Parrot

Same from me too, Art. You did a really nice thing getting these papers into the hands of others, and I am grateful for your time and trouble. Looks like fascinating stuff in here, leafing through it quickly.

Whew! What a deal. I wonder how Forward Air can be so cheap? That's about a third as much as trucking companies. I assume by their name that it goes by air? Or do they have some kind of land division?

m00n: $125 to ship 2 Belles across the country??? That would be amazingly cheap.

m00n, Anyway, nothing wrong with using a tube tuner with a tube amp. And there might not be anything wrong with using your DVD player for CD playback either. As long as it doesn't bother you, just forget about it and enjoy your music. You won't really know until you get your Belles anyway. Did you get a shipping quote yet? I hope you don't have a weak heart, for when you hear the cost!

m00n, A receiver is an amp and tuner combined, so if you get a receiver, you won't need an amp. Would you be using your DVD player for CD playback too? I would imagine there is plenty of variability between sound quality of different DVD players, especially if you compare older DVD models to newer ones. I personally wouldn't hesitate to use a good new DVD player for CD playback, especially an SACD/DVD combo.

m00n, You definitely would never need a 60 watt amp, considering you'll have some of the most efficient speakers ever made and since you don't want to listen all that loud anyway. 10 watts would be more than enough. You might very well seldom go over 1 watt. The more advice you get, the more different opinions you're going to get. And the fact that there is such a wide variety of choices shows that there is no ultimate right answer. It's similar to cars. Everybody has their own personal likes and dislikes. I think you should decide on whether you want tubes or solid state, and whether you want vintage or new. Since FM is important to you, I personally think you should get yourself a vintage tube receiver and have Craig go through it for you. If you don't want tubes, get a recommended vintage solid state receiver. The Harmon Kardon 430 for instance is getting a lot of praise in threads here (I had one as a kid) and if you got one of them, you'd have more than $900 left over to spend on other stuff.

Also, forgot to mention that UPS, FedEx, and USPS all have 130 inch length and girth size restrictions. That also rules out Belles, no matter the weight, even if they were just in saran wrap. From UPS: "Length is the longest side of a package or object. Girth is the distance all the way around the package or object at its widest point perpendicular to the length."

UPS actually will send stuff up to 150 pounds, even though 70 pounds is their normal weight limit. You have to pay an extra premium for overweight packages. I think FedEx Ground has the exact same arrangement. BUT, one Belle properly crated, not just with flimsy cardboard around it or something like that, will weigh MORE than 150 lbs. When I bought my center channel Belle, my seller disassembled it into two crates, and even then, because the 3/4-inch plywood crates were 50-60 pounds each, they were getting close to the weight limit! So, you can pretty much rule out the normal easy shippers. This pair of Belles is going to have to be shipped by a trucking firm of some kind.

This week was definitely Belle Week on eBay. Four different pairs were up for bid. More normal is one pair a month.

I'd unscrew and rescrew each connection, particularly if you have an old crossover/balancing network. If you're lucky, it could be as simple as a bad connection. You can't *see* a bad connection, so just go ahead and loosen and then retighten the screws.

Moon, Shipping can be a lot. I've looked into it before and every single time I would get a quote, the price would change. And the price quoted is always subject to change, until it is a done deal. They have no problem quoting you a cheap price initially, but the trucking firm will come up with a lot of extras to add on. Single shipment, extra. Non-commercial shipper, extra. If sender has it picked up, extra. If you have delivered to your home, extra. And so on. The only way to get a reasonable rate that I know of is if the sender has a commercial account. So you may want to count your blessings that you did not win, when you take shipping into it. Your best bet is to get a pair within driving distance. That way you are just out the time and gasoline, and you can make sure the speakers don't get damaged. I don't know if you are set on Belles because of the looks? La Scalas would sound very similar, and might be easier to fit in your room. They are 24 inches wide as opposed to 30 inches wide for the Belle. La Scalas are 6 inches deeper, but that probably wouldn't matter in your layout as much as width. In your first picture, the drawing you made for where the Belle would go--it wouldn't fit in those white lines. You should take the advice given above and arrange your room around your stereo and TV (if and when you buy new speakers). You don't have to have the speakers 12 feet apart, but 3 is not enough, either. You have plenty of space to work with to come up with something good.

