Where do we want to take the Forum?

[Thaddeus Smith]

[Fjd]

 

Or this.

 

Edited January 26, 2015 by Fjd

[CECAA850]

 

 but never take the chance to let your hair down and find common ground in the music.

 

 

I'm thinking that many of us probably don't have any hair left to let down.

 

 

 

HEY!  Easy on your follicle challenged brethren.

[Schu]

Where do we want to take the forum?

 

How about cheena?

 

[jimjimbo]

Where do we want to take the forum?

 

How about cheena?

 

Gee, that's helpful

[tigerwoodKhorns]

A big difference between the forum of 10 years a go and now is that everything (well almost) has been done.  How many times can we talk about Jubilees, modified K Horns, Cinema line or Palladiums?

 

10 years ago there were many different exciting things happening:

 

Replacing mid horns with ALtec 511's, then Martinelli horns

 

Tweeter upgrades to JBL 2404's and Beyma tweeters.

 

False Corners for K Horns

 

Bob Crites had built a test box that turned into the Cornscala. 

 

Someone discovered the dope from hope and made them available

 

Replacing crossovers with various designs

 

The cloning of the unobtainable Jubilee

 

The Peach, Blueberry, Tercel, PCats, and VRDs were beign developed.

 

Klipsch had an Audiophile speaker in the works. 

 

I'm sure I missed a bunch, but if you want a good speaker now, just go pick some stuff out, it all has been done already.  The excitement fo the quest is gone and that is why things seem stagnet. 

 

I'm excited about the thread Thadius posted about a Raspberry Pi server (but no time to pursue).  The Subwoofer forum also seems to have some interesting threads tht are of a "quest" nature. 

[Fjd]

If you have read the George R. Stewart post-apocalyptic novel written in 1949 titled “Earth Abides” it could be a similar situation here on the forum that Isherwood Williams went through. 

 

After the world crumbled, old Ish tried to teach the new generation all about reading, writing, arithmetic and geography and only had very limited success.  It was just that different skills were needed more in this new world. 

 

As the years went by, the young generation considered old Ish to be god-like and a link to the past, a past that they did not fully understand, they let old Ish preside at the community meetings and they did show great respect for old Ish; however, his ideas were essentially ignored when things needed done and the younger men did as they pleased. 

 

It was all fine though as the younger generation was able to adapt more easily to the current world and they certainly did NOT kick old Ish out to the curb.

 

 

 

The difference is that NOW an audiophile system is a $200 Chinese DAC capable of driving an amp directly and then of course pairing that with an "audiophile" $80 "chip" amp running on a wall wart. This is what seems to excite the general population around here now. How CHEAP can I go?

 

Us guys that actually spent $4K on just our preamp and have thousands more into a system..........and took a genuine shot at truly pieciing together an audiophile system to drive Klipsch speakers.............well there is simply no place for us here anymore...........we are the outcasts, the has beens. Sorry but true.

 

I don't think that this is the case, we are just getting old.

 

The $280 system that you describe sounds like a fun exercise. And those that are using that as their system need to go through the paces and work up the ladder if they so choose, just as we did 10 years ago. We are just getting old and there is and there are new kids on the block who are where we were all those years ago.

 

I popped in at Lansing a while back. They went through the same thing and now a bunch of those guys now own the unobtainable Everest speakers that everyone just lusted over years ago. Same here, a bunch of guys have Jubilees and K horns.

 

My first big purchase here 12 years ago was a NOS Valves restored Scott integrated. Not too much more than the system that you describe above.

 

 

 

 

I've inserted a few quick thoughts on cool stuff still out there to try, or that I'm trying or considering or just going on.

 

 

A big difference between the forum of 10 years a go and now is that everything (well almost) has been done.  How many times can we talk about Jubilees, modified K Horns, Cinema line or Palladiums?

 

Life moves on regardless of how hard we try to stop it and I believe that there is a ‘changing of the guard’ so to speak where the generation behind us have entered into, or are approaching, a point where they have more discretionary dollars to spend and indulging themselves or looking hard at the used market for the deals.  I think that Earl may have just started immersing himself in this hobby 10 years later than he should have. Of course, burn-out is a real possibility when trying to maintain 2,000 - 3,000 posts a year.

 

 

10 years ago there were many different exciting things happening:

 

Replacing mid horns with ALtec 511's, then Martinelli horns

 

Today we have a multitude of choices as there is the Fastrac, Eliptrac 400, Eliptrac HF, Contrac-T, Circletrac HF and Volti V-Trac, in addition, some are using EV horns and we have access to the K-402 and K-510.

 

 

 

Tweeter upgrades to JBL 2404's and Beyma tweeters.

 

Today there is the B&C DE10, B&C DE120 and a multitude of midrange compression drivers with a 2 inch throat that work fine on Khorns.

 

 

False Corners for K Horns

 

We are learning more than ever about room treatments and room correction.  The DIY horn subwoofers, home theater and Klipsch Cinema has become very popular amongst many on the forum

 

 

Bob Crites had built a test box that turned into the Cornscala. 

