Glad to hear you're using protection
. And fastbike is right - any loud prolonged sound can cause it. I know an orchestra member who got it from sitting in front of the trombone section.Try spending 8-9 hours in a jet liner ( I commented elsewhere on a recent experience - got bored on a 2 leg flight from Bermuda to Victoria, so I whipped out my iPhone - SPLs averaged well over 90dB for most of the flight, with the RTA showing most of that content well under 800 Hz)
There are more causes of tinnitus than just noise, but prolonged exposure to excessive SPLs (over 90dB), no matter what the source, just ain't good.
There are more causes of tinnitus than just noise, but prolonged exposure to excessive SPLs (over 90dB), no matter what the source, just ain't good.
Successfully swapped the fans of my Behringer iNuke6000 subwoofer amplifier. Makes a huge difference, now I don't have like 70dB background noise from those horrible fans. Now I can't even hear it from 20cm distance!
Going on a 10 month around the world trip starting in September. Unfortunately I will not go to Canada but New York is one of the places I'm visiting. Thinking of buying a pair of AKG K490 NC headphones to bring some portable hi-fi with me (and the Noise-Canceling function may prove useful on airplanes).
Going on a 10 month around the world trip starting in September. Unfortunately I will not go to Canada but New York is one of the places I'm visiting. Thinking of buying a pair of AKG K490 NC headphones to bring some portable hi-fi with me (and the Noise-Canceling function may prove useful on airplanes).
No doubt not all 'cans are created equal - for my first Bermuda trip a few years back I bought a pair of cheap ($40 or so) Sony NC phones - they were certainly more comfortable than ear buds, and sounded fine, but I found the noise cancelling feature to be not all that effective. There more than a few folks using Bose, AKG etc sets on the plane and in the terminals, and the issue that I think you might run into is their size - they'll easily take up several times the space of the iPod, phone or whatever portable digital player you'll likely be using.
Enjoy your trip - take lots of photos - my son did South East Asia and South America (separately) a few years back, and must have taken 5000 (that his parents saw - we're not that "open" yet)
Enjoy your trip - take lots of photos - my son did South East Asia and South America (separately) a few years back, and must have taken 5000 (that his parents saw - we're not that "open" yet)
I think the noise cancelling feature has been improved a lot the recent years. Ear buds wont work for me, I've tried several models, including the Sennheiser IE6, but they simply wont fit well in my ears.
I don't think size will be a problem. I will carry them with me in my hand luggage (a backpack) and in there I will have a 13" MacBook Air, a Nikon D5100 DSLR, passport, tickets and of course the headphones. I will be using my phone as source.
Taking photos wont be a problem. During my ten days in Germany last month I ended up taking a little more than 1000 photos.
I don't think size will be a problem. I will carry them with me in my hand luggage (a backpack) and in there I will have a 13" MacBook Air, a Nikon D5100 DSLR, passport, tickets and of course the headphones. I will be using my phone as source.
Taking photos wont be a problem. During my ten days in Germany last month I ended up taking a little more than 1000 photos.
Hello everybody. It's been some fascinating months travelling around the world, mostly just Europe but also a short trip to Japan.
Right now I live in the nearest "big" city, Sundsvall. Moved out of the house just a few days before I started travelling. I came home about a month ago but I've been working in my old school until christmas so I haven't had much time for listening or experimenting.
Been home alone for a few days now, trying to get a hang of the living room which is my main listening room right now. My own room is way too small to fit any kind of speakers, even the Mar-Kels.
I was up late last night listening to my bigger speakers in the living room. Mostly listening to Diana Krall and a little bit of Freelance Whales too. I like the fact that the room is so much bigger than my old room at home. The soundstage is just bigger and the bass is better too, even though there's a big dip around 50Hz at listening position. Around 30-35Hz seems to be very pronounced throughout most of the room, which gives a nice physical feeling in some songs and it makes the speakers seem bigger than they actually are. Currently using dad's Onkyo 607 amplifier and it's not nearly as good as my HK 3490 I think. And I'm not using any subwoofers either, it's an apartment after all and my dad says my subwoofers are too ugly to be in the living room. Well well...
The Mar-Kels have been standing in a bookshelf the last months, facing inwards for protection of the beautiful drivers. But today I felt for hooking them up in the living room, to see what they sound like in this much bigger room. I had to move the amplifier rack a little bit because the cables were a little bit short but this is what it looked like.
