Lets talk car/home audio..

Alright, with Kg's and Dusty's audio threads, seems that, with the crappy weather around a goodly part of the US, we all seem to have time to chat about their installs (where's the pics guys:D ), so I thought it's time to see if the audio bug carries over into other parts of your lives :)

post up whether you just enjoy audio on the lake or have a passion in all parts of your life and what you do to satisfy it.....


Me:
Car: have a small system in the '00 ford f150. goal was to keep the install at $500 or less. kind of a personal challenge as I've had many multiple sub/amp setups in the past. consists of a kenwood deck, infinity kappa 4x6 front/rear door speakers, kicker 8" sub and an old-school soundstream reference 405 amp. came in just shy of the $500 mark and didn't have enough cash left to carpet the box at the time. haven't done so yet as it's kind of my testament to how you can build a cheap system for not a lot of $$. entirely off ebay :)

Home: had some sweet setups in the past, but have really lost interest in home audio over the years. current setup is just a monster power center, old onkyo txds838 receiver (powerful and super clean), paradygm 5ch speaker setup, not the inwalls or small ones-floor standing fronts, and a velodyne va1210 powered sub.

I kind of lost interest in real serious car audio years ago, I've never got around to doing anything with the truck. Did do a small system in the wife's car recently though.

My home theater consists of Sony 46" XBR4 LCD, Sony STG-810 HT reciever, Sony BPS-300 Blu-ray, Polk RM series HT 5.1 surround system w/ powered sub.

And a shameless plug for Logitech Harmony remote controls while i'm at it :p These things are awesome, runs everything without a hassle setup at all!

Best reciever I've ever owned and still have btw, Marantz 2238B bought new in 1975 and it still works.

I have an older Denon 5.1 receiver and a Polk 12" powered sub at home that shakes the whole house when watching action movies. I used to have all Polk speakers in the old house including rear in-wall surrounds but when we moved to this house, the previous owner left his 5 speaker Bose Acoustimass (sp) system and crappy sub. My wife will not let me set up the Polk speakers as she likes the stealth look of the Bose and to her ears, sounds just fine. So I have a Polk center channel and pair of front speakers just sitting in boxes in my closet.

I have a "high end" ELS 5.1 system in my Acura and have not done anything with it. It sounds okay but needs a lot more volume and a proper sub. I guess I just don't spend enough time in my car to warrant upgrading (I have an 8 minute commute).

Al

Home stereo, specifically two channel...still enjoy it today.
Those Marantz receivers and integrated amplifiers/tuners are classics. The tuning mechanism was awesome. And, great amplifier sections in those vintage models.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Rick Wakeman (from Yes) with 'Journey to the Center of the Earth', rock with classical roots. Good stuff. Early Genesis like 'Selling England by the Pound' and all the theatrical rock.
But, the music industry has gone through some changes. Recordings are typically engineered for compressed formats like MP3 players and personal stereos, FM broadcast and satellite radio for example so you may only have 10 dB or less of dynamic range. It used to be that you had access to more recordings with 18 dB or greater dynamic range. Oh what a difference! And video soundtracks just don't compare. Even most of the premier surround sound systems and speakers are a major disappointment musically speaking. While they may sound impressive on explosions, screeching tires, clashing blades and other sound effects you are definitely left flat on real music. Its a lost art. Here's hoping for a comeback.
Btw, I've also owned the Large Advents, ESS AMT-1 Air Motion Transformers and a ton of my own creations including four 8-foot folded transmission line subs. Designed and built my own passive crossovers. I enjoyed both the music and the technology as a hobbiest. Also had a German made Thorens table. Check out the price on a euro table today. Wow! They've done better than the stock market over the last couple of decades.
Later I'll post some links to some of the more unique and ground breaking speaker products.
The two-channel industry really began to flourish as vets returned home from NAM in the 60s with incredible stereos. Most of the real HIFI innovators unfortuneately have passed on. While materials have improved speaker technology has not changed much in recent years.
Hope that Phil from Kicker chimes in as he has alot of perspective on this subject.
David
Earmark Marine

I was a home audio freak long before car and boat audio.

