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Coming full circle


chuck giza

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Hello fellow Klipsch lovers. I am your true audio geek, and I wanted to share with you my experiences, especially with the Kilpsch speakers. I bought my first really nice stereo, 46 years ago. A set of BIC Venturi formula Sixes, a Pioneer 838 receiver and a Gerrard Zero 100 turntable. I was in audio bliss for a number of years until I decided to “upgrade”. Well that journey has lasted another 40 years. Bigger speakers, amps, turntables, over and over again. Currently I have a pair of Focal Nova Utopia's, Quad 2805's and a pair of Carver ALS loudspeakers, 3 different sub woofers (good ones), VAC amps, Pass lab amps, great CD player, nice turntable etc. But still with all this gear, I have never enjoyed listening to music as much as I did when I had my old BIC formula Sixes and my Pioneer 838.

Well, two months ago, after about 2 years of researching, reading your forum and audio reviews, I took yet another plunge and purchased a pair of Klipsch Cornwall 3's. I can only tell you that I have never enjoyed listening to music more than I have in the last 2 months. Every album or CD I play on these Klipsch's just sounds great!. Smooth, ultra dynamic, clean and most of all, just wonderful. No more does my mind start to think, or analyze or find fault or anything else. I have finally returned to just listening and enjoying the music like I did 46 years ago. The Klipsch speakers just sound great on every piece of music I have and for this, I am so grateful. What an exceptional speaker, these Klipsch's truly are. I have come full circle.

Edited by chuck giza
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Welcome Chuck, glad that those CW-llls worked out so well for you. It's terrific when we find a combination of gear that sounds great and excites us. Some people are never satisfied and are constantly searching for that combo. Hang around a while, there's a lot of great people on here. Remember....we love pics.

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Thanks Ceptorman! I totally agree with you, it can become an obsession, chasing after that "perfect" combo, which I now full believe is more of a delusion than a truth. I certainly have a lot of photo's but I almost feel embarrassed to put any of them on the sight as they would reveal what a true audio geek and fanatic I have become. I so love audio equipment, but I love the great smooth sound of the music I love so much more. The two passions do feed each other, but at the end of the day it's just hearing that great song on a satisfying,

nice system that I truly enjoy. What sort of pictures are appropriate, as I have so much audio gear it would almost be embarrassing to show it to anyone. Thanks for the nod. It feels good to connect with a fellow music lover and audio guy.

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Now that you have a truly exceptional pair of speakers, and probably don't have the desire to look at different speakers, you can put your effort towards different electronics for those CWs, if there is any itch for something different. I hear a lot of people playing around with vintage amps and receivers on their heritage gear.

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On 8/10/2019 at 7:05 PM, chuck giza said:

I certainly have a lot of photo's but I almost feel embarrassed to put any of them on the sight as they would reveal what a true audio geek and fanatic I have become.

 

 

 

I think you'll blend right in...

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Hello Everyone, and thanks for the welcomes. I do feel reinvigorated about just really enjoying music again. I actually did get some modest , but nice tube gear to drive the Klipsch's

I found a 75 WPC stereo tube amp (with KT120 tubes) made by old Bob Carver, formerly of Phase Linear (back in the 70's.) It's got way more than enough power and with some modest, but again good cables from Kimber (8TC's - for speaker cables and Kimber Hero's for interconnects) powered up by a (once again) a modest tube preamp made by a small company called ModWright, which I found used on Audiogon for 35 cents on the dollar, I just feel like I am getting fantastic performance from these Cornwalls, and I probably haven't got them fully broke in. Vinyl sounds wonderful, but some of my old CD's which always sounded excessively bright on all of the other speakers I have had, actually sound good for the first time, ever! They are just such a balanced and really dynamic speaker. I am just stunned with this performance, and the good old Klipsch corporation doesn't force me to mortgage my house and sell a couple of grandchildren to own them. Without any doubt the best dollar for dollar value in all of the audio industry. I remember hearing Klipsch Cornerhorns and LaScalla's back in the late 70's, but this was after I had already dumped a load of money into a new set of Infinity Q2's. I remember liking the Klipsch better than my new Infinity's at the time, and then the ongoing disease of upgrading just sucked me ever forward, into the vortex. Being out on the other side of this really makes me think, but I guess I have enjoyed a little of that dark side of upgrading enough to find my way back to the Klipsch's, once again after over 40 years. Go figure…..Ceptorman said you all like photo's, so here's the new arrivals all set up.

P1020645[2].jpg

P1020640[2].jpg

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10 hours ago, chuck giza said:

Hello Everyone, and thanks for the welcomes. I do feel reinvigorated about just really enjoying music again. I actually did get some modest , but nice tube gear to drive the Klipsch's

