Even MORE speakers!

Gentle reader,

I have come across a number of interesting speakers and a vintage receiver via our local thrift stores.

Here's the room with all the speakers posing before I got the newest ones:
Note the powered 12" subwoofer in the middle with a single vintage Pioneer speaker on top.

Here's the vintage Pioneer receiver on top. I've set it up as a mono "Hi-Fi". I've run a single RCA cable with "Y" adapters on both ends from the turntable to the receiver. Plus I ran a long ground wire between the receiver and the stereo's pre-amplifier to prevent hum while playing records.
When I play mono records, of which I have many, I unplug the phono cables from the turntable that connect to the big stereo and plug in the "Y" adapter. That way I can experience old mono recordings in a similar way to how they sounded way back then. The Pioneer stuff is mid-1970's, long after almost everything was stereo, but it's close as I can get, equipment-wise to 1950's tube equipment. Pricey stuff these days. The receiver had "walnut" vinyl end panels and top plate. The former were peeling. So, I completed the peel and sanded them and the top and painted them black. Modernizes the look and looks far better than it did. I think the receiver was $25 and the single speaker $6. What happened to it's mate? A mystery. Above is how the room was set up before. The Wharfedales, which are model: Diamond 7.1, and the powered subwoofer were played together with the sub dividing the signals; bass it kept, the rest it sent to the small speakers. The Bose 301s were to be the main speakers. They really do sound amazing. Here is a close-up of one Wharfedale with one of the Sony speakers on top. The Sony's I found at Salvation Army and for $20, I thought, give 'em a try. They are currently in series with the NON-powered sub which I got for $25. It is a vintage Radio Shack Optimus 12" model. It too divides the music. Remember, I like the speaker grilles off. They sound better. Here is a close-up of the vintage 1975 Genesis model I speaker. $14.95 at a small thrift shop we hadn't visited in years.
Note the wooden, "masonite" tweeter face plate! The rest, save the inverted dome, is metal or magnet. First speakers I've heard where the tweeter dome is concave rather than convex. Does a fantastic job. Highs are tight and crisp and the sound stage images are excellent. The woofers are Radio Shack replacements that some prior owner installed some ten years ago. Very nice drivers at $30 a piece then. About $40. today. The original woofers had green foam surrounds. As is my practice, I have "rubberized" these surrounds. Here is a link to "Human Speakers" the company that formed from the original Genesis Physics: HUMAN Speakers: Home

Above is how the room looks right now. I'm thinking of trying the speaker stands that are shown in the very top picture under the Lyric/Eosone speakers. They are in this room.

I'm thinking, once I sell the excess speakers, yes dear, really, I will buy some rebuilt woofers from Human to fully experience the 1970's Genesis sound.
The above image is courtesy of Human speakers. It shows that groovy green surround. Their signature like Cerwin-Vega uses red surrounds.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading my blog!

Scott

Too many speakers!

Gentle reader,

If you've followed my posts at all, and thank you if you have, it's often about stereo equipment.

I've found some real bargains in speakers lately in my favorite thrift stores. I found and passed on some Danish speakers: Tangent HTD-50. They had a very nice sound and great sound-stage. They even matched my furniture. However, at the time, I had no speaker stands and to sound their best, they have to be out in the room. Here's a picture:The woofers while small, are woven fiberglass and produce amazing bass. The tweeters are silk-domes. I'm sure the new owner is happy with them.

Then I found some English-made Wharfedale speakers. They are Diamond 7.1 and about the same size as the Tangents. I have not taken individual photos of them yet, here they are along with the OTHER bargain priced speakers I found:
The Wharfedales are the small black ones in the back on stands. The stands I lent to my youngest son to use with some speakers I'd gotten for him. He returned them to me at my request and included the Yamaha speakers: Covered above and uncovered below: Here are the DCM KX-12s that I've been raving about waiting forlornly in the back of the room. The things on top are the grilles for the naked four speakers in front. Why? Well, frankly, when I played music through the tiny Wharfedale speakers, I was blown away by their sound-stage and clarity. Suddenly, the DCMs didn't sound as good as I thought. So, I decided to move the Lyric/Optimus/Polk-Eosone speakers from this room into the listening room and give them a try. They sound much better than the DCMs. But then, the Polk-Eosone drivers were made for vastly more expensive speakers than the DCMs. SO, the DCMs will be for sale once the holiday business is over.

SO, what about those four speakers in front, and why do none of the speakers have grilles on them?

I'll answer the last part first. Speakers usually sound better without fabric in front of them. Even though it is supposed to be "acoustically transparent". So, I leave them off.

The four in front are very vintage (mid-1960's) speakers are KLH Model Twentys. I got all four of them for $25.

These speakers were part of the KLH System Twenty. It was a Garrard record changer/radio/amplifier in one unit and a pair of these speakers. They had a single
RCA plug on the back. The system sold for $395 in 1965. That's over $2,700 today.
For a long time in the early stereo days, inexpensive equipment used RCA plugs for speaker connections. I guess that's why KLH used them: To simplify connections.

The KLH System Twenty could be compared to what today is called: "Home Theater in a box".

