greg928gts

I used solid state equipment for years on my Khorns and I was very happy with the huge sound they would produce. Now that I'm a little older, I have really come to appreciate the quality of sound from the combination of tubes and horns. I've tried equalization with not very good results, I've tried subwoofers and they just don't mix in well. I keep going back to a simple preamp, tube amp, and Khorns. I'm trying a bi-amp setup right now, and I'm not sure how I'll like that in the long run. My bet is that I'll eventually go back to the simplest setup I can get. So I think that's my advice to you; keep it simple. Greg

For Sale: One pair of Klipsch RF-3 II tower speakers. I thought I'd let the forum members know about these before I put them on ebay. They are about a year old. I have one of the original boxes and I'm working on getting the other one back. It was borrowed I have the original manual and packing materials for both, and the extra feet. They are in perfect cosmetic condition except for two small places on the woofers. On one speaker, the upper woofer has a tiny mark in the copper from a fingernail. The lower woofer on the same speaker has a tiny crease in it. Neither of these has any effect on the sound quality, and neither is seen from 6' away, or when the grill cloths are on. They sound great. $500 plus shipping. 60 lbs. x 2 boxes, 15" x 22" x 42", my zip is 04901. I accept credit cards through Paypal, but I would ask that you please cover the fee. Local pickup is fine. So if you're planning a Maine vacation this summer, stop in! We'll crank the Khorns up, or the Acoustats, or the JBL's, etc... I'll have photos available in a few days. You may email me directly at glroberts@prexar.com Thanks for looking. Greg

I would get his phone number and call him. Contact information is available from ebay when you are a party to a transaction. You'll have to search a bit to get the link, but once you request the information, it will be emailed to both parties immediately. I recommend that you go easy though. Be aware that people do have lots of problems that come up in their lives, computer, personal, or they just aren't too with it. Speak softly, you'll get much farther that way. It's all a negotiation, even though you've done everything you should have, and he apparently hasn't, it's still negotiating. I think one of the worst things about this type of situation, is that even when it's all over, you feel that you can't leave the appropriate feedback because you know they will retaliate and give you the same. Greg

I'd like your recommendations for a DAC and player, or combination. Let's say under $1000. I've never owned separates, don't know much about them, but I'd like to explore a little. I've always had mediocre cd players and I'm ready for an upgrade. My Denon has the special output, I don't know what you call it, but I've been told I can use it as a player through an external DAC. So I could start there. I know someone who has a NIB Encore DAC for $1200. Is this a nice unit? Good deal? Greg

Thanks Jim, good stuff. And I thought I was anal. Greg

LMAO

I have a pair of Altec 511b horns with drivers for sale. Before I put them on ebay, I thought I'd offer them to the forum members. These are the metal horns, painted white. The drivers don't have any writing on them except for the letters "FRF" next to one of the terminals. These drivers look exactly like the older style K-55-V mid drivers on my Khorns. These are in excellent condition, but could use some touch up paint. I'm not going to bother to paint them, because I figure you'll want to paint them the color you want. Please make an offer over $250. You may email me directly at glroberts@prexar.com Thanks for looking, Greg

I have acquired over 1000 tubes, almost all NOS. You may view a list by going to: www.dcchomes.com/Tubes.html You may email me directly from that page. Once you find something you're interested in, I'll go pull it and verify that I have it and get back to you with pricing. Thanks for looking Greg

For Sale: One pair of Klipsch RF-3 II tower speakers. I thought I'd let the forum members know about these before I put them on ebay. They are about a year old. I have one of the original boxes and I'm working on getting the other one back. It was borrowed I have the original manual and packing materials for both, and the extra feet. They are in perfect cosmetic condition except for two small places on the woofers. On one speaker, the upper woofer has a tiny mark in the copper from a fingernail. The lower woofer on the same speaker has a tiny crease in it. Neither of these has any effect on the sound quality, and neither is seen from 6' away, or when the grill cloths are on. They sound great. $500 plus shipping. 60 lbs. x 2 boxes, 15" x 22" x 42", my zip is 04901. I accept credit cards through Paypal, but I would ask that you please cover the fee. Local pickup is fine. So if you're planning a Maine vacation this summer, stop in! We'll crank the Khorns up, or the Acoustats, or the JBL's, etc... I'll have photos available in a few days. You may email me directly at glroberts@prexar.com Thanks for looking. Greg

