Thanks.
We both knew this could and would happen, and I'm under the impression that it's a bigger surprise for Xenia than for me, even though doctors told her a long time a go it's a miracle that she is still walking around...
The challenge of redesigning this place and living with her limitations isn't bothering me...
I am afraid that this will ruin our relationship...
- Xenia gave up a lot by moving to this part of our country (friends, party's, different overall mentality...).
She wants to discover new things and for some reason, she thinks that is (almost) impossible in a wheelchair and in this part of the country*.
*people live more old-fashioned over here, there isn't a thai/african/hamburger/...-restaurant at every corner of the street here, people don't throw party's with camp-fires and home-made booze all the time...
- She has also seen her mother moving around a lot, constantly rebuilding and redecorating houses and ending up having to move before the house is done, so everything started all over again...
Now our house needs some construction work to make it a better place, she says she's tired of that and doesn't want all that trouble anymore...
- She has gone living on her own quite young, while I lived together with my parents until the day Xenia and I decided to live together...
Really everything was brand new to me... I do my very best to experience and learn 'the real life' and she says she sees that, but she also says it goes slow...
She is under the impression that her life stands still and her time is ticking fast... I can understand why she is thinking that, but I know it isn't true and it seems she can't be convinced of the opposite...
We both knew this could and would happen, and I'm under the impression that it's a bigger surprise for Xenia than for me, even though doctors told her a long time a go it's a miracle that she is still walking around...
The challenge of redesigning this place and living with her limitations isn't bothering me...
I am afraid that this will ruin our relationship...
- Xenia gave up a lot by moving to this part of our country (friends, party's, different overall mentality...).
She wants to discover new things and for some reason, she thinks that is (almost) impossible in a wheelchair and in this part of the country*.
*people live more old-fashioned over here, there isn't a thai/african/hamburger/...-restaurant at every corner of the street here, people don't throw party's with camp-fires and home-made booze all the time...
- She has also seen her mother moving around a lot, constantly rebuilding and redecorating houses and ending up having to move before the house is done, so everything started all over again...
Now our house needs some construction work to make it a better place, she says she's tired of that and doesn't want all that trouble anymore...
- She has gone living on her own quite young, while I lived together with my parents until the day Xenia and I decided to live together...
Really everything was brand new to me... I do my very best to experience and learn 'the real life' and she says she sees that, but she also says it goes slow...
She is under the impression that her life stands still and her time is ticking fast... I can understand why she is thinking that, but I know it isn't true and it seems she can't be convinced of the opposite...
That Xenia has a large dip in this situation I can understand, you have to be strong and oversee the situation not get you pulled into the negative part. And hope Xenia accepts for her self the handicap. So you both can move on.
My sister works with handicapped people the ones who where healthy and later became disabled have often big problems to get over it. You have find new goals for the future that you can do with a handicap. It wont be easy.
First thing Casinda to keep on doing your hobby to and stay happy so you can help xenia.
My sister works with handicapped people the ones who where healthy and later became disabled have often big problems to get over it. You have find new goals for the future that you can do with a handicap. It wont be easy.
First thing Casinda to keep on doing your hobby to and stay happy so you can help xenia.
It's in ups and downs really, today, we had a good chat about the things I mentioned in my previous post, and just a few minutes ago, she was actually bringing up new ideas for our house...
I can only imagine how confused she is and how hard it is for her to accept the fact that she has to live with her limitations, and that being together with me or not doesn't change anything to that...
Isabelle
I can only imagine how confused she is and how hard it is for her to accept the fact that she has to live with her limitations, and that being together with me or not doesn't change anything to that...
Isabelle
Actully: Having a/several hobbies is what keeps me upright... The problem is I can't practice any of them here (playing different musical instruments, listening and enjoying music in all its different facets, ...)
The stereo here still isn't set up properly (or set up for that matter), the car still has the stock crap system in it, no space for the musical instruments, no place to build up the recording studio I always wanted... and that list together with some other stuff just makes it hard to hold on to the particular life I am living at this moment... because I know there's so much more to it -even with my disabilities- to enjoy
^^
That's what we're working on...
Unfortunately, there are a few things higher on the list, to make sure the house is fully accessible for Xenia by the time she'll depend on a wheelchair:
- We have a room downstairs which is full of clutter at the moment. This must become the bedroom (which is now upstairs). It's a rather small room, but it should be big enough for a normal sized double bed and a closet.
I think it might be possible to store Xenia's guitar-gear in there too!
Xenia thinks it might be possible to temporarily put her drum-kit upstairs, for as long as she is able to get there!
