Having Friends Who Are Neighbors is a Wonderful Thing! Gifted Klipsch Speakers And More.

 October 28, 2025

#527

Gentle reader,

As you likely know, I really love music and being able to enjoy it's sound realistically within my budget.

Our next door neighbors of twenty-three years finally gave into their daughter's plea to come live out their final years with her. We were sorry to see them go, but, I am always happy to meet new people.

[Note: I've been writing this blog for many years. Lately, no matter what I do, the type and size of the font varies when pictures have been inserted! Sorry about that, my OCD does not like it, but nothing I have tried to fix it has worked]

The house was purchased by a young man who works for the federal government in Washington, D.C. When we met, he was sitting outside of his garage, the door open behind him. That is when I saw the 1960's Austin Healy 3000 Mark II sports car. 

Jack inherited it and other things from his Dad who passed some years ago. This one is not his, but his is the same year and color. His needs work, I have offered to help work on it. I also noticed neatly stacked on a metal shelf in his garage was a number of speakers and a receiver. I asked about them and he offered them to me for free. Knowing that I have zero room for more audio equipment, I declined with thanks. My eldest grandson, Kyle is following in my audio footsteps, I knew that since he was still living at home that he also had no room for Jack's equipment.

Some months later, I saw Jack outside and went over to say hello. Again, the garage door was open. "You still have all that audio gear?" "Yes, Scott, please take it, I need the room." Then I saw KLIPSCH on a speaker grille and agreed to take it. I picked up one of the speakers and was carrying it over to my front porch when I saw our other new neighbor, Alexa, who is an active-duty USMC Captain and quite the looker. She was petting our cat, the neighborhood ambassador, MS Claws. "Hello, Alexa! How are you?" I set the speaker down and went over to chat. "Come meet Jack." I said, pointing him out. They seemed to hit it off after introductions, both live alone with a cat. They exchanged phone numbers. I continued hefting heavy speakers and carrying them to our house. I hope they become friends. 

Jack's stuff stacked in the listening room, above.

The receiver is a Denon AVR-2805, circa 2004 as is all of the equipment's age. I really like the Monster Power Center, but have no room and all three systems already have their own units. I gave it to Kyle (my grandson) who has made a computer server in their house along with a number of other computer stuff. I suggested he plug all that equipment into the MPC. He happily took it home.

There was no manual or remote for the AVR, but thanks to eBay, I now have: a bound  manual, a remote and a brand-new Denon microphone of the correct type to set it all up. 

I found my (present living room) receiver, above, which is a SONY STR-DA5ES, all 48 pounds of it, ($2,400 new), WITH the remote and manual at Goodwill one day marked: "$10.00 No Sound." I always carry audio test equipment when thrifting and quickly found that the speaker switch (knob was missing*) was set to OFF. One twist to A and TADA! SOUND! It is from 2000. Both receivers predate HDMI, but have Toslink Optical and Coaxial Digital RCA inputs. The center channel speaker is a Cambridge Soundworks unit, PURE|AV power conditioner sits on it. Speakers are my World Famous highly modified Realistic 7W units. 

The rear channel units are a stock pair of 7Ws. I had since that photo above, replaced those thrift-store-found speaker stands with much nicer metal ones. The subwoofer was also a thrift-store find, it has a 10" woofer.

Jack's dad bought a Velodyne DLS-3750R which weighs fifty-five pounds! I assume that perhaps it cost less than a KLIPSCH subwoofer.

Speaking of KLIPSCH, the center channel is a RC-25. The matching front and rear speakers are RB-35s. They each weigh twenty-four pounds. I was psyched!

Here is the spec sheet I found for the four speakers. 96 dB sensitivity! I brought everything into the listening room and stacked all four speakers for testing purposes.

I kept two pieces of the pink Monster Cable from years ago just for use when I find new equipment. All four speakers have no issues and they sound AMAZING!

One of them was missing one jumper. I looked for KLIPSCH ones with no luck, so, I thought, get aftermarket ones via eBay. 

These are branded IMPETO an Italian audio maker. 

They are ridiculously large and over engineered then the thin metal pieces are.

I decided to use a pair of the RB-35s for front speakers in the living room and use the matching RC-25 center channel speaker as well. Those are new ROCKVILLE brand stands which are perfect for them. Rockville Audio is a small US business located in Ohio. The stands are heavy, well and very strong and they include two choices of top plates. I used Quake Hold Museum Putty to secure the speakers to the stands.

Before getting the manual, etcetera, I tried the Denon unit out in the living room and found it very confusing. So I put the SONY back in place. 

This is what I have done (for now) with my old center channel speaker and subwoofer. My Douk Audio Tube power amp The Robb Collections: World Premiere Review of Douk Audio's Exciting new Class A DJ587 Tube Stereo Power Amplifier! sits atop the center channel. I will be writing more about it soon. I wired it to the KLIPSCH speakers (now atop my fifty-year-old Dynaco A25XL speakers). With their 96 dB sensitivity, I wanted to see how that 4WPC amp would drive them. It drives them very well indeed!

