Mantown

[Alex2507]

This is just the basic finish, not the extra cost hand rubbed glossy finish.

This also came from there. It explains the 12 - 15 number.

We shoot about three "wet" coats at a time (45 minutes apart). Then wait a day or two and sand. Repeat...repeat...and repeat until they are ready for final topcoat. Yes, it takes a lot of labor and time (about a month total in the normal swing of things).

Most speaker companies shoot conversion varnish and do it all in a single day. But the results are not at all the same.

I had a small spray can of matte pre-cat lacquer given to me by a touch up guy at work. My understanding of the chemistry here isn't at all developed but I liked everything about it.

 

[Swerd]

I had a small spray can of matte pre-cat lacquer given to me by a touch up guy at work. My understanding of the chemistry here isn't at all developed but I liked everything about it.

I don't understand it as well.

If I'm bored enough – and if I find my copy of Bob Flexner's book – I'll see if I can look it up.

 

[Alex2507]

If I'm bored enough – and if I find my copy of Bob Flexner's book – I'll see if I can look it up.

I think I'll take a look at that myself.

I got Kurt's amp shipped out. I feel pretty good about this ... no, really.

The shipping was included but the packing? eff me. I probably used $50 in packing tape!

I did a good job on the packing and doubled the insurance just in case a replacement is required. My friend Eddy is a total pack rat and and generously lets me be a pack rat. Between the two of us, there was a good assortment of boxes and foam to work with. I think Jan. 3rd is the due date.

Having that amp was a pleasure. I got to try it out in both systems and I got to learn that I don't ever want a heavier or bigger amp. For the life of me, I don't understand why I wasn't able to sell that thing sooner. The only reason the price was that low was because that's what Kurt sold it to me for. It was worth upwards of $1200. I have seen an Aragon 2007 selling for a little less than that with bent fins from being bounced.

So ... that's that.

 

[Swerd]

Having that (big Aragon) amp was a pleasure. I got to try it out in both systems and I got to learn that I don't ever want a heavier or bigger amp. For the life of me, I don't understand why I wasn't able to sell that thing sooner.

I'm with you on that subject. People can get weird about amps. We've certainly seen some of that around AH. I think it's a horsepower/wattage thing. Some just gotta have the biggest amp on the block. Others just gotta have the biggest or most expensive speakers… you know how it goes.

At the first DIY speaker builders' meeting I went to, I noticed no one talked about amps, other than to brag about a 200 wpc bargain they snagged at a garage sale for $25. As Dennis Murphy once told me, "as long as you have enough juice to drive your speakers without clipping, you're good to go."

 

[Alex2507]

At the first DIY speaker builders' meeting, I noticed no one talked about amps

I've seen a few different amps at the DIY meets including a $5000 digital amp and a 30 watt Class A amp: not sure of the cost on that but it was the size of a Buick. However the conversation about the polar radiating pattern of a speaker was a more animated discussion.

As Dennis Murphy once told me, "as long as you have enough juice to drive your speakers without clipping, you're good to go."

That's only because he hasn't tried bi-wiring.

 

[Swerd]

That's only because he hasn't tried bi-wiring.

Dennis always claimed to be agnostic when it came to improved sound quality due to wires, capacitors, bi-wiring or bi-amping, or even high-priced amps. That never meant he didn't try them, such as the amps or bi-amping. He has experienced enough wacky opinions and practices in his work, that he's seen or tried it all. He'll never say an idea is nonsense, but he if he declines to mention it in the future, its because he tried it and found it didn't matter at all.

This includes: turntables and/or tone arms & pick-ups, expensive CD players, extremely high-priced SS or vacuum tube amps, bi-amping, bi-wiring, speaker cables made with expensive materials or weaving methods, capacitors and resistors, even woofer frames covered with Plasticine clay. To all of these, Dennis would say, "I avoid these – and you should too" .

 

[Alex2507]

He'll never say an idea is nonsense, but he if he declines to mention it in the future, its because he tried it and found it didn't matter at all.

A large portion of the folks I follow on AH tend to stay away from threads involving religion, politics and wire. Not sure what the connection is but there you have it.

Here's that stand up comedy special I was talking about that talks about how immigrants view 'you people' (Americans).

