greg928gts

I have read most of the posts. I know Dale well enough to know that he has a good heart and he doesn't mean any harm. Really. I've asked him to stop using my name and company name in his posts though. I don't think that will be a problem anymore as I see his account is deactivated. Actually, I hope he's ok. All jokes about meds aside, I do think there is something seriously going on there that may need some attention, and I wish him the best. Greg

Tears down my cheeks laughing so hard. Greg

I know this is an old thread. For what it's worth, when enclosing the backs of Khorns, it's better not to reduce the size of the horn when doing so. This means adding the back pieces to the outside of the horn, not inside. Also, good bracing is critical to reduce the chance of resonances. I have enclosed the backs on one pair of Khorns that I restored. Can be seen here http://www.klipschupgrades.com/flkhorn.shtml These had all the Volti upgrades in them in addition to the enclosed backs on the bass horns. When I finished restoring them, I brought them to my home and compared them to my own fully upgraded Khorns that did not have the enclosed backs. That was a long afternoon that ended with a sore back as I worked alone to move the speakers in and out of my living room several times, trying to figure out exactly what sounded better about the enclosed back pair. The difference in sound quality is in the mid-bass. The weakness of the Khorn bass horn is the mid-bass, and enclosing the backs makes the tonal accuracy in the 150Hz - 400Hz range much better. I regret that I didn't try angling the cabinets in the corners to see if the bass performance suffered at all. Greg

I was sharing the room at RMAF with four other exhibitors, and the equipment that was put together at the show had never been integrated before. We had quite a few problems. I'm still not completely sure, but it's possible that all day or part of the day on Friday our system was playing in Mono! Apparently the "Y" connector coming out of the outputs of the linestage preamp was shorting back through the other outputs of the preamp and causing the two channels to be summed. I think. As I said, I'm not entirely sure about that. This doesn't happen with my own preamp because I guess there's some kind of buffer circuit between the two channels to prevent that. But the linestage we were using at the show was a prototype and did not have that buffer circuit. Who knew? And that was the day I sold those speakers! Go figure. At one point, someone asked us to put an LP on the TT. I encourage people to bring their own music, and I'll put just about anything on the system for someone to hear. This guy had an LP that he produced himself, and when we started it up, within a few seconds he said that the TT speed was off. It didn't sound it to me, but he was sure that the speed was off. So Mr. Morch, the tonearm manufacturer started looking over the whole TT setup to try and figure out what was wrong, if anything. Sure enough, the TT actually runs off a battery pack that plugs into the wall, and the battery was low. The linestage preamp we were using had some issues too. On Saturday, it overheated at least three times and we had to shut the system down, at which point everyone who was in the room listening left. Word in the hallway was that we were having problems with the system. Not good. The Golden Rule at an audio show, so I'm told, is that your system must be set up and working properly before the start of the show, and it needs to work properly for the whole show. On Sunday I had a talk with the builder of the linestage and convinced him that it would be better to switch over to my linestage and not have the system breaking down all day. So Sunday we actually had a consistent sound all day. The different sources caused me a lot of problems with the subwoofer balance, and I'm not sure it was ever right during Friday and Saturday. I was constantly trying to re-balance it on the fly. Most of the time I just shut it off. Sunday was different. With my linestage in the loop, I was able to set the sub and leave it. The walls of the room at CAF were cement block, while the walls at RMAF had drywall on them, so the speaker/room dynamic was different at RMAF. But when I was able to tune the system Sunday morning I was getting a killer sound. As good as I've ever heard from the Vittoras. Fantastic center image, wide soundstage, beautiful tonal characteristics all the way through, dynamics, really everything was about as good as I've ever heard in any system. But Kwing, I can understand why you would say the system sounded better at CAF. It would just be a matter of catching the system at RMAF at the wrong time, which unfortunately was too much of the time. I will not do that again. Sharing a room was a learning experience for me, and while I respect and admire the other vendors that were there with me, I just have to do my own thing from now on. I am glad that I brought an entire system with me and not just speakers. That would have been a disaster. Greg

First I'm going to do a smaller one. More of a tower shape, but still all horn-loaded. I was just thinking about how Klipsch would have done at RMAF, and I think they would have fared very well there. But I can see where it might not be worth the cost and effort for them. CES is a much better show for Klipsch to do. RMAF is the kind of place that a Klipsch dealer would show a system that includes Klipsch speakers. I think that a room with Palladiums, a nice tube amp/preamp, and a high end TT would have been very well received. Greg

