GriffinFL

Living in FL and running tube pre and power amps into my Belles, you're scaring me. Define "Heat" in this situation. What level of "heat" starts doing actual damage to the tubes (or other components, for that matter)?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amar_Bose

Yup. Getting ready to pull the trigger on a custom pair of speaker wires for my rig (forks for the Belles, spades for the Quicksilver binding posts) from BJC to never have to worry about it again. Soldering and crimping your own ends sucks if you're not an EE, and trying to strap your own damn bare wire to the terminal screws is not fun.

I bought tubes because they sound way better than SS with my speakers. I was never drawn to the tinkering factor, just the sound. Same reason I bought the speakers in the first place.

I just bought a pair last month. You're going to enjoy them. With a standard hifi preamp (2v out), my Belles can still get so loud it's hard to be in the same room with them, but it's still crystal clear. I couldn't help it, though. I ordered a Xiang Sheng 802b to see what they sound like with a pre that is up to the task of delivering the 9v input gain. Just to see what the outer limits are. Maybe open up my sliders and have a block party when it gets here

I just snuck it on there after someone pulled a jazz record. Cleared the room halfway through "I Come From Nowhere"... Well, me and one other guy who was also a Zappa fan were standing there laughing.

I forced everyone at the hotel to listen to the (deliberately) worst-engineered platter ever in Frank Zappa's Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch. On a pair of Cornwalls...

Anything with big soundscapes. Lately I've been spinning Dave Gilmour live at Pompeii 2016 a lot. But I love some Devin Townsend, particularly live performances. Early Dream Theater, before they started self-producing. Also, whoever said men can't sing anymore is full of it. Not looking hard enough, man.

Lots of resources out there for DIY, for example: http://sonicscoop.com/2016/11/10/diy-studio-design-part-2-build-cost-effective-bass-traps/ Functionally you're just rounding off the corner with a floor to ceiling rigid panel, typically OC 703.

Corner bass traps would probably be cheaper and more effective, just saying. The subs will still suffer when your room has standing waves like that, because the frequencies are self-cancelling, no matter how much energy you add to them.

My system, still evolving: Belle Klipsch (mid-80's, bone stock) Quicksilver Audio monoblocks (hiding up top, with Hammond cages on top) Denon HEOS Link (doing double duty as DAC and Pre right now, but a XiangSheng 728A is in route to gain-match with the QS's) My wife actually loves the look of the speakers, but she hates the look of all the gear involved in powering them. But once I got the tubes fired up (replaced a Sony stereo amp), she smiled and hi-fived me. "I had no idea how these speakers were going to sound better, but they sound better now!" was her reaction.

B&O may be overpriced, but they don't lie about their performance. That's why Bo$e gets way more abuse. Bottom line. If Amar didn't lie about his shitty products, he wouldn't get hammered the way he does by anyone who knows anything about audio.

Seriously, the angling of walls is not nonsense. The fewer parallel surfaces in your room, the fewer standing waves you'll deal with, and the less effort you'll have to invest in acoustic treatments. I've been in professional recording studios where the control room had seven walls, and the cathedral ceiling was angled. My listening space right now has a ton of advantages, especially regarding bass nulls, because it's an L-shape with a ton of outcroppings. I can stand anywhere in the space and the bass response does not change, and that's HUGE.

Do you think it's possible that this is an artifact from the COVID pandemic? That people are spending more money on home entertainment as a category because they're avoiding traditional social entertainment like bars, clubs, concerts, et al?

Solved.