Parrot

Bill, I now understand where you're coming from. I run my stuff without invoking bass management or room correction.

Now hold on there, Mr McGoo! SACD does not have lower quality sound at all, let alone because it has analog outputs. These analog outputs go right into whatever amplification is used. By not processing them from analog to digital and then digital to analog back again, you're saving two sets of conversion. That can only help matters.

Often the rear channels will have the sound of the recording venue in them: the music of the performers reflecting off the walls. Properly done, this will give you a sense of being in the original recording facility. But what is assigned to the rear channels is up to the producer and artist. Sometimes the mixes are aggressive and you will have, say, separate guitars in the rear speakers than in the fronts, or background vocals, or something like that. A lot of people like the conservative approach of having ambience in the rears; others like a more active use of the other channels, as was the case with a lot of quadraphonic mixes of last century. It's almost a guarantee that one or another camp is going to be disappointed. Now me, I like either approach; variety is the spice of life.

This has come up a lot at Audio Asylum: http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.pl?forum=hirez&n=45018&highlight=15-1952&r=&session= You get two Radio Shack switchers and that will do the trick.

I don't see any point, beyond having fun and experimenting, in radically changing an integrated amp into essentially a power amp. There are already plenty of Eico power amps to choose from.

Congratulations, Pat. You'll love them. I bought my 1976 Klipschorns in 1987 and wouldn't dream of parting with them.

Clipped, I would guess: 1) Zero feedback has people concerned on a big-ticket item 2) Bidders might be waiting until last few seconds 3) Whoever wants a pair this week is not in the NY area

Andy, Could you tell me, and I'm sure others would like to know, how often anyone ordered exotic finishes on Klipschorns when you worked there? I'm talking Zebrawood, Ebony, Teak, Rosewood, Cherry, or any other unusual ones that aren't listed in the literature. Thanks, Paul

These speakers were up not too long ago and didn't hit reserve. I don't recall what they were bid up to before. I think piano black would look nice. Was this some kind of aftermarket finish?

Dean, My reading of this was that you expressed interest, but were waiting for further info. In the meantime, JM decided to go for it, and assume some risk on condition and the zero feedback rating. Nothing wrong with that. I'm glad somebody on this board decided to buy them before someone else in eBay land. It was around $750 worth of speakers for $395.

Max, I have that particular Reader's Digest set myself. I had to lay out $2 for it at a local thrift store. Mine is a long way from mint though. I'm going to run cleaning experiments on them. One might think that these would be cheap-o performances, but that's not the case at all. This box comes from sometime in the early 1960s, when classical music still sold in significant numbers (I understand it's considerably less than 1% of the market now). RCA and Reader's Digest had a good budget, and they hired conductors and orchestras to perform these pieces expressly for this set. In other words, they didn't just grab some already-made recordings and reissue them. I think you will enjoy your set of "Magnificent New 'Cyclophonic' Miracle Sound Recordings."

The destruction and desecration of all that fine wood is sad. I didn't know people were that dumb nowadays. I've been in lots of homes that had their hardwood interior painted white, but what you describe is truly insane, as you say.

Thanks, Mike. You're probably right. Isn't there a discount on shipping for military personnel? Or maybe free?

I wonder where Klipsch's overseas business was/is mostly? When I visited the Hope factory many years ago, they were filling a huge crate, maybe a railroad car, full of speakers. They told me once it was filled, they'd ship it, and that they had quite a healthy foreign market.

Which one of these cars had the best stock amplifier?

Don't be such a jerk, Tom. Are you jealous or just having a bad day in general?

Audio Asylum is different than the Klipsch forum. Audio Asylum is privately owned. It is paid for by donations of readers and by manufacturers. I don't know how much the manufacturers pay because I am not a manufacturer. But the point is, if one manufacturer pays as a sponsor and another sneaks in ads, that's going to anger the manufacturers who pay. It is not that the AA is against sellers--it just wants them to help pay for expenses of running the site. Klipsch, it would seem, likes to have a free flow of info, even when someone posts "I hate Klipsch and only listen to Bose." But they probably wouldn't let Bose run free ads every day either.

The SACD of "Kind of Blue" *does* have hiss. Maybe Troy meant it doesn't have a *lot* of hiss. But it's present and it's good hiss--the hiss from playing a tape, not the hiss from playing a multi-gen tape. There's no filtering going on, Mobile. I've noticed that a fair number of people are close-minded about SACD, and that a lot of times it's vinyl fans that don't want to give it a chance. SACD and vinyl can co-exist; Sony isn't confiscating old LPs quite yet. I'm not going to twist anyone's arm to listen to SACD; if you don't want to try it, out of loyalty to the LP, it's no loss to me. Yesterday I bought 22 near mint classical LPs for 79 cents each at Volunteers of America. I've got nothing against records.

Randy, Al isn't getting rich selling his networks. Do you have a hippie background or something, that makes you suspicious of commerce? You are out of line to criticize Al's design when you haven't followed his design. That reminds me of a recent case where I gave a couple women directions to a picnic. They arrived late, all upset and in a huff, and told me that they made it there through no thanks to me, because they weren't about to follow my stupid directions! (Even though I'd lived in the area for 20 years and they'd never been to it before.)

Hiss is good, as long as it's the hiss from the master tape. This is not to be confused with hiss generated from multiple generations of copying, like we are familiar with on cassettes, for example. If there isn't any hiss on an older recording, that should set off warning bells. That would mean that the recording has been processed to remove the hiss, and that cannot be done without affecting the music as well. The most excellent Bob Belden has been working on the Miles SACDs. Here is an old post from Audio Asylum: *****Bob Belden has weighed in on the DSD transfers he's produced. Some interesting comments, including the fact that the U.S. and Japanese versions are the same DSD remasters: "Every issue of Miles Davis titles that come from Japan were mastered by Mark Wilder and Seth Foster in NYC. The Japanese use the US generated masters. The difference in sound (if there is any) is due to the manufacturing specifications of each country. "These new (2000) Japanese issues are downconverted from DSD masters. In mid-2002, Legacy will release "Filles De Kilimanjaro", "Water Babies" and "In A Silent Way" as single CD's. They will be mastered from the current analog masters using DSD. For "In A Silent", the original 1969 analog master will be used as the tape is in great shape. "Filles" will have an extra track as well as "Water Babies". "Every version that has been issued is going to be different than the previous. In the eighties and nineties, Columbia had difficulty addressing digital information and had reissue producers who were mere clerks. As a result, many of the issued CD's were from second or third generation masters. Starting in 1996, with the Mastersound series for Japan, close attention to the original source became the focus of the project. For instance, Round Midnight had been issued on CD using a third generation Dolby A copy (made from a second generation (1973) Dolby A Ampex 456. On the DSD reissue, the original tape made in 1956 was used and the difference is subtle but stunning. "'Live At The Blackhawk' (both volumes) suffered from complete deterioration of the master two-track analog tape, (a fourth generation Dolby A copy made on Ampex 456-the worst case senario) so the DSD mastered version (made in November of 2001 for Japan) was created from the original three-track master mixed directly into the Genex (the DSD master) using minimal sonic adjustments.That is a close to the original source you are going to get, and it represents the best aspects of the music." *****

The best version is the SACD.

What some guys will do in pursuit of the WAF: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1382959638

DocJ, Check to see exactly what number is on the tubes instead of EL84. EL84 is also known as 6BQ5 but that doesn't seem close to what you mention. You need to have the correct tubes in there, even if the wrong ones don't blow up.

Al, What does "quality factor" mean?

HF-81 original kit price was $69.95; wired was $109.95.