YK Thom

A shot checking out an old retired RCMP boat that one of my clients is considering purchasing to run freight from Norman Wells to Tulita in the summer.

Those of you have watched NWT Ice Pilots will be familiar with these guys...Buffalo Air loaded and getting ready to take off from the Norman Wells airport.

Spent a week up north attending a regional economic development meeting (Sahtu Region),in Norman Wells NWT. Great little town and one of my favourites. Very nice in the summer as it is right on the Mackenzie River. My GM came with me this trip as we had a few clients to visit at the same time. The local legion has a nice meeting room that is well booked for many local events. Nice and handy to the pub side once the days wrapped up.

I ran my RB61 IIs with treble at -1, bass at +1. Seemed to do the trick nicely. My Ohms are fine in this room running flat.

Steely Dan were studio wizards. I'm surprised I've never thought to use them. You now have me in the mood to play a few albums this afternoon.

Wow, I really like that. Going to order a copy. In a similar vein I have used The Goldberg Variations by Glen Gould over the years. My new Ohms passed with flying colours.

I hear you but... if we lived in a house with a basement recroom it wouldn't be an issue, but we are in an apartment style condo so there is only one main living room.

I think the pair of us came from the same school of marital survival.

Spectacular. Have always thought the LaScalas were amongst the most distinctive and beautiful speakers made by anyone. Sadly my wife thinks they are too "fat" (wide). These are the nicest of the lot.

Z"L

He must want some crazy volume levels to keep blowing these things up. The B&Ws are obviously the wrong speaker for his listening habits and preferences.

Nice speakers, you are fortunate.

You have some wise people. Not sure what happened to us.

The Alberta guy's get a real kick out of it. My wife's family has kennels, race and do tourist rides. The little buggers can really go and get very excited.

Thanks and have fingers crossed for you. I seem to get a monstrous one every year. Have enjoyed the "me time" listening. In fact because of most people being at work I kicked the volume up higher than I normally do. Thankfully I didn't end up with plugged ears.

Had a fantastic weekend. Our annual Masonic Installation, which as in years past featured a very large contingent from Grand Lodge in Alberta. We had 18 brethren and wives come up this year. Had them out dogsledding Friday afternoon, a late luncheon and a fairly scotch infused meet and greet that evening. The women were taken around town shopping and such by the local wives whilst we were doing the actual Installation. The whole thing comes to a head with a large banquet complete with dancing band Saturday night. A lot of hand shaking and such and my Sunday morning hangover morphed into a full on cold/flu. Have been down for the count since. Upside...the wife is at work and I've had time to recoup listening to albums the wife is not keen on as well as some of my favourite classical CDs uninterrupted. Should be back up and about tomorrow.

I have always thought this was just in my head. I've noticed the Jeep does better in winter up here. Most definitely goes through more fuel, although some of that is warm up idling and being thrown into 4high more often.

Apples and oranges really. I suppose the Bose is adequate for small rooms at moderate volumes for those who just want to watch a movie. Sort of like comparing a Cruze with a Jeep for off-roading.

If you can get ahold of a Marantz Sr5008 you will be in good shape. I have one and it sounds really good with Klipsch. Solid build and has more than enough juice.

Not meaning to hijack Joe Bentes thread, but some of his concerns seem to pop up frequently. As mentioned yesterday I reran Audessey after a drastic sub position change within the room. By the end of the night I just wasn't satisfied, things sounded a bit murky, and far too bassey even with dial down. I ran the program again today during lunch using the same mic positions as yesterday BUT with the window wall curtains open this time. Results were again odd, but do sound better than last night. The weird bit is that this time Audessey had my fronts set as Large @ 40 as well as the rear surrounds (same measure). The centre was Small but @ 40 and the sub +1. Last night the sub was at -10 and still way too boomy, fronts and rears @ 40 (fronts set to Large) and the centre at 60. I've switched the fronts to Small @ 60, moved the centre to 60 and set the rears Small @ 80. It seems to sound much clearer, will noodle around a bit after work. Would ceiling to floor curtains have thrown the sound/measurements off so much? And why does the AVR (Marantz SR5008), seem convinced these speakers are Large? edit: Is it possible the characteristics of the Ohm speakers are throwing things off? When I had the system running the previous RB61 II it was a straightforward wham bam thank you ma'am set up. Super simple and required very minor amounts of post fiddling.

I'm noodling around with similar issues today. I moved my sub to a new location (a front corner to the right of my FR), to appease the gods of marital harmony. Looks better to be sure and is out of the way. It seems to sound better but I've had to dial it back- a little too much of a good thing. I reran Audessy and it set crossovers lower than had been done in the past. Had the fronts at 40, rears at 40 and centre at 60. Previous to this I had the Fronts and centre at 60 and the rears at 80. Weird.

It is expensive to live here. Everything from electricity to consumer goods are higher. The upside is that our wages are higher than the Canadian average so it kind of works out. The big draw for many over the years has been the availability of work. Yellowknife is the territorial capital so there are a lot of government jobs and we are the hub for the diamond mines. Creates a lot of spin offs and sort of a self contained economic bubble. When things are slow in the south the impact is less up here. Many come but many can't adapt and don't stay, so opportunities are always popping up. If you are a skilled tradesman for example, there is more work than you can imagine. My wife works for the territorial government and does OK (she's not a manager or anything), I have had a few different jobs since we came and eventually found my way into economic development. It's a trade off to be sure. We will definitely move back south when we retire, unless you have a lot of resources and an insane pension it is far to expensive to retire here. Too damn cold as well.

As well there are some nice lifestyle advantages, if you are into hunting and or fishing things are great. Surrounded by lakes so boating is very popular as well as sledding. This is a shot just now from my window, the lake in the background is Back Bay which leads you out onto the big lake (Great Slave). The wife works directly across the street, I'm about two blocks away. We hardly ever drive the Jeep except for heading to the other end of town or out to the bush. Have a nice little pub right across the street as well. So no commuting, home for lunch etc.

It is expensive to live here. Everything from electricity to consumer goods are higher. The upside is that our wages are higher than the Canadian average so it kind of works out. The big draw for many over the years has been the availability of work. Yellowknife is the territorial capital so there are a lot of government jobs and we are the hub for the diamond mines. Creates a lot of spin offs and sort of a self contained economic bubble. When things are slow in the south the impact is less up here. Many come but many can't adapt and don't stay, so opportunities are always popping up. If you are a skilled tradesman for example, there is more work than you can imagine. My wife works for the territorial government and does OK (she's not a manager or anything), I have had a few different jobs since we came and eventually found my way into economic development. It's a trade off to be sure. We will definitely move back south when we retire, unless you have a lot of resources and an insane pension it is far to expensive to retire here. Too damn cold as well.

I'm going to reply to my own comment (I don't normally talk to myself...). Disregard everything I wrote. It just occurred to me that the RP series are rear ported. That being the case putting that centre inside a cabinet would not be a good idea, things could get boomy fast. The Reference II series were all front ported. This as far as your TV stand hunt is concerned is a good thing as it opens up many options. That centre will do best sitting on top of a stand. So ideally you will just need to find one of the proper width for your TV that has enough spaces underneath for your components. Many of them come with rear mounting brackets so that the TV itself is a little higher and not on top of the unit itself or you can wall mount the TV directly behind the stand.; this will keep your speaker from blocking the lower part of the screen.