picky

cdub5: I'm not trying to be funny here, but has anyone else who regularly listens in the room with you also noticed this decrease in volume? If not, there may be some concern that the volume levels are effectively hurting your hearing. Seriously! I remember when I got my first pair of really good speakers years ago. I noticed the same phenomenon of dimished volume. I thoought something was wrong with the system too, until one day when a co-worker asked me, "Why are you talking so loud?" He was serious and said he'd noticed the change over the past few weeks. I turned the system down and a couple of weekes later, the coworker mentioned that I was speaking more quietly, too. Thankfully, the damage was apparently not permanent. I'm only suggesting that this might be happening to you. You can use a sound level meter to measure the output levels at your seat and write it down as your benchmark. Then, next time you think you need to turn it up again, take another reading at the same position with the same sound source material and volume setting and see if the reading is the same or lower that last time. That should tell the story of what's really happening. Best of luck! -Glenn

chadmd80: The neat thing about speakers is that, if you don't like they way they sound, you can move them. Not to rub salt in anyone's specs here; if all you have is the rear wall, then that's where the surrounds need to be. And, although I do respect what the book has to say, it has been my personal experience that the surrounds tend to sound more believeable to me in a position above ear level and below the ceiling level. It makes them easier to hear over high-back seats and more difficult for listeners to localize rather then when they are at ear level. Again, this is my own opinion based on trial and error in my own theater. If you don't care for them in this configuration, then try hanging them at ear level. Remember: Each of us hears things differently and each room is unique! Just have fun with it and let us know how you make out and what you decide to do.Best of luck and welcome to the forum! -Glenn

ebdixson: I do have some experience concerning small HT's. I designed and finished building ours in 2004 and I've needed to make zero changes in it since then. I am totally thrilled with how our tiny theater sounds just the way it is. Similarly to your design, our theater is only 10.5W x 19L x 7H. The main difference is that we are using RF-7's and an RC-7 up front, an RS-7 on each side, two RCW-5's in the back wall and an RSW-15 sub midway back along the left wall (it shakes our seats, too). With that said, acobut trust meustically, the room works almost perfectly with that setup and therefore, given your choice of components, I do not think you'll need to fear having committed any "overkill". I believe it's always better to err on the side of going a bit large, rather than going too small, becuase "too small" can't make up the difference. I agree with the advice that Scrappydue has provided for you above and believe that you won't be disappointed by the RF-62's so long as they are paired with a good sub. That open side may be a bit of an issue, bass-wise, but that depends on how large the entire, combined space is as well as its construction composition. It's a shame you can't utilize the larger space now that you'd mentioned, but trust me, having raised twho kids of our own, I know how plans must be adjusted in order to balance family growth! Family comes first! The best of luck to you and please take some photos and share your progress with the rest of us! -Glenn

beatbrother: This morning was my first look at your thread. Regarding your entire basement, I must say that I am truly amazed by the cleanliness of your designs and the quality of your execution. Your basement must be enormous! What are your theater's dimensions? Thank you for taking the time to share your progess photos with us. I'm a D700-owner, too! (love it!) Nice work and the best of luck to you, sir! -Glenn

Fini: A very Happy Birthday to you my friend! May it be many, many years before we must add an "S" to the end your screen name! -Glenn

thompjs: We have a 7.1 system in our HT based around RF-7 fronts, RC-7 center, RS-7 sides, RSW-15 sub and we used a pair of RCW-5's for the rear channels. They are stellar in their performance while blending nicely into our decor. Perhaps you can still find a pair out there for sale somewhere? Please refer to the photo. The RCW-5's have the white grills but they are paintable.

I'm loving all of this dialog! Our hobby truly is a huge melting pot of genre, just as Detroit has been throughout all of these years. How does a city like Detroit embrace so many different types of music? It's amazing; jazz, blues, soul, Motown Sound, gospel, rock, rap (just to name a few) and now we're the techno capital of the world. I love music and it's great to have been born right in the nucleus of much of it. What a great hobby we all have! -Glenn

BTW: The Dead Mouse you see caught in the trap on the notebook monitor above is real: Doc had the little rascal running around his house the other day and he and Hurd set a trap and got it. Natrually, being the fellow deviate that he is, Hurd thought it would a great idea to shoot some closeups of it. "Gross", you say? Trust me: We spared showing you the gross ones! LOL -Glenn

