New Home build/New AV Studio.

[TLS Guy]

Beautiful home and project overall...having done 2 (both here in GA), I know them to be exhausting but fun projects.

You’ve hit drywall stage, so here you would be in the fast lane here (no more inspections after fireproofing until pre CO) Gott hustle for OCt 7th if that’s still in play.

Looks awesome so far, and I’m sure very rewarding when you finish it.

Congrats!

We are making progress. The kitchen, laundry room and guest toilet cabinets were installed today. The elevator wiring was completed today. I'm building out the work benches and test bay in the studio chase currently.

The bad news is that the builder has moved back handover to October 14. I have told them that is going to be the final delay or they will have consequences.

 

[TLS Guy]

I thought I would update you on progress. The house is not at a stage where I can make a lot of progress on the audio systems, but I have made a little.

We have made a lot of progress on the house of late, especially last week. A lot of the cabinets are in. Trim out has started and should finish this week. The back patio was poured and the generator pad. We ran out of concrete for the barbecue pad and that will be poured next week now. Painting should start right after labor day, and when complete, it will take two weeks, I can start equipment installation in earnest. We have set the date to move into the house to be Monday October 14.

So I thought I would show you some pictures of the progress.

I have painted the speakers of my wife's ultra WAF system mat black so the cones do not show.

I have built out the benches in the studio equipment chase.

Kitchen cabinets.

Dining room serving hutch and cabinet.

Tiling in master shower.

Trim out of the windows in the studio has started. There window casements are deep like on old English house as this is an ICF home.

Stair trim out has started.

A spare bedroom which is also my wife's craft and sewing room.

Pouring the patio.

The mount for the generator I made and its insertion in the base.

Stay tuned to this space!

 

[Gmoney]

Coming alone very nicely Doc. I haven't met you in person but reading lots of your post and Threads. Don't know how long I'll stay on AH or even if I'll stay with this hobby. Enjoy your new home, if anyone deserves to have a nice retirement living comfortable it's you. You've helped so many on here not to mention your career as a physician. Again when your home is completed you have all your gear setup may I recommend something? Slap one of your best vinyl albums on one of those pristine turntables that you have. That would be my first choice once you have your system up and running from testing and setting up. Kick back with a shot of whiskey and salute yourself.

TechHDS.
Mike

 

[TLS Guy]

I have some progress to report this week.

The build out of the workshop has started. I have the benches built, the compressor and drill press installed and my new tool chest.

I hope to have the shop fully functional by the end of this week.

Benches, drill press and tool chest.

Two stage air compressor, tested and working.

I have started to get equipment ready for the reinstall now.

Yesterday, my eldest son and I rebuilt the theater HTPC for 4K TV. This unit started to give trouble after nearly seven years of intensive use. Just before shutting down the old studio at Benedict, it developed an background sizzle and a faint very high frequency oscillation. It also refused to go into sleep mode. On a hunch I put in a new power supply, which stopped the background noise and high pitched oscillation, but it still refused to go to sleep. This proved to be due to a hardware and not software issue. So this issue with the power supply, must have damaged a component on the mother board.

So a 4K Gigabyte mother board has been installed. A new Intel I 5 Ivybridge processor has been installed with a low profile Noctua CPU cooler.
The old solid state and magneto optical drives are gone and a 1 TB samsung solid sate hard drive installed.

New mother board and cooler.

Completed and fully tested refurbished HTPC ready to be closed up.

The unit works well under test. At maximal stress the CPU only got to 61 C and the fans could not be heard.

The painters will I hope go in tomorrow and take about two weeks. After that I hope to start equipment install in earnest. I will post the rebuild in detail as the project progresses. So watch this space!

 

[highfigh]

Well down here in the deep South, some have been known the snack on alligator Adam's apples, or some very tasty cow's tongue. William I'd be glad to send you some possum stew?

Do you have Gar in your area? I have heard that's the fish used for fish sticks. Saw some recipes that described its taste as delicate, sweet.

 

[TankTop5]

I hope with that setup you’re putting in just as much work into a security system sans photos and description!

 

[TLS Guy]

Do you have Gar in your area? I have heard that's the fish used for fish sticks. Saw some recipes that described its taste as delicate, sweet.

I have never heard if it here, but that does not mean much!

 

[TLS Guy]

I hope with that setup you’re putting in just as much work into a security system sans photos and description!

Yes, we have a high end system and cameras all over the place.

 

[KEW]

In my life thus far, I have only met 2 or 3 people like you...

You just know too much about too many things!!!

Congratulations on that good fortune and thanks for occasionally sharing some of it with us!

 

[highfigh]

I have never heard if it here, but that does not mean much!

That question was actually for Phase2, but they don't inhabit all of Minnesota.

 

[Pogre]

I love watching your progress on these projects, doc. I've been lurking in this thread and keeping up with it, I just haven't had a lot to add, lol. Things are looking awesome. Thanks for sharing!

 

[panteragstk]

That question was actually for Phase2, but they don't inhabit all of Minnesota.

We used to catch those all the time in TX. We usually think of them as trash fish.

 

[panteragstk]

You just know too much about too many things!!!

Not possible

Seriously though, it is impressive how much one person can know about so many things. My grandfather was like this. He was a difficult man to stump.

 

[IansDad88(Don)]

Very nice!! Looks like no neighbors close by, but umm what's a Walleye sandwich? Oh wait I see some homes now, Doc, that's you in the pic? Man it's really beautiful by that lake.

I'd kill for a walleye sandwich..!

