whell

Picked this up on vinyl today on a whim. Set me back $20, but wanted to give one of these 'audiophile reissues a try. I played it tonight, I must say that I'm not sure what to make of it. For instance: Money: one of the "signature cuts" off the album, truly sounded as good as I've ever heard it. Low background noise, excellent separation, the music seemed to jump off the record, lots of great dynamics. Us and Them: 3rd cut, side 2, seemed to just lay there. Not nearly as dynamic. Still want to give it some more timeon the table, but I'd be interested if anyone else has checked this disk out.

Damn. Whenever I go to an estate sale, all I ever find is something like an old Yorx combo unit, speakers that are 18 inches tall and 5 inches deep, and records that are scratched to s**t. What are they willing to let the Mac go for if selling separate?

Bryan: Call your Klipsch dealer and don't hesitate to be assertive. Your desire not to call them should be balanced against the $54 out of pocket. I'd make the call if it meant saving a few $$$.

Another voice on this topic, and a fellow RF-3 owner. There is some break in time that Reference Series speakers require. However, I doubt your experience is cause by the need to break in the speakers more. I really must agree with other here based on my own experience. Poor source material sounds absolutly awful on my RF-3's and my KG-4's. I've got an LP of Emerson Lake and Palmer music, Brain Salad Surgury, that sounded OK on a previous pair of speakers. However, on my Klipsch, they are almost unlistenable without some serious intervention from the tone controls. I must also say that MP3's, to me, sound lousy no matter what system I play them back on, save my boombox.

You can find a great deal on a great amp by purchasing used equipment. There are a who world of amps to choos efrom depending on your budget, and the KLF's don't need a high wattage amp to sound good. For a moderately priced amp, some folks on the board have had good lcuk with Parasound, Adcom, and Acurus to name a few.

lynnm: What do you use to apply your home brew cleaning solution?

Great site. Thanks for that!

I think I can live comfortably just outside the $90K range! Thanks for the feedback, and I think I am going to go for this TT, unless I get some drastically negative feedback from someoen familiar with this unit.

I'm going to be careful here, because this is one of those "you mileage may vary" experiences. I had paired Klipsch and a Yamaha HT receiver about a year ago, a model up the ladder from your Yammy on the product line. I didn't care much for the results. I found the sound lacking in a number of areas, and bass response was one. Asking an HT receiver to do the job for 2 channel is not always a rewarding venture. HT receivers are designed for HT, and lend their strenghts to producing a convincing Dolby Digital or DTS movie sound track experience. So...the answer could lie elsewhere within your system, and could be inherent in the Yammy's ability to create convincing 2 channel music. You did not indicate whether you were connecting the CD to the Yammy using the CD's digital or analog outputs. If connected digitally, you might try connecting the CD's analog outputs to the Yammy's analog inputs with high quality interconnects and see if that helps. Conversely, you could connect the CD digitally if it is not connected that way now and see what happens.

I've got a line on a Thorens TD-145 TT locally. Price negotiations currently under way. No mods that I'm aware of on this deck, reported to have been serviced regularly. Questions: Anyone familiar with the TT and can provide some insight on its performance? My understanding is that this deck, even for its age, competes favorably with modern-day TT offerings in its price range, though it can be tricky to set up and maintain. Are these your experiences as well? Would also like to know if you've owned one, or its cousin, the TD-160, and what you thought of the performance. Thanks for any thoughts!

The Play Station's "digital audio out" (not sure if the PS2's audio out is analog or digital) would need to be connected to the Denon's digital audio input. The digital audio out connection is not acheived via the 2 channel RCA output jacks, but either via a single RCA-style 75 ohm coaxial output jack to the Denon's coaxial digital input jack, or via an optical digital output to the Denon's optical digital input. The digital audio signal carries the "flag" that tells the receiver which mode to switch into: either DD or DTS. If the PS2 does not have digital audio output capabilities, you will not be able to provide the Denon with a digital audio signal that it can then decode to either DD or DTS.

