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Other Hi-fi and AV junkies anonymous

Discussion in 'General' started by Mister_Tad, 16 Jun 2020.

  1. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Started working with the leather. Hardest part was getting it squared and learning how to cut it. Turned into a bit of an ordeal, but it's there. I've cut two coasters also, and have loads of spare. I want to test the pinking shears on scrap first, as it is really thick.

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  2. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Final coat of PU is down. I will let it harden fully now before tackling the last black work.

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    As you can see the port is absolutely filthy. So I need to make a tool that I can wrap a cloth around and clean it out properly. I do not want to even think about running a sub in there until it's sparkling. I decorated my room with dust quite a few times in the past.

    The leather work is done also.

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  3. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Will repaint the bottom tomorrow, which will wrap it up.

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  4. spolsh

    spolsh Multimodder

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    Nearly done then, after all the effort you've put in it better sound good !
     
  5. Byron C

    Byron C Multimodder

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    Frankly I'd be worried about hitting the brown note when sat near that thing! :lol:
     
  6. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    From my testing of the woofer it should sound excellent. I will get some video of "testing" it (evil grin) and then likely turning the amp volume knob down haha.

    Positioning will be excellent. Firing right into the sofa :D

    I stood it on the back and painted the bottom. Needs another coat, then I can start covering it in cardboard. I also bought a roll of that black cling wrap so I can wrap the entire thing once it's protected.
     
  7. spolsh

    spolsh Multimodder

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    Make sure to test when the neighbours have just gone out ... or better yet on holiday lol
     
  8. B1GBUD

    B1GBUD ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Accidentally Funny

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    How does it stack up to something like the Thorens?

    https://www.audioemotion.co.uk/thorens-mm-002-phono-stage-8225-p.asp
     
  9. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    TBH it is probably better.

    I never really spoke much about it, but that turntable is pretty jank tbh. I mean, it looks lovely but as for build quality? that's about where it stops. The platter on it is not that nice and everything else other than the tone arm is plastic. At £280 I would say it was worth doing but man if I had paid £850+ for it I would personally have hand delivered it back through the seller's window. I am not surprised they went out of business again really. It wasn't just me that noticed they were smoking something either.

    https://www.whathifi.com/thorens/td-206/review

    Mine is identical other than the wood. But yeah, if I paid a thousand pounds for any piece of hifi equipment I would expect it to at least show signs that it was worthy of the price. What they actually give you? is an insult. The feet look nice and beefy. Then you unscrew one and realise that it's two pieces of hollow plastic with a piece of foam shoved in it.

    Sadly it seems Thoren's return was like most old school hifi makers. Just a total cash in.

    Kinda like these really.

    https://www.mission.co.uk/770-2/

    £3500. Yup I said thirty five hundred pounds. Hilarious when you consider that these cost £1000

    https://www.hifichoice.com/content/wharfedale-linton
     
  10. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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  11. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Finished packing it earlier. Covered every face in cardboard, then wrapped it. Then put cardboard on every edge and wrapped it again.

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    I might have over done it a bit on the wadding......

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  12. B1GBUD

    B1GBUD ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Accidentally Funny

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    Is that a body under there? :lol:
     
  13. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Hahaha nah the suitcase I ended up stuffing it in :D
     
  14. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    OK I am all set.

    I cut some graphics using proper 3M vinyl last week. I now have a full assembly kit, minus the woofer bolts which I lost so I have ordered more. Doh.

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    Made up a Lapp Kabel with a rhodium plated plug, like the rest of the system.

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    And got some more hard splitters. I have rewired the amp using QED Silver Anniversary cable. The 8AWG ground on there is for the coil bridge wire.

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    I made sure that I sealed everything with liquid tape and wrapped it around the core before hot gluing it all back down.

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    Lots of mute mat. Twice what I used already. This is for the top and bottom.

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    And tons of fluff.

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  15. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Right, fat tummy removed haha. That's the bum bag with a big TV, you can't get away from it.

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    Arrived around noon. Fitted the amp, decals to the back and legs.

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    Deadening.

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    Wadding.

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    Woofer, badges, decal and hardware.

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    Sound test. That noise is the flat. Headphones on should give you a rough idea of how it sounds at 50% volume. I daren't go any more.

     
    Last edited: 16 May 2022
    trigger likes this.
  16. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    This time I had a look about. I soon realised that 90% of that racket is coming from this.

    [​IMG]
     
  17. Mister_Tad

    Mister_Tad Will work for nuts Super Moderator

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    And you'll be addressing it?

    I don't want to be a debbie downer, but that sounds... sorta awful :worried:
     
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  18. spolsh

    spolsh Multimodder

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    Yeah, seems you'll have to build something to muffle the heater now. Is it a case of frquencies so low it's causing the dimplex to reverberate ?
     
  19. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Not "hi-fi" by any means, but I thought I was *finally* going to be forced to say goodbye to my beloved Labtec 2.1 computer speaker set I bought in the late 90s: right channel kept fading in and out until it went out completely.

    Thankfully, it looks like it's just the cable running from the speaker to the PC - there must be a break along it somewhere. It's a standard 3.5mm jack at either end, so I'll be back up and running for about a fiver.
     
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  20. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Yeah. The cabinet was built for 24hz, but it will be tuned lower because I added all of that wadding. It's funny really, I have seen a hundred or so videos on wadding and people even measure it scientifically to prove it does make the bass go lower but no one seems to know why :D

    Many years ago I was sent a binder with 50 years of speaker research by a guy at Cerwin Vega. What happens is the air waves hit the wadding, slow down, bounce off the back of the cabinet then come back as waves. When you slow them down it makes the sound go lower. It's much more important in sealed enclosures, usually because they are much smaller, but in this case it helps to stop the port chuffing like a biyatch.

    Tad. No, sadly. It is not my flat, and I can't modify the heater, even though I have only used it for one hour since moving in. That said....

    1. It is 100% not the sub itself. So I did my job correctly.
    2. That is an absolute animal of a track. It was created purely to torture subs.
    3. There is no full range audio with it. That will cover most of that rattling. I can sort out things in the kitchen (like the mug hangers, the mugs are chattering together lol) and put some felt behind the picture frames on the wall but that heater can't be touched.

    If it really really bothers me I might see if you can remove the safety grill thing in the top. I will need to look up the manual for the heater to see if it's possible. I personally don't use it, not even in winter, as it's so bloody warm in here.

    I also removed the pics of my new toys, bah !

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    I went round and collected that at 7am. I got it for £150. The guy bought it and used it whilst his stupidly priced one was being rebuilt. I can not even begin to talk about the difference it has made. Dear lord. I mean yeah, it's still not digital/CD/FLAC quality but it is now just as loud so I don't need my amp at 60 instead of 40. The sound stage change is also excellent. Holy balls. The best change though is the stereo separation. It was total crap on the basic AT cart that came with the deck. Now? it's getting up there toward FLAC. Obviously you've still got your pops and crackles but man what a bloody difference.

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    It also doesn't have the issue the MM one had where if you touched the arm it would give a static pop. I have a feeling that cart was dodgy and not grounding properly. That said that could have been the fact that even though the deck has the ground connector it uses a 2 pin PSU. So does the phono stage. I found out that if it persists you can run that to the ground pin of a plug, but thankfully this cart has fixed that issue so I don't need to bother now.
     

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