I have a Yamaha RXV870 from back in 92 when it was like 1500
Still plays super nice it was one of the first high end digital surround amp

I run Polk audio towers and surrounds right now. 6 years old

Sony 12inch 600 watt powered sub. 8 years old

System sounds great and i love it.

Truck now has the polk speakers from the boat that i replaced wiht Exile. I am running 2 exile amps 1 400.4 for the cabin and a 500.1 for my sub which is Rockford Fosgate 12 shallow sub with enclosure. I have to say i need more boom for my truck. Been looking into getting a 12 enclosure for between the front seats.

Maybe one of the audio heads < Brian, Phil, Dave > has something for the 06 F350 crewcab humm... LOL

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Originally Posted by sandm

Alright, with Kg's and Dusty's audio threads, seems that, with the crappy weather around a goodly part of the US, we all seem to have time to chat about their installs (where's the pics guys:D ),

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In due time sandm. Lets make sure it works first. Ha!!

During the boat install i have pulled the sub out and put it back in the truck for the time being. That and double din head unit is all the upgrades there, though. I'd love to do a full in wall surround setup in the living room but we aren't certain how long we will be in the house. Plus, i gotta pick my battles one at a time. Right now is the boat. ;)

I picked up a soundbar for the bedroom. Philips HTS8100. I would HIGHLY recommend it. It works great for the bedroom bc it has a built in dvd player with 1080 upconvert. I've always enjoyed having some type of speaker i can carry somewhere and setup quickly and this fits the bill. You can ask Dusty, i take it off the wall and where ever im going all the time. (camping, tailgating, etc.) It is loud, clear, powered sub. Sales pitch over.

Onkyo Tuner, Klipsch mix and match home theatre based around Heresy speakers i've had for years . Sound awesome and take a beating as we used to crank these speakers up and play the drums along to music. These speakers have outlasted 2 tuners/amps that obviously were not up to the task
My latest quest is listening to the SWEET computer speaker set up along with Ipod. Surprising thing is Same BRAND Klipsch 2.1 computer speakers. These thing Rock and for the money sound as good or better than quite a most other set ups i looked into and quite literally blow away most of the crap they push in most computer stores.
I now have the drums in the same room as the computer,basement bedroom and use these speakers to keep up when playing the drums. I believe my neighbors HATE me LOL.

The old home audio .

I used to have a mix of NAD technics and B&O all seperate components with a home made oak stereo rack. integraded amp, tuner, EQ, bose 301's from 1984 , turntable. i still have them in the basement thaey all made it through college life and i just retired them a few months ago. out of sight meant bad sound and too much room.

in kids media room i have a yamaha amp with some mission speakers

In the truck the bose system in the burb just fine.

i have bose headphones from the ipod for the gym.

check out the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones at Best buy.. WOW those sound great.


anyone looking for older equipment pm me, still works and i will get rid of it cheap.

technics tuner
technics timer
nad Integraded amp
B&O turntable
pioneer 100 disc cd changer

A fun thread....

First al all let me point out, the Supras are really doing it up this off season. I know of a certain blue one that's headed into visit us for a Xmas 2500W sub upgrade.

As for audio, well... It's with great distaste in my mouth that I report to you that my M3 demo vehicle was broke into last week and the thieves took it upon themselves to smash the glass and pry the 2,000 Kenwood head unit from the dash while smashing the custom dash panel into bits. The officer pointed out that with budget cuts, it's about 9months before the serial numbers get entered into the police database and typically the Thieves fence it in less than 24 hours. Real nice eh? They opted to leave the other 16 exile speakers in tact and the three amplifiers and big15. The whole thing bums me out.... Oh well. Excuse my rant.

I don't remember if it was this board or another that I spoke about the goodies I have stashed up in the attic.some of thehightlights include my past projects. I've got a serial number 001 frankampinstein, 006 son of frankampnstein, 0012 Route66, 001 Outlaw, 090 Reactor. Think I still have a couple Macintosh amps up there as well. And some where I've a very cool tube amp kit that I built way back when.

