It's much neater than my own shed.
I was thinking about a pair of sonosubs in each corner of my own room but WAF killed that idea. I like the look of yours very much
Thanks, @Moondog55! Every once in a while I wish I were a non-creative type with no interest in any DIY whatsoever, and almost no sports or any other hobby that accumulates "stuff". But then I realize that nah, I'd cease to exist. Thus, banished to my perpetual struggle with accumulation and organization. 😏
Maybe you can sneak a few "modern lamps" into your space?
Maybe you can sneak a few "modern lamps" into your space?
😅😆 I'm sure this resonates with more than a few DIYaudio-ers. Accumulation is a serious problem for audio enthusiasts.
I personally resolved only to build things when there's a likely end user ready to at least cover my costs. I refuse to end up with a dozen pair of unadopted speakers. So far, I've placed 3 systems in the past 18 mos and have only one pair of idle diy speakers in the studio. One nero-15sw800 subwoofer is already spoken for; the 2nd 15" might go to the same recipient.
I've also given up photography, a lifelong passion, and am liquidating the gear. We are awash with endless images & video; I really don't need multiple pricey cameras to add any more. The cam in my pixel phone is enough these days.
I went to BAF with one little stereo amp for donation... expecting to come back with two little mono amps.
I came back with two little mono amps, one little stereo amp and a pair of reasonable sized speakers. Then I had to buy a pair of little woofers and a crossover. Now, I want to build a better crossover.
I think that makes, aw... never mind, don't count... I got three racks in the living room... full.
My attitude is simple, don't buy anything larger than will fit in the car..... I created that motto eons ago when I was driving Honda Civics... unfortunately, my cars got bigger. My Magnepan Era started when I had the SUVs, At least I held it together while we had the minivans...
Wait, no... I borrowed my brother in laws van in the 90s when I bought the Infinity Video Reference Projector... it came with a 9 1/2 foot curved screen.
I built my office with two facing benches... one for work, one for playing. At least the one I used for work is cleared enough. The one for playing, well, I just did an effort to clean it up... found some neat stuff in there.
Then we took the house from 1800, 2000 and 2700 sq feet. My reasoning was that we'd have more room for stuff. What I failed to foresee was how fast the stuff would fill the larger home. Now, I look at the roof top deck, 540 sq feet, framed to hold a jacuzzi, and wistfully make plans for a pair of home offices...
Photography... well... I did get a nice Canon R10 this summer. I dug out the old Powershot G2 and the Canon Hi-8 and DV camcorders. All in their original boxes, with accessories. I think I gave the Rebel DLSR to my son, I don't remember. Sometimes I have moments of lucidity. Anyone want them? ( Not the R10.. ).
I still don't have a 35wpc Macho SIT...
I came back with two little mono amps, one little stereo amp and a pair of reasonable sized speakers. Then I had to buy a pair of little woofers and a crossover. Now, I want to build a better crossover.
I think that makes, aw... never mind, don't count... I got three racks in the living room... full.
My attitude is simple, don't buy anything larger than will fit in the car..... I created that motto eons ago when I was driving Honda Civics... unfortunately, my cars got bigger. My Magnepan Era started when I had the SUVs, At least I held it together while we had the minivans...
Wait, no... I borrowed my brother in laws van in the 90s when I bought the Infinity Video Reference Projector... it came with a 9 1/2 foot curved screen.
I built my office with two facing benches... one for work, one for playing. At least the one I used for work is cleared enough. The one for playing, well, I just did an effort to clean it up... found some neat stuff in there.
Then we took the house from 1800, 2000 and 2700 sq feet. My reasoning was that we'd have more room for stuff. What I failed to foresee was how fast the stuff would fill the larger home. Now, I look at the roof top deck, 540 sq feet, framed to hold a jacuzzi, and wistfully make plans for a pair of home offices...
