...and I hold HornEd and Q-Man personally responsible!

[DillonW]

Ok, MAYBE it isn't ALL their fault, but they could be charged with contributing to the compulsive behavior of an HT addict! Here is my story...

(Incriminating photographic evidence attached)

I have been a sucker for HT since forever. With the first TV I ever owned, I drilled a hole in the side, and soldered wires to the speaker leads to mount an additional RCA plug speaker outlet. Yea, not very high tech, but as a kid, I was willing to try anything to get some extra sound for watching movies. Shoot, right out of high school, the first thing I spent my money on was one of those new fangled Betamax VCRs. You could fit a whole 60 minutes on a single tape! Watching movies at home, what more could you ask??!!! My mom and other relatives thought I was nuts! Just a waste of money on a bunch of electrical gizmo gadgetry. Audio/video stuff has always been my "fix". I was the first to buy a video camera, computer, satellite dish. Now, all those who gave me funny looks, own them too. I just have to push to the fore. Remember when the first TV "monitors" came out? Oh, yea! All those inputs and outputs! Finally companies were thinking like me, run that TV sound through that stereo! Bigger better sound.... and picture, my RCA was a massive 27"! Yea, Baby, Yea! Thought I was living the high life! What?... Go out to eat for dinner? No way, gotta save those pennies for more HT stuff!!! My wife could only shake her head... Good Golly, then the big tube TVs came out...32...35 inchers, WOW! You know, there's just no substitute for cubic inches! Hmmm, thought- I need to sell 45 vacation days so I can buy me that ultra cool NEC 32" TV Then another major development occurred... Dolby Pro Logic! UPGRADE TIME! Great...needs more speaker too!!! This was right about the time Klipsch entered my life. Saw Klipsch for the first time at the BX/PX in England. WOW, those La Scalas blew me away! So sad, not enough space or precious pennies. I'll take them sweet Chorus IIs though, they seriously ROCK! And a couple of those Infinity bookshelfs for rears (Please hold the stones). Paradise honey, I think we're finally there, can't foresee any need for future upgrades now. Happy...Happy... Oh honey, remember how awful projection TVs used to be? I never wanted one of those...ever notice how nice the picture looks on the new ones? WHAM!! I know what we have is nice, but...but... How about I sell more vacation time, you just spend more money on vacations anyway. I will find us a great deal...by the way Sears is matching internet prices, and they are offering 12 month 0% interest. THANKS! Oh honey, your going to be excited about this...Dolby has just come out with this new digital 5.1 encoding...well it would mean I should probably upgrade my terribly inadequate center and rear speakers, but.....WHAM! Ok, maybe I should have waited a few days to mention it. But, guess what I saw?? An ad for a pair of those wonderful La Scala speakers we saw in England, and a great deal! Shoot, it will save us money because we won't have to buy new rear speakers, we can just move the Chorus IIs to the back! Am I brilliant or what? Excuse me? Did you say OK? Why youre just the greatest!! And I only have to drive 16 hours in one day to get them home, lucky they were so close!

THEN I DISCOVERED THIS KLIPSCH BOARD!

There was HornEd with the Legion of Legends... Holy monstrosities Q-Man... I had only begun to scratch the surface of the HT potential. Timbre? 6.1? 7.1? DTS? HornEd-"It is best to have the same speaker at every position." I saw a picture of Q-Man's setup, a pseudo 8.1 rig with horns everywhere and La Scalas for front effects speakers! I was floored, WOW! I fought many of the suggested changes, especially the idea of a heritage at center, but the OHornEdOne was right there too. But now I need to build a custom entertainment center to house an inverted Belle at center. Is there any end? I doubt it, but it sure is a fun process, and movies are so much more enjoyable! My next upgrade will come soon after Christmas, the SVS Ultras. I cant wait!

So, Whats YOUR story?

Thanks,

Bill

[DillonW]

(Another incriminating piece of photographic evidence)

[fini]

Amazing...where'd ya hide the speakers?

fini

[m00n]

----------------

Amazing...where'd ya hide the speakers?

----------------

Ya, I would like to hear all that.

[Dale W]

Last count i was somewere in the $50 to $60k mark on my ht gear.

My wife knows nothing of the cost of this gear, except last year she found a reciept in my pants for $2000.00 bucks for a pair of 12ft monstercable sigma series cables.Had to do some major back peddling on that one. you guys in the usa don't realize how cheap this gear is to you, here in canada we have to suck up the horendus currency exchange then pay an additional 7% gst tax than provincal tax on top of that depending on were you live.

