Speaker Choices.....

With the rebuild of the Heathkit proceeding apace, I'll need to get some real speakers for it. I have some "P.A. Type" speakers (carpet covered, 8" woofer and a dome tweeter) that I could use, and some Radio Shack/Realistic/RCA "Optimus" mini-bookshelf speakers, but the P.A. speakers aren't really for music (no top or bottom end; all tailored for voice), and I could easily turn the little Optimus speakers into smoking ruins with the Heathkit. Since the amplifier section of this receiver is known for being less than 100% stable with 4 Ohm speakers of current design, and 16 Ohm speakers aren't very common, that leaves me with 8 Ohms as the 'load impedance of choice'.

The amp section is rated at 75 Watts-per-channel with the "Institute for High Fidelity measurement method", and that translates to about 55 Watts RMS, which is much closer to "Real World" than the IHF method. Some of the methods used to measure the power output of an audio amplifier are quite....uh....."creative", and were devised to inflate the RMS power measurement for advertising purposes. I used to chuckle when I read some of the results, as they were grossly higher than what the thing would actually put out.

So, I need some 8-Ohm speakers, rated for around 100 Watts. You can easily spend $2k per speaker, something I'd never do unless that rich Uncle I don't know about kicks and leaves me a few semis full of cash.

So after receiving a $25 discount code from Parts Express, I pulled the trigger and ordered two "Hitmaker MT" speaker kits, along with some bits (like binding posts to connect them!) needed to finish the kits.

They should be here in a week or so, and I'll report on them when they get here.

And since it's going to be raining/sleeting/snowing on Friday, I put the BuddiPole vertical back up. The winds have died down for the present, so it's safe to get it back up in the air.