Professor.Ham.Slap

The Dynex ones are pretty sweet for the money. I have one on my tube/tivo/computer system in my room and it seems to work really well. On my main system though, I'm using Pure A/V power conditioners and they are phenominal. Cheaper than Monster, and the PF-30 (I think at least... it's the one with the blue LED display) I'm running really cleaned up my audio so it's obviously working.

I'm actually somewhat intrigued by this generation of gaming consoles. Think about it, the Xbox 360 is evolving rather rapidly from a gaming machine to a complete home entertainment device; one that has the ability to do games, download and stream movies and TV shows, play HD-DVDs (with an add-on, for now) and bring online console gaming to brand new levels. Nintendo has also come out swinging but in a completely different sense. Their console is pure fun, no extra bells and whistles but not that they're really needed at it's $250 price point. Then there's Sony, who had a massive lead on the previous generation seems to have somewhat dropped the ball this time around. I think the cost in many cases is just too hard to swallow, especially since since the 20GB version seems to be overall very crippled in terms of performance. Plus I'm just sick of Sony's "Hey, they're doing better so I'm going to hurl as many insults at them as possible to try to show my superiority" attitude towards the competition.

It's NOT about how big it is; it's about how you use it. Bill I'll second that. The HD-DVD version of King Kong mentioned in that article looks damn fine. Space certainly isn't the end all factor as Sony's own studio has demonstrated with their mpeg-2 encoded movies.

Has either format emerged better quality-wise? I'd have to say the answer is a very convoluted yes and no. Basically what I have seen is that anything released by a studio on both formats (particularly Warner Bros.) looks virtually identical on both formats. However, Sony does not want to pay Microsoft royalties for using the new VC-1 compression format because Microsoft is a member of the HD-DVD camp so they use the Mpeg-2 format, which is the same format used to encode present SD-DVDs. The Blu-Ray discs encoded this way have a very grainy appearance to them (go to your local Best Buy and take a look at the disc in the Samsung Blu-Ray player. That demo was encoded with Mpeg-2 and generally tends to be very grainy with the exception of Chicken Little). All that aside, most studios are doing the intelligent thing and backing both formats but Universal is strictly HD-DVD while Disney and Fox only release on Blu-Ray. In my opinion this format war is far from over, and generally speaking most would back me up on that as well. The first combo player was just announced, with more on the way I'm sure. All in all, I decided to go with HD-DVD for now. You get all the video quality of Blu-Ray in a package that costs half as much. That and all of Toshiba's players to date have done a phenomenal job upconverting regular DVDs to HD resolutions with no problems reading discs (which is the case of Sony's Blu-Ray player which seems to be picky about what DVDs it reads or not). Ideally though, if you want HD content and you can afford it, get both formats. All you really need to know is that the HD disc formats look absolutely stunning. [Y]

The LG plasmas are a solid television, especially the model you noted. Personally, I think the Panasonic Plasmas this year have taken a considerable step backwards as far as image reproduction. If you take a close look you'll see a lot of "clay face" (basically, people's faces will not have a natural color blending). Personally, I think you'll be happy with the LG. As far as credentials go, I work as a HT sales rep and just generally keep a close eye on the industry of audio and video (otherwise I probably wouldn't be here). But basically, I've seen most of what's out there, and I think that plasma falls behind really only the Pioneers and a few of the Samsung models.

Actually, Sfogg is right. 1080i vs 1080p does not matter when you are discussing movies (and those demo discs are a bunch of propaganda BS (I mean, the "1080i section" is still being sent in 1080p. That's all computer simulated and gives the designers a lot of room to exagerate). Basically movies are encoded in 1080p at 24 frames per second. The two most popular 1080p flavors are 1080p @ 60fps and and 1080p @ 30fps. So now if you take that 1080p @ 24 signal and de-interlace it and send it to the TV at 1080i @ 60fps and realize that every two frames will give you one full progressive screen (which once again is what all digital displays MUST actually display on the screen) you end up with 1080p @ 30fps. Since 30fps is still more than 24fps, you are getting the full 1080p to the television. Hence, Sony's marketing machine is full of crap once again.

I just checked out IGN Gear's article on home home audio. It had some pretty good information for the beginners but when mentioning the speakers, it displayed three nice Klipsch product photos. The article can be found here

I second (or third or wherever we are at this point) the wall plaque with the Klipsch Logo. It'd go well with my DTS and Dolby Digital wall plaques.