[Deang]

Don't all those clocks screw up the timing cues? hee hee

[jtkinney]

In my case, it helped as a kid, when your dad and all his friends were electronic engineers and into "Hi-Fi". Even though I ended up a mechanical engineer, I am still an electronics geek.

My HT efforts started with the birth of my first child. My wife at home with her, wanted something with a remote control. I came home with a new Yamaha Dolby Pro Logic receiver and a 5 disc CD player. Then I needed more speakers. After the second child, my old Heathkit speakers were getting old, and I saw a sale ad for Klipsch speakers. A pair of SF-1's and a KSW-10 subwoofer came home. I found a pair of Quintets on Ebay for the rears, and used a Radio shack for a center.

Then we went in for a DVD player and came home with a 50" Toshiba RPTV and a DVD player. I had to move the TV out of the wall unit, so I needed a center channel to match the mains. I ended up buying a pair of SF-2's off Ebay along with another KSW-10. The SF-2's became the mains with the SF-1's on either side of the TV for center.

Then Dolby Digital and DTS came out. I needed a new receiver. I got a smokin deal (at the time) on a Yamaha RX-V1. Now I needed to beef up the rear. RF-3's and an RC-3 came next. I was set.

Then the paper came with an ad for a pair of LaScalas, I had to go look and listen. WOW! They came home the next nite. Everything was fine until Doug Drake announced a pair of Klipschorns in the paper. Doug lives in the next city north, so we get the same paper. Went to see them, and they were sitting in the middle of the garage, no corners anywhere. He hooked them up and WOW WOW! Even without corners, I had to have them. I had to rearrange the family room, and still need to fix the corners, but they are there.

A few weeks later, I sold off all the newer speakers, except for the SF-1's which are in the bedroom, and the Quintets, which I might put in the Suburban, and bought a pair of Heresy's to use as centers. My wife has allowed all of this, for which I am very thankful.

I now have K-horns mains, LaScalas rears, and Heresy front centers. I don't have a subwoofer at the moment, and haven't really missed it. I am planning on building some subwoofer, maybe dual Tempest's or something similar.

I too have to blame and thank HornEd and Qman and many others on this forum for my addiction to Klipsch. I must also thank Doug for finding my K-horns.

Bill, don't let my wife see the antiques, especially the wall clock, or she might come visit.

Here is a picture of the front.

[jtkinney]

Here is the rear>

[DillonW]

fini- If you look VERY close, you might notice an inverted La Scala on top of the TV. Just look for a black object somewhat larger than a Bose cube.

Moon- You must have an awesome sub zone with the RSW 12 & 15! I can't wait to hear the real low-end torque from some real sub-bass source.

Dale- Unfortunately I have no way of buying without divulging cost. I just have to do a lot of sweet talking.

denang- Sales Pitch- "Dear, wouldn't those La Scalas make wonderful stands to put your clocks on???

jtkinney- Sweet setup, I would LOVE to audition the Khorns. I fear I would quickly fall victim to their spell!

[dougdrake]

JT - Go ahead and blame me. I'm fine with that. Heck, I'm married and have a daughter, so it's always my fault anyway (LOL)!

Glad it's been good for you.

DD

[Q-Man]

Dillon,

For most of us there is no end to this madness,or

we wouldn't be sharing ideas on this forum. Everytime I say to myself,"That's it,that's good enought". I end up changing things again. I think I spend more time tweaking then listening.

I made my mind up last night what I'm going to do. After a good month of trying different horns, drivers, networks, and even bass horns,I almost decided to sell my klipschorns to use the University Classic. The Classic is real nice, better sounding then the Klipschorn above 80Hz, but the Klipschorns bottom end won me over again. I decided to use the klipschorn with the altec 288-16K driver, 805B horn and the JBL-2404H tweeter.

Tomorrow I'll begin to figure out how to build new tops for them.

The center channel LaScala and the cabinets on each side of it are history. I figured out a way to put a Klipschorn up there. I need to build another false corner. I also need to raise the shelf that the second level speakers sit on. The new Klipschorn tops won't fit under it the way they do now.

[DillonW]

DougDrake- Hey I want to thank you for your inputs as well during my early "Cool Newbie" stage. I think you were struggling through an identity crisis back then, fighting for your life. Seems to me you took on an alias to prevent "No Life" status. I'm happy to see you've grown comfortable with your real identity.

