Stainz

Owned is still minimal! 1. RB-81ii 2. R-15M 3. KB-15 (2 sets) 4. B-10 That's all I've owned - and I still have them all... and enjoy them all, too. 3. & 4. are extension speakers for my SW radios. 1. is my all time favorite office stereo while 2. is my hobby room stereo.

A shameless plug for my office stereo, an Onkyo C-7030 CDP driving an Emotiva mini-X a-100 (50Wpc) which feeds, via equal 10ft length runs of #14 Cu zipcord, my pair of RB-81ii's. My amp is quiet to a fault - and the ensemble just sounds 'right'. Sorry for bringing up an old post, but I just had to relate my happy experience!

1. Does anyone have a schematic for the RB-81ii speaker? 2. Would re-capping it make an aural improvement? Thanks! John

What did you not like about the TX-8020? Sure, the tuner is almost an afterthought, but aren't they all? The amplifier is decent - flat response, decent THD +N (<.03% @ 25Wpc; <.08% @ 50Wpc - both channels driven), high SNR on Aux/CD (>100dB), phono preamp, L+R unfiltered subwoofer out, etc. It could use a higher damping and more uF in it's PS, but it isn't a bad deal at it's price. Mine - and it's C-7030 CDP - were my office stereo basics driving a pair of NHT S1 2.1's and a JBL SUB 550P for a year before being transferred to my upstairs hobby room, where it's remote control can be appreciated. I did replace the combo with an Emotiva mini-X a-100 (50 Wpc @ 8 Ohms) and another C-7030 CDP on my desk as my office CD music-only stereo basics - driving my new pair of RB-81ii's - since last Nov. The Onkyo pair was faultless in fifteen months of daily office use and continues on driving the NHT's or a pair of R-15M's in my hobby room. Perhaps you taxed it's 50Wpc output? Oh... I didn't buy a second TX-8020 becasue the availability was down while prices had crept up - and the Emo amp was available and sale priced ($149!). It was perfect for my office needs.

I appreciate the warm welcomes - and the Heresy suggestions. In my mono days - during HS (1964-66) - I bought a Williamson/Ultra-Linear 15W (6V6's PP) amp kit and an 8" woofer, a 3" tweeter, a 2 uF 50V NP cap, and a 25 Ohm 5W WW pot, had some plywood cut, and saved a bit longer for my cheapest Garrard changer & Shure cartridge. The first album I played was 'Jazz Samba', by Getz & Byrd (On Verve - in mono!), followed by Motown. That speaker buzzed due to poor seam seals, so, impressed with a speaker in an article, I started on a new three-way with a 12" LF, big horn MF, and smaller horn for the HF (The drivers came from Lafayette Radio.). Yeah, the article was on the Klipsch Model H - and I had made a crude copy of it. Within days, the MF horn failed and I replaced the front panel with a backup panel and cut a round hole for the 8" closed back MF driver. That followed me to college and ultimately, to my last home's basement, where the high humidity destroyed the drivers. The carcass is a hardwood carving junk box. I hope to have some real Heresy's one day! There are a bunch of them - even pieces - on evil-bay. John

Thank you for the kind welcome! I am pretty content with my RB-81ii's. I still have the JBL SUB 550P subwoofer that I used with the NHT's, they both have the 'acoustic suspension' type sealed enclosures. I had to daisy-chain the CDP through an external volume control to the Emotiva amp as it's only line out is at the same level as the input, ie, before the internal volume control, in order to feed the subwoofer's line input and have it track with the Klipsch speakers. It's a quite decent subwoofer and I don't have room for upstairs, anyway. It is a nice base for my printer, too... besides... I secretly want to try it with the RB-81ii's!

My intro to Klipsch was in the summer of 1971, when I visited a fellow's listening room, complete with K-horns and a CC Cornwall. I had sold audio equipment while at Auburn in '68, so I had heard of Klipsch - but the K-horns left their mark on me. I would see Klipsch products next nearly a quarter of a century ago, when my #1 son worked in a hifi salon. I managed to buy a KV-2 CC channel speaker before my son moved on, but, alas, no Forte's. The KV-2 outlived several sets of HT f&r speakers - and still is here. Skip ahead to Feb 2015 - and I ordered a pair of KB-15's to try... $129/pr, I could use them as extension speakers for my SW radios. I liked them so much I bought a second set - and then a pair of B10's ($99/pr) - for the table SW radio use. I wanted larger bookshelf speakers - I started looking for RB-81ii's. I finally bought a pair last November and wow! My home office stereo comprised of an Onkyo 50Wpc TX-8020, a 2-ch receiver, fed by a C-7030 CDP. My initial speakers were NHT S1 2.1's, with their 86dB SPL, fed by equal 10ft lengths of #16 Cu zipcord and aided by a JBL SUB 550P. They were joined by another pair of leads and the KB-15's, with my riding the volume when switching between them and the NHT's. The KB-15's were replaced by the RB-81ii's and even more riding the gain pot when changing from NHT's to RB-81ii's (SPL 97dB!). I elected to get another C-7030 CDP and an Emotiva mini-X A-100, a 50 Wpc amp, for my office freeing up the Onkyo's for use upstairs in my 'hobby' room. As a retired teacher, I have become quite frugal - all I could afford on Black Friday would be a pair of R-15M's ($124), which released the KB-15's for use with my cleaner audio SW table radios. The R-15M's are now the main choice for my hobby room stereo. The British made Lowe HF-225 SW table radios only produce ~1.5W of audio, but using their wide (10kHz) bandwidth and lower distortion synchronous AM detector makes clear signals, such as Radio Australia, to which I am listening as I write this (They have 'Saturday Night Country' on now - with Australian blue grass!), sound great. The traditional communications speakers one would use with shortwave receivers run $80-$200+/ea, so besides looking better, sounding better, and being more efficient - they are cheaper. My office stereo is now fantastic. Whether the RB-81ii's were broken in by the fifty hours of use they chalked up on the Onkyo before I got the Emotiva amp, or their is a difference in the amplifiers' 'sound' - the bottom end seems fuller now. The amp's 50 Wpc is plenty for the 11' x 12' room. And simplicity - the CDP's usual controls - and a volume control - easy listening, indeed! The large bookshelf speakers are ideal for my installation, their front porting permitting true bookshelf placement, as I've done. I'd love a pair of Heresys - if I just had the space - and $2k, of course. I am super content with what I have now - and really wonder what Klipsch will replace the RB-81ii's with... and when? John