[mchuckp]

Here's an amusing tidbit from the show.  I was in the Fritz speaker room.  From the couch I looked up at the iPod playing through a Wadia transport.  As the music was playing I'd swear the picture on the iPod screen was a pair of HT3's.  As I continued to stare for a while trying to figure it out, someone asked "what is this playing?".  The guy in there (not Fritz) said "Not sure.  It's a mix CD put together by Jim Salk".

I got a little kick out of it.  I don't recall what other room it was in, but I also saw this CD laying around another vendors room.  It's become the standard I guess!

BTW on a side note, I did find Fritz' bookshelf speakers pretty impressive.

[HerculePirate]

The most interesting part on the aftermath of the show will be the turnover time of the new HT4 orders. Salk will have to expand or bear a wait period of 10 months.
How is that?

Regards

HP

[zybar]

I thought Bill's (Response Audio) cables were going to be in use...

   

 A bit curious about this one myself. Had I known, there were others who inquired about using the Musica Bella cables but I didn't have time to get others done in time.

So were the cables used?

George

[Wayner]

Thanks for the pics...  looks like the HT4s are bi-wired, or possibly bi-amped, but the jumpers are still in place???
anyone else notice this?

HT4 Back

I agree with everyone else the HT2 veneer/finish looks fantastic

They are obviously not bi-amped. It could be that it was just an oops that wasn't caught with all the excitment of the show. On the otherhand, it didn't hurt anything. I used to be a fan of bi-wiring, but I've since, decided that I don't have a real good reason to do it. I'd just as soon use some nice 14-12 awg wire and be done with it.

Wayner

[jsalk]

OK.  I'll explain.

We normally install bi-wire terminals on most of our speakers.  But I've tried bi-wiring many times in the past and I can't say I could ever hear a difference I could accurately identify in a blind A/B test. 

When we build the speakers, we ship them with Cardas jumpers since many of our customers don't bi-wire and we want to save them the trouble of making of finding jumpers. When I listen to speakers, I don't want to go through the bother of taking the jumpers off, so I don't normally bi-wire.

The cables we happened to be using in this case were bi-wire cables.  And since Frank had two of his Ultra 550's bridged, I didn't want to take a chance that the second set of wires would touch and short out him amp.  So I just shoved them into the medrange/tweeter binding posts.  They certainly couldn't hurt anything that way. And I never gave it another thought.

On Sunday, someone asked about it and I had to laugh.  Here we are at an audio show displaying high end gear and the bi-wired terminals were jumpered.  People seeing that must have thought we were crazy.  What's more, we didn't have fancy power conditioners, multi-buck interconnects or anything else that looked impressive. 

I guess I should pay more attention to these things.  On the other hand, if they liked the sound, they certainly couldn't say it was due to bi-wiring, fancy cables, interconnects or the power conditioners we were using.  It must have been Frank's source gear and our speakers.

Just so you know, Frank used $.78 Radio Shack interconnects troughout and 16-gauge Radio Shack speaker wire on most of our set-ups.  They all sounded pretty good.  And so it goes...

- Jim

[Miney]

Interested in the veneer on the HT2-TLs Jim's leaning on... anyone know?

[R Swerdlow]

Interested in the veneer on the HT2-TLs Jim's leaning on... anyone know?

How's it hanging Miney? 

Just a guess, but it might be walnut dyed a bit darker than clear.

[mchuckp]

Interested in the veneer on the HT2-TLs Jim's leaning on... anyone know?

Jim told me several times at the show and I still can't remember.  Pretty sure it started with an "A".  Ain't that helpful!  I think it was an African wood.  It is GORGEOUS, I know that.

[jsalk]

Interested in the veneer on the HT2-TLs Jim's leaning on... anyone know?

It was block mottled imbuya - brown like walnut but more golden tones.

- Jim

[Tod]

Interested in the veneer on the HT2-TLs Jim's leaning on... anyone know?

It was block mottled imbuya - brown like walnut but more golden tones.

- Jim

I love that wood - I have a sort of missionish-style bookcase I built out of it. The colors are amazing...

[earthbound]

Interested in the veneer on the HT2-TLs Jim's leaning on... anyone know?

It was block mottled imbuya - brown like walnut but more golden tones.

- Jim

It really is a beautiful warm color with a matte finish. I was almost afraid to touch it but I finally did.   My cherry 2TL's will of course be even more beautiful! 

[avahifi]

Probably because of the hotel RFI and excess AC floating around, we were not able to use the premium cables so generously supplied.  The big HT4s simply buzzed audibly when they were installed.  We had to put them away and use standard cable with more conventional coaxial shielding.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

[turkey]

Probably because of the hotel RFI and excess AC floating around, we were not able to use the premium cables so generously supplied.  The big HT4s simply buzzed audibly when they were installed.  We had to put them away and use standard cable with more conventional coaxial shielding.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

Told ya.

[jsalk]

I love that wood - I have a sort of missionish-style bookcase I built out of it. The colors are amazing...

I will be listing that pair of Veracity HT2-TL's in the "Available for Immediate Delivery" board in the next couple of days.

- Jim

[Tod]

Here's the imbuya bookcase - I may sand it down and put a gloss finish on it, since the oil rub doesn't cope with dust well. As to the previous poster, if you could see this in person I personally don't think cherry could ever quite compete. Anyone should jump at the chance to own some speakers made with it.





Also on an unrelated note, here's some purpleheart/satinwood stands in the process of getting finished...