Mr. Adam's living room speakers

[Don Herman rev2]

Hey Bill,

Yeah, days of $600 power cables (!), Van Alstine, and when the names on the front plates were around and available. Quite a group of folk (Paul Klipsch was quite a character!) that I no longer know, and I haven't really kept up. I did a lot of installations, helping out people who put price over sound, etc. But, I was primarily a serviceman back then, with some consulting on the side through a high-end shop in Kansas City.

I do remember the Golden Ratio, and seem to recall meeting George one time at some show... I think he was pretty passionate about it; I disagreed. Not with the idea, but that one "golden ratio" was it. A decent irrational ratio, or simple (relatively) prime ratio (yeah, "simple", huh!) should do the trick. Of course, you have to follow through with everything in the room, not to mention the room itself... A VP of Shure had a big concrete Roman-style listening room (with tons of high end gear, and a massive HQD speaker system) to "solve" the problem of harmonic reinforcement... His room sounded great, but realistically it had more to do with the design and treatment than anything that "magically" eliminated resonances (or room modes).

Back sort of on topic: The room you practice in probably is not the room you play in. Always nice to get a set of good ears, or at least a good recording system (by far second-best choice, but very helpful nonetheless), and listen to how you sound "out front" in the performance room. Your practice room could be hurting, or helping, your playing, or both -- at different pitches! Pat, feel free to insert the story about how far BA's sound carried despite sounding "the same" up close...

Ah, memories... - Don
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"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music" - Aldous Huxley

[dcstep]

Sumiko has a method of setting up speakers that almost totally eliminates intermodulation distortion between the speakers and each other and the room. I've been an audiophile since the 1960s, but I first heard a system set up with this Sumiko method last year and I was stunned. Look for a Sumiko dealer to find someone with the training.

dave
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Dallas/Denver
1960 Schilke B1, GR67S
Conn Vintage One Flugel GR66FL/FD
Bach 229 C, with Blackburn leadpipe, Tanabe mods
Lawler TL cornet with Sparx mpc