[Big Red Machine]

Looks awesome.

[SCompRacer]

Sorry to hear you had the problem. Glad you got them going for the weekend! Nice room!

[Austin08]

Sweet !!!!!!

[ericmj]

I didn't mention it in my first posts but I had the same issue with one of my mid-ranges right off the bat.  I was listening at home while working so it wasn't loud and I noticed the distortion.  I looked up and my stomach dropped (I don't use the grills).   I called Jim and left a VM.  He called me back within 10 minutes and in 2 days a new driver was on my doorstep.  Install was easy and I took my time as well as to not scratch the veneer. 

His initial thought was that it was power surge.  I told him there was no storms in the area and I had noticed any blips in the power.   I also use a conditioner/surge protector, pre-amp and amp, nothing showed any signs of malfunction.  He said volume levels would have to be pretty much unbearable to crack the driver from over-driving it.  My initial thought as well was either a manufacturing defect or damage during shipping.  These were picked up driven straight home and great care was taken so I doubt they were damaged during transport. 

I really do think it was a manufacturing defect even more so now that it's happened to you.   Jim said he had not hard of this happening before when I talked to him, and now there has been at least 2 in a fairly short span. 

I say this more because I feel Jim should be refunded for the drivers.  They are not cheap and both failed early on for no apparent reason.  He just took care of the issue immediately. 

Jim, if you read this I still have the defective driver.  If it would help, I could ship it back. 

After replacing the driver, I've had no issues at all and have run them at reference levels quite often.

Like I stated in my post, I'm now listening to all different types on music that didn't think I would have any interest in.  The Daft Punk disc you mentioned is really good and fun to listen to on these speakers.  The SS8's seem to make almost everything enjoyable.
-Eric

[TheMCP]

Interesting, yeah I'm not sure what the issue was, but the replacement was fine all weekend and swapping it was no big deal.  I did wonder if the crazily cold temperatures could have something to do with it, it was certainly very very cold the whole way between Detroit and my house.

Anyway, I had a really good time playing with the speakers this weekend.  I use a Denon 3808ci as my preamp, so I spent a bunch of time re-running audessey and checking all the settings to make sure everything was the way I wanted.  Right now I'm leaving Audessey on... probably has to do with my room dimensions but I thought it sounded better with it on.  Source material matters a ton more than with my old speakers.  It seems like even song to song on a given album can vary pretty wildly, as far as how good it sounds.  I have been listening to the new Queens of the Stone Age CD lately, and was kind of disappointed with how most of it sounded.  Its not "bad", really, but the loud sections especially get... I'm not sure how to describe it.  "Overly busy?"  Its like there isn't enough space between the instruments or something, and its got nothing to do with the speakers because lots of my other material sounds fantastic.  Its not like the music is unlistenable or anything, but it does feel like some albums are able to take advantage of what the speakers can do better than others.

[Big Red Machine]

Hate to sound negative, but the electronics have everything to do with the sound.  Since I own 8's I know they will sound superb when you drive with high end electronics and I am now into the tweaking around the edges stages.  A HT receiver or processor is not going to cut it for delivering the highest levels of clarity and fidelity.  SOme guys may jump on me for stating that but nothing in my decent HT system can come close to the gear next to it I drive the 8's with in stereo.  Night and day.  For movies I don't sweat the sound when I am engrossed in the flick.  Can you borrow a 2 channel preamp?  Is it "busy" when in Direct mode as well?  I would think Direct is the cleanest you can get with the processor?

[Big Red Machine]

Forgot to ask MCP, what is the source you are using?  Using the processor dac or an external?

[TheMCP]

Yeah, Direct mode for 2 channel... nothing fancy in the chain, just a BD / DVD / SACD player to the Denon.  There are definitely huge differences going on with certain recordings, either the recording, mixing, mastering, or some combination, because certain discs sound great (Jim's demo disc is full of great sounding stuff), while others are noticeably not as good.  Obviously they're all getting played through the same electronics right now... I think there is probably going to be a gap between these recordings no matter what I play them through.  Fortunately, even the not-as-good ones are fine... they're just not what I would choose to play if I was trying to impress someone.

I have wondered if there is a way to hook up a dedicated 2 channel preamp, but only use it for certain sources, and use the HT receiver for multichannel stuff.  If there is a way to set that up without having to swap cables every time I want to go back and forth, that would be something I might consider at some point.  Right now, there is no more $$ left in the fun-fund, and I know if I start looking at preamps etc., I'll get into expensive things in a hurry.

[Big Red Machine]

Ah, you have the dreaded "my music collection blues with new Salk speakers"!

We've all had that.  Now you have to be very careful about your selections.  Probably time to get a copy of somebody's hard drive and start selecting.

If you are content with good recordings using the existing gear then it is cheaper to buy more software!

[Gzerro]

I have wondered if there is a way to hook up a dedicated 2 channel preamp, but only use it for certain sources, and use the HT receiver for multichannel stuff.  If there is a way to set that up without having to swap cables every time I want to go back and forth, that would be something I might consider at some point.

What you are looking for is a preamp with home theater bypass. Quite a few manufacturers make them or provide an option. You will also need a power amp for at least the l/r main speakers if you go that route.

[TheMCP]

Huh... thanks for the info on home theater bypass, I had never heard of that before.  I'm already running a 5 channel power amp (Emotiva), so the pre would be all I need.  Some cursory research seems to indicate I might be able to buy something worth buying for a few hundred dollars or so, so that might be an option.  Could always do something used, I suppose.  I do have a media PC in the room as well... I rooted an old kindle fire (to run stock android) and am using it as a network remote control for music streaming (FLAC, mostly, though I don't have everything in my collection ripped yet).  Combined with the preamp, that might be a pretty nice option as well.