Home theater wise, I dissembled it all and stored in my home office because I have twin 2.5 year old boys that just love to destroy things. But it consists of some QSC pro power, Carver pro power, stewart 100" screen and home built speakers with scanspeak 1" high end tweeters, And dipolito mounted 8" Seas mid bass drivers. The cabinets are about 100lbs ea. Sub wise I've something really unique. IT's called "Cyclone", and it never went into full production as a product but it so cool it warrants an explanation for ya all. (I bet David remembers this thing)... the woofer has no spiders and no surrounds. It's basically a 10" plexi tube, with a vain attached to a piston that runs the 14 or so inches of the cylinder. The xmax (linear excursion) is about 6"s in each direction. Ya, that's no typo. And ironically it's power handling is about 400 watts. This speaker plays sub freqs, down to 11hz. Crazy! The one down side to this mad science project is that if you over power it, and the vans bottom out onto the stops, it blows them apart in a fraction of a second. The engineers couldn't fully develop a process to govern the output and as such deemed it inappropriate for full production in car. I always thought someone would come along and develop it for home use as part of a powered controlled sub system... As for my home system, I'm extremely careful with it.....but wow what transparent bassss!

Brian

Brian, you mentioned mcintosh . Always wanted one.. most power amp cube ever made. They are right down the road in binghamton, ny and making a nice comeback since the 70's and 80's. WWW.mcintoshlabs.com

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Originally Posted by Brianinpdx

IT's called "Cyclone", and it never went into full production as a product but it so cool it warrants an explanation for ya all.
Brian

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I remember the cyclone. they must have had some leak out as one of the dealers here had one in their shop. never did see it make an install in a vehicle.

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Originally Posted by mmandley

I run Polk audio towers and surrounds right now. 6 years old

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which ones you runnin?

really miss the deals, but when I worked at circ city, I attended a polk training class. by going, had the opportunity to buy 1 set of home theater speakers at polk cost :)
had the rt2000 powered towers, ls/fx surrounds and the cc400(I think) center channel. circ city retail was north of $2600, paid $680 shipped to my door. they were sweet speakers..
only lasted 7 months at circ, but man-oh-man.. phil probably remembers the "accomodation program" that they had. cheap deals for employees and in turn, manufacturers hoped the sales counselors would promote their products.. you always knew when someone was going to quit as they would all of a sudden come in and charge $2-3k worth of merchandise, then resign the next day :)

lets see home audio...yamaha htr5990 amp. all speaks are klipsh, not sure of the model numbers but in 2005 when they were bought they were the most expensive thing best buy had. we had a 5.1 set up but just moved and have not installed the rear speakers so i guess it is a 3.1 now. 12 klipsh subwoofer. monster power unit and an old school 65 inch mitsubishi that weighs about 1000 lbs.

the other living room had all in wall speakers including sub and i have no idea what those are as they were installed when we bought the house. we have a older pioneer vsx-56003s powering them though, and that room is 5.1

truck is very basic. alpine stereo with 4 alpine type S 6x8 inch speakers

Yes, I remember the Phoenix Gold Cyclone (Maytag). Alot of excursion but very little exposed surface area. Great marketing item used for posturing but no real practical application based on its inherent limitations. The ESS Tymphany is another subwoofer departure (really cool looking with a great story) that while unique couldn't make the grade. But these items make up the history of an audio industry that once was more innovative and interesting.
Check out the Klipschorn from the 40s. This folded corner horn used the walls in conjunction with the enclosure to complete the low frequency section for a mouth that had incredible surface area. The cabinet alone was 51"H x 31"W x 28"D. Per the woofer's horn loading the excursion is almost immeasurable and the efficiency is incredible.

http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/product...horn-overview/

http://www.volvotreter.de/khorn.htm

http://www.volvotreter.de/downloads/klipschorn.pdf

David
Earmark Marine

totally agree that home audio has lost all innovation, but with the advent of 5.1/7.1 home theater, most have shy'ed away from a dedicated 2ch speaker system, and the guys that are still dabbling in custom 2ch don't offer the other .whatever's to make up a home theater unit..
the stereo shoppe is our local highend dealer. the majority of their business is theaters and the segment buying an amp, source and speakers are vanishing quickly.

