response 25 of 49:

Mar 22 16:38 UTC 1992

Whenever I wanted my phono stylus examined under a microscope, I used to 
drag it over to Hi Fi Buys.  Alas, they are no longer in business.  Does 
anyone else in the area offer such a free service?
 
Another question relating to the demise of Hi Fi Buys: who's the nearest
NAD dealer now?  Nakamichi?  Bang & Olufsen?

response 27 of 49:

Mar 23 18:07 UTC 1992

Have you tried the folks in the old Hi Fi Buys location?  Overature
Audio (they changed the name of their business when they realized their
phone number was going to be 662-*1812*  ;-) has always been good to me.
I don't know if they offered free stylus checking service, but I would
not be at all surprised if they do.  What the hell, I just called them
and sure enough, they do.  Was also told if you bring in your turntable,
they'll be happy to set up the new stylus/cartidge to optimum performance
for you if indeed you need a new one.  If you stop in, ask for Keith, the
manager(/owner?) and tell him I said hi.

response 29 of 49:

Mar 24 15:19 UTC 1992

Right, Keith Moorman (sp?) used to be the manager at Absolute Sound and
opened Overture when Absolute Sound closed.  He and his
co-workers/employees have always done well by me even though I've always
bought equipment that's near the bottom of the line of what they offer.
(They still can't believe I'm happy with my old Dual 506 instead of one of
their Lynn turntables, but $1500 for bottom of the line is a bit steep for
me.  ;-)

response 31 of 49:

Mar 26 03:52 UTC 1992

(Actually don't quote me on that.  This goes back to the Absolute Sound
days, and prices/modles may well have changed since then, and I'm sure my
memory has...)

response 33 of 49:

Dec 17 04:35 UTC 1992

     I have two questions.  First of all, I'm 
considering buying a second set of speakers for surround-sound
effect.  A.  Can anyone tell me if it's
worth the money?  B.  My receiver/amp is rated
at 50W.  What power range should I be
loking in for speakers?  C.  Does anyone have
any favorites in this power range?
     2.  Has anyone heard that Bose Musicbox thing
that's supposed to replace an amp/speakers setup
with one box that "fills a room like
the top-of-the-line stereo equipment today?"

response 35 of 49:

Dec 21 22:41 UTC 1992

I read somewhere how to make surround sound with just speakers and wire.
Is this really possible, and if so, does anyone remember how to do it?

response 37 of 49:

Dec 22 17:01 UTC 1992

Well, I remember that it involved connecting the left speaker to left+ and
the right speaker to right+ and I think connecting the ground to each other,
but I may also remember it wrong--I've done it before.

response 39 of 49:

Jan 7 22:33 UTC 1993

   Ok, does someone want to explain what a "1 bit D/A" is?  I just saw
this in the ad copy for a CD player.  In general, have portable battry
operated CD players gotten any better in the last 3-4 years?  I have a
Sony DT-4 CD/AM/FM player that seems to be getting bitchy about alignment
problems.  Wondering if it makes sense to start lusting after a new one?

response 41 of 49:

Jan 8 19:03 UTC 1993

   No, I don't think so.  I've seen it a couple of times now.

response 43 of 49:

Feb 13 20:57 UTC 1993

After years of living with taped-together headphones, and headphones with 
no foam pads which buzzed, Leslie finally bought a new pair of Sennheiser's
more or less on impulse.    These are the HD 480 II's.  The top end have
the Sennheiser flavor that I'm used to and quite partial to, but the bass
is really too heavy; I think Sennheiser is going for the Koss market.
I usually roll the bass control back a *lot* with these new headphones.
 
We also got a new decent tape deck; we're finally free of the tyrrany of 
Nakamichi!!
  :-)
n

response 45 of 49:

Jul 4 20:45 UTC 1993

Sorry, In response to the bit i wrote about Headphones, the Sony's are called
"MDR-14's....They are really nice...

response 47 of 49:

Nov 9 04:46 UTC 1993

I would find this interesting to read.  I've been looking at portable
CD players and have found that the one-bit D/A converters sound better.

response 49 of 49:

May 31 05:54 UTC 1994

A discussion of speaker cables started in classified. This response is
to preserve that discussion - and continue it, as seen fit:

#4 of 19: by Robert Esteves (esteves) on Wed, May 11, 1994 (13:13):
 Hello Matt, I am looking for some high end speaker cables. More specifically
  Audio Quest clear speaker cables 4' pair in Bi-wire.

#5 of 19: by TS Taylor (tsty) on Thu, May 12, 1994 (23:36):
 For "high end" speaker wires - use the thickest stuff you can find,
 even welding cable. The oxygen-free and allthat sort of pr is
 balony, or worse.

 If you can't afford welding cable, run 4-5 strands of #12 ga or #10 ga
 together for each "wire."  I prefer thhn or thnn or an entire jacket
 of romex for each "wire" when I need the current handling and
 damping factor impovement.

#6 of 19: by Robert Esteves (esteves) on Fri, May 13, 1994 (14:15):
 Matt, I'm still interested in the wire.

 but thanks TS

#7 of 19: by Robert Esteves (esteves) on Mon, May 16, 1994 (00:20):
 Actually, There is a difference in speaker wire.  There is a big problem in
 just using huge wires because of the skin effect.  The base signal will eat
 the high end alive.

 Matt, are you still around??