An unsightly jumble of cables which I keep telling myself is just temporary. 

The speaker wires you see (squeezing between the shelf and speaker cabinets) are new to me. Everything I have, except AC power cables are made by Worlds Best Cables. Unlike other WBC speaker CABLES, these are WIRES in that there is only the one layer of insulation. Like most speaker wires out there.

They are entry level audiophile cables. 

They are well made, as expected and I like them. Not crazy thick with massive woven fabric covers.

WBC uses Eminence Banana plugs on all of their speaker wires/cables. The grip tightly and have huge surface conduction by design.

I moved my World Famous Modified Minimus 7 speakers to be the rear channel ones in the living room. The stock Minimus 7s are (temporarily) the rear channel speakers perched atop (and held in place by Quake Hold) my thrift store found Tannoy C88 tower speakers. Those little speakers are so famous and sold in huge numbers because they sound really good and punch above their weight class.

This is the Listening Room system minus the B&K Components ST1400 power amp which sits in front of the LP shelf normally (it currently is sitting beneath my chair) and the Douk Audio tube power amp. I have an OPPO DV-980H universal player which is directly beneath the Marantz MM7025 power amp and on top of my CD recorder. I use it to play: HDCDs, SACDs and DVD-Audio discs.

This is the rear of an OPPO DV-971H I had previously. I bought a good RCA Coaxial Digital cable and a good TOSLINK Optical Digital cable and plugged them into the rear of the proper receptacles in the rear of the  Denon receiver and put the Forrest Gump DVD in the OPPO and hit play. I wanted to make sure that when I pressed the DVD button on the remote, that I would hear the movie and it worked! I had previously ran setup with the DENON microphone in the den to make sure that I know how to do so properly in the living room.

So, my next plans are to remove the SONY STR-DA5ES receiver from the living room system and reinstall the DENON AVR-2805 in it's place. Then, conduct some listening tests to see if the DENON sounds better or worse (of course with the new-to-me KLIPSCH RB-35 speakers, it's going to sound better) than the SONY and whether the DENON's remote control is more or less user friendly than the Denon's. 

My next article is about my trying "Tube Rolling" an archaic term for trying different brands of Vacuum tubes (Valves for my UK audience) in the Douk Audio power amp and see if I can detect any difference. That power amp is now driving the KLIPSCH speakers permanently. Once I disassemble the A/V equipment and find new homes for it all and the Listening Room is back to normal the B&K ST1400 will resume it's place in front of the record shelf driving the Dynaco A25XL speakers and the Marantz MM7025 will drive the Cerwin-Vega! LS-12 speakers and the Tannoy C-88s through the Dynaco QD-2.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to read this rather long article! I still can't get over that you like what I write. Although I will never meet most of you, the two I have met, Bob B. in Arizona, USA and Bruce W. in Washington, D.C. have become very close friends with both Nancy and I. You can always friend request me on Facebook if you want to. Feel free to leave a comment below or via Facebook. I write two other blogs: Pictures of Nancy. The Love of My Life. and People Say I'm Special. But I Don't Know Why So please feel free to take a look at them if you like.

Scott Robb

October 28, 2025

#527

Upgrading Your AC Audio Power Cable's IEC Plugs To High End Units Step-By-Step Guide

 October 8, 2025

#526

Gentle reader,

A few days ago, I showed you how to make an Audiophile AC 10 gauge Power Cable with High End plugs on each end. See it here: The Robb Collections: I Made My Own Audiophile Power Cable For $79 And You Can Too!

In that article, I used a pair of billet aluminum plugs I purchased from a USA dealer via eBay. He was sold out, so I looked on Amazon and found the same units with the difference that the electrical portions are rhodium plated while the previous ones are gold plated.

Each plug was sealed in clear plastic and each was within an individual white paper box within the main box.

As you can see, each terminal is marked: Neutral, Ground and Load. Look at how close the terminals are inside! Perhaps only one millimeter gap. Quality indeed!

As above, the wall outlet plug is also clearly marked.

Unlike the previous plugs which were made specifically for larger cables and had a semi-rigid black plastic sleeve, these have soft rubber white sleeves which can and should be tightened down to the cable's outer insulation. More on that later.

Here is the outlet plug end of the cable I made in the previous article, on the left. As previously stated, it has gold plating while the new ones are rhodium plated.

I am showing you the 14 gauge 120 volt AC Belkin shielded power cable what I salvaged from a dead PURE|AV power conditioner. I used one of those inexpensive Chinese made plastic IEC plugs on the amplifier end. Since I am so pleased with these very affordable and FAR better quality plugs, I decided to outfit that cable with them as well. It powers my Douk Audio DJ587 4 WPC tube power amplifier.

Belkin sells shielded power cables by the foot, with which I have replaced the thin power cords on various stereo equipment over the years. An example can be seen below:

Why would we want our power cable to be shielded? Well, as you will see in the setup I have later on, the speaker cables are in close proximity to the power amplifier cables. Since AC (alternating current) power changes polarity fifty or sixty times a SECOND it can induce a 50Hertz or 60Hertz HUM in signal cables which are nearby to the power cable. We do not want that to happen!