LOL! I can feel the urge to splurge!!

Williamston, MI is just over an hour's drive from me, so I'm within his delivery radius. I've just got no place to put something that bid in my living room. Love to go listen to them though.

Dean: That's funny. I'm a former Maggie owner (MQ-10 if I remember correctly). They lost their position in my listening room to a pair of RB-5's I picked up on Ebay from a local seller. I loved my Maggies, and had owned them since 1993, and had owned another pair of Maggies before that. They were excellent speakers for the price, but I'll never go back after hearing what Klipsch can do.

I wonder if SpeakerWorks or Simply Spreakers could help here? Both companies have web sites and offer replacement speakers from many different manufacturers. Haven't personally tried them for Klipsch, though.

These are my test drive albums for any new speaker or electronics: - Ricky Lee Jones - 1st Album - Steely Dan - Aja - Bob Seger - Stranger in Town

There is a pair of Chorus speakers near me, and I think I could possible get them for about $625. However, in doing a bit of research on the web, I've found a number of comments from current/previous Chorus owners that the speakers benefit greatly from a crossover modification. I do not have any great experience doing electronics work, but I'm curious now if I shouls pass on these if they have not been previously modified? Als, has anyone ever done any modification work on Chorus speakers to know if there are any REAL benefits as described by others who claim to have modified their Choruses? Thanks!

Hmmm.... Maybe I need to listen to some of these recording again. I seem to remember distrinctly the Eagles DTS live recording having instruments placed in the rear speakers. Could be my ears playing tricks.

Craig: Are you planning on selling any integrated amps anytime soon? I'm rethinking what I'm doing with my living room set up, and might want to try my RF-3's, or maybe a pair of Chorus's that are for sale near me, with tubes, just to see what all the fuss is about. Besides, you're only about an hour drive from me so I might be able to avoid shipping BS.

Call me a heretic, but I've never gotten comfortable with multi-channel music. The soundstage is not convincing to me. My examples so far, in all honesty, have been the DTS disks by the Eagles, Clapton and D Krall. However, I've never been to a concert where the instruments are placed behind me (or just above my listening position at a 45 degree angle from my listening position). Its just not a life-like presentation. As one reviewer (probably a dinosaur like me) put it: "Audiophiles aleady have a high resolution audio format. Its called vinyl!"

The dealer installed it on my TT for $80 plus tax.

Just a follow up: Pulled the Grado off and had my favorite audio store install a Sumiko Pearl. Had heard some good things about the Sumiko line and thought it would be worth a try. The "dance" has certainly cleared up. Being an eliptical cartridge, it might be my impression, but background noise seems to be much less. Seems like the cartridge might need some break in time. Cartridge seems less bright than the Grado, maybe a little warmer. Bass is REALLY tight and present. Interested in any of your thoughts on this cartridge, if you've used it. Thanks!

I just picked up a pair about a month ago. I must admit, your buy price was a bit better than mine. However, I promptly hooked up mine to my trusty old Sansui 9090 and the sound is just fabulous. Can't say enough about these little gems.

Picked up a Marantz DV 4000 a few months ago at my local hifi shop for $150. It was a display model and missing the remote, but sold as new with a full waranty. Picked up a remote on Ebay a month or so later for $20. Sound's great, and now I have a back up DVD player in case the NAD ever goes belly-up. The deals are out there if you have the patience.

fini: I did a search in the Vinyl Asylum on "Grado Dance", and it yielded a lot of infomation. Unifortunately, the application of that info has yet to yield a fix, but I'm still trying. There are point-counterpoint opinions on the Asylum about why this occurs. One individual stated the Grado cartridges have "less damping" materials in their design, so they "are more suseptible to extreme low frequencies" in the record groove that might cause the resonance that causes the "dance". Looked around the Grado web site, and didn't see any mention of the "problem" at all.