MechEngVic

Absolutely nothing against the guy, just the videos. He is an advocate of high end audio, he is a like-minded compatriot. IF he just showed video of the products he was talking about while he talked instead of having us look at his mug the whole time, and it really is the WHOLE time. Show stills of the internals, how it looks set up, show us the two products you're comparing, show diagrams, spec sheets, ETC... This would make the videos at least watchable (I can watch him for about 17 seconds before I go batty). If he actually set up listening sessions with high def mics, and video of the product while the music played, I would subscribe and watch every video he made. I know it would significantly increase the amount of time he spends making the videos, but he is no longer just an audiophile with an opinion, he is a video producer. And note, it's not just him, a great many You Tube hosts think their faces are more important than what they are talking about.

Setting up a pair of mics at ear level and about the width of a skull...

I'm always impressed with the polarization caused by wire. Some of us swear by the improvements made by this or that component, speaker driver, or crossover, but use lamp cord. Others say nothing matters, everything sounds the same, but trust a company to make their wires for them and will pay a premium. And every combination in between. Everybody talks about the MINIMUM requirements for current to pass through a wire, "All you need is 680ga lamp cord for 6 million volts and a jillion amps and that'll doo'er!". No one talks about what is the BEST way to transfer current over longer distances, no one talks about resistance vs. inductance vs. capacitance of different gauges of wire, and no one especially talks about the transfer conductance of copper vs. other materials, and I've never read a single comment about electron drift speed of wire and the materials that conduct electrons best. Bottom line: Silver is the best conductor, copper second best. Resistance vs. inductance vs. capacitance considered: Thicker wire is better. MHO: I've never been able to hear a difference between connectors vs. no connectors, but I did hear a difference between 16ga an 10ga OFC copper. I'm with Jeffery Medwin on this one: The best wire you can use is Mil Spec m22759/11 silver plated, multi stranded copper wire with a tough PTFE dielectric. It's cheap, its super tough, it's easy to run through a thicker jacket if you want to use it in high stress areas, and you are basically using the best material you can use other than pure silver.

PWK advocates 45 degrees of toe in, I would say at least 28-30 degrees. My setup is near-field, they are on either side of my desk, 7 feet apart, 45 degrees toed in, and when I am sitting at my desk I am about a foot in front of the speaker-centers, I get amazing imaging and midrange crunch right from this spot. The toeing in creates a wall of stereo sound that travels back so anywhere behind them will be image-rich, meaning the sweet spot comes together at a closer distance but continues basically as far back as your room is deep, it doesn't shift the sweet spot, it enlarges it. Also, off axis imaging is better because you get the far speaker pointing towards you and the near speaker slightly muted because it is pointing slightly away from you, giving a balance to far and near channels. For the kids, maybe some of that orange construction netting...

Wait. Is the Maverick a tube DAC? Have you tried replacing the tube in there???

If you toed in your speakers more, bumped them up against the side walls, pulled them away a foot from the back wall, you might free up a few inches more of space width wise in between the speakers, plus, the pulled out, toed out corners create a pseudo-barrier to run a baby fence across. I tend to preach PWK's belief in toeing in your horn speakers, it increases depth, warmness, and the stereo sweet spot. Please don't be intimidated by my technical drawings, years of training...;-) https://www.amazon.com/Regalo-192-Inch-Super-Adjustable-Mounts/dp/B003VNKLIY/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1Q8VYM65FPIAK&keywords=baby+guard+fence&qid=1577828848&sprefix=baby+guard%2Caps%2C195&sr=8-4

Yeah, even a modular with glass shelves two tracks wide would free up about 2 feet it looks like.

It is my opinion that a DAC should be as transparent as possible, save the coloring of sound for pre's, amps and speakers, they are the ones putting the music in the room, a DAC is making a signal. Once again I highly recommend checking out Amir and his DAC measurements over at Audio Science review. You'll be surprised how poorly some very expensive DAC's measure and how well some budget ones do. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?forums/audio-dacs-streamers-servers-players-adcs.8/

SMSL m500, sounds like they did a good job with this one using the ES9038PRO chip, and a decent headphone amp too. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/smsl-m500-dac-and-hp-amp-review.9606/

I hear what you're saying and I agree with it, as I think most would. But many will turn right around after agreeing and tout the virtues of their "head in a vise" arraignments. Well I only grudgingly accept and grudgingly tout as an improvement to what I had before, due to limited resources and trying to do the most with the equipment I have on hand. But know that I am paying close attention as I slowly but surely make improvements.

