redwood forest

It's a lot cheaper to replace it by making another copy from music stored on your hard drive as WAV files. Yes?

I knew that. The above was for those that didn't.

I believe Bob G., Matt Whatley, Steve P., and Trey Cannon are moderators for this thread. Yes? Hello... Is anybody there? Are you all asleep? Yes, they're all asleep. Paul must be turning over in his grave.

Pure silver has a 0 (neutral) charge. Silver in silver oxide or any other silver compound has a positive 1 charge. If you oxidize silver, then you change it from pure silver with a 0 charge to an increased charge of positive 1. Are you want oxidized silver? Any oxidized silver will be in a tarnished form. The same goes with copper.

Oxidation, reduction , tarnished, oxidized, boy are we getting technical. Actually tarnish can refer to the precipitate that forms from a redox reaction also known as an oxidation-reduction reaction. Oxidation is the process of an atom or ion increasing it's charge during a reaction, while reduction is the process of an atom or ion reducing it's charge. Just because a substance is oxidized does NOT necessarily mean that an oxide or oxygen compound is formed during the reaction. It simply means that the substance has increased it's charge. Can we all regain our composure now? Thank you.

Klipsch speakers produce an honest, revealing sound that shows any weaknesses with your system. Most people that complain about harshness in their Klipsch speakers can solve their problems by getting a better amplifier which is the actual source of the problem. Tube amplifiers have a built in distortion that hides the harsh sound of horn speakers. Some people say that tube amplifiers have a softer sound, and this is why. You will have to pay dearly for a solid state amplifier that can provide clean, detailed, honest sound. Until you can afford this ultimate amp, perhaps a tube amplifier would be best. The ringing effect of midrange metal horns is well known. If you hold up the long metal horn unattached from the cabinet and hit it with a metal object, you will hear the horn ring like a bell. However, if you attach and screw the horn back to the cabinet, the ring will stop. You will have no problem as long as the horn is attached to the cabinet as it should be.

John, I am using Khorns for the front speakers in my home theater. You do not need a center speaker for home theater. The sound from the center speaker can easily be taken over by the front corner speakers.The Khorns by themselves work great in a 4.1 design. However, you must move the Khorns closer to the screen away from the corner. Khorns (most speakers) work best away from the walls to produce a better 60 degree sound image. Khorns positioned in the corner produce an unrealistic 90 degree image which center speakers can't help. The bass port of the Khorns require a corner wall and can be accomplished successfully with massive false walls built behind the Khorns. The false walls should be four feet high and three feet long each made with two layers of HIGH dense fiber board glued and screwed together. The two walls are fitted together at 90 degrees to make a false corner. This actually creates a faster, less resonating bass sound than most typical walls using half inch wall board. I hope that this helps, and welcome to the Klipsch forum.

DaddyDee, at least you have a wife that enjoys music and stereos. That's one up on most of us.

I agree with Mace. This guy, in a round about way, said that he actually liked Forte II speakers. He mentioned that these are amoung the best sounding speakers in the $1000 price range. The midrange was great, and even hinted how to make the speaker sound better. Don't toe it inward. At present I'm using Lascalas for rear speakers. Now I might bring my Fortes out of the moth ball closet and try them again as rear speakers instead of the Lascalas. Rear speakers don't require the dB range as front speakers so the Fortes will perform well there, and the walnut Fortes look a lot better than black Lascalas.

I know what you are going to say. I have Virtual Dynamics Black Knights, Nordost SPM interconnects, and Nordost Red Dawn cables. I got these for less than half price, and BEFORE I learned my lesson. From now on I'm getting Alpha-Core.

Artto, I couldn't agree more about overspending on cable. I've talked to a lot of experts on this topic and they all agree on one thing. 99.99% pure, oxygen free copper (as in Alpha-Core cables)is good enough and anything else is a waste. 99.999999% copper wire with Nordost cables is going way overboard. The actual sonic difference is just not worth the cost. It's better to put your money into something that will make a more cost efficient difference. Silver cables will transmit signals around 10% better than copper...for more than double the cost. It's just not worth it. some Nordost cables cost $3,000/meter. Give me a break. Just think of what else you could get for the cost of three meters of this top of the line Nordost cable.

Don't disapoint yourself by getting any less than what you really want. There is a beautiful pair of walnut Khorns over at the Audiogon classified website for $2800. There is another pair of black Khorns for $2500. If this is still too steep, used Lascalas are going for about $1500. Used Khorns or Lascalas will last forever so don't worry about the fact that they are used.

It must be fate, but somehow I knew Mark Levinson amps and Paul Klipsch speakers were made for each other. Thanks for reinforcing my belief in these two icons.

Tube bass traps can partially solve your problem. Tube traps are nonselective with the frequencies they block. A bass tube trap not only lowers 80Hz, but all other frequencies in that bass range as well. While the 80Hz will be lowered to the desired level, all other frequencies in the bass range will now be much lower then before. The contrast between the 80Hz peak and the surrounding frequencies will still be there. An equalizer works well as long as the it can be selective enough to lower the problem frequency and leave the surrounding frequencies alone. Good luck! Equalizers also have a problem with introducing distortion. I used to have one, but I got rid of it for that reason. I would recommend a digital room correction unit. Using a microphone, the unit picks up the level of the entire spectrum. Frequencies that are higher or lower than the average will be adjusted so the end result will be a flat frequency response. You only need to calibrate the unit once unless you want to make changes in your room. Check out tactaudio.com

I've had a pair of Khorns for 25 years, and I love them more now than I did back then. At first I was after a quick, solid bass which my cheap Sony amp provided. As time went on, I began to appreciate a better sounding system. So I upgraded to an Adcom. Then I upgraded to Proceed, and finally I'm at the top with two Mark Levinson 334 amps. The other 334 is used for Lascalas in the rear. All of the times that I upgraded my electronical gear, not once did I ever consider replacing the Khorns. This means that you will never have to replace your speakers if you do it right the first time. Just make sure that these speakers have the sound that you like. It can be a pain trying to sell and ship 350 pounds of speaker gear. You will find that some people hate Khorns, because they sound harsh. Yes they most certainly can... if you have cheap gear up front. The better your gear is up front, the better your Khorns will sound.

