My Media Room...

[Barry (NJ)]

Guess I'll quit checking your garbage every night
looking for the AA to show up.
But if you do decide to ditch it, I volunteer to take
it away for you (you lucky devil).
And ya, the place looks pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Don

Thanks Don, and look closer, I've got 3 of them


2020-06-17_04-29-12 by Barry, on Flickr

[dflee]

Sweet.

[Barry (NJ)]

Well it's been a while but some changes have been made. Still running the 2-channel side pure, with the HT feeding the 2-channel pre-amp, but I recently purchased a new AVR, Marantz SR6015 so that I could add Atmos decoding to the HT portion of the room, I've also removed the center channel speaker and running a phantom center in the HT now...


Media_Room_20220210_Atmos by Barry, on Flickr


PXL_20220207_224509385 by Barry, on Flickr


PXL_20220208_030938260 by Barry, on Flickr


PXL_20220212_204931990 by Barry, on Flickr


PXL_20220212_204837970 by Barry, on Flickr


2022-02-10_05-53-39 by Barry, on Flickr


Audio-System-Map-20220210 by Barry, on Flickr

[malloy]

This is great, Barry! 

One question though - How good are those black curtains at absorption/diffusion? I think I need to put up something like that to tame some early reflections.

Paul

[Barry (NJ)]

This is great, Barry! 

One question though - How good are those black curtains at absorption/diffusion? I think I need to put up something like that to tame some early reflections.

Paul

Thanks Paul, and they're actually pretty good, so much so that I prefer listening to 2-Channel with them tied up as shown below. I tried them hanging down opened, and closed in various positions along the rod, and I find I get a much broader and deeper soundstage when they are up. In my room, I feel the shelving and books do a great job of absorption and diffusion on their own, and the curtains become too much of a good thing. I just use the curtains for watching movies, to remove the visual distraction of the shelves, and prevent reflection of light back onto the screen, improving image contrast.


PXL_20220210_223522341 by Barry, on Flickr

These are the curtain rods I ordered > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0792FZBDD
These are the curtains I ordered > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071VNH8JS

You may not need as much as I did just to tame some reflections

[rollo]

  Looking Good Enjoy !


charles

[Nick B]

This is great, Barry! 

One question though - How good are those black curtains at absorption/diffusion? I think I need to put up something like that to tame some early reflections.

Paul

Thanks Paul, and they're actually pretty good, so much so that I prefer listening to 2-Channel with them tied up as shown below. I tried them hanging down opened, and closed in various positions along the rod, and I find I get a much broader and deeper soundstage when they are up. In my room, I feel the shelving and books do a great job of absorption and diffusion on their own, and the curtains become too much of a good thing. I just use the curtains for watching movies, to remove the visual distraction of the shelves, and prevent reflection of light back onto the screen, improving image contrast.


PXL_20220210_ :D223522341 by Barry, on Flickr

These are the curtain rods I ordered > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0792FZBDD
These are the curtains I ordered > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071VNH8JS

You may not need as much as I did just to tame some reflections

It really looks great, Barry    I would suggest a bigger sub, though   

[Barry (NJ)]

   Looking Good Enjoy !
charles

Thanks Charles!

It really looks great, Barry    I would suggest a bigger sub, though   

Well it's an 18", crossover is set to 30Hz for 2-channel and it barely moves, and because of that, it integrates very smoothly with my stereo pair.
For HT, crossover is set much higher and it literally shakes the house when called to

[malloy]

This is great, Barry! 

One question though - How good are those black curtains at absorption/diffusion? I think I need to put up something like that to tame some early reflections.

Paul

Thanks Paul, and they're actually pretty good, so much so that I prefer listening to 2-Channel with them tied up as shown below. I tried them hanging down opened, and closed in various positions along the rod, and I find I get a much broader and deeper soundstage when they are up. In my room, I feel the shelving and books do a great job of absorption and diffusion on their own, and the curtains become too much of a good thing. I just use the curtains for watching movies, to remove the visual distraction of the shelves, and prevent reflection of light back onto the screen, improving image contrast.


PXL_20220210_223522341 by Barry, on Flickr

These are the curtain rods I ordered > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0792FZBDD
These are the curtains I ordered > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071VNH8JS

You may not need as much as I did just to tame some reflections

Thanks for explaining and for the curtain info. I had mistakenly thought that there were only cds near the speakers, but clicking on your fickr, I see you have books and LPs.

By the way, is that a Joy Division "Heart and Soul" boxset I see on the left in the earlier photo?

Paul

[Barry (NJ)]

Thanks for explaining and for the curtain info. I had mistakenly thought that there were only cds near the speakers, but clicking on your fickr, I see you have books and LPs.

By the way, is that a Joy Division "Heart and Soul" boxset I see on the left in the earlier photo?

Paul

My pleasure Paul, and yes, good eye, they're a favorite, if there is such a thing... I love so much music, of all types, for so many different reasons... Bach, Bauhaus, Miles Davis, My Bloody Valentine, Rostropovich, Ramones I think you get the picture

[malloy]

My pleasure Paul, and yes, good eye, they're a favorite, if there is such a thing... I love so much music, of all types, for so many different reasons... Bach, Bauhaus, Miles Davis, My Bloody Valentine, Rostropovich, Ramones I think you get the picture

Awesome, Barry!  I used to be very heavily into new wave/new romantic/post punk stuff. The Cure, The Mission UK, etc. before I got into more, ahem *serious" music. 

[Barry (NJ)]

So, I've been playing with DIY speaker isolation footers for some time. Originally I was using these silicone mini-frisbees, but positioning the speakers was a royal PITA. They were never really in quite the same spot after lifting them to put the isolators under the spike disks. Recently I came up with a better solution that includes a metal cup that holds an even softer silicone disc and I can now slide the speakers into position and make very fine adjustments to their position and not have to move them again to put the isolation discs in place. The softer silicone of these discs offers better isolation as well. I'm very pleased...


2023-02-05_09-01-13 by Barry, on Flickr


2023-02-05_09-00-29 by Barry, on Flickr


2023-02-05_09-00-52 by Barry, on Flickr


2023-02-05_08-59-47 by Barry, on Flickr


I also removed the sub from the 2-channel system, it doesn't thump as hard, but the bass is more articulate and finger pluck on upright is more apparent .


Audio-System-Map-4 by Barry, on Flickr

[GDHAL]

So, I've been playing with DIY speaker isolation footers for some time. Originally I was using these silicone mini-frisbees, but positioning the speakers was a royal PITA. They were never really in quite the same spot after lifting them to put the isolators under the spike disks. Recently I came up with a better solution that includes a metal cup that holds an even softer silicone disc and I can now slide the speakers into position and make very fine adjustments to their position and not have to move them again to put the isolation discs in place. The softer silicone of these discs offers better isolation as well. I'm very pleased...

Hi Barry. Glad to read you have things sorted out to your liking. Also good that you are handy in a sense and can do a DIY "project". Just checking if you're aware, that there is a product on the market meant to do precisely (seemingly) what you've developed.

https://herbiesaudiolab.com/products/cone-spike-decoupling-glider?variant=12645103435831

As to precision placement in the sense that once you move your speaker you want it set back in the exact same spot, based on your photos it looks like you have the speakers on a wood or wood laminate floor. Could you not just use painter's tape around each of the feet (cup) prior to moving the speaker, to act as a guide when repositioning them back into the exact same spot?

[Barry (NJ)]

Hi Hal, no, I hadn't seen those before, and it seems they're out of stock with no pricing available. I'd bet that with my R&D included, I've still spent less than those would have cost me. At least one of the reviews mentions that though working well, they seem somewhat expensive/over priced, for what they are.

And yes I use tape on the floor, but once the speakers are placed to my liking, they're never in exactly the same spot once lifted and placed on the isolators. A 1/2" here, 1/4" there, and they couldn't really be moved once on the early isolators I was using. Now I can make fine adjustments with the isolators in place.

I could be tempted to try the Herbie's offering, but I'm really quite happy with what I was able to develop on my own

[Barry (NJ)]

A little bummed...
My X10-D tube buffer developed a hum yesterday. The system definitely loses something without it. Wondering if it's a tube or a cap(?) May try to source some replacement tubes to see if that addresses the issue.