Photography... well... I did get a nice Canon R10 this summer. I dug out the old Powershot G2 and the Canon Hi-8 and DV camcorders. All in their original boxes, with accessories. I think I gave the Rebel DLSR to my son, I don't remember. Sometimes I have moments of lucidity. Anyone want them? ( Not the R10.. ).
I still don't have a 35wpc Macho SIT...
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Or Corinthian Columns.
BTW, what kind of crossover are you running? The one built into the plate amp?
Remember the little Metronomes I bought at the BAF24 auction? I bought a pair of little "sub" woofers for them and simple two way crossover, and hooked them up with a little Parasound zAmp.
Dayton Audio MKSX4 Four 4" Driver Low Profile Passive Subwoofer
Rolls SX45 Stereo Two-Way Mini Crossover w/Sub Output
The little woofers match the speakers nicely, But the crossover affect the Metronomes so I run them full bandwidth and only use the crossover as a low pass. I don't want to digitize the signal, nor overcomplicate my life -oof!- so I don't want a miniDSP... looking for one of them Pass crossover kits...
In any event.... I ran into this idea... the Trinnov WaveForming Installation. It's actually an awesome idea. Make the back wall into an active bass trap. Install a whole lot of woofers out of phase with the front woofers and phase delayed to cancel the front bass wave. This will make the room acoustically huge. Done right, with lots of little shallow woofers it would be invisible and not intrude into your life. It could be done with little panels too... Hmmm
https://www.avsforum.com/threads/sh...t-24s.3311611/?post_id=63633270#post-63633270
Right now I'm just using the crossover in the plate amp. Over time I might build an active OB design using something like the miniDSP Flex 8, with 4-6 channels used for the speakers and the other 2-4 available for dialing in the sub(s).
One downside of the amp I used is that I can't control the top and bottom subs separately. My fancy lamp is basically a down-firing sub 1' off the ground and an up-firing sub 6' off the ground. But the alternative was stuffing in 2 of the smaller Rythmik amps so that I could control them individually, which I hoped wasn't going to be super necessary. Over time I might add one or 2 smaller subs in different parts of the room if space and budget both allow.
The Trinnov waveforming installation sounds interesting in theory! Thanks for sharing.
One downside of the amp I used is that I can't control the top and bottom subs separately. My fancy lamp is basically a down-firing sub 1' off the ground and an up-firing sub 6' off the ground. But the alternative was stuffing in 2 of the smaller Rythmik amps so that I could control them individually, which I hoped wasn't going to be super necessary. Over time I might add one or 2 smaller subs in different parts of the room if space and budget both allow.
The Trinnov waveforming installation sounds interesting in theory! Thanks for sharing.
If you wanted to make octagonal columns, you could always compromise and use octagonal bracing. A bit of the benefit, and a lot easier to make. Because the braces are in purely tension or compression, they can be very thin.
I have left and right RCAs connected to the corresponding line inputs on the HX800 amp. My understanding is that these are summed and the resulting signal send to both of the 400W Hypex amplifiers. (Just checked--unplugging one RCA still resulted in both drivers playing).
I was fine with this since it's a vertical column, so doesn't actually reflect a stereo sub layout in the room.
The one thing I can't do--which might have been interesting, but which would have required 2 dedicated plate amps in the middle--is set this up for multiple sub optimization. This would have been both possible and relevant since the column actually represents 2 separate subwoofers in the room, one firing down a foot off the floor, the other firing up at an elevation of 6' in the air.
I may later regret my decision to not buy multiple amps! But for now, with the column approximately 1/4 the distance along the 17' rear wall, I like the effect I'm getting.
P.S. I looked up the measurements and with some awkward but possible surgery I could get 2 of the HX300 amps in there should I later feel the need. Had I known more about MSO I may have decided to use separate amps, but I'm not currently set up to be able to implement it.
I was fine with this since it's a vertical column, so doesn't actually reflect a stereo sub layout in the room.
The one thing I can't do--which might have been interesting, but which would have required 2 dedicated plate amps in the middle--is set this up for multiple sub optimization. This would have been both possible and relevant since the column actually represents 2 separate subwoofers in the room, one firing down a foot off the floor, the other firing up at an elevation of 6' in the air.
