cleandan

Please help me establish a reasonable expectation for used Heresy speakers. I am searching for a pair that are in very good to excellent condition and want to know the fair price range. Thanks for the help.

Strabo, I think your SS system is quite good and that your problem may be the total combination of said parts. You have some very revealing components that are not colored, play quite flat, and generally reproduce what is in the recording without adding anything to it. Your speakers, Forte II, do have some coloring to them as that is how the Klipsch speakers just are. They are also horn loaded which, to some, can cause a very bright, forward, some may even say harsh, sound. As much as I like the Forte II speakers I think your total system has become a mismatched set of high quality components that do not work well together. As I have no tube experience I can not offer any real world advice. You now have a choice, upgrade/change main speakers to get something that is not horn loaded so they may be less bright. Or keep the Forte II's and get a tube amp that will not be over taxed because of the efficiency of the Forte's and see what happens with the "warm" sound of tubes. Just keep in mind that tubes come with their own drawbacks. Either way the warden will be giving you the look. This might the chance to get the Dynaudio's you have been eying. Good luck.

kenratboy, do not get cought in the name game when it comes to optics. You do have some very respected names listed, and you will pay for the ownership of those names. Go "kick some tires" and find something you like. Nikon and Kowa are two names that make excellent optics at a less than premium price. My optic experience comes mostly from shooting sports and cameras. I have many different lenses for my Nikons and have traded/sold off quite a few. I have never s=traded/sold any of the Nikon lenses though as they are far superior to others for the price. My spotting scopes are B&L, Kowa, Leupold, Weaver, Simmons, Tasco, Unertle. The higher end units, Kowa, B&L, Leupold, Unertle all have much higher light gathering ability along with far superior clarity than the others. Look for clarity and light gathering and you will see the differences.

Hello all, I am searching for a good sounding portable radio for my wife. What I want is something small and very easy to carry around. I want it to play cd's. I want it to be able to run on batteries as well as AC. AM/FM stereo and maybe even a cassette. No personal players (walkmans, discmans), just a small stereo that she can set somewhere and listen. What I am asking from you good souls is your input about which unit might be a good buy. I figure I can't go too far wrong getting a name brand (sony, aiwa and so on) but what you are using and why you like/dislike it is much better than store testing...and being bothered every five seconds by the countless salesmen. Thanks for the help.

I am having a hard time finding the correlation between Best Buy selling Klipsch, and Klipsch somehow being worse off for the effort or a lesser product all of a sudden. Best Buy is offering Klipsch Synergy speakers to a very large market due to their market share. The Klipsch Synergy series speakers are very nice for the price range, and great for a beginner who does not want to spend $$$$ but still wants to get quality products that sound better, or at least as good as the competition. After securing the buyer at a lower price range, and getting brand loyalty, they will most likely step up to a higher grade of Klipsch speaker when the money, and mood, hits them. Before this Klipsch was sold, almost exclusively, at "high end" audio stores. A place where many beginners walk through, dream, but seldom buy. Placing Klipsch products where the beginner frequently visits, and buys, is a very good idea, and will most likely get a larger market share because of it. The way the audiophile my benifit from this is through lower prices on high end stuff, due to higher profits in other lines. If the very notion of Best Buy selling your beloved speakers is enough to make you switch, or feel less worthy for now owning Klipsch, you did not buy your speakers for the right reason in the first place. You are a name dropper shopper and not a quality item shopper. Good luck.

I rented this last weekend. I like Tom Hanks movies, as they are usually watchable at the very least. The point, or direction, a movie takes you is directly based upon your personal experiences, level of knowledge, and beliefs. This means I will not try to tell you what the movie is "about", that is for you to decide. There are quite a few moral referances, both inferred, and almost blatant. One of them being, what comes around, goes around. There are many moral tests, of which almost every character must either pass or fail, and then deal with the consequences. There is violence, and very slight gore, but anyone 14yrs, or older, should be able to handel this with no problems whatsoever. The story is pretty good, the plot flows nicely, the characters are mostly belivable, the sequence of events is easy to follow, and if you let it, you do feel some empathy for almost every character, no matter how good, bad, innocent, cruel, or whatever. I liked the movie, and would watch it again, but not enough to go buy it. Good luck. PERDITION: To lose; The loss of the soul; Hell.

