Old_Klipsch_Guy

Not that it's important, but Raymond's was a Baron B58 and Jerry got the B55, IIRC.

What makes you think it would be foreign? I would like to be able to trust my government, as I was brought up to believe that they were trustworthy. Unfortunately, the actions of the government have proven just the opposite. So, the answer to your question is that I don't. But, even if I did, there are very legitimate reasons to not let this happen.

There are quantum computers and it is a very complex subject. A quantum computer can only do the same thing a classical computer can do. But, it can do it MUCH faster. If you have a 4 bit encrypted password, a two bit (called a qubit) quantum computer can't solve it. Everytime you add a bit, it doubles the complexity of the passwords. Current secure passwords are on the order of 2048 to 4096 bits (and there are higher ones, thus more secure). The fastest and largest KNOWN quantum computer is currently Google's D-Wave. They broke the 1000 qubit barrier last year (2015). They are probably (my own best guess) 5 years from 2000 bits, but possibly less. You can bet that the NSA has something comparable or maybe slightly better. But, most of the innovation is coming from the private sector. Even then, it becomes a matter of priority. The cost of time on a super-fast, super-expensive, super-rare supercomputer is astronomical. It's not just a matter of asking the computer a question and out pops the answer. While the government would be very interested in knowing what Al-Qaeda and ISIS are up to, they wouldn't use that computer to look at the phone of the guy that robbed Bob's Bakery, if you see where I'm coming from, especially if that guy was killed as he tried to escape. The only reason the DA and FBI are pursuing this route is that there is no downside for them. If it makes it's way through the courts and they win, they have a very powerful new tool at their disposal, even if they've made the rest of America less safe. If they lose... oh well, we tried. We'll try something else, later on. But, make no mistake, there is a HUGE downside for America. If they win this, it will be the last time you will hear about it in the media. Next time they find it necessary to force a company to break their own product, it will all happen behind closed doors and they will point to this case as their precedent, and then place a gag order on the company, all in the name of national security. Look at how many years it took for those mega-companies like Apple and Google to get legal permission to even acknowledge that they had been served with National Security Letters (NSL's).

Those that would trade liberty for security, in the end, shall have neither. When the media told everyone that the military were using their cell phone signals to track the Taliban, the Taliban simply stopped using them. There is absolutely nothing that would prevent the terrorists from developing their own secure OS for any Android smart phone. Will they bend to the US government demand to put in a backdoor? But, you and I will still have our insecure phones. This must never set a precedent.

What follows is just my opinion... I am also a software developer... Let's just say that our government would never violate our privacy without the legal and Constitutional means of doing so... I'll let the reader decide if they would believe that. One of the biggest secrets our government EVER held was the design of the thermonuclear weapon. Yet, it was stolen and given to our enemies by spies among us. If I put a backdoor into my software for "government use only", how long would it take for a foreign government to figure it out or steal it. Good encryption, at this point, is unbreakable (at least until quantum computers of sufficient size are available). It is the user interface that always gets broken. Make one mistake and they are in. In the late 80's, the government recommended the use of the 56-bit DES. It was considered very secure at the time. Now, the computer I am typing this on, can break that code in less than 3 minutes. WEP was once considered secure for Wi-Fi. Now, this computer can break it in under a minute. Even the current standard WPA-PSK is not secure enough to withstand a prolonged attack. Finally, need I remind the reader that just recently, hackers (probably Chinese government in origin) managed to retrieve a large portion of the federal personnel database. They can't even keep THEIR data secure. That investigation is still ongoing. In my opinion, no. Even if I believed that our government would not eventually abuse the backdoor, in no way do I believe that they could keep it secret, or that a foreign enemy might not find a way in. Backdoors are built-in insecurity. Even if you believe that you have nothing to hide, I can assure you that you do. While you might not be breaking any laws, there is a great deal of information, business and personal, that you would not ever want made public. In point of fact most, if not all of us, also break laws on an almost daily basis, of which we are unaware of their very existence. Just recently, I was informed of a law that I was breaking and didn't even know it was there. Not a big deal, really. But, do I want a foreign government building up a dossier on me, what I do for a living, how much money I don't have, etc? Not really. Think about how many things you say in emails, texts, notes... that you would never want made public. Finally, remember Richard Jewell. He was the guy that found the backpack bomb in Olympic Park. Once he became a person of interest, his life became an open book. He was destroyed in the media. Just imagine what could have been found out about him in this current day. We didn't even have an internet then. Yet, in the end, after his life was destroyed, he was found to be a hero that saved many lives. But, he never recovered from it. I could go on and on....