#8 of 19: by Klaus (n8nxf) on Tue, May 17, 1994 (15:30):
 Skin effect at 40 KHz!  Ha ha!  Ok, go to your local hardware store and
 buy him out of all the 3/4 in. Cu pipe and fittings he has.  Use it to
 construct your own speaker wire.  (2 runs per speaker.)  Get some 4 in.
 Cu flashing to make the connections to and from amp. and speakers.  Don't
 forget to rewind your crossovers and make connections to the drivers with
 the same stuff.  (...and I use to worry about RG9913 at 400 MHz!)

#9 of 19: by TS Taylor (tsty) on Wed, May 25, 1994 (05:14):
 Yeh, the "skin effect" for audio speaker wires is the effect of the
 consumer getting "skinned" paying for it.

 Love the idiot-sales that the audio industry gets away with.

#10 of 19: by Klaus (n8nxf) on Wed, May 25, 1994 (07:55):
 (One of my favorites is the $450.00 clock someone sells that disapates
 "wayward electrons" that effect the quality of audio.  It's built around
 a $9.95 digital clock from K-mart.)

#11 of 19: by TS Taylor (tsty) on Thu, May 26, 1994 (03:46):
 You *are* kidding, n8nxf, pleeeeease tell me you are kidding .....

#12 of 19: by Klaus (n8nxf) on Thu, May 26, 1994 (08:46):
 Sorry tsty, I can't do that.  Many audiophiles haven't a clue when is
 comes to science.  There are more such fine devices in the high-end
 audiophile market.  Larry Klein, who writes articles for Electronics
 Now, is constantly bashing shuch stuff and, of course, they bash him
 in their editorials.  Who knows.  We each belive what we want to.
 Maybe wayward electrons do effect audio quality.  Maybe sticking little
 self-adhesive dots all over your listening room also improves the
 audio quality.  (Yes tsty, that's another one.)

#13 of 19: by Robert Esteves (esteves) on Thu, May 26, 1994 (15:06):

 Yes there are some silly scams out there.  But there is also some science
 involved in the audio also.
 good cables try to limit the effects of "overshoot"  that is the energy
 kicked back down the speaker cables by the driver going too far in its travel
 and creating energy.  If you tell a driver to go x it will be carried to some
 x+n by inertia.  The n causes the 8 pound magnet to generate a sizable spike.
  The cables attempt to limit this effect.  The cables are tuned, and they use
 no strand greater than 18ga and many many of them.  If you want to
 demonstrate over shoot hook a flash light bulp up to the low freq input on
  There are 5 lines left (85%). Press <space> for more, or 'i' to return.
 Message 4/10  From Cathbad@aol.com                                       
Page
 2

 demonstrate over shoot hook a flash light bulp up to the low freq input on
 one of my 801's and carefully move the woofer.

 The difference in cables is noticable, I suggest you try it before
 saying how 'silly' it is.  Try going to an audio store and borrowing some
 cables.  Either Clear 2's or Dragons; if your system is good enough you
 should be able to tell the difference.


#14 of 19: by Rane Curl (rcurl) on Thu, May 26, 1994 (17:22):
 It has been my observation that, after going to all this trouble for
 a minutia of advantage, most so-called hi-fi enthusiasts crank up the
 bass and turn down the treble, and wallow in a frequency response very
 unlike the original.

#15 of 19: by Klaus (n8nxf) on Fri, May 27, 1994 (08:49):
 He he he!  So why can't one use solid wire?  Why stranded?  Of course
 your woofer will light a small lamp when you push on the cone as you
 mentioned.  That driver is nothing more than a linear DC permanant
 magnet motor.  If you connect your lamp to this type of motor and
 spin the shaft, it will light too.  Most devices that produce mechanical
 energy when electricty is applied will also produce electricity when
 mechanical energy is applied.  All drivers used in speaker systems exhibit
 this effect.  The tuning of speaker cable is pure BS!  The only reason
 you'd want stranded wire is to make it more flexable.  Solid wire would be
 a better choice, for a given size, since there is no air between the
 strands giving it less resistance per unit length.  To counter the effects
 of driver overshoot you want to couple the drivers as tightly as possible
 to the amplifier.  On the other hand you want to seperate the speakers
 so you can enjoy the stereo effect.  The whole point is the reduce the
 impedance between the amp. and the drivers.  i.e. large wire with low
 resistance per unit length!  Many, many other things can contribute to
 the resistance between amp and the drivers:  Terminal resistance, cross
 over resistance, resistance between the output drivers inside the amp.
 and the amp's speaker terminals, etc.  I even have an old Kenwood amp.
 that has sense lines that sense the voltage at the speaker terminals
 so that it can compansate for any cable losses.

 As a further point, anything that I pay a lot of money for and that
 the "pros" say does great things for sound quality will sound better
 to me.  That's human nature.  If there really is a differance is a
 mute point.

#16 of 19: by TS Taylor (tsty) on Sun, May 29, 1994 (01:46):
 esteves, the "good cables" that "try to limit the effects of 'overshoot'" are
 teh cables withthe +least+ resistance/impedance! that's the dampening factor
 of the ++amplifier++ that succeeds (or fails) at that.

 Those amplifiers with "sense" lines for woofer stuff really improved the "t
 ~p
 "tight" bass sound, as did proper acoustic loading of the bass speakers.