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He wasn't talking about speakers. I don't even want to think about the flabby bottom end. And yeah, it was pretty funny. Don't get me started on the shouty midrange!

New caps are needed on this model to tame the harsh top end and firm up the flabby bottom end.

Once you see one rack you want to see all of them.

Just got a Salamander Designs 337 for my home theater. Very high WAF because everything is hidden. No cables showing. A little finicky to assemble but very high quality and easily customizable to your components. The shelf bay on the right has a 3" extension back-panel to provide extra clearance for a deep McIntosh amp, cables and air flow. I have a couple of slide-out shelves too. Get the optional wheels. Center channel speaker is inside the top of the middle bay. Please excuse my kid's Xrocker gaming chair - which is surprising comfortable for adults (I hear) and actually sounds great.

Over the last 6 years, bought a McIntosh amp, DAC, Heresy 3's, and recently a pair of 10 month old La Scala 2's. All good. I got the LS2's from an Audiogon dealer called "iqexchange" out of Fairfax Virginia. They arrived properly packed on a pallet in original boxes. Mint. He's got some nice stuff for sale now, klipschorns, palladiums - none of which I need or can afford at this point. No affiliation.

I recommend the book "Skunk Works" by Ben Rich. There's lots of stories like this in it but even better stories of the talented engineers that designed these amazing planes and the engineering, political, and business problems they had to overcome so that these planes could get off the ground. The book is over 20 years old now but oh so relevant to today. Available used on Amazon.

Very nice. I was always interested in Harbeth's design and approach. Never actually heard them myself but they get great reviews. On the speaker spectrum, they are probably as far away from Klipsch as you can get. Please share your experiences when you get things setup and running.

Welcome to the community. H3's plus a sub is a really tough combination to beat IMHO. I've had a similar setup in my family room for the last 3 years with the same wife-constraints as you (for the last 18 years....) I fiddled around with speaker positioning, EQ, and subwoofer integration for a few months, and now I have them dialed in pretty well. If you have any questions, just ask. Enjoy.

There's a reason why all the AVR's that don't support HDCP 2.2 are all on-sale now. Great deals can be found, like the SC-85 in the OP, if you're not concerned about 4K or you tend to upgrade AVRs every few years. However, if I was on the market for an AVR to last me the next 5+ years, which I sort of am, then I would be looking at one that supports HDCP 2.2.

Is the phono stage in your C46 lacking? Or are you just looking to get into MC cartridges in the future? I'm asking this because after not playing a record in 25+ years, I have a turntable coming tomorrow and I'm just planning on using the built-in phono stage to start out.

I think you are on the right track with hardwiring your devices together. Can you get to the setup menu of the receiver in your basement? Check to make sure that ethernet port you plugged into doesn't say "WAN" on it I'm assuming the ethernet port you plugged into in the LR is a "LAN" ethernet port because the WAN port should be connected to the box on the outside of your house. I don't know what kind of gear they gave you in your basement but hopefully it is robust enough to act as a hardwired access-point, and that single ethernet port is not some sort of WAN or diagnostic port. I have a similar setup with my U-verse receiver acting as the main router for my network - defining the IP address range (192.168.1.x) and handling DHCP for for my home network. It's hardwired to two Linksys access-points (not provided by U-verse) in my house via LAN ethernet ports. These are setup as dumb bridges on the same network as the main U-verse router. Wired or wireless clients accessing one of these Linksys AP's get their IP address and access the internet via the U-verse router over the hardwired ethernet port connecting the Linksys to the U-verse router. This is a picture showing what you want to do: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Image:Acces_point.jpg You just have to figure out if/how it can be done with your U-verse gear.

You don't need an expensive pro monitor, but there are consumer monitors that are better suited for photo editing vs ones that are better suited for gaming. my samsung is at least 8 years old and needs an update, but I haven't really dug into this yet. I'm sure if you google search "best monitors for photo editing" you will get some choices at B&H.

I've been doing photography on the side for the last 12 years. One of the best investments I made was a Gretag-Macbeth Eye-one Match monitor calibration "mouse" and software 10 years ago. Gretag-macbeth was purchased by X-Rite years ago. This basically looks like the same thing I have with updated marketing and software: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/894645-REG/X_Rite_cmunsml_ColorMonki_Smile_Color_Calibration.html Modern monitors are much better calibrated out of the box than a decade ago. But if you want your prints to match what you see on your monitor, you can't trust your eye. For $70, I'd take a serious look at this simple device. Note, when I say "prints" I mean images that you upload to an online lab for printing or prints on a home printer. I have never calibrated my printer - modern epson profiles are pretty damn good. Get your monitor calibrated with an X-rite Smile, then use something like Photoshop to use your monitor profile for editing, and then save it down to a standard sRGB color space. From there, you can send it to an online lab (most expect files to come in with an sRGB profile) or use Photoshop to convert it to your printer profile prior to sending it to your printer. It all starts with a properly calibrated monitor though. If you are doing work for clients and they want to be sure "IBM Blue" looks the same online, on prints, and in magazines, then you need the really expensive calibration stuff.

Went to an Andrew Bird show this week at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in downtown Chicago. It's a beautiful old cathedral - we sat in the pews and he was up at the altar. Apparently he's a huge fan of Specimen Speakers. He had four of the giant ($36K/pair) XL horns, a spinning double horn ($33K), and then probably close to 20 smaller horns scattered in front and behind him. I'm not sure if all the smaller ones were connected but supposedly his instruments are piped through the large horns. Then he had some standard pro-concert speakers (not sure of the brand) on the left and right extending out into the pews. The sound was very good IMHO for a cavernous church, but I'm not sure it was like $100K good. I was in the front third of the pews and all the vocals were coming through the run-of-the-mill pro-concert speakers. I could hear a lot of sound coming from the giant horns but when that double horn started spinning, I couldn't tell a difference. Although it was a stunning stage setup, I couldn't help think that my La Scala II's would sound better for a lot less money up there. Anybody have any experience with these Specimen Horns? I was checking out their website while waiting for the show to start and my wife said "don't get any ideas."