I am looking at a few options for finishing my HT speaker set up. (for now anyways, upgradeitis always seems to rear its head sooner or later) I have heard many good things about the SVS cylinder subs. I am curious if anyone has things to say about their box subs. A box sub would fit my needs much better than a cylinder. So, let me know what you think of SVS boxes. Thanks

I am looking for a KSW-200. Thanks for the help.

I am looking for a second KSW-200. Thanks for the help.

I have been wondering for a while now, and finally have to ask. I have a KSW-200 sub, down firing, side ported sub. I am curious about the port location. Where is the best place for it, or does it not really matter. Please fill me in on the good, and bad about port location. My sub has always been in a fairly open location so the port placement has never been an issue. I am mostly curious. Thanks.

Mr. Pheele, I asked you a question that was centered around the SVS sub as a viable, or not viable, piece of equipment a while back. Have you read it? Do you have any good input? Are you ignoring my question? Have you been gone during this period? Please let me know as I am basing my opinion of your post about SVS, and a certian salesman, directly on your answer. Thank you once again for your time.

jwp, you have some very good answers already. The tone controls are set "flat", straigh up, or at zero, so they alter the original recording as little as possible. Equipment differences make these alterations as unique as the individual using them. My old system used a Yamaha RXV-590 with KLF-20's and a KSW-200 sub. Things sounded pretty good, but I was really amazed at the difference when I upgraded to the RXZ1 receiver. I now have all the confidence in the world when it comes to my KLF-20's doing a great job at reproducing what is given to them. If you are having doubts about the sound, I suggest you spend a day with a clean, well produced song, that also has a wide dynamic range and the possibility for imaging (a friend helps to make this go much quicker). Set the tone controls flat, set yourself a listening area (or better yet, find one spot) and then listen to a certian section of the same song over and over again, all the while moving the speakers between takes. Make your moves one at a time, making subtle moves for the most part, and then listening. Get radical too, pull them babies waaay out just to see what happens, turn them too far and then come back to where it sounds good again. In the end you will find that the KLF-20's are quite sensitive to placement. If you get lucky you will find a great placement for them inside the area you thought they would go. This whole process can get a little tough. You might get sick of the song, you will get sick of moving the 97lb speakers. In the end, though, you will be glad you took the time to find the right spot. After spending time setting the speakers, then use a little tone control to fine tune the sound you are looking for. Keep in mind that all recordings are not created equal and, unfortunately, most are so over processed and compressed that the problem is often not your system, but the actual recording.

Mr. James Pheele, I am curious as to what you have to say about the SVS subs as a piece of equipment. I am not interested in your personal opinion concerning a certian "salesman". Nor am I interested in a persons ability to get a following or sway others to their side. What is it that has you so wound up about the SVS sub as a viable, or not viable, addition to a sound system? Please take this as a serious question, because it is intended to be one. Thank you for your time.

I am going to be building my entertainment center. This allows me the luxury of placing things exactly where I want. My mains are KLF-20's, center is KLF-C7, rear surrounds are KLF-20's. I am wondering if the sound quality will be improved if I place my center speaker at the same listening level as my mid/high horns on the floor standers? Right now the center is about 4-6" lower than the horns of the KLF-20's and things sound pretty good. So, whaddya think? Thanks for the help

Another product that works well is called "Thumb gum". It is a grey putty that is use to seal up HVAC equipment. It is pretty tacky, easily molded, does not get hard, and you can apply it as thick as your heard desires, and there is no smell or chemical worries. Thumb gum comes in different widths that are on flat rolls. The stuff I buy is about 1.5" wide, 1/8" thick, and on a 25' roll. Each side of the roll is layered with wax paper to keep things apart. You can get this stuff from your local HVAC supplier, and I think it sould be purchased at most home stores. Good luck.