Watch Ronny Chieng: Asian Comedian Destroys America! | Netflix Official Site

Ronny Chieng ("The Daily Show," "Crazy Rich Asians") takes center stage in this stand-up special and riffs on modern American life and more.

www.netflix.com

 

[ryanosaur]

A large portion of the folks I follow on AH tend to stay away from threads involving religion, politics and wire. Not sure what the connection is but there you have it.

Here's that stand up comedy special I was talking about that talks about how immigrants view 'you people' (Americans).

Watch Ronny Chieng: Asian Comedian Destroys America! | Netflix Official Site

Ronny Chieng ("The Daily Show," "Crazy Rich Asians") takes center stage in this stand-up special and riffs on modern American life and more.

www.netflix.com

Just saw that the other day, too. He's good. Didn't like him that much when he first joined the daily show (same with Michelle Wolf who also has a stand up feature recently released, quite enjoyed!) , but he's grown on me. That stand-up feature was good!

 

[Alex2507]

I finally got this rig back in action after the ampectomy. Because I was bi-amping the mains I had the speaker wire in place for, you guessed it, bi wiring. I had ordered up some 10 mm cable pants for the 14/4 wire only to find that stuffing two 14 gauge wires into each pant leg was way more trouble than it was worth. That's what feeds the woofers and mids. Normal 14/2 feeds the tweeters. I also ended up replacing the 14/4 I had going to the small Infinities that I use as computer speakers because the wire had butt connector splices to make up the length. That's normal 14/2 wire now. My 1000' roll is getting lighter by the minute. I really don't want to do it but I'm going to cut out an inch or two of drywall behind the base board to hide the wires. I already pulled that trick behind the main speakers under the TV and TT but now it needs to happen along another wall that had wire molding for the cable run. The fun never stops.

The good news is that I've got music happening again. Even typing that makes me smile. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are on at the moment. I found I don't really like the subs co-located because the little Infinities cross at 100 Hz and I can tell the subs are behind me. I wish the subs didn't weigh 105 lbs. They didn't have to but I guess I was bored and I had the time. Needless to say, I always got the wood. I had milled up some 100+ year old Southern Yellow Pine ...

... for the ridiculously extensive bracing.

Here's what they looked like before I beat the snot out of 'em moving 'em all around this little room.

Somehow I get the feeling everybody else has an easier time with this stuff. I guess it's easier now that there's music again. Now it's about getting this thing calibrated again and maybe seeing what YPAO does with it. Then the trick is figuring out if I like it or not.

Tomorrow around mid day my neighbors are going to get to see if they like what this sounds like ... for a couple of songs anyway.

Mea culpa in advance gentle neighbors.

 

[Swerd]

Here's that stand up comedy special I was talking about that talks about how immigrants view 'you people' (Americans).

Watch Ronny Chieng: Asian Comedian Destroys America! | Netflix Official Site

Ronny Chieng ("The Daily Show," "Crazy Rich Asians") takes center stage in this stand-up special and riffs on modern American life and more.

www.netflix.com

Based on your recommendation, we watched Ronny Chieng on Netflix – and loved it!

I liked his bit on how the Internet makes people dumb. Witness all those anti-vaxxers.

 

[afterlife2]

Based on your recommendation, we watched Ronny Chieng on Netflix – and loved it!

I liked his bit on how the Internet makes people dumb. Witness all those anti-vaxxers.

I keep hearing about this special. Comedy night is on Saturday so watching this tonight.

 

[Alex2507]

Here's the finished product.

This is the top of the equipment rack. There was an attempt made to keep the top light like the bookshelf portion of the 3-ways.

The auto set up on an aging Yammy 2600 alerted me to a polarity issue on a tweeter and it was actually confirmed by some calibration software. Now I want to do the battery test to make sure I haven't criss-crossed something inside. Somehow center stage sounds like it's located left of center but it was worse before I found and corrected the tweeter issue.

My attempted sub relocation project has resulted in one black pinky toe nail and another sub relocation project.

The equipment rack has been a hassle and a half and still needs attention but it's open and solid. Dragging it out into the room is made easier by sliders and it has a level adjustment as do the speakers.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

"My attempted sub relocation project has resulted in one black pinky toe nail and another sub relocation project."

I swear you include things like this just for me!

