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Tales from the Klipsch: Hi-fi horror stories


4tay

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Gather 'round kiddies... this thread is devoted to real horrible tales of hi-fi hell.

My first bit ot putrid prose I like to call: "Dormitory of doom"

There I was... in the mid 1980's at a friends dorm party. He didn't take care where he laid his cable...(literally, and figuratively).

It seems they were a tripping hazard. 4 Klipsch la scalas were stacked precariously so that guests occasionally tried to squeeze by.

One guest managed to step on his bungled bundle and short the leads. In one fell swoop:

Four dead midrange horns. The extra bad part: two of them weren't his.

Anyone else dare to share tales of gashed gear, bad sales, bad purchases or horrible divorce losses....?

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"The Infinite idiot"

While showing off his then brand-new Infinity kappa-9's amidst adult beveridges and tall tales of his stereo acumen...

A coworker of mine was also bragging about his new kenwood amp. I warned him that amp didn't have enough current for these power hungry speakers.

He would listen to nothing, as his pride and some longnecks clogged his ears.

He decided to "really crank them up" After a horrible rasping bang... the expensive new Infinities went silent.

Some people have to learn the hard way.

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"The Bose-oh"

Yet another tale of a wanna-be DJ showing off his new gear...

He declares to the small crowd: "My new Bose 901's can handle UNLIMITED power!" (So said the sales literature...so it must be true. Either that, or a step-down transformer somewhere inside.)

He decided to crank his 901's up (which I could see were wired out of phase anyway)

He maxed the volume and he dropped the needle on his turntable.

There was a prodigious POP!... and the blown bose became door stops.

For every foolproof protection device, there is a greater fool that will somehow defeat it .

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"One ring to rule them all"

A coworker one day demo'd some magnificent and expensive Infinity ribbon speakers that he purchased in a Germany military exchange for 50% of the cost they are in the USA. Think of the deal, and the resale value if needed! He had it made.

He got himself a girlfriend who lived with him 5 years. Never a word about the stereo, except how good it sounds. We'd go to his place to knock back a few and listen to tunes. He had one of the best stereo rigs in town...and bragged on it to anyone who cared to discuss it.

They got married, and left for a honeymoon. ONE WEEK after the honeymoon she declares the speakers are too large, and dominate the house. THEY HAVE TO GO!

"Yes dear."

So instead of audiogon, ebay or anywhere else he could have gotten MORE THAN HE PAID FOR THEM.... he sold these massive towers for $500. $500??? Gee...that's at least 1/8th low book value.

The moral of the story: Maybe there should be a stereo prenuptual. The ring changes everything.

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1) I was too afraid to spend 200 more for something at the time I really wanted.

2) I mentioned to a fellow klipscher a great deal I was bidding on, only to have him buy it.. turn around and sell it rather than keep it.

3) Waiting my whole life to just enjoy what I have the last few years, and not doing it sooner!

4) At one point reading several magazines and listening to a sales guy talk me into Infinity speakers instead of where my heart was.... With Klipsch!

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Buying a BIC turntable in the '70s, with all the mechanical sophistication and smooth performance of a mousetrap, when I could have bought a new Technics SL, which would probably be still making me happy today.

I did buy an SL-1400MK2 in 2005, after giving away that BIC. Those lost years...

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I sold my Infinity Reference Standard 2.5s to my brother. This may have been the best system I've ever owned, a lovely speaker. Anyway, he left the room with the volume too loud and the huge amps shut down. After the amp stabilized they turned back on, blowing the ribbons out like a New Years confetti horn. Irreplaceable ribbon drivers gone......rendering the speaker into useless junk. It was a sad day.

But the thing that breaks hearts the fastest, is flicking the cantilever off you prized cartridge, that hurts.............

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I sold my Infinity Reference Standard 2.5s to my brother. This may have been the best system I've ever owned, a lovely speaker. Anyway, he left the room with the volume too loud and the huge amps shut down. After the amp stabilized they turned back on, blowing the ribbons out like a New Years confetti horn. Irreplaceable ribbon drivers gone......rendering the speaker into useless junk. It was a sad day. But the thing that breaks hearts the fastest, is flicking the cantilever off you prized cartridge, that hurts.............

That, in a nutshell... is pain. Destruction of almost irreplacable property. Those ribbons are hard to find and expensive now. There is a guy that makes some substitutes now...but yikes....

Point of fact: a number of high powered 70's and 80's amps didn't just have crude protection circuits...but were unstable. Amps like Threshold stasis 1, and Nakamichi pa-5/7 would oscillate under a number of conditions. (Nakamichi liscenced the original stasis 1 from Nelson Pass)They had so much power, that often when they stabilized, the resultant pop (or pops during oscillation) would destroy speakers. With great power comes...great potential for destruction.

