Learn Me Home Audio

The speakers are still a work in progress, but I should be able to start a build thread soon. I took some pics of progress with my camera and some with my dad's, but I can probably start a build thread tonight with my pics.

We didn't finish before I had to head home, so they're packed up and yet to be unpacked. Right now the cabinets are glued together and sanded, and the crossovers are wired. I'm hoping that I didn't horribly screw up the crossovers. I'll find out soon enough. I'm crossing my fingers! This is my first time doing anything relevant with raw electronics (capacitors, resistors, inductors, etc.).

Build thread started...

Are there any magazines/websites similar to GRM for home audio? IE more oriented towards bang for the buck/DIY crowd than "let's show you 10 thousand things that you can't afford"?

There's good sites out there if you can sort through the shiny happy people.

Audiokarma might be a decent place to start.

I was on Club Polk for a long time before i really started to get sick of the infamous "cable debates."

As for a DIY-specific forum, i know there's a good one, but can't think of the name right now. It'll come to me.

For bang-for-buck, ClubPolk, Audiokarma are probably the good places to start.

I browse audiokarma, but I participate at diyaudioprojects.com

If you have a question on how to fix or specs on a piece of new/old gear, audiokarma is the way to go. If you want to GRM your own pieces of equipment, diyaudioprojects is my place of worship.

http://diyaudioprojects.com/

http://www.audiokarma.org/

Audiokarma has a much more traffic than DIY but since I'm usually looking at making tube amps, I'll just wait patiently at DIY for any of my questions to be answered. When I finally rehab an old Akai receiver, I may join Audiokarma if I don't get much from the DIYaudioproject site, but I'm guessing I won't have to.

scardeal wrote: Are there any magazines/websites similar to GRM for home audio? IE more oriented towards bang for the buck/DIY crowd than "let's show you 10 thousand things that you can't afford"?

for diy loudspeakers, the board at parts-express is a good resource. There's a sub-board with speaker projects. And, of course, parts-express can supply the bits as well. And there's www.madisoundspeakerstore.com and meniscusaudio.com for parts and kits. and cabinet flat packs and speaker kits can be found at www.diysoundgroup.com

In fact, because I don't have a lot of wood working tools, I find cabinet flat packs to be very convenient. Nor am I a crossover expert, so I look to speaker designs from well regarded diy speaker designers like Paul Carmody, Curt Campbell, or John Krutke.

The problem with diy is it may not be cheaper than a store model, but definitely a better bang for the buck. Also, some of the budget designs are done with close out speakers that are no longer available.

Any comments about this?

vwcorvette wrote: Any comments about this?

Wow. the only thing custom is they shopped for different speakers. usually, you would want the LCR (left, center, right) speakers to have similar voicing. Part-express has a home theatre 5.1 set up with free shipping and a 45 day money back guarantee for less money. Reviews seem decent. Yeah, it's only a 8 inch subwoofer. the 10 inch sub set up is only a little bit more. the subwoofers come with plate amps standard. So, is the craigslist find a good buy? maybe, if you can audition it.

vwcorvette wrote: Any comments about this?

Pass.

Unless you can get it for under $100. Then it might make a fun garage setup.

Okay, the DIY thing is cool... the Overnight Sensations are great!

(I can't update the build thread right now, I don't have access to my regular computer with the pictures.)

Now, despite my lack of tools and very basic woodworking skills, I really want to try building a whole surround sound setup. I'm seriously thinking about selling off all the Polk speakers and either filling out an OS surround sound (OS MTMs for the fronts, the already built OS MTs for surrounds and OS center for the center.) or try to jump the shark and go with a Statements surround sound setup (Minis as mains, monitors as surrounds and center for center).

But in any case I think I'll have to upgrade my amp/receiver setup first! I want to get a new receiver than has 7.1 or 7.2 preouts, so I'd be able to add external amps if I need to support a large 4 or 2 ohm setup.

Don't currently have a home audio system and am considering putting together a basic system using vintage speakers, a tube amp, and possibly adding a tube DAC later. Looking at vintage speakers because I want good sound without spending too much $ and don't want to try building speakers from scratch. Everything I read says to buy speakers first then match the amp to the speakers, so I'm looking for advice on some decent vintage 3 way speakers (don't want to add a sub if I don't have to).

There are two aspects of my use that complicate matters. I will be setting the system up in a large space. Living room is 25ft x 25ft, has a vaulted ceiling that goes from 11ft to 22ft and opens on a 15ft by 25ft loft. The living room is also open to an adjoining 12ft x 15ft room. Like I said big space. I also don't expect to crank it up very often, so I'm most interested in good sound at lower to moderate volumes (part of why I'm looking at a tube amp because I figure I'll need solid power to fill the space).

Any suggestions on speakers?

Edit to add that I'm not planning to hook up a TV or surround sound. Gonna keep it a 2 channel system.

And if i had the space, i'd have these. Delicious Infinity IRS:

Without a doubt that is the dumbest setup. Audiophiles have to be the most gullible people on the planet! Do these people really think records are mixed this way?

