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  1. Tom Brennan

    Is high power a waste at low to medium volume?

    Something to think about--most speakers compress and will only get so loud no matter how much power is fed them. And often when speakers compress the woofer compresses more than the tweeter, thus the speaker changes tonal balance as it gets louder. If you want to get seriously loud it's best to...
  2. Tom Brennan

    Revitalizing AK

    Truly, JBL direct radiators would have to go in the general speaker forum. But most interest in JBL seems to be in their horn and horn-direct radiator hybrids. And lots of Horn DIYers use JBL drivers but not JBL systems.
  3. Tom Brennan

    Old timers who had good stereo systems in the late 50s/early 60s - how did they compare to today?

    I think the AR speakers were a step backwards sonically. They substituted deep bass in a small box but with constipated dynamics, recessed highs and so-so clarity for the free dynamics and great clarity of the large speakers of the 1950s such as Altecs, JBLs, Klipsch, Jensens, Bozaks, EVs and...
  4. Tom Brennan

    Revitalizing AK

    I think there are too many sub forums and as a result much useful information isn't spread around. That said I think the Lansing and Klipsch forums should be killed off and replaced by a general horn or high efficiency forum in which information among horn and single driver enthusiasts would be...
  5. Tom Brennan

    Revitalizing AK

    I'm happy for you.
  6. Tom Brennan

    Revitalizing AK

    Good hi-fi gear wasn't cheap in the past and I think it's now cheaper than ever. There are many good current speakers available for under $1000 a pair, even under $500 a pair and good sounding integrated chip amps come in at $300 or less.
  7. Tom Brennan

    AK Enablers

    Sell all those record players then take the money and buy the best player and cartridge you can with the dough. Well, that's if your goal is the best possible sound within your resources. If you like to screw around with different players (and cartridges maybe?) then do it in series not in...
  8. Tom Brennan

    Return of the Western? Upcoming Westerns (tv/movies) 2023-2024

    Good book. Harry Carey Jr. and Ben Johnson worked well together and were friends until Johnson's death. Cheyenne Autumn, Ford's last Western. His last picture, 7 Women, is pretty weird and well worth a look.
  9. Tom Brennan

    Vintage Gretsch jazz drums

    Slingerland tom mount, eh? I had a round badge Gretsch kit with crappy hardware that was replaced with Rogers Swivomatic stuff--tom mount, spurs, cymbal stands and high hat were all Rogers. And a Ludwig Speed King.
  10. Tom Brennan

    On a sad Klipsch note

    Gigantic, you're shortchanging yourself calling your speakers LaScala clones, which they most certainly are not; at the very least they are far superior in design, component quality and build quality. I suspect they sound better too. It occurs to me AK could use a unified horn speaker forum...
  11. Tom Brennan

    Show Us Your Dinner! (Home Cooking ONLY please!)

    Meat sauce from Poeta's Italian grocery on a baked potato. And the best hot dog in Chicago; a natural casing Daisy dog. Daisy dogs are made on the Southwest side and sold in neighborhood groceries and delis, you buy as many as you want, all linked together.
  12. Tom Brennan

    Fell under the Moto Guzzi spell once again.

    50 years ago I had an 850 ElDorado. Nice road bike but often broke clutch cables, I carried a spare.
  13. Tom Brennan

    Hi-Fi speaker for a really nice Fisher 500b...

    I had one of those Fishers about 20 years ago and used Altec 890C Boleros with it. Excellent sound, the 890C is a fairly sensitive speaker specifically designed to have the sound signature of the big Altecs such as 604s, Valencias, VOTs and such but in a much smaller package. A very special...
  14. Tom Brennan

    Moving way too much equipment

    When moving I'm more concerned about my Fiesta disc pitchers than audio gear.
  15. Tom Brennan

    analog vs digital

    I just listened to a suite of Tiomkin's score of Lost Horizon (1937) streamed from ITunes to a Marantz integrated with it's own DAC to AKG headphones. Totally satisfactory. It's early Tiomkin and was his big break in Hollywood. Earlier I was listening to scores by Korngold and Rozsa-The Sea...
  16. Tom Brennan

    analog vs digital

    What's an 8080DB?
  17. Tom Brennan

    analog vs digital

    Digital sounds good enough that I lost interest in LPs and 45s. And at the end of my days with LPs I was much more interested in my RCA Living Stereo and Mercury Living Presence classical records than in popular music records; in effect my record player was a means with which to play around with...
  18. Tom Brennan

    Return of the Western? Upcoming Westerns (tv/movies) 2023-2024

    Yeah, like Hell or High Water (which originally was to be called Comancheria, which would've been cooler).
  19. Tom Brennan

    Smart speakers...yeh or ney and are they worth it?

    I knew a woman who had an Amazon speaker, it was OK; it played the music, had decent tone and no obnoxious colorations. I like hi-fi but I don't need it to enjoy music.
  20. Tom Brennan

    Sensitivity and "hard to drive" speakers

    I used a 6bq5 Fisher SA-100 amp, it was nice. For awhile I used a Fisher 500 receiver. And for awhile I used one 605 in a mono system with a Fisher 80AZ. And for awhile I used that little Sonic Impact chip amp. And also an ASL 5 watt triode amp. And a Jolida EL 84 amp. I think the Fisher...
  21. Tom Brennan

    Sensitivity and "hard to drive" speakers

    IME audiophiles like to say "high current".
  22. Tom Brennan

    Sensitivity and "hard to drive" speakers

    It's difficult to draw general conclusions from specific amplifiers. My 19s sounded better with the my 20 wpc EL84 tube amp than with my 100 wpc SS amp. From that it doesn't follow that all EL84 amps sound better than all higher power SS amps and vice versa.
  23. Tom Brennan

    What SACD player do you use?

    Sony X800MK-2. It plays 4K blurays and SACDs. It replaced an OPPO because it plays the 4K discs.
  24. Tom Brennan

    Altec Model 19 recap or GPA crossover

    The Model 19 is the culmination of Altec home speaker development and one of the finest turn key speaker systems ever made and I wouldn't do anything that deviated from stock; I think replacing the crossover with another design means the speaker is no longer a proper Model 19. However bringing...
  25. Tom Brennan

    First reviews of Dune II, not by film critics but from Frank Herbert Dune fans.

    I like the movie; it's loony in so many ways. I don't care about how it relates to the book (which is loony enough) but take it for what it is.
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