 

[Swerd]

The auto set up on an aging Yammy 2600 alerted me to a polarity issue on a tweeter and it was actually confirmed by some calibration software. Now I want to do the battery test to make sure I haven't criss-crossed something inside. Somehow center stage sounds like it's located left of center but it was worse before I found and corrected the tweeter issue.

Be sure to check the schematic diagrams you used for making the crossovers too. I can't remember them, but it may be that those tweeters were meant to be wired with opposite polarity to the mid range driver.

 

[Alex2507]

"My attempted sub relocation project has resulted in one black pinky toe nail and another sub relocation project."

I swear you include things like this just for me!

It f^%&in' hurt too.

Be sure to check the schematic diagrams you used for making the crossovers too. I can't remember them, but it may be that those tweeters were meant to be wired with opposite polarity to the mid range driver.

It's the mids that are suppose to be out of phase. I just gotta make sure they're wired up right inside with the battery test. I thought I was thorough so seeing the polarity reversal at the speakers binding post opened me up to other possible screw ups.

 

[Alex2507]

Reading the AH review on the 2600 rec'r, I see that there is a bi-amp option ... Surround Back amps to drive tweeters? I'm not that bored yet but it could happen. I mean, why not at this point? The wire is already there from a different passive bi-amping scheme.

 

[Swerd]

It's the mids that are suppose to be out of phase. I just gotta make sure they're wired up right inside with the battery test. I thought I was thorough so seeing the polarity reversal at the speakers binding post opened me up to other possible screw ups.

Right. The MBOW1 3-way has 2nd order L/R crossovers. Both the woofer-to-mid and the mid-to-tweeter crossover must have drivers wired with opposing polarity. The easiest way to do that is wire the mid-range driver with reversed polarity. This shows the crossover for the revised MBOW1, but the driver polarity is probably the same as in yours

 

[Alex2507]

Right. The MBOW1 3-way has 2nd order L/R crossovers. Both the woofer-to-mid and the mid-to-tweeter crossover must have drivers wired with opposing polarity. The easiest way to do that is wire the mid-range driver with reversed polarity. This shows the crossover for the revised MBOW1, but the driver polarity is probably the same as in yours

My xo is here. You're right about the mid being reversed in both iterations.

I'm a little afraid of what I'll find with the battery test. It should all check out.

 

[Swerd]

My xo is here. You're right about the mid being reversed in both iterations.

I'm a little afraid of what I'll find with the battery test. It should all check out.

The battery test is easy to do. I use a 1.5 volt AA battery instead of a 9 volt battery with the snap terminals on top. 1.5V is enough juice to see the mid range cone move backward or forward.

Years ago when I built my CAOW1 speakers, I goofed on the polarity. The 2nd order design of that 2-way calls for the woofer-to-tweeter crossover to be in opposite polarity. I built it over a weekend and several week nights back when I was also going to work every day. When I wired up the XO board, I included the polarity reversal for the tweeter, and then promptly forgot that I did it. Later, when I assembled everything, I switched the polarity again when I attached the XO to the tweeter.

Some time later Dennis heard them, and asked me if I'd like him to measure them. He already knew I had goofed, but his measurement easily showed it. He was too polite to say it to me directly.

So, don't be afraid of what you find out. It's better to goof, find it, and fix it than to goof and think you're a genius who got everything right the first time.

 

[Alex2507]

The battery test is easy to do. I use a 1.5 volt AA battery instead of a 9 volt battery with the snap terminals on top. 1.5V is enough juice to see the mid range cone move backward or forward.

Years ago when I built my CAOW1 speakers, I goofed on the polarity. The 2nd order design of that 2-way calls for the woofer-to-tweeter crossover to be in opposite polarity. I built it over a weekend and several week nights back when I was also going to work every day. When I wired up the XO board, I included the polarity reversal for the tweeter, and then promptly forgot that I did it. Later, when I assembled everything, I switched the polarity again when I attached the XO to the tweeter.

Some time later Dennis heard them, and asked me if I'd like him to measure them. He already knew I had goofed, but his measurement easily showed it. He was too polite to say it to me directly.

So, don't be afraid of what you find out. It's better to goof, find it, and fix it than to goof and think you're a genius who got everything right the first time.

Well I was gonna take a nap but if you're gonna get pushy ...

Edit:

the bottom binding posts got switched over, breaking the color convention.

Here's a pic of the tester voltage test ...

Gonna listen to it I suppose.