Yea, if I listen to music now I put on the DirecTV streaming channel and use the 5.1 system. The home theater speakers aren't bad at all and I'm not exactly rocking out when I'm making dinner. I just have a basic system in each TV room with a Pioneer receiver and Sony sub and speakers. Sounds great for movies and OK for music. If I crank it up at all it is out in the garage with the old 2 ch. stereo receiver and my outdoor speakers.

[Check out the Klipschorn from the 40s. This folded corner horn used the walls in conjunction with the enclosure to complete the low frequency section for a mouth that had incredible surface area. The cabinet alone was 51"H x 31"W x 28"D. Per the woofer's horn loading the excursion is almost immeasurable and the efficiency is incredible.

http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/product...horn-overview/

[David
Earmark Marine[/QUOTE]

David, big day in HS day in 1984 was going to pick up my buddies Klipsch Cornwalls with his Yamaha rack mounted seperates ( not the same today)

still has all the same gear in his basement man cave, still sounds aewsome.

In HS with no parents around, we would crank up ( to 11 of course) Van Halen onthe system and see how many neighborhood blocks we could walk until we could not hear it anymore.

funny, we now do the same stupids stunts 20 plus years later in our boats:D

Sony XBR4 TV, Yamaha 613 receiver, PS3 Bluray, Paradigm Monitor 5 fronts, mini monitor rears, and 370 center channel, Polk Audio 12" sub. The speakers are great for the price. I wish I had held out my money til I could afford B&M, but Paradigms are good. I replaced a Sony receiver with the Yamaha and what a difference in sound quality.

There were so many speakers, especially in the 70s, that brought a fresh approach to home Hi Fi. Each had a different innovation. But here are a few of the more memorable ones for me.
The Design Acoustics was an omnidirectional speaker with a downfiring woofer, upward midrange plus an array of tweeters.

http://www.hifi-museum.com/pa/da/da_index_p.htm

[url]http://1246.photobucket.com/albums/gg120/retrobhoy/3_3010/100_1126.jpg

Dahlquist was a 5-way mirror image speaker that placed the drivers in an open array to minimize the front baffle effect. This was one of the first attempts to create a transparent speaker and it soon inspired many followers like Vandersteen and more.

http://www.blackswampaudio.com/Inventory/Listing.php?pk_inv=729

The ESS was a true rock monitor. It didn't image very well and it wasn't as precise in its linearity as some other speakers of its era. BUT...nothing sounded better on ELP!!!

http://audio-database.com/ESS/speaker/amt1-e.html

The IMF monitor was the best speaker I have ever heard until you get into the current class of $20k+ speakers (B&W 801, etc.). The KEF flat 9x13 woofer in a folded transmission line delivered the smoothest authoritive bottom end to date.

http://www.imf-electronics.com/Home/...rence-speakers

Honorable mention has to go to the early Infinity speakers, early Celestion, Hegeman omnidirectional with aluminum-drivers and the DCM Time Window.

Hope this introduces you to a few products that you were unaware of. Many of these shaped today's speakers.

David
Earmark Marine

Also, the Ohm Walsh driver was an interesting bit of speaker technology if you want to do a search on that.
Maybe someone can help me out with the links on my previous post as I'm having some trouble. Thanks.

David
Earmark Marine

I had my home stereo system stolen in 1982 and convinced my insurance company that my system was worth $5,000 so I have a Carver rack system. I never use it as the Onkyo 7.1 system in the theater room sounds much better plus I have two subwoofer systems and a Panasonic THX plasma TV. I don't listen to music much at home but I do have some concert videos that I enjoy while working around the home.