Sound-wise there is a difference between the two different speakers. Both of them sound really good but since there's such a big difference in physical size there has to be a difference in sound as well. The Mar-Kels sound a bit thin compared to the bigger ones, and the sweetspot is much narrower which can be a little bit annoying. The soundstage is still brilliant though once you're in sweetspot and voices sound really true. I listened to Devil May Cry by Diana Krall (go Canada!) on both speakers. First the Mar-Kel and then the Oy. It sounded really good on the Mar-Kel and they got some help in the lower octaves by the room as well so the bass was there too. Then I listened to the same song on the bigger Oy. Her voice sounded "fuller" and "richer" on the bigger speakers, the piano sounded bigger and the bass was more physically pronounced and "there" in the soundstage. I also felt that the Mar-Kel lacked the "sparkle" in the top, so to speak, and at the sound levels I was playing at I couldn't stop feeling that they had to struggle a little bit at some parts of the song. It didn't sound as effortless as it did on the Oy.
Right now I live in the nearest "big" city, Sundsvall. Moved out of the house just a few days before I started travelling. I came home about a month ago but I've been working in my old school until christmas so I haven't had much time for listening or experimenting.
Been home alone for a few days now, trying to get a hang of the living room which is my main listening room right now. My own room is way too small to fit any kind of speakers, even the Mar-Kels.
I was up late last night listening to my bigger speakers in the living room. Mostly listening to Diana Krall and a little bit of Freelance Whales too. I like the fact that the room is so much bigger than my old room at home. The soundstage is just bigger and the bass is better too, even though there's a big dip around 50Hz at listening position. Around 30-35Hz seems to be very pronounced throughout most of the room, which gives a nice physical feeling in some songs and it makes the speakers seem bigger than they actually are. Currently using dad's Onkyo 607 amplifier and it's not nearly as good as my HK 3490 I think. And I'm not using any subwoofers either, it's an apartment after all and my dad says my subwoofers are too ugly to be in the living room. Well well...
The Mar-Kels have been standing in a bookshelf the last months, facing inwards for protection of the beautiful drivers. But today I felt for hooking them up in the living room, to see what they sound like in this much bigger room. I had to move the amplifier rack a little bit because the cables were a little bit short but this is what it looked like.
Sound-wise there is a difference between the two different speakers. Both of them sound really good but since there's such a big difference in physical size there has to be a difference in sound as well. The Mar-Kels sound a bit thin compared to the bigger ones, and the sweetspot is much narrower which can be a little bit annoying. The soundstage is still brilliant though once you're in sweetspot and voices sound really true. I listened to Devil May Cry by Diana Krall (go Canada!) on both speakers. First the Mar-Kel and then the Oy. It sounded really good on the Mar-Kel and they got some help in the lower octaves by the room as well so the bass was there too. Then I listened to the same song on the bigger Oy. Her voice sounded "fuller" and "richer" on the bigger speakers, the piano sounded bigger and the bass was more physically pronounced and "there" in the soundstage. I also felt that the Mar-Kel lacked the "sparkle" in the top, so to speak, and at the sound levels I was playing at I couldn't stop feeling that they had to struggle a little bit at some parts of the song. It didn't sound as effortless as it did on the Oy.
Hello again!
The Mar-Kels are back as my main speakers again. I recently moved to the city of Norrköping to attend university there. Me and my parents were looking to buy me my own apartment but we didn't find any good ones at a reasonable price (prices skyrocket during the summer), so for the moment I'm sharing a three room apartment with two other guys. My room is supposed to be about 13 square meters. I guess it's about 4.5x3m maybe. There's only one place to put the speakers and that's on top of a Ikea Kallax that is rotated 90 degrees. The shelf is located along one of the longer walls so I get a listening distance of around two meters and the speakers are around one meter apart from eachother. Both of the long walls and one of the shorter walls are concrete. Ceiling is concrete and so is the floor but it's covered by a plastic mat. The acoustics in the room is terrible and there's not much I can do about it. The bass was very boomy but luckily I brought my MiniDSP with me so I could make it better. When I had EQd it flat in REW it sounded very thin and lifeless. I then applied a -3dB high-shelf filter at 180Hz to boost the bottom end. I'm not playing at any loud SPL anyways so there's plenty of headroom. I did a measurement and the bass goes down to about 60Hz and then it drops rapidly.
There's a measurement with the current settings, 1/24 smoothing.
The Mar-Kels are back as my main speakers again. I recently moved to the city of Norrköping to attend university there. Me and my parents were looking to buy me my own apartment but we didn't find any good ones at a reasonable price (prices skyrocket during the summer), so for the moment I'm sharing a three room apartment with two other guys. My room is supposed to be about 13 square meters. I guess it's about 4.5x3m maybe. There's only one place to put the speakers and that's on top of a Ikea Kallax that is rotated 90 degrees. The shelf is located along one of the longer walls so I get a listening distance of around two meters and the speakers are around one meter apart from eachother. Both of the long walls and one of the shorter walls are concrete. Ceiling is concrete and so is the floor but it's covered by a plastic mat. The acoustics in the room is terrible and there's not much I can do about it. The bass was very boomy but luckily I brought my MiniDSP with me so I could make it better. When I had EQd it flat in REW it sounded very thin and lifeless. I then applied a -3dB high-shelf filter at 180Hz to boost the bottom end. I'm not playing at any loud SPL anyways so there's plenty of headroom. I did a measurement and the bass goes down to about 60Hz and then it drops rapidly.
