Mantown

[Alex2507]

Been a while since Mantown has been visited.

It's been about 3 years since my last foray into better audio. I don't know why my audio habit includes drywall work. I'm doing this wrong, ain't I?

EDIT: 3 days later ...

The speaker stand shake down cruise calls for more and bigger fasteners and a minor mod to raise the speaker by an inch and set it back by an inch. I can get away with the inch shift without revealing old screw holes. I knew I was going to take them apart so I skipped glue. I don't think these stands will work long term without it.

Today is ... well, why not?

Pics or it didn't happen, right? The wall got patched above "The Steel".



That's 'tear-away' and the glue to use.



The profile of that wonderful trim, it has a raised edge that you ride your knife on. Applying it like Formica takes out an extra coat of mud. Some people (most) just staple it but then they mesh tape it in place. Anyway ...



Tear-Away Installed





... and coated.



Now it's time to go get my stands back.

 

[Alex2507]

This would be happening now but work ... well, probably work.

It’s cold out!

Edit: Postponed work for an hour. Found a BJC HDMI cable, you know, for the delicious mids.

 

[Pogre]

Where'd you get all those photobucket logos you have all over the place?

 

[Alex2507]

Where'd you get all those photobucket logos you have all over the place?

Hey, I noticed that on my phone that the pics look normal and there isn't a logo

 

[ryanosaur]

Hey, I noticed that on my phone that the pics look normal and there isn't a logo

You should ask for your money back.

 

[Alex2507]

You should ask for your money back.

No man, Kurt earned that.

EDIT: I never paid Photobucket for any of their services. There is no money to get back.

 

[Alex2507]

That’s 3/4 ply with a little mahogany nosing. All done painting too. The ply catches a couple of extra studs and I can screw the bracket into studs and into the black 3/4. The router for that round over finally bit the dust. It was a humungoid 1/2", 3 hp Hitachi that I used like a rented mule, may God rest it's soul.

 

[Alex2507]

Nothing lit on fire. Praise Christ.

Open air rack with a top that I’m still working out.

EDIT/ADD

Somewhere on here I talked about speakers that were surprisingly adequate and how I'm basically easy to please. Well there was nothing easy about any of this but I am pleased and in contrast to being adequate, this Frankenstrosity only speaks to the promise of more. It's a little late to be letting her rip but like a jack ass I passively bi-amped the MBOW1 3-Ways and the same 7 channel amp is driving a couple of DIY 10" JBL ported subs. It's not calibrated yet except the subs and that's "by ear" only. It's easy enough to tell when the bass is hot.

The first thing I wanted to do was play a record. It was some Dinu Lipatti/Karajan thing because it's super clean. Well, it was super clean. Queen's Greatest Hits played on a Denon w/ analog outs somehow doesn't sound like how Queen use to sound. In particular Who Wants To Live Forever is somewhat familiar; to the point that I've got the Saraha Brightman version and know that I like Freddy's rendition better. The word separate keeps coming to mind. The sounds seem far apart? I don't know. I hadn't realized exactly how little there actually was to the song. As with other tracks, the vocals weren't at all forward nor did the speakers seem bright. Not that I was about to rush back into the crossovers to tinker with resistors anytime soon but it is an option.

It's been a long time coming but man, we're here and what have we learned? Finishes are a friend to no man. This is what I wanted at the onset of this last redo. The bass cabs and TT stand all got the same black flat oil base enamel that wears like crazy and can be touched up with a 1/2" nap roller like nobody's business. So far it washes great. I got rid of the furniture because ... I'd rather have just the gear. Right now The Steel serves as my sock drawer! Acoustics, right? New grill cloth and some cabinet love in conjunction with the reworked xo are about all the love I had to give. They sound amazing. I want to listen to everything again and some of it twice. I do have to hand it to Delmont on his cabinets. These babies got some hard miles on 'em and the upper bookshelf with the original veneer has taken the wear admirably.

The rack is basically a huge Maple slider with the adjustable feet retracted.That with the open sides make it pretty easy to get the wiring done. I put the TT as high as I could without the lid hitting the TV and then matched the bass cab to that height. That took arithmetic. The speaker wire still has to make its way into the walls but the base isn't nailed on yet and a strip of drywall has already been removed from behind the base.

The little Infinities hanging on the wall can serve as computer speakers if I kill the amp and go to Memory 2 but if I leave the amp on, I can hear both the 3-Ways and Infinities at the same time. The poor little Infinities don't do well in this comparison. They actually make it noticeably worse. I didn't know I was such a snob.

I can't wait to turn it up.

 

[GO-NAD!]

