[adydula]

Well,

I just got off the phone with Jim and had a real nice conversation and he will most likely start on my QWT's tomorrow and in about three weeks or so we should be experiencing the joy of having some really neat instruments to listen to all my music 'all over again'!!

Even at 59 1/2 yrs old I am just as excited as i can remember on those many nights before Christmas!!

smiling
Alex

[funkmonkey]

  Right on, Alex.  I am anxiously awaiting my HT3s.  If all goes as scheduled I should receive them sometime tomorrow!! 

I know the feeling you are talking about... very well.  Butterflies in my gut and all!

[Nuance]

Congrats, Alex!  You may be nearing 60, but you'll feel like a young concert goer sitting a few rows back dead center when you listen to your favorite tunes on the SongTower's.  Welcome to the family buddy!  Have you settled on a finish?

[ArthurDent]

Well done Alex. You will be most satisfied with your selection. It will amaze & mystify your friends as to the astuteness (is that a word ?) of your choice. Of course in my case the two prior posters did a lot of the homework for me with their thread over on avs. I'm sure you will enjoy many hours of listening pleasure, as have I in the last year.  And know that we're not getting older, just smarter, as exhibited by our membership in the extended Salk family.   

What will you be driving them with ?

Hey funk, good to hear those bad boys will finally be in the house. Hopefully they haven't had to put you on any meds to mediate the anxiousness built up during the waiting.       I note there's some pics posted over on avs, that will be my next stop. I know your going to be having fun     

[adydula]

I like the "older age" analogy....and I am blessed with a wonderful wife that lets me buy these toys!. I am sitting here in the Duke Oncology Clinic with my better half as she is undergoing chemotherapy...good days, bad days but always a great outlook!


It was nice talking to Jim, he is 60 and it seems the older you get you appreciate talking to people that have similar hobbies and intrests. I could tell that Jim really likes what he is doing and I never felt rushed or I need to go now.....

In these days with all the 'customer no service' its really nice to be able to deal with Salk.

I have had many other speakers in my days, from Realistic Optimus 1's (Radio Shack!!!), Electro Voice, Bose 901's, Magnaplanars, Acoustat 2+2 electrostatics, Mirage M1's ( 180 pound each!!)...and lately a pair of Dahlquist QX10's. no longer available...another really unknown but awesome little speaker...and now to the QWT's....

I will be using a fairly simple setup with a Onkyo 805 receiver, I have sold most of my high end stuff, thinking I would never get back into the 2 ch stereo listening and got stuck in the HT stuff....thats where these will go, and with the other speakers (QX10's) they are great for HT, but musically I have always wanted 'better' and I hope the QWTs will deliver the 'better'

Based on what I have read they do this very, very well!!

So its possible if we stayed employed that we might see us getting a nice 2 ch amp, tube or otherwise...looking for a good deal on a really nicee amp that wont break the bank...I had a PS Audio 200C that I drove with a Denon DCD3300 CD deck directly with no preamp etc...simple, minimum number of interconnects etc...

I am looking forward to playing all my Spyrogyra stuff, and all that great Jazz thats out there....Jazz at the Pawnshop etc...

I will take some pix and post next month when we have them up and running..

All the best
Alex

[R Swerdlow]

Alex

Congrats on your purchase.  With all your previous experience in this hobby, you'll be a great addition to the club.  When you hear how good unamplified string bass sounds through your SongTowers, you'll know you made the right choice.

Despite all that, you'll still have to wait until the 30-day return period ends before you can learn the Salk Secret Handshake .

I'm sorry to read about your wife needing chemotherapy, but I'm glad that you've gone to such an excellent place like Duke.  Have confidence that it is one of the best places in the nation to go for cancer treatment.  I hope she does well with the treatment.

Richard

[evan1]

Congrats, and what finish did you order ?

[adydula]

Thanks for your kind words...its now a 6 year long battle with cancer and it really sucks at times...

I chose the plain black satin, basically because all my other speakers are flat black...satin finish...money isnt the real issue, but the black will fit in my listening room cosmetically very well.

I spent a few hours tonight listening to the Dahlquist QX10, that are biwired and really sound wonderful...very musical tight bass, but they lack in overall dynamic range...training my ears for the upcoming speakerfest! They are only 34 " tall, 18 deep and 8 in  wide...and have 3 5" speakers and one 1" titanium dome tweeter...

The Dahlquists are ready for bi-wiring, I was wondering if the QWTs are or can the be? I sent Jim an email on this.
I like the Acoustic Alchemy cd's, I got to see them in a small concert and was in the front row, for FREE!! I really lucked out,even if i had to sit in front of a large speaker in the sound setup!!!

