Hello from Belgium

[Candisa]

Hi DIY-ers!

Some people may already know me from DIY Mobile Audio or from the dutch forum Zelfbouw Audio.

I'm Isabelle, I live in Belgium together with my girlfriend Xenia (also knows as XC-C30 on the same forums I named earlier), I'm 25 next month and I'm passionate about good sound.

At the moment, our only really good sound system contains a vintage (1976) Technics SA-5460 and a couple vintage (1973ish) B&W DM2a's, but after we've moved (we bought a house and if everything is going according to plan, we should be able to start moving next month), we're gonna build our own set of home-audio speakers, outdoor speakers ànd a fully active car-audio install.

We already have a nice collection of diy drivers:
- HiVi M8a's
- TangBand W4-1337's
- Fountek NeoCD1.0's
- Dayton Audio ND20FB-4's
- CSS Trio8's
- Peerless XXLS 12" subs (the ones with the Nomex cone, designed to use with PR's
- Peerless 10" PR's

All of this will be used either in the car or at home. None of this will be used for the outdoor speakers...

greetings,
Isabelle

 

[VT67]

Welcome to this forum Isabelle.
You will find a lot of good stuff and ideas here.

Regards (from another Belgian DIY'er)

 

[Candisa]

I'm already a member here for quite a while, as you can see underneath my nickname, but since my English isn't that great and I haven't done any home-audio diy projects yet, it took me until now to do my first post.

Isabelle

 

[Pano]

Bonjour Belgium and welcome to the forum!

We hope that you start posting and showing your projects soon.

 

[VT67]

@candisa
Now now, don't be so modest; nothing wrong with your English.😉

@panomaniac
Why does everybody assume we speak only French in Belgium?😕

 

[Cal Weldon]

Hello Isabelle and welcome to the forums.

Ya Pano, they also speak Flemish!

 

[Pano]

Yes, But I speak only French! And so do most of the Belgians I know. No assumptions there at all. 😉

 

[planet10]

Yes, But I speak only French!

Parlez vous a humma, humma... many of us only speak english 🙁 and many of those seem challenged.

Welcome to the forum Isabelle, i think you'll get along fine.

dave

 

[Xeentje]

Hi people... I thought since Isabelle opened up this thread I found it to be a little useless for me to make another one since I'm the girlfriend she's talking about...

Oh and.... Hi honey😀

Xenia

 

[Xeentje]

Yes, But I speak only French! And so do most of the Belgians I know. No assumptions there at all. 😉

Actually I'm not sure this is true (oficially), since the Flanders district is bigger and has the most citizens as opposed to the Wallonian District (and than there's Brussels which is both but should be mostly Flemish)

 

[Pano]

True, true. But I mostly know the Walloons. What can I say? 🙂

 

[Cal Weldon]

Hi Xenia, nice to have you on board too. Are you both involved in electronics?

 

[Xeentje]

Well, not really.... Yes my intrest lies with audio, to be more specific: good sound. But I to be honest my knowledge of electronics is nihil, so that's Isabelle her deal of it.

 

[Candisa]

My electronics knowledge is also very limited, I know basic electricity and I know what a coil or a cap does with AC signals, but that's as far as it gets.

 

[Cal Weldon]

As long as you like good sound and know someone who can deliver the goods, then you're doing fine. Glad to have you both on board.

 

[Xeentje]

It'll be nice to just be able to put a nice active set together one day... putting an RTA together and using your ears is simpler than having to deal with electric/electronics laws that go over the top of my head😱

 

[brunob]

Hello Isabelle and welcome to the forums.

Ya Pano, they also speak Flemish!

And German.

 

[Xeentje]

And German.

A negligable amount though😛

Sorry I just couldn't resist😀

 

[c2cthomas]

My electronics knowledge is also very limited, I know basic electricity and I know what a coil or a cap does with AC signals, but that's as far as it gets.

Hello - and welcome to the forums at diyAudio😀😀😀

Perhaps you will find this link useful Basic Car Audio Electronics 😎

BTW - my standard warning to new audioholics - get out while you are still sane, have friends that "have a life", and still have some money left in your bank account!!! Hanging around here will get rid of most of those things and you will wind up hanging out with other deprived audio nuts listening to music until the wee hours of the morning - and still wondering if you can make the cross-overs in your speakers "juuuuuuust a little better". 🙄

 

[Candisa]

Hi,

While electronics, such as diy amplifiers or passive x-overs are something I don't have any experience with, I am not new to DIY Audio.
I started to get seriously interested in car audio somewhere in 2003 and in 2004, I had a fully active mobile audio installation with Focal midwoofers, Dynaudio tweeters, a Cerwin Vega subwoofer, Kenwood (later Steg, which was a bad decision) amps and an Alto Mobile UCS Pro.

The last 2 years, a lot of things changed in my life, so my priorities were somewhere else, but we do have some nice gear laying around to put in our current car again (Genesis and Clarion amplifiers, a Clarion HX-D2 headunit/dsp, some AudioControl stuff, CSS Trio8's, TangBand W4-1337's, Dayton ND20 tweeters) and even some more stuff to build a nice home-audio install (HiVi M8a's, TangBand W4-1337's, Fountek NeoCD1.0's, Peerless XXLS subs and passive radiators...).

About spending way too much time and money on improving the sound of a system just a little bit: I've been there and done that, but that's something I'll try to keep under control in the future. I'm pretty sure the stuff we have laying around right now will deliver a beautiful sound once the planned projects are finished and tuned in. I will try to resist the temptation of replacing some small part of the system by something much more expensive to get the sound just a little better. 🙂

Isabelle