My little computer room setup... as it evolves

[ErinH]

First off let me say that this setup will be changing soon, very soon. Thus the title.
My goal here is to get a nice little 'reference' setup in my computer room. The budget is meant to be kept reasonable. This area will essentially be my temporary litening room until I have a change to build my full ranges and put them upstairs in my ex-theater room. LOL.

With that said, right now I'm rocking some Aperion Intimus 532-LR's I bought a few years back and haven't been using since we moved into the new house.

I picked up an adcom gfa-2535 amp off e-bay for a steal last week and it showed up today. It's a 4 channel solid state rated at 60w/ch. It's a friggin' tank, too.

For DSP, I'm using a miniDSP. You can read all about them here. I did a full fledged write-up for this guy on diyma, which I'll be linking here shortly. It's a 3x3" board, that you buy for $100. You then buy the DSP plug-ins separately for only $10/each. You can do quite a bit of stuff with these guys and the price is unbelievable. The plug-in I'm using right now is the 2.1 stereo setup + PEQ. When I finish my next build I'll use the 4-way plugin to help determine the best crossover points and then build passives for them. I'm telling you, this little guy is a god send.


So, the upcoming bookshelves... ahhhh, yes...
I'm currently working on building a set of bookshelves from a set of Scanspeak 18w's which came from a pair of ProACT Studio monitors.
Here's a picture:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/bikinpunk/IMG_8794.jpg

The tweeters will either be...
+
http://northcreekmusic.com/Drivers/NorthD25.pdf
or
Scan-speak Discovery R2604/8320 Ring Radiator Tweeter from Madisound
or
SB-Acoustics SB29RDC-C000-4 Ring Dome tweeter from Madisound


I'm getting all three of the tweeters (the north creeks are sitting here as I type) and I'll pick the best match.
I'm on the computer right now trying to finalize plans so I can start cutting tomorrow. I picked up a sheet of 3/4" MDF this afternoon.



Here's a few pictures of my current setup:
miniDSP with my DIY box for it made from scrap ABS plastic and perforated aluminum, lol.

Amp

Overall

 

[Zaluss]

Epic monitor stand

 

[ErinH]

It's Bad!
(note the reference to the 25 year old Michael Jackson Bad pin.

The stack of paper, I mean... monitor stand is awesome! About a month ago we were looking for some extra paper and couldn't find any. I knew we had a stack somewhere but couldn't find it for the life of me. Guess where I found it today? Underneath the monitor... where it's been for nearly a year. LOL!

 

[anamorphic96]

That's a nice little set up you have there. How would you describe the sound of the Aperions ? They seem like they would be great desktop monitor.

 

[ErinH]

In my room, the tweeter level is about 3dB higher, measured with my reference mic.

I used the miniDSP to make a high pass shelf filter at 2khz, thus lowering the tweeter level to match the midrange response.
They sound very nice with this. They sounded great before, but after smoothing that out they make an excellent computer setup. And they look beautiful.

 

[MidnightSensi]

Cool setup! Do some wire management, I know you got some tech-flex left over from your car audio installs.

How does the MiniDSP work? Looks like a pretty sweet way to make some DIY active monitors!

 

[ErinH]

Wire Management... it doesn't bother me. Techflex is the devil!

Here's the review on the miniDSP:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=65313

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Is that Logitech Sub used as right channel speaker stand ??

I wonder how's that little miniDSP compares to established commercial products? I'd love to see some tests done in the secret underground AH labs

 

[ErinH]

Got some cuts done today and am starting on building the enclosures.
All you guys know me... it's PAINFUL to wait 30 minutes for the glue to dry in between takes, but I'm resisting the urge to throw the enclosures together.
Someone suggested I ask for Rockler gear back last Christmas with my Christmas money, so I picked up a box clamp set and that thing is so much FTW. Along with the bar clamps. I used them as a guide for my jigsaw to rip the boards and then made the smaller cuts with the miter saw (FTMFW!).

Also found a huge *** Black Widow. It was the size of a quarter. I was picking up a block to use as a prop and when I moved it that sucker came crawling around from the other side. I dropped the block and said "OH ****!". My wife came outside and asked what it was, but I lied and didn't mention the big *** black widow. If she knew it was there my butt would be buying a bug spray can tonight instead of building enclosures.

On with the pictures...

Started off with (2) sheets of 3/4" MDF, 2x4' sheets.

Cut sheet that I printed out from CutList Pro. This made the work much easier. No guessing and spending an hour trying to figure out how best to optimize my cuts.

My baby Bosch and the rockler bar clamps:

Compound sliding miter. Thanks Grandfather-in-law.

Cuts:

Box construction:

BLACK WIDOW

 

[avliner]

You got a very nice setup there; congrats!!

 

[jamie2112]

Very nice .........kill the widow.