I have removed those RCA terminals and replaced them with three-way binding posts so that regular speaker wires can be attached. I like double banana plugs, so installed them in the standard 3/4" spacing. Here are some three-way binding posts I installed in the B.I.C speakers I snagged from an antiques store for $50:
Here's the B.I.C Venturi Formula Six speakers from the front:
I'd desired those speakers since they came out in 1975. I enjoyed their brief stay here. I passed them on to another collector.

Back to the KLH Twentys. I found that of the four, only one tweeter worked. Research indicated that the capacitors that block low frequencies from the tweeters were at fault. This proved true, but one tweeter was also bad. I believe that is why the person had four of them. Because the tweeters stopped working. So, he bought two more speakers.

I replaced the tweeter, thanks to Cy Bean in Washington state. And all the 8 micro-farad non-polarized capacitors.

I also restored the finish on all four as well as cleaned the fabric grilles.

I've moved a pair in here and will pass on the other pair to a fellow collector in the near future.

I hope to find (and have mentally kicked myself for selling the one I had) a Dynaco surround sound adapter:
Here's the back:
Of COURSE now, I can't find even ONE for sale! But when I do, I will move the Wharfedale speakers to the back of the room so that I can enjoy old Quadraphonic LPs and modern SACD Surround discs in the listening room.

That's it for now. Thanks for looking and reading!

Scott in Virginia.

TT is GONE and an Australian Ford takes it's place!

Gentle Reader,

If you've followed my blog at all, (which I greatly appreciate!) you may recall my much-loved and enjoyed double denim blue 2000 Audi TT quattro. It's a halo car and is one that's been listed as one of the most significant cars in automotive history. Not mine, TT's as a whole.

I had it for two years and four months. It was a fantastic car that was supremely comfortable, VERY quick and handled like a dream. The previous owner had put thousand$ in it and it was better for it.

But, being German, it can be and was finicky. I sold it on eBay and it is now in the hands and wallet of a young man in Tennessee. May he drive in peace.

Flush with cash, something that is VERY rare in our life, I set out to find a suitably fun replacement. Something that was different. I and sometimes my lovely wife too, test drove and sat in a great number of cars. One that intrigued me was a 2001 Volvo V70 T5. It was very rare in that it has a cloth interior and best of all a MANUAL transmission. This is a must for me. It was too pricey, and a bit too big. Quick though! Turbo powered.

Another gorgeous wagon-like car I drove was a Lexus IS-300 Sportcross. This thing is RED! Light tan leather interior. Smooth inline six and great size. Sadly, for Americans, Lexus only outfitted the Sportcross with automatics. Otherwise, plus less money, it would be mine.

There were many others looked at and driven. When testing "previously enjoyed" cars, the sales people will let you go by yourself. They have your vehicle on their lot and a copy of your driver's license. So, theoretically, they could track you down if you stole their car. No worries here. I don't steal cars.

So, you may be wondering, "What is this mysterious Australian Ford?" It is a 1991 Mercury Capri XR2. Made in May, 1990 and delivered July 20, 1990. So it is more than twenty years old. I tracked down the original owner and enjoyed speaking with him. I'm the third owner.

The previous one had the car re-painted, it's RED, and it was done very well. He may have replaced the top, but maybe not. Regardless, the car only had 84,000 miles on it. After twenty years! Superb condition, too, as you can see in the photo at the top of the page and below.So, what is a Mercury Capri and what is the XR2 part? The car was designed by the Italian design firm: Ghia. Here is a link telling about the Barchetta show car as sold by Christie's:GHIA BARCHETTA CONCEPT | Christie's
That explains it better than I could.

So, it was built upon the Mazda 323 chassis and engines/transmissions. The base (non-XR2) has a 100 horsepower 1.6 liter engine with single overhead camshaft and two-valves-per-cylinder. Standard with five speed manual transmission. Auto trans were optional. Fifth gear is overdrive. It has a hydraulic clutch actuation.

The XR2 has Mazda's 323 GT/GTX engine and transmission. It is still 1.6 liters but has twin (dual) camshafts and four-valves-per-cylinder. Output is 132 horsepower with 136 pound-feet of torque at 3000 RPM. How does it make that much more power? A turbocharger. At 60 MPH it is turning 3000 RPM. This means passing someone is easy in top gear as the engine is already at maximum torque. Forth and fifth are both overdrive and the clutch is operated by a cable. The GTX Mazda was four-wheel-drive.

The Capris are front wheel drive. Odd that Mazda would be happy with a car built with their mechanicals that would be direct competition for their Miata. But since Ford owned a good chunk of Mazda then, they had to go along.

The Capri was sold as a Ford in "the land down under" and a Mercury in the USA. They had planned to sell it elsewhere, but that never happened.

As it turns out, the Capri outsold the Miata in it's first nine months here in the USA. It wasn't designed as a real sports car: Front wheel drive, verses the Miata's rear wheel drive. Also, it has a small back seat as well. Nonetheless, it sold well initially.

Sold only from 1990 (1991 models) to 1994. The last year they made design changes and added a passenger air-bag. Only a few hundred '94 models were sold.

So there's the history. How does it compare to the Audi? Very well. Fabric seats which I prefer but not as comfortable. Still feel good though. Plus driver's side has adjustable lumbar
support. Recline as well as height adjustable. Same legroom as the Audi.

