ka7niq
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Posts posted by ka7niq
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25 minutes ago, Dave A said:
I guess I am in the position where what I have is good enough that I no longer seek improvement at my expense. I have had people here who tell me various things would sound better then what I have and I always invite them to bring those things on their next visit. For some reason they never do.
LOL, I am the same way! They all talk shit, until I invite them over to SHOW me, but they never show up!
I own many pairs of speakers, including Apogee's Duetta Signatures, and I guess they are scared my speakers are more revealing than theirs ?
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3 hours ago, Shakeydeal said:
and considerable extra cost for no apparent practical benefit. YMMV.
Unless you count that pesky sound quality. But it’s not just about stepped attenuators only, it’s about constant impedance which is very important and very easy to hear the improvement.
I have had several 2 ch preamps with stepped attenuators, in the past. IMHO, the thing I liked the most about them is absolute repeatability for blind listening tests. In listening tests where you are comparing different products, exact listening levels are critical. Notice I said BLIND listening tests ?
There are very good reasons for blind listening tests, so your mind does not enter the equation. The Human Mind is a very powerful thing, and sometimes if we expect to hear differences, these "differences" disappear, once we can't see what we are listening to, LOL
IOW, the differences were not really there in the first place, but were generated by our minds.
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38 minutes ago, Shakeydeal said:
Not true.
The big stick in the mud with any preamp, receiver or integrated is the potentiometer. Some better integrated amps and preamps have constant impedance attenuators, but I guarantee that no receiver has anything other than a cheap ALPS pot. The attenuator is the heart and soul of any preamp and you can clearly hear the difference when you go with something better. Receivers are built to a price point and cannot feasibly include the better parts of higher quality separates or integrated amps. It's just the economy of scale. They are mass produced and designed to be feature rich for the non discerning buyer. That's ok, there is a demographic for that. But high performance audio it ain't....
Back 80 years ago, stepped attenuators were the industry-standard for broadcast, recording mixers, etc. . In that era, they didn't have the technology to build good audio-taper potentiometers that were rugged enough for "industrial" ab/use. So stepped attenuators were the order of the day. Stepped attenuators have more recently seen popularity in very specialized applications where precise gain or attenuation setting is required. Like mastering or test gear, etc.
IMHO, other modern applications of stepped attenuators are audiophool territory where it just looks/feels/smells "cool" without significant benefit over quality modern potentiometers. Two major downsides to stepped attenuators are lack of continuous control (that is why they are called "stepped') and considerable extra cost for no apparent practical benefit. YMMV.
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1 hour ago, salbake said:
Always with the receiver hate in here. 😆
Demo’d way more expensive components before buying the MAC7200 Receiver - Solid state separates, tube separates, hybrid integrateds, SS integrateds. The Cornwall IVs definitely aren’t missing their mid-range, I promise. Soundstage is like a freaking 3D hologram. Currently rocking the MoFi Master Tracker moving magnet cartridge. Looking to make the jump to MC with the MoFi Ultra Gold…and then will need to hit one button to switch from MM to MC on my Gimmicky receiver 👍.
Receivers of today have come a long way, and will easily beat many separate components, unless you have speakers that are extremely power hungry, or a crazy load. In the better receivers, the amp/preamp are designed to work well together, where in separate components the components MIGHT work well, or they may not play well together.
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LOL. this thread seems to be taking on a life of it's own
Of course Capacitors sound different for a number of reasons. They store electricity, for one, and can present resistance expressed as ESR. The late Bob Crites got me into ESR, so much so that I bought equipment to measure it. I have found, in general, that the brighter a Cap sounds, the lower it's measured ESR.
If you already have a speaker that tends to brightness that has Mylar Caps in it, replacing those Mylar Caps with Poly Caps will make it even brighter. A better strategy to tame the brightness IME is simply to replace the Mylar Caps with non polar electrolytic Caps. Most non polar electrolytic Caps have higher ESR than Mylar, and will tame things down a bit. Paper In Oil Caps have the highest ESR of just about any Caps I have ever measured on my ESR Meter. LOL, no wonder some owners of bright horns and other bright speakers love them!
