Carmody Onight Sensations and Amiga build

[RePete]

Hey All

 

The lockdowns early this year had me looking for things to do so I decided it was time to have a go at the DIY Speaker project I’d been contemplating for a many years.

 

I decided to dip my toe in the water and knock together a pair of Paul Carmody overnight sensations.

 

well “WOW” I was hooked. I paired them up with an old Luxman L3 and I couldn’t believe the sound coming out of these small speakers. Great soundstage, excellent imaging and really easy to listen to for hours.

 

After working out how to stream hi resolution music I picked up a Bluesound Node2i and I was away. 
 

now I was sure listening was back in my life I started planning the next build. I chose the Amigas because the components weren’t too  expensive and I could source the heavy midbase drivers locally so only had to ship the tweeters from parts express.

 

I put a little more time into the fit and finish of the cabinets. We machined the cabinets on the CNC machine and laminated the rear of the cabinets with some off cuts laying around the shop. The baffles are painted in hammered metal spray paint for a quick and cheap finish. I nearly sent the cabinets to the polyurethane painter but is was going to cost more than the drivers and I thought that might be overcapitalising.

 

So was the upgrade worth it? Well at first I wasn’t sure. After being so bowled over by the OS’s I was a little underwhelmed at first but after a few hours listening I began to notice there was just more of everything. Yes they are voiced very similarly to the OS and are easy to listen to but there is more bass, more space, more shimmer, more detail and everything is tighter. 
 

So now I knew they were going to be sticking around for a while I thought I’d spend a few hundred dollars to see how good they can be and at worst it would be a learning experience.

 

I purchased Jantzen superior Z caps and superes resistors and soldered up new caps if for nothing else than something to do.

 

First listen had me really trying hard to hear a difference whilst being fully aware of possible confirmation bias and psycho acoustic tricks my brain may be playing. After a couple of hours the only thing I could really describe was there seeming to be more space between each sound. Space as in it was easier to distinguish one sound from another even if they were similar in tone and timbre.

 

That was enough for me, I knew there were these big chunky capacitors inside my cabinets and I was happy. Once I relaxed and started to just enjoy the music the speakers appeared to get better over the next few listening sessions. Were they burning in and getting better or was my mind just playing tricks. I will never really know but I can say my satisfaction with the speakers has only grown to the point of being happy with living with them for a long while.

 

Thats saying something for me because I tend to be the type of person who is always chasing the next better thing which can be a dangerous thing in the audio world. Every time I get worked up about something new  it only takes a listening session in the shed to calm me down and put things back in perspective.

 

there is bit of a story that ended with the Luxman needing repair with I will get to one day so I’m running a Vincent SV400 which seemed to add vertical height to the soundstage and is doing the job.

 

I’ve got about $1k in the Amigas, $900 in the Node and $500 in the SV400. So for a total of $2400 I’ve put together a beautiful system that allows me to enjoy old faves and new music I’ve never heard of before. Even genres I’ve never enjoyed are eye opening on a nice engaging system. I’ll often be reading or browsing the net on the iPad when the music grabs my attention and pulls it back to the music.

 

some pics of the builds 

 

Cheers Pete 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2020 by RePete

[davewantsmoore]

[crtexcnndrm99]

Thanks for sharing - nothing more fun than the diy hifi journey 

[basshead]

Back to my old CAA/SNA stomping ground after a long hiatus (and a password reset)…

 

I’m considering building a pair of Amiga’s too after finding Paul Carmody’s page and PE techtalk forum where I also bumped into @Geoff Millar who has been rather helpful.

 

Your cabinets look great!

 

Edited February 25, 2022 by basshead

[bob_m_54]

And I thought this was a retro computer thread..

[basshead]

On 26/02/2022 at 6:59 PM, bob_m_54 said:

And I thought this was a retro computer thread..

 

My long-term passion for Amiga is what drew me to these speakers in the first place!  

[basshead]

So the “2nd living room/study” (aka HT) build is progressing slowly and I’ve been researching receivers and was initially thinking of Yamaha RX-V4A until I read you can’t switch between 5.1 and zone2 (2ch in another room) - it’s “set and forget” - either 3.1 in main room and 2ch in another room, or 5.1 in main room and no 2nd room. Then I looked at the V6A which seems to offer much more versatile options and will allow a zone 2 simultaneously with 7 channels for the HT (incl. either 2 atmos or 2 rear surround channels)…

 

Which leads me to the question of whether the OS would be suitable as atmos height speakers. I’ll already be making a pair for the rear to match the Amiga front mains.  Mounting them either on the wall (as “high” bookshelf speakers) or perhaps with some modification of design (thinking angles) for mounting on (or perhaps somehow recessed in the ceiling)?

 

Thoughts and opinions welcome!

Edited November 28, 2022 by basshead

[basshead]

The final speakers remaining (and yet undecided) is the rear surrounds. I was initially intending to build the OS but really wanted to stick with the Dayton mids (mostly for aesthetic consistency - the ceiling-mounted atmos speakers will be concealed by grilles). The sunflower centre build is almost complete and after abit of googling I stumbled across these surround/bookshelf which also use the Dayton RS125 driver:

 

https://www.rjbaudio.com/Microbe/microbe.html

 

Any thoughts or opinions???