It came with an expensive at the time, Kenwood stereo. It was adapted to the factory "Premium Sound" power amplifier. I removed all that and installed a nice JVC stereo with built-in HD radio. I replaced the factory speakers with Pioneers two-ways in the doors and two-way Infinitys in the rear. Sounds MUCH better and I love HD radio.

So far, I've had the timing belt, water pump et.al. replaced and done minor maintenance
and been scrounging up the odd interior pieces that were missing or broken.

It's averaging 28-29 MPG in combined driving. Runs fantastic, handles well and I love being able to put the top down.

It's going to continue to be a "fair weather" car. When it rains or snows, in the truck I goes.

Here's some more photos:As you can see, the back seat is pretty useless. The interior shot above has the since removed radio in place. Note that hole in the right side of the dash? I'm not sure what they intended it for. Not much would stay there....More shots:I've never had so many gauges in one car before! Turbo boost gauge is a new one for me.Below is the whole engine bay. I've been slowly cleaning and detailing it.Last is a close-up of the top of the engine:
The cam cover was originally painted with thick black "crinkle" paint. Most was gone and I'm slowly removing the rest. The "DOHC" and "16 VALVE" were in red.

Finally as mentioned above. The car was designed in Italy by Ghia. Ital Design did the interior. Mazda provided the chassis and drive-train. It was built in Australia. Quite the international car!

Good luck in seeing one. They are quite rare now.

Thanks for looking!

Scott

We went West to California!

Gentle reader,

First off, let me thank those that look at my blog and leave comments. I DO see the comments, unfortunately in most cases, there are no words. Just symbols. Your name or
Blogger ID is also symbols. So, if I wanted to see your blogs, I can't. Very frustrating!

As to the title of the blog, my adoring (and adored!) wife surprised the heck out of me by springing a week long trip to California! This occurred the middle of August.

My dad and his wife, she doesn't want to be referred to as "step-mother" live south of
San Francisco and my one-and-only (and therefore favorite!) Aunt lives north of the City.
She's in the county we lived in and loved from 1963 to 1971. Yes, that dates me.

To see glimpses of that county watch Robin Williams' movie JACK. The school we
(and HE) went to is featured as is where I graduated from the 8th grade.

It was a GREAT place to grow up and we did things no parent would let elementary
aged school kids do today. The boy next door was my best buddy and his family was very
out-doors oriented. I learned to hike and climb REAL mountains plus much more.

My dad is in his late seventies and frankly, not doing to well. All five of us descended on
them, in groups and all enjoyed the chance to visit and see and enjoy California.

We headed north one day, spent it in The City (what they refer to San Francisco as),
then in Marin County. We then went to my aunt's terrific home.

She and I have some rapport that transcends normalcy. She says we're, well it slips my mind how she put it, but it was a nice thing to say.

To put it mildly: WE LOVED CALIFORNIA! OK, so that wasn't so mild. First off, it took a while to sink in that we were actually there. The weather? Garden of Eden comes to mind. PERFECT! Cool (60's at night) 75-80 in the daytime. NO humidity! Loved that best of all.

The MOUNTAINS! We couldn't get over their ever-presence. Look just about any direction and there they were. I mean I climbed them as a kid, but that was DECADES ago!
Everywhere we went, we wanted to stay and explore. A week is just too short a time. We could easily move there and happily spend the rest of our days.

We've never seen so many FIT people. Everywhere were people on bikes, running and doing all kinds of healthy things. Expensive sports cars, check! Beautiful people, check!

I need to edit the hundreds of photos to make them loadable for this site, so stay tuned for that. OK, here's one, a very cooperative hummingbird.
Each way we had to land in Denver to catch a second flight. That worked well for us because we were ready to get out of that plane. Denver's new airport is HUGE! We got lots of exercise finding the correct gate.

Lastly on the first leg of our flight home from San Jose to Denver, I was in the middle, my wife on my left and a young Indian woman had the window seat.
We got to talking. She and her husband have only been in the US for a few years. She's an audio engineer with Apple. So, we had that to talk about. Then we talked about India. I referenced a book I'd read and she rattled off the title. Like that! I told her about Indian co-workers and neighbors and before we knew it, we were landing at Denver.
Made for a short but pleasant flight. To our surprise she asked if I had e-mail of facebook or something. I said, "You want my e-mail address?" "Well, yes, I wasn't certain myself until just now." So, I gave her both of our addresses.

Did she e-mail? No. Either she chickened out, came to her senses, or told her husband about it and he put his foot down. Either way, it was flattering that a woman young enough to be my child found me interesting enough to want to continue the relationship.

Fortunately for ALL. I am STILL very much in LOVE with my wife. Ain't no pretty face
ever gonna make me stray!

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Scott

Minor Changes

Gentle readers,

I made a minor change to the stereo.

I'd bought a used (twenty years old it turns out) Denon DCD-560 CD player. It was listed with a problem (cup-holder won't open) for $9.99.

It arrived and I found the CD door would unlatch, but not motor open. Yet, I could pull it open. Took it apart, a little oil here and there and it mostly worked. The good thing was that it played. Then.

A couple of days went by and I tried it again. Nothing. No lights, nothing. Eventually it started working again, but wouldn't play any more. Then nothing again.

