BobK

I like Jazz and I did go to the link and they sounded Ok, but did not appreciate the BLAST of overly compressed volume punching they did like people do on you tube. Seemed like the loudness wars has entered the Jazz scene. My volume was at 5 of 100 and it sounded like it was on 90+ Maybe the actually purchased music is not like the samples they have on the web site. If so I will pass.

$30,000 for a pre amp? Oh I smell some major snake oil mixed in with those components.

I have not heard a pair of K horns since the 80s and I forgot what they sounded like. I was wondering how they stack up vs todays high end speakers? Most of todays speakers seem to be towers with dual drivers and a tweeter. Like Salk towers. The K Horns are huge but is that size and horn what sets them apart?

You don't have to get a nakamichi to get a phono preamp. All the receivers from 70s, 80s, 90s had that as standard. Lots of choices, Pioneer, kenwood, Sansui, Yamaha.

I have the KG-4s and a pair of Chorus I's (with crites mids + tweets + port tubes) The chorus are great for high volume music, really enveloping and smooth never sound strained. I have not heard Forte Is or IIs. They look like a big version of the KG4. If I ever get away from my puny aircraft aluminum Def Tech HT speakers (Wife loves them) I would like to to have chorus as fronts KG4s as rears and a big klipsh center + by big SVS sub. That would shake things up.

For $155.00 that is a great buy. I dunno why more people don't praise the 4.5s. Maybe because they are a 90s speakers where as the legendary KG4s were a 80s speaker built back in the hey day of Klipsh.

I would expect the KG-4s to blow them out of the water. KG4 I think were 800.00 a pair in 1984? This around 1,700 today. So you are comparing a $1,700 pair of speakers to $180.00 a pair. Ten times more cost. They probably don't sound $1,500 better than the Pioneers. To be fair i wanted to compare a set of 2 ways in the same current ballpark value and something most here could relate the sound against in comparison. Keep in mind these are old KG-4's and need not only a crossover update but the rubber woofer surrounds have hardened up, both issues due to age making the whole speaker sound much worse than a brand new pair. Those old KG-4s are one of the best do all speakers ever made. I have a set. I did the cross over and tweeter update too. It did not make much of a difference, maybe my KGs did not diminish much vs original dunno.

I would expect the KG-4s to blow them out of the water. KG4 I think were 800.00 a pair in 1984? This around 1,700 today. So you are comparing a $1,700 pair of speakers to $180.00 a pair. Ten times more cost. They probably don't sound $1,500 better than the Pioneers.

Have to love the old Kenwood KA-5001. Super nice looking and built like a tank, hang on to that one for sure.

I have a 4k Denon I think 130 watt/channel. You did not get too much power. I think they are a little over rated on power. Driving just two it is fine, actually up to 5.1 its fine on power. Past that and its more like 60 watt/channel. When I went 6.1 the power per speaker really seemed to drop to the point where I was thinking mono blocks for the fronts. But I don't use effecient Klipsch speakers for my HT. That Denon you have is very versatile, can hook HDMI from a computer watch movies, play flacs, mp3s, CD, etc. I think you need a phono pre amp for it if you want to listen to vinyl records. Oh BTW, Best Buy use to sell Denons

Hey congrats on doing it all on the cheap. You got 90 percent of what you need, going for that last 10 percent in sound going to cost you. I have a few cheap receivers in the house and you know they don't sound that bad either. Most people listen to music on built in TV speakers or factory car speakers. What you have is miles ahead of that. Welcome back to the audio game!

For 224 USA that is a great deal. I would not get to picky at that price. I could spend 10k and still nit pick, be happy!

What did the manufacturer say when you emailed them about it?

All the picks WIllard made will work fine. $100.00 for a decent Marantz come on that is cheap.

Those old duals are pretty cool. if you want to restore it here is one on ebay currently pretty low priced. $36.00 ish. http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-UNITED-AUDIO-DUAL-1229-TURNTABLE-RECORD-PLAYER-/161994313336?hash=item25b79d0e78:g:-qsAAOSwvgdW1jxN

If all you want is a hold me over. I would find a 60 to 100 watt old integrated amp on craigs or ebay. I got a 1982 yamaha receiver for 30.00 that is 60 watts. Other than a little static in one of the knobs it sounds pretty darn good. I hooked it up to KG4s and chorus and it did fine. It might not have the power to blast it but I could live with it for a hold me over no problem. So there are tons of amps out there that will fit the bill. This is the one I got for $30.00 on ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yamaha-RX-550-Stereo-Receiver-/252290931194?hash=item3abdb619fa:g:sPoAAOSwzgRWxNsY old yamaha, marantz, sansui, would fit the hold me over bill. Just have to hunt for good deal.