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12 minutes ago, Davecv41 said:
It's the 4th post down in the Technical/Modifications section, JEM Performance Capacitor kits.
Bob Crites passed away a year and a half ago, his family is running the business now. They state they proudly have no connection to Klipsch.
I found it, and was unaware Crites passed. From what I have seen JEM Capacitors are replacing Mylar Capacitors, with Mylar Capacitors. Not a bad strategy, if you want to preserve the original sound.
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9 minutes ago, Davecv41 said:
Well, we have capacitors from a Klipsch approved vendor that are available to bring the older speakers back to their design specs. If there is any improvement available with Audio Quest wires over lamp cord, I would EXPECT them to be available thru Klipsch.
Just like I thought..... Crickets.
You can read all about it here
I do not believe PWK if he were still alive would condone this. I think the BULLSHIT Button would come out. But anything to make an extra buck I guess ?
I found this Klipsch approved Capacitor Vendor, and read his story, and I agree. From re doing crossovers in a zillion vintage speakers, not just Klipsch, I too have found if you replace a Mylar Cap with a Poly, the speaker gets brighter.
However, if you replace a Mylar with a Non Polar Electrolytic Capacitor, the sound gets more mellow.
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1 hour ago, 001 said:
.
PWK did believe in keeping up with newer technologies , and I believe klipsch is making sure as time marches on that PWK 's products remain at the highest level , and if changing wiring is needed , then so be it .
I met PWK at the Detroit Audio Show at Cobo Hall in Detroit in either 1969 or 1970. Him, and his guys were all wearing a great big BULLSHIT Button. I think if PWK were still alive, that would be his reaction to fancy speaker cable, BULLSHIT !
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Just now, Coytee said:
One of my favorites too. Kind of wish I'd kept them (gave them to wife's nephew) as I'd have fun playing with biamping them now that I've got the goods to biamp with.
It was a mistake selling them, especially since my pair had brand NEW woofers in them. Joe up at Electro Voice told me he had the last pair of brand new woofers left, so I bought them. Few speakers I know of would shake a room quite like a properly working pair of Interface D's !
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34 minutes ago, Edgar said:
I have found that most people hear pretty well, once taught what to listen for. What really distinguishes audiophiles from non-audiophiles is the degree to which they care about what they hear.
I have found that my non audiophile friends seldom appreciated transparent sounding systems with great imaging I have had, over the years. Probably out of all the many speakers I have owned over 45 years in this audio obsession, one pair of speakers stand out as the ones all my non audiophile friends liked the most.
My Non Audiophile friends really loved my old Electro Voice Interface D's!
Nearly every one of them all said "Chris, you should keep these speakers, because they are by far the best sound I have ever heard at your house"
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1 hour ago, Shakeydeal said:
Nope, never heard of him.....🙄
The reason I brought up Julian Hirsch of Stereo Review is this. Julian was a Ham Radio Operator like me. KA7NIQ is my Ham Radio Callsign. Some years ago, I accidentally got Julian on my Ham Radio. I asked him if he really did not hear any differences in amplifiers, because he was famous for saying all properly designed amplifiers operating within their limits, sounded the same. He admitted to me he did hear small differences in amplifier sound sometimes, but he did not feel that it was important, when it could be corrected with slight adjustment of the bass or treble controls. There are many people who feel that all amplifiers sound the same. The owner and head engineer of QSC for one, as well as Floyd Toole, to name a few.
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Does anyone here remember Julian Hirsch from Stereo Review ?
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LOL,, I really have my friend going, now that I showed him my equipment all grounded to an outside 6ft copper ground rod, driven right into the ground!
I went over his house to hear his new Dac, made an ugly face, and told him it sounded like Chit!
LOL, I told him because his system was not earth grounded, there were all kinds of powerful transmitters in the area, mixing their signals with his audio!
LOL
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19 minutes ago, MeloManiac said:
Take this to another level. To test your friendship, ask your friend to take a 'blind test'.