Good, because I don't have much of either at the moment! lol Greg

Yeah, I know what you mean. Horn loaded would have ended up being much too large I think. I regularly work with two different engineers, and I initially approached both with the idea of using a sealed sub, but they ended up talking me out of that, and convinced me that I could get the quickness and quality from a properly designed ported cabinet. One of the engineers was emphatic that there is no difference in transient response between properly designed sealed or ported enclosures. A sub that is playing from 45Hz and down is an odd sounding beast when it's playing all alone. It's hard for me to say that either one of the two I've built actually sounds nice. But properly tuned and blended in with the Vittora speakers, they add weight and depth that is very nice. I've found that "properly tuned" means just to the point where it blends in and you really don't hear the sub separately from the Vittoras, and that is actually a lot less output than you would think. Or at least it seems like not much output to me. I spent a half hour or so setting up and tuning the sub into the system at RMAF, and with the system at about 95db at the listening position, I went over and put my hand on the sub driver and it was hardly moving at all. You could hear it and sense it all over the room, and turning it on and off there was an obvious difference. I still need a lot more seat time with them to get used to how they sound. Greg

Thanks again everyone. I just remembered one room that had fully horn-loaded speakers. Jeff Catalano's room had Cessaro speakers. Expensive and large horn speakers from Germany. Backloaded horn with a 12" woofer I think. Jeff remembered and put the same recording on that I listened to at CAF when I went to his room and listened to a completely different system that he brought there. I was underwhelmed by the bass from such a large speaker, and was only somewhat happy with the sound quality overall. For $60K and for the size, I was expecting a lot more. I heard good things from other people though, and I wish I had made it back to the room later in the weekend to see if they got it dialed in any better. There were a few very large speakers there at the show, which was encouraging to me, since I would like to design and build a larger fully horn-loaded speaker someday. Greg

The first sub that I completed was a cabinet the same size and shape as the Vittora bass cabinet. In other words, pretty big and bulky. I used a Faital 18" driver. The cabinet is ported. I started working on a much smaller cabinet (also ported) using a rather unusual Ciare 18" driver that only needed half the volume of the Faital and I think it actually sounds better. I've only used both of these subs from 45Hz and down, so it's hard to tell if one really sounds nicer than the other. I haven't had them in the same room together yet. I had intended to try both of them side by side when I set everything up at RMAF to get a better idea of how they compared to one another, but when I plugged in the larger cabinet, the Faital had a rubbing voice coil. Lucky I brought the second sub with me. I think maybe the crate was dropped and bent the driver. I looked at the crate and couldn't see any damage anywhere, so I'm really not sure what happened to it. I'll investigate more when I get it home. Next step on the "small sub" (I haven't named it yet) is to design an aesthetically pleasing cabinet and of course veneer and finish it nicely. Greg

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I had a great time in Denver, but I was not able to get out of my room very much, and so I only heard about ten other systems, which is just a small fraction of what was there. The whole experience was overwhelmingly positive. I ate some great food, drank much more beer than I ever do, and made several new friends. There were a lot of horn speakers there, but I don't know of any fully horn-loaded other than the Vittoras. The Classic Audio Reproduction speakers sounded very good at RMAF. I didn't like them at CAF. I was left wondering what all the hype was about, but completely different in Denver. When you walk into a room, it really depends on what recording is being played, at what volume level, how many people are in the room, etc... I heard a few really crappy sounding systems. Surprising really. I wonder how that happens. At least two rooms that I walked by had audibly distorted bass coming from the speakers. I've come to the conclusion that there are a lot of people out there who simply can't hear good, and some of them design speakers! The show couldn't have been better for Volti Audio. I was one of the few (out of over 300 vendors) who had a major sale at the show. I sold the pair of Vittora speakers I was showing to a customer in Chicago, and they were shipped from the show directly to them. I'm looking forward to getting pictures of them in his room, which is apparently very nice, with a stone fireplace and hardwood floors. I also sold a complete Khorn upgrade package at the show, and another package when I got home. Now I've got to build more V-Tracs and Vittoras. I'm going to be very busy this winter. Volti got some good press from the show. At least one magazine writer gave our room a "Best Of Show" nod. I am humbled by that, as I have been with all the wonderful feedback I've received from the hundreds of people who've listened to the Vittoras. http://www.theaudiobeat.com/rmaf2011/rmaf2011_volti.htm Hot Product http://www.theaudiobeat.com/rmaf2011/rmaf2011_volti_system.htm Best Of Show The funniest thing was the look on one reviewers face within ten seconds of hearing the Vittoras. He is a self-proclaimed horn speaker hater, and he had a look of disbelief on his face. He turned to me and said "I wouldn't have given you a nickel for these speakers before I heard them, but I can't believe what I'm hearing. If you didn't tell me so, I would never have guessed these were horn speakers by listening to them. Nice work". I have one review of the speakers scheduled for late this year and another after that in the begining of 2012. There are three other reviewers who have expressed interest, and it's basically up to me to decide if I am willing to spend the money on round-trip shipping to get the speakers to them. So Volti continues to make steps forward, "turning the page" on horn speaker design. Greg