Sultan wrote: And if i had the space, i'd have these. Delicious Infinity IRS: Without a doubt that is the dumbest setup. Audiophiles have to be the most gullible people on the planet! Do these people really think records are mixed this way?

Talk about a "wall of sound"

I've found some Cerwin Vegas on CL, but from what I've read they typically don't sound that great at lower volumes. Also they are a bit of a drive to go check out.

I would call it a wall of mud. A lot of speakers sound bad when you turn them up because you are loading the room up. Turning it down makes the air is less excited and more stable. Think of it as water in a calm pond. It is easy the see the waves when you lightly drop in a small rock. Then drop a big rock and it is chaos.

Sadly the reality is the room plays a huge role in how speakers sound and to make a room sound right is a huge pile of money. This is why records are mixed on smaller speakers. There isn't money in the studio business to pay for making a room right at 120spl.

I've heard a set of those Infinitys, and "mud" isn't what i would use to describe them.

That said, it was in a very well-treated room.

I know all about room overloading, i've spent some time with a set of Polk SDA 1.2TLs in a 10x16 room, and even my "little" Paradigm Legend V.3s will overpower the E36 M3 out of my entire apartment.

Secretariata wrote: Don't currently have a home audio system and am considering putting together a basic system using vintage speakers, a tube amp, and possibly adding a tube DAC later. Looking at vintage speakers because I want good sound without spending too much $ and don't want to try building speakers from scratch. Everything I read says to buy speakers first then match the amp to the speakers, so I'm looking for advice on some decent vintage 3 way speakers (don't want to add a sub if I don't have to). There are two aspects of my use that complicate matters. I will be setting the system up in a large space. Living room is 25ft x 25ft, has a vaulted ceiling that goes from 11ft to 22ft and opens on a 15ft by 25ft loft. The living room is also open to an adjoining 12ft x 15ft room. Like I said big space. I also don't expect to crank it up very often, so I'm most interested in good sound at lower to moderate volumes (part of why I'm looking at a tube amp because I figure I'll need solid power to fill the space). Any suggestions on speakers? Edit to add that I'm not planning to hook up a TV or surround sound. Gonna keep it a 2 channel system.

For bang-for-your-buck vintage speakers, i REALLY like the old Polk Monitors. For your space, a Monitor 7 or Monitor 10 would probably be perfect. Hell, even a set of properly powered Monitor 5s would do. (The 7 is my personal favorite, though.)

A tube amp that will generate enough power to fill that space well isn't going to be terribly cheap, though. What's your actual budget?

I agree. Getting a tube amp powerful enough for a large room is a recipe for major $$$$.

If you want a tubey sound, you might want to bi-amp the speakers, assuming they're bi-ampable, and do tubes for mids/tweets and solid-state for the woofers. Then again, that won't save you a bunch of money.

If you're in Michigan or Toledo, I can sell you either a pair of Polk Audio RTI10s or TSI300s. I'm not really willing to ship them, though.

After building a set of Overnight Sensations for my son, I want to build more speakers! Only thing holding me back is funny looks from my wife as the house fills up with sweet-sounding music-producing wooden boxes!

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-706

1988RedT2 wrote: After building a set of Overnight Sensations for my son, I want to build more speakers! Only thing holding me back is funny looks from my wife as the house fills up with sweet-sounding music-producing wooden boxes!

I agree, they're awesome, particularly for the price. But they can't really fill a large room.

In reply to scardeal:

Exactly. Hence my need to build more (biggerer) speakers!

I'm jonesing to build a surround sound setup of Jim Holtz's Statements series of speakers...

I might have to disagree with tube being expensive. Oh, they can be expensive, but they don't have to be. I recently built a 1.5 watt stereo tube amp to use as a desktop amp to use with either my phone or computer. I used some old tubes and transformers from a yard sale and added some new components from either radio shack or from online stores. I probably have $50 into it. I can listen to it at full volume but if I'm talking with someone it's usually around 6-7. If I had spent maybe another $40 in output transformers I could have around 4-5 watts and with some high sensitivity speakers that can fill a room with sound.

It sound the best with jazz or classical music. Even Pink Floyd sounds great on my thrift shop speakers. Now listening to Sevendust, I can hear the lack of 'power in the middle', but that might be because of how I'm sandbagging the tubes with the old small transformers that limit the output of them.

Here's what I did: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/ross-diy-stereo-tube-amp/63436/page1/

I have other projects planned and I will make threads as I finish them, if there is interest.

He's working with a REALLY big space, though. If he wants to do it on tubes, he's going to have to spend some money on either the amp(s) or speakers sensitive enough that don't sound like E36 M3.

My first thought is that for a typical 90db/w/m speaker, he'll probably need something in the 200w/ch for 8 ohms range as a minimum with a large space like that.

Maybe I don't have a good concept on how much power is needed to fill a room of that size, but I have a room that is 12'x40' (living room open to kitchen) with a 8' ceiling. For high volume rocking out, I've rarely had it over 1/3 to 1/2 of full volume for my 100wpc S.S. receiver with 91 db/w/m 12" floor speakers.