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hsosdrummer

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Everything posted by hsosdrummer

  1. The one movie that, if I surf to it I stop and watch it through to the end EVERY SINGLE TIME is Back To The Future. "You bet your a$$ it works."
  2. [My] Dodgers played like shit — couldn't pitch (except for Hill and Buehler, who's a STUD), couldn't hit in the clutch, couldn't make adjustments. Add to that some incredibly bad managerial decisions (like using Jansen in the 8th inning twice, pitching to Pearce in Game 5 and pulling Hill in Game 4) and it's a wonder that we won even one game. 😠
  3. The reason you don't see K-horn setups with sidewall treatments is that placing a K-horn (or a LaScala, for that matter) in a corner with proper toe-in spills relatively little energy beyond the outside walls of the MF and HF horns. Typical direct-radiator speakers need 1st-reflection treatment because compared to a well-designed horn they spray sound all over the place (even if placed in corners with proper toe-in, although that would considerably reduce reflections created by the spillage). Diffusion at at the 1st-reflection points will almost always sound more natural than absorption. If the 1st-reflection points are really causing problems in your setup, you can begin by placing something portable with an irregular surface (a small bookcase would be ideal) at the first reflection point, which would act as a diffuser. The reason I recommend starting with something portable is that you may very well find that you prefer the sound without the treatment. If the treatment does make things better, you can replace the bookcase or other temporary doohickey with a purpose-built diffuser, for which a Google search will reveal tons of options.
  4. I play one of the California Lottery games (SuperLottoPlus) to the tune of $1 per game (2 games a week = $104/per year) and have been doing so ever since the lottery was legalized here in 1987. I've played the same 6 numbers since I started (one of the numbers is my age, so that one changes every year). I do it not because I expect to win or because I'm bad at math (which I'm not), but so that when I every so often dream of being truly rich I have a one in 41 million chance of that dream coming true, twice a week. ('Cause believe you me, that's the ONLY way I'll ever be truly rich.) That one in 41 million chance is worth $104 a year to me.
  5. On May 23, 2002 Shawn Green hit 4 homers in a single game for the L.A. Dodgers against the Brewers. He also hit a double, for 5 extra-base hits and 19 total bases in a single game.
  6. Unfortunately the tour doesn't come within 2.000 miles of L.A., so I guess I'll miss him. But I did get to see him: November, 1968 (Truth tour) Spring, 1971 (Rough and Ready tour) Fall, 1980 (There and Back tour) Spring, 1999 (Who Else tour) So I'm OK with missing this one.
  7. The curved vocal array and drum stacks used none other than the venerable EV T35 tweeter. (If it was good enough for PWK...) At the time the only JBL tweeter available was the 2402 (the silver bullet), but since its dispersion was 40 degrees conical at 10kHz, it wouldn't work at all in an array. The 2405 (the slot with the wedge) could have been arrayed if mounted with the slot oriented horizontally (its dispersion was 25 degrees vertical and 90 degrees horizontal), but I don't think it was developed until after The Wall had been retired.
  8. When PWK was at the AES convention in L.A. in 1979 to accept his silver medal award, the Klipsch factory rep for So, California arranged for me to have a private lunch with him. Among other things, at that lunch I asked PWK what the dims of the K-Horn woofer would be if it were a straight horn. He took out his notebook, made a few calculations and drew the horn in sections, from throat to mouth. The dims were around 7 feet deep, with a mouth around 6.5 feet by 6.5 feet (I have a photocopy of that notebook page in my Klipsch papers at home). So imagine the Klipschorn tweeter and midrange horns suspended above a 6.5' x 6.5' horn mouth opening in the corner, with the woofer driver at the throat of a horn extending 7 feet behind the mouth opening. Based on this I think Heyser's numbers are in the ballpark.
  9. In my opinion Kilpsch absolutely ruined the Klipschorn's aesthetics when they redesigned it and eliminated the inset collar that was the hallmark of the old "B" style. Now there's just an empty space between the bottom of the top hat and the top of the woofer that looks like someone forgot to screw down the top hat all the way on the woofer. The least they could have done would have been to eliminate that space so the friggin' thing doesn't look like someone forgot to finish assembling it. THE dumbest thing Klipsch ever did. If I ever found myself once again in a home that could accommodate Klipschorns I would look for an older pair of "B" style ones and update them to current standards—I would NEVER buy the ones Klipsch currently sells, they just don't look like Klipschorns any more, never mind looking like a $12,000 pair of speakers. P.S. I wish I had a nice photo of the B-style K-horns I owned from 1978 to 1992. Bob Moers personally picked out the veneer sheets for the woofer fronts (they reminded one of a Georgia O'Keefe painting, if you get my drift) and he and PWK both autographed the labels. Over the years I re-oiled them with 6 or 7 coats of Casey's TruOil (what Klipsch used at the factory at the time) until the finish really glowed.
  10. I'd bet serious $$$ that he accidentally had the polarity on one of the speakers backwards. (Happens to the best of us.) That's all it takes to kill the bass.