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Originally Posted by kaneboats

Yea, if I listen to music now I put on the DirecTV streaming channel and use the 5.1 system. The home theater speakers aren't bad at all and I'm not exactly rocking out when I'm making dinner. I just have a basic system in each TV room with a Pioneer receiver and Sony sub and speakers. Sounds great for movies and OK for music. If I crank it up at all it is out in the garage with the old 2 ch. stereo receiver and my outdoor speakers.

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Claudia does this all the time to my home system. She leave it in surround then goes in the kitchen to clean or something, i come home and its cranked up and to me sounds like crap.

I go turn off the surround and then it sounds musical again.

Problem with surround when you play general music is the center chanel is a different type and tune then what a normal speaker is. Its designed to highlight vocal and sounds that make you feel like your in the room. The front side speakers are strickly sound effects, rear channels are only sounds behind you or light noises to make you feel more centered in the action and of course the sub is the boom and explantion opoint in an event.

When you play regular music threw a surround system it will play as its a movie and realy messes with the way the sound should sound.

To each there own of course and i know some system today can switch back and forth and sound great but the true big speaker 5.1 systems that have a deddicated center speaker wont sound good playing normal music.

mmandley is right. 5.1 sounds like shoit playing music.. way too much vocal.
not a fan of the "out of the box" 5.1 systems that have tiny speakers everywhere. give me a good set of front left/right, then a center/rear that timbre match it.. that way you get a decent 5.1 and a great stereo array..


now about hdmi cables.. who the crap invented them??? I have a sony bluray and a sony lcd tv. I had to run a separate audio cable to the receiver to just listen to cd's, but try to turn on just the bluray w/o the tv.. what a pita.. every time you turn on the bluray, the tv thinks it needs to be on, and when you turn off the tv, the bluray shuts off... STUPID.......

I am hanging onto two-channel audio as David is. A good stereo setup will create a wall of sound, with every instrument hovering in its proper place, and the vocalist floating right in the center of the room. No center channel speaker needed. So you guys know, the center channel speaker we are all so, (unfortunately) familiar with was developed for an application entirely different from home theater...

In the late 50's and early 60's when multi-channel audio was first coming out, the screens in theaters were really wide. Huge.... Stereo sound hit the scene, with speakers hidden behind the cloth screen, but stereo had its problems for the guy sitting way down front and off to the side. He only heard half of the audio system...
Remember, the old movie houses used to get really packed; it was prime-time entertainment. SO... The center channel speaker was added to "steer" the sound back onto the screeen so that the guy sitting down front off center could still kinda enjoy the audio... The folks sitting in the center of the room did not need the center speaker; proper stereo fills the "stage" from left to right with a perfect flowing sound field from left to right. Most of us have our home theaers set up where the audience is more or less in the middle of the room; the center channel speaker is not necessary. Some receivers have a setting called "phantom center speaker"... That is really just good old fashioned stereo.



This thread is timely, as I just finished a speaker project last night. I am using the KM6500.2 and the extra KM6500 mids in some 1 cu. ft. cherry cabinets I picked up from Parts Express. See the pics. The tractrix horn allows these things to sound good up close, with a real transparent and open sound... They have tons of dynamic range, from down whisper quiet to explosive loud... I am real pleased with how they look and how they perform.


For my home theater I am only using these two speakers. They are being driven by 4 of the 5 channels in a sweet old Adcom GFA7000. The fifth channel will be used for a sub soon, when I get that built. The preamp tuner is a Carver piece, (I do not recall the model). The output of the Carver goes to a Hughes SRS decoder which allows the front speakers to "throw" a pretty convincing surround sound field through the whole room. The TV is a 60" Sony KDL60EX500

Out in the party garage, I am using a Scott 2-channel receiver, connected to a Sony KDL-32EX40B. The Scott receiver is driving 2 pair of the Kicker KB6000 indoor outdoor speakers. they are not super accurate, but they are loud... Perfect for the football game.

I have a studio where I do my fake radio station stuff for party cove out at the lake, bogus commercials, goofy radio ID tags etc. I used to have a pretty active production studio where I did some demo recording work for musicians and lots of local radio commercials. In there I have a Yamaha preamp, driving a Carver stereo amplifier, (60 RMS x 2). the Carver amp is driving a set of custom cabinets that are loaded with the older Kicker SS components. I know, car speakers as studio monitors right??? They are so accurate that they are entirely suitable as studio reference monitors.

