minn_male42

Radio Shack as a company does provide a good product as far as it goes, but i would strongly recommend against using their SPL meters(analog or digital) if you care about any sort of accuracy. Many posters on this site have megabuck systems and yet they buy a cheap (and very inaccurate) piece of test equipment. "You get what you pay for!" As an alternative, here is a professional SPL meter that is very accurate and retails for under $300. http://www.gold-line.com/spl120.htm

here's a saying that i heard from someone else that i think is appropriate here... "friends don't let friends buy bose"

RG6 would work fine, but a 22 gauge, single conductor with a shield would do the job just as well and will cost a lot less...it is also alot easier to work with..(running in the walls and soldering on your rca connectors)

I would recommend 22 gauge single conductor stranded cable with a shield. This will be considerably cheaper and easier to work with than any coax. Also, if you can find them, use switchcraft 3502 rca plugs. They cost a little more but are built much better than the stuff you find at radio shack and similar low end places....

The Omni-mount line is a very durable line. Just make sure you order the right series. They are all based on weight of the speaker to be mounted. (The 75 series supports less weight than the 100 series.) The two choices you listed differ only in where you mount the bracket to your speaker - the back of the speaker or the back of the speaker. I work at an electronics distributor and I sell these alot of these mounts to my dealers and contractors and I have never had any of them come back because they were defective or didnt do the job. Just make sure that you use adequate fasteners (screws or bolts) to attach your speakers to the mounts and of course to the wall...

Several people have recommended the samson s700 in this thread and the samson s1000 in a related thread. This a great amplifier, but it does use a fan for cooling. So, unless you can isolate it from your listening area, you will hear the fan. Samson does make a great line of servo amps (convection cooled - no fans!) The Servo-550 is an awesome amp. It has some impressive specs and will mono-bridge to 550 watts into 8 ohms. I am currently using it to run my rear channels. It is definitely a more musical amplifier (designed for studio use) than the S series which was designed for live/stage reinforcement. By the way, you can get it at 8thstreet.com for $299 This message has been edited by minn_male42 on 01-22-2002 at 09:13 PM

Rather than using an adapter and then adding an rca cable, I would suggest a better connection is using a cable that consists of a 1/4" mono connector on one end and an rca jack on the other. Every time you add a connection to your signal path you have the possibility of signal loss and/or corruption. Proco (and other companies) makes this cable in many different lengths. It should be available at your better music stores. (Places that sell professional sound equipment and/or musical instruments.) P.S. h2xmark...the correct term is "tip, ring, sleeve" This message has been edited by minn_male42 on 01-22-2002 at 08:50 PM

i found a great cd/dvd/sacd changer,,,,a sony dvp-nc650v....onlu $399 retail.... very nice unit....performs very well.....and...all funtions can be accessed from the unit itself....even if you lost the remote, you could access all of the functions fron the main deck.....

mike, just a recommendation if you are looking at samson amplifiers....the entire servo line is fanless and has some impressive specs...i have a servo-550 that i am using for my rear channels and i am very happy with it....for a sub it will bridge to 550 watts into 8 ohms....happy shopping..!!! here is the link for the specs on the servo-550 http://www.samsontech.com/audio/servo550.html This message has been edited by minn_male42 on 01-20-2002 at 09:02 PM

in this whole discussion about how the high end "esoteric" amps sound so much better than the samson, crown, etc amps, one fact that seems to have been forgotten by everyone is that 95% of the recordings that you listen to on your megabuck amplifiers were originally mastered in the studio with engineers using "studio" amplifiers like samson, alesis, crown, hafler, and others. interesting thought...... This message has been edited by minn_male42 on 01-20-2002 at 07:19 PM