OK, learned my lesson. Don't buy broken things unless I'm certain I can fix them.

Still, it had some very nice feet on it. So, I salvaged them and completely disassembled it, recycling everything.

I thought, these feet would look right nice under my Adcom pre-amp. I was right. While I had it pulled out from the wall, I marked all the RCA cables and dusted everything.

The feet did fit perfectly and do look good:

If you recall what the stereo looked like in the living room, you may note some differences. I sold the Chinese Indeed hybrid tube headphone amp and moved the watt-meter down between the power amp and SACD player. Neater appearance over all.

Thanks for looking!

Scott

Got Miatas out of my system!

Gentle readers,

I have not written anything about cars lately. You may recall that I drive a tastefully modified 2000 Audi TT quattro. It's denim blue inside and out as seen above.

I truly love this car. We've had it for two years and three months. It came with the six-spoke 17" wheels that were factory options with Toyo snow tires mounted on them.
I bought the wheels you see via eBay. They are replicas of Audi RS4 wheels and have
General Exclaim UHP summer tires mounted on them from Tire Rack.

The car has given me some problems since we've owned it, mostly electrical in nature.
I fixed them all, however. Then..............

A couple of months ago, I accelerated away from a stop light and heard a clunk! I looked in the mirror to see if I'd run over something or if something fell off, but saw only pavement.

I pulled into a lot and heard the noise again. OK, time to call AAA. They towed it home and it took me weeks to finally pinpoint the problem and fix it: The previous owner, amongst the various modification he did, replaced the stock lower engine mount with one made of solid aluminum and polyurethane bushings instead of rubber bushings. The bolts supplied with it snapped off even with the holes they were in. I fixed it with factory bolts and drove the car perhaps a week when another problem arose.

Rounding the corner on to our street, I heard the power steering moaning as if low on fluid. It was, I added some, noise went away until the next morning when I started it.
Another long search and even longer repair. The right side of the steering rack had sprung a leak.

On the PITA meter, this replacement was a huge one! Finally with help from a friend and Nancy, we succeeded and am I glad we did. I'm in love with the car again.

While I agonized over that huge repair job I was facing, I considered selling the TT and buying something else to drive. One main choice was a Mazda Miata. I've always liked the little things and began an Internet search. Not far away I found a lovely (in pictures) 1999 Tenth Anniversary Edition model. Blue with bruise interior (black and blue, get it?). Six speed and lots of other nice stuff. The price was low. Here it is:
Looks right pretty, doesn't it? Looks can be deceiving. This one was accessible on the lot, the other one they had, also a '99 was the base model; green with black fabric seats, same wheels but painted, five-speed, not six. Less mileage and $400 less price. Much better condition too.

I found immediately with this blue one: Antenna snapped off, top holed and shrunken, clear coat on paint starting to peel. 75,000 miles and it was a one-owner, but I doubt they took care of it. Engine although steam-cleaned showed it's age.

Right in front of the green Miata was a slightly newer blue Audi TT. So Nancy could see and pace-off that Miatas aren't THAT much smaller. Anyway, we squeezed into the blue one and took off. Tiny shifter. I fit, but we both felt like we were wearing the car. Nancy felt unsafe, pointing out how low the doors were compared to our cars. She drives a Scion TC. Also no side air-bags.

The car ran fine, pulled stronger than I expected (about half the horsepower and torque of the TT, but also 600 pounds lighter). It felt good to drive despite the way we felt otherwise. Still, it isn't a four-seasons car like the all-wheel-drive TT is.

We got back to the dealer (they took the Miata photo above) and got out. There were PLENTY of gorgeous and some rare cars there: BMW Z3 coupe, Volvo S60 R AWD, some other drop-top sports cars. Even a gorgeous BMW M3 convertible.

BUT, since my hopes were on selling the TT and buying a replacement for cash, and most of all realizing that a Miata is not for me. We drove off happily in the TT. I remarked to Nancy that I felt a weight lifted from my shoulders. No longer was owning the TT in doubt.

Thanks for reading!

Scott

Adventures in music downloading. OR: It all started with a CD given to me.

Gentle readers,

One of my co-worker stereo buddies told me about a demo CD he had from a high-end (six figure $, made in France) speaker company. He said he'd make me a copy.

The company is FOCAL JMLabs. As I said, they are French. Here is a place in the USA that sells them: Focal JM LAB

So, he did make me a copy. Plus a copy of the list of songs. Only seven and some are cut short.

Bird of Prey by George Winston (Solo piano)
These Bones by Fairfield Four (Gospel)
All at Once by Jack Johnson (soft rock)
Adagio in G Minor by Albinoni by Gary Karr (Cello and church organ)
You and the Night by Patricia Barber (Jazz)
Tin Pan Alley by Stevie Ray Vaughn (Blues)
Vol de Nuit by Hadouk Trio (Jazz)

As you know by now, I'm very pleased with my stereo, especially in the listening room verses when in the living room.

Let me tell you, for the first time in 35 years of listening to music on good equipment, this CD sounded like LIVE music in front of me! Especially in the second tune, I never knew the human male voice could sing so D-E-E-P! WOW!

Every cut is awesome. If only all CDs could sound this good!