I may later regret my decision to not buy multiple amps! But for now, with the column approximately 1/4 the distance along the 17' rear wall, I like the effect I'm getting.
P.S. I looked up the measurements and with some awkward but possible surgery I could get 2 of the HX300 amps in there should I later feel the need. Had I known more about MSO I may have decided to use separate amps, but I'm not currently set up to be able to implement it.
IMHO, unless you place the woofer sideways so both drivers see the room the same way, you'd not want it to play in stereo.
The only possible way I can think when it would be useful to drive each driver on its own separate channel would be if you equalized them differently. But even then you'd want to drive them with the same mono signal. As you hint. However, I dare say that right now the dual drivers will create their own sound -each- and the summation might be rather smooth?
With my two Entecs I've played that game too. In my case, I ended up driving them in stereo and placing them both on mirror locations in the room. But I do have the notion of moving them into the HT.. in which case I will have the opportunity to play even some more. When I drove them in the living room in mono and moved them around, I found little improvement, but then my room is rather good sounding and the original locations (against the short wall) yield good bass.
The only possible way I can think when it would be useful to drive each driver on its own separate channel would be if you equalized them differently. But even then you'd want to drive them with the same mono signal. As you hint. However, I dare say that right now the dual drivers will create their own sound -each- and the summation might be rather smooth?
With my two Entecs I've played that game too. In my case, I ended up driving them in stereo and placing them both on mirror locations in the room. But I do have the notion of moving them into the HT.. in which case I will have the opportunity to play even some more. When I drove them in the living room in mono and moved them around, I found little improvement, but then my room is rather good sounding and the original locations (against the short wall) yield good bass.
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Exactly--MSO is about balancing room modes by driving 3-4 subs individually. I think my room is behaving reasonably well with my new setup, so might not be totally necessary (or I can live with the current results). The 2 separated high/low drivers seem to be loading the room more evenly than when I had just one sub in the same spot.
Cross grain wood joints do not hold. But you know that by now. And even if it had been a proper joint, the wood itself might have failed. It is a heavy object you are balancing. The construction with two supports is aesthetically pleasing and might be the only solution if you want to keep this size of the wood support.Somehow it had stood there for several days, but that lower joint was overloaded and not executed well enough!Totally cracked the laminate as well.
In this time of Youtube videos this is a very nice project report. Thanks for documenting. And it is a great and creative building project. I hope it sounds good as well.
Thanks for the comments, and yes, I'd hoped to be able to "get away with" using imperfect joints... which of course ended badly in the first round! The tube doesn't weigh as much as it looks but was obviously enough to be a problem. The big surprise is that it held for 5 days first, rather than failing immediately.
I'd also considered transitioning to metal legs with flanges that flanked the vertical spine piece for a good stretch. That would have done the job as well, but the expense and time of doing so encouraged me to go with a more straightforward solution. I'm glad you like the threaded rod! I massively upsized it vs the force required to keep visual balance and it was very, very handy to be able to adjust the lean angles with the nuts, and then the threaded support feet.
After close to 2 months I'm still very much enjoying the way it plays in my room! I think there's a saying somewhere that any subwoofer can start quickly, but only the good ones can stop quickly. There's no overhang or smearing... when the note is done, it's done, thus feeling tight and agile.
I'd also considered transitioning to metal legs with flanges that flanked the vertical spine piece for a good stretch. That would have done the job as well, but the expense and time of doing so encouraged me to go with a more straightforward solution. I'm glad you like the threaded rod! I massively upsized it vs the force required to keep visual balance and it was very, very handy to be able to adjust the lean angles with the nuts, and then the threaded support feet.
After close to 2 months I'm still very much enjoying the way it plays in my room! I think there's a saying somewhere that any subwoofer can start quickly, but only the good ones can stop quickly. There's no overhang or smearing... when the note is done, it's done, thus feeling tight and agile.