PS - usually these tricky topics are not explained very clearly in the manual - I have a 15 year old Yamaha AVR and have to read this page over and over again.

Hi Del - I believe this is common. Most AVRs have a 2-channel mode (yamaha calls it "pure direct") that eliminates as much circuitry as possible in the signal path - including bass management for the subwoofer. Sometimes there is a way to tell the AVR to keep sending low frequencies to the subwoofer in this mode (yamaha calls it "extra bass") or a middle-ground setting that re-enables bass management circuitry without enabling all the DSP modes (yamaha calls it "straight mode"). Or, old-school, depending on your sub and AVR, you could connect the L/R pre-outs of the AVR (rather than the subwoofer-out) to your sub, but this would mess up your home-theater listening. Bottom line - I think this is common but check the Sony AVR forums for a better answer.

I have a rythmik f12-G paired with Heresy 3's in a 20x24 room. Very happy with the quality and oomph. it has a several nice controls to allow it to integrate nicely with both your main speakers and the room itself. Good value for the price IMHO, but I don't know how it compares to anything else other than some older Yamaha subs I had at the time. no affiliation. http://www.rythmikaudio.com/products1.html

+1 - my stock H3s sound really good to my ears too - with a sub. My daughter had the new Adele album cranked up last night on them. Two ways they could sound better: 1) fly Adele over and put her in our family room, or 2) spend a boatload of coin for incremental upgrades or better speakers to squeeze out that last 10% in sound quality. Maybe in 5 or 10 or 15 years, I'll tinker with various crossover and capacitor options, but I'm enjoying them stock for now while they are in-spec. Kudos to whoever designed such an enjoyable speaker at this price point

My vote would be for stock H3s with a sub. I have a slightly larger (wider) room and I am very pleased with my two-channel setup: H3's plus rythmik F12-G sub - fills the room no problem. I didn't care for the H2's I heard a few years back - I think Klipsch did a good job with the H3s. My wife actually likes them too - better WAF than CW3s for sure.

PS - I saw her on Later with Jools Holland a few years ago singing "Wide River to Cross" off of Glad Rag Doll. She was on with five other crazy acts that night and Jools swung the camera around and introduced her and her band, and they just nailed this beautiful song. Very talented.

I enjoy her music, although the latest "Wallflower" is too cheesy for even my tastes. From a sound quality POV, her recordings are top notch IMHO. The third track - Temptation - on the Girl in the Other Room will really test your audio setup. Glad Rag Doll is a good album SQ-wise too. And, as corny as it sounds, download Jingle Bells from her Christmas Album - pretty cool interpretation and great SQ.

Congrats to the Royals. Not to rub your noses in it, but we Cubs fans are still celebrating our back-to-back World Series Championships in '07 and '08. Unfortunately, that's 1907 and 1908. Oh well, wait 'till next year. I'm happy the Cubs did so well this year. I went to the first home game against the Cardinals. Wrigley Field was electric. They finally have a great young team with the right manager, surrounded by a good organization and farm system. Future looks bright.

In my family room, I have a 2.1 channel setup: McIntosh MA6500 integrated amp driving Heresy 3's. Been running this setup for a couple years and sounds great. In the basement, I have a new set of La Scala 2's that were being powered by a 15-year old Yamaha AVR RX-V596 aka HTR-5250. For 2.1 channel listening, it's rated for 100W and the sound was very good - maybe a little thin and it did breakup and get sizzle-y at moderate-loud listening levels and/or if I bumped up the bass tone control a bit. Last week I got a used McIntosh MC58 multi-channel amp off of eBay, installed it Friday, and I am now using the Yamaha as a pre-amp AVR only. The difference isn't night and day, but it is able to drive the La Scala's without getting tinny, the bass is more robust and tight, and the clarity and dynamics are a step up. Would I have been able to get the same results by going with a modern flagship Yamaha Aventage AVR? Probably pretty close. I'm sure I'll get a step up when I upgrade my Yamaha pre-amp in the future too. The wife has her antennae up right now, so I have to lay low for a while... I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm biased towards pairing Klipsch Heritage and McIntosh amplification. I may not be using more than 1-2 watts but those are the most important watts and they need to be backed up by a dynamic amp with a reservoir of power on-hand when needed.

Whitey Ford tells a great Yogi Berra story at the 3:36 mark in this video. Classic.

If, after running all the speaker health-checks and room placement suggestions mentioned above, your treble is still harsh, and playing around with masking tape (or open cell foam or ping-pong balls) seems to tame it, you could be sensitive to sibilance. I fall into this camp. Pronounced S/SH's in vocals are annoying to me and to most people I think based on all the recording techniques designed to minimize this effect. Bad sources and recordings also don't help. But I find with my H3's and LS'2 that I need to digitally EQ adjust the 6.5Khz-7.5Khz range down by about -2db. If you can get iTunes hooked up to your system, go to the iTunes Store and search for "audio test tones." There's an album of test tones by Audiolab - I consistently find the 6-8K tones louder than the rest in my room. You can also download Alan Shaw's (Harbeth speakers) sibilance test recording. The one thing more annoying than sibilance is two British guys discussing it. Your wife will think you lost your mind. Look at post #16 here.