DrWho

it could also be the amp (which is easy to test by switching the cables around)...i've had two amps go out on me (with similar klipsch speakers) and it was the most awful "honking" sound i've ever heard. took us a week to figure it out with the first one, but the second time we already knew what it sounded like. (we later discovered the problem was most the jacks in the floor where we connected all the speakers used a common ground between all the jacks for all the different monitor sends...what happened was we had four new jacks and another amp put in and they were wired wrong which essentially ran a short circuit through the common ground. ironically, everything worked fine for a couple of months and gradually got worse and honky tonky until the amps blew). this is probably not the issue you're having, but the symptoms are the same and it doesn't hurt sharing. happy trouble shooting!

yes to get the full benefit of the 5.1 systems, you're going to need a soundcard that can output 5.1 sound. however, i would say every laptop out there has a stereo out to which you could connect a 2.1 system without any hassle. im sure you'll prob find more and better help down in the promedia section of the forums though...

i too use the old version of winamp... http://classic.winamp.com there's nothing you can't do with it and it does it very smoothly. i use the cbwamp skin (cuz the default skins for winamp are ugly). winamp also rocks for playing music through networks and all that crap...i was even just reading about some german invention that uses winamp to play MP3 audio through your electrical outlets! and winamp is free. and lastly, winamp has a very handy graphic EQ <> well that's my sales pitch for wat it's worth...i've tried all the other programs out there (jukebox, real player, etc etc...). my second choice would be windows media player (and that's free too).

our ears aren't the only thing doing the hearing either...for example, you can feel the bass of a kick drum on your chest, which further adds to the realism of the music. i see no reason why you wouldn't be able to feel higher frequencies and all that. i know my neck tingles when i hear high pitches that are loud enough. http://www.anstendig.org i know they talk about this concept somewhere on that site and how a certain level of relaxation is needed. ever notice how music sounds duller when you're exhausted from doing chores and sit down and listen during a break? i have no doubt that someone really really relaxed could "hear" as high as 30khz. a friend of mine in the military was talking about using speakers playing inaudible high frequencies to induce fear in the enemy. dunno how much crap he was given me, but i thought it was interesting enough to mention.

eek, i just read two articles about this: http://www.peavey.com/support/technotes/soundsystems/boundarycancellation.cfm http://www.peavey.com/support/technotes/soundsystems/loudspeaker_array.cfm and just for the record, the (klipsch) cluster at our church has the subs on top too (but it's a completely different cabinet as well)

i love my marantz 940, in fact i got two of em! oh wait, they're speakers

well what does it sound like when you try to play music through them? do they make any sound? does it sound fluttery? is it distorted? does it sound like it's coming out of a tin can? if you take the speaker grill cover off, make a visual inspection of everything. usually a blown woofer tears the speaker surround (that soft rubbery type stuff that the cone attaches to around the outside). it's a bit more difficult to "visually inspect" the tweeter cuz it's hornloaded and all that, so just stick your ear by it and listen to it. obviously there's something sounding funny to you otherwise you wouldn't think they were blown...im sure if you describe it in as best detail as possible, lots of cool blokes will jump in to help and as last side note, i might add that you check the binding strap thing on your binding posts...usually, problems with audio are with the cords wearing out, breaking, or just simply coming unplugged. (and it's not that hard to check cables usually either) anyways, unless you're bi-wiring/bi-amping, there should be two short cables between the top and bottom posts.

http://www.anstendig.org/EQ.html here's a few snipits if you're too lazy to click the link and read all of it: ----- An equalizer is too often thought to be a sophisticated accessory to a sound system. But for those who want their music to resemble the original performance, an equalizer is an essential component. In all sound-reproduction, the equalization of the original is distorted by the reproduction process, by the acoustics of the listening room, and by the peculiarities of our hearing. Equalization has two meanings. The actual proportional balance of the frequencies in relation to each other at a given time is called the equalization. Changing the loudness of the frequencies in relation to each other is a process called equalizing or equalization. The purpose of sound-equalization is to restore the balance of frequencies of the sound reproduction to that of the original, live sounds ----- all you guys are talking about room equalization which this article discusses: ----- Room equalization is the equalization of the sound system itself. In room equalization, an audio signal, made up of frequencies of equal energy over the whole range of our hearing, is sent through the system, and the balance of those frequencies is readjusted until the sounds coming out of the speaker are also of equal loudness. In other words, room equalization adjusts the frequency balance of the system to the characteristics of the room in order to assure that the frequencies emerge from the speakers with the same balance as that of the recording. Room equalization, though desirable, is dispensable because, when equalizing the program itself, the ear automatically compensates for the abnormalities of the room along with those of the program. In this paper, the word equalization refers to program equalization when not specifically referring to room equalization. ----- and then there is program equalization: ----- Program Equalization is the equalization of the actual program material itself while it is playing. In program equalization, one purposely changes the balance of the frequencies in order to make the program sound natural to one's ears. The equalizers are essentially used as elaborate tone controls. Program equalization corrects the distortions in the equalization of the sound due the peculiarities of our hearing, the massing of overtones, and any other distortions caused by the recording and reproducing equipment. It should be emphasized that these distortions are not the slightest bit subtle. They are easily heard when correctly demonstrated and are much more disturbing, both consciously and subconsciously, than any of the more well-known distortions that are considered unacceptable by most audiophiles. In program equalization, a typical correction can involve a reduction of some frequencies by as much as 20 to 25 decibels in the range of approximately 2,000 to 3,500 hertz (Hz). Compared to distortions that are not tolerated in other performance parameters, these figures are enormous. But most "audio purists", even those who claim to hear subtle, difficult-to-discern differences between components, will put up with these gross, major distortions in the equalization because they have not had the opportunity to compare them to correctly equalized sound. ----- these are just a few snipits to thinkg about...and it shows how both are sorta correct. changing the rooms acoustics have a much more natual effect to the sound because the spatial effects can be heard in both the music and the "silent" noise of the room (like how footsteps and breathing and shuffling in your chair sound)...it's wierd when the music sounds like it's in one room while u can tell ur sitting in another room. however, equalization is necessary to pull out all our blissful distortions i would highly recommend running around other articles in the website as it is extremely interesting and another way to look at audio. http://www.anstendig.org