So, I was now on a quest. To find the CDs that these tunes came from, not all of them, just Jack Johnson, Patricia Barber, Stevie Ray Vaughn and the Hadouk Trio.

Thanks to the Internet, eBay and Amazon I was able to find them all at bargain prices!

Next, I was going to see if I could find more Focal Demo CDs. That was where the adventure began.

I do not believe in MP3 technology! I have no desire to own an iPOD or any other device that will hold and play MP3s. The process of making them from standard digital music sources removes a lot of the music. Which is why people listen to them on "ear buds". They are incapable of playing the full 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz of audible sound.

That said, I have never, until this project downloaded music or videos. Never been that need. My guess is that Focal gives out these CDs with purchase of their high-dollar speakers. Or perhaps selling them to buyers of them. I don't know.

It seems there is much demand for them, based on what the other of my stereo buddies at work tells me. It didn't take me long to find them. Six total and here is what the fellow that tracked them down wrote:

"OK, finally all in one easy place to download. All 6 Focal Demo Discs. All tagged and in Apple lossless format. Get 'em while you can."

Here is the page he wrote the above:
All 6 Focal Demo Discs Ready for Download - DIYMA.com

You see, I'm not telling you where to get them, just where I found the links. That way I am not promoting music down-loading. If YOU want them, you know where to find them.

Now, the adventures. They are in RAR format. I had no idea what that was, but found that it was invented by a Russian fellow some years ago.

So, now, I had to figure out how to open RAR files. A search revealed "7-Zip". It is a free program that will unzip many different types of files.

Now they are in MPEG-4. This is the "Apple Lossless" the fellow refers to. OK, now what? I had to download Apple's "Quicktime" player. Now I could play them on the computer, but not put them on CD!

I needed a program to convert MPEG-4 to WAV format. Free to download but $39.00 to buy a one-year license is "AVS Audio Converter 6".

Knowing not much about digital music, other than "Red Book" CDs are sampled at 44.1 KHz, I chose the highest of everything: PCM codec, 96,000 Hz and a bitrate of 6144. Whatever that means.

Now, they are in WAV which should write to CD, right? Nope. Window's Media Player had to convert them down to Red Book first! I guess that's what it was doing.

Now, ALL of this takes TIME. Lots of it. So far, I've done five CDs. The last is test tones and other stuff. It's called "Demo Disc 2".

So, they have all kinds of music on these CDs and yes, they do sound FANTASTIC!

I have just completed the conversion and recording of the Test Disc. Now to show how much the Apple Lossless MPEG-4 compresses the music, the TOTAL file size is 2.44 Gigabytes. Uncompressed as recorded onto CD the TOTAL file size is 18.9 Gigabytes! WOW!

Here's the song/tune lists:

Focal JMLab Demo Disc 1

01 - Juniot Wells - Sweet Sixteen
02 - Michael Ruff - Wishing Well
03 - Harvey Mandel - Tears For Eric
04 - Thom Rotella - Naima
05 - James Nowton Howard - Amuseum
06 - Ron Tutt - Improvisation
07 - Lincoln Mayorga - Dock Of The Bay
08 - Harry James - Sweet Georgia Brown
09 - Eddyston Light Luxon & Crofut - Bold Nelson
10 - Jeannie Bryson - Fever
11 - Rebecca Pidgeon - Spanish Harlem
12 - Livingston Taylor - Grandmás Hands
13 - Henry Mancini - Pink Panther
14 - Guiseppe Verdi - Requiem Dies Irae
15 - Guiseppe Verdi - La Donna E Mobile
16 - Antonio Vivaldi - Flute Concerto In D

Focal JMLab Demo Disc 3

01 - Junior Wells - Use Me
02 - Livingston Taylor - Isn't She Lovely
03 - Friend 'n Fellow - One More Day
04 - Rebecca Pidgeon - Grandmother
05 - Robert Hohner Percussion Ensemble - La Bamba
06 - James Newton Howard - She
07 - Thom Rotella Band - Patti Cake
08 - McCoy Tyner - Miss Bea
09 - Johnny Frigo - Stompin' at the Savoy
10 - Carlos Heredia - De Volao, Bulerias
11 - Jim Keltner - Improvisation
12 - Carl Orff - Fortune, Introduction
13 - Vaclav Nelhybel - Trittico
14 - Igor Stravinsky - The Soldier's March
15 - Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Summer

Focal JMLab Demo Disc 4

01 - Terry Callier - C'est La Vie
02 - Joe Jackson - Cha Cha Loco
03 - Bernard Lavilliers - Romeo Mochado
04 - Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 - For What It's Worth
05 - Pooka - The Insect
06 - 16 Horsepower - Brimstone Rock
07 - Alain Bashung - La Nuit Je Mens
08 - Lucky Peterson - Who's Been Talkin`
09 - John Scofield - A Go Go
10 - Dee Dee Bridgewater - Killing Me Softly
11 - Pierpoljak - Je Sais Pas Jouer
12 - Black Uhuru - Chill Out
13 - Charly Antolini - Endless
14 - Cyrill Lutzelschwab & Martin Hess - Boxenkiller
15 - Yello - Resistor
NOT RECORDED
16 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Concerto No.21, Andante