I've been thinking about upgrading my 6 year old Pioneer VSX-D811S for a while now. When I went into work today I noticed sitting on a pallet of electronics a brand new receiver by Yamaha, the HTS-6090 (successor to my previous favorite, the 5990) which was supposed to be put on display until I snagged it. I figured what the heck, I'll give it a shot and if I don't like it, I can just bring it back and they'll use it as a shelf display and that will be that. After spending approximately 3 hours with it, I can firmly say they wouldn't be able to pry it out of my cold, dead hands. First things first, the Yamaha has the ability to push out 120 watts RMS (I believe all channels driven) and handle a 4 ohm load (which is fantastic considering the resistance to frequency curve of the RF-7's). My Pioneer could only put out 100 watts with who only knows how many channels driven and never had the ability to drive the low end of my mains. The impact and overall clarity of my "new" setup is incredible. I actually feel like I have a completely brand new system. To ensure that it wasn't just me justifying my purchase, I had two friends with me, all of them also instantly spoke of the changes I noticed. Absolutely everything is more detailed with even less fluttering of the driver on complicated parts (and I thought Klipsch was fantastic before). Truthfully I couldn't be happier right now. For your reference, here is how I'm running my system (rf-7's, rc-64, rs-7's, RSW-15): Mains: Large Center: Small crossed over at 80 hz Surround: Small crossed over at 80 hz For those of you curious about the reciever, the specs aren't available on any site yet so I'll give you the important stats: 155wpc peak 8ohm 120wpc RMS 8ohm HDMI upconversion from composite, S-video and component Ability to pass 1080P through HDMI 2 zone control for independant listening rooms XM radio ready. This guy should be showing up on the Best Buy website within the next few days I'd assume.

Butt connectors available at any hardware store would be my best guess. How important is cable purity (i.e. aluminum vs copper)?

Actually, on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, 1080P is actually no different than 1080i, and here's why. Movies are filmed at 24 frames per second, while the 1080P standard is generally 60 frames per second (60hz). Now, if the HD-DVD player is putting out 1080i 60hz and your TV has 3:2 pulldown (which almost all do) that equates to 1080P 30hz, which is still 6 frames more per second than the original master. However, once 1080P broadcasts become available, you can bet there'll be a difference in quality.

The opinions on this may vary by who you talk to, but generally speaking, the consensus seems to be that all your speakers should be set to small. Basically what happens is the reciever will send any of the lower information to the subwoofer based on the crossover point you set (on an average, 80hz seems to be a pretty safe bet as it is the THX standard). For example, I run RF-7's, RS-7's and an RC-64 which are all set to small. My RSW then takes all the lower information with no problem. A possible negative to this setup arises if your subwoofer isn't up to the challenge of cleanly playing the extra information... a good example would be the KSW line of subs, they tended to flutter uncontrollably if presented with too much bass information if I remember correctly. Re-reading your post though, I noticed you didn't mention a sub. If you do not yet own one, then yes, leave your floorstanders as large but I'd probably set those SS-3's as small. In the whole scheme of things, they can't play very low on their own. And of course, YMMV

I'll be celebrating the 4th with a bunch of my close friends. A bunch of us bought a rather large supply of fireworks on our spring break roadtrip to the South (my tab was $180). Should be a good time. But of course, as always, everyone be careful and enjoy the 4th.

If I remember correctly, the servo control is simply an accellerometer placed on the piston of the driver. It constantly monitors the G forces the driver is moving at and a microchip compares that information to the original signal and makes minute adjustments to the amplifier's output to keep the driver as accurate as possible.

I second that. I got that exact price by just walking in and asking for it. It was more than fair in my opinion so I didn't even try to haggle with him.

Where did you get that information? Magnolia HiFi stores are still around and kicking, as well as your in-store Best Buy Magnolia Home Theater sections.

Does anyone have an online version of the mounting template for the RS series available online? I do not have my manual on me and I'd like to get these guy mounted tomorrow. Thanks in advance.

I think I remember someone from Klipsch (Trey maybe?) saying that the F-3's are essentially rebadged RF-3 II's. That said, I still adore the copper cones and even though I can get synergy at a heavy discount for working at Best Buy, I am dealing only with reference. On a side note, I think Best Buy employees should have access to discounted reference so we all can hear what awesome Klipsch sounds like and therefore suggest our customers go listen as well [] Amy, I'm looking in your direction.

Those are definitely very sweet looking. I also wonder why we aren't carrying the cherry F-3s as I'm sure more would move since there are choices in finishes.

Another thought just occured to me as well. Once HDCP is cracked, how long do you think it will take Hollywood to come up with the new latest and greatest encryption scheme rendering all our current equipment obsolete?

Yeah but the problem here is that this could all be avoided. Component video has all the bandwidth necessary to carry the 1080 signal, it's just that Hollywood has a dead rat up its butt again and have decided that it would make things too easy to pirate (you know, because of all of those recording devices that support component input. [8-)]). And here we are again, the system is flawed and can be cracked rather easily it would appear. However, once again this might be good news if the importing of override devices to the US is a possibility. It's things like this that keep making me question why the hell I continue to support Hollywood by buying movies in the first place. [8o|]

