Mike82

No t-t now. I sold my SOTA Star about 7 years ago and also sold a lot of my LPs (French/Brit EMI, Mercs, Astree, Shaded/White Dogs, Hyperion). Damn!! I've thought about getting another t-t, like a Music Hall MMF-7 or Rega, but I'm not sure I'll be happy with that level of quality. I don't feel like spending $5-10K and then having to hunt decent LPs down.

Fini: I bought a Denon DP1000 t-table back around '77 and had the Black Widow arm installed. Delicate thing, ain't it? FWIW, I tried a lot of cartridges on it and settled on a Grace F9L. Good synergy and the F9L wasn't one of those cartridges whose suspension would crap out if you burped next to it. They show up on Ebay. What current cartridge are you considering? It needs to be high-compliance for sure.

Tom: I bought the ALK for my '85 Khorns and was very pleased with the global improvement in the sound reproduction. Every parameter was improved and I especially appreciated the added bonus of being able to adjust the squawker output. My system never sounded so good.

1974- I bought a pair of Braun L710 monitors (2- 7" woofers, 2" midrange, 1" tweeter). The Brauns replaced a pair of decent EPI 150. The Brauns were SWEEETTT! I kept them for several years until replacng them with Spendor 1/2. Sadly, ADS took over the US distribution and the apparently decided to import only budget stuff.

1974- I bought a pair of Braun L710 monitors (2- 7" woofers, 2" midrange, 1" tweeter). The Brauns replaced a pair of decent EPI 150. The Brauns were SWEEETTT! I kept them for several years until replacng them with Spendor 1/2. Sadly, ADS took over the US distribution and the apparently decided to import only budget stuff.

I agree with John A. I experienced the same fuzzy-sound thing, but maybe I'm expecting too much from a $99 amp.

Hi Jim: My prayers are with you. I can only imagine what you are feeling. God Bless, Mike

Concrete walls!! Yikes!! Yes, you need to toe-in the speakers. I found that the horns firing direct at the listening position to be the best. But you need some walls! I can't tell what the dimensions of your basement are, but the LS probably are having a tough time "loading" the room. It would really be tough to evaluate a speaker in the current set-up.

They probably got the $$$$$$ from an auto accident or worker's comp settlement. Anyway, I'd expect your neighborhood would have Home Owner's Association. File a complaint. I'm sure your trash-neighbors are violating some type of covenant. Ex: parking a boat in the driveway and not mowing their lawn. I've plenty other "anonymous" harassment techniques, but would rather not list them here.

Ditto with what DeanG notes. I rope caulked both the tweeter and mid-horn with excellent results. I eventually replaced the stock mid-horn and drover with Altec 806A/511B horn (eargasm!) The woofer basket can be caulked too. The improvement here was subtle, but noticable. I also went with the ALK crossover which allowed me to get my Khorns sounding great!

Hi Howard: Mike Masztal here. Welcome! Glad you finally made it over to the Forum. You'll find a lot of K-fans here and good advice to boot. Quite a few folks here use the 2A3. For everyone else. Howard's got a gorgeous house with a large, well-designed, dedicated listening room. He's as rabid a Khorn fan as anyone here. Mike

I can't say I could tell the difference between front/rear port either when the speakers are properly positioned. I used to have the speakers set up about 1/3 of the way into the room (14' x 21' x 9' - short wall) That was the best placement, but I was fortunate enough to have a dedicated room. What cracks me up is when people spent $20K+ on a system , posting photos of their set-up, etc., and have the speakers (rear-ported) plastered against the rear wall, no room treatment, no toe-in, etc. I just know their rig has to sound like crap. Sadly, there's a lot of people with too much money and not enough experience buying $$$$$ components without taking other factors, just as critical to obtaining good sound, into account. As example from Audio Asylum. "I have $15K to spend on speakers. Any suggestions?" First, IMO 95%+ of the posters on AA are rank amateurs whose opinions I don't value. Second, if I were to spend that kind of $$$$$ on a speaker system, I'd be sure to know what I was looking for. Sorry for the soapbox.

I can hear it now. "Mommy, I like those Prosches. They're kinda cute. Can I get one? pu-leeeaasse."

When I had my shop, I sold Silverline (rear-port) and JM Reynaud (front-port). Based on my experience, the front ported speakers allow for near wall placement without mucking up the sound. If rear-ported were closer than 12", i found the sound was just plain bad. Optimally, a rear ported should have at least 24", but you canusually get by with 12-18"

Bonjour: My French isn't so good anymore, but I understand your question. I recommend the Audiomat Arpege Reference or Prelude Reference. Sine they are manufactured in France, they should be available for audition. I reviewed the Arpege for SoundStage! and gave it a Reviewer's Choice Award (one of only 2 components I rated this way) Neil Walker did a follow up review and fully agreed with my opinion. See reviews: http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/audiomat_arpege.htm http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/audiomat_arpege_followup.htm Neil later reviewed the Audiomat Prelude Reference in Enjoy The Music. I used the Prelude as my reference amplifier for a couple years. Neil still uses his. http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/archives/ Scroll down to the Prelude Reference review. In my opinion, the Audiomat amplifiers one of the, if not best integrated amplifiers available and factoring in their price, are an excellent value. Bon chance!