There's a measurement with the current settings, 1/24 smoothing.
Wow, these speakers still surprise me!
Since my last post I have gotten my old desk back again, being 80x160cm which means I can fit the speakers on the desk on each side of my computer screen. For the last hour I have listened through some Alt-J songs and I just found myself totally lost in the music. The soundstage, the details, the natural sound. These speakers really are near-field speakers. Previously when using them like normal speakers I have always had trouble with an incredibly narrow sweetspot but now that they are less than a meter from my ears I have no problems at all with the sweetspot being narrow.
However, they still sound like crap to more complex and dense music.
Since my last post I have gotten my old desk back again, being 80x160cm which means I can fit the speakers on the desk on each side of my computer screen. For the last hour I have listened through some Alt-J songs and I just found myself totally lost in the music. The soundstage, the details, the natural sound. These speakers really are near-field speakers. Previously when using them like normal speakers I have always had trouble with an incredibly narrow sweetspot but now that they are less than a meter from my ears I have no problems at all with the sweetspot being narrow.
However, they still sound like crap to more complex and dense music.
In the picture below you can see my current setup.
It is as good as I can get it in my room right now. I just listened through some songs, especially Sweet Georgia Brown by The Ray Brown Trio, album is called Soular Energy. Excellent song with fantastic bass. I listened through that album several times this summer when I was back home at my parents' house where I keep my big speakers. That really physical bass is... Arousing in one way. As you can imagine the EL70 drivers don't give much of that physical sensation as there is no replacement for displacement. However, this made me remember that I do actually have a pair of Eminence LAB12 subwoofers and an amplifier, currently in my dad's storage room taking up loads of space. He has been complaining about this for two years but I kept saying I don't have anywhere to put them, my room is 12 sqm. But tonight, as I sat listening through Sweet Georgia Brown I had a look to my left and realised that I have a great place to put the subs and they can double up as a table for the amplifiers. Currently my amplifier is standing on the floor next to my desk which makes changing the volume a bit awkward. However, if I stack the two subs on eachother to the left of my desk, where the microphone stand is, it wouldn't take up much extra space, I would get a table for my amplifiers and I would be able to get a little bit more physical feeling in the music.
It is as good as I can get it in my room right now. I just listened through some songs, especially Sweet Georgia Brown by The Ray Brown Trio, album is called Soular Energy. Excellent song with fantastic bass. I listened through that album several times this summer when I was back home at my parents' house where I keep my big speakers. That really physical bass is... Arousing in one way. As you can imagine the EL70 drivers don't give much of that physical sensation as there is no replacement for displacement. However, this made me remember that I do actually have a pair of Eminence LAB12 subwoofers and an amplifier, currently in my dad's storage room taking up loads of space. He has been complaining about this for two years but I kept saying I don't have anywhere to put them, my room is 12 sqm. But tonight, as I sat listening through Sweet Georgia Brown I had a look to my left and realised that I have a great place to put the subs and they can double up as a table for the amplifiers. Currently my amplifier is standing on the floor next to my desk which makes changing the volume a bit awkward. However, if I stack the two subs on eachother to the left of my desk, where the microphone stand is, it wouldn't take up much extra space, I would get a table for my amplifiers and I would be able to get a little bit more physical feeling in the music.
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It is indeed a lot of subwoofer for this room but I would play them at very low volume to just add what the EL70 is lacking. I have boxes already, a pair of ~40l sealed cabinets. Using a MiniDSP for EQ so since I wont be playing loud I could get them flat down to "low enough".
If you like the Ray Brown trio, - check out any of the live recordings with Gene Harris - "Summertime" is probably my favorite
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=...0I6IDQ&usg=AFQjCNHbEHFpPDZAXL0Lu-YfqdyzeEEc2w
(John) Clayton (Jeff) Hamilton Jazz Orchestra as well
Then there's
Stanley Clarke
Jaco Pastorius
Ron Carter
Marcus Miller
Charlie Haydon
Eddie Gomez
Percy Heath
my, but this could get to be a really long list with very little trouble
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=...0I6IDQ&usg=AFQjCNHbEHFpPDZAXL0Lu-YfqdyzeEEc2w
(John) Clayton (Jeff) Hamilton Jazz Orchestra as well
Then there's
Stanley Clarke
Jaco Pastorius
Ron Carter
Marcus Miller
Charlie Haydon
Eddie Gomez
Percy Heath
my, but this could get to be a really long list with very little trouble
I never got to take the subs to my student room. I quit my studies this past winter, media engineering was probably not my thing. Now I have temporarily moved back in with my parents and landed a temporary job at a paper mill, making good money but working long hours and often at night.