Chris, and others: What exactly do you not understand about the edits? Kelly changed substance to his posts after I replied to the original posts. He did not change spelling, grammar, etc. I have said this three times or so and am real perplexed that people keep having the same response. This is akin to what 60 Minutes has been documented on doing on occasion: Refilming the question by Mike Wallace or whomever and insert editing into the interview. Then the person being interviewed is responding to something he was never asked. Now purely for exaggerated example: With editing, I could say that you are a f***ing jerk. Then when you replied, I could change my post to say that you are a great guy. Then people would wonder what was up with your nasty response. Changing substance after the fact is dishonest. That is why some bulletin boards do not allow editing after a post, or only for a few minutes. Kelly did not *drastically* alter his posts, but he did change them enough, and he did it after I pointed it out to him. Guess that's just part of Kelly's ol' charm, eh?

Anarchist, Your city, of course.

Torture question. Something like this came up on TV a year ago. You have a terrorist in your custody. He has placed a timebomb somewhere in the city and it will go off in 2 hours, killing hundreds of innocent people. But you don't know where it is. Do you torture him if that is the only way to get the information?

Great story on the LB designation, Builder!

Craig, Well, since you've probably been more annoyed by Kelly at different times than anyone I know, I do respect your view of things. I wasn't aware he was currently being attacked elsewhere.

paulparrot bashing is fine, on the other hand. Count up how many insults Kelly aimed at me, how many insults others aimed at me, and they will far outnumber anything I said.

Anyway, speaking of the Rega: On the other thread about the Planet, I gave a link to posts in which lots of people had compared CD playback on the Planet to CD playback (not SACD playback) on various SACD players. Some people preferred playback on the Planet, and some did not. But I didn't read a single post in which someone said he preferred a CD title played on the Planet compared to the same title on SACD. As I said, I haven't heard these CD players. But I have read about them. And it seems that they impart a sound to CDs that many people find pleasing. And that's great. But it is certainly not an accurate sound. It's a sound that is making some kind of change to the material to compensate for something else that is wrong, whether it be source material, equipment, or room, or simply it happens to match someone's personal taste. Not everybody who has heard the Rega likes it, but a lot of people do. It isn't a neutral player; that's what I have gathered from reading other people's experiences with it.

I made no personal attacks on Kelly and don't even know him personally. I do stand by everything I said. To quickly recap: I expressed my guess that Kelly had not even heard SACD. This did not come out of the blue by me in a Rega thread; Kelly brought up SACD in his first post. This turned out not to be the case; Kelly has given it a quickie audition. Then Kelly went to his patented condescending routine, which I chose not to ignore. Kelly then proceeded merrily to change his posts around, which had nothing to do with grammar, spelling, or punctuation and everything to do with making my replies seem a little skewed. I didn't let that slide, either. Then we have the "Kelly is wonderful" crowd come to his defense. No big deal. Let's not get all hysterical and predict the end of the Klipsch Forum as we know it.

Jobman, Sorry that you don't understand my post about Kelly editing. He didn't just fix a misspelled word, or decide to change a semicolon to a period. He changed matters of substance that I was replying to, faster than I could reply. Then he lied about it. Comprehend now?

Black Square is Mike? So he's copying you and changing his identity? Hmmm, let's see, you want me to ignore your posts but you're fine with commenting on mine?

Mdeneen, And you think Iran, Iraq, and North Korea are not evil? (The leaders of these countries, that is.)

Black Square, Mind your own business. Kelly, Again so disingenuous. Everybody knows why you are here, and everybody knows that you can't stay away.

mdeneen, Has anyone ever told you that you sound like a conspiracy guy, all paranoid and such?

****I only edited the writing and not any serious content.**** UNTRUE ****I did NOT edit out content to make my point.**** UNTRUE ****Do me a favor and pass over my posts as you dont seem to take much from them which is your perogative. Better than these type of responses. WE dont see eye to eye on anything much and now the retorts are just repetitive.**** How about this, instead. I'll read or not read any of your posts as I decide. I'll comment on any of your posts that I feel like commenting on. And if you want to comment back, or not, that is up to you. I like that way better.