Allen Bowering Posted July 9, 2017 Share Posted July 9, 2017 Well it's been a while since I last logged in, a lot has changed since I began the refurbishment on my Orpheus cs28 loudspeakers. I've moved into a house all by myself, which has allowed me the freedom to put together a new system that isn't restricted by space. I'm still currently spending a lot of money making this place a home so the budget was pretty tight, as such I have had to turn my attention to the second hand market, and I think I have done well. When I first moved in I was using an old 6 Channel Kenwood amplifier with no remote, my still unfinished Orpheus cs28 speakers, a Logitech subwoofer that I hacked into a makeshift passive subwoofer that was driven by the dedicated subwoofer amp section on the Kenwood, and simply using my laptop as the audiovisual source, ah the things you have to live with when you're broke and forced into living out of a 3x3m room. I found a guy on gumtree selling a pair of Orpheus Nexus II loudspeakers, a Richter unicorn center speaker, and a Marantz SR5400 amplifier, along with an old 42" plasma. The add stated the speakers and tv worked fine but the amplifier was busted, $250 for the lot, after inspection I discoverd the amplifier to be working fine but both Orpheus had blown tweeters, the tv was displaying green and red vertical lines, I talked him down to $190 for all the speakers and amplifier. $50 and 4 weeks later I had the Orpheus repaired and they sound perfect. A friend of mine had moved in with friends and wanted to offload his 50" LG plasma, picked it up for $100. Anyway, this is how it stayed for a few months, last month I finally had a little more expendable cash and decided to go shopping. Gumtree served up a DTX 15" subwoofer, it seems pretty competent so far. I'm normally not a fan of cash converters, but I ended up stopping for a look at a franchise in a dodgier part of town and found a gold nugget. A Belkin 13 port power console, $165. The most recent piece of the puzzle, the marantz sr5400 was only rated for a max 6ohm load, after driving the 4ohm nexus II pretty hard for a while the front left channel eventually started showing signs of a failing transistor driver, so I got onto gumtree and found myself a mint Marantz SR5007, $430. So here's how it sits now. My next upgrade will be a better tv, just waiting for my tax return to be sorted and my rego to be paid. Not bad for less than $1000. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capone Posted July 9, 2017 Share Posted July 9, 2017 All you need now is big rug on the floor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted July 9, 2017 Author Share Posted July 9, 2017 Indeed, it's definitely on the cards. Still waiting to find one I like. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted July 18, 2017 Author Share Posted July 18, 2017 I replaced my horrible Ikea lowline tv unit with a Fitueyes pedestal stand, unfortunately the shelf is too flimsy to support the weight of my center speaker so I will have to use a speaker stand. I had to move the whole setup to a different wall as it's the only place in the house with an antenna port, and I need space for an 8 foot aquarium Will need to start making new cables soon to tidy up the mess at the back, can anyone tell me where I can buy Australian standard audiophile power plugs and cable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted July 25, 2017 Author Share Posted July 25, 2017 I moved everything back to its original position this morning. I just couldn't get good sound where the system was sitting, even with the 15 Inch subwoofer pushed to its maximum I wasn't getting good impact, despite the whole house (and the front gate) vibrating, something was cancelling it out at the sitting position. Anyway today is my day off, and also my payday, looking to buy some isolation spikes after the bills are paid, I've already added some feet to the sub enclosure as it's been sitting flat on the floor since I got it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wimbo Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 Put the sub on the side wall or did you move the phase switch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted July 25, 2017 Author Share Posted July 25, 2017 There wasn't a corner to sit it in at the new wall, one side opens up into my dining area (open plan home) and the other side is where my front door opens up. It's much better where it is now, but still not that great. In a few weeks I'll invest in some cable and accoustic tiles and experiment with moving the sub and tiling the back wall to see if there is any improvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted July 30, 2017 Author Share Posted July 30, 2017 (edited) Rearranged it all again today just so I could stick the sub in the corner, definitely much better now. I actually had to turn it way down and reset the crossover to quieten it down. I hate the way it looks now, I like things to be symmetrical, I could always hunt down another and stick it