Owner Impressions, Delivery Times and Things to Do While You Wait

writeface · « **Reply #600 on:** 22 Feb 2010, 11:37 pm »

nice. enjoy!

Bigload · « **Reply #601 on:** 24 Feb 2010, 01:52 am »

Quote from: sirbrine on 21 Feb 2010, 07:50 pm

I ordered my dome tweeter Songtowers (including center channel) on Tuesday February 9 but I still don't have them yet!

Yes, I know that some people have waited months for their Salks in the past but I figured my order would be special and the speakers would instantly appear on my doorstep... I am also ignoring the fact that I started talking to Jim around July of last year and have been able to wait just fine for over six months as I slowly made my decision to purchase.

I will be replacing a pair of Boston Acoustics T830 speakers that I purchased as part of a combined music and HT system around 1993. I also have a BA 525V center channel, a pair of BA HD 5 bookshelves for surround duty, and a Yamaha YST-SW100 subwoofer.

I am not an audiophile. My wife and I just like to listen to good music now and then and we have thoroughly enjoyed the T830s over the years. Then about three years ago one of them started to rattle and I just basically stopped playing them. The foam surround on one of the woofers had essentially disintegrated due to age. After awhile I tried to buy replacements from Boston Acoustics but the drivers had recently been discontinued. Eventually I found a way to get them professionally re-foamed and about February or March of 2009 I was back in business.

Then, not really knowing much about speakers or speaker design, I began to wonder how my T830s compared to speakers being built today. Just for fun, I started researching speakers on the internet and I found something called “My journey to find the “perfect” speaker”. Then I found “The Official Salk Sound Owner’s And Discussion Thread”. Then I found the Salk Signature Sound Circle on AudioCircle.

I was very happy with my T830s until I found all this stuff on the internet about how good Salk Speakers were. For this, I must blame Nuance. If I had not found his postings on the internet, I might have left well enough alone… or maybe not. Jim Salk is equally to blame for being so nice, responsive, and helpful in putting up with all my questions. And then there is Dennis Murphy and Richard Swerdlow as well as other Salk Owners who patiently answered my PMs and also contributed to my madness in replacing a perfectly good set of speakers.

Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to wait a bit longer for my new speakers as Jim puts his usual care and attention into building and finishing them for me.

Tony

I feel your pain. My order for SongTower dome tweets went in on 2-2, along with an order for a new AVA preamp/DAC combo and a 240 amp. I am replacing Emotiva gear and a pair of Polk LSi9's. I try to just forget I have them ordered with the hopes they will show up and surprise me. That doesn't seem to work too well! Here I am on Audio Circle feeding my agony.....again.

ctouhey · « **Reply #602 on:** 24 Feb 2010, 02:47 am »

Quote from: Bigload on 24 Feb 2010, 01:52 am

I feel your pain. My order for SongTower dome tweets went in on 2-2, ...[snip]

You want to talk delayed gratification? I first began an e-mail dialogue with Mr. Salk on August 9th. We finally placed our order on October 20th. Today marked 18 weeks since our order.

Not that I'm complaining at all. I want Jim to take his time. I know he had supplier problems for some driver frames. Also, we requested some special touches that are labor intensive, and in fairness to Jim, his original time frame to complete was around four months. I really don't need the speakers until April, when Jeff Meier (Umr on AVS Forums) returns to calibrate the sound system (he did the video this past December). Jeff was the one who originally pointed me in the direction of Salk products.

So, I have to smile when I read comments of someone having to wait a month or so for their speakers. Fortunately, I’ve learned patience with age, and like fine wine that sits in the cellar until it’s ready, the Salks will be that much more special when we receive them.

Chris

jsalk · « **Reply #603 on:** 24 Feb 2010, 08:42 pm »

Quote from: ctouhey on 24 Feb 2010, 02:47 am

You want to talk delayed gratification? I first began an e-mail dialogue with Mr. Salk on August 9th. We finally placed our order on October 20th. Today marked 18 weeks since our order.

Not that I'm complaining at all. I want Jim to take his time. I know he had supplier problems for some driver frames. Also, we requested some special touches that are labor intensive, and in fairness to Jim, his original time frame to complete was around four months. I really don't need the speakers until April, when Jeff Meier (Umr on AVS Forums) returns to calibrate the sound system (he did the video this past December). Jeff was the one who originally pointed me in the direction of Salk products.

So, I have to smile when I read comments of someone having to wait a month or so for their speakers. Fortunately, I’ve learned patience with age, and like fine wine that sits in the cellar until it’s ready, the Salks will be that much more special when we receive them.

Chris

Chris -

Your patience is about to be rewarded...any day now.

- Jim

ctouhey · « **Reply #604 on:** 24 Feb 2010, 08:51 pm »

Quote from: jsalk on 24 Feb 2010, 08:42 pm

Chris -

Your patience is about to be rewarded...any day now.

- Jim

Yeah! Even Julie is excited! Look forward to hearing from you, Jim.

Chris

darwin · « **Reply #605 on:** 25 Feb 2010, 02:26 pm »

I just received word from Jim that my SSII-RTs speakers and SS subs should be shipping tomorrow. I'm hoping that Jim will post some pics of them before packing them, so that I can

in anticipation of them arriving. I'm as excited as a kid at Xmas.

darwin · « **Reply #606 on:** 25 Feb 2010, 09:10 pm »

Jim was kind enough to send me pictures of my new speakers and subs. Now that I've seen them, the wait is going to be agonizing.

writeface · « **Reply #607 on:** 25 Feb 2010, 09:22 pm »

Wow! The subs look massive! Sure to bring the roof down!

mathgeek97 · « **Reply #608 on:** 25 Feb 2010, 09:22 pm »

Quote from: darwin on 25 Feb 2010, 09:10 pm

Jim was kind enough to send me pictures of my new speakers and subs. Now that I've seen them, the wait is going to be agonizing.

