Colin

no ski vacation to Idaho/Montana this year

I don'. Can't abid the pop & click, wow & flutter. But is anybody going to send in their picture and story to CNN?

I don't use credit cards anymore. Don't finance any purchases.

Send CNN iReport your story and at least two photos: One of your collection and one of you with your favorite album. Your stories and photos could be part of a CNN.com story, and maybe someone can convince me to get the record player out of storage. http://ireport.cnn.com/ir-topic-stories.jspa?topicId=476632&hpt=Mid

All of us have had to cut back during this global economic depression (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depression_%28economics%29). I gave up on my plans for a 7.2 Khorn home theater and LaScalas in my pick-up! I even bought a bathing suit at Wal-Mart. I save money by driving the same pick-up for another year (216K miles), letting my miniature coral reef aquariums go, eating more rice and charging my girlfriends a dinner for doing odd miscellaneous favors. How are you saving money?

The Fisher is an excellent receiver, so says my experience and Stereophile magazine. Big ole horns are cheap to the market because they are big, people think that the drivers, like new cone speakers, may have been worked hard, and the models are not so popular anymore. Generally, you can get far more speaker in the used market than you can in the new market. There is no comparison between a new Reference model bookshelf speaker and a big ole used Heritage horn for the same money. Typically, the Heritage models will give you wider soundstage, higher efficiency, heavier cabinets and more shallow impedance dips. Absolutely go hear the other system regardless of whether or not you are interested in those speakers or not. You will definitely learn something. You can start with Khorns. Mine were $1K. LaScalas can be found for $500.

1. Nelson Pass had a article on why traditional solid state amps should bejudged by their weight. 2. Chip amps, like the Sonic can sound very good on big ole horns: Yet, on cone loudspeakers of average efficiency, the TA-10 is not nearly loud or dynamic enough to be emotionally satisfying. Playing music and movies was almost always with the volume knob at the noon position. There is some icing missing from its otherwise delicious cake. The feast of music is not complete. Not so with big ole horns. On my classic Klipsch corner horns, the petite TA-10 revved and rumbled as loudly as a Vette. Like most pre-amplifiers, except the delightful Juicy Music Merlin, the problem for normal listening was finding the spot between 7 and 8 on the dial where the music was neither inaudible, nor too loud. Twelve o'clock on the big ole horns was way too loud for most of my smooth jazz listening. http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0707/trends_audio_ta101.htm But I would seriously investigate an integrated tube amp with your horns. The combination of ultra high efficiency and second order harmonic distortion makes music.

It is important to the ongoing serious dialogue within your relationship that you continue this wonderful non-verbal communication. By paying attention and being responsive to her wants and needs, you are showing that you care about her and find her attractive and desirable. Therefore, no matter what she says, keep moving the soft little scrubby thingy. This lets her know that you heard her and are repsonding to her actions with a reaction of your own. You are keeping the relationship foremost in her mind and giving her something to think about, "now what has that crazy man gone and done?" Such non-verbal communication is crucial in a long lasting, vital, meaningful relationship. And, it is far more effective than slapping the *****!

There is no doubt in my mind that my brief double-blind results with the DACT Dual Connects are repeatable. Studies have shown however, that the typical person off the street has so little experience with live unamplified music that they do not know or can describe what effects they are hearing. So trained listeners prove to be more reliable. I firmly believe that when educated as to what "more detail and less chest in the male vocals... imaging, and a delicacy ...greater extension of the bass... texture of the sax... cymbals stand out in the background. Drums imaged in space alongside the piano... almost no edge...and project image into the room" means, that trained listeners too will notice the same differences that I did.

The source equipment and material I used were described in the two-part article. To wit, "For convenience, the initial run-through tests swapped the silver patch cords between a basic Onkyo R1 CD player and Red Wine Audio's Clari class "T" digital amplifier, using a vintage Altec-Lansing Model One loudspeakers in my home office." I forgot what I was using in my office at the time. I intentionally refer to the same popular jazz standard, Stan Getz/ Joao Gilberto "The Girl From Ipanema" (1997), through-out the tests, although other test CDs were in the mix (http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Magazine/music/1004/testdiscs.htm). For "hard empirical measurements that provides quantifiable evidence that one cable offers clearly superior characteristics and sonic improvements over" another, I offer the brief double blind test my girlfriend and I conducted with the DACT Dual Connects. Each of us swapped out the interconnects without the other one knowing which one. Now I know that statistically we needed something like 30 observations for each independent variable to draw a valid conclusion. We had six patch cords in the test (including my own copper Monster cords). There is no way we did 150 swaps. Yet we did enough swaps to satisfy to each other that both of could blindly pick out the DACT interconnect. I am not interested in selling snake oil. I am interested in the most bang for the buck. It is that interest that leads me to horns, and refurbished tube equipment. Most musicians I met don't seem to care about stereos. A few musicians in my home who heard a sound system with tubes said it sounded pretty good. Playback of music recorded in the same location is awesome- the best sound reproduction ever! Amazingly realistic. Even with cheap equipment. Bet somebody markets Jumper Cables for audio use!

