The Master Plan! (Rip Evolves into the 21st Century)

[Rip Van Woofer]

Hmm, Rip you should have bought an NAD, they do have them

You can be so cruel!

Actually, having amp ins might have been handy for the short term but not when I go to biamped speakers - I looked into that. And I like NAD. It's the comprehensive bass management that sold me on the HK, though. Heckuva nice remote, too.

Also, I am considering building a variant on Linkwitz's "Orion" full range floorstanding active speakers instead of my satellite/sub system because building the listening room has gone from "if" to "when". Those beasts are quad-amped! (They're three ways, but for some reason to do with system impedance he specs a separate amp for each of the two 10" woofers in the system).

Once I've built the room my current speakers w/their passive networks will be used for rears, driven by the HK's amps.

And I think it will be fun and educational to build my own amps. I guess I'm just getting in touch with my "inner geek".

BTW, my old Dynaco preamp and tuner are now on eBay. Hope I'll get enough from them to buy one of the sub drivers at least.

And since one of the motivations for DIY is that it provides excuses to buy more tools, I just got a Craftsman Pro plunge/fixed base router kit. Woohoo!

 

[WmAx]

You can be so cruel!

Actually, having amp ins might have been handy for the short term but not when I go to biamped speakers - I looked into that. And I like NAD. It's the comprehensive bass management that sold me on the HK, though. Heckuva nice remote, too.

I have a HK reciever which had amp ins for the main 2 front channels but not the others. It was easy to find the circuits that feed the amplifier modules and cut the original circuits providing a bypass and adding additional RCA jacks on the back. I have since sold my *audiophile approved* preamp and amplifier(which I was using for the top end) and have simply used 4 of the recievers amplifiers to power the mid/treble and am using a sperate amplifier for the woofers. I am routing sources to the reciever and using it's internal premamplifer/switching source, then feeding this to a Behringer DCX2496 and feeding it's outputs back to the amplifier stages. Works great and is cost effective since I found the reciver for $25 at Goodwill. But you might be concerned with your warranty -- I suppose.

-Chris

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

Hacking the unit as you describe did fleetingly occur to me, but I am not confident enough in my abilities to try it! And I did buy a new (albeit discontinued and discounted) unit with warranty so I'd risk a bit more than $25.

Maybe after the warranty expires and I have some more soldering iron time under my belt...

Speaking of "audiophile approved" gear, you'll appreciate this, btw: someone at the SMWTMS meeting told me that the unofficial credo of the club is, "High End -- Who the @#$% Needs It?"

 

[WmAx]

Hacking the unit as you describe did fleetingly occur to me, but I am not confident enough in my abilities to try it! And I did buy a new (albeit discontinued and discounted) unit with warranty so I'd risk a bit more than $25.

Coward! Hehe.

Speaking of "audiophile approved" gear, you'll appreciate this, btw: someone at the SMWTMS meeting told me that the unofficial credo of the club is, "High End -- Who the @#$% Needs It?"

That might be a bit harsh, but understood.

-Chris

 

[surveyor]

The HK receiver arrived yesterday. Yow! You young'uns will snicker no doubt, but the transition from a 30+ year old Dynaco preamp to this monster is like going from a model T to an X-wing fighter! Adjusting the volume without having to get my lazy butt out of the seat...what a concept! Hey, my handle isn't a pun on Rip Van Winkle for nothing.

Seriously, one nice feature of the remote is how easy it was to config it to work with my Pioneer DV-563A.

Looks so nice I won't have to airbrush flames on the sides!

I don't think it mixes drinks...but maybe I just haven't found that feature in the manual yet... But I will have to buy or build a phono preamp for my TT and old vinyl. A small price to pay for progress!

Because I have a line-level passive EQ circuit to correct for my speakers' dipole bass roll-off I'm running my speakers thru the Adcom power amp via the HKs preouts for now.

I'm still only in two channel stereo of course. But that will change.

Next step: DIY dipole powered sub.

Well, that's good news for the fish in my house (Looks so nice I won't have to airbrush flames on the sides! ).

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

Is one of those fish named Wanda?

 

[surveyor]

Is one of those fish named Wanda?

Wanda, what a fish!!!!

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

More thoughts and re-thinks....

Well, since I'm going to be knocking myself out anyway with all this DIY stuff, I've come to few conclusions:

1) [bleep] it, might as well just build the Linkwitz Orions for the L and R mains since I'm building a dedicated room anyway. Only mod is less expensive (but still very good) drivers for the mids and tweets as mentioned earlier in this thread so as not to bust the budget. (Hey, later upgrades would be easy). Still planning on DIYing the amps - four per main speaker! Center would be the same minus the woofers but still active and biamped.

2) Start work on the room sooner rather than later. Late Winter/early Spring, perhaps. I've done measurements and started making concept sketches. To those who care about such things, I'm thinking Art Deco in style. My early training and experience as a theatrical scenic artist will be useful!

3) Even though I'm not into HT at the moment, might as well at least include provisions for HT when building the room. Like wiring and mounting points for a ceiling mounted projector and screen. Seeing the "Stop Making Sense" concert DVD on a superb HT setup at a recent audio club meeting kinda planted a seed, I guess...

I'm still building a dipole sub using two Peerless 10" woofers (to be recycled into an Orion) for temporary use in my den w/my current speakers as originally planned. That'll happen right after New Years.

To make all of this more acceptable to She Who Must Be Obeyed, the listening/HT room will be part of a whole basement finishing/insulating project. Hmm, I think I need to buy a better circular saw...that old cheapo Skil just won't cut it (no pun intended). And maybe a compressor and air nailer...

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

Update: a preliminary floorplan and elevations for the listening room! Approximate size: 20 feet x 14 feet.

If the thumbnail just looks like a black rectangle, it's OK. GIFs sometimes show up that way. Click to see it in all its glory.

Also bought and received Linkwitz's "Orion Plans+" package: detailed construction and testing instruction booklet, test CD, and active crossover PCBs for the Orion speakers.

 

[WmAx]

Update: a preliminary floorplan and elevations for the listening room! Approximate size: 20 feet x 14 feet.

If the thumbnail just looks like a black rectangle, it's OK. GIFs sometimes show up that way. Click to see it in all its glory.

Also bought and received Linkwitz's "Orion Plans+" package: detailed construction and testing instruction booklet, test CD, and active crossover PCBs for the Orion speakers.

As for the active crossover PCB; I would not personally bother with building the crossover. Use a DSP unit such as a DCX2496 and program the electrical filter curves that SL specifies. The DCX has far more flexibility and versatality. Just my perspective. <shrug>

-Chris

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

Work has begun!

After much dithering and procrastination (two things I'm best at), I've started building the amps. I've abandoned my plans to build the amps into the speakers. There will be one 60WPC four-channel amp per Orion main speaker (one channel per driver). They'll just sit behind the speakers. The Linkwitz crossover boards will be in the amp cases and hardwired to the rest.

Not much to see as of this posting date unless you're into naked circuit boards, but follow the adventures here:

http://www.bruce.coppola.name/audio/moreaudio.html

Probable timeline: Amps/speakers completed in October or sooner, room construction to begin early '06.