You make me feel like I should be doing something with one or both of my systems. Fortunately, that feeling is far outweighed by lack of ambition and imagination.

 

[Alex2507]

My neighbors are lucky I don't want to bother them and I suppose I owe some of my as of yet, not-lost hearing to them. I decided to run the subs full time with this system. My Denon DVD player has bass management and gain controls for multi channel stuff. It crosses at 80 Hz with unknown slopes. I can tell the 'fullness' is on my left.

The Yammy RX-V2600 rec'r has bass management for everything else. That I cross at 60 Hz and THX slopes apply. That and way tame bass settings has the subs pretty much disappearing from localizabilification spectrogaphalogs. Here's the kicker, the TT is about the quietest thing in here. The computer seat is close enough to the Panny BR player and Denon DVD player that I can hear them both running from here. Completely within what you would expect, even the TV is pretty loud. Four fans built into the top of it are gonna sound like something.

The TT is pretty quiet in comparison. Granted none of that counts when you bang out 100 db but I'm over here exploring the first 3 watts out of the 300 available @ 4 Ohms. I just yanked the grills and am gonna add pic's of the connections on the wall plate. I ran new 14 ga to the tweeter xo and the mid picks up a crossed signal at the bass cabinet's upper binding post. The difference betweens BJC locking bananas and the GLS knock off is vast. The dual prongers are great with standardized posts but I noticed they loosen up being dragged around and banged around. Just being left alone on gear, the dual prongers are one of life's answers.

I wanted to put the amp under The Steel but who the hell feels like it doing all the extra wiring? As it is I have a couple of ways in and out of wall so the 80% of the wire management reward for 20% of the effort is kicking in hard. Not to mention the improved Feng Shui of floor space along the path to the record rack.

So, pic's in a sec' ... and I got lucky: the sweet spot is noticeably sweeter than a couple of feet higher and a couple of feet closer. The act of sitting up changes things but the speakers are still great to listen to walking around the rest of the room. The TLS aligned subs got shifted around and moving the bass cabinets to the new spots evened out the bass pretty well.

You make me feel like I should be doing something with one or both of my systems.

Listening to them gets my vote. Having this system apart took away something I like better than I like most people.

... and the white lines around the bass drivers haunt me still but grills.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Those are some bit%&*n' connectors on the speaker wires. You should turn your speakers around to face the wall so that you can admire them. I'm sure they'll sound just as good. Plus, you wouldn't have to look at that abomination of a bass driver installation.

 

[Alex2507]

Those are some bit%&*n' connectors on the speaker wires. You should turn your speakers around to face the wall so that you can admire them. I'm sure they'll sound just as good. Plus, you wouldn't have to look at that abomination of a bass driver installation.

Grills, bro, grills

 

[GO-NAD!]

Grills, bro, grills

But we can't unsee that crime against audio now, can we?

 

[Alex2507]

crime against audio

The mysterious previous owner had trouble getting the driver to seat so he caulked it in. I widdled out the hole and added in threaded inserts but that has been nothing but trouble with the insert spinning or the screws stripping. Before I get to worrying about adding extra screws, I'm gonna ride out this wave of being happy about the speakers working at all and try to finish up the top for the rack along with replacing the last couple of pieces of vinyl cove base with some killer wood base I scored a ways back.

http://imgur.com/XiV0URH

The TT got little pieces of closed cell foam to help isolate it. You gotta bonk it pretty good to rattle it. Sooner or later, I want to replace the finish washers with something more black. The stand needed a second vertical row of screws to take out some of the wiggle. Notice the lack of wires all over the place? That's right, all gone. The TT's wires are still in the room. Its wires aren't in-wall rated so that's how it has to be.

http://imgur.com/hkrhxk1

This is the first time in a long time that I have been without an armoir ... or a telephone table.

http://imgur.com/u42hId2

That switch at the top of the rack turns on the TT's power. The TT's motor vibrates if it's plugged into power. It's weird but the switch puts an end to that and the rest of that 2U power strip is plugged into a switched outlet on the Monster so when the rec'r goes off, everything goes off. This level of automation is about all I can deal with until my iPhone learns to flip the record.