Nice work but I did not see a final Before and After photo when all sanding and new finish applied. I want to see the gouge be gone!

You can sand them down and make them anything you want, can even strip all the veneer off and start fresh. People good with furniture refinishing can make them look anyway you want. Its just cheap thin veneer really can't mess up too badly.

I have new and old receivers. New - Outlaw Retro 100WC and is under rated. http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/rr2150.html Old - Sansui AU series, Pioneer etc. You won't find anything built like the old unless you go into the 4k+ range. The Outlaw they skimped on the knobs and put it all into the audio. On the old stuff they have quality outside and in. Power ratings in newer stuff seems to be over rated. My Denon 7.1 135 watt per channel feels weaker than older 65 watt per channel. Just because it says 120 watt does not mean its really 120 watt on some gear.

I've only done it a few times on computer DVD players. I took them apart, sort of a pain. But unless they stop reading the disk I would not bother to clean. you either get the data or you don't. If you want to clean it the easier way is to get a cleaner CD disk. Its a blank disk with a tiny brush that hits the laser element and knocks the dust off it. Much faster than tearing it apart. I've used it on DVD players that would not read a disk and it brought them back to life. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000J1QM?keywords=dvd%20cleaner%20disk&qid=1456795998&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3

Oh I would take the Quartets hands down over the new skinny, easier to ship speakers. Towers are just easier to move, ship etc. But people get drawn into shiny objects, shiny drivers not realizing that's visual and not sound. The Marketing people all know this. I am a keep the grills on the speaker kind of guy so I don't succumb to the shiny drivers.

I don't see the rush, I would not waste on the reciecer upgrade, put the money into the next step up in speakers. I have like 8 amps receivers laying around. I can hook up my 60 watt yamaha to any of the speakers and they sound great. If I hook up my better 100 watt amp I can't make my smaller speakers sound as good as a 60 watt hooked up to my Chorus. Put the money into speakers.

I would read this article on power it also has a PDF that talks about too little power. https://www.jblpro.com/pages/general_faq.htm

I would not worry about too much power, you could hook a 1000 watt amp and do less damage than you would with a 20 watt amp. When you play music it has peaks that need to draw power fast or the signal will clip into a square wave. That is what heats up a voice coil and damages it. If you have headroom you are never going to clip the signal. This is why people think a 20 watt tube amp sounds better than a 20 watt solid state. The tube amp does not do a square wave clip of the signal it sort of a rounded square wave which actually sounds good (just dumb luck) they both will distort when they run out of bandwidth but tubes clipping is not as hard on the speakers and sounds better to some. So clipped power or in rare cases too much can damage stuff. Unless you are a goof ball with the volume and turn it up 100 percent I would err on the side of TOO much clean power vs having too little power and clipping the audio.

Congrats! Very nice looking amp for 2 channel. It should support anything you throw at it. Are you saying you play a wav or flac files and it samples it to 44.1 khz? If you play a CD it will be 44.1 that is CD quality. Maybe download a file that you know for sure is a higher sample rate. I have a Denon AVR 1333r for HT and it has HDMI and lan features where I just click on a file on my computer and it starts up the amp and displays the song and bit rate on the TV and on the amps screen. It will show the sample rate for anything I send. For high bit rates it shows PCM with the sample rate. Your specs are here, it looks like it should play anything. Again congrats on the nice buy!!! 100 W x 2-ch (20 Hz - 20 kHz) USB DAC function supports native DSD resolutions (2.8 MHz / 5.6 MHz) and PCM (384 kHz / 32-bit) Digital signal indicator shows DSD and PCM playback formats and sampling frequencies High efficiency ESS Technology 32-bit DAC (ES9010K2M) Digital audio inputs for TV or Blu-ray Disc™ player CD Direct Amplification and Pure Direct High strength chassis with double-bottom design for excellent dampening of vibrations ToP-ART (Total Purity Audio Reproduction Technology) and high quality parts I/O (input to output) direct symmetrical design ART (Anti-Resonance and Tough) Base Custom made power transformer / 12,000 µF block capacitors / extruded aluminum heat sinks Gold plated speaker terminals and RCA terminals Continuously Variable Loudness Control