Cheap plastic IEC plug on the left. Quality IEC plug on the right. You don't see much difference? Oh, it is there.

While Belkin is a US Company, it's products are built around the world. Therefore, this cable has: Ground being green with a yellow stripe, Neutral is light blue and Load is brown insulation. I decided to sleeve all six of the individual wires with: White for Neutral, Black for Load and solid Green for Ground. More on that later.

This is how I found out what color wire went to which terminal on the wall plug end. I used my volt/ohm meter on each terminal and the bare wires on each at the other end.

While electrical power, including the small voltage in audio (music) signals, travels at the speed of light, invariably there will be a slight bit of resistance in even the finest wire, so it slows down a little bit.

My next step was to cut off the original, offset angled plug.

I carefully used a utility knife to slice the outer rubber insulation. The shielding layer can now be seen.

It is made of some kind of very thin metal. Thinner than aluminum foil.

Both ends of the cable can be seen here. The left end was within the cheap plastic IEC plug. The right end in the newly exposed end. I decided that I needed to remove about 1/2 inch (12mm) more of the outer insulation. Note the thin silver wire above. It is in contact with the shielding and needs to be grounded with the new plugs.

AS previously stated, although it is not necessary, I have covered each of the wires with the three colors used in the United States. My eldest grandson will eventually inherit all of my music and audio equipment. And in case he, or anyone else, decides to see what is inside those fancy plugs, I do not want confusion.

Brown in now covered with black. It is the LOAD wire.

I have slid the billet aluminum housing over the part I just assembled. 

While what is shown this is the wall plug end, I wanted to show you the groove which aligns the inner plastic sleeve's ridge to the inner part so that the long screws will line up with their holes.

And now, the amplifier end IEC plug is fully assembled. That end was already stripped, so, the end which I cut off the wall plug, I did not photograph the first steps, but you saw them above.

There are various kinds of wire strippers available. The kind seen above is my favorite type. I do not know what they are called. Note the small silver wire which touches the foil shielding.

Since this cable has 14 gauge wiring, I chose the #12 hole. It will strip off the 13 gauge insulation and not cut off any of the tiny copper wires inside.

Now you can see the strippers from another angle. I have about 1/2 inch (12mm) of wire to be stripped.

And here is the stripped wire. You can see the yellow stripe on the ground wire. It is solid green and a little darker on US wiring. Note, again, the thin silver wire.

I have wrapped the silver wire around the ground wire so that the shielding will be grounded.

This image shows the sleeves which will cover the European wire colors with US ones. 

I elected to not put a green sleeve on this end of the ground wire.

Now, I did not think to show you a photograph of the inside of these plugs. But, here is how they work: Each of  the three screws are attached to a piece of metal within the black plastic housing. One can put the wire on either side of the screw. Hold the cable so that the wire cannot slip or fall out while you tighten the three screws individually.

I showed you this image before. It is important to align this groove with the corresponding raised ridge in the insulator in the outer housing or the screws will not line up with their holes.

The white soft plastic sleeves need to be moved towards the outer cable insulation.

And, here, they have been done so by carefully tightening the four 2mm Allen set screws.

Remember when I showed you how close together the contacts are inside the new IEC plug? See below. Well, if you look at the tube amp above, you can see where the new plug is within the IEC receptacle. It took considerable pressure for me to get it to seat in the socket.  

As previously, I routed to two AC power cables with orange (for contrast and a little color) together and towards my new-to-me, PURE|AV power conditioner which I bought for these two amplifiers. It also provides clean power to the stereo system.

See the matching power plugs in each amplifier?

The outlets are so close on this unit, that the two plugs cannot be side-by-side.

The cable what just long enough to make a nice loop.

The fifty-year-old Dynaco A25XL speaker is back in place and hooked up.

And, at last, everything is back together. The Douk Audio DJ587 tube power amplifier, which is the first tube component (other than a single tube cheap headphone amplifier) I have purchased. There are other variants of it and a few different preamplifiers as well. I wrote about them here: The Robb Collections: Douk Audio Class A & AB Pure Tube Audio Matching Power Amps & Preamps  I am absolutely delighted with it! Because my vintage speakers are so efficient, four watts per channel is plenty of power to drive them to very loud playback.

WARNING: Although I have shown you step-by-step instructions on how to do what I have just done; IF you have never done any kind of work with wiring and electrical components, I strongly suggest that you seek LOCAL help or guidance before attempting ANY kind of project such as this. I have been working on electrical things since 1973 including 35 years working on Subway cars which run on 750 Volts DC power. I know what I am doing and always take the proper safety precautions. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to read this rather long article. I wish you success, should you decide to attempt to do similar work. I write two other blogs, but neither has been updated in a while: Pictures of Nancy. The Love of My Life. And: People Say I'm Special. But I Don't Know Why Please take a look at them.

Scott Robb

October 8, 2025

#526