LOL No, Best Buy really didn't recommend anything to us. We simply went there to buy some Dub Step CD's for Doc and to get an Adele DVD. When we walked through BB's winding, check-out line, we spotted the Hello Kitty headphones on the shelf along with the other last-minute, marketing push items and decided the pair them up with some hard core Dub Step for the photo. I actually became aware of deadmau5 (Deadmouse) on my own a little over a year ago and knew that I liked some of his work. But Doc wanted to introduce me to Dub Step so he bought the deadmau5 and Skrillex so we could see how my Reference system performed with it. The results were pretty amazing as my room easily goes down to 13 Hz. I may pick up these CDs in the near future. I like some of the cuts on them. There are a few that; not so much. This morning, Verna asked me, "After you guys finished watching the Peter Gabriel concert last night around 3 am, what on EARTH was that crap you guys were playing?? It was SO repetitive!" Doc, Hurd and I got a huge laugh out of that! LOL. Great times with my bros! We were sorry to see them leave for Canada this morning. I want to thank them for a great weekend together. It's been a blast! Thanks for coming out you guys! Have a safe trip! -Glenn Left to right below: Michael Hurd, Picky, Dr. Who:

Yes, there's NOTHING like listing to some very loud, Dub Step from deadmau5 or Skrillex at 3 am in the morning. It can lead to some possibly, regrettable behavior...

There were some mileage signs outside the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on the Detroit River. I think Hurd got a little homesick when he saw this one: Thunder Bay 604 MI. LOL -Glenn

Here in our office, Doc is busy trying to solder the CMOS battery of my laptop back onto the circuit board. For no apparent, the CMOS battery mount's solder joints suddenly decided to let go. One new soldering iron and some 22 gauge hookup wire from Radio Shack and Mission Accomplished! Thanks, Doc! -Glenn

On our shopping forray with the boys today, we stopped at Best Buy and asked their audio department to please recommend to us their BEST stereo headphones and a CD for us to audtion them with that would really push the headphones to their limits. Hence: Hello Kitty headphones and DEADMAU5... - Glenn

Some great stories guys. Now, I don't feel so dumb now that I see I'm in good company! LOL Thanks! -Glenn

The other day, while we were entertaining company out on our deck, I noticed that the left Heresy III in my garage wasn't sounding just right. It seemed to be lacking in either mid or treble output and I began to suspect that I'd somehow blown the tweeter or the squawker even though I have never done anything to this system to abuse it for such a thing to occur. A couple of days later, I got up on the ladder and placed my ear near the drivers while I played a CD and I could hear output coming from all three drivers. I run the Heresys with a 1961 EICO ST-70 integrated power amp I bought on eBay a few years back and had rebuilt by fellow forum member, NOS Valves. After noticing the drivers were working, but in a diminished capacity, I began to suspect either a wiring issue or maybe one of the vacuum tubes was on its way out. I went to the back of the EICO and swapped the speaker leads left-to-right. The problem migrated to the right speaker. So I knew the issue wasn't with the drivers, crossover or wires. I began flipping the toggle switches one at a time on the EICO to ascertain if perhaps there was some oxidation in the switches thinking one or more might need cleaning. But, everything worked as expected. Finally, closer examination of the front knobs on the EICO revealed the source of the problem: Most of the control knobs on this amplifier are dual-concentric which can make it difficult to read their settings. I discovered that the right channel treble was set to +2 while the left channel knob that sits directly behind it was set to - 6. Bringing the left channel up to +2 to match the right channel made all of the difference! I was completely relieved to discover that nothing was wrong with the system. And I also felt pretty dumb, too. LOL -Glenn

Dean: I am thrilled by your progress! I hope you continue to feel better my friend. Praise God! -Glenn

I found most of the ceremonies interesting. But, their proudest moment is their social healthcare system? SERIOUSLY? Have they looked at eachother's dental work lately?? Yikes. -Glenn

I can remember when 'Quadrophenia' was first released: I bought the two-tape, 8-Track set, which I nearly wore out. I was amazed by the innovation of the manner in which the songs were written and performed. "Sheer genius!" Although, my 8-tracks are long gone, I still have my 2-disc (or is it 3?), vinyl album in my collection in near-perfect condition. Great stuff from those punks! It's a keeper! -Glenn

bhenry: Rock-On, bro! -Glenn

Funk Brother, Bob Babbitt has passed away on Monday. LINKY Thanks for all of the smooth grooves, Bobby! -Glenn

