This was my battle cry as I pursued the purchase of a new Home Theater/Concert in a basement equipment and by God I stuck to my guns.

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Overview The Equipment Old Stuff New Stuff The Hunt Research, research, research Where to go The Players Summary

Carlin Audio

Overview

And it came to pass that Ron was no longer satisfied with his A/V equipment (even though there is nothing wrong with it for those of you who want to make me an offer), and Ron did set upon the task of purchasing new stuff.

My goal was something that sounded great while watching a movie, could absolutely ROCK when it needed to on some killer tunes (I.E. The wife and kids aren't home) and still had the ability to sound sweet in the background when playing the soft stuff.

I started a complete novice and ended up somewhere between a complete novice and a person who knows some words that audiophiles know ... with a new system.

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Equipment - Old Stuff

My old stuff consists of the following: Sony STR-D1011S A/V Receiver, Design Acoustics passive sub-woofer, JBL MR 26 mains, JBL MR 25 rears and the JBL MR Center.

Sony - STR-D1011S With 8-ohm load, both channels driven, from 20-20kHz, rated at 120 watts per channel max rms with no more than 0.04% distortion. Surround mode: 80 watts (f) x 80 watts (c) x 30 watts rear. 2 video in and out Phono, CD, Tape, Dat 12 different DSP effects
Design Acoustics - PS-SW: Freq. Response: 30-130Hz Driver: 10" Long-Throw, Dual Voice coil, with carbon fiber impregnated cone. Sensitivity: 90dB 1 watt/1 meter Impedance: 6 ohms Recommended Amp Power: 15-200 RMS Max SPL: 107 dB Dimensions: 16 1/4 (w) x 22 (h) x 11 (d) Weight: 38lbs.

System sounded great, but lacked the power I was after.  Bought this setup 3 years ago from Roberds and went though several upgrades including THROWING AWAY SONY SPEAKERS (they suck), swapping the rears and adding a sub to build what you see before you.  A nice entry level HT setup.

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Equipment - New Stuff

The new stuff consists of the following: Yamaha RX-V995 A/V Receiver, Yamaha DVD-S700 DVD Player, Phase Technologies Octave 1.0 Active Sub-Woofer, Klipsch KLF-20 mains, Klipsch KSF-S5 rears and the Klipsch KLF-C7 Center.

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The Hunt - Research, Research, Research

I recommend reading a lot of Home Theater mags, skipping over the stuff you can't afford and trying to find articles about things in your price range.  Pay close attention to qualities that are important to you and take the audiophile stuff with a grain of salt.

An absolute GREAT site is www.audioreview.com ... visit this site often.

And probably most important is to visit some dealers and listen to several different brands of speakers.  It is said you can't remember sound quality (and retain that memory) so it's a good idea to listen to the best set of speakers in the store first, then change to ones you can afford ... this will give you a good point of reference.

Once you've narrowed your choices down to 2-3 manufactures, go back for a final listen and be prepared to stay for a couple of hours.  Might want to let the sales people know ahead of time ... but I had absolutely no problems in this area.  The sales people were extremely helpful in most of the places I visited.

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The Hunt - Where to go

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The Hunt - The Players

I started out at Carlin Audio and that's where I ended up.  But let's document the entire ordeal:

• Started out at Carlin Audio thinking I wanted bookshelf speakers.  Listen to Boston Acoustic, then Klipsch KSB 3.1s ... the Klipsch blew away the BA stuff and I though I had found my speakers.  Several $$$ later ... I was wrong.
• Next I went to Circuit City and listen to Polk Audio and Infiniti.  Liked the Polk stuff but it was +$4,000 for 2 speakers (yes, at Circuit City) so I balked.  Plus, I didn't like the idea of speakers at Circuit City anyway.  I mean, I was after some GOOD stuff and if you want Bose (Bose are bottom of the line by the way ... see Audio Review.com) then Circuit City is fine ....  but not for me by God ... I WANT MINE LOUD !!
• Next I went to Sound Waves ... they have some nice stuff, namely Paradigm.  Had I not heard the others Paradigm would have been a good choice, but alas I did hear the others.
• Next came Look and Listen, carriers of B&W Speakers.  Now B&W has speakers that start at $200/speaker and go up to $40,000/speaker.  I started looking at the bookshelf again and liked the Klipsch better.
• Back to Carlin Audio and heard the KLF-20s ... SEX.   Almost fell over when he cranked up "Where ever I may roam" by Led Zeppelin (Woops, I mean Metallica) and I was probably sold at that moment, even though I told myself (and my groupies) that I was not.
• Back to Look and Listen (we're down to 2 now: B&W and Klipsch).   Oh yeah, there was a visit to Cincinnati to hear PSB and NHT at Alamo Electronics.   Don't bother, didn't have PSB (even though their web site said they did) and I wasn't impressed by NHT at all.  Couldn't demo anything there either ... not setup very well so they are out.  Anyway, back to Look and Listen ... the CDM 7se speakers were the best sounding speakers I heard ... but only a fraction and I do mean fraction better than the Klipsch. But for home Theater and Kick butt Rock and Roll, Klipsch blew them away.
• And Finally back to Carlin Audio, where Mr. Rick Wolf (the first and only guy I spoke to at Carlin) fixed me up right.  Got a great deal, they gave me floor stuff where they could to save some money ... and out the door I went.  DD sounds too good to be true and I'm able to adjust the timing of my heart when I crank it up.

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Summary

And in closing ... MY SYSTEM ROCKS !!! (have I said this before). It sounds great in Home Theater and the fraction (and I do mean fraction) of quality I sacrificed in choosing the Klipsch speakers over the B&W is more than made up for with the absolute BALLS of these speakers.

Special thanks to Gale Seaton (and everyone else I've annoyed with the constant emails) for all his help in finding my dream system (for now .... hahahahhahahahahahahahha).

Stop by and I'll knock some stuff off of the walls for ya.

Later

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The End