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Darth's meditation chamber


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The Death Star has had some changes over time, but the changes in the last week have been the most significant and have given the best improvements.

 

The recent changes were initiated by a friend who is a commercial vinyl layer who saw the state of my floor and said "this will not do". In short order he replaced some crappy domsetic vinyl flooring with some commercial grade vinyl planks. Those that have been on the Death Star have seen there was a wall, which has now been removed. While the space is not yet ideal, its a whole lot better than it was. The extra space has been laid in carpet tiles.

 

Considering the space was only ever meant as a workshop office its now a lot more acoustically orientated.

 

After re purposing an old bench as a rack and setting everything up, initial impressions were there was way too much bass. Is that possible?...yes, when its muddy and boomy, its not pleasant.

An old mattress topper was called to task, along with a rug kindly donated from an audio show a couple of years ago. 

 

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Day 2. I had not given much though to the gear placement. I just needed to get it out of the house and back in the cave as SWMBO had terse words about all my gear in the house while floor work was being done.

The TT on the lower shelf was showing itself as an instant mistake. I dunno what I was thinking. The TV was also a dumb idea to put there in the early days.

 

Upon some listening, it was apparent I'd gone too far with the mattress topper bass traps. Some messing about with speaker position, toe in and speaker to rear wall distance made some good improvements. Its now half reasonable. I still have some echo and reverb that needs to be managed.

 

I'm pretty happy so far, its vast improvement. I think it wont be too long and I'll be able to host a mini GTG. The room will still be at capacity with 3 or 4 people, but thats better than the 2 at best I could do before.

Unfortunately from an audio point of view it still has to function as an office for my still making business. That will always cause compromise.

 

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For the gear hounds...

 

Speakers; Troels DTQWT MkII. 3 way

Pre; Weston Acoustics Time machine. EML and RCA red base tubes

Amp; Weston Acoustics Topaz mono blocks. KT 150 and TungSol 6SN7 GTB, Mundorf coupling cap's and Thiele Audio Russian rectifiers

CD transport; Yamaha CD-S1000

DAC; Line Magnetic LM-502CA with tube upgrades and Burson Op Amps.

Digital source; iMac with Audirvarna 

Phono stage; Golden Age Audio (on loan)

TT; Clear Audio Champion, Lyra Delos 

 

While its still early days with the new space, early results are promising. I'm hoping to do some painting and build a new rack in the next few weeks. I'd like to get the audio properties sorted out first. Where its at now, I can drill holes in the walls, add/remove audio treatments and generally tune it to my tastes. Then I can fancy it all up

 

Thanks for looking

 

 

Edited by darth vader
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Thanks @Martykt I tried your suggestion and hung some old curtains behind the system. Its sounding really nice. They have dulled the reverb the room had and improved the SQ a great deal. I only hung them tonight and haven't listened to much material yet but so far everything is sounding better.

And they look a touch nicer than egg carton foam

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A big thanks to @Red MacKay @buzz lightyear @evil cand @Martykt for advice and guidance over the years. Your help has been much appreciated.

 

I know it doesn't look all that pretty at the moment, but pretty will come later. So far its working out and sounding better than it looks.

 

The next change to the system itself is swap out the Audax tweeters for the Seas ones I have. I have to drill mounting holes in the wave guides so I have been putting it off for a while. I've made a few changes to equipment that has required some burn in time and they are pretty much settled in now. The tweeter change will need a bit of burn in time too. 

But the time for finding excuses to procrastinate is running out.  

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On 07/06/2018 at 5:33 AM, Tubularbells said:

Nice one Darth. The Emperor would be most pleased with your progress... 

The emperor looks to be in a spot of bother...

 

Cool system though D!

Red emperor.jpg

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Thanks @Grizzly although I'm struggling to see the connection with a nice looking snapper.

 

@Tubularbells @Sime I'll be sure to put you on the invite list once I got this thing sorted.  I know it would be a bit of a trip for you Sime, might have to work it around your next time down south.

 

I've been struggling with bass. First too much and muddy, some changes and lost bass impact. Been playing with things and making improvements, but as we all know it takes time to tune things up. Kinda thinking if I had too much then not enough, it is just a case of finding the happy place. 

I'm getting there slowly.

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1 hour ago, darth vader said:

Thanks @Grizzly although I'm struggling to see the connection with a nice looking snapper.

