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awe....sorry you are offended EAR the truth is.....your daddy is a NANCYBOY!

EAR is a nancyboy!

I love you NANCYBOY!

The salesman is not quite correct, but sort of. Khorns do not need to be "EQ'd" (as in electronically EQ'd)(which results in proper Eq for ONE, & only one listening position). However, the best results will be obtained when the room's acoustics.....reverberation time relative to frequency, & the room frequency response are acoustically tuned. I've owned both Khorns & Cornwalls. A friend who bought my Cornwalls still has them. & another friend still have their's. I don't like to keep repeating myself. But room acoustics is the key folks! You ain't heard nothin' til' you've got that part right! Perhaps we need a Klipsch party at my place! (by the way. you Klipsch Company folks were supposed to stop by & visit this place years ago, when the CES was still in Chicago. I know......at trade shows the time gets taken up real fast. Maybe its time to revisit this again?).

Oh yeah. One other thing EAR. You said you have conversations with GOD each day? You're a liar. There are many days, even weeks, that I don't hear from you!

No, I talked with Dan D'Agostino. If you're so thrilled with this man's products the least you could do is spell his name correctly. I've got news for ya. I listen to all kinds of music. And I record choral music with various acoustic instruments (ie: grand piano, flute, percussion, etc) live-in-concert several times a year for one of the larger local Chorals. I also play music professionally part time. I'll be glad to get into a pissing contest with you nancyboy! If you think a Khorn can't sound good (or as good, or better than your daddy's nancyboy speakers) except at high levels, then you've never heard a Khorn. You've been hearing the lousy room acoustics most systems reside in, and/or less than ideal components in front of them. The fact is, Dynaudio is basically an just OEM speaker manufacturer. Thats where they make their money. Thats their bread & butter..... making drivers for other manufacturers. And then you really expect me to believe that the 2 or 3 Evidence Masters they mananged to sell in the USA is where these guys are going put the majority of their time, money & attention? You really think that the nancyboy price tag they put on their own speakers is somehow related to its quality & performance? Get a life little nancyboy! There's an old saying: "A fool & his money are quickly parted". Your old man is not only a nancyboy, he's a fool too! LMFAO And if you think your old man's nancyboy system can outperform mine, on any kind of music, at any volume level....I suggest we let a group of other people decide. Let them listen to both, without your opinion or mine involved. & post the results here. Evidence Temptation. Evidence Master. LOL. Even the names they use for their speakers sounds like some kind of gay S&M porn show! EAR....figure it out.....your old man is a NANCYBOY! And you are his cover up! Maybe its time both of you came out of "the closet"? LMFAO Go ahead & play with your daddy's 8" woofer! LOL

Kudret, honestly, I found what I was looking for years ago. And it wasn't in a wire. It was all around me in the room itself. Quite frankly (no offense to anyone), but there's really much, much more to found in improving the sound through acoustics. IMO, until that is done, all this other stuff is nothing more than a trivial pursuit.

First, let me also state that it is not my intention to piss anyone off with this post, or start a big argument over the big cable/wire debate (AGAIN). This is simply some food for thought. Second, I must admit that Im not a big fan of Jon Risch. While this guy is obviously qualified, some things of his Ive seen makes me wonder. A lot of it seems half-baked. He seems to have the appropriate concepts & math down in the beginning, & then somehow ends up misapplying it half way through. His so-called bass traps are a fine example. I call them Treble Traps. Because thats really what they are more effective at doing. I read a while back, some technical info, on the Cardas website I believe, about how wires/cables can create voltage just by moving them around. My first thought was BS. At the time, I was in the process of biasing up my tube amps, when it occurred to me that every multimeter Ive owned, would show voltage changes just by moving the probes around. In fact, all you have to do is put the multimeter on some low setting, such as 200mv, leave the wire/probes lay still, & move your hand towards the wires. Poozah! The meter is showing voltage. Move the wires around & you see even more variation in voltage. George Cardas goes on to explain how & why, even brand new cables can hold a charge for a long time. This, along with my own observations with the multimeter made me wonder about how simply moving cables around that have been connected for some time might be creating some amount of charge in the cables. Could it be that this sort of charging or discharging of the cables is one of the things causing the change in sound, not necessarily the cable change itself? Obviously, some cable construction will be more susceptible to this phenomena than others due to the dielectric qualities of the materials used. Another interesting thing I observed (which I also thought was BS, & surprisingly from Sheffield Lab) had to do with demagnetizing, not only cables, but everything in the system. It now makes me wonder if this also has more to do with the sound difference one might experience when installing new cables than anything to do with the new cable itself. Sheffield Lab, in conjunction with XLO Electric, put out a CD called the Sheffield/XLO Test & Burn-in CD. There is a track on there called the Demagnetizing Sweep. It been common practice in recording studios for decades, to demag tape heads, even before each use. In recent years, however, its also been learned that phono cartridges & even such apparently non-magnetic elements of a playback system such as its copper internal wiring, circuit board traces, mounting leads, connectors, crossover inductors, cables & speaker voice coils, can, and do become magnetized resulting in an audible degradation of sound. The magnetization comes about because wherever there is a flow of current, an electromagnetic field is formed around the conductor, which, if, it is made of or contains magnetizable metals (iron, nickel, cobalt, etc), will tend to leave the conductor with a residual charge. No such thing as 100% pure copper. Even the gold plating is done on metals that have impurities in them. At the time, many of my components had not been changed, or even moved, for years. I tried this demag thing & my god it worked! I could not believe it! Then I did some more research on this & found that even things like large mechanical motors/machines, planes & ships went through a demagnetization process occasionally as part of regular maintenance! So maybe, its not so much the cables per se, as it is things like moving the cables around (charging them), or the cables eventually becoming magnetized to some degree? Like I said, just some food for thought.

How true Dave! Thats why when I do live-in-concert recording, I take a SPL meter with me. So I know for sure what level the original performance was at on various parts. That way, when I get back to the studio for mastering, I'm reasonably sure that I'm in the ballpark, sound balance wise, on playback & can make any adjustments accordingly, if necessary. By the way.....I don't see any curves.

Dean, actually, as you can see, I still have them & use them almost daily. I was fortunate enough to be able to order 3 sets of tubes for all three amps from Luxman around the time Alpine Electronics bought them out. The real kicker is.....get this.....I wound up not having to pay a penny for them (other than the envelope postage to Japan). Apparently, through some kind of mix up in the Alpine/Luxman merger, the money somehow was never actually drawn from my account! Seven years later my bank calls me to come & pick up the check since they held it the maximum legal time limit & Alpine or Luxman never made any further claims on it. Cool eh? I was also able to locate another source for the Gold Aero 8045G & more 6240G driver tubes at a very reasonable price ($40 each)....another 3 sets for each amp. So at this point, I would say I'm set with a lifetime supply. There's another pair on ebay now. But like most of them that show up, they've been modified to use the KT88, which IMHO, & others, doesn't really do the amp any justice. The current capacity of KT88 are less than a third of the 8045G & they are no where near as linear. Klipsch used to have (maybe still do?) a set these in their studio in Hope. & back to that Dynaudio crap.........anytime I see descriptions like "long-throw woofer" or "long-throw diver", I keep walking. Frequency Modulation Distortion (not to be confused with Frequency Intermodulation Distortion) is not my thang. (4) 6.5" woofers on the Dyna Evidence Temptation? (4) 8" on the "Master"...LMFAO, maybe in your car it's a woofer, LOL. Not in my music room! These guys have their North American Headquarters, literally, in the same building, where my wife worked when she was Operations Manager at Ryobi America. They don't even have a decent "show room" there, much less a 'LISTENING ROOM'. & yet they want to sell their $85,000 nancyboy speakers to go with $45,000 600watt nancyboy amps. LOL. Only one dealer around here had the Evidence Masters on display for audition, Columbia A/V in Highland Park. They sold the demos. Thats the only pair they ever had or sold. Surely all those millionaires on the North Shore can afford to buy more than one pair of these things. And skonopa, don't worry about it. A pair of LaScallas & decent low powered tube amp will outperform a 600Watt nancyboy amp powering Dynaudio nancyboy speakers any day. And it has, and will continue doing so for decades to come. Hell, think of it this way, even if you built a large (30'x20') dedicated listening room, as an addition to your house, even at $150 per square foot, you would be spending about the same amount of money as you would for the Dynaudio Evidence Masters. At least you'd have some REAL ESTATE. DUH (some people are just plain stupid. and others just never figure it out)

A few years back, at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, I stopped by the Krell room. I was looking to see if they had any lower power amps, like a class A headphone amp, that I could use on my Khorns, to possibly replace my aging Luxman MB3045 class A triode monoblocks (the driver & output tubes are no longer manufactured). Krell CEO & amp designer Dan D'Agostino (who I was talking with), paused, looked at me kinda funny, and replied "What do want to get rid of those for?! (I explained, as above) He asks me "What kind of speakers are you using?" I sheepishly tell him "I know, the high audio community doesn't think much of these, but I do. I'm using a 3-channel Klipschorn system." Again, he pauses & then says "I use Klipsch too." So much for the "Krell, Dynaudio speakers" ultimate combo! Let's see if Dynaudio is still around in 50 years. (and before you start to rant on me that I don't know anything about Dynaudio speakers.......I do know. & its easy for me to know. Their NA headquarters/distribution is in Bensenville, IL, right next door to me in Elk Grove Village. And I used to be VAR with one of their dealers, Columbia Audio/Video. So EAR, the next time you want to make stupid comments like "even the Evidence Temptation makes the Heritage series sound like PA stuff", it would really be beneficial to you, if you actually knew something about what you are talking about. Also, same deal, CES Show: When Klipsch first starting showing up at these events again after many, many years of absence, they showed up with all Mark Levinson electronics & a Linn turntable. By the way, Mark L grew up with Klipschorns. That's what his father had. There were 2 speakers Mark L had in mind when the ML2's were designed. The Quad Electrostatic, & the Klipschorn. (source: ML's National Sales Manager at the CES)

I have to go & drink more water. See you later. I hope you like humming. come on. laugh. it won't hurt.

No. I said I can hum. I play in a band uuuhhh. craig, what are u doing with that 3rd foot? It doesn't hurt as much if you take the shoe off.

moon, no offense man. If I understand you right, you've never even heard a pair of Belle's?

HEY! I SAID I WANTED A PISSING CONTEST! not some woofies who love to listen to amps humming. If I want to listen to humming, I can hum very well myself thank you! and mike, come on, your piss doesn't even stink! I can't smell it! I'm telling you!

I'm not sure why he would have wired them in series. The Phase Linear is a solid state amp. As such, it can take advantage of a decrease in impedance load to increase power output. Wiring speakers in series increases the impedance (resistance) that the amp sees. So (2) 8 ohm speakers wired in series = 16 ohms. This should have the effect of decreasing the amplifier's power output by half. Speakers wired in parallel HALVE the impedance of each speaker. So (2) 8 ohm speakers wired in parallel would provide a 4 ohm load to the amp, which has the effect of doubling the power output the amp would see at 8 ohms. The Phase Linear amps were not all that stable, although I believe they were rated to drive 4 ohm loads. Some amps blow up or protection circutry shuts them down with too low of a load. On the other hand, the "impedance rating" of speakers is a "nominal rating". The speaker's actual impedance actually varies with frequency & can drop to levels below its "nominal" rating. Two speakers wired in parallel would obviously compound this effect. Some amps cannot tolerate this, especially if driven too high in output. How far is too much?......depends on the amp & the speakers. Perhaps your friend realized this & was just trying to be being "safe" & was going for more "acoustical coverage" & attempting to lowering the cone excursion of all the speakers, which would reduce certain forms of distortion. Unfortunately, it also increases other forms of distortion.

no, thats $60 for EACH shoe idiot, NOT A PAIR. therefore its $274.50 for EACH amp. If I buy 3 Paramours (as I would have to) I would have 3 (three) $274.50 amps for a total cost of $823.50 for THREE amplifiers. You have TWO amplifiers there, which, all things being equal, costs more to make than ONE 2-channel amplifier. TWO chasis. TWO power supplies. TWO power cords. ETC.

Hard to go wrong with a Linn. & since its legendary, its unlikely that you'll loose any value, especially buying it used. The one on ebay seems to have all the Linn mod's. And the price seems reasonable. All the Linn upgrades probably cost more than the asking price. I've had mine since 1980 or so. One of those rare things that, like a fine musical instrument, gets better with time.

warmest SS receiver? mmmmmmmmmm, how about 400 degrees?