Are you coming to the show? I've never been to that one, and people tell me it's the best high-end audio show in the U.S. I'm really looking forward to checking out some of the other rooms myself. Since I'm sharing a room with three other vendors, I should get a chance to go see a few other rooms while they cover for me. Greg

Just wanted to let everyone know that Volti Audio will be at RMAF this year with the Vittora speakers. If you are able to go to this show, please stop in to my room and have a listen. Room 573. www.audiofest.net Greg

I'll be there with the Vittora speakers if anyone is interested in hearing them. Room 573. Greg

Yeah, I like to break them up and sprinkle them on top of the chili while I'm eating it. It thickens it and adds an interesting starchy crunch! Greg

I prefer my own personal Khorns to my own personal Klipsch Jubilees. But that's just me. The Lavera is beautiful, but very expensive, and I'm not sure better sounding, just different. I've put Lavera's on my Khorn bass horns and the sound is very similar to the V-Trac upgrade. In some ways the Lavera mids are even better than the V-Trac, but the dispersion of the higher-mid frequencies is not quite as good. Greg

Here's my chili recipe. It's a mild chili - comfort food. Easy to zing up though, just add more finely diced hot peppers. I live off this stuff during football season. 4 lbs. ground beef. 1 (15 to 16 oz.) can tomato sauce 1 (29 oz.) can diced tomatoes – I found a brand that makes petite diced tomatoes which is the best way to go. 2 (15 to 16 oz.) cans of Pinto beans 1 (15 to 16 oz.) can of red kidney beans – small beans if possible 2 medium to large sweet onions 1 (15 to 16 oz.) can French onion soup – put in a bowl and use your hand to mash up onion pieces until most of the pieces are gone 4-5 stalks celery – can chop up some of the greens too 1 large green pepper or two medium green peppers 2-3 small long green hot peppers 3 Tsp. chili powder 1-1/2 Tsp. ground cumin 1 Tsp. garlic powder 2 tsp pepper ½ tsp sugar (it only takes a tiny bit) Add water, so the consistency of the chili is almost soup-like – it will thicken up as it cooks, however, this is supposed to be almost soup-like and use the crackers to soak it all up. Add salt to taste 2 boxes lightly salted or no-salt Saltine crackers Put all canned ingredients into a very large pot and start simmering Cut up green pepper, onion, celery, and add to pot – try to make all the pieces uniform, petite diced cut Cut up the hot peppers into very tiny pieces, minced. Don’t rub your eyes! Fry up the ground beef and add to pot. Fry it up into “rice” size pieces. Very fine pieces of beef. Well done, almost crispy. Remove excess grease. Add spices and water Salt to taste after everything else is added, and maybe after simmering for a while. Simmer at least 2 hours, but taste testing during that time is necessary! ; )

Congrats! That looks like a beautiful piece. I recently upgraded to an EMM Labs SACD player and I love it. I love 2-Channel! Greg

I brought my Cornwalls into my living room about a year ago, and had a similar problem with the sound, just like what you're describing. Two things fixed the issue. One was to add two screws, one in the backs of each cabinet that were missing. The other was to get all four feet securely sitting on the floor. I have porcelain tile in my living room and the speakers were just barely not quite sitting solid on the floor. If I had planned to keep them in there, I would have switched to three feet instead of four. LOL, blowing into candy boxes. I used to do that to raisin boxes when I was a kid and drove my mother nuts. Heck, I still can't resist doing it now when I finish a box! Greg

It'll be more effective on YouTube. We the people are going to be the ones to change this or not. The Government isn't going to do it on their own. Greg

Hubba Hubba

I forgot to write about these in my latest newsletter. How could I forget? They were wonderful sounding speakers. Not quite enough lows or highs for me, but just fantastically musical. Thanks for reminding me about these. Greg

It was quite an experience doing this first show. Being a rookie, I brought way too much crap with me! I won't make that mistake again. I did get a chance to sneak away and hear some other systems. A couple of them were very nice sounding. Nothing brought a smile to my face more than the big, over-the-top GOTO horns though. Full report on the show coming up soon in my newsletter. Greg

A few people got it.

Literature and samples of the cabinet construction

Great room all around. The sound was great, separate sleeping quarters and bath, and a kitchenette.