And make sure you get some tinny AF speakers and play it at 100% so it sounds extra **** just to annoy every poor bugger around you. And then put a donk on it.
Right, decided to make my smart cabinet even smarter. I am going to cut the speaker into the door. However, I don't want to leave an amp channel with no load on it. So I decided to get a horn to go in under the speaker. This will load the other channel, and should be a decent wave guide. I can get two for £22. So a spare compression driver is excellent. Obviously I need to paint the horn body white, but that shouldn't prove too difficult. The problem was I needed a crossover and etc. Then I remembered I had an old Quad centre I don't use. It was only £40, less than the parts I took from it would have cost me. So I stripped it. Then I reworked the crossover to be HF only, and a few mods later. You will notice I fitted loop connectors and have temp bolted the wires back to the terminal poles. This was for a good reason. I will be reusing all of the parts, including this. Which will also have a loop terminal cable on it internally. HF will go to the horn (insert jokes here) and the LF will go to the Revel centre. All I need to do then is wire it all up internally, bolt that door closed (got sound proofing etc) and then just hook the banana plugs into the back of the cabinet.
Have mounted it on rubber pads, then used two rubber damped screws through the old through holes to mount it. Happy with that. Quad plate can't be used, as it is too big to go where I have planned. Not bothered about that, it's only a label. Will put the HF connectors up top, so I know which one is which.
I've got the horn !. Oh come on, I had to. It also fits with a bit of space, too. It will need some bodywork. The marks from the mould are apparent, and are low spots so will need some JB weld in. I also want to completely remove the middle holes on the short sides, too. It just doesn't need all those screws as it won't be pressurised from behind.
I’m having to send my Mackie CR5-X speakers back, since the metal plate on one of the speakers is lifting off. (I did contact Mackie directly, but they advised to go via my distributor since they only offer direct warranty support for US & Canada.) Any recommendations for active speakers to replace them? They’ll be hooked up to a mixing console so fancy balanced XLR/TRS wiring isn’t a problem - in fact I’d prefer that as there are lot of sources of interference in this room. EDIT: My budget is in the £160-£200 range.
If you can pick up a pair (sold singly...) of Yamaha HS5s in budget, my son has found them excellent quality for music production
Ta. Will keep my eye out. I really quite like these speakers, but I can't find any stock at the same price any mroe.
The entire back side of that door has been covered in mute mat. The horn needs doing next. It isn't even loaded with the compression driver, as I need to take it out and paint etc. I am going to fill in all but four of the mount holes too, leaving just two at each end. There is no pressure in there, so it doesn't need it. And the back. I then fitted all of the IR blaster wires, using 50mm wide white PVC tape to conceal them. Didn't get pics of that, as it is all inside. The fabers are going to the rear. Horn will get done next week. The only thing I don't like is the gap on the left of the centre door. No tweaking made it any better, so I am going to remove the hinges and just bracket it in on both sides. Will shim the bottom 3mm, then yeah align the brackets so it is centred properly.
No. It is bolted in dude. With brackets. The door, like. So aye, it's in there. The next iteration using more brackets will make it even more secure tbh. I could just feel some resonance on the door itself (before it went in) obviously being transferred from the sealed driver into the door. So that got matted tf. I'll get a pic in a minute.
Here dude. You can see what I have done here. There are currently two brackets on the right side of the inner door. When you swing it closed they screw down, holding it in place. I am going to repeat that process, only with larger stronger brackets. I will then stand it inside on a piece of 3mm acryl to shim it, and then bracket it in a better position so it has the same gap each side. I hope that makes sense. But yeah, it's extremely sturdy now and isn't going anywhere. This is the left side. The tronics side. It has blasters fitted throughout, for anything I decide to add in the future. The right side will be for my dad's vinyl collection when it arrives on Sunday. I used 50mm white electrical tape to make the wires from that invisible.
Went with a pair of PreSonus Eris 5 speakers. Bit annoying having to run two separate power cables and having two separate power switches, but I'm sure I'll get over it. Don't have proper stands yet - I spent more on speakers than I'd anticipated, so some angled foam wedges will have to do for now. Have more or less got them positioned right and I've calibrated the gain as best I can using my phone as an SPL meter - not exactly precision stuff, but I'm not setting up a professional studio here. Gonna have to do that again though because I forgot to set the PC's audio channel to unity gain in the mixer - I only set the gain of the main output... The faff is absolutely worth it though, these speakers sound fantastic. I've only been listening to YouTube and Apple Music, but holy balls these things are detailed. Picking up so many nuances, and even entire instruments, that I just didn't hear before. Even more detailed than the Mackie speakers I sent back.
Finally actually moving, and I'm looking for ideas for improving the TV audio... At the current place, I've got an ancient Yamaha 5.1 AV receiver. It's great, works perfectly, love it, although it doesn't like the remote any more. It's bulky, though, and it doesn't have HDMI inputs - so behind the TV is an absolute tangle of wires. At the new place, there's nowhere to mount rear speakers - the stairs are directly behind the sofa - so I was thinking of killing two birds with one stone and picking up a soundbar and sub. Trouble is... I can't find anything that ticks all the boxes I need. First problem: my TV predates HDMI ARC and CEC. It does have an optical output, which is nice... but it's stereo PCM only, which isn't. Second problem: nobody seems to make soundbars which take multiple HDMI inputs and provide a single HDMI output, just ones with a single input that accepts ARC from the TV. Best I've found is two inputs one output. Third problem: even if I accept that I'll be having a 2.1 soundbar instead of 3.1... very few of 'em seem to have a night mode, which is an absolute must in a three-bed semi with two young kids. Any ideas? Should I just lug the massive ancient Yamaha to the new place and not hook up the rear speakers?
As I'm considering a new TV and giving up my own AV receiver for a soundbar, I asked google for "soundbar multiple hdmi uk" and got this 4 day old link:- https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/tvs-entertainment/soundbars/1404093/best-soundbars-soundbases There's a Sennheiser one with 3x HDMI in & 1 out, but it's over £2k without a sub! They also mention the "Creative Stage 360" with 2x HDMI in & 1 out, but it also has night mode for a much more reasonable £200 on the old rainforest. I'd say find the other features you want and add an external HDMI switcher to your budget.
One of those is a lot closer to my kinda budget, and it ain't the one beginning with "S." I'll have a look, ta! EDIT: Nah, that's the Creative Stage 360 - I'd already discounted that, as it only has two HDMI inputs. (It has three HDMI ports, but one's either HDMI ARC or the output depending on what you're doing - you can't connect three HDMI devices to it.) And it's only 2.1, so I might as well just hook it up to the TV's optical stereo output... External switcher's a possibility, but I was hoping to get away from having to juggle multiple remotes.
Aye - too fast for my own good! To be honest, I think the solution is probably a cheap 2.1 bar with optical input - which will last me through to the TV's inevitable demise (it's pretty old, now - chunky Samsung Series 6 I keep around for its fantastic picture quality and RGB SCART inputs), then I can look at something posher when I'm in the market for a TV with eARC.