- Once the bedroom is downstairs, the fixed stairway (in the corner of the kitchen) can be replaced by a fold-down one (in the bed- or living-room) and we can start re-doing 2 sides of the (3-wall) kitchen, increasing the cabinet-space and work-area, decreasing the number of boxes/bags standing around in the kitchen.
- Time for the big money: the existing extension on the back of the house will be replaced by a bigger one, and there will be built a new extension to the side of the house.
This side-extension will house the dining place, but I'm pretty sure it will be possible to set-up Xenia's drum-kit in there too!
Now if anybody can tell our cat to stop scratching things, we might be able to set-up the speakers...
Isabelle
That's what we're working on...
Unfortunately, there are a few things higher on the list, to make sure the house is fully accessible for Xenia by the time she'll depend on a wheelchair:
- We have a room downstairs which is full of clutter at the moment. This must become the bedroom (which is now upstairs). It's a rather small room, but it should be big enough for a normal sized double bed and a closet.
I think it might be possible to store Xenia's guitar-gear in there too!
Xenia thinks it might be possible to temporarily put her drum-kit upstairs, for as long as she is able to get there!
- Once the bedroom is downstairs, the fixed stairway (in the corner of the kitchen) can be replaced by a fold-down one (in the bed- or living-room) and we can start re-doing 2 sides of the (3-wall) kitchen, increasing the cabinet-space and work-area, decreasing the number of boxes/bags standing around in the kitchen.
- Time for the big money: the existing extension on the back of the house will be replaced by a bigger one, and there will be built a new extension to the side of the house.
This side-extension will house the dining place, but I'm pretty sure it will be possible to set-up Xenia's drum-kit in there too!
Now if anybody can tell our cat to stop scratching things, we might be able to set-up the speakers...
Isabelle
When she scratches, thAt's the time to pick her up while pressing the skin in her neck (mama-cats do this too) and bring her up to a scratch-pole so she has to grip it. When she hangs on there with her nails, pet her.
As a bonus you could yell some short word while stepping towards her before grabbing her neck-skin, after a while she'll know to stop scratching just by hearing that word.
Be patient.
Good luck.
Get a dog who eats cats
I like dogs more (had a boxer Tessa in memoriam), to cure bad habits of the cat seems difficult to me. Good training when growing up is the best way.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Like the former poster use the techniques the cat understand act like her parents would act to correct her. Throw water on her when she does that bad habit so she gets a bad association with that action.
Last edited:
The stereo is up... sort of...
Still haven't set up the B&W's because of little miss fluff (cat)... But an old pair of technics 3110A speakers... Nothing special but this simple designed speaker actually sounds pretty good, even off the yamaha amp... Which I didn't expect, to be honest... Bu I really need music to live, so I thought: "why not take the risk" which turned out to be more than ok.
They are not set up in a conventional way at this time because we are remodelling the livingroom, but just stacked on top of eachother... BUT THERE'S MUSIC!!!!
Still haven't set up the B&W's because of little miss fluff (cat)... But an old pair of technics 3110A speakers... Nothing special but this simple designed speaker actually sounds pretty good, even off the yamaha amp... Which I didn't expect, to be honest... Bu I really need music to live, so I thought: "why not take the risk" which turned out to be more than ok.
They are not set up in a conventional way at this time because we are remodelling the livingroom, but just stacked on top of eachother... BUT THERE'S MUSIC!!!!
Last edited:
We decided not to go with TB's W4-657D as a "helper mid" below baffle-step, but use another pair of W4-1337's for that instead...
I will explain this decision:
We have 2 TB W4-1337SA's and 3 TB W4-1337SD's laying around. We were planning to use the 3 SD's in a car-project with a center speaker and use the SA's in this project.
Because of the size of these drivers, we decided to give up the idea of using the 3 SD's in the car-project and go with smaller, 3" fullrangers instead...
This means we have all 2+3 drivers free to use in other projects.
Since the price of a pair of TB W4-657D's is the same as that of a single W4-1337SD (but a price-raise is coming soon because of the increased Neodymium-price), economically, it doesn't matter if we use 1 pair of W4-1337SD's and 1 pair of W4-657D's (2pcs yet to buy), or just go with 2 pairs of W4-1337SD's (1pc yet to buy).
Since the look of a W4-1337SD and a W4-657D is a bit different, and there is no driver that will match the W4-1337SD better than another W4-1337SD sound-wise, we think we made the most obvious decision?
The remaining pair of W4-1337SA's will be used in an other project (maybe an Ikea Blanda design, to check out what that's all about)
I will explain this decision:
We have 2 TB W4-1337SA's and 3 TB W4-1337SD's laying around. We were planning to use the 3 SD's in a car-project with a center speaker and use the SA's in this project.
