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

Massive Changes

Gentle reader,

A short while back, I had an idea and expressed it to Nancy. Her reply, "I love it! Let's do it!"

The idea was to move the HD TV home theater setup to the living room and move the stereo to the den. Thus creating two things: Better seating and more seating capacity for TV/movie watching and a dedicated listening room. We have succeeded in both.

First let me show you what the den looked like before:

You can see the Ikea chairs and ottomans. I wanted a red one. The TV stand matches the rest of the wood, but is from a specialty audio/video furniture company. Also note the two steering wheels/pedal assemblies I made.
The one on the right was the first one I made. It's aluminum square tubing as well as wooden platforms and is collapsible. The one on the left was collapsible, but since I used thinner materials, I had to add a brace from side to side to stiffen it. Now, here is the room set up in "race" mode:
Now, take a look at the couch we have in the living room. We bought it, matching love seat and three tables right after leaving closing when we bought the house. They both are recliners. The couch's center back also folds down and has cup-holders, a speaker phone and the couch also vibrates for massage. Here it is open and ready for use:
Next is the home theater setup in the living room. For visual subtlety, I have returned to the Infinity small silver speakers we started out with. They sound great and are all factory matched sonically.
Here is a wider view with the red chair in situ as well. The chair is darker red than it appears in the photo and is a closer match to the couch:
Now, here's what the den converted to listening room looks like:
I have since these photos were made, moved the big DCM speakers in there with the wonderful BOSE 301s on top of them. I moved the little ones (Lyric/Eosone) back in here tilted back with the spikes. The now empty (again) Optimus Pro boxes may be cut up and made into stands for the BOSE speakers.
I have moved the sub-woofer, a nice 12" unit up from the family room and wired the BOSE speakers through the subwoofer. It reinforces the bottom end of the spectrum that the BOSE units can't quite reach.

I disassembled the family room home theater and am selling off everything we are not currently using. Having two home theaters and a high-end stereo was nice, but silly.

Below you will see the two YAMAHA receivers. The larger one, was used in the den and weighs almost 50 pounds! It is more powerful, 7.1 verses 5.1 and newer than the smaller one that was in the family room driving the BOSE 301s.

So, why have I gone smaller/less powerful? For some reason the big one will not play in stereo, only surround. And unless the source is encoded in some surround mode, it only plays through the center, sub and rears. No front main speakers!

The smaller one, an RX-V493, has something the larger, RX-V2092 does not: Six separate inputs for SACD discs. It also processes six channel (5.1) through those six inputs. The larger one relied on digital coaxial or optical input for surround mode.

Here are images of the two. Note the size and input/output differences:
As I type, there are two center channel, two pairs of surround speakers and a turntable plus the large beast above set to start auctions on eBay this Sunday evening.

Here's an additional photo now with the DCM KX-12 speakers and the BOSE 301 speakers now mounted on the wall. Both sets having been laser aligned with the listening chair so that the tweeters point directly at the listeners ears:

Lastly, if you look at the living room images again, you'll see the "umbilical cord" (Nancy's description) speaker wires have been replaced up the wall by Monster brand. I needed the twisted pair ones to wire in the subwoofer in the listening room.

Also, I placed the HD Radio tuner attached to the receiver so that I can still listen to it and other music in here. The best of both worlds and we are ridding ourselves of a lot of audio equipment.

Thanks for looking!

Scott

Startling revelation....and Liberty for all

Gentle readers, if there be any of ye,

Below is the FINAL FINAL version of the living room stereo. No, really, it's final! Sheesh!



I bought a SACD via eBay of the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony live.

If you know nothing of SACDs, you are not alone. There have been three different formats created to improve the sound of standard "Red Book" CDs: HDCD, SACD and DVD-Audio.
There are universal players that will play most of them, but I think HDCD players are the hardest to find as are HDCD titles.

Super Audio CDs use technology similar to DVDs in that they use much smaller pits to hold the info, thus can contain a lot more. They are often "Hybrid" in that they have a standard CD layer and a SACD layer. Often, that layer also has stereo AND 5.1 channel surround recordings of the same music. The above LSO disc is that way.

SO, I took it down to the family room which has a SONY DVD/SACD player hooked up with all six (5.1) channels hooked to a Yamaha surround sound receiver. The main (front) speakers are the BOSE 301 Series V speakers that Nancy bought for me hoping I would stop using the large Optimus PRO 4000 speakers in the living room.

The rest of the speakers are a centrally located 12" powered sub-woofer, a Pioneer center channel speaker and a pair of DUAL rear channel speakers.

I pulled all the furniture to the rear of the room except the rocker and glider footrest that I centered in front of the equipment, and pressed play.

Almost immediately I was amazed by the breadth of the sound stage and utter realism of the sound that I was hearing. As I listened to the whole piece, I was carried away and by the end I was almost in tears at the beauty of the performance and fantastic reproduction I just heard.

So, since I was home alone, I took it up to the living room to hear how much better it could sound on the main stereo. To my utter amazement and shock, it did not sound anywhere nearly as good as it did downstairs. How could this be? There is thousands of dollars of equipment here and countless hours of setting it up for the best sound!

First, I took the MXR equalizer out of the loop and it sounded a little better. Then, I thought that I'd try it with the Eosone/Lyric speakers I'd built. Now, that was better!

Titling them upward a bit made it even better. So, today I literally pulled the MXR out of the system and placed the SONY SACD player in it's place. I then took the blue Liberty cables
that had gone to and from the MXR and put them to and from the PIONEER CD recorder.
Then I put the red Liberty cables to and from the cassette deck.

Now ALL the RCA interconnects are Liberty ones. Thus the second part of the blog's title.
Then, I removed the Eosone/Lyric speakers from their home in the carcasses of the Optimus PRO 4000 speakers. Therefore having a much smaller speaker in the living room which pleases Nancy.

I drilled holes in the bottom of the speaker cabinets and inserted the spikes that were under the DCM KX 12 speakers. The same 2" lift at the front and only the cones at the rear. This aligns the drivers so that they fire directly at the seated listener's ears.

A test with the LSO SACD satisfied me and banished the fleeting thoughts of selling the whole
kit and kaboodle. So, it still doesn't sound quite as lifelike as the BOSE 301s do, but I'm still happy.

I read a review by a long time BOSE 901 speaker lover that test listened to a pair of 301 speakers and immediately sold the (expensive) 901s! They sound THAT good.

So, you may be thinking why not just move the BOSE speakers up to the living room? Well, the family room is a rectangle and I have them positioned exactly the same distance from their side walls as well as centered on the wall. Plus, they are mounted on TV wall stands that place them a distance from the wall behind them. This careful placement allows the BOSE "Direct-Reflecting" design to work perfectly.

The living room/dining room/stairwell/hall upstairs is not a good shape nor anywhere near symmetrical. So, the 301s wouldn't sound as good.

Here is the fully Liberated rear of the stereo:


Here is the Eosone drivers in the Lyric cabinet:


Tomorrow I hope the weather is better as we have things to do outside and both of us are working Sunday.

Whatever happened to the OLD speakers?

Gentle readers, if there be any of ye,

It's a rainy weekend here in nearly mid-March. We've enjoyed being in the house together. Bekka and Anthony are settled in their new place and we've re-claimed the family room and made the back half a toy room for the, now four, grandsons. Although it'll be a while before
little Liam will be playing with toys.

Now for the subject of this posting. You may recall how I loved the Radio Shack Optimus Pro 4000 walnut veneered loudspeakers that were in the living room. You may also recall that the large Adcom 250 watts-per-channel power amplifier destroyed one of the woofers on it's journey to inaction.

Also, you may recall that I rebuilt/improved the cheap Lyric loudspeakers that I had in here to listen to the stereo remotely. I loved the look of the O-4K speakers, but didn't want the expense of replacing the woofers. So, I combined the two.

Here is the speaker as it left the factory. A pretty piece, but as it turns out, not as nice sounding as I always thought:


Now, here is the old, cheap, vinyl veneered Lyric/Eosone hybrid speaker installed INSIDE the old walnut veneer O-4K cabinet:


You will note, the addition of a non-Radio Shack horn tweeter. I bought these from a fellow in Washington state that specializes in scouring the northwest buying old speakers, fixing them if needed and selling them or their pieces on eBay. This was done to fill the obvious hole left by the original gold-painted horn tweeter. I added the appropriate frequency blocking non-polarized capacitors to the tweeter. Although this not necessary for Piezo drivers, it is said to help the sound.

Lastly, although these are no-name generic tweeters that literally filled the need as well as the holes, if YOU are ever in the market for horn tweeters, look for Motorola brand ones. They are the best. In fact, that's what DCM insisted on for the KX-12 speakers I so love now.

Lastly, today, I pulled out the stereo and tie-wrapped the pairs of Liberty RCA interconnect cables together and neatened up the arrangement. Did I need to do that? No, it was just something to do on a rainy day.

I also adapted a Lumiquest brand mini-softbox flash diffuser to my Sigma brand flash that I use on my Nikon brand D70S digital SLR. I feel I have to keep inserting "brand" into the mix since I have no way outside of typing this in Word Perfect brand and adding TM and such to the names. ANYWAY, here is a shot of the stereo taken with said combination. No new picture of the back, sorry:


Remember, clicking on any image except the two at the VERY bottom of the page will open it full sized in a new page.

More later.

Scott