My last calibration was lost due to not saving it to Mem 1 ... duh. I can't start with the test tones this early and I'm sick of playing with wire ... but I'm not done playing with wire. The color convention on the right binding post is backwards and the gauge and length of wire is different going from the xo to the mids ... and the wire routing to the left speaker isn't giving me the warm fuzzies yet: minor stuff but time consuming.

http://imgur.com/izzfGOj

 

[everettT]

The mysterious previous owner had trouble getting the driver to seat so he caulked it in. I widdled out the hole and added in threaded inserts but that has been nothing but trouble with the insert spinning or the screws stripping. Before I get to worrying about adding extra screws, I'm gonna ride out this wave of being happy about the speakers working at all and try to finish up the top for the rack along with replacing the last couple of pieces of vinyl cove base with some killer wood base I scored a ways back.

http://imgur.com/XiV0URH

The TT got little pieces of closed cell foam to help isolate it. You gotta bonk it pretty good to rattle it. Sooner or later, I want to replace the finish washers with something more black. The stand needed a second vertical row of screws to take out some of the wiggle. Notice the lack of wires all over the place? That's right, all gone. The TT's wires are still in the room. Its wires aren't in-wall rated so that's how it has to be.

http://imgur.com/hkrhxk1

This is the first time in a long time that I have been without an armoir ... or a telephone table.

http://imgur.com/u42hId2

That switch at the top of the rack turns on the TT's power. The TT's motor vibrates if it's plugged into power. It's weird but the switch puts an end to that and the rest of that 2U power strip is plugged into a switched outlet on the Monster so when the rec'r goes off, everything goes off. This level of automation is about all I can deal with until my iPhone learns to flip the record.

My last calibration was lost due to not saving it to Mem 1 ... duh. I can't start with the test tones this early and I'm sick of playing with wire ... but I'm not done playing with wire. The color convention on the right binding post is backwards and the gauge and length of wire is different going from the xo to the mids ... and the wire routing to the left speaker isn't giving me the warm fuzzies yet: minor stuff but time consuming.

http://imgur.com/izzfGOj

Where's the BetaMax?

 

[Alex2507]

Where's the BetaMax?

On top of the Do Not Want list right next to the 8 Track.

There's a line I won't cross and that there is it: magnetic tape.

I forgot to mention that the TV turns off after a few minutes of no signal. Pretty advanced, right?

I've got a real direction for the top with a light finish on Maple. The wood has been kicking around forever. I actually bought a few odd pieces that I liked on eBay probably 15 years ago. And there is a small piece of salvaged Mahogany from an old kitchen from about as many years ago. It's got some nice curl too but will only be seen from the back.

The question of finish so far has been dealt with with the wood being pre-finished. The top is raw maple at this point. There's a routed edge I still gotta sand and that means unscrewing the top which is gonna be a pain but it has to happen ... like right now. Pfff ...

Uh-oh ... it's startin' to feel like work and it's only in the planning stage. Not a good sign. I can see why real racks are so expensive. Thing weighs a ton loaded up and by the time I get done milling up and finishing all the Maple, the time investment makes it unaffordable. But the top is important to me in that it be able to handle a real beating and not continue to yellow like oil base poly does. I'm looking to compliment if not 100% match the bookshelves.

As they say, film at 11.

 

[afterlife2]

That third device on the rack looks familiar. Rahaha. These brown speakers are a beauty is that from a kit? Which Turntable is that? Beautiful setup.

 

[Alex2507]

View attachment 32780
That third device on the rack looks familiar. Rahaha. These brown speakers are a beauty is that from a kit? Which Turntable is that? Beautiful setup.

Thanks!

The speakers are a Dennis Murphy designed MBOW1 3-way that I bought used and re-did ... at least twice. They were Dennis' practice run for the Phil 3's. I painted the bass cabinets a flat black with a roller. That's what I call giving up on ever having a nice finish.

The TT is an AR Model XB. Somebody glued and screwed a lid to it and I encapsulated it with some Walnut that I scored from a job. It looks better than the plastic veneer that never should have been let out of the Seventies.

 

[afterlife2]

Thanks!

The speakers are a Dennis Murphy designed MBOW1 3-way that I bought used and re-did ... at least twice. They were Dennis' practice run for the Phil 3's. I painted the bass cabinets a flat black with a roller. That's what I call giving up on ever having a nice finish.

The TT is an AR Model XB. Somebody glued and screwed a lid to it and I encapsulated it with some Walnut that I scored from a job. It looks better than the plastic veneer that never should have been let out of the Seventies.

Congrats. It's making me want a Turntable more and more.

 

[Alex2507]

. It's making me want a Turntable more and more.

Walter, a member from Upstate gave me the TT and TLS sent me a working motor a few years later when the old one became sluggish. All free but there is no such thing as a free puppy. I don't really buy records any more as much as I look to cull the ones I have. There's a few hundred of them by now. It's a ridiculous storage problem for a condo dweller but there's a bit of Americana that I'm missing and my 1st record deal was with this old guy for like 90 of his old albums going back to Benny Goodman.

The first record I played was K.C. and the Sunshine Band.

That's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh