Bryant0086

I would recommend whatever is on sale given your parent'sneeds. If I had to choose a brand based on reliability, I would go with the bigger brands like Panasonic, Samsung, Vizio, Sony.... I don't pretend to be an expert myself, though. If your parents can accommodate a 65" tv, as it is around the "magic" size right now before the price starts taking a sharp incline. Walmart has a 65" Vizio for $900. That is a lot of TV. If they absolutely can't find a place to put something like that, Walmart also has a Sony 55" as well. The TV I own, I bought at HHGregg. If there is one near you, they have nice TVs and good prices. Bryant

Your AVR has a "pure direct" mode, which should override all room corrections and EQ and such. I think all of the nicer Denon, Marantz and Yamahas have that feature. While it makes sense you would want to upgrade your pre-amp eventually, I certainly see your dilemma in not knowing if your AVR as a pre was going to diminish the returns of the higher quality power amp. Tough place to be in if you can't rent, borrow or have some trial equipment. Go with your gut. Good thing about buying used MC stuff is you will probably lose very little money if you don't like the sound. I mean if it sounds worse to you than your Denon's power end, that is. In many ways these days, ignorance might truly be bliss. When I was shopping for an AVR, the more research I did, the more muddled everything became. Good luck brother !! Bryant

Bryant-Your approach dedicates more of the budget dedicated to the speakers which is reasonable. In my list, I wanted to get a McIntosh piece into the mix primarily with the eye to upgrading the speakers (or adding more) in the future. The autoformer output and high power rating of the MA6600 gives the owner a lot of expansion capabilities. Also, the Yamaha will not have the same resale that the McIntosh will enjoy in 10 or 15 years from now. In my opinion, speakers are about 90% of the performance. I have a Sony Explode "boombox" that I absolutely adore for what it is. However, it is not a high-fidelity device.....compared to my home system. My Khorns sound much better. My Boombox has speaker clips though. If I hook my boombox speakers to my home theater amp, it still sounds mostly like my boombox. If I hook my Sony Explode to the Khorns, it sounds more like my home system. I do realize that we are talking extremes here, but it does show the importance of speakers as far as the quality of your system. As far as the Mcintosh over the Yamaha, it is about personal preference. It is simply a high-end amp vs another. I am The Oppo........... well it is probably the most respected digital media player on this forum. There seems to be a reply that is not here anymore. It has to do with me not "understanding" things. I understand that I am less interested in things like prestige and resale value than I am performance and especially performance of Klipsch products. Basically, I am disappointed. Bryant

Actually, the $4000 is for a refurbished Accessories for Less Yamaha amplifier. Usually it goes for about $6500. As far as resale, you are absolutely correct though. Yamaha does not generate the buzz that the name McIntosh does other than a select few vintage pieces. It is merely a preference. I really like the higher-end Yamaha amplification like the old M65 . Bryant

Truth is...... if they are simply going to play redbook CDs, the Oppo may not be the most cost effective choice given you are paying for BD technology as well. Marantz, Denon and Yamaha all make CD players with a high quality DAC built in. I am an Oppo guy, so I don't really KNOW how well others sound and work, but I would assume finding a CD player with one of the better DACs and quality transport coupld be had for $600 or so. The Yamaha CD-N500 is both a network streamerr and CD player with a nice Burr-Brown 192khz/32 bit DAC. It costs $500, but I have never actually seen or heard one. I simply know Oppo products much better. Specs look great mind you, but specs can be deceiving. Would probably "look" great with the Yamaha amp though. ^___^ Bryant

As far as it "powering" the hard drive, that won't be possible. The hard drive will have to be in an enclosure that powers it up. They are cheap. You can mount a bare 1gb drive into a powered enclosure for probably about $75. Of course simply hooking up the Oppo to a hard drive is not really ideal, as you would have to move it to a PC to put more music in. Bryant

Anything over about 80" or so is not nearly as economical with a TV. How large you want your screen is the real question. I see 80" for around $3k and 75" at around $2.3k 65" have hit the $1k mark. I don't have much personal experience with a projector, but my Brother had one, and to watch it, we always had to darken the room and stuff. He had to replace the lamp a couple of times as well. In that size room, I would probably go with a TV, but that is just me. http://www.hhgregg.com/sharp-80-full-hd-1080p-120hz-aquos-led-smart-tv/item/LC80LE650U Bryant

That is awesome !!! Bryant

Without some room details, it would be tough to make suggestions, but here is my best guess...... Speakers - Klipsch P-38F floor standing loudspeakers. $12,000 Amplifier - Yamaha A-S3000 $4000 Tuner - Yamaha - TS-500 $200 CD Player - Oppo BDP - 105D $1300 subwoofer - Hsu Technologies - VTF-15H - $1700 $19,200 Bryant

That is awesome !! Glad the cabinets are in good shape. The Belles even look pretty good next to your rack, even though it is a different wood. The most important thing, obviously is that you think they sound good. Looks like mission accomplished. Enjoy !! Bryant

Dude !! I seriously doubt you can hear 4.1 ms. Bryant

I have some REALLY bad news Masterfly..... those speakers spoke to me while I was in my sleep. They are haunted. They said that you need to buy them then immediately ship them to me. Seems as though they were actually owned by a relative of mine who has deceased. ^___^ What do you say ? It will give you a clear mind and keep you from incessant terror for the rest of your life. Bryant