Also, for me, visual input is extremely important: for me, a blind taste test for cola and lemonade is extremely difficult, but when I see both drinks, I experience very distinct tastes.
So, I can empathize with your friend... When he sees snake thick speaker cables, he may actually experience better sound quality...
Yes, the Mind is a powerful thing, and many so called "differences" flat disappear in blind listening tests.
Back in the early 80's, I had a very expensive stereo system, all 2 channel. I had QUAD 63 electrostatic speakers, and all Audio Research amp and preamp, all tubes, of course.
I had very expensive speaker and Interconnect Cables.
One of my friends asked me if I thought I could hear the differences the super expensive interconnecting cables made ?
I said "of course I can hear the differences", so he said "let's see" ? He set up a room divider so I could not see when he switched the cables, so he told me "lets listen to the cheap interconnects first" so we did. Then he said he was gonna switch, and I said" oh yeah, what a freaking difference, these are so much more open and transparent" and he told me to come over to look. He NEVER switched anything, it was always the expensive cables, but when he told me "here are the cheap cables" they sounded like crap!
LOL
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I do not claim to have golden ears. I am a 67 year old Man, who cleaned roofs for most of my life, so I was never exposed to excessive sound levels, and always wore ear protection at Concerts.
I have never heard any differences at all in sound with various speaker cables. Yet I have some really Fat ones from MIT that look like large snakes, on my floor.
I have compared these big *** MIT Cables with Zip Cord, and never heard any differences.
Then WHY do I have them ?
Because my good friend will flat turn off when listening to my system with Zip Cord!
In fact, though I use a Yamaha Receiver as my preamp to drive whatever amp I am using at the time, if my friend is coming over to listen, I have to put an old 2 channel preamp that does NOT use any OP Amps,, because if I don't, he will refuse to listen to my system with me!
Of course, he does not come over much, and my Cat thanks him! The large thick MIT Speaker Cables have literally scared my poor Cat to death! I have seen her forget the cables are there, see them, then go several feet in the air vertically!
They scare her!
One day, he came over, only to discover the amp I had connected did not have a power card as thick as a fire hose hooked up to it. So yes, I have one of those, I just forgot to hook it up that day! I installed the Huge Power Cord, yet he still refused to listen, saying the power cord needed a few days to "season".
LOL, he lent me some interconnects once that had arrows on them, to tell you the direction of current flow. Just to mess with him, I told him I had the arrows going towards the pre amp, LOL
He told me that I "ruined his interconnects", until I told him I was just messing with him!
He is a good guy, and a longtime friend, and not a stupid person either.
But I almost feel sorry for him ......-
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8 minutes ago, MeloManiac said:
The twin powered Harman Kardon 430 is the sweet spot in my system. Only 35Wpc, but it sounds oh so sweet!
Oh Yes! A Very Very sweet sounding receiver !!!!!!!!!!
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24 minutes ago, ODS123 said:
I've never owned one of these... and don't know how well it measures, etc.. But still, audio was more fun back in those days. ..Yes, the buttons, sliders, knobs, etc.. got rather scratchy rather quickly, but the flexibility and adjustability was great.
compare that with today... ...There are high dollar integrateds that don't even have balance control. Ugh..
I owned one of those too, back in the early 80's. Loved the Scope!
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2 hours ago, Full Range said:
I think you will need a crow bar to pry this unit from Dave @Dave1291
The best receiver I have heard so far is ( and I still own my unit )
JVC RX- DP10
Although it’s an old classic model before digital
My favourite tuner receiver is the Sansui TU717
And here it is in my system
OMG, the Top Of The Line JVC! I Had one of those, a very impressive great sounding device! I also had the top of the line Sherwood, the one with the Trinnov Processor. It had an awesome sounding amp in it, but had serious HDMI Problems, so I sold it.
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1 hour ago, ODS123 said:
Feature you'll never go w/o? ..Tone controls
Personally, I'll NEVER again buy an integrated that lacks tone controls or a Mono switch.
Maybe this??
EDIT: oops, I shoulda read the whole thread. I see you’ve already revealed your answer.
