My thoughts on Blue Jeans and Monoprice speaker cable

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Bill Mac, Jan 31, 2014.

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  1. Juan Matus

    Juan Matus Reformed Audiophile

    My thought is that if I was the owner of this company I would secretly open another cable company making sure to cover my tracks of course, rejacket the cables from bluejeans and sell them for crazy money via this other new high falutin company, while at the same time bashing this new company on the bluejeans website and media and having the new company do the same to bluejeans via their website and media. In effect monetizing what goes on here.
     
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  2. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    :agree:
     
  3. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Horns and silver wire don't go.
     
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  4. mds

    mds Forum Resident

    Location:
    PA
    The cable I bought from them was their top of the line so other than a return with refund there wasn't much to do. I just kept them, probably should have sent back, they weren't cheap.
     
  5. mds

    mds Forum Resident

    Location:
    PA
    With the Audioquest it is seamless, have no idea the channel mix is changing, no lowering of volume or sound drop out. With the Bluejean there was a noticeable drop out of sound (silence) and then a reconnect.
     
  6. Upinsmoke

    Upinsmoke Well-Known Member

    Location:
    SE PA
    Well the cable could have been damaged. I personally like to give the company a chance to make it right before biotching about the product. Now , if you get met with hostility and ignorance from a snot nose on the other end... Let's just say elephants have a long memory.
     
  7. mds

    mds Forum Resident

    Location:
    PA
    Gosh, I like the company and feel their products are decent just not a highend. I have a number or their so called "highend" HDMI cables at differing lengths, and none of them give me the same performance as the Audioquest. As I mentioned the Audioquest is certified HDMI 2.0, and the Bluejean is not although on their web site they say it meets the 2.0 standard. I do not believe it does based on my experience.
     
  8. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Nope. That is one solution, but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.

    What he needs is an adjustable crossover where he can adjust the padding on the mid and HF horns.

    That is Why Al Klappenberger, with ALK Engineering builds his crossovers for Klipsch products. They are design upgrades, not as OEM replacements like what Bob Crites builds.

    Alk crossovers enable you to properly tune the horns correctly. The bass speaker, is less efficient than the horns. It is necessary to reduce the signal reaching the horns to match the level of the bass speaker. When you do it Al's way, which is the correct way, the amp sees a constant impedance. When you don't, the impedance is all over the place, producing uneven sound.

    Speaker wire has nothing to do with this. Just use plain old copper wire of the proper gauge.

    It took me weeks of listening to properly set my crossovers. I ended up figuring a way to set them between two values on Al's chart.

    BTW... I was on page 5 when I posted this.
     
  9. P2CH

    P2CH Well-Known Member

    Agreed. My speakers are new to me and I'm learning to appreciate them for their strengths and maybe their weaknesses. They aren't necessarily small in physical shape but they present a small sound stage in regard to the MMG's they took the place of.

    Actually, what I'm hearing now is what I expected to hear and it was the reason I changed over to the horn array. I wanted more sonics and energy which the Maggie's didn't really deliver, but what the Maggie's did do, is what the Heresy's can't do.
     
  10. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    ALK products look awsome. Klipsch people are lucky to have products like this available. Not cheap, though.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2016
  11. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Horn speakers can never sound like planer speakers. I have owned the large 6' Maggie's before. They are crystal clear, but no punch.

    Do yourself a favor, go to:

    ** ALK Engineering **

    Go to Klipsch Loudspeaker upgrades on the left menu. Select Overview, PWK's speakers. Scroll down to Look what we offer. Select,
    Crossover network overview and selection guide (or just click this link). READ the page. It will open your eyes! Scroll down to network selection guide.

    Note the Recommended upgrade combinations, on the left, the last one is the Heresy. You will note, the recommended crossover for the Heresy is, his Cornscala-wall.

    Note: I use his Universal "ALK", you will note that there is a line drawn from that network down to the Cornscale-wall crossover. This is a lower cost but quality crossover that replaces, the Universal "ALK".

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]

    I recommend that you take some time to place a phone call to talk personally to AL. You will need to do so anyway, if you wish to order from him. He builds everything to order. He will not allow you to order on line before speaking or otherwise communicating with him personally. He wants to make sure that both parties are in complete understanding as to how it is to be done and what it will cost.

    He may have other recommendations for you as well.

    I am an Altec guy and have been one sine sixteen years of age. I learn something new every day, which is why I choose to participate in this forum.

    While these are other well meaning suggestions, using other speaker wire and replacing your horn speakers, are, IMO, not your best options. The Heresy's are not the best Klipsch speakers, but they are fundamentally a good speaker of legacy design. Why not get the most out of it?

    In addition to the A7's, I do own modern day Klipsch towers, WF-35's and legacy La Scala's. Al does not design for Altec's, so I use his Klipsch crossovers in the A7's because they are the best, most affordable option to get the sound that I had been searching for. I have electronic crossovers. I have elected never to use them in my A7's. The A7's sat for two whole months, before I received my crossovers from ALK. It took me several weeks more to understand and properly implement them.

