A SO CAL GATHERING IS NEAR, VERY NEAR!

[Allan Songer]

[Cal Blacksmith]

It was a small "gathering" to be sure, just Larry made it but we
had a great time in the short time that he was available to come over. He
managed to get to my house by about 3pm and I greeted him as he was parking.
The weather had started getting better as it was raining just before he got
there.

The HT was fired up as we walked into the door and Anamusic was playing,
this is always a fun DVD to play. We watched it for a little while, talked
about the differences between the Heritage series (my Fort'e 1s, Quartets, KG1s
and Academy) and the RF series, looked at drivers, passives, amps and talked about HT
setups in general.

We then adjourned to the 2ch room where my pair of Heresy 2s driven by a vintage Yamaha intagrated sourced with a FM tuner, and my Cornwall 2s were waiting for my warmed up
Sonic Frontiers amp and VTL pre amp to feed the music to them. This is the first time that Larry had heard tubes in a long time and I think he liked the way "horns and tubes" go together! We spun a little
modern jazz on the TT then moved to the CD player where we played selections
from several discs including but not limited to the Eagles Hotel California
from "Hell freezes over" and the Telarc recording of the 1812 overture.

Next came a lunch/dinner of chili and home made fresh baked sourdough
bread which seemed just right to warm up the mood considering the gloomy day outside.

A quick tour of the workshop where the sound is provided by a pair of Heresy
1s and a pair of JBL 4312s. Even though the speakers were 75 feet away and 18
feet in the air, they sounded very nice indeed.

The next stop was back to the 2 ch room and more music with a discussion of
turn tables and their attributes. The final stop was back to the HT where we
watched a little bit of the Pink Floyd Pulse concert and a few select
scenes in a couple movies. Before we knew it, it was 6:30 and Larry had to get
back to his hotel in San Diego
to get ready for work the next day.

He is a fine gentleman and truly an asset to this board, I hope in the
future to be able to give more notice so more people could come together and
meet him and to have some good times shared by all. It was a GREAT Sunday
afternoon, one that I would like to repeat again!

[lo123]

Its been quite a busy
couple of days, Tuesday evening and Im just getting around to posting some
impressions of a really rewarding trip this weekend.

Cal Blacksmith (aka Wayne) and I have been planning a Sunday afternoon get
together around an upcoming business trip I was planning to the San Diego area. He is a couple hours north of the San Diego airport. My plans finally firmed up and we settled on
15 April.

Sunday was a long day of
airports and connecting flights from St. Louis
to San Diego. There was an NRA convention in St. Louis and flights
after 8 AM Sunday were hard to find, so I wound up on Southwest at 630 AM
departing STL. From San
Diego, a two hour drive north brought me to Waynes house by 3 PM. Hes located a bit off the beaten path and
the final six or eight miles were through an area with lots of exposed granite
boulders and outcroppings, quite unusual, reminded me of Elephant
RockState
Park in Missouri,
but this is spread out for miles... Wayne had provided good directions and an accurate
prediction of drive time, so my timeline was intact and I now had a good
predictor of return drive time back to San
Diego.

Wayne and his wife were very
gracious hosts and opened their house to a complete stranger with an interest
in Heritage Klipsch speaker systems and associated audio electronics. I felt welcomed and at home from the time I
pulled up till I had to get back on the road a couple hours later. Wayne
even rescued me from another fast food meal with his homemade chili and
sourdough bread! Great hospitality and
great food for a weary traveler!

My goal for this trip was to
meet another forum member and get some insight into his audio equipment
journey. I had a really great time,
heard some great equipment and the stories behind some of the items. But best of all I met a really nice couple
and made new friends. Priceless!

Wayne has three main areas with Klipsch speakers. After a brief intro to his home theater
system, we spent some quality time with some Cornwalls.