Chris, if I bring the 928 down, it will be to bring it to the shop for service! Damn hand-built German money pit! I can't bring myself to sell it though, it's like a piece of art sitting in the garage, which is what it does most of the time! That would be great if you can forward the pictures of Artto's room. JM - Thanks for the convex wall idea, I like that. I would like to get some more feedback on the idea of putting the equipment in front of the seating area. I have thought about this, but the equipment would need to stay fairly low, maybe just a bit higher than coffee table height. I want to be able to clearly see the speakers. I've had mixed results with permanently locating things like conduit or floor receptacles. This new room will be on a slab foundation, so careful planning would be necessary. But it seems that even with very careful planning, things can end up in the wrong place. It also doesn't leave room for flexibility down the road. Theres's also the issue of the length of speaker wire. I wonder if it wouldn't be better to have the amps closer to the speakers, but then the line between the preamp and amp would be very long. Thanks fini for the thread, maybe the photos are in there, I'll check it out. I do have a lot of the Dope From Hope papers. I guess I was looking for more feedback from the forum members about their own personal experiences. Greg

In the next couple of years, I'm going to be building a room specifically for my Khorns. I'm in the planning stages right now and I'd like some input. Within reason, but not skimping, what would you do if you could to create the perfect listening environment for a pair of Khorns, tubes, nice DAC, vinyl, etc... Material choices, size and proportion, angled walls, soundproofing, seating position, equipment location, etc... A couple of things that I'm thinking about. . . . having the equipment nearer to my seating position, or perhaps right in front, built into a custom rack so I can reach the non-remote controls without going all the way across the room. Cork flooring. The wall behind the seating position built at a slight angle (not parallel) with the wall the Khorns are on. Using beams on the ceiling to help cut down on reflections from the ceiling. Having a 32' diagonal measurement to the rectangle shaped room. Masonry block walls. I appreciate any input. Thanks, Greg

I would second that recommendation. I had a chance to try a P1000 for a while, and I didn't like it. I expected it to have more output. Nice looking sub, love the remote, but no slam. Just got a KSW 12 that puts it to shame for less money. Got into a good argument with the CS guys at the store too, that was fun! Greg

Can someone tell me what the policy is regarding the sale of items in this forum? I've had a couple of people mention that I should offer items that I have for sale to other forum members before putting them on ebay. I have not done this in the past because I assumed that it was not allowed. It seems that this forum is for the exchange of ideas and information, and that ebay is the place to sell things. Am I just missing it, or do we not have a link to a page of forum rules? Greg

Ah yes, a strip club. Now there's a good clean business with little regulation!

I did have one little glich when hooking my Rane up. The Rane has 1/4 connections, so I went to Radio Shmuck to get adapters. They had nice looking gold plated ones, so I bought 6 of them. The next morning, when I tried to use them, I found that they were so poorly made, that they were actually loose on the RCA end. There was almost no contact on the outer part of the RCA connector. They would almost drop off the end of my RCA cords. So I brought them back and found some non gold plated ones that were slightly tighter fitting, but still not good. So far everthing is working. I think there's just enough tension on the cords pulling down that there is some connection on the adapters. Just another example of Radio Shmuck quality. Don't you just want to go to the manufacturer of these crummy items, walk into the office of the CEO, slap him on the forehead with the butt of your hand and say "Look, pay attention, you are making crap, it doesn't work. Have you ever even bothered to try this thing?" Greg

The main reason that bi-wiring doesn't make much improvement, is that the amplifier supplying the signal to the high frequencies, is still being called upon to amplify the low freqencies as well. Then, when the low frequencies come into the crossover of the speaker, the energy that it took to amplify the low frequencies is lost as heat inside the crossover as the low frequencies are rolled off and not allowed to go to the high frequency drivers. By contrast, when you use a true bi-amp system, the signal being fed to the high frequency amplifier has already had the low frequencies taken out, so the amplifier is not being used to amplify the low frequencies. The idea is that the amplifier will work less to produce just the high frequencies, and therefore will perhaps produce those frequencies with less distortion and be able to attain higher volumes. I got my bi-amp system up and running today, and everything came off without a hitch. No odd noises (at least while playing), easy to set up and adjust the balance between the highs and lows. McIntosh preamp feeding the Rane active crossover, high frequencies out to a SET amp to the Khorn crossovers, low frequencies out to a MC2205 and into the Khorn woofers. I'm still tweaking and evaluating, so I don't want to give final impressions just yet, but I'll let you know. It is surely a much bigger sound and much more powerful than using just the SET. What I still need to work out, is if I'm getting the exemplary sound quality that I was enjoying before from using just the SET. I'll be switching back and forth for a while to determine this. I am having problems with the SET amp when it turns on. It makes several loud pops. I'm concerned about the horns being damaged. Something I'll need to have looked at. Thanks again Maron for some more names of active crossovers. If this works out, I'll be looking for a higher quality unit to try. Now I have some names and model numbers. Greg

