maxg Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 Baby's formal 2nd birthday party on Saturday night. With all the above in attendence. The Clown was free with the pizza (not kidding - special offer from our local supplier - spend over $100 on Pizza for kids party and they throw in a Clown) - quite good too - kept them busy. We added additional food as well - way too much - had 5 people round on sunday to help finish off the food!! All in all I think everyone had a great time. Fortunately the weather was fine so many spilled out into the garden - it would have been pretty packed otherwise, and unbearable - read on. I think my daughter is destined for the stage - she was dancing on the coffee table in front of a large and admiring croud. Proud Dad again - sorry. Anyway the point of all this is as follows: As you probably all know I am not one to listen to music loud. Further, my tastes are such (almost entirely classical) that bass doesnt enter into things much. As I am currently sans Klipsch my system uses my own home built speakers. These have lowly 8 inch woofers in a sealed box so bass is not the strongest suite - it is more present than on the Heresies they placed but not a match for the larger Heritage range, let alone the RF7's / KLF 30's and so on. Bottom line on all of this waffle is that I never thought of my system as a party item. Add into the mix that my amplification is EL34 based (although at 70 watts it is a bit more powerful than most) and I think you can get a picture of what I expect from my playback. I was wrong, however. Normally my volume control (which turns from 7 o'clock to past 5 o'clock) has never ventured past 1. As the party progressed the music got progressively louder. Once the clown retired for the evening someone produced a CD for the kids - the Candy Girls (root canal for your ears if you ask me - but the kids adore it). Things were not too bad at first - I could stay in the room and continue a conversation, just about. Then Tony arrived and banished me to the garden. tony likes his volume. Even in the garden I noticed the music was pounding in a way I had never heard before. That is impressive I thought. Re-entering the room was like walking into a wall. Kids are going bonkers all over the place - even the adults are dancing. I glance at the volume controls - 4 o'clock. Tony grinning like a Cheshire cat - "I cant believe it either" he screamed at me. The music was pounding and the bass....my God...who knew it could do that??? (Remember I used to have Heresies with a Rel Strata 3 sub - I know what bass sounds like - but I never reached this volume). I didnt have the presence of mind to take a measurement (the meter was buried in a back room anyway - probably under piles of coats) - I guess over 105 dB continuous and no, I repeat no, sign of distortion - Jesus it was loud. After a little while I managed to adapt to the level and dance along with my daughter - great fun all in all. Various Greek CD's followed on from the Candy Girls (Tony's picks) - some of them not bad - and a few of the adults started what amounted to Greek Dancing lessons for the kids - all we needed was some plate smashing and it would have been complete (we had paper plates fortunately so our crockery survived). Anyway the last of the stragglers left around 2 am (those without kids) and the mess was moderate (2 hours on Sunday morning and we had it licked). The Funny thing is this. Every other time I have listened to music approaching this level of volume I go to bed with my ears ringing - not this time. No ringing at all - as if it hadnt happenned. I wonder why? Is this a feature of tube amps? Nice to know I have a party system though.... Did I mention it was loud? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyKlipschFan Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 Max.. Outside or in a really open room (doors and windows open) helped your ears a lot. Especially in the high frequencies over time. Also, since you were not right up next to the speakers 2-3 feet or less away for any length of period and a lot of diffusers..(people dancing) this helped too. Last, and not least, even with the "Candy Girls"... Clean music recorded well... and played back on a distortionless system... is actually enjoyable cranked a little too. Enjoy it that way once in a while! I have had the rare opportunity to stand next to a conductor as he was directing the local symphony for a while. Just an incredible experience I will never forget! Standing in front of them on stage singing as a soloist almost as good, but trust me from the conductors point of view.... Breathtaking! O.K., an "Eargasm" http://www.greekbooks.gr/cd/showCd.asp?aiD=101&ItemCode=097123 Looks like fun!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted April 19, 2004 Author Share Posted April 19, 2004 Wow Indy, I am impressed you found that on line. As for the quality of the source - I was using my $70 DVD player - how good could it be??? Actually it was a whole lot better than I would have expected - that unit continues to amaze me each time I play it - not a match for my vinyl setup but it cost about 4% of that. One thing though - the slide out tray has a habit of closing by itself - this is a new thing - I think I am starting to see where they cut corners. Plays fine though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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