I used to have the old 4-track reel-to-reel TEAC A3340 and Tascam mixing console rig, with the 12" reels of Ampex 456 recording tape, but I am now using the computer for my recording and editing. I can run 4 inputs at a whack and deliver 6 discreet output mixes through a dedicated studio sound card that will record at 24 bit at a 96K frequency. Real accurate stuff... I have an old English Hill mixer I use sometimes if I want to get that old rock and roll sound on any music recording work...


I recently sold some gear as it was sitting collecting dust, and someone needed to enjoy it. This included a late 50's DeWald vacuum tube STEREO integrated amplifer, (old looking and really cool fat tube sound), a Knight vacuum tube stereo integrated amplifier (60's looking, and more accurate than the DeWald, so much so that it was my theater amp for many years) and my venerable old Dynaco Stereo 70 amplifier, (probably the benchmark american tube amp and still a very highly collected and much revered tube amplifer).

I will own another Dynaco, (look it up on ebay, you will be surprised how many there are) some day. I really would love to grab a pair of matched stereo 70 ampo to drive the new speakers I just built. Tubes and horns.... That is really the stereophonic audiofile nut's perfect setup....

Phil,
WOW, those sculptured cabinets look incredible, very similar to the shape of mine, which come out of northern Europe.
Your speakers look like they sound great even in a picture just like a Ferrari looks fast sitting still.

David
Earmark Marine

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Originally Posted by EarmarkMarine

Phil,
WOW, those sculptured cabinets look incredible, very similar to the shape of mine, which come out of northern Europe.
Your speakers look like they sound great even in a picture just like a Ferrari looks fast sitting still.

David
Earmark Marine

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They are HEAVY too!

Yeah, they sound good. Open and real airy... I need to move the amp though. I just poked it into the stack, (not easy) and I am getting some sympathetic buzzing from something digital. I think it probably is the satellite box...

At least in this installation it is not the alternator.... :rolleyes:

Phil/David,

You remember Bozak? In High School, my buddies dad had a pair of the concert grands http://stereophile.com/historical/1005bozak/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Bozak

This things were HUGE. But boy did they sound awesome and they could play LOUD. Each speaker had 8 tweeters, 4 12 inch woofers and 2 5 1/4 mid bass. So a total of 8 12's and 16 hihgs and 4 mids for a pair.

He also had one of the first M&K sub sat systems. So when they were gone we would add the M&K sub to the Bozaks and let it rip. we knocked some pictures off the wall one time and had to hang them back up without the glass hoping no one would notice LOL

Tim
Wet Sounds

I, for one, love the center channel in 5.1. I am a little hard of hearing right in the frequency where voices usually sit. I can hear a truck outside on the street and tell you what color it is but I can't hear a person's voice right next to me. I mean I can hear that they are talking but have trouble making out exactly what they are saying all time. I am able to turn up the center channel and turn down all the music and exploding sounds in movies so I don't miss the dialogue. I'm not saying this is better for music by any means but maybe I should try it for that too. I don't know any lyrics cuz I can't make 'em out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wetsounds1

Phil/David,

You remember Bozak? In High School, my buddies dad had a pair of the concert grands http://stereophile.com/historical/1005bozak/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Bozak

This things were HUGE. But boy did they sound awesome and they could play LOUD. Each speaker had 8 tweeters, 4 12 inch woofers and 2 5 1/4 mid bass. So a total of 8 12's and 16 hihgs and 4 mids for a pair.

He also had one of the first M&K sub sat systems. So when they were gone we would add the M&K sub to the Bozaks and let it rip. we knocked some pictures off the wall one time and had to hang them back up without the glass hoping no one would notice LOL

Tim
Wet Sounds

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Looks like you have been at the library digesting old copies of Sterephile Tim... :p I never heard a set of those, though I know the name and the legacy.... *bowing in reverence*


I still think the holy grail speaker for me is the JBL D44000, affectionately known as the Ranger Paragon.... http://www.audioheritage.org/html/pr...bl/paragon.htm I want one some day, but it is pricey.

Here is one for sale on ebay...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=370409159536

A single hand-built stereo speaker cabinet that threw a stereo image like nobody's business....

Tim,
Even though I frequented every high end HiFi store every other week to see what was new and spent more on stereo than was reasonable, I never got to see or hear the Bozak. It must have been a guaranteed lease buster.
Phil, We sold the JBL Paragon pictured in the 70s when I was with Pacific Stereo (when it was Colombia Broadcast). Most fun job I ever had. HiFi was at its peak before video and we were located in the most affluent part of Dallas at the time. We just helped people in mass get great systems from the best products available. Those bubbles, while generally short lived, are the best of times. Btw, even though it was not my kind of sound there was a JBL 4311 large bookshelf studio monitor that was incredibly live and dynamic. People who own them do not give them up and only rebuild them. All cast frames. 12 inch sub with a massive coil. Every aspect of construction was the best. Do a search.
Kaneboats, you are describing a clinical condition created from years of marriage where you have selective hearing losses coincidentally at the exact frequency range of the female voice. This is well documented. I've also adapted over the years to have lost sensitivity in the vocal bandwidth of small children, especially now that my own are raised.

David
Earmark Marine

some of my fondest memories of growing up with the old man have to do with the dedicated hi-fi room, well really the formal living room, but all we ever used it for was listening to vinyl. it was in the mid 70's and you are correct, before video was big.

he had a sofa table in the corner with a technics 35wpc stereo receiver(analog), a b.i.c. turntable with shure cartrige and a pioneer cassette player(ct-920, was a grand and no autoreverse) all playing through a set of polk audio monitor 10b's. I remember sitting on the couch listening to classical music as a youngster. sounded clean and lifelike..

all this equipment but the turntable are still in the old man's basement. hoping to get my hands on it all someday. he still uses the turntable from time to time, but has replaced most of the gear as, yup, the wife wants a/v sound :(
any ideas how tough it is anymore to find a 5.1 receiver that has a phono input.. :)

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Originally Posted by sandm

some of my fondest memories of growing up with the old man have to do with the dedicated hi-fi room, well really the formal living room, but all we ever used it for was listening to vinyl. it was in the mid 70's and you are correct, before video was big.

he had a sofa table in the corner with a technics 35wpc stereo receiver(analog), a b.i.c. turntable with shure cartrige and a pioneer cassette player(ct-920, was a grand and no autoreverse) all playing through a set of polk audio monitor 10b's. I remember sitting on the couch listening to classical music as a youngster. sounded clean and lifelike..

all this equipment but the turntable are still in the old man's basement. hoping to get my hands on it all someday. he still uses the turntable from time to time, but has replaced most of the gear as, yup, the wife wants a/v sound :(
any ideas how tough it is anymore to find a 5.1 receiver that has a phono input.. :)

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One can easily find a good phono preamplifier which will allow you to connect a turntable to a line input. Just do a Google shopping search for riaa phono preamplifier and you will find many to choose from.

Here is an article on the resurgence of vinyl...

http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Vin...on/G1891,A8070

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EarmarkMarine

Kaneboats, you are describing a clinical condition created from years of marriage where you have selective hearing losses coincidentally at the exact frequency range of the female voice. This is well documented. I've also adapted over the years to have lost sensitivity in the vocal bandwidth of small children, especially now that my own are raised.

David
Earmark Marine

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I think you are close. My savage ancestors, at least the males, had to tune out the womenfolk and listen for sounds of approaching danger in their camps. It's hereditary. At least that's how my (divorced) Dad explained it to me.

kaneboats,
Unfortuneately divorce has become too common in our society. Proof of this is a popular gift item this Christmas called the 'Divorced Barbie'. She comes fully accessorized including half of Ken's stuff.

:lol:

Nice, but I completely agree everyone wants the easy way out.