I found an interesting article on IGN Gear today. Definitely worth a read with a lot of interesting points. http://gear.ign.com/articles/702/702074p1.html All HDCP's Base Are Belong To Us Critical flaws in the HDCP copy-protection scheme revealed. by Gerry Block April 17, 2006 - A good deal of public outcry occurred when it was announced that next-generation HD-DVD and Blu-ray players would require full HDCP copy-protection compliance with every link in the chain between player and monitor. Essentially, this requirement effectively made more than 3,000,000 HDTVs already sold in America incompatible with the new DVD standards, a severe disservice to all early-adopting consumers. Though that situation has been somewhat ameliorated of late with Sony's announcement that their first generation of Blu-ray players and media would export full 1080p resolution over all connections (component, DVI, and HDMI), the issue of HDCP compatibility and the difficulties the rather sudden rollout is causing consumers is still pressing. Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Vista OS will require full HDCP compatibility in practically every component involved, from optical drive, to video card, to monitor. At present, all 'HDCP Compatible' video cards are, in fact, merely compatible and are not at all compliant, while PC monitors another serious concern, as even some of the newest, such as BenQ's FP93G 2ms response-time gaming monitor, are not HDCP compatible. Hollywood studios' insistence that next-gen DVD be protected by higher-grade copy protection than the easily cracked CSS scheme employed in DVDs is understandable. However, when accomplished at the cost of severely punishing the best early-adopting consumers by making expensive electronics incompatible, with so little forewarning that the move can be accurately characterized as massively indifferent, if not downright vengeful, public retaliation is justified. Jon Lech Johansen, the Norwegian hacker who famously developed DeCSS software that broke open the original CSS DVD encryption, has publicly pledged to fight HDCP and AACS in a similar fashion, and engineers and knowledgeable users around the world are rallying to uphold their rights of fair-use. While Hollywood has scoffed at hackers' pronouncements in the past, recent news may put the studios in a very weak position. Last week, Princeton mathematics professor Ed Felten published a relatively practical examination and groundwork for the manner in which HDCP will be cracked. While it has been publicly known since 2001 that the HDCP encryption scheme is flawed, thanks to the work and academic paper "A Cryptanalysis of the High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection System" produced by Scott Crosby et al, Felton's post details in simplified math and practical terms the inevitability of the system being broken. What Professor Felten makes clear is the fact that, due to obvious flaws in the HDCP encryption scheme, HDCP will not simply be cracked or bypassed, but entirely owned. The entire HDCP system relies upon a secret set of 1600 special numbers that form a 40-by-40 matrix. If these numbers are discovered, every conceivable HDCP license key can be produced. According to Professor Felten, this is "virtually certain" to happen in the next couple of years. The general (and rather simplified) concept of HDCP copy-protection involves a handshake between two compliant devices. Each device has a private value and a public value. When two devices communicate, they exchange their public values. Each device combines its own private value with its partner's public value, creating a secret key. The critical flaw in the system is the fact that the public and private values are combined using simple addition. Because all the mathematics involved are linear and rather simple, an attacker could generate a straightforward series of equations that will eventually solve for each device's secret value. According to Professor Felten, once the secret values of 40 HDCP devices are discovered, the entire 40-by-40 matrix of special numbers that make HDCP encryption work will be reverse-engineered and the entire system will be broken. Once this is accomplished, it will be a simple task to produce dongle-attachments that will allow HDCP protected information to be tricked into working with non-compliant hardware. Breaking HDCP protection will not be quite as revolutionary a step as what DeCSS allowed for consumer DVD copying, as uncompressed 1080p content greatly exceeds the bandwidth and memory capacity available to general consumers today, but easily accessible to those with a relatively minimal amount of investment capital. Breaking HDCP will also be considered a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and will subject any who do so to litigation from the MPAA. The critical point in this consideration is the fact that the DMCA is not universally recognized. While the USA, Japan, and many European nations have signed on, some of our closest neighbors, including Canada, have not. The end result will be the commercial exploitation of HDCP's flaws in countries that have decided not to support the DMCA, and likely piracy on the scale of what is already occurring internationally with DVDs. As such, and as usual, it will be the common, law-abiding American consumer that pays the price for yet another boondoggle and failure on the part of Hollywood studios to outthink the hacking community. While most of the world will sidestep HDCP, Americans will be the ones that pay the price of incompatibility and frustration, forced to upgrade perfectly good hardware simply to conform to a failed copy-protection system. Hollywood executives will be able to continue to blame piracy for their steeply declining theater returns and ignore the possibility that it is their marginal content and delivery system that is no longer appealing to customers. The hackers that break HDCP are not the criminals in this sordid tale of consumer abuse. Technologically illiterate Hollywood executives and the equally uneducated politicians they finance are the felons here. Preying upon Americans' lack of knowledge on the topic, these parties, and major industry players like Microsoft are steamrolling HDCP, even after its critical flaws were publicly announced five years ago. The train has already left the station, and we will live with this situation for a solid decade. Such is the price for obeying the law.

I think there won't be only one single format to dominate. LG and a few other companies have already jumped ship and said they will make players that do both formats. There is also a silicon chip maker who already has developed a chip that has codecs for both. IMO, both will survive.

Eh, I'm one of the ones who sent my SVS sub back. I do listen to a lot of music and after listening to Klipsch RSW, Sunfire and Velodyne it really seemed to lose a lot of it's value for me. Like it was stated before, I'm not saying its a bad product, it just wasn't for me since I do a lot of music. YMMV, but you definitely should listen to a spread of subs before you just dive into one.

How close is the couch to the speakers? It is a possibility the horns could "overshoot" you if they're up too high. If you need to, you can also put a slight down angle on them to shoot them on your sweet spot.