dear randy bey... to you in your system, yes , wire might be wire...but to many higher quality systems...i.e. separate preamps, amplifiers....certain configurations and/or geometries do perform better.... i am very supportive of the capitalist system...if there is a demand for a product, it will sell...and i don't believe that 30, 40, or more companies can survive in business if they don't provide some benefit...(o.k. my whole line of reasoning is out the window if you bring up bose...)...except for bose....personally i did the diy cat5 cables and i am very pleased with the result... my system: klf-30's mains klf-c7 center bose am-5 rear (i know...next upgrade) carver a-500x front amp samson servo 550 rear amp rotel rb-850 (bridged mono) center amp carver ct-26v pre-amp/tuner sony dvp-nc650v dvd/sacd/cd 5 dic changer dbx ddp digital dynamics processor samson e30 equalizer bbe 362nr sonic maximizer philips cd burner jvc hr-s7900u vcr sony 75es dat deck pioneer ct-05d dual cassette deck bang & olufson rx-2 turntable

as a musician as well as an avid listener..(i'm not sure what an "audiophile" is) i was taught in college that a perfect balance in a musical ensemble is built on a pyramid of sound: the bass being the foundation of the music and the higher frequencies are lower in actual volume as the frequency rises. with this "perfect" balance, the human ear will hear all frequencies equally....in other words, the tuba will need to be much greater in decibels than the piccolo to be perceived as the same volume..... someone once said...."perception is reality" This message has been edited by minn_male42 on 01-20-2002 at 01:05 AM

how far are you running your speaker cable?....if the length is not very far, you should not need to run really thick gauge wire..(10-12 gauge wire)....i know that this is a whole another discussion in itself...but i agree that the best way would be stacked banana plugs as mentioned above....personnally, i recommend the braided cat5 cable...it is a definite improvement over standard 14-12 guage "speaker" wire...

boomer, i agree that the first sacd players were priced way too high, but like almost all technology it will come down. in fact it has already. i just purchased a sony dvd/sacd/cd 5 disc changer that eliminated two other units in my rack and gave me access to the sacd technolgy for only $399....and the best news is that the sacd's sound great!!!!

tubes vs solid state is always a good discussion....here is some food for thought...i work at an electronics distributor and we sell tubes...aver half of the tubes we sell are treated as commodities...in other words, the price will vary from week to week as the market varies....just a word of warning to tube users....next time you need to replace a tube it might cost you a great deal more...or not...

I know that my recommendation is a little high for your price range, but i feel it's worth consideration. Sony's model DVP-NC650V is a 5 disc changer that also plays SACD's!! Also, ALL of the functions on the remote are on the unit itself!!!!!..(there should be a law for that!!) It does a wonderful job on dvd's, sacd's , and cd's. It also allowed me to remove 2 separate units from my rack.(my sd changer and my singel dvd player) Now for the sticker shock - $399. But I do feel it was well worth the extra dollars. Good luck on your hunting!!!!

I have to disagree with Mr. McDermott in his reply. You are better off running your low level input than your speaker lines. I work in the commercial sound field and low level lines can be run literally thousands of feet without any loss, but 8 ohm speaker runs have limits. 75 to 100 feet should be no problem for the line level run.....

I currently am using a Carver ct-26v preamp/tuner for my home theatre setup. It only has pro logic. I would love to upgrade to a 5.1 preamp. Any suggestions in a reasonable price range(hopefully well under $1000) that would do a quality job. I have a new sony dvp-nc650v dvd changer that also plays sacd's. The rest of my setup is a carver a-500x amp for the front channels, a samson servo 550 for the rear channels, and a rotel rb-850 bridged mono for the center channel. I am running KLF-30's as my mains, a KLF-C7 for the center channel, and a bose set of am5's with sub for the rears..(I know, but it was purchased before i discovered the joy of Klipsch!!)The rest of the lineup is a philips cd burner, pioneer elite cassette deck, a sony DAT deck, a samson eq, a bbe sonic maximizer, a dbx DDP digital dynamics processor, a furman pl-8 power conditioner, a bang & olufson turntable. All of the equipment is rack mounted in a Middle Atlantic Slim 5-29 rack. I almost forgot - a 35 inch Mitsubishi TV.... Thanks for the help!!!

I haven't heard the ksw15, but I am extremely pleased with my ct150. I'm running it with my klf30's and it does an awesome job....