Great to be here!

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Hello all, I don't know how I didn't find this site before ... but I'm glad I found it now! I'm looking forward to learning from everyone and taking on bigger and badder DIY projects.

My current project has been tweaking my current setup. What I have right now is:

Yamaha RX-V2500 (powering only the surround channels)
Sherwood AM-9080 (passive bi-amp for front channels and 5th channel powering the center)
Yamaha DVD-S2300 DVD/SACD/DVD-A player
Yamaha CDC-685 (transport only)
Wharfedale Pacific 40 mains
Wharfedale Pacific Center
Wharfedale Pacific 30 surround

Over the last couple weeks I have made a full set of speaker wires from a 1000' roll of Belden 1702a teflon Cat6 cable. The results have been well worth the sore fingers and wrists. The mains are a bi-amp pair, 32 total conductors braided for the woofer and 24 for the tweeter/mid section. Each bundle is wrapped with teflon plumbers tape, and then the whole assembly is re-wrapped again to form one bundle. Each end is terminated with GLS Audio locking spades (Monster knock off from Ebay). Since my center is not bi-wireable I made a single 32 conductor braided wire for it. The surrounds, I did not strip off the outside Cat6 PVC insulation, just braided 4 complete wires and terminated 2 per + and - side ... finished with banana plugs. I would make these thicker since my rears are also bi-wireable, but the wires are exposed ... and a couple sets of garden hoses running 25' across the floor wouldn't sit well with the wife :)

Another project has been completely re-working the inside of the Wharfedale loudspeakers. I've always liked these speakers, but the only thing lacking has been width of soundstage. I figured that was likely due to barely adequate internal finishing. I started by painting the inside of the enclosures with Noxudol 3101 sound-deadening liquid found from www.soundproofing.org, and then putting a layer of 1" thick batting over the liquid while the second coat was still tacky - this essentially glued it to the interior walls. I also removed all the internal cheapo 22ga wire and replaced each wire with a length of Cat6 wire, and resoldered all the pieces into the crossover network - I would love to re-design a crossover network with higher quality components and an impedance correction circuit, but I don't really have that expertise. Finally I used some butyl tape gasked to re-seal around each of the 6" woofers and the terminal cup.

My final tweak has been making some isolation platforms - this is still ongoing. I purchased some curly maple in the lengths and thickness I wanted, cut to size, sanded and finished with a blue stain to match our decor - they look fantastic! I will be putting a maple slab under each component and all 5 speakers - from component/speaker to maple will be spikes, and under the slab to either the floor or component rack are isolation blocks found from www.soundproofing.org for 99 cents each! They're exactly like the Mapleshade ones (http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/audioproducts/isoblocks.php) but without the ridiculous 'Audiophile' pricetag.

Next up will be buying some rock wool, like Owens Corning 703 and making wall treatments for my accoustically horrible room.

I'd hate to think how much I would have paid for all this stuff if I went to my local hi-fi store! My budget necessitates creativity, but even if I could afford it, I'd still DIY these things. It's just so much more fun.

Sorry for the diatribe, my wife doesn't really care so I just wanted to share with somebody :)
 
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Don't worry about the long post. I know how you feel. I don't have anyone to talk audio with on a regular basis. The only ones I know that will even listen anymore are here.

Audio can be a lonely hobby. That's why I like to combine it with homebrewing so I can forget that none of my friends listen to me anymore. ;)

Welcome to the forums.
 
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