microTower Revisited

[Bigun]

Originally Posted by cogitech

Worse than dust is cooking fumes.

Indeed, cooking grease doesn’t just ruin speakers, it’s an awful thing and worth investing in an effective extractor fan / fume hood. I had a larger than code diameter vent pipe installed along with a powerful vent hood (which apparently goes by the nickname ‘the lung’).

[planet10]

They were for 7” Easttech drivers in Monsoon multimedia speakers.

Chris routed an approprite size circular cutout and they friction fit.

With a little epoxy, some neo magnets (we got ours from Lee Valley) and creativity one could probably magnetically attach them to a flat surface.



This one need a good hose down.

I probably also have a few for the 9” Eastech.

dave

[cogitech]

I agree 100% with that, Bigun, and already have plans to address it. Both my kitchen and main bathroom have zero ventilation. Well, the range hood has a fan but it just goes through a useless filter and then blows back into the kitchen.

I have already purchased the stuff I need to retrofit the bathroom extractor fan. It is one of my next projects. The kitchen; well, the plan is to eventually rip and replace the whole kitchen and I was planning to run ventilation then. I guess there is nothing stopping me from doing it sooner, though.

The problem with going too high CFM on these units is that they can create furnace backdraft issues if there isn't enough fresh air intake into the house. It's a balancing act.

[cogitech]

Thanks Dave. I'll mull it over. I've got several ideas bouncing around in my head and, as always, I'll overthink it to death and then perhaps do nothing again.

[Bigun]

Originally Posted by cogitech

The problem with going too high CFM on these units is that they can create furnace backdraft issues if there isn't enough fresh air intake into the house. It's a balancing act.

I know my gas fireplace, which is to code, has a separate air intake from outside the house; I think it’s called a balanced flue? but I don’t know about the furnace. Given my furnace room is some distance from my kitchen I think it gets enough air.

For the kitchen, the other key is installing a large enough vent hood at a low enough height. It will produce bloody dents in your forehead until you develop the muscle memory to avoid it of course.

This is what I use (with an 8” pipe instead of the 6” standard in most houses): Magic Lung(R) Whipser Quiet Blower System Technology — Vent-A-Hood(R)

[cogitech]

I'll check it out!

[FRFT]

How do these sound compared to conventional stereo speakers? One issue I've had lately is that I've been finding listening to music taking up my focus as the sound is so focussed, I was wondering how the upfiring speaker changes things

[cogitech]

Hi FRFT,

The combination of front-firing and up-firing drivers does a few things.

1) It provides a combination of directional and "omni-directional" effects. I use quotes here because the up-firing drivers aren't truly "omni", as they don't have any type of deflector (such as a cone or sphere like many omnis) and therefore the bulk of their energy goes straight up. Surfaces in the room become the deflectors. The front-firing drivers do as they normally do. In this case the dispersion is very large due to the small driver size (very low "beaming") and the up-firing drivers disperse the sound that much more. The result is that the speakers still have a "sweet spot" for critical listening, but it is a fairly large one. Sitting on one side of the couch or the other makes very little difference, vs. the middle. Furthermore, the stereo effect and overall enjoyment spreads to the entire room, and beyond. Even when standing between the speakers, immediately in front of my amplifier (and looking out the window at the mountains) the stereo effect and sound quality is excellent.

2) Some of the upper midrange and treble from the top-firing drivers are attenuated due to them being so far off-axis from the listener, meanwhile the full effect of the bass (via the MLTL cabinet) is not attenuated at all. The result of this is very deep, rich bass response that I find particularly pleasing. All the mids and highs are still very much there, of course - it's just there is no lack of bass and no real need for EQ/loudness/tone control (although it is still nice to have those options).

The caveat; if one is into extremely critical listening and aims to optimize the "point source" effect and minimize room reflections, these speakers are not for them. The goal of such systems is to "enter the studio or venue" and the only way to accomplish it is to make your room disappear. These speakers will not do that - or at least not as well as beamy point sources in a treated room will.

What these speakers do, IMO, is put the band in your room and make your room sound bigger than it is - all the while sounding great while I move about the room. Many people would call that "mid-fi" and I am perfectly okay with that. I don't want to sit (critically still in a 1 sq.ft. space) and imagine I am sitting in a studio with The Beatles. I want to imagine they are playing in my living room while I go about my business. These speakers make that easy.

[FRFT]

Hi Cogitech,

Thanks for that detailed writeup. They do sound very interesting. I think I'm the same as you because at the moment I can't just relax and enjoy the music because it feels like I'm just critically listening to things. It's something I noticed with cheap speakers like an Alexa, you can just enjoy the music coming out (even if it sounds terrible) and it doesn't take up all your focus. It's sort of a phase I go through once in a while where I can't just relax and enjoy the music.

I think once I have some spare change then something along these lines is what I'll go for next, I'd love to hear something different to what I hear with every other set of speakers.

Also I really like the finish on your speakers, I think they look great. You should share some full photos of them

[cogitech]

Thanks mate! I will try to post some more photos soon.