One of the BEST Receivers I have ever owned was a Pioneer. It was only Dolby Digital, and no HDMI either, but it had Bass and Treble controls only, no equalizer. But, it had 16 presets for the Tone Controls! So, you could set preset one with Bass up 1 and Treble up 1, and preset 2 could be Bass up 2 and Treble up 2, then preset 3 could be Bass up 1 and treble down 1 for instance, and so on, and so on. Then, as you listened to music, you simply went through all the preset memories by remote control, until you got the very best sound.
It was very very seldom that any piece of music sounded better, with no tone correction provided. I was almost always able to improve on the sound, with some combination of the tone controls!
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4 minutes ago, HiFi Heaven said:
I use AudioTool 61-band RTA on my Moto/Lenovo devices w/pink noise to EQ any system, any room.
You opinionated devotees of commercial parochial EQ schemes that don't work should try my ideas.
Flatten 40-2000, roll off -3dB/octave above 2KHz, add Fletcher-Munson Loudness below 100dB.
Paul Klipsch got it, first guy to understand loudspeaker voicing for living rooms, not auditoriums.
I agree that a downward sloping curve is best!
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16 minutes ago, wuzzzer said:
A lot of people use things like a miniDSP to equalize their systems. I use one but only for my subwoofers. It's really nice having all the adjustments that a parametric equalizer brings to the table.
I am aware of these. I have a DBX DriveRack PA 2 I have been trying to get working for awhile. DBX is gonna fix it, under warranty.
But honestly, once I LEARNED how to use a Parametric Equalizer, my life changed!
I have literally tried a zillion automatic room correction schemes, everything from the Trinnov Processor to full blown Audyssey, and the Yamaha YPAO, and the Pioneer Scheme, as well as Anthem Room Correction and you know what ?
My ears seem to be better than any of those I tried, so far.
I am open to trying Mini DSP, I really am.
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5 minutes ago, jjptkd said:
Wow, not sure what to say except good for you! I have never owned a modern high end receiver but my experience with older models tell me there is a big difference between pre pros and receivers once I learned that this hobby really opened up.
Agreed! Some older receivers were quite bad! But time marches on, and the better receivers of today are quite good. Case in Point, I had to go on disability, so I gave my business to my Son. My business makes a fair amount of money, so my Son just spent 3K on a brand new, balls to the walls Yamaha 11.2 receiver. It is a Beast! It weighs over 50 lbs. LOL, he spent all that money, because his old Denon top of the line receiver will not pass 4K at 120hz refresh rate!
My Boy just bought an 83 inch LG OLED TV, and him and my grandson play games, and 120 HZ refresh rate gives an advantage, if you have it. Here is a link to it https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/av_receivers_amps/rx-a8a/index.html it is very impressive.
It has XLR's on the back, as if they really matter, but they do look cool.
He is going to use the extra amplifiers to bi amp his front 3 speakers with, and sell his amp.
My Son has KEF Speakers that really really image, and this new Yamaha just eats his old top of the line Denon's Lunch.
AS I said, the KEF Speakers really image, and with this new Yamaha, they became even more 3 dimensional.
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16 minutes ago, geoff. said:
Recordings are all over the map with their mastering.
A “best of” compilation from several different albums will drive you mad (er).
Agreed, and if they sound spectacular, it is usually an accident! I have had some friends who did recordings, mixing, and mastering. They have all told me they were in business to sell recordings, not please audiophiles! In fact, a lot of oldies music was made to play in cars with AM Radios! They deliberately boost the highs, to make up for the poor frequency response of AM Radio, and some country music is designed to sound good to some trucker, with speakers in his kick panels!
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4 minutes ago, geoff. said:
...I tried to live without tone controls, once.
LOL, It is cruel and unusual punishment to listen to most speakers w/o at least tone controls.
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The All But Forgotten Klipsch KSP 300
in Home Theater
Posted
Never owned RF 5 but have owned RF 7 and could not wait to sell them! The RF 7 was voiced much too bright for my tastes.