Speaker Porn

[Craig Sawyers]

Machine cut dovetails. I'd be more impressed if they were hand cut.

Nice though, and very high standard cabinetmaking,

[Aura]

if i ever get more speakers there's a good chance they will be from daedalus. look great, pretty flexible on power handling, and most importantly they always demo well (at least they did for me) and have good, natural tone.

Edited May 4, 2020 by Aura

[Knuckledragger]

Infinity IRS Epsilon and Kappa 9s.

[Knuckledragger]

Room treatment to speaker size ratio champion, 2020.

[mikeymad]

and nice IG.... 

[Knuckledragger]

DIY lx521.4:

 

[Craig Sawyers]

One of mine

 

[Dusty Chalk]

You actually own that?  Nice.  Dig that baffle.

[Craig Sawyers]

Not only own - built from first priniciples. The bridge and baffle are traditional hammer veneered using hide glue, and then French Polished. The dark wood around the forward tweeter and the baffle support is Cocobolo, and the bridge feet are Goncalo Alves. The bass unit is spray painted satin back, and then coated in buffed in wax polish.

I was going to just paint the whole thing black, but Mrs S said she'd like wood finish - so I used that as an excuse to learn traditional veneering and French polishing.

[recstar24]

8 minutes ago, Craig Sawyers said:

Not only own - built from first priniciples. The bridge and baffle are traditional hammer veneered using hide glue, and then French Polished. The dark wood around the forward tweeter and the baffle support is Cocobolo, and the bridge feet are Goncalo Alves. The bass unit is spray painted satin back, and then coated in buffed in wax polish.

I was going to just paint the whole thing black, but Mrs S said she'd like wood finish - so I used that as an excuse to learn traditional veneering and French polishing.

 Much respect to the hide glue. Old school construction, kudos. 

[Dusty Chalk]

Nice!

[recstar24]

On 5/4/2020 at 5:06 PM, Aura said:

if i ever get more speakers there's a good chance they will be from daedalus. look great, pretty flexible on power handling, and most importantly they always demo well (at least they did for me) and have good, natural tone.

You’ve got me missing axpona now  the daedalus speakers in person really highlight the quality of the wood and overall craftsmanship. Sorry Bryan but I ain’t helping you bring them down into the listening room.

[Craig Sawyers]

16 minutes ago, recstar24 said:

 Much respect to the hide glue. Old school construction, kudos. 

Thank you! Using hide glue is actually a darn sight easier if you make a mistake - plenty of water and a clothes iron (I have 2 really cheap ones in the workshop) re-liquifies the glue and the veneer can be peeled off. If you use regular white wood glue, the only way to recover is to sand the veneer off with a belt sander.

If you look closely you'll see the veneer is book matched too. That involves making an invisible seam right down the middle of the baffle. That is standard everyday practice for a professional cabinetmaker. It is more of a difficulty for me as a trained amateur who veneers infrequently.

[recstar24]

20 hours ago, Craig Sawyers said:

Thank you! Using hide glue is actually a darn sight easier if you make a mistake - plenty of water and a clothes iron (I have 2 really cheap ones in the workshop) re-liquifies the glue and the veneer can be peeled off. If you use regular white wood glue, the only way to recover is to sand the veneer off with a belt sander.

If you look closely you'll see the veneer is book matched too. That involves making an invisible seam right down the middle of the baffle. That is standard everyday practice for a professional cabinetmaker. It is more of a difficulty for me as a trained amateur who veneers infrequently.

Yes! My biggest familiarity with woodworking is through luthier friends, I have a bud that makes cellos and another that is an accomplished guitar maker. The guitar guy uses hide glue construction exclusively, and typically his solid tops and backs are perfectly bookmatched to ensure that nice consistent look. Cheers!

[Knuckledragger]

DIY Speaker stands:

 

'

[Knuckledragger]

Quote

Odeon Audio No. 23 SE

This is the first time I've had this type of horn speaker in-room. So far they are impressive but it took my brain/ears some time to get used to the presentation compared to B&W 802 D3's and Spatial X5's. The transparency plus layered and deep soundstage are truly impressive, amongst the best I've heard in this area. Images paint a complete picture when I close my eyes from floor to ceiling. My only complaint is how ruthless they are with less than ideal source material.

For the sake of comparison I found JBL 4429's to be a more forgving speaker and a better choice for multimedia setups. The Unison Max 1 had a more "rich" and warm quality compared to the Odeon and JBL. With that said the mids and highs are on a completely different level with the No. 28 SE. All 3 horn based speakers are very engaging but they each have their own strengths. I bought the Odeon's mainly for low volume/late night listening duties and they deliver do an excellent job.

 

[Emooze]

 

[Craig Sawyers]

I've seen those monster speakers before. Monster room, that I think he had specially made for the purpose. But why the clocks? He obviously hasn't done the swept sine at decent power in the room to find out what is resonating.

At least the room is symmetrical.

Swept sine is a damned good way of finding out what is rattling and resonating in a room. From Nelson Pass (he of Pass Labs) in http://www.firstwatt.com/pdf/art_elpipeo.pdf "Funny things happen when your speakers are flat to 13Hz. You have to be careful about your tone arm, your windows, your neighbors, and your bowels."

