Daddyjt

"Without access to true chaos, we'll never have true peace.” Chuck Palahniuk

Welcome aboard, Escher. This is an excellent gathering place for audio nuts, but be warned... It can get expensive:-) Just holler with any questions!

Digital or vinyl?:-)

Your taste in gear is matched by your taste in music:-) I'm a diehard 70's rock guy too - Fleetwood Mac, Doobies, Boston, Steve Miller, and of course Little River Band:-) Welcome - you're gonna fit right in here!

+1 for Mick Fleetwood.

A little G 'n R from the highschool days, and Gene got me curious about Sound City:-)

I still haven't gotten a response from the guy, so we'll see...:-)

AYFKM!?!? Here's a pair a mere 45 mins from my house...! http://missoula.craigslist.org/ele/4400262935.html I sent him an email asking what he wanted to trade... Maybe a mkII...? :-)

Aw shit.... Don't tell me I shouldn't have bought those $450 "upgraded" crossovers off EBay.... They convert the speaker to a 3-way configuration, and smooth out the impedance spikes (and dips!) so I can run them with my 110 wpc avr...:-)

I have confidence that Arnie got them right the first time. I should not have said anything about the bass, as I don't even have them in their permenent positions yet, and I don't even have them hooked to their intended amps yet. I was jumping the gun, and getting the cart ahead of the horse...:-) I will report more when I get them fully integrated into my system...

No sir - I was working on amps most if the day and night, trying to get somewhat caught up...:-( I need to create a small window to work on my own amps (9ts)....:-) In the VERY near future though... I'm thinking it's gotta be PF first up on the ProJect:-)

I love a challenge:-) actually, I've never run my sub except for movies... Looks like I'll be trying that. If I had to choose, I think I'd keep the midrange bliss over the punchy bass -- and that's with only a couple of hours of seat time with the kappas. Then there's vinyl... Oh my:-)

I've listened to the following on CD: James Taylor, Allison Krause, Bela Fleck, Jennifer Warnes, Skryllix, Deadmou5, AC/DC, and Erasure. On SACD/DVD Audio: Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, Donald Fagen, BB King/Clapton, and Sarah Brightman. No vinyl yet - trying to stick to what I know, to get a baseline. Some random thoughts: Starting at the top, the highs are outstanding - clear, crisp, and detailed, but NEVER piercing or over-bright. The midrange is pure bliss - IMHO, the number one reason to acquire these speakers. Vocals are exquisite - I am hearing details I've never heard before, in tracks I've listened to hundreds of times, on many systems. The bass is the only thing I'm fighting with right now. The Klipsch were much more active and "punchy" on the low end. However, I need to get the 9s into the correct position before I can really evaluate this. Also,... I NEVER thought I'd say this, but two 1.0t mkII amps are not enough,- at least at the volume I like to listen at. I read all the posts and talk about them being "amp killers", but I figured I was safe. While I think my mkIIs like stretching their legs, I will get my 9ts recapped soon - one has been disassembled for farrrr too long. Ordering caps tonight - the kappas were the kick in the ass I needed to get these recapped. I'm thinking 9ts on the low ends, and each top end getting one channel of a mkII. Did I mention how B I G these are? No, really - they're HUGE. If you get a pair, be prepared - they WILL be the biggest, coolest things in your room, and they will be the first thing anyone entering your room notices. I love these so much, that I am already making plans to hoard back-up drivers (EMITs, Polydomes, etc...) just in case I have a failure, I can keep them going. No recapping needed in the crossovers - Arnie designed them with all polypropylene capacitors:-) More to come:-)

Yea, I just set everything to flat, and the switches to Extended. I NEED to get the Silver 9t pair recapped...

Got them downstairs and hooked up! Did just a bit of listening (MUCH more to come!). A couple quick observations : my 1.0t mkII pair DOES have yellow and red headroom lights:-) (I was never able to light them up with the RF7s...) The mid range is TO DIE FOR... A little James Taylor and Allison Krause, and WOW. never knew what I was missing on vocals:-)) Much more listening to come - gotta go to a BBQ/picnic (although I'm thinking seriously about calling in sick...)

Thanks Russ - road trip was definitely worth it:-) it was a little longer than I anticipated - about 9 hours round trip, with packing and loading, and a quick stop at Karl's Jr:-) Oh, and thanks for the tip from Dom - I took foam sheets and made cut outs around the domes (poly & polygraph) before wrapping the cabinets. Arrived 100% intact after the 700 mile trip home!!

So I thought I should post a little "step by step" of my polydome repair saga. First though, I need to give a HUGE thanks to Carversite's resident Kappa expert, Gene - I would be lost in this, without his guidance. Here is the dome in question - one smallish dent on the front, and a fairly large one spanning from 12 o'clock all the way to 2:30... The 4 outer screws remove the polydome driver from the cabinet. Then the 4 inner screws remove the magnet motor assembly from the bezel. At this point, you will have the bezel, with the dome attached, and the wires attached to the voice coil. Set the motor assembly aside. This gives you access to the back side of the dome. If you are lucky, you can pop the dent out with gentle pressure. I was not lucky. My little dent wouldn't pop out, and my big one popped out somewhat, but it turned into 2 smaller dents. There is a "chalky" substance on the back of the dome - this is normal. In the photo, you can see where I was massaging the back of the dome, trying to pop the dents out. I also started the "hair dryer method" at this point too. Gentle heat with a hair dryer, while trying to massage the dents out. Now I progresses to heading the whole dome. As you do this, the dome will become clear. DO NOT overheat the dome. It will clear quickly, once the heat is right. The dome material will be extremely pliable, and succeptable to damage while it is in the heated state - BE CAREFUL!! Success! My damaged dome is almost perfect now!! Now I need to go get some silicon in the morning - not an aerosol, but the liquid like what comes in the headlight refinishing kits. This needs to be gently wiped on the inside of the dome, as the heating process dries out the poly. An important point -- DO NOT use a heat gun - they are WAY too hot. Use a hair dryer, and start with medium heat and low air volume. Increase heat if necessary (I had to).

Will do, brutha!

I am - got home late last night. I will probably get to them later this afternoon/evening. Taking the kids to the circus today (haven't really seen them in the past 3 weeks!) Should I fix the dome before playing them, or can that wait a while?

The right one is James Westphall, and the left is Dr Kenneth Noisewater...;-)

So the trip turned out to be 4 hours each way, but the speakers were in such GREAT condition, I didn't care. I got back to my hotel at 1:30 am, and had to be to work at 6am. I moved the kappas to a luggage rack to get them into the room for safe keeping for the rest of the week. (Wonder what the maid thought...:->)

Very nice work, Bryan:-)

LOL! phuk Mark, you want to spend $1,100 dollars? Go out and get the RPM 5.1 V2 Lol - for $1,400 there's a set of kappa 9s in Bend OR, which is 3.5 hours from where I'll be training in Yakima in a week... Must resist temptation....

Nice:-) so well hear from Gene in a couple weeks:-) great score brutha!

You certainly can clean the pots, although they usually stay pretty good (not to mention, you'll be replacing the voltage pot and both bias trim pots with the mkII upgrade)Here is the current parts list:http://thecarversite.com/yetanotherforum/default.aspx?g=posts&m=151295#post151295Note that you will need to order a few of the transistors from BD Enterprises (you can get your sankens from them too - they're a trusted source), your LEDs from lighthouse, binding posts and RCAs from wherever you choose (I use Parts Express), and everything else from Mouser. We are here if (when) you need help:-)