  11. In the mid-2000s I worked at Sonance, writing their installation and user documentation. While I worked there they purchased all of the Bertagni patents and technology and even the services of Alex Bertagni for a few years. This arrangement began a couple of years of R&D, the end result of which (and the ultimate expression of Alex Bertagni's original idea) was Sonance's Invisible Series of speakers, which are installed by cutting out a section of drywall, installing the speaker into the cavity and blending the speaker's flat front diaphragm with the drywall until it is undetectable. (Technically it's still visible.) This requires the services of experienced drywall and painting craftspeople, but when properly installed the speakers are indeed 100% completely undetectable. For anyone interested, here's a link to their latest incarnation: http://www.sonance.com/in-wall-in-ceiling/invisible-series/invisible-series
  12. When I was using my Cornwalls as 2-channel stereo speakers I had them about 2 ft in front of the front wall with their outside ends around 2 – 3 feet from the side walls. (Corner placement was prevented by architectural elements.) The listening position was against the rear wall about 13 feet from the fronts of the speakers. I experimented with toe-in until I achieved a seamless soundstage that extended behind the speakers and beyond their outside edges. As I recall it only took around 10 – 15 degrees of toe-in for each speaker. (This was from 1985 into 1996, so my memory of the details isn't as crisp as it once was.) In spite of their being well away from walls and corners they produced room-shaking bass while powered by an Electron Kinetics Eagle 2a amp (around 120 W per channel).
  13. The *first* thing you should do is toe them in (rotate them so they aim at the listening position). Considering how close together they are I would say around 25-30 degrees each, depending on how far away the listening position is (the closer you sit, the more toe-in you need). The soundstage will gel much more than with them firing straight ahead as shown in your photo. Then sit back and enjoy them. After a while you can start tweaking your setup to get the most out of them, but some toe-in should be #1 on your list (and it's free!). They look really nice, congratulations! I've owned Cornwalls since 1980 and have listened to thousands of recordings on mine. I now use them as monitors in my recording studio. I know them so well and trust them so much, they instantly tell me what I'm putting onto my recordings, and they're so accurate they allow me to create recordings that sound good when played on just about any other type of system or speaker. That's about the highest recommendation I can give to a speaker.
  14. I have the whole series on DVD. The thing that took so long was working out the rights to keep the original music, most (but not all) of which made it into the DVDs. I don't like the MeTV broadcasts of the show because instead of showing it windowboxed in the original 4:3 aspect ratio they zoom-in on it so it fills the entire 16:9 screen and it looks terrible. If you love the series like I do it's worth buying the DVDs. Amazon has the set of the complete series for around 69 bucks. I've always thought you could tell a lot about a man by their answer to the following: Bailey, or Jennifer? (Bailey all the way!) Similar issue about Gilligan's Island: Ginger, or Mary Ann? (Mary Ann, of course!)
  15. I know someone who got into playing modular synthesizers precisely because when he was 5 years old he used to play with an old telephone switchboard that was in the basement of the house he grew up in.
  16. I owned Klipschorns between 1978 and 1992 and used them between 1978 and 1985. During that time I ran them from the following amps: Yamaha CA-610II integrated (A good starter amp for the first few months.) Yamaha B2 (A wonderful sounding amp on K-horns: smooth and dynamic, but a bit 2-dimensional.) Luxman MB3045 (Very liquid sounding and very dynamic, not quite as smooth as the B2 but with excellent 3-dimensional soundstaging.) Nakamichi PA-7 (Sounded meh, but I worked for Nak and it was free. Plus, I couldn't afford to keep replacing the tubes in the MB3045s. They ran through a set every 9 months or so.) Nakamichi PA-7II (Noticeably less meh sounding, but still not up to the sound of the Luxman or Yamaha.) Electron Kinetics Eagle 2a* (Absolutely combined the best qualities of the B2 and the MB3045s: Incredible dynamics, smooth yet detailed from top to bottom, pinpoint 3D soundstaging and terrific deep bass performance.) I also had the opportunity to run the K-horns on an Electron Kinetics Eagle 7a for a weekend, and it seemed to add about an octave to the speakers' response below 40Hz. No sh*t — I heard super deep bass in recordings that simply didn't have anything that low when the speakers were run by any other amp — it was downright scary. By the time I returned that amp to the dealer the following Monday (I couldn't afford to buy it so I bought the Eagle 2a as an affordable compromise) my upstairs neighbor was ready to kill me. *Although I no longer own my Klipschorns (for the past 30+ years I've lived in homes that were a terrible match for Klipschorns) I do still own the Eagle 2a. It's running my 1980s-vintage Cornwalls as studio monitors in my recording studio. And it kicks their asses.