Some of those old consoles sounded better than you would think. However, simply throwing drivers in there will probably yield less than optimal results. You may do better by buying an enclosed speaker and just mounting it in there with "L" brackets or something. You could even check pawn shops, Goodwill etc. for nicer speakers. You could cut away the wood in any place that may be obscuring any of the drivers behind the grillcloth. Bryant

Awesome !! Ya'll may just have to trust me when I say I have a pair of oiled oak K's and a Belle center. I have a 9 year old Son, and a five year old daughter. I live in a rural area with a long dirt drive. I have four cats and four dogs (though the dogs don'trarely get to go into my living room except for one during thunderstorms) and I have wall to wall toys. I don't really have a Belle center, I actually have a half a Belle mounted on top of my TV and the other half sitting to the left of it. My Belle bass half has a lamp on it and a miniature aquarium with sea monkeys in it. There is no way in hades I am going to take a picture of my cluttered up living room. Ha ha ha....... I can send pix of the speakers close up, I suppose. ^____^ Bryant

That's exactly what I was doing! I almost feel if I didn't use the Emotiva that I'd get the same weak volume just from the TT. I know the Emotiva works the way it should because I hooked it up to my tubes. I just can't get it to work with the Marantz AVR. What I didn't try is something else in the same input jack. I'll try that tonight and report back. Thanks again, Rick When you hooked it up to the tubes, you didn't use the phono input did you ? Bryant

Awesome !! Hope they are in good shape when you go check them out. Bryant

That actually looks like a nice player for 220 bills. I also notice it says SACD on the front as well, so it should support that format. Bryant

I see MY problem. I pulled up your preamp and got a different one. Seems as though Emotiva also makes a fancy preamp called a Emotiva XSP-1. I was looking at it instead of the Emotiva XPS-1. Since it is the same model number, other than two letters transposed, it never caught my attention until now. Forget eveything I posted. If you have an input on your AVR that you could hear the sound coming out of, but it simply wasn't loud enough, use that input. Run your turntable RCA jacks into the input of the Emotiva. Run the output of the Emotiva to the input you were getting the sound out of on your AVR. Make sure the Emotiva is powered up. It has a power light on it. See if you get anything with that setup. Bryant

Ha ha ha sharp eye. I put on my "Granpa" reading glasses and angled the monitor (I was on a laptop at the time) until I could make it out. I am not 100% sure that I was seeing BKMH17-00400*** The cabinets look beat up enough to be vintage. If they are "early 80's, unless they had crossover replacements, they would have to be October of 1983 or newer as '83 was the first year the AB-2 was introduced. If it were a 2000 model, it would be a limited production. Electrovoice stopped making the tweeter and mid in 2000. Those would be the "last of their breed." As far as which is worth more....... early 80's vs 2000 model. I suppose that depends on who you ask. Some people do have an affinity for vintage, but I don't know if early 80's would be vintage "enough" to be more collectible over a 2000 model if you know what I mean. I would prefer the 2000 model. You have drivers/crossovers less likely to fail, basically. Here are three reasons why I think it is newer............ #1 I think I can read the s/n #2 cabinet - although a little beat up, cabinets an early 80's vintage tend to be faded. That one just looks like it was hit a bunch, but is not faded so much. #3 part/serial label. The tag is modern looking. I am no expert on Klipsch tags. I have only owned one Belle, but that model plate simply doesn't look "vintage" to me. I would defintiely go listen to them though. I love the hog finish and you can do wonders with those furniture touch up markers, if the dings aren't too bad. Curious to read your post tomorrow if he calls with the s/n numbers. Bryant

By looking at the pictures of the tag on the Craigslist post, looks like a 2000 model. They look very similar (other than finish) to my Belle center. I have the AB-2 x-overs as well. Mine is a 98 model. I can't see the last three digits of the s/n, but the first part seems to be.... BKMH17-00400*** Bryant

I respect Therion. I saw them at one of the Prog Power USA shows. Having said that, I just can't get into them. I love Vanden Plas. They incorporate some similar stuff as Therion does. That goes back to...... I really respect them, but they don't grab me. Bryant

Just flip the handlebars over. The "racing" style bikes are actually great for older riders because of the light weight. The only real negative of the racing style bikes for older riders is the small seat. The small seat can hurt your butt. Bryant

IB would be ideal, but understand the bleed through to other rooms. How about a fully horn loaded sub ? Bryant

You are probably 100% right. However, Bag End paired a 3cu ft box with a driver to make what others have said is a 63 hz F3. They then used the 12 db per octave rolloff below that with their Linkwitz style "ELF" technology. I couldn't care less about anything below 30 hz. because I am a music guy or I wouldn't be so in love with that sub to start with. However, I don't know the exact formula to get that 63 hz. when comparing the driver properties with the enclosure properties. Bryant

Hallo. Jag pratar inte svenska !! >~ Use the parametric EQ on the Yamaha. I am a Yamaha fan, but I always EQ their receivers. Number two is the fact you have new speakers. When you become accustomed to certain speakers, yout brain freaks out with new ones because they aren't "familiar." Just EQ it to your tastes, then listen more and more. Bryant