Tech Blog

Eventhough Klipsch is not having a Pilgrimage this year it won't stop the Pilgrims from having fun! 

I helped Michael Colter this weekend put together his Klipsch PA for the "Battle of the Bands".  You can see some of the other photo's at this link:

http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/p/116595/1210452.aspx#1210452

Here is the critical info:

Who?  YOU, and anyone else with a passion for things Klipsch audio wise. So drive, fly, whatever, just get to Indy.

What?  A get together we will call for now "IndyFest 2009" celebration!

Where?  Indianapolis, Indiana...................  (Broadripple Park on Saturday)

When?  June 12-14 2009

Why?  (Michael aka Colterphoto1 and Roger aka IndyKlipschFan) think a annual get together is a great idea. Especially in bad times. It allows us to share ideas, set ups, and learn from each other. We will demo "All things Heritage" from the smallest to the biggest, and a LOT of the Pro Gear including a full MCM system and the mighty Jubilees too.  All in one weekend.. You can get your ears full of that classic Klipsch sound, learn about drivers and x overs and how to keep your Klipsch speakers running for life!   

While I'm ranting about the internet, I thought I would go ahead and rant about receivers.  I'm not talking about football receivers or the receiver hitch on the back of your truck.  I'm talking about AV or home theater receivers.

I have barely used a receiver since I lived at home with my parents with Dad's old Pioneer basic receiver.  Everything made sense.  You plug the CD player into the CD input and hit the CD source button to hear the sound from the CD play through your speakers.  Even in college, plug the right device into the right input, hit the right button and boom done.  I have never used a receiver that has HDMI, video switching, upscaling, etc.

So, marketing-buddy-Phil came over to my desk this morning asking for my help to set up a receiver for an event this afternoon.  Happy to help, I went upstairs to take a look.  HOLY COW!  Fully assignable digital audio, analog audi, s-video, composite, component, and HDMI inputs and outputs.  WOW.  So after stumbling through the reciever display, we finally got something on the screen and could use the more extensive on screen display feature of the receiver.  Menu after menu... guess after guess... we finally had video and audio coming through the system.  It was great... except for one thing... no subwoofer.  So I hit one single button, and I don't remember which one, and click... everything was gone.  I had no clue why or how, and couldn't get it back.  

While I went online to read the manual (yes, I do that type of thing), someone else came by and quickly, very quickly, figured it out.  

So, the moral of the story.  Read your manuals.  Does anyone actually read the manual, or do they just push buttons until it works?

I'll try to keep the rants to a minimum in the future.  As you can tell, the marketing department has been challenging me with blogs and a/v setups this week.  It's a good thing I like challenges.

Hello Internet?

I find it incredibly ironic that I am posting for the Klipsch Technical Blog, yet I have had SO MUCH TROUBLE posting to the Klipsch Technical Blog.  I typically find myself rather comfortable in most electronic/technical situations.  I even consider myself a slightly above average computer literate individual since almost any problem that I have run across within the actual computer, has not been a problem to figure out (or maybe the problems that I have run across are easy to fix)  However, I have continued to discover my Achilles heel, which is basically anything involving that little RJ45 plug with 2 blinking lights on the back of your computer or for you advanced folks with 802.11 g/b/n/z/q.... ok I made up the last few, or at least I think I did.

I have always struggled with anything network or webpage creation related.  TCP/IP, floating IPs, HTML, Java, XML, HTTPS, ISP, Domains, etc.  Perhaps my struggle with it has caused me to avoid it like the plague, therefore never allowing me the chance to be even mediocre at it. 

I bring this up because I have sheepishly walked over to Amy's or Jenny's desk, asking for help with something that seems so simple yet I just can't find the right button or find an in-progress post that I saved or make a link to a particular Image S4 video. 

This also reminds me of the incredible task of setting up my home network.  Of the 3 roommates, I was elected the most computer savvy and therefore the task of setting up the network was defaulted to me.  Of course the network had to be wireless, so that we don't have to run cables down the hall to everyone's individual computer.  It took me over a year to get a reliable network running.  When I first set up the WIFI network, everything worked great... for about a month... then the troubles started.  Our network would not stay running for more than a week without failure.  The I would have to re-set everything up again.  After a year of tech support calls, three internet service provider technician visits, replacing the modem... twice, replacing the wireless router, and having the power company correct the phase of the electricity at our house - we now have a high speed wireless network that has not failed in almost a year.  And now I have jinxed myself.

Maybe someday, I'll conquer this interweb, but for now I'll enjoy it by surfing content instead of making the content (except for these Klipsch blogs). Thank God for Klipsch IT services.

Does anyone else struggle with this or have similar difficulties with a different subject?

Welcome to the All things Technical blog, where we will cover all things technical.

My name is Brad. I am a Mechanical Design Engineer at the Klipsch Corporate Headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana. I am a graduate of the Purdue University Mechanical Engineering program and have been here at Klipsch for 3 years as of May. As a mechanical engineer at Klipsch, I completely design our products in a simulated 3-d environment before they are ever made into something tangible. An example of this is hidden in our most recent product release... the Image S4 headphone!

Klipsch Image S4

If you watch the Image S4 video found in the link above, you will notice at the end the headphone magically starts to "EXPLODE"! Well, this is actually a computer simulated explosion. The video was directly exported from the 3-d environment in which I work. Then Marketing Phil took the exported video and used his marketing creative genius to build the entire video.

As the mechanical designer for all Klipsch headphone, the Image S4, in my honest opinion, are the absolute best sounding headphones for the price... only $79.99 (with free shipping on our website!!!). Not only do they sound great, but they look phenomenal. Check them out!  If you've got questions... ask them!

If you have interest in a particular topic, drop me a line.  I'll try to cover it.