Ceramic drivers are usually white and concave/smooth. Quite a few manufacturers are using them. Avalon, Equation, Kharma, etc. Visit the CES show reports at Enjoy the Music (www.enjoythemusic.com) and you'll see a few photos of them. I used to sell the Equation which uses a ceramic tweeter. The ceramic tweeter was fantastic- clean, no break up on complex passages and great upper frequency extension.

I have a Fisher 400 in my second system. It was my dad's old receiver he used along with Wharfdale W60 and a Garrard t-table. I had it refurbished at a local shop in town. The owner is a real tube lover- even makes/sell his own pre-amps. The 400 is very good-- about the only flaw compared to my main rig is a lack of resolution in the upper frequencies. Craig's right though, there'a huge friggin amount of parts under the chassis. I can't imagine trying to assemble one!

I tend to agree with Dean and Craig. Your Teles may be on their last gasp. I've used them before in line pre-amps and a DAC, but didn't really care for them. Yes, they are "dead quiet" as Craig noted, but they sounded too "hot". Maybe there was too much gain compared to the Mullard 12AX7 (which I've been using for years). The Teles are exelent tubes, but I think they are best used in tubed phono sections due to their low noise and high gain charasteristics.

Pop Country is the 90s version of the disco S#!t from the 70s. it is "Music for the lower 50th percentile". My quote. I like the real country singers, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, etc., but the Shanian Twain, Dixie Twits, and himbo counterparts, etc., make me want to hurl!!

I'm also considering trying these. The money-back feature makes it no-risk. FWIW, while at the MWAF in Lima a couple weeks ago, I saw a few rooms using these on their amps, etc. I asked about how they liked them and everyone I spoke to had only positive comments.

I don't have Bruce's email address, but if you go to Audio Asylum Hi Efficiency forum, you will find several posts and can hot link an email to him.

Hi Arena: Where do you live? I'm sure you could get an invite from one of the forum members.

BillyRyan While at the recent MWAF, I had the chance to speak at length with Bruce about Khorn mods. Bruce specifically recommended his new rectangular horn with 2" throat (w/JBL or TAD driver) as the best to use with the Khorn bass cabinet versus his round "salad bowl" horn. He commented that given the usual corner placement of the Khorn, the rectangular horn worked better than the salad bowl. I didn't ask about which horn would work best on the Belle or LaScala.

Hi Andy: While at MWAF, I had the chance to speak at length with Bruce about Khorn mods. Bruce commented that he would mod the bass cabinet by increasing the throat size to 6" by 13" (from 3" by 13") and adding a 15" Electrovoice woofer which, according to Bruce, is a much better match having more output and greater upper bass extension. Bruce also specifically recommended his new rectangular horn with 2" throat (w/JBL or TAD driver) as the best to use with the Khorn bass cabinet versus his round "salad bowl" horn. He commented that given the usual corner placement of the Khorn, the rectangular horn worked better. I didn't ask about which horn would work best on the Belle or LaScala. While the bass modification intrigued me, I think I'd like to stick with the ALK and Altec 511B/808A mid-horn combo I'm currently using.

Craig: I like your idea about a Klipsch room next year. You previously stated: I just don't swallow this room acoustic stuff. I'm sorry but any of the rooms that were used there could easily put my basement to shame acoustic wise any day of the week. While I will admit that rooms can influence the sound there is no denying that ! but some of these systems were horrible. I just do not believe a room can completely turn a system into a nightmare. If it can there is something wrong to start with. Something over emphasized , some short coming who knows. From your description of your set-up, it appears you are listening from a near-field environment. In that case, room acoustics play a minimal part. Additionally, the LaScalas tend to be a tad lean in bass extension (based on my experience with my Belle), so again, room acoustics aren't as critical. Additionally, your room boundaries are broken up which helps, rather than hinders, a room's acoustic response. While I was working with Silverline at HiFi '99, after setting up the room, we noticed several bass nodes in the room causing horrible bass response. Measuring with an Ivey Spectrum Analyzer, we noted a 12-14 dB hump in the 80-100 Hx region! Switching the system configuration 90 degrees (I can't say from the long wall to the short wall since the room was pretty square) made an improvement, but there was still one spot with a hump. The same speakers in my home sounded fine. While hi-frequency abberations are fairly easy to control, bass problems are a real stinker. Building a good speaker is pretty tough. A litmus test a lot of designers use is anechoic room response, ie, they want a flat curve, and many pretty achieve it. Intuitively then, 2 speakers having a flat anechoic response should sound the same in any room, but we all know that isn't the case. I agree Welborne's Oris/Onken didn't work well. I would have preferred that he used the Maya bass horn. I don't think he would have had the same problem. For some photos, visit Audio Asylum. TAFKA Steve has posted a few.