Well I'd be happy to read any and all of your rants on the subject.

Can you elaborate on this?

I can't claim to know much about impulse response other than some modeling we did in college using Matlab.

Nothing makes the Chorus II's pound harder than a good tube amp. After Denon, Crown, Yamaha, Adcom, and Thorens, all SS, I bought a Dynaco St-70 II, hooked it up to the II's and the 35wpc of class A push-pull tube power hit so hard I couldn't feel the couch I was sitting on, it felt like I was floating. If you have II's, you owe it to yourself to hear them with a good tube amp.

Chris, Your comment started sinking in and I started looking at dual coaxial drivers and the effects of time aligning... While searching I ran into a video where a guy talks about super tweeter placement and how if there are duplicated frequency ranges (which I have, using a super tweeter with a two way speaker), that you'll have comb filtering no matter where you place the tweeter. He recommends turning the tweeter around to face backwards or placing the tweeter on top of the speaker facing upwards. The idea being that the timing will be far off enough to not cause comb filtering. I put my tweeters in a combination of both positions, pointing backwards and upwards... No more comb filtering, and a big increase in soundstage! I feel like this achieves my goal of filling in the high frequency roll-off of the KLF's. Thanks again for inspiring me to look deeper! This video is worth a look:

Obviously, I am a proponent of using tubes to power Klipsch speakers. They have a warming effect on the sound, and horns can sound bright if not warmed. And don't let the made in China fool you, they can build good tube gear. Many expensive high end tube components are being built there. Just upgrade the tubes after a while of listening.

How do you replace the thru holes? I take it these boards are not multi layered?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/222266561733 https://www.ebay.com/itm/HiFi-KT88-Vacuum-Tube-Power-Amplifier-Single-ended-Class-A-Stereo-Audio-Amp/281300474713?_trkparms=aid%3D555021%26algo%3DPL.SIMRVI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20190711100440%26meid%3D0aff12587aec4b588438674989b2ed13%26pid%3D100752%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dpf%26sd%3D251520979835%26itm%3D281300474713%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675&_trksid=p2047675.c100752.m1982

Two things here: If DAC and iMac are on different electrical line, try putting them on the same line (as the amp I am assuming), try different combos of connection of amp/dac/imac. If the dac or imac have 3-prong plugs try using a ground cheater plug. Also try clearing any other wires from the 20 ft. RCA, wires on top of it or running along with it can introduce hum. And here: With everything hooked up, connected and turned on so you're hearing the hum, take a length of wire, bare at both ends, and start touching metal (chassis ground) of any two of the three offending components, easier with the amp and dac, harder with the imac, try any metal surface of the imac or you might have to take a cover off and access a circuit board ground. This method is safe as long as you only connect to grounds. Alligator clips help. This will show you if there is a weak ground connection between two components. (I wouldn't doubt the Ma352 has a ground connector). And finally, from what you've said it sounds like the imac is the problem, specifically because the hum just came out of nowhere, I don't know how much control you have over drivers and sound settings with Apple but usb drivers, dac drivers, driver settings can cause hum. I would try things in the order I listed them. Hope this helps.

I think at low to moderate volumes you'll be fine. But keep in mind that a speaker's impedance, although averaged at 8 ohms, actually varies dynamically during music playback. I doubt your amp will have any trouble pushing 4 big speakers to high levels, but the current draw of a Cornwall vs a Heresy, although not significant, resulting from differences in each speaker's dynamic impedance, may cause some distortion. My explanation might not completely correct but the overall idea I am communicating is sound.

Once again, Thank you for the valuable comment. What you describe here is exactly what I am finding. I'm thinking that instead of physically aligning the super tweeter, it may be more advantageous to use it as a sort of equalizer, so much is the effect on the overall sound as its position changes. I can make the KLF's sound much brighter with the super tweeter in certain spots, but the amazing thing is I can make the KLF's sound even darker and warmer with the super tweeter in certain other spots than the KLF's can be on their own with no super tweeter! Certainly if you have bright horns this might help tame them. Now I will see the effect of the super tweeters in these darker spots on imaging and detail.

What a great idea and what a wife!

I spend a lot of time in San Francisco and always leave inspired and feeling alive!

That's a good looking pre! lots of features.

The SP-14 with remote is pretty sweet. Kit or assembled.