Analog 2000

As I'm new around here, and I hear you guys love pictures. Here we go!

How about RB-81 IIs?

Thank you Derrick, I'm new around here but I feel that this should be a community above all else. This is a personal journey and as you said "we all get to pick our passions and poisons" We should feel free to share them as well, if not here, where else?

Scrappydue I used to be a cable non-believer, an electrical connection is an electrical connection, right? Then I swaped out a cheap set of interconnects for some Kimber Kable interconnects. I was shocked at the difference. When I switched from a 16 ga to a 12 ga wire in my home system I could hear a difference especially in the bass response. I'm not running any particularly fancy speaker wire in either system. That being said, the speakers are under sized for the room, so I'm guessing your right and it won't make that big a difference.

I'm not sure that I completely understand your question, but if your talking about re-ripping your audio collection to a new format for your new DAC I can tell you that it appears that 24bit 192kHZ FLAC or WAV seems to be taking over as the new standard.

Buckaroo, I'm new to this forum as well, but also a long time hi-if fan. Yeah not sure how much wiggle room I'm going to have on speaker placement. I'll futz around with it some more, let you know what happens.

So the holidays are here and I decided to purchase a small HiFi system for my father to replace the one he lost in hurricane Katrina. Seeing as how he is the original audiophile and I've picked up where he left off, it had to be decent. SO I ordered up a pair of Klipsch RB-62 speakers and a Marantz 6005. After a week of listening, christmas is now over, and I've been able to play some non-christmas music and I thought I would share my thoughts with anybody looking to put together a similar set up. The source for this is my father's Kenwood M-6620 CD player (his only surviving peice of hi-fi gear) connected via optical cable to the Marantz 6005. The speakers are bi-wired (because why not?) to the amp using monster XP 16 awg wire. The Songs used for this review: Aaron Copland- Fanfare for the common Man Aaron Copland- Rodeo Neil Young- Old Man Neil Young- Heart of gold John Coltrane- Mr. Day John Coltrane- My Favorite Things My initial impression upon first listen was that this was a very "musical" set up with a good "rythmic" sound, however it lacked bass response. After a week of listening to christmas music I popped in Copland's fanfare for the common man and confirmed what I had felt all along. The bass was clean, could play loud with out distorting, but wasn't reaching as deep, nor was it as present as I was used to with my Heresies in my home set up. I was able to coax a little more bass with the sound controls, but still felt this didn't dig out what I was used to hearing. Ultimately i felt that it was a better just to listen in the source direct mode, bypassing tone controls. The Rhythm and musicality however couldn't be beat, Listening to "Rodeo" or Coltranes "Mr. Day" got my toe tapping. Coltrane's sax sounded great over the the upright bass and drums, and although the upright bass was not as loud or forward as I would have liked it was still very listenable. Separation and clarity were great, In Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" every instrument was clearly defined. The Harmonica was forward and sounded great, the drums and guitar were clear and separate right where they should be under the vocal track. Conclusion: Good sounding set up, able to play louder than I would have expected with out distorting. Pros: Very Clear and surprisingly not too bright despite using a CD as the source material. Cons: Somewhat lacking in bass. Could perhaps be improved by trying a heaver gauge speaker wire. I wish I had the RB-81s to compare it to, I'm speculating that more of the bass response I'm missing might be present in those speakers. Bottom line for me though: Very listenable and it set my 82 yr old father's toe-a-tapping.

I really like the current offering of Marantz integrated amps. I would think that the Marantz PM8005 would be a beautiful unit that would pair nicely with those speakers provide years of service and excellent sound quality. I'm sure there are probably some more esoteric offerings that could get you into tubes for similar money; however, if you just want a simple trouble free set up, I recommend the Marantz. I just purchased the smaller Marantz 6005 and a pair of Klipsch RB-61 speakers for my parents farm house and am quite impressed with the sound quality. I think the 6005, although much cheaper, would be a little under powered for the Hereseys. http://us.marantz.com/us/Products/Pages/ProductDetails.aspx?CatId=HiFiComponents&ProductId=PM8005

Schu, Who makes that unit you have posted, it looks very interesting. I especially like that it seems to be phono/ aux only. Seems right up my alley.

Oh I love my H3s they are Incredible, as for the common complaints about lack of bass, I have none. In my fairly small listening room (12'x15') they are capable of putting out an incredible level of bass. I grew up listening to my dads JBL horns and I have to say music hasn't sounded right until I got these.

Visited the retailer today, I have to say excellent customer service, pulled the tweeter out of my speaker, tested it with a "AAA" battery. Confirmed it was bad. Replaced it with the tweeter from another speaker on the floor and installed it while I waited. The speakers are the only thing I've purchased from them, going to go out of my way to do business with them again.

I'll contribute to this vacuum tube eye candy thread!

Ok, The tweeter in the speaker in question seems as though it is not operating. I will contact the retailer tomorrow and proceed as they advise. Thank you guys it feels really good to have nailed down the specific problem. -Chris

jjptkd, I had pulled the grill and attempted to listen to both horns, but couldn't hear them over the 10" cone, Now that I think about it though, I can pull the metal jumpers and use your sock trick to isolate the problem. I will try this and update you guys with what I discover. And yes I believe the retailer was an authorized Klipsch retailer, I will double check though

Yes, the speakers worked fine with the Dynaco preamp or the the problem was to subtle to hear with the Dynaco preamp. I discovered the issue when I was attempting to balance the MX-110 and using the "L & R to L" and "L & R to R" functions. Most telling was that the problem followed the speakers when I swapped them with each other. However just to verify I reinstalled the Dynaco preamp and used the balance control, and while I feel this is not as scientific as the"L & R to L" and "L & R to R" functions used on the Mcintosh, I did notice a diminished response in the high end. The speakers sound pretty damn good when played in stereo, but I do notice a lack stereo imaging with higher notes, IE high hat cymbals only sound like they are coming from one speaker, certain horns ect. Its subtle but its there, and Im a perfectionist. Schu, Im running a 12 ga speaker wire to the HF terminals on each speaker and using the metal jumpers that were included with said speakers to jumper to the LF terminals