees facing the listener.

arena, You have every right not to like the Rega. And your evaluation seemed more than fair. So stick to your guns. You're going to be listening to whatever you buy, not me, and not anyone else who happens to love it. Since you initially are this opposed to its sound, experience shows that you will probably dislike it even more later, especially if you are talked into keeping it against your better judgment. While I agree that other equipment can always be improved, there is no way in the world that a CD player can be so good that it sounds bad on less than great equipment. It is possible to have the subtlest qualities of a CD player held back by other equipment, sure. But it is not possible that a great quality CD player is going to sound worse than a mediocre CD player because the rest of the components are just so-so.

Congratulations! They look great.

Arena, I would recommend you get yourself a Sony SCD-CE775. It is an extremely good SACD/CD player (no DVD) 5-disc carousel. It has been favorably compared to $1000+ CD players and that's not even comparing it to its SACD performance, just its Redbook performance. There is one (probably more than one) on Audiogon right now. This machine is a steal at $150. According to those who have compared it, it is just slightly below quality of the much-more expensive Sony SACD machines. http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?dgtlplay&1058370734 This is probably the biggest bargain in audio today. P.S. I wouldn't use the word "neutral" to describe the Planet!!!

Looking in the Dope from Hope papers, Vol. 12, No. 5, Klipsch recommended the University SAHF midrange driver (used on Klipschorn 1951-61) be replaced by the K-55-V. No doubt that the owner of these switched out the originals to the K-55-V, per Klipsch's advice.

http://tweakaudio.com/Cd%20tweaks.html I have not tried any of these tweaks and never plan to but am passing the link along for entertainment/educational purposes only.

Check out http://www.fullswing.com/audioprism/stoplight.html for a little info. This is one of the most famous of tweaks. I have purchased some used discs that have been treated with this, but of course I don't know what they sounded like before treatment. Most people think this idea is total unadulterated bullsheet. But a lot of high-end audiophiles swear by it.

If it makes your decision any easier, triceratops, I think you should buy these Klipschorns. How often are old ones this nice going to be within driving distance of you? If you don't want the Belles for something else, like say multi-channel, you can always sell them. Plus, few people have an *ideal* listening room. But you can probably make yours work well enough. I guess the drivers could have been "upgraded" sometime down the line. One of the nice things about this pair is that it is a *pair*. At that point not all that many people were into stereo. Since the serial numbers are different by a couple of hundred or so, it looks like the owner bought one initially and then a second was made to match. (They do match pretty well?) Which I believe would have entailed sending the first one back to the factory so they could find veneer as similar as possible.

Great looking pair of 1960 Khorns on eBay, been up for a day already. Dig those crazy grille cloths. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3024597691&category=14993

Indy, Taking 7 months to reply to a message is stretching it!

Skid, I don't think Dee has a CD recorder at all in his computer.

Dee, If you don't mind revealing what your favorite record is, let us know. Maybe someone already has this mysterious 1971 LP transferred. That place you mention probably does a good job, and isn't too outlandish if you're going to transfer only one record in your life. But it's not cost efficient if you wanted a lot of records converted.

DTlongo, Glad you're liking your K-horns. You pointed something out that needs to be repeated now and then. If you're used to hearing boosted subwoofered bass, when you hear an honest speaker no matter what it is, you're going to feel something is missing. But what's missing is unnatural. Everyone's heard dudes driving around town with their subwoofers at godawful levels. The other day I could hardly stand it and thought it was the car behind me. But the driver was female, and females aren't usually that nuts. She turned off and so I figured the awful thumping bass must be from the car that was behind her. I couldn't believe how awful it was. But that car turned off and then I was still hearing it. So, what I was reacting to, serious aural discomfort, originally had been 3 cars back! I'm not meaning to put you in this category at all, whatsoever, so no offense intended. But anybody in the modern generation who is used to listening to subs in a home theater is not going to be happy with a good speaker trying to reproduce real musical tones. I don't know how many times I've been in Circuit City or BestBuy and heard customers testing home theatres and car stereos by cranking the bass and the volume all the way up. Once at Circuit City I was clear on the other side of the store, away from the car stereo room, which had its door closed, and I could hardly stand it. The people in that room must have been insane. End of rant.

lynnm, I didn't say that one should buy only a Philips CD player, did I? However, I'm sure it's a piece of cake for an engineer to tinker with a fully developed product and make it sound warmer. This could make it sound subjectively better, and obviously Rega has a following. But the Rega people are not doing anything magical by making things sound less harsh. Nor are their engineers smarter than Sony's or Philips's. All they've done is chosen to design their circuitry to make the output sound "better" than the input. That's not what I want in a CD player.

leok, I seriously doubt if Sony and Philips players have more distortion than Rega. If Rega engineers were that superior, why didn't they invent the CD?

arena, Even though there are lots of people on this forum who swear by the Rega, I am skeptical about it for the same reasons you are. I don't want a CD player to EQ my CDs. If it makes a bright CD sound mellow, what will it do with a warm-sounding CD--will it end up dull? Personally I would rather have some flexibility with tone controls on my preamp or integrated amp than have a CD player coloring the tone that much without me having any control over it.

Artto, Your SACD player is stereo only, so you won't be able to do anything in regards to multi-channel with it. There were other reports of people not being able to play certain CDRs on it. Seemed to vary by what program was used to burn them. Some of the earliest SACD players didn't play CDRs at all, but all the models in the last couple of years play them easily. You should have no trouble selling yours if you want to go multi-channel. There are a lot of people that are strictly two-channel and your machine has superb reviews.

SACD has a lot more titles in classical and jazz than it does rock, but there are more coming out steadily. Try the Rolling Stones SACDs. They are not marked SACD on the outside package, and are just sold mixed in with the regular CDs. They are hybrid stereo, meaning will play on SACD or CD players. There are 22 different titles. They are all in digipacks (cardboard) NOT in jewel cases. And they all will say copyright 2002 in fine print. Don't get the old remastered ones--they are pretty poor. All the new ones sound great. But if you want just a couple, get Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed. Another excellent stereo SACD-only (not a hybrid) is Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde.

Dean wrote: *******Who the hell ever went to a live event and said, "Oh my, I love the way those violins hang left of center."? It's simply not something one cares about -- so why does it become of interest when people buy their system.******* Amen, brother. I have actually tried to locate instruments at symphony concerts with my eyes shut, and the ability to do it varies with location. In the cheaper seats, you hear the sound of the whole orchestra just fine but you sure can't precisely locate positions of the players by their sound alone. Another thing I read all the time is something like, "When Joe Smith played his guitar, he was in my room!" or "Miss X was on my lap!" These people are either exaggerating or have had a little too much to drink if they are so out of touch with reality that they think the musician is in their living room. I've heard recordings of female vocalists that sounded good, but I've never thought one was sitting on my lap. I'd notice that.

Congrats on your purchase. While you now have more power in your amp than you should ever need, I don't think you would be satisfied, in your large room and with your music, if you went to SET. You just would not have enough power with it.

Yes, rags soaked in linseed oil are potentially dangerous. There are warnings all over the can. You gotta be careful with this stuff, innocuous as it seems! Congrats on the speakers.

Hi Craighorn, If you're going to use multi channel SACD or DVD-A, I wouldn't try to get by with 4 speakers and a phantom center. There are some SACDs that absolutely require a center speaker and it can't be simulated. Some, for example, have the vocal and little else coming out of the center, and the front left and right have just vocal reverb. Phantoming it just wouldn't work.

For $670 the cardboard boxes should be veneered.