Well, I don't usually do this but, seeing as how my main hobby is cars, I think I must. The Ears, it is quite evident that your knowledge of sound production equipment, and related gear is very high. The knowledge you expressed in your statement about the cars is, well, less than knowledgable and more off the cuff comment like, than factual. I will stick with the Ford Mustang because the GM cars are going away for now. The new Mustang, 1993 and up, are quite good performance cars for the dollars spent. The aftermarket upgrades available are almost as vast as ones imagination, and the availability of everything for this car is super high. The modern Mustang Cobra V8 is a twin, overhead cam, direct port injucted, 4.6L, utilizing lots of aluminum to limit weight. The 4.6L, mod motor, as Ford calls it will run a realistic 100,000 miles without needing anything more than normal perodic maintenance (filters, oil, belts, coolant, etc). The, very well engineered, aftermarket accessories allow a Mustang owner to add performance to their personal desire, at a reasonable cost. There is no doubt that the Porsche and Mercedes products are very high grade, well engineered, refined vehicles. The price of the excellent Porsche or Mercedes products, however, places them outside the range of the vast majority of the driving public. The 2003 Mustang Cobra is about $37,000. It comes standard with a supercharged, 390HP/390lbft torque engine. Add another $4000-6000 and that output easily goes above 500hp/tq, and is still every bit as driver friendly as the factory engine. Invest $4000 in suspension upgrades (you install or have it done by a shop), $2000 in chassis upgrades, $2000 in wheels and tires, and you now have a vehicle that will readily beat the Porsche in every aspect of driving performance while still remaining more than half the total cost of the Porsche. I have, for arguments sake, left out personal tastes, and picked the highest level of Mustang, offered new to the public, from Ford direct through dealers. One could, and many do, purchase a lesser regular V8 GT Mustang, a V6 Mustang, or even a used Mustang, do all the mentioned modifications and the total dollars spent are much less than above. I guess the real question is, where do you measure performance from. I measure using dyno numbers, track numbers, availability of parts and services, and total dollars spent. This means the Mustang is a viable option for very high performance vehicles. As a side note, I don't currently own, nor have I ever owned a Mustang, regardless of vintage. Good luck.

Well Kain64, I will admit that I am a full tilt car nut. This means I can find something to like in just about any vehicle. Your choices are two very well built, refined cars that come from very well respected builders. Your personal taste, style of driving, and what you want from the car are far more important than the actual specs of the two cars. I would choose the Porsche myself. There is nothing wrong with the Mercedes, so don't take it that way. The Porsche, however, embodies sports car everywhere in the world. Porsche is the number one car manufacturer in the world for customer satifaction. There are many Porsche clubs throught the country that race on a regular scheduel, so if you had the Porsche you could join a club and go, non competition, racing once in a while. Porsche resale value for the 911 based cars remains quite high, and may never diminish. There is also enough racing with these cars that if you wanted to really tune one up (not that they need much) you could get it done fairly easily. Why don't you, and yourself, go sit in front of your system, put on your favorite driving music, and figure which car would put the biggest smile on your face. After your muscles stop hurting from all the grinning, go to the Porsche dealer and get your new car. Good luck.

I am going to install wire in the wall of my movie room, ok, ok, it's my living room...but I watch movies there too. Anyway, I have been searching around and have found in-wall grade speaker wire to be quite expensive. I want to use code rated wire just incase I ever sell this house. I am wondering how 12 gauge romex would work as speaker wire. It is rated for in wall use and will certianly carry the load. I am not sure how it will work for good sound though. Let me know what you think. Also, if you have a name brand of rated wire let me know, I am open to suggestions. Thanks and have a great weekend.

Oh, the possibilities are endless. The Dad from "Clueless", to the daughters boyfriend before the date instructing him in the ways of treating his daughter. " You better treat her right, I have a .45 and a shovel...and I don't think you'll be missed" "It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigatettes, it's dark, and we are wearing sunglasses...hit it". "Our lady of blessed acceleration, don't fail me now". "Its an ex Mount Prospect squad car. It's got a four hundred and forty cubic inch plant, cop shocks, cop brakes, cop tires. It was made before 1974 so it will run good on regular gas...waddaya say...is it the blues mobile, or what?...Get a new lighter. "Sewer rat might taste like pumpkin pie, but I'll never know, because I ain't eatin' the filthy mother fu#%&*". "You reach into that bag there and pull out my wallet". "How will I know which one is yours"? "It's the one that says, Bad Mother Fu*&$# on it".

Frank, you have a dilema we all share, where to put all our wonderful sound equipment. Here is another approach to your problem. Get a nice piece of wood, instead of glass. Glass is tough to work with, quite fragile, and very subject to harmonics. Get some wood that suits your fancy, oak, maple, pine, walnut, cherry, cedar, are all available at local stores and wood working shops. Use a router to cut a 3/4" wide by 3/8" deep groove around the entire surface of the edge, about 3/4" in from the actual outer edge. This will serve as your spill catcher. Make the total size of the square just a little less than the actual outer dimentions of the sub. This will lessen bumping of the top piece. Get a 3/8" thick piece of steel that is about 2" smaller in size than the total outside dimentions of the wood, drill six holes around the perimeter for screws, paint it to prevent rust, then glue, and screw, it to the bottom of the wood. This will add weight to help stability and help when beer, pizza, three remotes and a pair of feet are also on top. Put soft rubber, or wool, feet just tall enough to keep the wood about 1/4" above the sub. Finish the edge with a router, stain to match other furniture, and you now have a nice cover that is removable, washable and protective of the sub. My biggest concern would be with the wires. If the wires are exposed they always seem to be a big trip hazard, no matter how hard you try to cover them. Another off the wall approach is to mount the sub to the ceiling. Put it in the corner like a hanging plant and you will soon forget it is there. The only problem is dust can collect on the down (now up) firing driver, which means you will need to play it loud once in a while to clean out the cob webs. Good luck.