Because of the size of these drivers, we decided to give up the idea of using the 3 SD's in the car-project and go with smaller, 3" fullrangers instead...
This means we have all 2+3 drivers free to use in other projects.
Since the price of a pair of TB W4-657D's is the same as that of a single W4-1337SD (but a price-raise is coming soon because of the increased Neodymium-price), economically, it doesn't matter if we use 1 pair of W4-1337SD's and 1 pair of W4-657D's (2pcs yet to buy), or just go with 2 pairs of W4-1337SD's (1pc yet to buy).
Since the look of a W4-1337SD and a W4-657D is a bit different, and there is no driver that will match the W4-1337SD better than another W4-1337SD sound-wise, we think we made the most obvious decision?
The remaining pair of W4-1337SA's will be used in an other project (maybe an Ikea Blanda design, to check out what that's all about)
On the dutch "zelfbouwaudio.nl' forum, some people warned us about the complexity of a low-frequency passive crossover and suggested to do this actively...
We decided to actually do this, but also build the amplifiers and crossovers into the speakers to keep the usage of audio-rack-space limited: no extra amps, just a pre-amp instead of an integrated amp.
Since the passive network of this speaker will decrease in size quite a lot (only mid to tweeter and the .5 mid), this network can go into the top-part of the speakers.
By doing this, the middle part of the speakers is completely available for a mid+high-amplifier and the active crossover.
If the budget allows it, we'll go the tube-route on both.
The 12" subwoofer will be powered by a cheap and powerfull silicon-based amplifier, built-into the bottom cabinet.
Isabelle
We decided to actually do this, but also build the amplifiers and crossovers into the speakers to keep the usage of audio-rack-space limited: no extra amps, just a pre-amp instead of an integrated amp.
Since the passive network of this speaker will decrease in size quite a lot (only mid to tweeter and the .5 mid), this network can go into the top-part of the speakers.
By doing this, the middle part of the speakers is completely available for a mid+high-amplifier and the active crossover.
If the budget allows it, we'll go the tube-route on both.
The 12" subwoofer will be powered by a cheap and powerfull silicon-based amplifier, built-into the bottom cabinet.
Isabelle
I do not know what you want to do passive in sub-bas area because it isn't more complex to me. But it is very expensive to buy good coils and caps for frequencies about 100Hz.
you will save a lot of money and make it more easy by going active good choice.
The x-over-frequency will be around 200-ish Hz, not <100Hz, so I think the initial cost of active will be higher than passive, mainly because we want to use glass-ware to power and filter the MTM-part of the speakers...
But since an x-over is never perfect from the first time, I think the active route will save us money on the long run: we only need to change some inexpensive resistors and small caps, rather than expensive big coils and caps to tweak the x-over.
The biggest advantages however, should be sound-wise:
- Harmonics caused by the amplifiers will come out of the same part of the speaker as their base-note: in a live-concert, the harmonics of the drum don't come out of the guitar either, do they?
- The MTM-amplifier('s output transformer) can't get saturated by overpowering sub-bass frequencies
- The midrange won't be pushed trough a couple of very large caps and coils: more direct control.
- In the bass-passband, there will be no power-losses trough big caps and coils
- No crazy swings in the frequency response caused by the large coils
- .........
But since an x-over is never perfect from the first time, I think the active route will save us money on the long run: we only need to change some inexpensive resistors and small caps, rather than expensive big coils and caps to tweak the x-over.
The biggest advantages however, should be sound-wise:
- Harmonics caused by the amplifiers will come out of the same part of the speaker as their base-note: in a live-concert, the harmonics of the drum don't come out of the guitar either, do they?
- The MTM-amplifier('s output transformer) can't get saturated by overpowering sub-bass frequencies
- The midrange won't be pushed trough a couple of very large caps and coils: more direct control.
- In the bass-passband, there will be no power-losses trough big caps and coils
- No crazy swings in the frequency response caused by the large coils
- .........
Yes passives do strange things but has there for more tweaking possibilities sound wise that a active can't do.
The last few years I am discovering the weird influence of passive components you can't really measure but sound wise its the difference from liking a speaker and not liking it.
And it cost money to get experience with different types of capacitors coils and resistors and wire.
So with passive you can create a sound in a box that does not have to influence the frequency response in linearity. So you can go for your preference in sound.
The last few years I am discovering the weird influence of passive components you can't really measure but sound wise its the difference from liking a speaker and not liking it.
And it cost money to get experience with different types of capacitors coils and resistors and wire.
So with passive you can create a sound in a box that does not have to influence the frequency response in linearity. So you can go for your preference in sound.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.