What New Stuff Have You Bought? If You Care To Share Thead! :)

M

MrBoat

Audioholic Ninja
I think @MrBoat has used some of the ebay PCBs on his work.
Yes. I got a set from ebay for the C-note speakers. Also, when I built the fusion-12, diysoundgroup had not only the pcb, but offered to build it for a ridiculously small fee, so I splurged there too. I really dislike the perfboard, of all the possible alternatives.

I dunno, I reckon if I built the drivers from scratch, and everything about it was my own design, I might have kept it all 'self' made. I build a lot of things as a day job. After awhile, just knowing you can do it is enough.

I am currently sitting on a Paul Carmody Speedster kit. It has the mdf xover boards. I may saturate them with epoxy to plasticize them enough to drill halfway decently, and so that they look a bit more like I cared, at least.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
Yes. I got a set from ebay for the C-note speakers. Also, when I built the fusion-12, diysoundgroup had not only the pcb, but offered to build it for a ridiculously small fee, so I splurged there too. I really dislike the perfboard, of all the possible alternatives.

I dunno, I reckon if I built the drivers from scratch, and everything about it was my own design, I might have kept it all 'self' made. I build a lot of things as a day job. After awhile, just knowing you can do it is enough.

I am currently sitting on a Paul Carmody Speedster kit. It has the mdf xover boards. I may saturate them with epoxy to plasticize them enough to drill halfway decently, and so that they look a bit more like I cared, at least.
Nice on the speedster kit. Did you do the ribbon version?
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Yes. I got a set from ebay for the C-note speakers. Also, when I built the fusion-12, diysoundgroup had not only the pcb, but offered to build it for a ridiculously small fee, so I splurged there too. I really dislike the perfboard, of all the possible alternatives.

I dunno, I reckon if I built the drivers from scratch, and everything about it was my own design, I might have kept it all 'self' made. I build a lot of things as a day job. After awhile, just knowing you can do it is enough.

I am currently sitting on a Paul Carmody Speedster kit. It has the mdf xover boards. I may saturate them with epoxy to plasticize them enough to drill halfway decently, and so that they look a bit more like I cared, at least.
I have also considered making my own PCBs! I have never done it personally, but I have at least 2 friends that have. You can buy the supplies online, likely from PE. It is fiberglass board with a copper plating. You mask off your traces (a couple different methods to do this), etch away the un-masked copper, then remove the mask. Then drill the holes, which isn't much fun!

But, I can tell you that one of my friends that has done this many times (he is an Electrical Engineer) has most recently just been drawing up the PCBs in Eagle, then just farming it out to some operation in China. He says that with the labor involved, he just pays them to do it now, and they will do low-volume work.
 
M

MrBoat

Audioholic Ninja
I have also considered making my own PCBs! I have never done it personally, but I have at least 2 friends that have. You can buy the supplies online, likely from PE. It is fiberglass board with a copper plating. You mask off your traces (a couple different methods to do this), etch away the un-masked copper, then remove the mask. Then drill the holes, which isn't much fun!

But, I can tell you that one of my friends that has done this many times (he is an Electrical Engineer) has most recently just been drawing up the PCBs in Eagle, then just farming it out to some operation in China. He says that with the labor involved, he just pays them to do it now, and they will do low-volume work.
Yes. It's actually pretty inexpensive, even if they have a board minimum. I also saw where someone used the (was like 3 different free programs) same pcb service to build electronics equipment front and rear panels for chassis, with silk screened lettering etc. Was actually quite nice and professional looking. Puts in all of the screw holes (even with the copper to add strength to the holes) and other component holes like for pots and whatnot.
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Yes. It's actually pretty inexpensive, even if they have a board minimum. I also saw where someone used the (was like 3 different free programs) same pcb service to build electronics equipment front and rear panels for chassis, with silk screened lettering etc. Was actually quite nice and professional looking. Puts in all of the screw holes (even with the copper to add strength to the holes) and other component holes like for pots and whatnot.
Oh yeah, my EE friend has done that for his faceplates too. He has built his own sequencers and other audio gear, designed the PCB and the faceplate, had it all farmed out, came back looking professional!

He just uses Eagle software, by far the most popular, but he gets the license with his job.
 
NINaudio

NINaudio

Audioholic Samurai
Just bought all three albums by Heilung on CD. Watching Vikings had me fall in love with the song from the credits which has sent me on a path to listen to and find some more music along those lines. Wardruna may be next in the purchase list...
 
John Parks

John Parks

Audioholic Samurai
Just bought all three albums by Heilung on CD. Watching Vikings had me fall in love with the song from the credits which has sent me on a path to listen to and find some more music along those lines. Wardruna may be next in the purchase list...
I saw this when it came out and thought it was pretty cool! Then kind of forgot about it... Fast forward a couple years and my (grown) daughter and I were talking about music during a road trip (we used to all the time before she moved out so it was extra nice for me). She started going on about this band (the name did not register with me) and started describing their look and sound and I'm like, "The chick with the bones?" "Yeah!" Sweet...
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
I saw this when it came out and thought it was pretty cool! Then kind of forgot about it... Fast forward a couple years and my (grown) daughter and I were talking about music during a road trip (we used to all the time before she moved out so it was extra nice for me). She started going on about this band (the name did not register with me) and started describing their look and sound and I'm like, "The chick with the bones?" "Yeah!" Sweet...
My daughter would love this! She's been to Future Forest in New Brunswick a couple of times.
https://futureforest.ca/
 
Jenzard

Jenzard

Audiophyte
...It's on it's way...Emotiva 9 channel Amp...Super Excited as this is my first Introduction into the Amp world!!!
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
I left NB and moved to Ontario after graduating from UNB way back in 1987.
Same year I graduated from uni. :) I've been in London most of my life but love visiting out east. Our daughter studied at the Nova Scotia College or Art and Design and decided to stay. Would have traveled there last year if not for the pandemic. Can't wait for the Maritimes to open up again.
 
KenM10759

KenM10759

Audioholic Samurai
I really wanted to invest in a new integrated amplifier for driving my new KEF Reference 1's. I have older components running them now, and in that room I'm running them full range with an Emotiva UPS-1 pre-amp and Carver M-1.5t 350w/ch power amp. Sounds great, but can it get better?

I'll have to wait until next year to find out. Bought something else to amplify my fun level.

2021_Triumph_Street-TripleR765.jpg
 
S

sterling shoote

Audioholic Field Marshall
Amazon delivered my A-T VM540ML pre mounted to A-T Headshell yesterday morning. It's in action right now playing Classic Hauser. The stylus to headshell tail distance was indeed set by A-T to 52.5mm so I adjusted the cart for a 52mm stylus to headshell distance to get the Technics tracking error scheme and then I set tracking force to 2 grams, VTA to Zero, and anti-skate to 2.5 as indicated via Shure Test Recording for anti-skate adjustment. The cart is tail high at Zero setting, I suppose the A-T Headshell is different geometry than the Technics Headshell. I will re-mount this cart to a Technics headshell at first chance. At any rate, right now play of Classic Hauser is inspiring words like bold, and detailed to describe the sound. Over all it's so similar in sound to my Shure V15V-MR/SAS that I cannot put my finger on any divergence. An average volume of 65db comes at a 55db preamp setting, while the same volume from my Shure comes at about 60db. LP surface noise is somewhat greater than noticed using Shure cart, perhaps because the cart is running tail low. I think I'm going to like this cart for a multitude of reasons; foremost is the cart sounds like my discontinued Shure V15V-MR and the stylus replacement cost is less than an SAS stylus.
 
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G

GotAudio

Audioholic
Just got a set of ELAC Debut 2.0 6 1/2 3 way towers at a steal open-box from Best Buy. They retail for $460 but I got almost $300 off each speaker buying open-box. I recently bought their debut 2.0 6 1/2 center channel and loved it, so I bit the bullet when I saw these pairs for this particular price (and also after reading reviews online). Couldn’t find any other mid-level speakers for this price anywhere else.

one of my Sony 3 way speakers was starting to give off a loud buzz/vibration at high volumes so I figured it might bring going bad as I’ve had it for close to 4 years now. Instead of repairing or replacing it, I will use it as a rear surround.

im really excited as I am setting up my entertainment center in my garage this Monday and being that theaters are still closed in SoCal, I’m so excited I have a theater at home!!
 
Kvn_Walker

Kvn_Walker

Audioholic Field Marshall
Henry Kloss' last speaker design, the Cambridge Soundworks Tower 1's...

CSW.jpg


Okay, these aren't my actual pair. I just never took any pictures. :p But I did get the ones with this reddish veneer. They're actually tiny in person, only a hair over 3 feet tall.

I bought them when I was struggling to get the PSB Stratus Gold's to sound right in the living room. I've come to the conclusion that for my use case (can only speak for myself), bipolar designs will work best for the 2-channel setup. That depth of stage makes TV and movies feel "cinema-like" which is what it's all about in the first place.

The side effect is that all music, even studio recorded) sounds live and concert-like when listening to bipoles. Not going to call it good or bad... just different. I may well try to get a pair of bipole speakers for upstairs, just to be able to switch every once in awhile and listen to the same music a different way.

But for the living room, a standard monopole box isn't going to do. Since the Denon had A/B speaker switching which could be done by remote (yes, really!) I listened with the best half to the CSW's and the PSB's with some music and some Netflix. I like to sometimes see if she hears what I hear (helps her cope with my audio insanity when she does).

Without telling her which speaker was which, her conclusion was "the A speaker sounds like I'm inside of a box. I don't like it. The B speaker sounds open and spacious, like you're in font of a stage. It just has a nicer effect." My observation was the same. She was surprised that the diminutive CSW's had so much more presence than the notably larger and heavier Stratus Goldi's.

My overall impression of these, top to bottom... the highs are pleasant and non-fatiguing, the midrange seems thicker on the bottom ranges than the upper regions, and the bass is strong but not extended.

I'm learning as I go (you never truly stop learning, do ya?), and while I know some people say that there's no such thing as "music speakers versus HT speakers", for a pure 2-channel HT setup, reproducing speech is life-and-death critical. Mark (TLS) has expounded on this many times, but since we've moved and I've had multiple speakers in and out of the living room, I've experienced just how profound a difference it makes.

Singing ain't speech. Those Von Schweikert VR-4's I regretfully sold, did speech right. Upstairs, where I pretty much only listen to music, the VR-33's with their dual Scanspeak mids and ring radiator danced all over the old venerable VR-4's. But those 4's kicked serious ass in the living room. The time-aligned drivers, minimal baffle, and rear ambience tweeter all seemed to come together for making A/V media come to life. Speech sounded like people talking. (sure that would seem a no-brainer but when you hear the difference, it'll blow your mind) When I sold them, first thing I did was bring the 33's downstairs to take their place. I just KNEW they were going to blow my freaking mind compared to their predecessors.

Wrong. I was tremendously underwhelmed. The speech in movies and shows sounded hollow, and placement wasn't helping. I realized (too late!) that the depth effect is crucial to good multimedia sound. That's why I went ahead and sold the 33's when an offer came up. They rocked the world on music, but didn't excite me in the living room.

So all that was to say, that on speech, the Cambridge Towers have superb depth, but are not quite right for speech. Good but not "great." There's too much emphasis in the lower midrange. Men speaking sometimes sound shouty, and women speaking can sometimes sound the way a man would if he was trying to imitate a woman. Now, put some piano music on these bad boys and the note emphasis will take you to a concert hall, but listening to the Byrdes argue in an episode of Ozark isn't natural. I considered disconnecting the rear midrange, but that would a) hurt soundstage depth, and b) alter the crossover point of the remaining mid.

So, the search continued. I am keeping these though. I'm going to re-finish the veneer and when my youngest moves out to live with her beau, it'll be a gift for them. They roll their eyes at my obsession but love the quality of the gear that I buy. "When we get our own place, we want you to help us find some speakers!" Yeah they really said that. :) So little do they know, it's already done.
 

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