Helps to live in Michigan I guess cause I knew exactly what you meant. Yum

 

[TLS Guy]

Time for an update.

We move in a week from today.

As far as the systems go, we have the internet in and tested. There is an Internet rack mounted patch bay and hub in rack 3 and another rack mounted hub in AV rack 1.

There are 5 port hubs is the lower living room system and family room. All these are tested.

Patch Bay and Hub.

Main AV rack hub.

Rear of studio taking shape.

Box behind TV linking conduit. Carries FM, TV and Internet to family room and HDMI and Internet to TV for the theater.

Fans installed in the Left cabinet of the downstairs in wall system.

Set up as of yesterday. Both cabinets put in today and ready for equipment installation.

Progress is slow, as I have had to get involved in a lot of hands on construction not directly related to AV. There has been a long series if interruptions due to having to intervene for problems, and he build of the outside kitchen.

I will post as time permits. However I think it will be about a month before all systems are up, running and calibrated. You can see the crossovers I built for the system in the right cabinet.

These are the circuit boards for these speakers. The center is on the left and the right and left on the right. Both sides of boards are shown. No electrolytic caps are used, all polypropylene and good sized wire on the inductors. These are much higher quality components than in most commercial offerings.

Note that in the center speaker with crossover points of 400 Hz and 4 KHz the components are physically large. So this is one reason I do not recommend crossover points below 400 Hz for passive speakers. Apart from all the other problems you have to use electrolytic caps and worse too finer gauge of wire in the inductors. The latter leads to a DC resistance ahead of the drivers that is not acceptable.

The right and left main speakers are coming out of storage tomorrow and will be placed ready for driver reinstallation.

 

[TLS Guy]

Just a quick update.

We move into our new home today. I meet the moving van at our storage unit in about 2 hours or so.

The in wall system in the lower great room is finished. I have given it a listen and the family had the Vikings game on yesterday. I have not done any set up other than by ear.

However the right and left mans sound very good. They are powerful and easily fill the space. They may be slightly over polite and need the tweeters brought up a fraction. That is a very good starting point.

The center has superb voice clarity, even at low volume. There is no overt shout or sibilance. However I have a feeling that the mid range driver may need taking down a notch, we will see.

The TL sub with the 10" Dayton driver is a real keeper. This is a huge space and yet this sub filled the space with deep tight pure bass without distress. This is a huge space and is fully open going up the stairs. I walked around the space and the bass was very uniform throughout, without any high or low spots.

I just wish I really knew why pipes have that unique property, but they do.

The biggest problem is that I had to keep notching it back. I think it is filling the space magnificently and using very little power. It is certainly producing that definitive TL bass I'm so fond of.

No need for ugly boxes scattered all over the space consuming gobs of power.

My wife is thrilled with the system.

The family room system is 80% complete and should be up and running soon. The main AV room should be complete in about three weeks or so.

Once I move in, I will step up the tempo of the posts, with pictures to show details of the reconstruct, unless you are all bored with it by now.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Congratulations Mark! It looks great. We expect no less from you.

 

[TLS Guy]

Congratulations Mark! It looks great. We expect no less from you.

Now the furniture is in the system sounds much better. As a 2.1 system it is fantastic. There is an issue with the center that I will have to track down. That will have to wait the the big unpack to be completed.

Voice clarity is good from the center, but 2.1 does sound better than 3.1. The center is not blending well. As is often the case the mid is 180 degrees or so out of phase with the woofers and tweeter at the 400 Hz and 4KHz crossover points. So the mid needs a phase reversal to avoid nulls at the crossover. However the mains do not need any units to have phase reversal. That puts the center mid out of phase with the left and right speakers between the crossover points. I have a feeling that is the cause of the problem. So I think it may be better to accept nulls at the crossover point and have the mid in phase between pass bands. I will try reversing the mid's connections to an in phase connection, and see if that makes the center blend better with the left and right speakers. I have to say though the center is pretty redundant, as the system images perfectly in 2.1 even way lateral to the speakers and voice clarity is excellent and actually more natural than with the center engaged. This problem will need tracking down.

As stated before, that TL sub is a really good performer, with perfectly integrated and balanced bass through out this large space.

I'm now totally convinced that a TL is the optimal design for a sub my miles and miles, and is far superior to any other alignment.

 

[KEW]

The TL sub with the 10" Dayton driver is a real keeper. This is a huge space and yet this sub filled the space with deep tight pure bass without distress. This is a huge space and is fully open going up the stairs. I walked around the space and the bass was very uniform throughout, without any high or low spots.

I just wish I really knew why pipes have that unique property, but they do.

The biggest problem is that I had to keep notching it back. I think it is filling the space magnificently and using very little power. It is certainly producing that definitive TL bass I'm so fond of.

No need for ugly boxes scattered all over the space consuming gobs of power.

As stated before, that TL sub is a really good performer, with perfectly integrated and balanced bass through out this large space.

I'm now totally convinced that a TL is the optimal design for a sub my miles and miles, and is far superior to any other alignment.

Any chance of you sharing your design/plans for this sub?
Based on my experience with the Phil3's TL is very good bass, and I have been wondering why there are not any TL subs out commonly getting accolades!

 

[ryanosaur]

Any chance of you sharing your design/plans for this sub?
Based on my experience with the Phil3's TL is very good bass, and I have been wondering why there are not any TL subs out commonly getting accolades!

I'm still eager to pursue our conversation from earlier this year, too: I am very interested to learn more about how to design and build these for myself! (Was planning on letting you get situated before pestering you, though... but since KEW so graciously brought it up... )