I've heard that the speaker drivers of Khorns are all out of alignment making the sound of different frequencies arrive at different times. The diaphragm of the tweeter is about two feet in front of the squawker diaphragm making the high frequencies arrive earlier than the mid frequencies. The woofer, due to the folded horn, is several feet behind the other two drivers. Doesn't this create a sense of subliminal confusion? Can this phenomenon be partially corrected by placing the tweeter on top of the cabinet back where the squawker diaphragm is located?

Why not have your cake and eat it too. The advantage of placing any speaker in the corner is to accentuate the bass due to the megaphone effect. The advantage of bringing the speakers out into the room is to provide an airy, open sound. This allows the sound to reverberate freely around the room. I brought my Khorns out into the room so the front of the speaker was about four or five feet from the back wall and about two or three feet from the side wall. The speakers were about eight feet apart and the sweetspot formed an equilateral triangle with the speakers. As predicted this arrangement gave me the open symphony hall sound that I've always wanted. The maximum quick bass effect was maintained by placing thick, dense false walls behind the bass port of the Khorn in the form of a room corner. Each wall is three and a half feet by three and a half feet, and made of two layers of 3/4 inch HDF (high density fiber board). Klipsch tech support helped me with the dimensions. This works for me. What do you think?

I know that feeling! I first got that feeling more than a quarter of a century ago when I first got my Khorns. I also have had that very same feeling everday since then. I hope that you enjoy your speakers as much as I have enjoyed mine. Happy listening!

Ed brought up a good point about how sensitive active preamplifiers can be. This is why you should not use an active preamp unless you really need one. Those with Khorns don't need one unless a low voltage source such as a turntable is used. The active stage of a preamplifier never kicks in until it is needed anyway. You can spend mucho bucks on an active preamplifier, but 80% of the cost goes into processing the low voltage circuits that may never be used. The Placette Passive Linestage Control uses 100% of it's cost in the volume control, switching, and remote control. I can not emphasize enough the importance of the volume control in the preamp. Don't get me wrong about high quality high end preamps. They're great if you have the money to through away on their active circuits.

Since you have very efficient Khorns, and no turntable, I would strongly recommend the Placette passive preamp linestage controller. You can find this only at the Placette website. This is a very basic preamp, but has the best of the best resistors. These resistors make all the difference in the world as far as sound quality is concerned.. I have never heard a preamp that sounds this good, regardless of price. Because this has no active circuits, it cheap as far as preamps go. The volume controlling unit works only with one source and costs about $1000. The unit that works with three sources costs about $1400. As far as I know, this is the only passive preamp that is remote controlled with well over a hundred step levels. Call the owner and he will customize the levels to fit your amp-speaker configuration at no extra charge. He will make other modifications that you might need, but you have to ask.

I called Klipsch technical support about this a few months ago. I was trying to move the Khorns out from the wall to provide a more spacious sound while still maintaining the bass for which Khorns are known. I was also trying to create a 60 degree sweet spot to speaker angle. I was told that false walls, false corners, or what ever you want to call them could be placed behind the Khorns and still provide 100% of the 35Hz fast bass. The walls only have to come out to the front of the cabinets to get the full effect. That means that each wall needs only to be about 4 feet high and 3 or 4 feet long. Unfortunately, while Khorns remain in the corner, they have a 90 degree sweet spot to speaker angle. I put up with this for twenty years and hated it. I tried the center channel route, but the sound was still spread out too much to be realistic. Music is recorded for 60 degree angle listening. Anything else, even center channel additions, will not help. My Khorns are in a room 8x13x17 feet. The sweet spot now faces the 13 foot wall, not the 17 foot wall as before. The musical image now is totally realistic and enjoyable.

I've heard that the Khorn midrange horn has a tendency to ring due to harmonic problems. Is this true? If so what can be used to eliminate this problem? I've heard that caulk or silicon around the horn will work. Is there any validity to this claim?

The golden ratio not only specifies room size ratio, but also position of speakers in the room. For proper sound staging and imaging the speakers need to be one fourth of the length of the room away from the back wall, and one fourth of the width of the room away from the side walls. The sweet spot needs to be in the center of the room one fourth of the way from the front wall. Khorns do not have to be in the corners. With the use of 3x4 foot false walls, Khorns can be positioned out in the room for proper imaging while maintaining the full 35 Hz bass. There is a minimun room length of 16 feet required to fully develop the 35 Hz of the Khorns. This can be determined by dividing the speed of sound, or 1130 feet per second by two times the length of the room.

The Klipsch Reference Series is the best that Klipsch has to offer? It's the standard by which Klipsch measures all of it's speakers? Give me a break! The Heritage Series (Khorn, etc.)runs rings around the Reference Series.

Check the efficiency of your speakers. For every 3 dB difference, you will need double the wattage of the amplifier to keep up with more efficient speaker. For example, if your main speakers have an efficiency of 104 dB and the efficiency of the subwoofer is 92 dB, then you will have to double the amp wattage four fold. That means that if you have a 100 watt amp for the main speakers, you will need a 1,600 watt amp for the sub woofer to keep up with the main speakers. In your case, if you have a 200 watt amplifier for the sub, you will be fighting a losing battle unless you get a more powerful amp.