Focal JMLab Demo Disc 5

01. OLETA ADAMS Everything must change
02. SOUAD MASSI Raoui
03. RICKIE LEEJONES Dat dere
04. PARIS COMBO Trois petits points
05. GEORGE BENSON The ghetto
06. GRACEJONES I’ve seen that face before (Libertango)
07. DEAN FRASER Dick Tracy
08. MICHEL PORTAL M.P.on the run
09. VEST Who
10. FOXY BROWN Get me home
11. RAHSAAN PATTERSON The day
12. BILAL Fast lane
13. MAD’HOUSE Like a prayer
14. DAX RIDERS Real fonky time
15. DJ FLEX Ready (Radio Edit)
16. LES ZOURILLES Jano lapin

Focal JMLab Demo Disc 6

01 - Feist - One Evening
02 - Molly Johnson - Melody
03 - Emile Simon - Flowers Never Die
04 - J.J. Cale - Hold On
05 - Marvin Gaye - I want you
06 - Mighty Mo Rodgers - The Boy who stole the blues
07 - Roy Hargrove - Hardgroove
08 - Willie Bobo - Spanish grease
09 - Salif Keita - Madan
10 - Martin Solveig - Someday
11 - Audun kleive - Never thought I would
12 - Benny Benassi - Satisfaction
13 - A.R. Rahman - Mumbai Theme
14 - Oscar Peterson Trio - You look good to me
NOT RECORDED:
15 - Monty Alexander Trio - Nite mist blues

Focal JMLab Demo Test Disc (2)

01 - Technical Tracks - Left and Right Channel Test , 02 - Pink Noise-
Ref 14dB Fs, 03 - Front Channels Polarity Test, 04 - Subwoofer Tracks -
Single Cylinder Moto Engine, 05 - Muffled, 06 - Sourdo, 07 - Walking
Cello, 08 - Setting Interface Test-Digital Silence 0 bits
09 - Sine Wave Signals - 1kHz-Ref 14dB Fs, 10 - Sine Wave Signals -
20Hz 11 - 25Hz, 12 - 31Hz, 13 - 40Hz, 14 - 50Hz, 15 - 63Hz, 16 - 80Hz,
17 - 100Hz, 18 - 125Hz, 19 - 160Hz, 20 - 200Hz, 21 - 250Hz, 22 - 325Hz,
23 - 400Hz, 24 - 500Hz, 25 - 630Hz, 26 - 800Hz, 27 - 1KHz, 28 - 1.25KHz,
29 - 1.6KHz, 30 - 2KHZ, 31 - 2.5KHz, 32 - 3.15KHz, 33 - 4KHz, 34 - 5KHz,
35 - 6.3KHz, 36 - 8KHz, 37 - 10KHz, 38 - 12KHz, 39 - 16KHz, 40 - 20KHz,
41 - Sliding Frequencies - 20Hz to 160Hz, 42 - 160Hz to 1.25kHz. 43 - 1.
25kHz to 10kHz, 44 - 10kHz to 20kHz,
45 - Staging Evaluation - Walking Saxophone - Left-Center-Right-Center 'Le feu des Dieux' - Olivier Lataste 46 - Pencil Circle Drawings - Macro
Stereophonic Recording, 47 - Tape Roller Unrolling - Macro Sterophonic
Recording, 48 - Transient Response Test - Bulb Drop, 49 - UDU Sound
Take (Jug), 50 - Musical Instruments - Oboe, 51 - Cello, 52 - Acoustic Guitar, 53 - Drums-Progressive Rise In Intensity, 54 - Drums-Toms, 55 - Bass Line Drums, 56 - Bass Play, 57 - Bass Slap, 58 - Applause, 59 - Applause outdoors.
60 - Musical Tracks - Olivier Lataste - Le phare et la lune,
61 - Male Voice-Pierre Delorme - Reves,
62 - Female Voice-Chislain Marchetto - L'homme de la derniere chance
63 - Male and Child Voices-Gilles Pauget - Blues d'automne
64 - Vocal Group-J.Joplin arranged by E. Moulin - Mercedes Benz
65 - Jazz Rock-arranged by R.Guillard - Over The Rainbow
66 - Jazz-(P.Ruche) RMR - Maia
67 - (A. Ciesla) Doumka Clarinet Ensemble & Youval Micenmaker - Danse du lustre
68 - 109 - Donne
69 - Romain Gayral - Solminharm (High spectral density setting drivers response test)
70 - Educational Tracks - Compressed Drums, 71- Uncompressed Drums,
72 - 25Hz to 20kHz Compressed-Olivier Lataste - La derniere borne
73 - 25Hz to 20kHz Uncompressed-Olivier Lataste - La derniere borne
74 - Full Fledge Orchestra, 75 - Full Fledge Orchestra

Now, if you are like me, you probably don't recognize most of these artists. Disc 5 is mostly music that Nancy would like. In fact, I just put it in her computer for her to try out.

So, why do they sound so great? I suspect great care was taken in making them. Close miking, careful mixing and mastering. The main thing is they all have IMPACT. Even the Baroque music has so much LIFE to it.

Of course one must have really good equipment to fully realize just how real the music sounds.

You may have noted that on two of them, the last tune did not record. I don't know why, just that WMP found an error in them.