Unamplified strings are a very good test of a speaker...its how 'musical' they produce sound, you know do instruments sound like instruments?? The mid-range is sooooo soooooo impoprtant here...

Reed instruments also are a real challenge, like the sax and clarinet.....cant wait to play all those Spyrogyra cds as well...

I think the one thing that will make these speakers much better imaging than the dahlquists is they are taller and the tweeter is at ear level, this should work out very well.

Ok for now..later
Alex

[Philistine]

Alex, welcome to the club even more so as a member of the 'exclusive' black club - we are a minority. 
I've had my Salk's coming up to 2 years, the best analogy is going from standard definition to high definition TV.  I hope you have years of enjoyment, and my best wishes for a successful treatment for your wife.

[adydula]

Philistine,

Thanks for your nice comments and best wishes!! They are appreciated.

I sent Jim an email an hour ago and got a reply about 15 min ago about the biwring, he has done this in the past and its
$50 more for the second crossover and a second set of jacks...think this is the way i will go here.

And yes 'black' is beautiful!!

Alex

[JT]

Congratulations on your purchase!  I've also ordered the SongTowers (LCY ribbon tweeter and the natural curly cherry veneer) and I'm very much looking forward to their arrival. 

Best of luck to you and your better half!

JT

[adydula]

JT,

Thanks for the well wishes, its very much appreciated. We have good days and some not as good, you can only take this kind of thing one day at a time!!

She's a great lady, when I began to realize how much I wanted these speakers...i was wondering how to justify the purchase and let her know..but when I discussed it and let it go...and then got a small but much appreciated bonus from work (where we all are worried about getting layed off) she looked at me and said now you can get those speakers!!!


I have a really great lady that has been my partner for 40+ years....

On the other hand congrats on your purchase and the waiting begins!!

I have been looking for new material to play on them. I have several hundred cds, and hundred or so 5.1, dts, music discs and movies...
both HD and BluRay...

I cant wait to start the re-listening process all over again!!

I am really glad Jim Salk listened and eventually built that first set of QWT's!! He told me the story on how he was not convinced to build them when first asked , and he was asked for several months...and finally gave in and built the first ones and its now history.

Great speakers!! Thanks Jim for being such a nice guy on the phone, always available and always really nice!

I am looking for a good blu ray player now, I had a first generation Sony and sold it and am looking at the new upcoming OPPO 83 player...and its not available yet!!

All the best!
Alex

[Nuance]

I sent Jim an email an hour ago and got a reply about 15 min ago about the biwring, he has done this in the past and its
$50 more for the second crossover and a second set of jacks...think this is the way i will go here.

And yes 'black' is beautiful!!

Alex

Have you had good experience bi-wiring speakers in the past?  I ask because many believe there are no sound quality improvements.  Now, bi-amping on the other hand...    I mean no offense, by the way.  I am just curious, as we all have different opinions and hear differently.  I'd recommend bi-amping over bi-wiring, for what it's worth.  YMMV, of course.

By the way, we are honored and blessed to you have as a part of the Salk owner's family.  Welcome!!!!!

[adydula]

Hello,

The good old snake oil questions/concerns...bi-wiring and the like.

The only reason I am bi-wiring my QWTs is because my cables are biwired with the exsiting speakers I have. They can be either biwired and biamped, one or the other not both.

I have honestly noticed ANY real sonic differences with bi-wring or bi-amping with these speakers.

I could have left one set of jacks just lying on the floor, but for the minimal cost I will have all four of the connectors attached to each speaker...

So have I had a good experience with bi-wiring, the answer is yes, but probably not any better than without bi-wiring!!

I would be happy either way, but the cabling costs for biwring will be more!!!

Bi-amping makes things even more expensive, and realistically unless all the part of your system, room and electronics are really, really top notch I honestly think your just throwing your $$$ down a hole.

Same thing for speaker wire, I used to take the $1000 6 foot lengths of speaker cable home to 'audition' and think I could hear the difference....now its 12 gauge wire from monoprice.com and some good soldered connectors on the ends!!

I would not want to rain on any ones parade that thinks these things make things better...but I want to see the oscillograph traces or real hard data to show me what the improvements really are...then I might partake depending on the cost trade-offs.

Usually when you read about how well bi-wiring or bi-amping or high dollar cables improve things you hear words like " better highs, lower lows, more transparent, yadda, yadda, yadda...Its never like the response curve at 3.5Khz is 1.5 db down which means.....