    This is coming from some one, who has actual hands on experience in this area.

    All the Best,

    S&G
     
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  12. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    ALK Products ARE awesome!

    Everything that I have worked for all of these years with A7's to get them where there are today, would NOT have become a reality, without ALK passive crossovers.

    His crossovers, make the difference between an OK good system and a truly GREAT sound, that I dreamed for but never thought was possible.

    I would not trade my A7's and their supporting electronic gear for ANYTHING! Sure, I might swap out my Rogue M-150 monoblocks (I do at times, I even use my Decware 3.9 watt pentode class amplifer, and others from time to time), maybe a different preamp (but I am happy with the one that I have), maybe another DAC. But, never the A7's with the ALK crossovers.

    I have two more pair of A7's and I need to order two more ALK crossovers, while they are still available.

    Check out my previous post. Yes, ALK's don't come cheap, but they are the best, if someone is wanting to upgrade.

    The good news here is, the Cornscala-Walls perform like the universals that I have, but for a bit less money.

    How often do you hear the word "economy" in connection to higher end audio?

    S&G

    P.S. I would love to have your amps, but I don't have any more room left over for the fork lift!
     
  13. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
     
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  14. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    To some, one digital cable sounds better then another digital cable.

    When I am in our local BB, I cringe, every time I walk by their so called "Audiophile" cables on display. For stupid money, I might add.

    For the motel, I buy Twisted Veins HDMI cables from Amazon, they come in a two pack for half the price of the high end ones at BB. They are better manufactured. They have a cloth covering.

    Included in the box is a HDMI right angle adapter and three micro Velcro straps.
     
  15. Upinsmoke

    Upinsmoke Well-Known Member

    Location:
    SE PA
    Great posting. I agree with what you say about how you "I learn something new every day, which is why I choose to participate in this forum." Thats one of the mean reasons I stick around . I just wish they were a bit , or a lot, better looking. But that would change the whole design and sound of the speaker. I do quite enjoy them though.
     
  16. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Good horn speakers are usually BIG. one member built a DIY cabinet of his own design, that fits nicely with his most excellent gear, in the living room. it is somewhere in the Post Pictures of Your System thread. The wood has a tiger type grain. They are the nicest horns I have seen, ever. He uses an Altec horn. they are taller than they are wide, though, not as tall as a typical tower speaker.

    Altec males some nice cabinets on their higher end home stereo systems back in the early 70's. Back then Spanish styling was the in thing, which severely dates their cabinet designs.

    The top of their home system was the A7-500W (the 500 indicates the 511B style horn and 500 cycle crossover) the A7's were also available with an 800 crossover and a smaller horn like in the Model 19, home cabinets.

    [​IMG]

    This is the A7-500W's, they come in walnut cabinets.

    [​IMG]

    These are the model 19's with the smaller 811b horn.

    You can dress them up, but they are still large and the WAF usually inversely proportional to their size. No matter how you dress them up, they don't usually make the cut.

    I did manage to come across another pair with custom walnut cabinets on eBay. Fortunately, he was in Orlando and I was able to talking him into delivering them , for a modest fee. The bottoms of the original cabinets were cut off about 8" from the bottom and plywood was put over the original cabinets so the horn on top was covered. He had them veneered with a walnut veneer that a friend of his had on hand. He had installed super woofers, made in Europe that cost $350 each. He even had custom grills made with a plastic frame on the inside. They have recapped Altec crossovers which helps. But, the original Altec frequency dividing networks were never the best and (IMO), the weakest link in the A7 system. I need to order some ALK crossovers for these and I will be set.
     
  17. mds

    mds Forum Resident

    Location:
    PA
    Consonance makes a fabulous horn loaded speaker however I thought this was about Bluejean Cables?
     
  18. Van Damme makes good, basic pro cable. It's used in Abbey Road, for example. Comparable to the Belden and Canare stock BJC uses, and also to Mogami and Van den Hul.
     
  19. Also, Klotz cable out of Germany is good stuff too.
     
  20. sunrayjack

    sunrayjack Forum Resident

    Yes if you really want to sell lots of cables, you pit one group against another , kind of like what our politions do to us.
    I just bought a roll of 4 conductor audio cable, I paired two together on each side , it does sound better.
    Of course I'm replacing regular speaker wire that has been spliced many times over again, it can't help but sound better.:wiggle::edthumbs:
     
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  21. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    What in audio is cheap! I am not looking fro cheap, I am looking for quality. The only way I was going to improve the sound was to improve the crossover's.

    At a cost of $200-$300 each, for custom mod',s that you are not going to find down at the corner market, I consider his prices very reasonable.

    Altec's own crossovers are nothing special, they do work, but they don't even bring out the quality that is built into the A7's.

    With these crossovers, the A7's achieve a whole different level above just being a PA speaker.

    I could never get rid of my prized pair. It would be like getting rid of my first born.

    People are indeed fortunate to have his his products, that he builds to order, by hand himself. Look at the quality of the build in the photos. They look mighty fine sitting on top of the A7 cabinets.

    Al is a true artist and engineer.
     
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