That's it for now. My next post will be on replacing the fluid leaking steering rack on my Audi TT Quattro. To see what is involved go here:
Power steering rack replacement how-to - AudiWorld Forums

Life's too short to waste! Have some adventures!

Take care,

Scott

New speaker placement and wires.

Gentle reader, if there be any of ye,

A couple of co-workers have expressed their fellow interest in stereos and music, and one also brought in his old Leica M3 to show me. What a thrill it was for me to handle and try out one of those historic and significant cameras!

The other one asked if there were any new postings on my blog. So here I am making one.

Nancy, at my request, got me the one thing I requested for Christmas: Jim Smith's book Get Better Sound. Available at Get Better Sound

Following Jim's considerable advice, I realized I could not achieve the sound I was seeking with the stereo in the living room. The transfer to the den was chronicled in my post called Massive Changes: http://therobbcollections.blogspot.com/2010/05/massive-changes.html

On that page, you will see the last picture has the BOSE 301s turned to the inside some and the DCMs flat on the floor and closer together. Take a look at how they are now:
I've moved them farther apart, and following Jim's advice, took great pains to make sure they are both exactly the same distance from the walls and corners. Also, using a laser level, I have the tweeters pointed EXACTLY at my ears both horizontally and vertically.
I also bought spikes for them and they are "grounded" to the wood floor beneath the carpet. As you can see, I placed the speaker switch on top of the sub-woofer and wired it so that the DCMs are #1 and BOSEs are #2 with their wiring going through the sub-woofer's variable crossover.
The DCMs are more efficient than the BOSEs therefore play louder. This placement has definitely improved the DCMs sound and soundstage. I'm happy with them again.
Also, the BOSEs are now exactly parallel to the walls so that their "Direct-Reflecting" design works to it's best effect. Ideally, they should be the same distance from the side walls, but I had to mount them where the studs are. While the right front tweeter does not point exactly at my ears like the left one does, the wide dispersion of the cone, yes cone, tweeters more than makes up for that. BOSE has always used cone tweeters.
There is nothing inherently wrong with cone tweeters. They are cheaper to make than dome tweeters and some feel the dome by it's converse domed shape has better dispersion that cone tweeters. That may be true, but BOSE has added "lenses" to the tweeters front and rear that help dispersion.
The DCMs, you may recall, have horn-loaded tweeters. Very few expensive speakers use horn-loaded tweeters. Klipsch being one maker. But JBL in their five figure K2 and Everest speakers do as well as horn-loaded mid-range speakers. Altec-Lansing of course uses both in their commercial speakers (think: stadiums and concerts). Their Voice of the Theatre classic speakers for home do as well. Anyway, a bit of a tangent there, the DCM's tweeters disperse quite well, but they will never beat the BOSE 301s for wide soundstage.

Now, I also replaced the 12 gauge twisted pair speakers wires I bought via eBay for $60 for 200 feet with:

Monster Cable Ultra 600 THX Certified 14GA Speaker Wire 40 FT Package


This 14 gauge Monster Cable Ultra 600 ultra high quality speaker wire is THX certified to deliver the best possible sound through your home entertainment system. This speaker wire is CL3 rated for in wall installation. This speaker wire is made for high quality speaker connections and delivers increased current handling for more power resulting in deeper bass and higher highs.

• 40 FT Length Single Run 14GA Speaker Wire
  
• THX Certified for Ultra High Quality Sound
• UL CL3 Rated for In Wall Installation
  
• Large Gauge Precision Wound Strandings
  

Thanks be to Monster for the above description. It list's for $60 for forty feet. Plus it is 14 gauge, slightly thinner. However, the THX certification indicates the wire to be of a much higher standard than the blue and silver wires. Here are some close-ups:The top photo shows the old on the left and the new on the right. The camera focused on the leather rather than the wire, but I couldn't see that until opening it in the computer.
The bottom photo shows the wire and what looks like a third silver wire in there. It's actually fabric, what it's for, I do not know.
One thing where the old wire is better is the silver wire is in fact silver plated copper. How they can plate wires that are as thin as hairs, I don't know. Silver is a better conductor that copper, but not by much.

Note, I referred to the wires as "thin as hairs" and it may be thinner in both brands. It is thought that electricity flows along the outside of a conductor. That's why they make the wires as thin as possible. They together have much more surface area for the current and signal to flow on.

That is why many small ice cubes cool faster than several normal sized cubes. Much more combined surface area touching the drink.

Lastly, wherever possible, I always use top-quality "Banana plugs" for speaker connections. Double ones if that is the spacing on the device. Again, much larger surface area and stronger connection than "spring" speaker terminals.

Thanks for looking!

Scott

Rubberize your woofers!

Gentle Reader,

If you are looking for my post about "massive changes", look below for the one poster earlier in May, 2010.

http://therobbcollections.blogspot.com/2010/05/massive-changes.html

For some time now, I have been modifying my various woofers to give them rubber surrounds, rather than foam that most come with.

I think the DCM KX-12s were the first that I did because their mid-range drivers come with rubber surrounds and the woofers foam.