  17. When I was selling audio gear back between 1977 and 1981 the dealer I worked for carried both Klipsch and Bozak, and we had a pair of demo Bozak Concert Grands powered by a MacIntosh MC2300 amp. They did sound very, very good: Low distortion, good detail, smooth treble and good bass. Unfortunately, one day someone (not me) pushed things too far and fried several drivers in each Concert Grand demo speaker. The store eventually shipped the pair back to Bozak and never replaced them (I don't think we ever sold a pair while we had them on display.) BTW, we displayed the Klipschorns in a different room than the Bozaks (only one sound room had two 90-degree corners on the same wall) so we could never directly compare them with the Concert Grands. My own impression was that the Bozaks were somewhat smoother sounding with very solid bass, but had less life-like dynamics and just weren't as emotionally involving as the Klipschorns. I know that the soundroom walls were not constructed as solidly as those in a typical home and the corners were much further apart than they would be in a typical home, so our demo Klipschorns definitely were not performing as well as they normally would. (Even so, I still managed to sell 2 pairs of Klipschorns and 2 Klipschorn/Belle Klipsch arrays while I worked there, as well as La Scalas, Cornwalls and tons of Heresys.)
  18. Bozak speakers were of infinite baffle design, which completely prevents the woofer's rear wave from cancelling its front wave. (Enclosing the cabinet provides the same acoustic effect as mounting the woofer on a flat baffle of infinite width and height.) Although this does prevent destructive interference, it wastes half of the energy produced by the woofer. Achieving good efficiency and low bass response in an infinite baffle requires a very large enclosure with several woofer drivers. The Bozak Concert Grand speakers in the picture are close to 5 feet high, 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep. Its woofers were similar to Heresy woofers in that they used relatively light cones with an accordion suspension that combined with the sealed cabinet to limit cone movement and reduce distortion (see below). Bozak woofers differed from Klipsch woofers primarily in their cone material: Klipsch woofers used paper/pulp cones while Bozak woofers used a cone made from a blend of paper/pulp and wool fibers. Acoustic suspension speakers like AR and Advent work completely differently. They use a woofer with a heavier cone and a very loose suspension, which lowers its resonant frequency and allows it longer excursion. The enclosure is relatively small and tightly sealed, allowing the air trapped inside to act as a spring on the cone, helping to control its movement. When all these factors are properly balanced the speaker can produce bass as low as 30Hz. However, all of this tomfoolery severely reduces the speaker's conversion efficiency. requiring 10 to 100 times the amplifier power as more highly-efficient designs such as used by Klipsch. This makes it impossible for acoustic suspension speakers to play at life-like volumes without being damaged. The other price paid by acoustic suspension speakers is a big increase in modulation distortion, which is directly proportional to cone movement (more movement = more modulation distortion). Look up the old Klipsch brochure titled "Yawns or goose-bumps?" for a great illustration of the limitations of acoustic suspension speakers.
  19. Just as an FYI about room size, I am currently using a pair of 30+ year old Cornwall IIs as studio monitors in my home studio control room, which is exactly 8 feet by 8 feet with an 8-foot high ceiling. As long as I listen at sane volume levels (under around 95dB peaks) I have never felt that they were too much speaker for such a small room. Even though they're on stands that put them around 16" off the floor they have good bass performance, although my next step will be to remove the stands and put the speakers on the floor on their factory risers. Without a subwoofer, Heresys of any vintage are likely to have somewhat inadequate bass performance for house and hip-hop, but for the other music genres you list a simple twist of your preamp's Bass control (maybe +4dB or so of boost) should make everything sound great without a sub. However, if you can at all afford a pair of Cornwalls, they should work fantastically well in your situation, and would not require a subwoofer no matter what type of music you feed them. They would be the closest you can get to the overall performance of the Klipschorns that so impressed you. (Although I have not personally heard them, I've read nothing but glowingly positive reviews of the new Forte III.) And here's just a small bit of advice from an old fart who's been playing this audio game for going on 50 years: No one has ever regretted spending more to get what they really want in the first place. Regrets result from making compromises. Have fun!
  20. 4,000 people marched along the community bike path here in Burbank, CA on Saturday morning. The children are marching because they've been the targets. When you're the target it doesn't much matter who the shooter is. [In before the lock]
  21. hsosdrummer

    Sir Ringo

    If you look anything like the man featured in your avatar I would advise that your appearance provides you with no basis upon which to cast aspersions on the appearance of others.
  22. Diffusers placed in the sidewall 1st-reflection locations will usually produce better-sounding results than absorbers will. However, if the room is fairly reflective, absorbers will likely improve things over doing nothing at all.
  23. Simple: The ones who make the most sense. It is the person receiving the information who bestows equality or inequality on the information they receive, not the people transmitting it. If a receiver of information cannot tell the difference between an opinion or thought that is based on a knowledge of the facts and an understanding of history versus one that is based on fear, hysteria and an ignorance of history (willful or not), the problem lies with the person receiving the information, not with those transmitting it. Just because there are twenty voices loudly shouting doesn't mean that all (or any) of them deserve our attention. It is up to each of us to exercise critical thinking when deciding what information to consume.
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