[Knuckledragger]

Quote

LINN SONDEK LP12, LINN ITTOK LVII tone arm, Goldring 1012GX cartridge, Rega fono mini A2D preamp, Exposure Super XX Integrated amp, Exposure XXII CD player, Marantz vintage tuner, Monitor Audio Gold Reference 60 speakers, Chord Company Oyssey-4 speaker cable, Quadraspire rack.

Tv is a 55 inch Sony with a Sony Ht-xt2 sound base.

 

[Knuckledragger]

Quote

Sonus Faber Olympica Nova.  

Linn LP12 Akurate w/ Adikt cartridge

McIntosh MA252

Mytek Brooklyn DAC & Bluesound Node 2i streamer

I heard the Sonus Fabers at a show recently and it was love at first sound (and sight, too). My first foray into this hobby was a pair of Klipsch RF-7s, and then moved to Goldenear Triton 2s, and the sound signature change moving from a horn to a ribbon tweeter was understandably huge. These land more in the middle and have a sweet, sweet midrange. I had looked at the Olympica IIIs before and was concerned they didn't have quite enough "oomph" and then lo and behold: SF comes out with a big brother model in the Nova V. I regret nothing.

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[mikeymad]

becoming the speaker and LP12 porn thread...

 

[Knuckledragger]

Quote

Speakers: Zu “Dirty Weekend” Mk.II w Clarity Cap

Amp: PrimaLuna Evo 100 Integrated (stock EL34 for now)

DAC: SMSL M500

Source: Surface 7 Pro playing Tidal via USB

We just bought our first house and finally have a proper enough space for my Zu’s and the wife agreed to halfsies on a PL. The Living room/sitting room is swiftly becoming my favorite room in the house to just sit back and relax. The AD18 I was using does an admirable job at driving these speakers given that is is a $140 chifi dac/amp combo. Could definitely get some decent volume out of it w/o clipping but is was definitely a touch bright and a bit anemic. With the PL I’m already noticing a fuller and richer sound and any harshness I heard with the AD18 is gone. Next I may play around with placement and room treatment though my options are limited as I have to maintain aesthetics. Would in the least like to get some panels on the ceiling which the wife seems to be on board with 😊. Definitely open to suggestions and recommendations when it comes to room treatments as I’ve never done it before.

 

[Hopstretch]

6 hours ago, mikeymad said:

becoming the speaker and LP12 porn thread...

[Knuckledragger]

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Speakers are Klipsch RP-150Ms w/ the R-120 12” sub. Headphones are the Phillips Fidelio X2HR and the Sennheiser HD599 with a Schiit Magni 3+ headphone amp so I can use them with the turntable, which is the ubiquitous AT-120LP. I'm using a Sonos amp for the speakers, which is probably considered a nono here, but I really wanted to have my main music station integrated with the little Sonos Ones I have throughout the rest of the house and this was the best way to do it. Sure, it disrupts the "analog chain", but I am not sure I have an ear to detect the difference anyway. Maybe someday I'll dump the Sonos stuff, but for now, it's nice to have my music all over the house when I'm cleaning or moving around a lot.

This is the first time I've had reason to buy vinyl and I've been going CRAZY with it, I honestly need to slow down. I have been downloading music off of private trackers since I was like 15 years old (31 now), so I have TONS of it, but it's all on hard drives and owning physical copies of some of my favorite albums has become an addiction.

Anyway, I'm fairly new to high fidelity audio, but this setup sounds awesome to me. The sub, when the gain is set appropriately, adds so much depth to the music and I haven't had issues with it being too boomy (I know this is a common complaint with Klipsch). The bookshelves also sound great, my only complaint is sometimes the higher frequencies can be a bit harsh. The room could use some additional treatment since it's all brick and fake wood, but it's been hard to balance that with keeping the rustic look intact. It has also been sort of hard to place the sub given the limited space, but I think it has been working well where it is now.

Finally getting all of this set up has been a major project but it's been so fun and SO rewarding. I'm hooked for life.

 

[Knuckledragger]

Quote

When my University kicked us out because of Corona, I decided to take my audio system with me... which spurred me to make some upgrades... I can now confidently say that I am ecstatic about how this sounds- I never thought I would be able to afford this level of performance. The amount of detail and depth in the mids and highs you hear in the music now is astounding with extremely tight bass that you can feel in your chest.

Speakers are Tyler Acoustics Linbrook Signature Reference Towers, Amp is a B&K Reference 4430 (200wpc @ 8ohms), Receiver is an Arcam AVR 600, source is a Bluesound Node 2i (primarily playing Tidal Hifi and Flac files), speaker cables are Morrow Audio SP5s, and all interconnects are also Morrow Audio. Everything is controlled by a Logitech Harmony Elite remote. (I left the video part of the system at school- no need for that here at home.)

I upgraded the speakers from Epicure 1s paired with a B&W sub, the receiver from a B&K AVR307, the source from a Auris BluME Bluetooth Receiver, and all the cables to Morrow Audio.