crikey i almost forgot!!! in the words of Steve Walker, "Bigger is Better" (steve walker is one of them research and board designers from mackie...not exactly top of the line, but he's really smart) since you're only planning things, i would say get creative with it...why not try 3 8" speakers in a triangle formation? (ya ya ya, comb filtering i know), but it's just a random thought. or how bout try building a new kind of subwoofer? i think a hemishpere shaped diaphragm balloon thing would be really cool. or why not go hardcore and see if u can't come up with a series of electrically responsive chemical reactions that create explosions at different frequencies? or why not try building a speaker with multiple voice coils on a single diaphragm? you're not planning on building this right? so get creative in your ideas...and if ppl don't like your ideas, tell them to booger off and get back to their old boring 1,2,3, and 4 way systems. sorry...i know im getting carried away. i'll just end my post now

hey now...i build speakers from the ground up!!! wrap my own voicecoils by hand, hunt down odd science surplus stores for magnets and go to the hardware store to find odd things to make diaphragms, suspensions, and baskets to mount it all together and and.... just for the record, i just built a speaker out of rubberbands, pvc, a funnel, a piece of copper wrapped in lots of wire and a pretty blue magnet that has a response of 40-16k +- 3db (only problem is the peak volume is around 30db.....i think i need more than 5watts for these things) if it wasn't so big and heavy, i'd build another one and turn em into headphones...they sound that good. and it's not because i made them that they sound good! i built these speakers for a mixing class im taking and we mixed a song using this one speaker as the monitor and then listened to our mix through the super expensive studio monitors we got and it was very clean. but wait, these things didn't cost that much and were homemade and looked like crap so they must be crap...yes that must be it. DIY all the way, it's cheaper and more fulfilling and lots of times sounds way better. screw all this expensive measuring equipment...if they got audio down to a science, then why hasn't the perfect speaker been built? because they don't have it down to a science. i mean come on, nothing has changed with the speaker over the last 50 years...they're just tweaking a system that already sucks. the numbers and specs they slap on all this garbage reflect very little on how it actually sounds. it's just not possible to measure a good mix or a good sound or anything like that. our ears are too sensitive and vary too much between people. anyways, i prob shouldn't get on my soapbox...but if u think about it, even the best of the top of the line most hardcore speaker is still just a DIY that gets a brand name and an out of control price slapped on it. There's audio meant to give someone an image and then there's audio that brings fulfilment and then there's audio that tries to achieve both. personally, i could care less about some stupid image (obviously others here on this board have issues with it...) using your rocket analogy...the laws of physics that NASA uses is the same laws of physics your model rocket fanatic uses. just because the NASA rockets are bigger doesn't mean a model rocket fanatic can't be more creative and innovate. and then keep in mind that the super nerds at NASA are unable to communicate on normal levels. i would claim that the model rocket fanatic gets way more enjoyment and fulfilment than the NASA freaks. and in case you're wondering...im just a 19 year old punk teenager from chicago (i might add though that i've been doing live mixing for 11 years, tape studio for 8 years, top of the line multi-million dollar studio for 2 years, and studying to build audio equipment for a living. building speakers for klipsch? hah, wat a dream!)

i would still buy a new cable first...it's the easiest thing to check and also the lowest cost to replace. if it works with your computer, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with your sub.

if you're looking for surround sound or something similar, it might be more cost effective to purchase a reciever for your pc...something like a denon 1803 for $400 would do the trick. OR, you can even integrate your pc into your home audio setup which would be kick butt awesome (you could even hook up the monitor to your tv!) it all depends on how much you're willing to spend...a couple years ago i saw an article in a computer magazine that used 11 RF-7's with some denon reciever and all this other crap...it cost around $30k (including the hardcore pc with 1TB of memory...that's 1,000GB of HD space!) anyways, give us a budget and im sure you'll get plenty of specific plans for your setup...the sky is the limit.

duh...it's bragging rights! hehe all i gotta say is u can never have too much power, sometime u should try bridging the bridged amps together and go for 1200watts i wonder if your amps would put out enough power to completely blow apart some bose...i would totally buy u a set to blow up if you managed to videotape the process. and then hook up your klipsch and videotape the windows shattering and the furniture moving (well ok, it won't be that exciting, but one can dream). and lastly, there's nothing wrong with listening to music with earplugs! crank those babies up so high that u can feel high end slamming into your chest...just imagine what the corresponding bass would be like ok, on a more serious note...it'll prob sound better unbridged but it's cooler to say u got 600watts bridged instead of just 300watts. (though both are way overkill for horn loaded speakers and your ears). but if u don't notice a difference in quality, then go with the 600 cuz it's cooler to have lots of extra power it's all about being cool! hmmmm, sounds like a rap song (cool daddy? i dunno, i don't listen to rap)

i think i'll just stick to analog...it sounds better anyway

try wiggling your cable where it connects to your reciever and sub...see if u can get it to pop in and out. you could even try swapping that cable with another cable that you know works.

no worries...everything should be fine. just make sure it is dry before u turn it on again. even if it did get into the guts, it shouldn't be a huge problem. (all the wires inside are insulated anyways).

are floorstanders an option, or does it gotta be bookshelf? the sb-2 is $325 at Bestbuy and has great specs: FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 35Hz-20kHz±3dB SENSITIVITY: 96dB @ 1watt/1meter POWER HANDLING: 100 watts maximum continuous (400 watts peak) or you can go reference and get the RF3 (which has similar specs, but costs more). the deal with floorstanders is they have plenty of bass (can't imagine buying a sub for them unless u spend over a thousand dollars for it). the problem with floorstanders is they take up more room (but that's not to say u can't get creative and lay a board across the top of them and use that as a desk! or even bed!)

i'd go with griff on this one....i've listened to a decent pair of noname speakers powered by the sony he's suggesting and it had a very clean sound...well until i blew it up that is (no worries...i was building my own speakers from scratch and shorted the output from the amp and that's how it blew). as far as speakers, i really have no idea. i'd prob go with griff again and buy the highest level u can afford...just remember that ur gonna have to live with them and if u go with a better speaker, there's a better chance of still using them when u get outta college i know it'd cost a lot more, but i would see if u couldn't find a good deal on a pair of rf-3's to use with that sony amp...that would be killer for a pc stereo setup!

wow...studio monitors for listening enjoyment is like a a big no-no! you've got "hifi" speakers (as griff calls em) and then studio monitors...the purpose of hifi stuff is to make it sound good, like give it a warm rich sound. studio monitors are always dry and are built to try and make it sound bad. if you're listening for enjoyment, you might find yourself quickly frustrated. most recording studios i've seen have a set of studio monitors, two sets of car speakers (good and bad), and a pair of nice "hifi" speakers (ie, khorns or rf7's or something similar...only cuz this is a klipsch site ), and then if the studio is setup for surround, there'd be another set of surround sound speakers. and don't forget a pair of headphones. all that to say, the ppl making your music are trying to get it to sound good on systems that make it sound bad, so that it sounds that much better with a speaker built to make it sound better.

you could always turn up the volume knob, but with nothing playing...then bob your head to the beat and see wat reaction u get from your friends

eek! we posted just about the same time! (and with the same idea too...)

can u describe the "rattle/buzz" that u hear? is it more of a floppy sound or more of a high pitched sound (like beads in a glass or something)? is there any visible damage to the speaker? (gotta take the grill off for this one). while u have the grill off, can u create any crunching sounds by pushing the speaker in with your hand? it's not too rare for a voice coil to become unaligned and is also an easy fix. (i think this might be your problem by the description u've given so far). because u can still hear sound, it is most likely not too late...the best thing to do might be to call up klipsch and see what your warranty might do for you (or even the place where u bought it).

awwww....u beat me to diyaudio! anyways, it's a good site and i go there lots

i stand corrected --------------------------------------- when we "upgraded" our system the first time...we traded two old allen and heath mixers + all our reel to reel recording stuffs for the mackie 32*8 + new amps + system repairs (so we got ripped off basically, lol) our recent upgrade traded the 32*8 for the GL3300 + $8k + system repairs so basically, i didn't figure how much of the $8k went towards the board...cuz we got a ton of rewiring done and lots of other stuff. anyways, i didn't mean to bash mackie that hard either, cuz we still use the 24VLZ-Pro for our touring system and it sounds fine. (except we bought it a couple years ago for a lot more right when it came out)...and it's built like a tank, been dropped plenty of times and has even gone to the beach and gotten a bit wet (and sandy)!!! all that to say, i wasn't aware of the price difference and i don't wanna say mackie totally sucks (even though i did say that, lol)...im still in shock from the sound of the GL3300 and i would say the price difference is a lot less than the increase in quality. --------------------------------------- anyways, this is about studio monitors right? were u planning on using a 2 channel system or 2.1? here's a link from an article from extremetech.com that talks about setting up a digital audio workstation (a high end and a price-valued system): Build It Digital Audio Workstation, Part II they recommend the Event Audio TR5-N for $300