Well, having read your complete post I still come to one conclusion. You are in college and money is short. If you live in a dorm, or ever plan to, this means lots of moves and even more "friends" to mess things up. If you live at home there will still be moves and you will never hear the end of spending a lot of money on a TV while in school. Stick with the cheapest, good picture, TV you can find. Even going so far as buying used. You can get a ton of TV for much less going used. Keep your hard earned money for having fun and experiencing the things you will only get to do while in college. After college you will still have the opportunity to have fun, but it will be different. When your schooling is complete, then put your hard earned education to work for yourself as a reward and get the dream TV with the money you now have. I know this sounds like you dad, being sensible and all, but please trust me. Save your money for fun, food, women, (not necessarily in that order)and let the rest go for now. Your life of somewhat carefree living will, all too soon, be over and it will never return, so make the best of what you now have and watch perfect TV later. Good luck.

Michael Hurd, I am curious about "stacking" two subs. Why would you want to do this. What can one gain/lose by stacking subs? Thanks.

Arthurs, I have the Pioneer Elite DV-47A. This DVD player is very good at music, as well as movies. I have mine hooked up via the digital output. The bass response is deep and full and the highs are never harsh. MFSL CD's sound great, as well as all other well produced CD's. I have been told that this player suffers from the chroma bug. As my TV is not the size of my wall I have never noticed (Sony vega 32") and I have looked for it. The remote is easy to use and this unit will play anything on the market. It is a bit $$$ but the results are very satisfying. My only gripe is this unit will expound on all flaws of any recording played through it. Poorly mastered and recorded CD's will not make you very happy. Well mastered CD's will cause an unstoppable grin. Good luck.

ahhbee78, when my wife and I were living in an apartment we made it a point to know the people living on the other side of each wall, floor, and ceiling. This does not mean you will be best friends, but if you at least know the names and talk in the halls and parking lot you will get much better responses from them. When I got my system, including a KSW-200, one of the first things I did was talk to each neighbor. I told them I had a new stereo. I did not wish to bother them with it, so if it was ever too loud to please call me or come knock on the door. I gave them my PH#, most already had it, and all was done. I never, and I mean never, got a call from any of them concerning the stereo noise. I did get a PH# from each neighbor basically saying the same thing I did and I was to call them if their stereo ever got too loud. I also took notice of the kind of car they drove. That way I could look into the parking lot and see if they were home. By getting to know my neighbors I earned a bit of respect and thus a little more tolerance towards what I did. This is something I have continued to do since, and it has never failed me. In fact, it has started quite a few good relationships. Just be careful of one thing. If your system is good enough you may find your apt. is the place to see movies. The benifits here are, you rarely have to rent a movie, people tend to leave beer, wine, and pop behind so your fridge is usually stocked, and if your single there is always a good looking friend with the downstairs neighbor (mine happened to be a very nice looking single woman who had tons of friends) I happened to be, and still am, happily married at the time. But I can remember thinking, MAN...where were these women when I was single. Make friends before you have the chance to make enemies. The end result is usually pretty good. Good luck.

Hello all, I am getting more equipment for my HT set up and running out of floor space. I am considering moving my sub into the crawl space adjacent to my HT room. The crawl space is a 3.5' tall space that is the same size as my kitchen and dining room, so fairly large. Has anyone placed their sub in a room other than where they watch movies? What do I need to watch out for, if anything. Should I do anything to help this? Right now the sub is between the TV and right speaker. This is my set up. Yamaha RXZ1 receiver, Pioneer Elite DV-47A DVD, KLF-20 mains, KLF-20 Rear surrounds, KSW-200 powered sub, KLF-C7 center, KSBS-1 Front effects, no rear center yet. I am also considering getting an additional sub, but that may not happen as my current sub does well in the size room I have. Thanks for the input.