Most of you Outlaws have probably already seen these, but I have re-posted them for those who haven't. I work professionally in the motion picture industry (with music scores), so I need a system that is compatibe with that of a movie dubbing stage, so that mixes I do in my studio will translate well into the final mix. Therefore, some of the components (such as the speakers) are the same ones found on a dubbing stage or cinema (although I have tweaked all of them to a great extent to refine their performance).

The Soundhound Theater



[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited July 01, 2003).]

Jealous beyond words as always my friend....

Can I move in? LOL

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Play it LoUd!!

Soundhound you have easily the most complex set-up i have ever seen. I love your comment about not powering up the main systems amp's so in turn you use the secondary system. I want to have the same dilemma.

You helped me with a stereo subwoofer hook-up question I had. I followed your advice and am very pleased with the strong clean bass I now have with this wiring suggestion. One question though, do you still suggest a ICBM with this set-up?Thanks!!

Thanks for the kind words.

In my original stereo sub post, I suggested using the low level crossover in your subs. In this case, the ICBM would not be needed. I actually have passive subs and an external electronic crossover (60Hz), that does basically what the ICBM would do in such a setup.

Um....do you do housework and cooking???

I can cook, but the housework is questionable, Hahahahahaha.

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Play it LoUd!!

I thought I would continue the discussion of the tri-amp/bi-amp situation here, since it regards your system and your setup "philosophy" for playback.

For those of you who wondered where this discussion started, I put a question to SH in the "200 Feedback" area of the Saloon, under "Found this on Audiogon." Since my question was off the topic of that thread, I jumped here to continue.

Not considering the subwoofers, you are essentially running a bi-amp system for your front three. I could not tell by the pics at your studio web page, are your mains or center channel speakers three-way? If so, is a passive, speaker-level crossover handling the split between mids and highs? Are you 'happy,' or at least 'satisfied,' with that?

As always, good to have a discussion with you! (To put a small twist on a common phrase, the announcer bellows: "Are you ready to R A M B L E?" At least our rambling may help a few folks, eh?)

My main left and right speakers are two way, and so is the center. Ignore that little supertweeter on top of them in the pictures; I used to have them crossed over with a single capacitor to the JBL supertweeter at 11Khz but found they caused more problems than they solved. So, what I have is my left and right are two way and crossed over at 1,200Hz. The cabinets which you may recognize are Altec Lansing A7-500s (!) that have been pretty heavily tweeked, since I used to work for Altec as an electronics engineer, and had full access to all their resources. The center has the same Altec Lansing high frequency horn and compression driver, but it is crossed over at 500Hz to two flanking 12 inch woofers. The crossover for this speaker is before the power amp and is a passive L-C type which feeds a stereo McIntosh MC240 tube amp with one channel for the bass and another for the highs. A passive crossover at line level is a completely different animal sonically than at speaker level. It is much more precise, and since the impedances are higher, more reasonable values for the capacitor and inductor can be used.

I have been tweaking this system for 20+ years!!! I have always used electronic crossovers for the mains, but different crossover slopes and different frequencies. Active crossovers are essential for these speakers, or they can sound really bad, which is why some people are astonished by my use of these A-7 speakers (they have a bad reputation mainly because of their horrid stock passive crossover, un-damped high frequency horn and flimsy cabinet). To answer your question, yes, I am very satisfied with them at this point.......until I think of something else to tweak

Soundhound,

How does the sound of your main speaker set-up compare to some of older Klipsch products? Years ago (in the days of stereo) I owned a pair of Cornwalls, which I traded for a pair of La Scala Pro's - which if I recall correctly had much the same drivers as the K-Horns - one of my all-time favourite speakers.

I loved the sound of the old horns - but space and weight (living at my parents and consuming most of their basement with gear) became a problem, so they got traded for something else.

I eventually settled on the Koss 1030s whose sound is somewhat "horn like" - and which are only some 6 dB less efficient than typical big horn cabinets.

Regards.

Jeff Mackwood

Jeff:

My mains don't sound much like Klipsch horns at all, and if fact, they don't sound much like any horn speaker. They really sound more like any good dynamic type speaker, but with much more authority. People who hear them tend to say that the sound of the speakers is "cinerama" in nature, and big, but not "blairing" like horns can be. I've tried through the years to get them to sound this way, basically having the best parts of dynamic radiator and horn. Tube amps help tremendously, especially SET triodes for the HF horns.

Klipsch horns have always sounded to me like I would expect a horn to sound; a bit forward and sometimes biting. I would imagine that if you did the same things I have done to my A-7s, the early Klipsch horns would loose all of these harsher qualities.

As an aside, the "constant directivity" horn concept was originally developed at Altec Lansing shortly before I started working for them. All currently available horns, including Klipsch with their "tracix" design are of this type. I do not like this type of horn design, and never did from my first contact with them. While the concept of "even" dispersion of all frequencies in all planes seems like a solid benefit for a horn, in practice, what results is simply a horn that sounds like it has too much treble, and this accentuates the traditional bad tendency of horns to sound "forward". The current Klipsch HT speakers sound a bit like this to me, and I have read some posts making comments on their relative excess high frequency energy.

The design of horn that I do like is the traditional exponential flare type. The dispersion of this type of horn somewhat matches that of a direct radiator dynamic speaker, and sounds more like them. When matched with appropriate electronics and crossover, they can sound basically like a good "direct radiator on steroids". Unfortunately, exponential flare horns are no longer manufactured, at least in any quantity.


[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited June 11, 2003).]