Its a great marketing area and its employing many people and there is definitely differences in cables, conductors, conductivity, terminations etc...but does this objectively relate to how spound is reproduced by your speakers???  Things like skin effect and hysteris are real things in physics and are related to cables, wiring, transmisson lines etc but do they really matter to our useage and to what degree???

The only one of these that I think "could' make a noticeable difference would be bi-amping, dependent on several things....speaker effieciecy, crossover design, impedance, amplifier dynamic range etc...but if you have a really capable amplifier that has 'very good'  headroom, dynamic range....the real difference between bi-amp and not may not be 'worth' the cost, but it sure will impress the heck out of the novice....and its less money to loose in the stock market!!1

.....after all even i like all those glowing lights and leds!!

The only thing with the wiring is make sure the gauge is large enough to carry the signal over distances...

Ok enough ranting here..its a great discussion that been discussed soooooo many times before...

Show me the objective results, and you can make me a believer..

Alex

[Nuance]

I am with you on why you paid a few extra bucks for the second set of terminals.  I wouldn't want cables laying on the ground.  Good call.

Wow, adydula, you just summed up exactly how I feel about bi-wiring and amping.  Nicely done.  I guess all that is left to say is: Yeah, what he said!   

[Rocket]

Hi Alex,

You won't be disappointed with your decision.  Jim is very good to deal with and his speakers sound as good as they look.  I can't think of another speaker that given the cost uses such high quality components.  Jim and Dennis make a good team and its great to see the public supporting this great enterprise.

Btw I have Veracity HT2's and had them shipped to Australia.  I'm more than happy with my purchase.

Regards

Rod

[adydula]

Rocket!

Wow!!

Way down under!! Amazing!!

I am glad they got there and they work well, it must be neat to have your friends ask you where you got them..

"In a small shop in Michigan: and the reply is where in Australia is Michigan!!!

Neat, and nice to meet you!


On the biamp thing again, its possible if you do bi-amp you can obtain louder spl's....in large auditoriums etc, if your transducers can handle the power etc, you can achieve louder sound pressure levels...

In the high end esoteric settings one could argue this amp is better designed for mids and highs and that one it better for lows and try to make things "in theory better"...

I dont really think this is really a big deal with the stuff we have and ask yourself when your salavating over the sound coming out of you ribbon tweeters..how much really would an extra 2 to 10K per amp would they really sound any better...

Ha hahahah I would first buy some really neat "looking" cables!!

So if your QWT's arent playing loud enough to modulate you coffee then go for it!!

Better yet trade up to the next larger size Salk's

Alex

[Rocket]

Hi,

There are a few pairs of salk sound speakers that have been shipped to Australia.  I think most went for the HT3. 

Regards

Rod

[joelmilr]

Five months ago I accidentally stumbled upon Nuance's post - In Search of the Perfect Speaker. Since that day I have been following this forum and the AVS forum every day, learning about Salk Speakers. And getting very excited about speakers that I have never heard. I have been dreaming about a high end stereo for at least 35 years and yet never had the ability to endulge myself.
Well those days are over my friends. Dreams can come true if you persevere -
 I just ordered a pair of HT2 speakers in transmission line cabinets and can't tell you how great it feels. The appropiate amp will have to wait a while so as to gather more funds.
These will be the first and only Salk speakers here in Israel as well as in all of the Middle East.
Thank you everyone for posting comments and thoughts and pictures - and Nuance for starting this bug on the internet and getting me as well as others involved.
I look forward to posting MY impressions!!!
Now how does one spend the time waiting without going crazy?
Joel 

[fishinbob]

Five months ago I accidentally stumbled upon Nuance's post - In Search of the Perfect Speaker. Since that day I have been following this forum and the AVS forum every day, learning about Salk Speakers. And getting very excited about speakers that I have never heard. I have been dreaming about a high end stereo for at least 35 years and yet never had the ability to endulge myself.
Well those days are over my friends. Dreams can come true if you persevere -
 I just ordered a pair of HT2 speakers in transmission line cabinets and can't tell you how great it feels. The appropiate amp will have to wait a while so as to gather more funds.
These will be the first and only Salk speakers here in Israel as well as in all of the Middle East.
Thank you everyone for posting comments and thoughts and pictures - and Nuance for starting this bug on the internet and getting me as well as others involved.
I look forward to posting MY impressions!!!
Now how does one spend the time waiting without going crazy?
Joel 

Excellent move.  Congratulations are in order. Now go back to the dreaming, knowing it is about to become reality.