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One reason I don't use old amps...

I remember attending a speaker demo. One of the amps, was an owners original parasound. It wasn't just fairly old, IIRC, the owner never shut it off. I happened to be there when one of the main storage caps (large beer cans) let go. It was a an aweful electrical burst. Luckily, it was out of the circuit via switcher. The cap in question peeled open and sprayed what little purple-ish electrolyte that remained all over the mother board.

Electrolytic caps dry out anywhere from 5-20 years, and when they do---they short out causing catatastrophic failure. That is why they are banned from my speaker crossovers.

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A friend of mine had some nice KG4's...new. He went overkill and bought a set of Yamaha M-85 separates because he liked the red meters on the amp. He had far more power than he needed.

He decided to have a party in his dorm room. Cramped, of course.

One of his buddies got too close and spilled a full cup of beer into the preamp and amp.

The Warranty didn't cover stupid accidents.

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I don't think the power was a factor in that disaster, it just meant that the units cost more to replace. Sad day for him...

No, didn't imply is was- I don't even read that into my own post after re-reading it. IIRC the Yamaha T-85 was 260 wpc. It was far more power than he needed for KG4's in a 14x16 dorm room.

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Speaking of parties and beer:

I had just got my shiny new Yamaha RX-V1800 from UPS the day before, so I trucked it up to a buddy's cabin for a little shindig. We had connected, if I recall, Two JBL stadium floorstanders, two 80s Mcintosh floorstanders, an RC-35 and a Sub-12. Well, I was down in yonder field setting off some firecrackers (a good thing to do while drinking) and a pal o' mine decides that the appropriate song to play would be the entire 15 minutes of the 1812 Overture, played at full volume. I hear the ruckus just in time and walk back to the cabin just in time to see lots of blue smoke rolling out of the top of the reciever.

I could only blame myself for such silliness.

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Speaking of parties and beer:

I

There is a recurring nightmare I have had since the events I have witnessed. It involves well meaning, but drunk or clueless friends ruinining my stuff for me. I can remember in the 80's when people worried about blowing speakers because they thought speakers could be overpowered by an amp. This was a repeated worry for potential Klipsch buys. "100 watts??? that's all??" When in reality, it was the amp clipping, popping or shutting down that was the problem. UNDER power.

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Here is my personal Hi-Fi disaster: I purchased my first lp back in the 60's. I continued to collect lp's through the 70's and early 80's. I had amassed a collection of original Beatles, Stones, Led Zep, Pink Floyd, etc. Not re-releases but the first pressings. Then along came the CD in the mid 80's, promising to be the "Savior" of the music. I jumped on board with both feet! After a few years, my CD collection was growing nicely. When it was time to move one year later, I looked at all those old lp's (500 to 600), and decided there was no reason to pack up those relics.

25 years later, you can find me lurking at thrift stores and flea markets looking for the very same "relics"!

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Here is my personal Hi-Fi disaster: I purchased my first lp back in the 60's. I continued to collect lp's through the 70's and early 80's. I had amassed a collection of original Beatles, Stones, Led Zep, Pink Floyd, etc. Not re-releases but the first pressings. Then along came the CD in the mid 80's, promising to be the "Savior" of the music. I jumped on board with both feet! After a few years, my CD collection was growing nicely. When it was time to move one year later, I looked at all those old lp's (500 to 600), and decided there was no reason to pack up those relics.

25 years later, you can find me lurking at thrift stores and flea markets looking for the very same "relics"!

What??? you mean you believed them when they said "Perfect sound forever" and Klipsch had to add "Digital ready" to the speaker displays in stores?

I used to haunt Amoeba's in Berkley, Ca. My last LP was "Shahrazade" and half speed masters of Floyd and Mannhiem Steamroller/Fresh Aire series.

Vinyl horror: I know a fellow that had an original (nice copy too) 45 of Elvis/Blue Moon of Kentucky from his first lable. His mom ended up selling it (circa 1980) at a yard sale for probably .50 cents. I haven't dared look at it's value now.

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I've had some close calls...always saved by in-line speaker fuses. However, fuses can't stop all hazards. A friend (who should know better [:@] was helping me troubleshoot my computer to audio bridge in my study. He pulled the mini plug out of the device (I'm not sure what it is, it's not an DAC) that connects my computer audio out to my preamp in. Just like any patch cord pull, it created a loud 60Hz burp in my Dahlquists. After a few frantic minutes, I determined that all 10 drivers were intact and cancelled my pal's reservation at Gitmo.[;)]

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