I found a 75 WPC stereo tube amp (with KT120 tubes) made by old Bob Carver, formerly of Phase Linear (back in the 70's.) It's got way more than enough power and with some modest, but again good cables from Kimber (8TC's - for speaker cables and Kimber Hero's for interconnects) powered up by a (once again) a modest tube preamp made by a small company called ModWright, which I found used on Audiogon for 35 cents on the dollar, I just feel like I am getting fantastic performance from these Cornwalls, and I probably haven't got them fully broke in. Vinyl sounds wonderful, but some of my old CD's which always sounded excessively bright on all of the other speakers I have had, actually sound good for the first time, ever! They are just such a balanced and really dynamic speaker. I am just stunned with this performance, and the good old Klipsch corporation doesn't force me to mortgage my house and sell a couple of grandchildren to own them. Without any doubt the best dollar for dollar value in all of the audio industry. I remember hearing Klipsch Cornerhorns and LaScalla's back in the late 70's, but this was after I had already dumped a load of money into a new set of Infinity Q2's. I remember liking the Klipsch better than my new Infinity's at the time, and then the ongoing disease of upgrading just sucked me ever forward, into the vortex. Being out on the other side of this really makes me think, but I guess I have enjoyed a little of that dark side of upgrading enough to find my way back to the Klipsch's, once again after over 40 years. Go figure…..Ceptorman said you all like photo's, so here's the new arrivals all set up.

P1020645[2].jpg

P1020640[2].jpg

chuck giza,

 

I keep looking at the Carver Crimson 275 and wanting to purchase one though I hated the oven that a bunch of kt-88s become in a room.  Does the Carver 275 actually run as cool as the advertisement and what do you have to say about it's sound with Klipsch?  Not a lot of hiss or hum out of the 275?

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Hi everyone, in regards to the Carver 275, it's very quiet. No discernable hum or noise at all. The KT120 power tubes seem to produce about the same amount of heat as KT88's, although they are a physically bigger tube. That's just an opinion, nothing I am measuring. The transformer and chassis case don't feel warm at all. The transformers are modest compared to other amps I have.  I like the amp so far, really good sound, clean, warm, good, but not excessive detail. Great with the Cornwalls. I've owned a number of Carver products, all the way back to the Phase Linear stuff in the 70's and the quality is sometimes questionable, but I've always liked the sound of his stuff. Like on this new 275 amp, when I got it, the bias meter did not work. I took it apart and found that the leads were not soldered to the pcb. I easily fixed it, but it's just bad quality control in my opinion. I also have a set of his speakers and I've had mucho problems with the crossovers. Poor build quality workmanship and not built up to what they are advertised to handle, powerwise. I will say though, the Carver corp., Bob Carver and two associates, immediately made good on the warranty and fixed both of the crossovers and beefed them up significantly to handle the big amps I am using on the Carver speakers, which do require huge amounts of power in my experience.   For $2500 the Carver 275 seems to be a decent amp, but time will tell. Good performance sonically for sure. Very nice looking, great external finish. I just hope it lasts, time wise with minimal problems. I've already had it blow one of the fuses. I replaced it and it's been good to go since.

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Hey Ceptorman, yes the name's Chuck. I actually haven't played with the placement of the Cornwalls. I believe they would sound better farther apart, and with some tow-in, I just have some space restrictions and that's why I have them placed as I do. I know they would image better and give me a better soundstage and all with a little tweaking, I'll just have to rearrange my junk in the old audio room a bit, as I have been a bit excessive with equipment over time and seem to have a problem parting with any of my old audio gear. It mostly comes in, then never leaves. Once again, somewhat obsessive behavior, but I've already come out of that closet. HAHA! I can never leave anything alone for long, so I'm sure I'll be dragging things around and experimenting. Some days I feel like I'm getting pretty old to be moving all of this heavy stuff around. Some of my crap weighs as much as me and more, and I'm no lightweight. Thanks for the suggestion.  

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On 8/10/2019 at 10:05 PM, chuck giza said:

I certainly have a lot of photo's but I almost feel embarrassed to put any of them on the sight as they would reveal what a true audio geek and fanatic I have become.

Bragging is not only permitted, but encouraged.   B)

 

Welcome to the Klipsch forums.  Make yourself at home.   -Dave

 

5a5da46ced990_CF-4Computersetupright1.thumb.jpg.68053bc463f650c39d6fc1fc468dacc0.jpg

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8 hours ago, chuck giza said:

Hi everyone, in regards to the Carver 275, it's very quiet. No discernable hum or noise at all. The KT120 power tubes seem to produce about the same amount of heat as KT88's, although they are a physically bigger tube. That's just an opinion, nothing I am measuring. The transformer and chassis case don't feel warm at all. The transformers are modest compared to other amps I have.  I like the amp so far, really good sound, clean, warm, good, but not excessive detail. Great with the Cornwalls. I've owned a number of Carver products, all the way back to the Phase Linear stuff in the 70's and the quality is sometimes questionable, but I've always liked the sound of his stuff. Like on this new 275 amp, when I got it, the bias meter did not work. I took it apart and found that the leads were not soldered to the pcb. I easily fixed it, but it's just bad quality control in my opinion. I also have a set of his speakers and I've had mucho problems with the crossovers. Poor build quality workmanship and not built up to what they are advertised to handle, powerwise. I will say though, the Carver corp., Bob Carver and two associates, immediately made good on the warranty and fixed both of the crossovers and beefed them up significantly to handle the big amps I am using on the Carver speakers, which do require huge amounts of power in my experience.   For $2500 the Carver 275 seems to be a decent amp, but time will tell. Good performance sonically for sure. Very nice looking, great external finish. I just hope it lasts, time wise with minimal problems. I've already had it blow one of the fuses. I replaced it and it's been good to go since.

Thank you for the info.  I hope the system continues to live up to your standards.

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