A/V Discussion

[sallysue]

Howdy gang,

I should have posted a "hello" all thread but being the impatient sort I jumped right in and started giving unsolicited 2 cents right away.

Mr. Peabody asked me what lines of speakers I was a rep for so here it goes

Krell
Klipsch
Harmon Kardon Intl.
Sonus Fiber
Polk
Martin Logan
Vienna Aucoustics
JM Lab / Focal
Boston Acoustics
Velodyne
Mirage

And worked with too many to list, here's a few:

B & W
PSB
Paradigm

I've been a hobbiest for over 10 years and was in the A/V business for about 3 - Custom A/V install.I've visited several speaker factories and given the "insiders" tour not available to the general public. I've learned a lot from these years and I'm wiser for the wear.

The Video gear is much more boring (to me). Who cares about Pioneer Elite plasmas, they're very good and expensive - fascinating.

[theaudiohobby]

Welcome SallySue, I much enjoyed your post in the other thread, you hit the nail on the head wrt to Female vocals and simple music. My musical preference tend towards large scale symphonic music and piano and my equipment somewhat reflects that.

Looking forward to further posts from you, kindest regards

[sallysue]

Thanks for the hardy welcome and kind words.

I love the audio business and still feel like a ten year old with a new bike when I buy the latest pair of speakers/amp/receiver. It's easy for some guys to forget that it's a business and ultruistic intentions take a back seat sometimes.

How many units did you move this month? You're numbers need to move up! Sell sell sell.

My musical preference tend towards large scale symphonic music and piano and my equipment somewhat reflects that.

I don't blame you, it's great music and when done well - rocks the house. Sometimes it's hard to convey to new hobbiest just how difficult it is to reproduce the lower bass frequencies on a budget. Good subs are expensive and unruly beasts - hard to temper and adjust and require quite a bit of knowlege to understand thier impact on room acoustics. But certainly key in a classical setup.

Looking forward to hearing from all......

[Ajani]

Welcome to AR!!! It's always good to have different perspectives... and former dealers (audio not the other ... ummm... stuff) tend to add a lot of useful insight...

[02audionoob]

Howdy gang,

I should have posted a "hello" all thread but being the impatient sort I jumped right in and started giving unsolicited 2 cents right away.

As I recall, the definition of a public forum would indicate no one's 2 cents is unsolicited. I'll be looking forward to your contributions.

[Mr Peabody]

Are you still a rep?

How did you like that Krell for an orchestral impact?

[sallysue]

Are you still a rep?

How did you like that Krell for an orchestral impact?

No not anymore but who knows, maybe I'll get back in when the economy gets back to full strength. Hopefully we won't have to burn dollars for warmth because the aren't worth the paper they are written on.

Krell is good stuff, they just don't make junk. Very nice speaker but there are others in price point that compete as well.

Krell amps, great amps when they are working. We had cronic problems with the Krell amps and SACD players. I'm not trying to put a negative spin but that was our experience others experiences may differ.

btw, you've got some nice gear Peobody. How do the Kappa's sound?

[Mr Peabody]

Are you saying you were a Krell rep or you worked some place that sold it? I've never seen a bad Krell amp. Krell as well as other "high end" manufacturers got a bad batch of Phillips transports and it made things rough. You're right, Krell's speakers are expensive and for the money there are better. They sure didn't do well against Dynaudio's costing even less.

I had my Kappa 7's for many years before moving on. For around $1200.00 new they were great. 12" woofer in a sealed cabinet certainly moved some air. The dome mid was nice as well. They really had a unique sound, I can't really think of anything else to compare them to. Infinity has gone down hill since the day of the Kappa. They would be terribly out classed by a $1200.00 Dyn but again it's two different sounds. Back when I was transitioning into higher quality gear I had an Arcam system hooked to them and it was actually a pretty good combo.

[sallysue]

Are you saying you were a Krell rep or you worked some place that sold it?

I was a never a rep for Krell. I use to sell it but was never a rep for them. The marketing groups have a list of products that you rep for , there is no picking and choosing and they often switch out different lines; as a rep you have no say in what they carry.

About Krell being unreliable, you're right, they are a fine product and maybe the experience we had was a limited one. The truth is that Phillips (at one point) was THE only transport supplier to mass market disc players. No matter what the box said on the outside, the transport was made by Phillips. I don't know if that's still true but it was at one point. Yamaha had a hell of a time with thier Phillips transports thus I never sold Yamaha disc players to my customers when I was selling.

Kappas

Glad to hear some feed back on those, I almost bought a pair at one point. I must admit I'm a shameless HK whore. They are a very impressive and professional group, rock solid scientific excellence top to bottom. Getting an "insiders" tour at the Northridge factory was one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had. I had the opportunity to see every aspect of the business from the extensive R & D department to the finished products. Revel and Infinity cabinets laying about unfininshed with bench engineers fiddling about and a table saw buzzing in the backround where they were making new cabinets for lines not yet on the market- amazing and exciting for an audio geek like me. I also got the opportunity to hear the Everest speakers that, at the time, had not hit the street and no pictures were allowed. I've never heard any speaker at any price point that sounded like those. We had a blind speaker test comparison and dinner with the president of HK. Great fun.