Looks like a Bose active crossover network: No "scary" numbers or facts to worry about. -Glenn

It seems that those prices listed in the Bose system article are similar to what Pioneer Elite was charging for plasma displays when they exited the display business. The difference here is that the Pioneer Elite displays were the best in the business, while there's currently no performance benchmark established on where the Bose-version stands. With so many other, great displays out there at more reasonable price points, I seriously doubt Bose will have much success at those prices, unless they are permeating the air in their salon stores with hallucinogens in order to dupe customers in to buying this crap. As PWK would say: "BULLSH*T!" -Glenn

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans! Thank you to those who have served and to those who still serve to keep our country free! Please keep your children and pets safe from fireworks displays, too! -Glenn

Thanks Klipsch! Verna and I got received a copy in our mailbox yesterday, too! It was totally unexpected. We shall cherish our copy. Thanks again! -Glenn & Verna

Well now, THAT was scary: Let me start from the beginning. Two weeks ago, before Verna and I left on the road to Indianapolis for the 2012 Klipsch Pilgrimage, I went downstairs to our HT and switched off the main switch to our power line conditioner. Everything in the theater that draws 110-volt power, draws it from our Tripp Lite LCR2400 Line Conditioner. Or, so I thought. So, we left town on our merry way, had a stellar time with all of our Klipsch Forum friends and returned home to find that our house was still in one piece, but there had been a brief power failure in the neighborhood while we were gone, according to our next door neighbor. Everything seemed fine. One week later: I'd been very busy with school so I had not had the chance to use our theater since we got back, but since Thursday, June 21st was our last day of class, I invited my lab partners over to the house for a lunch BBQ and a theater demo. Therefore, the night before, I went downstairs and switched the system's power line condition back to "on". The next day, my lab partners, Verna, Ms. Rose and I all had a great BBQ lunch and then it was time to demo the theater. My pals eagerly tried out the comfy theater seats and got ready for the exciting debut. Except.....not so much! Oh, the sound was incredible...to them...but I could tell something was VERY wrong. There was NO SUB!!! My RSW-15's cone was not moving and there was no indicator lamp lit on the front. Closer examination revealed that I did not have the sub's power cord plugged into the special protected power outlet, but instead, it was plugged into the un-protected, standard wall outlet next to it. This meant that when the power failure had occured that the sub was still energized, even though it was set to "Auto On". RATS! Anyway, I ran the remainder of the demo for the guys and they all said it sounded great, but I knew it was nowhere near as exciting as it normally is. The next day, last Friday, I started investigating what was wrong. I checked the power cord connections at both ends, the input cable, the switch positions and finally the fuse. The RSW-15 uses a special, 6 Amp, Slow-Blow fuse that is available from Radio Shack (part # 270-1028). You get about 4 of them for less than $2 bucks. But when I checked the one I removed from the sub with my volt-ohm meter, it measured 0 ohms, which meant it should have 100% continuity. I put it back in and the sub was still dead. A bad fuse should theoretically measure infinite resistance, or Infinity which means No continuity. But, again, this one read 0 ohms (no resistance). So, now suspecting that the internal, BASH power amp was in jeopardy, I contacted Klipsch Customer Service via email. Since I purchased my sub in 2004, I already knew it was past warranty. Sure enough, they got right back with me. It was my old buddy Steve Phillips. Steve suggested that, although it did not make any sense at all, to go ahead and buy some replacement fuses at Radio Shack and just go ahead and try replacing the fuse just for grins. He said, who knows, it might just work?? I must admit that I doubted it would do any good, but I trust Steve so I went ahead and tried it. Guess what? IT WORKED!!! The sub's indicator lamp lit up green and we had a signal! WOO-HOO!!!! But the good fuse reads the same as the supposed "bad fuse": 0 Ohms??? I immediately threw the bad fuse away and now I have some spares. But, I also switched the power cord over to the protected outlet to avoid this scenario from happening again. I can't thank Steve Phillips enough for his expertise and for getting back to me so quickly. Klipsch truly does have the best customer service department in the business. Steve said that he stopped trusting the ohmmeter reading on fuses a long time ago. LOL So, for those of you out there who suddenly encounter a dead sub for no apparent reason, just try changing the fuse even if you think the fuse is okay. It could save you time and it could save you some bucks in repair costs. Mine blew because the fuse was protecting my sub's amplifier from harm. In other words, it did its job as designed Thanks Klipsch and thanks Steve Phillips! -Glenn