in the other corner, the reciever has a second sub out so I'll keep my eyes open Edited July 30, 2017 by DryftKult Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted August 30, 2017 Author Share Posted August 30, 2017 Back from another score on the Gold Coast. Picked up a second set of Orpheus Nexus II loudspeakers, they have replaced the CS-28 as my side speakers, the improvement is immediately noticeable as they are taller and put the tweeter right at ear level, which is exactly where they need to be. The CS-28 are much more suited to music than the Nexus, but are too small to compete against the Nexus as the main stage for movies, especially action films. So for now they will be relocated to the rear stage so I can finally run 7.1 surround. All I need now is one more set of Nexus II's, or a set of Nexus I's (bookshelf version with single bass driver) and the matching Centaurus 1 center speaker to replace the Richter Unicorn I'm currently running. After that, the whole lot, including the CS-28's will be sent off to be re-veneered and piano polished. The CS-28's will eventually be moved back to the fronts as a second front stage to be used strictly as music speakers with a nice pair of tube amplifiers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Posted August 30, 2017 Share Posted August 30, 2017 I spot something slipknot...Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted August 30, 2017 Author Share Posted August 30, 2017 Hahaha that's one of my most prized possessions. Back when I was in my early 20's Slipknot played a sideshow the day after the big day out in Brisbane, it was my first time here and my first time seeing them in concert. Corey Taylor threw it into the crowd just as they were walking off stage, I caught it and suffered a broken nose in my efforts to keep it as 2 other guys wanted it too. Later I was drinking at a bar called the Indy Temple, Joey, Sid and Clown walked in, recognized me from the fight, and fed me beer until I passed out 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaynin Posted August 30, 2017 Share Posted August 30, 2017 1 hour ago, DryftKult said: Hahaha that's one of my most prized possessions. Back when I was in my early 20's Slipknot played a sideshow the day after the big day out in Brisbane, it was my first time here and my first time seeing them in concert. Corey Taylor threw it into the crowd just as they were walking off stage, I caught it and suffered a broken nose in my efforts to keep it as 2 other guys wanted it too. Later I was drinking at a bar called the Indy Temple, Joey, Sid and Clown walked in, recognized me from the fight, and fed me beer until I passed out Now that's an awesome story...and the broken nose wasn't enough to send you home! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted August 30, 2017 Author Share Posted August 30, 2017 8 hours ago, Kaynin said: Now that's an awesome story...and the broken nose wasn't enough to send you home! Haha I did briefly go back to the hotel and clean myself up, my friends convinced me to come back out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted August 31, 2017 Author Share Posted August 31, 2017 Looks like I am picking up a 3rd pair of Nexus II's tonight, different colour to the rest, but that won't matter when they all get recovered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted August 31, 2017 Author Share Posted August 31, 2017 I picked up the 3rd pair of Nexus tonight, I'm going to be totally honest, they are almost trash. All 4 bass drivers are damaged, 4 have pushed in and peeling dust caps, the other 2 have the dust caps totally torn to pieces, one of which has a lot of excess superglue residue left over from a previous repair. The tweeter screens are sticky and loaded with foreign dust and hair, the cabinets look ok from the front but from the rear you can see a lot of swelling in the mdf. The acoustic insulation has totally broken down into dust. Still, I paid $60 for them and took them home, I've already broken them down to their components and will see what can be done, the bass drivers still work, tomorrow I'll get some acetone and carefully try to remove the superglue residue, and then I'll order some new dust caps and repair the drivers. These are obviously an older set of the Nexus, the later units had the tweeter terminals on one location of the diaphragm, these have them on opposing sides, iirc these ones are no longer available. If I can't repair them I at least have some spare parts, however I can use the cabinets as templates to build new ones for my current setup. One thing I did discover, the Nexus doesn't use it's total cabinet volume, they are sealed off about 3 inches from floor level, I guess they did this to get the ideal cabinet volume while putting the speaker at a more ideal height. If I have to make new cabinets, I guess I could make one set a little taller, that would get my rear surrounds high enough without needing stands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted September 3, 2017 