I had heard Cornwalls at
Sheltie Daves house last summer, so I was looking forward to hearing Waynes set. He had a solid state setup but primarily ran
a tube pre-amp and a tube amp for most
of the Cornwall
listening. The showcase track was a
Telarc disc of the 1812 overture. Can
you say killer demo?!? I heard
instruments that I had never noticed in this music and then you know what else
was in store.the bells and the canons, and oh boy was it all just awesome
sitting about four to six feet back with the speakers in the corners of a
typical sized bedroom (12 x 12 maybe?)!!
Wow!! Really just a great
sounding system. The orchestration portions
of the piece just drew me in till I realized I had shut my eyes and just felt
immersed in the music, great soundstage and presence. We also listened to some LP and other CD
tracks, jazz and other formats. I had
decided not to bring any CDs or DVDs to reduce carry-on weight for my airline
flights, but Wayne had a great selection and
even blessed me with some tunes for my return drive to San Diego, much appreciated!! For comparison in this room there were also a
pair of Hereseys, so I also had a chance to hear another Heritage speaker for
the first time, an unexpected treat.
But, the Corns ruled this room and made me forget my long flying and
driving day. I have been thinking about
maybe a pair of Hereseys for my home office/bedroom someday, but Waynes setup
takes bedroom system to another level.really very impressive electronics
and speakers and turntable.

Following some much
appreciated grub, Wayne
showed me around his outbuilding, which is setup to accommodate a variety of
metal working capabilities, and is really L-A-R-G-E!!!!. After the tour I can truthfully say that he
can get it very hot and has the equipment to hit it very hard! Theres also an area in this building he has
built as a mezzanine, complete with you guessed it audio equipment
including a set of Hereseys and a place to kick back and take a break. OK, so now I have another home project, audio
for my garage

Waynes family room / living room has been adapted into a home
theater format with a projector and a very nice screen (119 inch?). This was my first exposure to a projection
system in a home environment and now has me thinking basement home theater
plans... For mains I think he is
running Forte Is with an Academy center and a sub under the Academy. Rears are Quartets (unless Ive got this
backwards and these are the mains?) on stands, and I believe there were two
more rears at the ceiling but I cannot recall the details. The mains are powered by a separate Yamaha
amp and I believe the other surround speakers are powered by a Yamaha AVR. Hold onto your hat..

We listened to several audio
and DVD samples and the tonal quality of this speaker combination was really
nice. After a fair portion of Pink Floyd
Pulse had played at a pretty decent sound level, I realized that running my
RF-35 based system at a comparable level would have probably been somewhat
fatiguing. Not so with this system. The Heritage speakers blended wonderfully and
the sound was just a completely different experience than my reference system. I really like my RF-35s, RC-35 center, R5800
in-walls, especially for movies. But
this Heritage sound is just different, I cant really put my finger on it. As Wayne
mentioned, the Reference speakers are quite good, but Heritage is, well,
Heritage, and Im starting to see why folks hold them in such high esteem..

After some quick movie demos
and some equipment discussions, it was time to be back on the road
again. I reached the hotel in San Diego before 9 PM which had been my late arrival goal. Long day but extremely rewarding. Fine folks and super sound. Id do it again in a heartbeat. Wayne, my thanks to you and your wife for
giving up your Sunday afternoon and allowing me into your home to enjoy your
collection of audio equipment. It was
great to meet you guys and get to know you both, thanks again very, very much!

God Bless -

[Cal Blacksmith]

This is the first chance I had to read Larrys reply, I dont have internet at home and yesterday was a personal day as I had some things to take care of away from work.[8-)]

It was a great joy to have Larry over and spend the afternoon with us. I am sorry you had to drive so far but it sounds like you had a good time after you got to us.

You have all the details right! [Y] I didnt even quiz you on them while you were here! [] You remember all the amps, speakers and the connections correctly.

The shop is 30 x 75 and is 20 high, that works out to 2250 square feet and when you add in the 20 height, you get 45,000 cubic feet of space that is fully sound and heat insulated. All things taken into account, the lil ol Heresies did ok huh?[]

I would like to do this again and have more of the So Cal members come over. How about sometime in June as that will give everyone a little time to plan and it still wont be quite so hot![ip]

Larry, thanks for the kind comments though it was us that were blessed with youre presence.