HOW did I "rubberize" them, you may be thinking? By careful application of Room Temperature Vulcanizing Silicone glue. That's how. First look at some pictures of standard foam surround speakers:
Above is the OPTIMUS PRO 4000 15" woofer. Below is one of the Eosone 10" woofers. Note the small black patch, that is black RTV that I used to repair the hole I made accidentally with a screwdriver:
The silver material is plastic made to look like aluminum. Lyric speakers were very cheap, so they attempted to make them look more expensive by dressing them up. I have since stopped using the trim rings as you shall see below.

Now for some photos of rubberized woofers:
The above is obviously one of the DCM woofers. Below is one of the Eosone woofers:
Next is two shots of the same woofer, closer detail of the front and detail of the back:

Now, below is one of the BOSE 301 Mark V woofers:
Hey, you may be thinking, you still haven't told us HOW you did it.
OK, RTV Silicone rubber glue comes in a tube similar to toothpaste. It is nasty smelling stuff and frankly electronics don't react well to the fumes either.

The tubes are sealed, but the top of the cap has a point in it to pierce the tube opening.

IF you attempt to do this wear latex or nitrile gloves and MOST importantly in a well ventilated place! Also, keep whatever you are using the RTV on away from electronics as much as possible while it cures so the fumes will not mess up your electronic bits and pieces.

Carefully remove the screws that hold your woofer in place and remove the woofer. You may have to carefully pry it out, or if you make the mistake of taking the screws out while the speaker is standing up, it will fall out when you when you least expect it! They are HEAVY!

Now, if the woofer has removable wire leads, they are shaped kind of like a shovel blade, then carefully slide the wire terminal off. Make NOTE of which wire went where! If they are soldered on, a little silver blob on the wire and speaker terminals, AND you don't solder, I hope you have enough slack in the wires to work on the woofer outside the box.

With gloves on, squeeze a little RTV onto the rounded surface of the foam and carefully spread it along the foam surface. Make it a THIN layer and even too.
Work quickly but neatly. In the thickness you are hoping to achieve it will dry(vulcanize) quickly. Set that woofer aside and do the other one.

Once the front RTV is cured, carefully turn the woofer over. Depending on the size of the woofer, 10" or bigger, you can apply RTV to the inside of the foam with a finger. 8" and smaller use a cheap paint brush about 1/4" wide to apply the RTV. Again, a thin, even and smooth layer is what you want.

Do the other one and wait until the next day to re-install them in the cabinets.

Once you have put the speakers back together, you can enjoy them for MANY, MANY years, hopefully without any surround-related failure.

I can't imagine that rubber surrounds can cost THAT much more that foam to make. Even very expensive speakers often have foam surrounds.

What I think happens over time is the foam deteriorates from exposure to air. Eventually cracking then falling to pieces. Many people never take their speaker grilles off, so never realize the foam has died.

When the foam fails not only does the front of the woofer cone no longer have ANY support, but the front of the cone is now exposed to the bass music waves from the rear of the cone. Below a certain frequency, these rear bass waves sonically cancel out the front waves. Thus a total loss of Bass music.

By the way, the RTV is shiny, but not nearly as is shown in the flash photographs.

Lest you be worried about causing harm to the woofers by applying this RTV to them, or changing the characteristics of your music, fear not.

All the RTV does is form an inert silicone rubber surface that seals the foam surround on both sides preventing the foam from deteriorating. It is very light and VERY flexible so it will not affect your music in any way.

I made some other changes as well. I wanted to add Banana jacks, sometimes called "3-way binding posts" to the BOSE speakers as they only came with spring-loaded terminals which don't work that well. I bought two pairs of Atlona ones via eBay for $4.95 a pair. Quite a bargain, look:
Note the size difference overall as well as the hole for bare wires. Also note the construction. $4.95 a pair! A steal! Here they are from another angle:
Banana plugs are shaped like straight bananas and provide a LOT more surface area for the music to travel through. Plus, they are easy to connect as they just slide in or out. Here they are installed:
I bought them as I said for the BOSE 301s, but they wouldn't fit where I needed to put them, so I put them in the Lyric/Eosone speakers.

While I pooh-poohed the smaller terminals above, they do work a whole lot better than the spring terminals, so I installed them in the BOSE:
It was cool looking inside the BOSE 301s, QUITE different from any other speaker I ever looked in!

How, as promised, here is comparison pictures of the Lyric speakers before and after rubberization:
The one on the right is what they looked like after replacing the rotted foam original woofers with the Eosone ones. The left is all Eosone drivers. Now, RTV'd:
On a side note, here is the numbers of the made-by-Polk EOSONE drivers (above) and what they were used in:

Tweeters are part number 1RD0013-1. It is a 19mm (3/4") titanium dome tweeter. Were used in: RSF-200 three-speaker two-way bookshelf speaker. Second rear-firing tweeter of a different construction. Retailed for $600 a pair.

Woofers are part number 1RD0002-2 and are 10" driver used in: RSP-910 sub-woofer, as well as RSF-1000 Seven-speaker, four-way, dual-woofer top-of-the-line speakers that retailed for $2,500 a pair. Frequency response down to 30Hz. Sub-woofer retailed for $549.

Mid-ranges are part number 1RD0008-2 and are 4" sealed back drivers used in: RSF-1000 Seven-speaker, four-way, dual-woofer top-of-the-line speakers that retailed for $2,500 a pair.

Please keep stopping by from time to time to see what I've been up to. Keep listening to that music! I do!

Scott