planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

I'm thinking of buying a b-stock Klipsch RP504Cii from an AV store in KY. It has a factory warranty of 90 days vs the brand new unit at 5 years, but it's $420 vs $700. What's been your experience with factory seconds? I forgot to mention...the brand new speakers are currently on sale (for I don't know how long) for $595. That's still $175 less to get the b-stock, but with a much shorter warranty.

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

Approximately 45 years ago (but who's counting) I bought a pair of Klipsch La Scala's that were on the floor as demo speakers. 15 years later they still sounded fantastic.

They were purchased from Matthew's TV and Stereo, top of the hill Daly City and if it sounds like a radio ad, that's because it was.

Obviously I have a bias here, but in my humble opinion, Klipsch speakers were the best thing to ever come out of Hope, Arkansas.

If they will let you listen to them and you like what you hear, it's a no-brainer.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

I can't afford the La Scalas! My initial thought was that speakers, unlike a turntable or a CD player, doesn't really have any moving parts to worry about and I've had mixed experiences buying used, even from large NYC-based mega stores. My main speakers, RP600M2s were bought new on sale, but the sub and heights were used and work great. My a992 (used) worked fine for a few years and not is in NJ awaiting $830 in repairs for a new mirror box and mother board...at least I'll end up with a practically new camera. The speakers are about 2 1/2 hrs away from me so a 5-hour road trip is not really practical. I had asked PTH if they inspect the speakers, but they said no because they sell so many b-stock, but the smaller ones like the RP504C are likely to only have outside box damage, unlike the RP8000F2s. and even though they said they have the a-stock at $575 instead of Klipsch's $595, the $420 is a much better bargain. My RP600s were on sale for like $479 each, about a 40% discount. I think the only way to compete is to buy used or HOPE that the 504s go on sale at a better price. I'll be replacing my r-34C, which I bought because the bigger one wouldn't fit under my TV mount. Now I have it on the wall, but I'll still have to rearrange my equipment because I have a Rega P2 sitting on the top now...speaker will have to go on the second shelf.

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

If it's any consolation, my wife absolutely hated those speakers because they took up some serious real estate in the living room.

What a difference a few (ahem) decades can make. I paid just over $800.00 for the La Scalas back then and I was able to many years of use out of them.

I'm sorry to hear about your bad experiences with used things. ALL of my cameras were either gently used or refurbed and all of them still work great.

Good luck.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

I just ordered the walnut RP504Ciis directly from the Paducah Home Theater website for $420. It temporarily, at least, saved me sales tax.

kerry12 Loc: Harrisburg, Pa.

Can't go wrong with Kipsch. Never owned them but those I know who do don't want to part with them.

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

Let me know how you like them. Klipsch has a real talent for making good bass even with their bookshelf speakers. I have a set of Klipsch ear buds that are old enough to have a mini jack. I am thankful to Apple for making an adaptor to convert the lightning connector to that plug.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

Will do. My room doesn't have enough room for floor-standers, but I've been really happy so far with the 600miis. When I added heights, though, I had to change from bi-amping to single, but I also added a 2nd sub so I don't miss the extra bass. My system is a mix - 4 satellites and a 10" sub from Polk and LRC (currently an r34c), front heights and a 12" sub from Klipsch.

BBurns Loc: South Bay, California

The only thing that goes bad on old speakers is the surround mount on the outside perimeter of the cone.
I bought a pair of Infinity Quantum III's in 1978 and still listen to them daily.
I have had the surround replaced 3 or 4 times over the years.
They weigh 110lbs ea & have a large footprint.
I made some custom brackets and mounted them horizontally up high in the corners of the den.

Just a couple of idea that may help.
Good luck.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

Nice looking pair of speakers.

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

You would have loved the system that I built when I was 20-something.

It started out with a rack mount Phase Linear amp and pre-amp which morphed into almost the same thing but had the name Carver on it.

Bob Carver had worked for Phase Linear but had ideas that didn't fit their business model. Enter the Magnetic Field Amp which still put out 200 watts per channel but came as a 6 inch cube.

I used to go shopping for things in Berkeley where some of the finest audio stores in the San Francisco Bay Area lived.

So in between the Carver stuff and the La Scalas was a custom built Denon turntable, a solenoid controlled Onkyo cassette deck whose most used feature was a thing called Accu-bias, which made some sweet-sounding tapes, and then there was an FM tuner that I picked up because the display was early American digital in the form of pixie tubes. Is there anyone out there old enough to remember THOSE relics? Oh yeah, after the price came down I also bought a bare bones 2nd generation Yamaha CD player to the tune of $630.00.

BBurns Loc: South Bay, California

I remember SAE made a FM tuner that had a Nixie tube display.

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

I bought the thing for the tubes, not because of anything resembling stellar audio quality.

It was, after all, just a tuner but I would get comments from time to time on the display.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

My great(?) niece (7 months old, I believe) is in San Francisco. If I've ever been there I was too young to remember. I need to try to make it sometime. They have a townhouse about 3 blocks from Golden Gate park. I get as high end as I can afford. My most recent splurge (I had no choice of replacing the old one) was a Rega Planar 2 turntable with an upgraded VM540ML cartridge replacing the original Rega Carbon cartridge. At one time I had some Boston Acoustics speakers...they were probably the best ones I've had besides the Klipsch.

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

Infinity made some nice speakers too. I had a pair of Infinity Column II's that were connected to the above system before the Klipschs appeared.

I traded them for a Yamaha 400 Enduro. That was a good trade.