"Jane, you ignorant ****," High quality interconnecting and speaker cables are not an absolute necessity for a superb home movie and audio reproduction system (MARS). But after you have added a subwoofer, acoustic wall panels and digital-to-analogue converter, what else can a tweaking audiophile do to improve the sound? Evidence suspends disbelief. I heard audible differences in patch cords. Perhaps enough to justify the expenditure of thousands. My own personal test (http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Magazine/equipment/0906/cable_shootout_pt2.htm) showed there are measurable differences in resistance, capacitance and inductance between silver interconnecting patch cords. From the cords I reviewed, "it looks like silver interconnecting cords have lower values than inexpensive freebie cords. Silver wire has lower resistance compared to the same gauge of copper wire. On long runs, this should make an audible difference." The "Basic Generic Freebie" interconnects seem to have much higher values for all three measurements. The patch cords cost from $99 to $1090. With a girlfriend, I auditioned the patch cords mostly on a modest office MARS, one with a vintage Harmon Kardon 330B solid-state receiver and Altec-Lansing bass reflex speakers. We rated the interconnecting cords from one to five on 12 EnjoyTheMusic.com criteria: Tonality, Sub-bass (10Hz - 60Hz), Mid-bass (80Hz - 200Hz), Midrange (200Hz - 3,000Hz), High-frequencies (3,000 Hz on up), Attack, Decay, Inner Resolution, Soundscape extension into the room, Imaging, Fit and Finish and Value for the Money. I included my own bottom-line category, Enjoyment. 1. DH Labs Silver Sonic Air Matrix 2. Dynamic Design Lotus Whites 3. DACT Dual Connect Precious Metal Audio Cables 4. MAC Silver Sound Pipes 5. MAC UltraSilver Sound Pipes Overall score 41 51 59 37 41 Price 195 750 1090 99 149 Price/score 4.75 14.70 18.48 2.68 3.63 The total scores range from 37 to 59 points (22 or 60%). In every category, the gold wire DACT Dual Connects scored four or five points. They were noticeable enough to stand out in blind listening tests. All of the cables made my basic copper Monster interconnects seem congested and grungy by comparison. In all categories, except Value for the Money, the Dynamic Design Lotus Whites scored four points. A difference of one point in just one category, Attack for example, is not enough to make any one interconnecting patch cord sound significantly better than another. The difference between $1090 Dual Connects, with their consistent four and five points, and the $750 Lotus Whites however does seem to be worth the $340 premium (45% more) for those who carry the Kroners. Dividing the price by the score shows a ratio. The ratio shows that the lowest scoring and priced interconnects are the best value! While the highest scoring and priced patch cords would be the worst ones to buy! The best sounding DACT interconnecting patch cords are the worst value. For those of us who don't have the Kroners, rest assured that a point or two in one or two categories does not make all that much difference. Yet I returned the other patch cords and kept the wonderful sounding Dual Connects for use in further reviews. I am absolutely certain that a new large screen TV, driver crossover network, mid-range drivers and/or horns and tweeter, each new item costing about $1K or less, would make a far more noticeable improvement in my modest MARS than even the delicate DACT white interconnect strands. Yet, after all those improvements are in place, I am sure that gold wire patch cords and speaker cables are on my "won the lottery" dream system list. BTW, I briefly heard a massive solid-state Citation up against a $40 gold Fisher tube receiver (mine) on Ralph Karsten's big ole Khorns. No comparison. One made clean sound. The other made music. Mine.

$2,000 in 1989 dollars is worth about $3K today. I find that the same quality of a 1989 high end amp however would be about twice the price today. Absolutely consider a new or refurbished vintage tube pre-amplifier with big ole horns. Look at units refurbished by fellow poster Craig at NOSvalves.com, JuicyMusic preamps are excellent, Cayin and ASL are very good, so are Bottlehead kits. Of course anything McIntosh or Conrad Johnson would also be good. I also like the incredible value of vintage high-end solid-state equipment like Accuphase when you can find it dirt cheap.

excellent sci-fi thriller! another Chris Nolan mind bender.

don't know the Mac, but on Windows PCs you can get uncompressed music and digital to audio converters (DACs) that can compete with expensive CD players Love the Cayin tube amps Now you need a big subwoofer to help out with the deep bass

yet if I comppose a message in Word or Notepad and then past it here, I don't have that problem, must just be stupid Word!

http://www.tampabay.com/features/article1062102.ece Not all hopes are barren; there is a nibble here and there, a twinkle of something possible, a chance the miners at the bottom of the shaft might somehow be rescued. So you ignore the constant calls, the daily letters, the notices on the door. You iron your best shirt, put on your lucky tie, count your quarters and go out to greet the world."

oh god, the soggy weather must be soaking my brain - I agree with Gilbert on something!