 

Bob has expanded his series of CS speakers and Cornscala’s are still a popular build, including unique twists by some. DIY subwoofer information and builds seem to have exploded.

 

Of course, Let's not forget that we now have the "mad-modder" that can modifiy and improve any model of Klipsch. Yes, I'm talking about Moray James.  The guy knows a lot of information to squeeze that last ounce of good sound from a design and shares it freely here and on other forums. 

 

 

 

Someone discovered the dope from hope and made them available

 

ChrisA and ClaudeJ, among others have picked up where the dope from hope left off and have provided additional insight and refinement into the benefits of horns. It seems that all roads explored by those guys lead to better sound.  Look at what ChrisA has done with the loudnesswars to teach us about compression and what to avoid in looking for great sound.

 

 

Replacing crossovers with various designs

 

There still is a lot of crossover network chatter on the forum. DeanG makes a comeback and has new options available for capacitors and autoformer resulting in many exciting choices.  In addition, many have explored DSPs such as the EV DX38, EV DC One, various Ashley models, Yamaha SP2060, and the Behringer 2496 models.

 

 

The cloning of the unobtainable Jubilee

 

The Klipsch Jubilee is now obtainable from Klipsch, we have seen forum members threads on new purchases and we have several builds of the Jamboree documented on the forum, in addition to all of the new insight into DIY horn subwoofers.

 

 

 

The Peach, Blueberry, Tercel, PCats, and VRDs were beign developed.

 

Mark released the schematics to the forum for DIY builds on his preamplifiers. The NBS preamplifier is recent and although the circuit is based on the Blueberry/Peach/Merlin, the purchase of the NBS unit has allowed for this next generation to experience the used Blueberry, Peach and Tercel gear that hit the used market. 

 

The Amps and Sound product list has given this generation the opportunity to buy affordable, well-engineered tube designs. While NOS Valves sells new VRDs, when a used pair hit the used market, they are not there long.

 

There seems to be lots of discussion of DACs, Chip amps, T amps, DACs and more DACs, J-River, music servers, etc…..the wave of the future. Then you have sampling rate, bit depth, USB, Fire wire, S/PDIF, WAV, FLAC and WAF. Did I mention DACs???

 

As more and more nice pro amplifiers hit the used market, forum members are buying them and implementing the pro amplifiers with good results and seem to get a good amount of forum time.

 

Although I think the amp porn thread may be invisible at times, I've posted a wide variety of unique amplifiers and show the inside in an effort to pique interest and let forum members see the unlimited possibilities.

 

 

Klipsch had an Audiophile speaker in the works. 

 

For the group of consumers not interested in the Klipsch Jubilee, any of the Heritage models or Klipsch Cinema, the 2015 CES show resulted in a very nice showing of the range of Klipsch.  The used market seems to be brimming with great selections of Klipch Heritage among other styles of Klipsch speakers (RIP to those where speakers hitting the used market are from estates).

 

 

I'm sure I missed a bunch, but if you want a good speaker now, just go pick some stuff out, it all has been done already.  The excitement fo the quest is gone and that is why things seem stagnet. 

 

 

I'm excited about the thread Thadius posted about a Raspberry Pi server (but no time to pursue).  The Subwoofer forum also seems to have some interesting threads tht are of a "quest" nature. 

 

Nothing wrong with other priorities; however, it would seem that these other interests and commitments have taken the place of the time dedicated to the audio hobby of years gone by.  We all got to do what we have to do and sometimes it means that we just move aside at some point and find we are content where we are at but it doesn't mean that things are not exciting for others. 

 

Edited January 27, 2015 by Fjd

[mark1101]

Not sure how my post from 5:02PM on 1/26/2015 got removed...........and I appreciate the followup posts citing the "younger generation" being responsible for being "beginners"...........and starting where the veterans did years ago but with today's less expensive technology.  Probably some truth to it.

 

Also some truth to my OP as the true veteran audiophiles that worshipped Klipsch HERE and actually spent the big bucks on the audiphile systems I spoke of..........are largely gone from here.  That's another perspective on why the discussions are now dominated by the "chip" amp fans. 

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Well, I think that in this hobby people change gear a lot and if they migrate to another speaker manufacturer, they will be gone. 

 

My previosu post was just to point out that at any time, there were many exicitng projects going on years ago.  Not so many anymore as things have been elevated as these projects are all finished.  Still soem interestign projects, but not nearly as many as years ago. 

[Mallette]

Here we go.

 

Saved, that image, Fjd.  Excellent.  Wish more would learn something about civil debate.

 

Dave

[Mallette]

As twkhorns said there is plenty of new blood and new ideas.  I still learn here after 20k posts.  I get a lot more wisdom than I provide by a wide margin. 

 

Dave

[Nismo]

I wanna take it wherever there's free Wi-Fi.