Q-Man- Yes, the picture you posted was truly an inspiration. Most of the components I have will remain the core of my system. One day Khorns will somehow figure in the mix. I will have to be satisfied with my La Scalas and Belles. When I get the roughter set of La Scalas refinished, and build the entertainment center, I will move a Belle to center and use La Scalas as mains & rears. I'm going to mount a KLF C7 on the wall for a rear center. You can see by the picture that a wall mounted rear center is the only option, which stinks because I would prefer to use the other Belle. Oh well, I also have to pick up a couple more KLF C7s for front effects speakers. I really want to see how much they add to the front sound stage. About amps, although I really like the Yamaha, and the pseudo 8.1 for HT, I have been considering adding separate amps. The Yamaha is fine with HT, but there is some room for improvement in the music department. The RX-V3000 seems brighter as volume levels increase. I think you have this Yammy as well, what were your thoughts? I am also interested in your extra AAs because each pair of my heritage speakers is using different crossovers.

[Q-Man]

Dillon,

Your right. I'm using the RX-V3000, but it only powers the front effect channels and a pair of rear surrounds (four speakers). I use the pre-outs

to an Outlaw bass manager to a six channel McIntosh power amp for the other six speakers,(mains,front and rear center, and a second pair of rear surrounds. The McIntosh seemed to give me a warmer more open sound and deeper bass. I did notice a difference when I first hooked it up. The Outlaw allows me to chose full range, 40, 60, 80, 100, or 120Hz for my crossover settings.

When tested my center channel LaScala starts dropping off around 75Hz, so I have the outlaw set to 80Hz for that channel. It's still my weak link. I Hope I can get at least 50Hz out of the Klipschorn when I get it up there. One of my goals is not to have to set my sub above 50Hz.

[TheEAR]

DillonW,

This is serious evidence!You should sue good ole HornEd and Q-Man for this

LOL

Wait I say...BRAVO this is the way to make sure you hear all well,now where are the front effect channels?

I understand your severe audiophiliac mania,I suffer from extremis-audiosus-subwooferus a very rare case of subsonic proportions.I buy audio and subs untill there is no more room left to walk around!

See with front and back RF7's in a 14*10 room I get an Ear full,if only the poor RC7 could be the size of an RF7.If only Klipsch would understand,us the extreme audiophiliacs.

Dillon I dont think Dr. B0$e will aprove!

Dillon you get my TheEAR badge of approval

LOL

DaleW,

Monster Sigma!Welcome to the club I know the Sigma well,after buying these I had to get a full set of Monster Mseries M2.4B 15 foot cables for ALL my Klipsch R series speakers! LOL Cost was a bit heavy but worth it.

Now I will be adding two 7/10 Lovan stands to place more upcoming gear!Soon I will have three stands of gear in each room plus two amp stands loaded.Sickness is good,when money flows.Audio can eat BIG money

damn audio

[DillonW]

Q-Man- I have been considering picking up a couple 5-channel amps to power the 8 speakers and two subs (when I can get the twin Ultras). What McIntosh amp are you using to drive your system? I have been considering a pair of Sunfire Cinema Grand Signatures, or possibly even the Aragon 3005s (I know looks shouldn't really be a driving factor, but to me they are absolutely beautiful). I'm not really looking for power to drive them hard, just to have plenty of overhead, and the ability to give the Ultras what they need to perform their best. Did you see a significant enhancement to the sound stage with the addition of the front effects speakers? My gut feeling is it should be a substantial enhancement. THANKS!

TheEAR- Thanks for the highly regarded "TheEAR badge of approval". Yes, my front effects are sadly missing at this time.I A real tragedy to have the capability and not be able to experience it. I could try my Chorus IIs at front effect positions, but I might like it, only to have to sell them. Besides, that would be pushing the WAF well beyond tolerances! The KLF C7s will have to do, maybe for Christmas. My real longing lies in your very weakness, deep sub bass. I watched LOTR the other night. My poor Velodyne CT150 tried hard, but really struggled at times. Bring on them furry tubes!!!! Take Care!

[Q-Man]

The McIntosh amp is the MC206. I chose it to achieve a tube like sound from a SS amp.

Front effects broaden and deepen the front sound stage, giving it a more real or live concert sound. I think the effects do this three ways.

The first way is obvious, another pair of speakers. The second way is almost as obvious, the position of the speakers. They should be placed behind, above ,and to the far left and right of the mains. The third way is that they play what the mains do ,but with a time delay and a slight reverbration. All I can tell you is that if it wasn't for front effects that I would upgrade to a pre-pro to closer match the quality of the McIntosh amp. Once you have front effects there is no going back. It would be like going to a book shelf speaker after being used to a good full range speaker.

Yamaha also has the best natural sounding DSP modes. Did you read the review in Sound & Vision when they compared the Denon 5803 and the yamaha RX-Z1?