The north east power grid is suffering right? According to NPR today, electric utilities still don't have a good idea of where power is needed when. My American Power Company Uninterrupted Power Supply plugs into my PC through a USB cable and its software informs me of its status. Why can’t the same software notify my local electric utility of voltage fluctuations and power outages?

< When coupled with a high efficiency loudspeaker, there are few reasonably priced, solid state amplifiers that can truly provide the same warm, lush and three-dimensional image of a tube amplifier. I would start, and most probably finish, with refurbished, vintage integrated tube amplifiers (VITA) such as those models that frequent forum poster Craig works on at NOSvalves.com (http://www.nosvalves.com/queue.htm). Most of these models will sound excellent with your high-efficiency loudspeakers. The VITAs are a bargain compared to the cost of modern tube amps, but... But they must be refurbished. Unlike solid-state equipment, which suddenly stops dead when any little ingredient is off spec, tube equipment keeps running. Except the sound quality slowly heads south for the winter...and never returns. Aging tube bias, filters, capacitors and knobs have to be checked, cleaned, replaced or upgraded. Craig has a better reputation than any politician can dream of. His refurbishing fills the lungs of middle age amps and makes them stand up straight again! Although inconvenient, and damn hard to wait for, refurbishing a low cost VITA for high-efficiency loudspeakers provides sonic qualities that rival modern units at several times the price. One of the very best sounding, meaning solid bass plus all of the delicious musicality of tubes, that I reviewed for EnjoyTheMusic.com on big ole horns was the Delta amp (http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0306/delta_studio_6s33s.htm). I heard, but have not seriously auditioned, yet!, Craig's new VRD amps. (http://www.nosvalves.com/vrd.htm) They are just as good as the Deltas and the powerful Quads I heard at DaddyDee's Klipsch gathering in Arkansas (now five years ago)!

maybe I should rethink Band of Brothers, because I don't find it particularly moving, it does meet my criteria: "what we really want is the pounding action and violence of a teeth-gritting war movie. We want “can’t take your eyes away” portrayals of glory, courage, pain and gore. We want sub-woofers to thump our chairs like mortar shells on Omaha beach, shake our walls like a firing range. We want to watch war movies. Here are my favorite, all-time best, “make no apologies, war is about killing” movies"

watching HBO's "Band of Brothers," which is interesting, but this movie is not in the top notch league...

what about just the sub-woofer signal Line-Out into the center RCA jack? did you measure the frequence response of the speakers and the sub seperately?

you certainly do not need a pallet I've received tons of equipment without a pallet they are only extra trouble and expense bang for the buck performers are Epik and also the largest Parts Express Dayton kits (simple to make) Gte the largest you can afford, you will love it

9 by 11 room! Are you kidding me? I love Khorns, but I would look at something smaller. and consider a sub-woofer if you don't have one alreay.

I have upgraded Bottlehead 2A3 Paramour mono amps driving my big ole horns. The Paramours use a single 12AT7 tube to drive 5” high Valve Art 2A3 bottles. The 2A3 tubes (one per mono block) operate in a parallel feed output mode. Seemingly under-powered, the rated output for these light, Kleenex-box size amplifiers is 3.5 watts at THD level of 5% into 1kHz. Peak power is six watts. The volume dial on my Dynaco Pas pre-amp correlates to power output of the amps. Half way is about half power. At 12:00 on the dial I recorded fast, c-weighted mid 90 Sound Pressure Levels on my analogue Radio Shack meter. So Gil is right. You have as much power as you need for the mid and high end frequency range. The best bass I’ve heard on big ole Klipsch horns was NOSvalves’ VRD tube amps. But what more power does is give you is control over the bass. See: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0202/passx250.htm That’s why I have a passive dual amp arrangement now with a massive, low power Pioneer Class A amp. Belles and LaScala models do not have any deep bass. Bass requires enormous amounts of energy. Large woofers also require enormous impedance control. Solid state amps control woofer impedance better than tube ones do. That is also why I have a deep bass ACI Titan sub-woofer with a solid-state amp.