Deang Posted February 12, 2005 Share Posted February 12, 2005 Is there a big difference between the front three channels with the minibox compared to just the front three with the Lexicon? Tipping up the tophat -- it never entered my mind because mine are bolted to my false corners! I have to tip the whole deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Born2RockU Posted February 12, 2005 Share Posted February 12, 2005 Dean G : ERIK, doesn't have his K-Horns cornered...so it should'nt change anything anymore then it already is. ERIK : Heresy's for surround....all the way !!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Mandaville Posted February 12, 2005 Author Share Posted February 12, 2005 Dean: Well, I can see what you mean. False corners would really make that difficult if they're screwed to the cabinets. Re: the Lexicon stereo plus center channel v.s. stereo plus minibox: There is a distinct difference between the two, with the Lexicon providing a (much) more seamless integration of all channels. It's kind of strange really, becuase what one perceives is a very wholesome ambient space -- not a bunch of speakers firing at one's head from all angles. With the right music, it reminds me very much of a Christmas mass Marie and I went to with her elderly aunt in County Cork, Ireland. What a special trip it was for us, and her relatives and all we met among the most hospitable and friendly I have known. The church was very old, and the choir just beautiful. It's the sense of scale and space that the Lexicon to me conveys so convincingly. Craig: You know what I have thought and said about your system, and I have been so impressed with your Baldwin amp. The Heresy surrounds really do work perfectly, but I just have to take one step at a time. We just bit the bullet and grabbed this Lexicaon, since Marie and I knew it would form the heart of our system. She was the one who found it, and cheered me and this horribly aching back of mine up with a bid on it -- which is why it's now in our listening room. She said today, "Finally things sound right in here!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Born2RockU Posted February 12, 2005 Share Posted February 12, 2005 "Finally things sound right in here!" Halleluah ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Mandaville Posted February 13, 2005 Author Share Posted February 13, 2005 Scott: In all this DIY fumbling around I've been doing for the past years, I still felt that something was not just right. I made what to me was and still is a very good sounding preamp, and used that with an equally great pair of probably the best single-ended 2A3 amplifiers I have heard. As good as that combination has been with Klipschorns and our Denon multi-format player, I was just kind of jolted by what the inclusion of a third channel (speaker and dedicated amp)did for the overall sound in our listening room. Paul Klipsch experimented with this third channel approach as a means of reducing the resulting 'hole in the middle effect' that can exist when the two main stereo speakers are placed further apart than ideal. To do this, he used the minibox to essentially sum or combine the the entire L and R signals together through first a pair of fixed resistors (one for each channel)that are connected together at the opposite end -- thus resulting in a 'combined' third channel. The signal is taken from the pos (+)right and left channels, with one neg. (-) ground return connected from one of the negative speaker binding posts to the chassis of the minibox. A volume control is used to adjust the output of the minibox into the amp to which it's connected. The potentiometer is needed to adjust the level of this third channel to the point where its contribution to the playback is evident without drawing attention to itself. For such a small cost it's very effective, and for us worked well. My problem was that bass response on certain channels became excessive, but that was cleverly solved (not by me, by Shawn Fogg)with an inline automotive audio crossover. This crossover blocked bass frequencies below 150 Hz from going to the third channel amp, and the response was much cleaner. Everything sounded better. The Lexicon is far more sophisticated and flexible, and provides the means of achieving not only 3 front channels for playback, but also for the two side and two rear channels. All of those can be independently fine tuned in a variety of ways. Surprisingly, all this is accomplished in a way that does not at all seem to compromise the original signal, however the sound is different from what one might be used to with two channel stereo. The only way I can describe the effect would be to say that, once I became used the difference from stereo, I became aware of an ease and naturalness of presentatiion that I had never heard before from home music listening. I HAD experienced the same sensation before, but only at live musical events. I don't listen in a comfy chair (which might be nice sometime!) but rather on a stool without a back. With two channel stereo, I would sit very upright and lean forward into the music -- trying in some way to increase the level of involvement in what I was hearing. The Lexicon is vastly superior in the sense that an uncanny acoustic space exists in a way that seems completely unforced. By comparison, two-channel only, when I compared it to the Lexicon and multi-channel surround, still sounded clear and good -- but it seemed 'flat' in the 2-dimensional sense of the word. It was sort of like seeing and hearing musicians through some sort of barrier rather than the listener and performers occupying the same physical space. What we also noticed, even with just three front channels and no sides or rears, was that off axis background listening had more depth, detail, and sense of completeness. This is nice, because we have music on all weekend long, and of course are not always up in a sweet spot in the listening/TV room. If you'd like to try a minibox and third channel, let me know. I'll help with it anyway I can. Erik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott0527 Posted February 13, 2005 Share Posted February 13, 2005 Thanks Erik. I'm going to read up on it a bit but you answered what I was originally confused by. The Lexicon repalces the Klipsch mini box as a more sophisticated piece of equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Mandaville Posted February 13, 2005 Author Share Posted February 13, 2005 Scott: You're right that it has replaced the minibox -- but it's in an entirely different league altogether. For what it does, though, the minibox is a pretty simple and effective component. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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