Author Share Posted September 3, 2017 Assessing the damage. One of the drivers is visually beyond saving, it works fine but the previous repair has left it too noticeably scarred, and me being the pedantic jerk I am, I can't bring myself to allow it to be reused. This creates a funny problem for me, do I order 4 new drivers and be done with it? Or just order 1 new driver and fit new dust caps to the other 3 with the possibility that the replacement caps will not be identical to the one original the replacement would come fitted with? Or, maybe I should order 1 replacement driver and 4 dust caps, and just redo the cap on the replacement driver as well, so they will at least look the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EV Cali Posted September 4, 2017 Share Posted September 4, 2017 You could get four slightly bigger dust caps that cover the damage on the scared one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted September 4, 2017 Author Share Posted September 4, 2017 (edited) I did think of that, but they would be large enough that the difference between the other 2 pairs would be way too obvious, I tried using some acetone to remove the foreign material from the driver but it doesn't want to budge, a friend has suggested I use paint thinners but I'm using that as a last resort, and will only try that once I have a replacement driver at my disposal, Kiat at Duntech is currently looking into it for me. Cabinets have been painted to match as best as I can, here's a soft assembly to see if I can live with it. Left is an original black cab. It's barely acceptable in my opinion, but will do for now, I'll be building new cabinets for all channels in a few months once I have all the tools and materials together. Edited September 4, 2017 by DryftKult Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jventer Posted September 4, 2017 Share Posted September 4, 2017 Have no idea, but have you tried Loctite Super Glue Remover Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted September 5, 2017 Author Share Posted September 5, 2017 Not yet, I'll give it a whirl and see if it works. In the meantime, I've managed to score the last 2 remaining drivers in Orpheus/Duntech's stock. They should be here next week. All I need now is the dust caps and sound damping and they can go back together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveC Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 Len Wallis have a Centaurus listed in their second hand section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted September 24, 2017 Author Share Posted September 24, 2017 Picked up a limping Centaurus today for a mere $80 It has a blown tweeter, no fuss, new one is on the way. So once all my parts arrive I will be ready to start building the custom cabinets to replace all the flogged and mistreated ones I have now. My Richter Unicorn is now for sale, I'll post an ad in the appropriate section of the forum soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted September 26, 2017 Author Share Posted September 26, 2017 (edited) Yesterday morning I bought a large rug for the lounge room floor. While I knew that audio reflections from the floor would be messing with the sound, I didn't realize how much, the difference is phenomenal! I spent a great deal of time yesterday going through most of my benchmark tracks, and I'm honestly starting to get a little annoyed, I can now tell the difference between bands/artists who had great audio engineers, and bad ones. I am close to having most of the audio components set the way I like them, soon I'll need to start working on source units and stands for everything. Edited September 26, 2017 by DryftKult Derp spelling 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted October 1, 2017 Author Share Posted October 1, 2017 This next part is going to make a couple of people cringe, I'm certainly not stoked about it. Sold the Unicorn today, leaving me without a working center speaker for a month. As a temporary measure, I pulled the tweeter from the Centaurus and dropped in one of the tweeters from the Nexus II's I currently have in pieces. It'll do for now, I also possibly have yet another set of speakers on the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Bowering Posted January 6, 2019 Author Share Posted January 6, 2019 Well it's been a while since I last logged in, due to some financial difficulties I had to sell the marantz, also my media server laptop died a horrible death during a storm some months back so currently my system is non functional. However I have been making plans to upgrade, looking at an emotiva preamp/processor now that they have finally released the upgrade to atmos, and also sussing out power amps to put it to use. Not much else to report, I have the 3rd pair of NexusII still sitting here needing repairs and I'm thinking it might be time to pull them down and start constructing the new cabinets for all 7 speakers while they currently have no use. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts