tigerwoodKhorns

With some guidance these kids have a great opportunity to put together a system. I remember being afraid to buy used speakers when I was growing up. I figured that all speakers were abused. The world is a better place now. I spent about $3000 on my first "real" system in 1988 to 1990 (it took a little while). For much less today you can have quite a system. I rarely buy anything new anymore in audio.

Good choice. Extra lines are extremely easy to add rigth now and very hard to add later.

And, I bet the word KLIPSCH wasn't part of it ................ not if you bought your own stuff !!!!!!!!!! No Klipsch back then. I started working at about 14. We did not have any money at all so I always saved. I bought JBL L60T's and custom made subwoofers using Cerwin Vega drivers, a Soundcraftsmen amp and DBX 120 for a crossover. There were no premade subwoofers back then besides a really expensive JBL one that was the size of a refrigerator. My L60's had an 8" driver and I wanted the Heresy because it had a 12" woofer. I thought that it would have had more bass. Luckily it was two times as expensive so I didn't get it. It would have sounded aweful with my Denon receiver and CD player.

If you go through the effort do not put in less than at least three dedicated circuits. This may be a shocker but you may find yourself using a different brand of speaker some day. I use 800 wpc monoblocks. I never thought that I would need this much power but I don't have horns. You will want one outlet for each amp, one for the other equipment and maybe another for a subwoofer. You can run it all off of one circuit (I do right now) but I'd like to have several. If you go HT you will have many monoblocks and other equipment. I have a friend who put in one line and he always says that he wishes that he put in several.

I assume most of us around here are 40 years plus. I started with audio when I was about 12 and bought my first nice system at 19.

Interesting read Bob. I have to say that I had an experience where Andy would have definately heard a difference. I remembered reading that solid speaker cable is the way to go. I was skeptical but I had some wire and gave it a try. I used 12 gage romex wire. I removed the covering and used about 2 foot pieced between my amps and speakers (monoblocks right next to the speakers). I did not expect to hear anything. I was wrong. The top end was muffled. It was very noticable. I tried turning it up and no better. Definatelty a rather big difference. Just muffled and lack of upper detail. I have no idea why. I also need to say that I am very skeptical and I used to be an engineer so I don't believe in "magic electrons" or any other snake oil. I went back to my normal speaker wire, Kimber 4PR, and things were back to normal. Before everyone says that I bought Kimber so I wanted to hear a difference, I didn't buy it. Ray Kimber gave it to my stepfather for me when he was doing a nightclub install and I have had it since about 1983. I use it because it is what I have lying around.

Iboogie, Relax, no attack on you, it was just a softball article menaing no real technical info. Never said that you claimed it was the gospel.

That is one serious looking amp.

I have never really believed in bi-wiring but I have a pair of monoblock amps on the way that have two bindign posts each to bi-wire and my speakers have bi-wire inputs so I guess I will give it a try. My amps site right next to my speakers so I can cut my 10' long cables in half if I decide that I like it. The article that was posted is softball at best. No technical information, just a bunch of conclusions without any backup or explanation.

Check out the Garage Sale ssection. A member is selling a pair of Cornwall clones built by another member for $400. You will not find a better deal than that.

"I got an iiiicecreeem, you caaan't haaaaaaave none, cause you caaaaan't affooooooord it, your daaaad's an alcahooooolic, he's on the weeeeeelfare..." Classic.

I would change them to Type A's and just add fuses to the tweeter portion. You want to have tweeter protection, even with low power. I have blows fuses with 30 watt amps (from a faulty volume control on a preamp).

A friend lent me about $10,000 worth of MIT cables. They sounded different, but not an improvement in my system. They were also very big and industrial looking and about as thick as a heater hose on a 73 Buick. I really do not want to get involved in the whole cable thing.

I bought the Sumiko from the Needledoctor and the Denon from: http://www.internet-security-inc.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=540994

Don, You made the exact ppoint that I was going to make. I have heard $2000 cables make the sound different on high resolution equipment, but not necessairily an improvement and definately not worth the money. I say that because Audiophiles will not use an EQ because the early ones had a bad rap, but an EQ will make a way bigger difference and improvement than trying to make very small adjustments with $2000 cables.

Design a frame and figure out how to attach it without blocking anything. The top will be easy, the bottom a little harder.

Water injection was used to lower temperatures in high compression engined when high octane gas became unavailable. You used to be able to buy kits from Summit racing. The HHO system uses electrical energy to separate the bonds in water. The debate is that it takes more energy to separate the water than the energy that is gained when it recombines. The old perpetual motion machnie. I spoke with a client who works with alternative fuels. His explanation is that the HHO ignites very rapidly in the chamber. Like a bunch of hot spots. He said that this can be useful to cause a more complete burn of the fuel in the chamber where the energy can be harvested (instead of in the catalytic converter). If this is accurate, then we do not have a perpetual motion machine and the technology is useful as it is just recapturing wasted energy (same concept in the abstract as a hybred).

jtnfoley, Please keep posting these. We need our daily audio funnies.

I second that. I tried the expensive stuff and never really liked it. Oldtimer, Well, Fed Ex lost the AT 440 cart and you got a refund. You really should try a Denon Dl160 and the Sumiko Headshell. You can get both for about $200. I was using a pretty expensive Micro MC Cart that was a loaner and on a whim bought the Denon 160. It is in a different class than the AT 440, and teh AT400 was a good cart, especially for the money. My soundstage goes way wider than the speakers (and walls for that matter - my Dynavector and VPI did not do this) and lots of air between instruemnts. The biggest thing is that this cart is just plain alive. Lots of dynamics. I just love it. I can safely say that this cart on the Technics table sounds better than the Dynavector 20x on the VPI Scout that I had.

It looks like 95 will be close but still 2.5 short and he is already all the way back. But teh next jump is to 120 or 22.5 over (if the weight is all of the way out). But if he has 2" of travel, he can considerabely cut the moment of the counterweight by moving it in so the 120 may work. I'd just call Zu. They make this heavy cart and shurely have dealt with this issue.

The Denon looks really pretty but the Technics is probably way more bang for the buck. Get a Technics SL1210 MK2 or the next one up with the upgraded tone are wire, or to save money get a used SL1200. Then buy a Suniko headshell (abotu $40) and a Denon DL160 cart (under $200). Easy as can be to set up and use and built and feels like a Lexus. If you like different carts, just buy more headshells and swap them out in about 2 minutes (2 minuted includes all other adjutments). The Denon DL160 and Headshell really work well with this table. I started with a VPI Scout and Dynavector 20X and barely used it. I did nto find the "audiophile" inconvience charming at all. I sold it and then got the itch fro vinyl again in about 6 months. I bought this and use it a lot more (at about 1/4 the price). Did I mention that the DL160 and headshell really make this table work? PS - Get a Denon Dl160 and Suniko headshell with this table, you will not regret it. I started with a more expensive cart and wound up ordering the Denon cart.

Deep Purple and ELP should be well recorded. I was amazed last night at how good AC/DC's Back in Black in sounded on my system. Classic rock usually sounds very good, it was recorded before the compression wars. Try some Supertramp, Steely Dan, Pablo Cruise, Eagles, etc., it should all sound very good.

The Krell and the Classe amps are in a different league than the Parasound. What preamp are you using? I would guess that the Classe is a better match to the RF7's as Krell can have an edgy top end with the wrong speakers and Klispch can be harsh with the wrong amp, Classe is suposed to be smoother.

Gary, I sent you an email.

You may be able to use the T3A. You just need to make sure that you have a tap with the right amount of attenuation. Someone has posted the different taps for all of the trnasformers here before. Auricaps are good caps, but expensive. Check out Sonicaps or Claritycaps.