 

Seems that fishing boat of yours really has been neglected Darth...... that's a Emperor Red Snapper being held by a no good rebel !!! :na:

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[mention=131641]darth vader[/mention] I should be down for the show this year [emoji106]


What opamps have you put in the DAC? I’ve got the same one - running GEC rectifier and Mullard yellow label output tubes.
AJ
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Made some improvements. The TV sounds ok through the system and should be ok for occasional use. I have a seperate HT system in the house.

The curtains are working well sonically. They need to be hung a bit nicer now I know they are working.

The repurposed bench sucks, but its holding the gear off the ground for now

 

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@A J Running Burson V6 Vivid's. 

 

 

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Ridding yourself of the rack would allow you much more room for speaker positioning I reckon as their kinda being squeezed into the walls currently. I like the way Cam from Krispy makes his stands out of redgum sleepers, wall mount the turntable and have a lowish stand for the other gear would look really nice highlighting all that lovely tube goodness you got going there.

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@Tubularbells The rack sucks as once I hit serious dB the thing is vibrating lie a glass shelf. The TT seems ok as its pretty well made and is on a granite slab.

I am thinking of a stainless stand with sandstone shelfs, just a time thing at the moment. Work wont leave me alone long enough.

 

Odd thing with the speaker position Doug, for giggles I positioned them a bit closer to the wall and it seems to work well atm. Still, these things take time to get happy.

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On 10/06/2018 at 9:57 AM, Rocketfrogs said:

That's a beautiful turntable.

Thank you. I was lucky enough to have the chance to buy it from another member here. 

 

Its not the most fancy one you'd see here but its more than good enough for me. My vinyl collection is pretty poor in comparison to others here @Kensell21

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Thank you. I was lucky enough to have the chance to buy it from another member here. 
 
Its not the most fancy one you'd see here but its more than good enough for me. My vinyl collection is pretty poor in comparison to others here [mention=106433]Kensell21[/mention]

Well like me, you have to start somewhere! [emoji6]
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@Kensell21 The journey of 10,000 records starts with the first one ?

 

I took some time to hang the backdrop curtains properly tonight. I admit, I was slack when I first hung them and had some excess material at the bottom. 

I am pleasantly surprised at what a difference its made giving them a trim and fitting them better. Something as simple as a bit of cloth has done what $$ of acoustic treatments could do...for cents.

Welcome back resolution, detail, and all your other buddies.

Edited by darth vader
spelling. moer correctly misspellung
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I bet it's sounding real nice and am looking forward to hearing in person someday as I reckon it's a sound I'd really enjoy.

 

As for lack of vinyl be careful what you wish for as I think I'm now at the tipping point where it's getting impossible to choose that critical first album for a session. Was going through the racks the other day and found a bunch I still hadn't opened but am rectifying that error tonight.

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Its sounding pretty good. I think there is still room for improvement but its getting tricky to find the improvements now, the easy ones are done.

 

Send me a list of your orphan and unwanted black disc's mate, maybe we can make a deal...this would ease the burden on choosing the first one for a session?

 

Once I get it as good as I can, I'm planning a soft opening hopefully in a few weeks. I'd like to get a bit of pretty happening, but that might be between the soft and hard GTG. I'll pencil you in @Tubularbells

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  • 1 month later...

After a recent GTG and some sound advice from some good folk, or some good advice from some sound folk...

 

It was great to learn some tips from the more seasoned folk. They really helped me out. MartyKT really had some active advice with some actual physical help

 

My buddy who said by his own words is tone deaf, but who happens to be really handy with floor coverings gave the cave a face lift today. (pretty time is upon)

After playing a vinyl and silver disc version of Pink Floyd DSOTM, even a self confessed tone deaf fella said he could hear things in that song he'd never heard before. 

I doubt he'll ever become an audiophile, but I think his opinion of music reproduction was somewhat swayed after what he heard. 

 

Music appreciation aside, this guy is really good at commercial flooring. He's the only guy I know that can stick flooring to a roof. Last time I seen carpet on a roof was in a 1970's panel van 

 

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3 hours ago, darth vader said:

Music appreciation aside, this guy is really good at commercial flooring. He's the only guy I know that can stick flooring to a roof. Last time I seen carpet on a roof was in a 1970's panel van 

 

 

 

Graceland!  The roof of Elvis' media/games/bar room -

 

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