brother

I recently bought a Denon 3803 A/V receiver to use for HT and 2channel. The sound is clean and smooth. It has a nice 2 channel mode that takes all the HT circuitry out and sounds great in HiFi 2 channel. It also fits nicely in the $1000 range.

I bought myself a 3803 for Christmas last year and I am throughly pleased with it. It feeds my LaScalas (ALK crossovers)with amazing clarity and detail. I searched around and negotiated an $899 price for it at a local dealer. It uses top quality Burr-Brown components and has a "pure direct" 2 channel mode that lets the blues melt your heart. But, hey, hearing is believing. Check out both, because I don't think you can go wrong either way.

Note a correction on the location of the Jensen paper in oil caps: see www.welbournelabs.com. They do sell them in matched pairs, but you'll have to request them and they add a buck each to the cost. Costs for the common ranges the Klipsch speakers use (for upper end freq, 2-3 mFd) will be slightly under $30 each. 20 micro Farad seems to be the largest value they stock.

If you are looking for an oil cap, Madisound has Jensen caps that are highly regarded. ALK uses Hovland film and foil caps that sound great. Solen makes a polypropylene cap that uses thin film deposition to get the metallization on the film. The Solen is the least costly. Most folks say the film and foil caps sound the best. I know the Hovlands are exceptional in my LaScalas.

Take a look on ebay for the HBRSL. I've never seen birch look like the cabinets on this set of Heresy's. I emailed a request to the seller for the model and serial number in an attempt to figure it out. It looks like the rosewood cabinet a college roomate had on a Luxman receiver from years ago.

Thanks HDBR, I've been reading your comments for quite some time and have always found them to be excellent. With regard to the finish, basically it's all in what you want in the end product. The high level finish I was alluding to is admittedly uncommon in speakers, but most tight grained wood can be worked into an astonishingly beautiful depth and finish as you have previously described. Fine furniture and musical instruments are more common applications of the method of which I wrote. My comment was given in fun, but it has sparked some very interesting comments and feedback. Thanks, again.

Keep doing your research....you'll eventually get there.

Forget the black paint, get rid of the old finish, use some putty on the ply edges, and grain filler on the rest. Sand it down graduating to 1000 grit wet sanding and stain to match those gorgeous LaScalas. A little (maybe more)time and some poly and they'll look like they came from Davis Cabinet. By the way, didn't the ALK's go with the rears......