At the moment I'm running the Mar-Kel speakers on my desk and both LAB12 subs on the floor underneath. A lot of subwoofer for a room that's around 12-14sqm and very overkill for a pair of 4" full-range drivers. However, I do feel like the EL70 just isn't big enough to stand on their own.
I also recently bought my first car and sound improvements are being made there already. I'm leaning towards taking both LAB12 subs and putting them in the trunk (probably wont be any space left there). That leaves me without subs for my computer audio setup.
I'm a bit torn between what to do. Build two new smaller subs (~8"), build a F.A.S.T system with a big satellite speaker cabinet housing both my EL70 and a ~6.5" woofer, or build a traditional two-way speaker with a 6.5" woofer and 1" tweeter.
The first option has the downside being that I need an extra amplifier which adds complexity and size to the system. Building new cabinets for the EL70 would mean I have two perfectly fine 18mm baltic birch empty cabinets lying around and I don't really have any space for that. Building a traditional two-way setup would probably be best but also most likely hardest in terms of design and component choice.
I don't think I'll find a full-range driver that suits my current needs so I have to have a crossover somewhere. If I put it low enough (80-120Hz) I would probably need a pretty big full-range driver to give enough weight to the mid-bass and that would mean compromising the high end. Putting the crossover at around 300-400Hz would mess up the vocals a bit I guess but it would allow me to use a smaller full-range driver and not compromise the top end so much. Putting the crossover at 2-3kHz would mess up the vocals the least I suppose while still allowing me to use a bigger woofer.
At the moment I'm running the Mar-Kel speakers on my desk and both LAB12 subs on the floor underneath. A lot of subwoofer for a room that's around 12-14sqm and very overkill for a pair of 4" full-range drivers. However, I do feel like the EL70 just isn't big enough to stand on their own.
I also recently bought my first car and sound improvements are being made there already. I'm leaning towards taking both LAB12 subs and putting them in the trunk (probably wont be any space left there). That leaves me without subs for my computer audio setup.
I'm a bit torn between what to do. Build two new smaller subs (~8"), build a F.A.S.T system with a big satellite speaker cabinet housing both my EL70 and a ~6.5" woofer, or build a traditional two-way speaker with a 6.5" woofer and 1" tweeter.
The first option has the downside being that I need an extra amplifier which adds complexity and size to the system. Building new cabinets for the EL70 would mean I have two perfectly fine 18mm baltic birch empty cabinets lying around and I don't really have any space for that. Building a traditional two-way setup would probably be best but also most likely hardest in terms of design and component choice.
I don't think I'll find a full-range driver that suits my current needs so I have to have a crossover somewhere. If I put it low enough (80-120Hz) I would probably need a pretty big full-range driver to give enough weight to the mid-bass and that would mean compromising the high end. Putting the crossover at around 300-400Hz would mess up the vocals a bit I guess but it would allow me to use a smaller full-range driver and not compromise the top end so much. Putting the crossover at 2-3kHz would mess up the vocals the least I suppose while still allowing me to use a bigger woofer.
So I've just come back after working a day in the local hifi-store. Lots of fun and we had an event in the evening where we played some vinyl, tried different pickups, phono pre-amps, and so on. I was surprised by how good vinyl could sound. I have never before heard a proper high quality vinyl setup. We listened on Daft Punk on vinyl with different players, pickups, and phono pre-amps and compared it to Spotify and Tidal streaming. Spotify was worst, really big difference. Then Tidal was a little better but still not better than a "cheap" vinyl setup. I was also surprised by how big the differences were between pickups in different price ranges. The cheapest one we used today was around $80 and the most expensive around $600 and there was a very clear difference between the two.
And since the store is run by hifi-interested people they had to ask me what my home setup was. I told them I had a pair of bigger than average floorstanders as my main setup but that I also had a smaller pair of speakers for my computer. They told me to bring both pairs into the store some day and play them with some really good amplifiers and so on. My floorstanders aren't very portable so I'm not sure if I will bother bringing them to the store, but I'm definitely thinking of bringing my Mar-Kel70 (or whatever they are called now), since they are very different from any other speaker in the store.
And since the store is run by hifi-interested people they had to ask me what my home setup was. I told them I had a pair of bigger than average floorstanders as my main setup but that I also had a smaller pair of speakers for my computer. They told me to bring both pairs into the store some day and play them with some really good amplifiers and so on. My floorstanders aren't very portable so I'm not sure if I will bother bringing them to the store, but I'm definitely thinking of bringing my Mar-Kel70 (or whatever they are called now), since they are very different from any other speaker in the store.