The Boominator - another stab at the ultimate party machine

routing rebates for solar panels

Hello again.......

I'm struggling a little here, no routing expericence except for what I have done so far on my boominator....... I want to route two 220x400x4mm panels in the boominator top to rebate my solar panels........

I'm not sure how to do this with a hand router......

I'm thinking of using a 12mm router bit to outline the shape first.....
Then I should "hollow" out the inside of the shape on a router table, ensuring that the boominator top stays perfectly flat.........

Does that sound about right or would there be a better way of doing it?

BJ
 
I'd wait to draw any conclusions until you tried with another amp (try for example with the amp from your stereo).

Just tried to hook up the Boominator to my Denon avr-2310.

Naturally it plays much louder and without any distortion. (Lepai sucks)

But the sound at lower volumes are similar. Maybe it is just the lack of sub bass I'm missing. When I crank it up loud I hear and feel the bass, but at lower volumes I'm still missing some bass. And also the bass is very dry and not really fat. Is this normal?

I know I'm asking alot about this subject, but I'm just trying to find out if my Boominator is working as it should, so I can go to sleep with peace in my mind.

Edit: This testing was inside in a 15 m2 room. This will ofc have impact on the result also.
 
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Just tried to hook up the Boominator to my Denon avr-2310.

Naturally it plays much louder and without any distortion. (Lepai sucks)

But the sound at lower volumes are similar. Maybe it is just the lack of sub bass I'm missing. When I crank it up loud I hear and feel the bass, but at lower volumes I'm still missing some bass. And also the bass is very dry and not really fat. Is this normal?

I know I'm asking alot about this subject, but I'm just trying to find out if my Boominator is working as it should, so I can go to sleep with peace in my mind.

Edit: This testing was inside in a 15 m2 room. This will ofc have impact on the result also.

dont forget that HP10W's are PA drivers, they need some vol to sound their best......
 
Dry or punchy bass as opposed to fat or boomy? Yeah, that's normal. It's incredibly easy to make a speaker sound fatter or warmer with equalizing or processing. The opposite however, is next to impossible.

But bass will appear to be lacking indoors, no matter what, it will have much improved bass performance outdoors.

Of course, descriptions alone cannot truly convey if the sound is correct and as it should be. One needs to compare it against other Boominators.
 
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Dry or punchy bass as opposed to fat or boomy? Yeah, that's normal. It's incredibly easy to make a speaker sound fatter or warmer with equalizing or processing. The opposite however, is next to impossible.

But bass will appear to be lacking indoors, no matter what, it will have much improved bass performance outdoors.

Of course, descriptions alone cannot truly convey if the sound is correct and as it should be. One needs to compare it against other Boominators.

Well, I'm getting closer to the conclusion that it is as it should be. And that it needs to be played loud to really come alive.

Resistor do not dampen piezos. Capacitors do. As the piezo is 130nF, add a 0.13uF cap in series to dampen by 6dB. That's probably too much though.

Note that this cap should be in parallel with the series resistor, not in series with it.

Rough dampening values to test:

-1dB = 22nF
-1.5dB = 33nF
-3dB = 67nF

Actually I think that the piezo's are a bit loud and maybe that has been distrupting the whole sound picture also. I found this old post and I think I'll try that out. Allthough I'm not quite sure where/how to mount the capacitors. I have ofc resistors mounted on the + wire to each piezo. Since I'm a true newbe to this I have to ask if you in a simple way can explain where to put the capacitor?

My impression is that now many people didn't put capacitors but only resistors because on all the wiring diagrams Ii came across I never saw them.
 
At the end of the day, we can discuss it all we want but if your Boominator outdoors doesn't sound pretty much like a decent quality hi-fi stereo does in your living room, then it's not performing as it should.

The sound is modeled to mimic Fostex FE206 drivers in back loaded horns with a small class A amplifier. It does that very well and almost spot on.
 
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At the end of the day, we can discuss it all we want but if your Boominator outdoors doesn't sound pretty much like a decent quality hi-fi stereo does in your living room, then it's not performing as it should.

The sound is modeled to mimic Fostex FE206 drivers in back loaded horns with a small class A amplifier. It does that very well and almost spot on.

Just did some more outdoor testing. Still with the Lepai so max volume is limited (I asume a better ta2020 amp will allow higher volume)

I now realize that I have been stuck in the way it sounds indoor. The sound outdoors is more ballanced and the piezo's are not too loud.
But just now when I tested outdoors I felt that it sounded better than yesterdays tests outdoors. No explanation for that.

I'm still eagerly awaiting the new amp. It's in the customs now..

Unfortunately I won't be at Roskilde. Would have loved to join the meetup.
 
Professional speakers and piezos need burning in time. After having played a few hours you will note a significant change. And after 100 hours it will be just as it should be. It will also get a lot louder and the piezos will stop being hard on the ears in that time as the suspensions start loosening up.

You can speed up this process by taking your Denon and play some white noise at high volume for an hour or so. Leave the house in the mean time.
 
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HP10W's in phase

Well, I'm getting closer to the conclusion that it is as it should be. And that it needs to be played loud to really come alive.



Actually I think that the piezo's are a bit loud and maybe that has been distrupting the whole sound picture also. I found this old post and I think I'll try that out. Allthough I'm not quite sure where/how to mount the capacitors. I have ofc resistors mounted on the + wire to each piezo. Since I'm a true newbe to this I have to ask if you in a simple way can explain where to put the capacitor?

My impression is that now many people didn't put capacitors but only resistors because on all the wiring diagrams Ii came across I never saw them.

Hi

I know that you said that your speakers were in phase, are you sure? its quite easy to get it wrong with speakers facing back to back.... did you test to see if all drivers moved "out" or "in" with a 9v battery? they must ALL move in the same direction......

*BJ*
 
It just hit me about the break in.

But the white noise is mainly for the piezo's I guess? Because it isn't causing any significant movement to the HP10W's.

As I thought, it's the lower frequences that helps break in a driver since it will create a lot of movement and therefore loosen up in the suspension rim (or what it's called)
 
Hi

I know that you said that your speakers were in phase, are you sure? its quite easy to get it wrong with speakers facing back to back.... did you test to see if all drivers moved "out" or "in" with a 9v battery? they must ALL move in the same direction......

*BJ*

Hi
Well I didn't check like you suggest, but I checked and double checked that the + cables are mounted on + on all speakers, so unless the speakers are marked wrong from the factory, the speakers are all in phase.
 
I just tried to run 20hz tone and discovered something weird/annoying. From one of the HP10W's a very high freq "ratteling" sound appears when I turn it up a bit.
The weird thing is that this sound disappears as soon as I put my hand in front of the reflex port. Just hold my hand up against, not closing it completely.
Any ideas to what's happening?
 
I just tried to run 20hz tone and discovered something weird/annoying. From one of the HP10W's a very high freq "ratteling" sound appears when I turn it up a bit.
The weird thing is that this sound disappears as soon as I put my hand in front of the reflex port. Just hold my hand up against, not closing it completely.
Any ideas to what's happening?

Upon further inspection, I think it's one of the wires on the HP10's connecting the terminal with the speakercone, that starts vibrating against the backside of the cone. Damn annoying.

Suggestions how to solve this would be highly apreciated. I'm a bit nervous about starting bending that cable or something like that.