Darwin,

Congrats! They look great!
BTW, the finish will look even better in your home.

writeface · « **Reply #609 on:** 25 Feb 2010, 09:29 pm »

I got my HT-3/HTC yesterday. I have hooked them up and played Jim's demo CD - very, very nice.

I'll post some pics once I get home.

My current A/V stand has no room for the HTC. I am replacing it with a new stand which should be here next week.

I decided to stop with L-C-R for now. I have no room for the surrounds! I probably won't need sub.

Nuance · « **Reply #610 on:** 26 Feb 2010, 12:28 am »

Darwin, those look incredible! I look forward to your and writeface's impressions. Congrats to you both.

Bigload · « **Reply #611 on:** 26 Feb 2010, 01:14 am »

Quote from: ctouhey on 24 Feb 2010, 02:47 am

You want to talk delayed gratification? I first began an e-mail dialogue with Mr. Salk on August 9th. We finally placed our order on October 20th. Today marked 18 weeks since our order.

Not that I'm complaining at all. I want Jim to take his time. I know he had supplier problems for some driver frames. Also, we requested some special touches that are labor intensive, and in fairness to Jim, his original time frame to complete was around four months. I really don't need the speakers until April, when Jeff Meier (Umr on AVS Forums) returns to calibrate the sound system (he did the video this past December). Jeff was the one who originally pointed me in the direction of Salk products.

So, I have to smile when I read comments of someone having to wait a month or so for their speakers. Fortunately, I’ve learned patience with age, and like fine wine that sits in the cellar until it’s ready, the Salks will be that much more special when we receive them.

Chris

Jeff also calibrated my 7.1 HT system. I was very pleased. He is pleasant, knowledgeable, and a very capable guy with what seemed to be some amazing calibration equipment. I actually first learned of Salk speakers by researching links on his web sight.

polarbare · « **Reply #612 on:** 26 Feb 2010, 07:44 am »

Congrats darwin - I'm chomping at the bit for pics of mine to be posted up (then I'd know they were ready

)

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #613 on:** 26 Feb 2010, 12:33 pm »

Quote from: darwin on 25 Feb 2010, 09:10 pm

Jim was kind enough to send me pictures of my new speakers and subs. Now that I've seen them, the wait is going to be agonizing.

Great finish. Great hardware choice with all matching. Smart man!

darwin · « **Reply #614 on:** 26 Feb 2010, 04:23 pm »

Thanks for the very kind words, folks. I cannot take credit for the finish, as the color is Jim's creation. About all I contributed to this, other than the funding

, is that I asked Jim to build the subs so that they're mirror images of each other. As overly anal retentive as it may seem, I wanted to keep everything as symmetrical as possible.
Speaking of which, I hope Jim has saved the formula for the color. Even though I don't have the speakers here yet, I'm already thinking that I may want another SoundCenter-RT for a 6.1 setup.

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #615 on:** 26 Feb 2010, 04:34 pm »

The brew for the stain is in his neurons.

vintagebob · « **Reply #616 on:** 26 Feb 2010, 09:01 pm »

Darwin,

That is an excellent bunch of of HT right there! I'll look forward to the pictures when you get them setup.

vintagebob · « **Reply #617 on:** 27 Feb 2010, 12:11 am »

Quote from: stew on 16 Feb 2010, 04:06 pm

Hi Bob,

The new panels look great!!! Your room sounded fantastic when I heard it a while back, and I'm sure that it sounds even better now - which is almost hard to imagine. I am thinking of getting some bass traps too... any comments on how the table trap is working? I have been pondering the tower trap for the corner, but it's much more $$ than the standard corner trap so I wanted an opinion first.

Looking forward to meeting up at your place..

-Stew

Yikes! I never answered your post?!

I added the table trap more as a "do no harm" addition. I have so much bass trapping now that I didn't really notice a difference with it. I was thinking about putting one next to the fireplace, where I think it would do more good, but it just didn't seem to "go" there when we tried this one in that location.

We can play with it if you make it on the 6th!

narkleptic · « **Reply #618 on:** 2 Mar 2010, 07:19 am »

well, I'm the lucky bastard who only has to wait one week or so...but that's b/c I ordered used. I got the songtowers in curly walnut that were up on Audiogon last month. Built by Mr. Salk himself, with the solid front baffle.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'm probably the only guy on here who will be driving his Salks with vintage Kyocera gear. (A710 integrated amp)

I'll be sure to report back on the results.

vintagebob · « **Reply #619 on:** 2 Mar 2010, 01:39 pm »

Quote from: narkleptic on 2 Mar 2010, 07:19 am

well, I'm the lucky bastard who only has to wait one week or so...but that's b/c I ordered used. I got the songtowers in curly walnut that were up on Audiogon last month. Built by Mr. Salk himself, with the solid front baffle.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'm probably the only guy on here who will be driving his Salks with vintage Kyocera gear. (A710 integrated amp)

I'll be sure to report back on the results.

I got my fingers crossed for an uneventful shipping experience. Some of the used speakers have not survived (but usually the heavier models).

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=72298.0