I WANT A GOOD OL' FASHIONED PISSING CONTEST. SET is not all its cracked up to be. My PP SS amps have more hum than my PP valve amps, even though they spec out 20Db better. My PP valve amps are dead quiet, turned all the way up, with ear to the speaker. Futhermore, a correctly designed amplifier doesn't have an apparent anything. My objective is minimum degradation and maximum transparency. And there are very few amps in the world that approach that, regardless of price or design type.

Tom Second off, $549 is for a pair. So you basically have yourself a pair of $250 (or so) amps (so, I rounded out the $49/2, big deal). I'm well aware of what the previous hum levels were. IMO those levels were completely intolerable. The current version with 2mv is respectable. My point is, SET amps, for all their other appealing qualities, are typically prone to higher levels of hum & noise, which unfortunately, the speakers that can benefit the most from SET sound, also expose these characteristics. And you are not going to significantly change that with a tube unless the tube is going bad in the first place. The inexpensive kits from Bottlehead are no exception, & are probably a fine example of what SET amps cannot do. They are simple and crude circuits around which there is a cult rather than any real foundation for good sound. They exhibit very high second and third harmonic distortion components that rise quickly with power, which is what characterises their sound, but execution has a lot to do with it. They have a characteristic euphonic distortion pattern. If thats what you like, & you can tolerate the hum & noise, GREAT!

Obviously each tube has its own noise level & signature. The fact is, SET amps will exhibit more of this. & I doubt you're going to be to get rid of it. Especially on a $250 kit, without performing extensive modification & additional cost. Like I said, the Paramours are a great value, but you're still getting what you paid for.

I stopped subscribing to the likes of Stereophile & Absolute Sound (Equipment of the Month Club), as well as slicks like Stereo Review (Everything Sounds the Same Club), many, many years ago. Sounds to me what kenratboy is trying to say is that it doesn't take 10,000 words to describe an audio component. And I agree. I got bored with all their jibberish. It gets to sound like a broken record after a while. I have my own 2 ears, & as long as they work, I'll make my own decisions.

I doubt the hum you're hearing has anything to do with the tubes. The Paramour is a SET amp & SET amps are known to produce higher levels of hum & noise than push-pull designs which inherently have the ablity to cancel those components. The noise & hum performance on the Paramour & Paraglows are one reason I decided to pass on these amps. The power bandwidth also leaves a lot to be desired. Although I must admit, they are an excellent value, for the money. Buying all the parts on your own will usually cost you more than their kits. "93 db speakers are satisfactory for less stringent requirements (chamber music, soft jazz, acoustical) and smaller rooms, and we even use a pair of Paramours in our shop with some 87 dB sensitivity monitors for non intrusive background music." from the Bottlehead website

One thing that makes McIntosh amplifier designs very different from others is the use of output transformers. McIntosh calls them Autoformers because there is only one winding, so it really is not actually a transformer. With a conventional push-pull amplifier, the + leg and the - leg may not output exactly the same voltage on a waveform. So, when you drive the amplifier to its limits, the lower voltage leg will give out first, and the other leg can drive its extra voltage back into the leg that gave out. This can damage the amplifier. The use of the autoformer maintains absolute balance of the two legs. Secondly, regardless of how unstable the speaker load, the output transistors never see that instability when the autoformer is used. Two matched amplifiers with complimentary balanced circuitry operate in a PUSH-PULL configuration. Their outputs are combined in a balanced "OUTPUT AUTOFORMER". The resulting double balanced configuration cancels virtually all distortion. This circuit is ONLY possible with the exclusive "McINTOSH OUTPUT AUTOFORMER". (McIntosh Lab's words, not mine) Personally, I never thought the Mac SS stuff ever sounded as good as their tube gear. Its always sounded "dull", "dark" & somewhat lifeless to me. In fact any Mac SS gear thats been in my system was out of it within a week. "Off the record"........in speaking with a Klipsch engineer (mid 1980's), he said they didn't really like the Mac stuff either. Felt they were too noisy. On the other hand, PWK had some Mac in his personal system. So, as I always say...."to each his own" By the way dndphishin ......that is still a great find in such nice condition.