Let's not forget his work with James Strickland advancing the art of the electrostatic speaker at Acoustat. He will be missed. Greg

I just got my Rane today, and I'm making new speaker wires for the Khorns. I don't know if the Rane was the right choice either. It was a cheap way to try this though, and readily available. There were 4 for sale on ebay when I bought mine for $140. Mine has the 1/4" ins and outs, so I think it should work just like RCA's. I got adapters at Radio Shmuck today. Thanks Maron for the suggestion on the active crossover, I suspect there are a few choices out there that deliver a higher quality sound than the Rane. If this works for me, I'll be looking for a high-end choice. I think we need to clarify something about how to do this bi-amp thing. You can't simply use a Y connector from the preamp, to two different amps, and then go right into a speaker like the Khorn. This will deliver a full range signal through both amps to the high frequency drivers and to the low frequency drivers. Having a full range go to the low frequency drivers wouldn't do any harm, but putting a full range signal, with bass, to the high frequency drivers would definately cause a problem. Also, the amplifier being used to drive the high frequency drivers would be getting the full range signal WITH the unwanted bass signals too. This would make the amplifier work just as hard as if you had the full range speaker hooked to it. In order to take the load off the high frequency amplifier, you need to cut the bass out of the signal before it gets to the amplifier, that's what the active crossover does. It splits the signal and sends the highs to the high frequency amplifier and on to the high frequency drivers, and then the lows to the low frequency amplifier and on to the low frequency drivers. Sorry if this seems academic to some, but I think clarity is important here for those reading this thread that aren't real familiar with bi-amping. I suspect that larger tube amps would be able to give much more bass and impact, but those of us who are taken with the SET sound are ruined for anything else. Greg

I'm having the same dilemma with my tube amp. Great sound quality, but not enough pant leg movement. I justed asked Al K about this, and he reccommended getting an active crossover to split the signal BEFORE it gets to the amplifiers. This way, the amplifier used for the upper frequencies is not getting the low frequencies sent to it, and therefore does not have to work to amplify those frequencies. I'm trying this with my Khorns. I purchased a Rane active crossover on ebay. I'm putting a SET tube amp on the horns, and a McIntosh MC2205 on the bass bins. It should be interesting to say the least. I have concerns about added noise and signal degradation or coloration going through the Rane. But we'll see. Greg

I thought I'd let everyone know about a pair of La Scalas I just saw on line. Too far away for me. These would sell for at least $1300 on ebay right now. Probably can be had for $800. Greg For Sale in MACOMB, MI KLIPSCH/ LASCALLA, solid birch cabinets with medium oak finish, smooth dynamic sound, very efficient, cost new $2500/ great condition, $950; (586)598-1463 MACOMB (586) 598-1463

Boomac, I'm glad you're excited about your new Scott amp and don't have any buyers remorse. You'll be very happy with it. The tuner offers a bit of "cool" too. I used these for a few months on my Khorns and the amp sounds awesome. I decided to sell them because they're just not my style. I'm more into build quality than the Scott has to offer. Besides, I recently picked up a SET amp, and my world is upside down right now. WOW, what detail. Now if I can get the punch back, WHOOOAHHH! So, should I tell you how much I paid for the pair of the Scott's? I have had a string of good luck lately on the buying end of things. I'm glad that someone else here feels that the BIN price was fair. It's been interesting reading what happened on the other end of the auction. Greg

Thanks everyone for the info on the Dynakit amps. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm all messed up right now. After years of enjoying a chest pounding 200 wpc McIntosh 2205 on my khorns, and being very happy with it, I stumbled on this puny Audio Electronic Supply SET amp. I just can't believe the sound quality of this little thing. It is so much better than the two other tube amps I've tried, all in the last month or so (a Scott 299 and the Dynakit Stereo 70). My living room's a mess, I have equipment all over, my wife's not happy, and I don't know what the hell to do. I just can't believe what I've been missing all these years. The detailed sound that the SET produces is luxurious. Just not enough power. I don't listen to music nearly as loud as I used to, my ears just won't take it anymore, but I still need to feel that kick, that wave of energy move your pant legs, and my SET just doesn't do it. I just bought an active crossover. More stuff in the living room. Greg

I have 2 Dynaco Dynakit Stereo 70 amplifiers. Are these anything like the ones you're talking about here? I don't see Mark II or Mark III anywhere on them, at least on the outside. Someday, I was going to ask someone about turning these into mono amps, and if possible, triode mono. I know just enough about this stuff to be dangerous. Greg

I have a pair of Altec 811B horns coming up for sale. They have the same kind of drivers as the Klipsch. Greg

Up He'ah, we sa'aay, If you can't stand the wintah's, you don't dese'ahv the summah's. Greg