I need to get a hot air soldering iron, I guess. We had them at a place I used to work. At home, I built a toaster oven SMD reflow oven (I love SparkFun Electronics), but the PIC controller needs to be reworked (smoked the solid state relay and haven't put in the new one), I use a stereo AmScope that I got off eBay (with a USB eyepiece camera) for a couple hundred dollars. But, the pitches they are getting down to are "felony stupid". The smallest tip I have for my Weller soldering station looks Mount Everest next to those newest connections and the solder I use looks like very coarse hair, it's so thin (silver solder). I just don't do it often enough anymore for the paste to last, even in the refrigerator.

Surface mount is the future of electronic components and soldering these tiny critters is an art in itself. I ordered some SMD transistors just to see how small they are and until you see them if is hard to fathom how tiny they really are. About the only Jfets that are commonly available now SMD ones. I have watched some youtube videos on how to solder SMD's but I have not tried to do so. I met my match a little while back. Our Chromecast was broken and I opened it up. The problem was a broken connection on the micro-USB connector. It was the finest pitch SMD I'd ever seen and I absolutely could not hold my hand/part/solder steady enough. I have it in a drawer just in case I start aging backwards and can suddenly fix it one day.

One time at Klipsch, a very long time ago, we received a couple of networks in the mail and customer service brought them to the engineering lab because they wouldn't work... AK-2's or something like that. We couldn't find anything wrong. Schematically, they were correct and had a beautiful solder job. I went to lift a connection to check a component and it wouldn't come undone with the soldering iron. I think it was Jim Hunter that figured out what was going on. They had "resoldered" every single connection with ... wait for it.... Liquid Solder. Silver colored epoxy adhesive.

Many JBL drivers are the opposite. That is very true, especially on the vintage components. While I happen to believe that there just wasn't an industry convention at the time, there was a story floating about that they did this so that if you were to use a JBL cabinet with any other brand, it would sound horrible and all the bass would go away. So, it became a selling point that if you had JBL, you should continue to buy JBL... or suffer the consequences. Just a story, as far as I know. Maybe true. Maybe not. ETA: A few more thoughts on the JBL convention. Keep in mind that JBL was founded only 20 years after Rice and Kellogg first invented the direct radiator loudspeaker. While the "positive voltage = negative excursion" convention might have simply been the result of a coin flip, I suspect that he might have just been emulating the dynamics of the audio chain (i.e. a positive breath = negative excursion of the microphone diaphragm should "logically" cause a negative excursion of the loudspeaker cone). Of course, the same logic from another point of view is that a positive breath by the vocalist should result in a positive breath from the speaker. But, that is sheer speculation on my part. Just something to make you go hmmmmmmmmmm.

Actually, Gary left the company about 1984 or 1985, after the KG2 and KG4. The "KG" became kind of a brand or series unto itself, which they continued with other designs after his departure.

I can solder. Pipe with a propane torch. Electronic circuits with a soldering iron. Surface mount electronics under a microscope. You name it. If it can be soldered, I can solder it.

Last I heard, he was living in Ridgedale, Missouri and was running Gillum Loudspeaker Systems.

But, only deaf people really like Bose.... joking. There was an old joke around Klipsch that Paul met Amar Bose at the AES Convention. Amar cupped his hands to his mouth (like a horn) and said "Hello Paul!". In return, Paul turned his back to him (like a rear-facing speaker) and said "Hello, Amar!". I never could get a straight answer from him on whether that actually happened... I agree. It's akin to asking what is the best smell, or the best taste. If you are judging your speakers on the opinions of others, you're not spending enough time listening and deciding for yourself.

Do a quick search for "Dope From Hope 2ph3". In a nutshell, it was Paul's solution for adding a center channel to a stereo system... a phantom center channel created by mixing the left and right, together. ETA: Vol 14 No 4 740701

Is it me, or do the prices seem a lot higher than they used to be? LOL But, in all seriousness, I would love to see more people building the things that they use. So many people have no idea what exactly happens when they hit the power switch. A Heathkit builder would absolutely know... and could fix it when something went wrong.