ephori posted:Also have a look on Etsy for speaker stands. There’s a huge variety and you can probably find some specific to your model of speaker. I got some steel stands for my hundred-pound Altecs off Etsy made by a dude in Poland, sized exactly to my cabinets. Oh wow, Altecs, as in Altec-Lansing. I don't know if I've ever seen anything so nice by them.
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# ? Jul 9, 2022 02:08 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 05:42 |
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Another member of the MA-5100 club. Good stuff
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# ? Jul 9, 2022 03:15 |
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petit choux posted:Oh wow, Altecs, as in Altec-Lansing. I don't know if I've ever seen anything so nice by them. BigFactory posted:Another member of the MA-5100 club. Good stuff Almost, it’s an MA-230 but same vintage.
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# ? Jul 9, 2022 07:11 |
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ephori posted:They’re Altec Lansing duplex drivers but in JBL C50 cabinets that I salvaged. It’s a long story. Eventually I want to get them in proper homes, but I’m leaning towards DIY since original Altec 620 cabinets that aren’t trashed are ridiculously priced. Dang!!
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# ? Jul 9, 2022 12:30 |
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That's hot
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# ? Jul 9, 2022 13:29 |
ephori posted:They’re Altec Lansing duplex drivers but in JBL C50 cabinets that I salvaged. It’s a long story. Eventually I want to get them in proper homes, but I’m leaning towards DIY since original Altec 620 cabinets that aren’t trashed are ridiculously priced. Given the enthusiasm out there and the ease of building them, I'm surprised the DIY speaker cabs aren't more common. Oh, Bigfactory, I was in the basement yesterday and picked up those speakers a little more and yes, they are light for their size. So there's that.
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# ? Jul 9, 2022 16:53 |
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Enos Cabell posted:Enclosure from Serbia showed up much sooner than expected. I'm very pleased with the quality of the work. Did you get this from the Vintage Audio Cabinets seller in Orid, Serbia on Etsy? I have 2238 that needs a wooden home and this looks right up my alley if so.
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# ? Jul 11, 2022 16:16 |
How about Epicure speakers? I got these speakers with a three-way switch on the back for the Tweeter level. Never seen anything like it Also found a new Mark t t i
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# ? Jul 14, 2022 00:59 |
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petit choux posted:How about Epicure speakers? I got these speakers with a three-way switch on the back for the Tweeter level. Never seen anything like it I think Epicure made some decent speakers. Lots of speakers from all different eras have switches on them but I’ve never noticed it making a difference.
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# ? Jul 14, 2022 01:35 |
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Epi/epicure/human speakers are great, I just left that switch on normal/off on my Epi m400s before I blew them up. The designer still sells parts and will refurbish them too, I believe
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# ? Jul 14, 2022 02:04 |
large hands posted:Epi/epicure/human speakers are great, I just left that switch on normal/off on my Epi m400s before I blew them up. The designer still sells parts and will refurbish them too, I believe Well that's good because somebody took the midranges and put in really lovely ones. I'm kinda thinking maybe I can combine some of these I've been finding into one decent pair. And I assume the fact nobody's responded about the Numark indicates its value to you, hell it was only like $8. I also got a black Fischer TT but I'm too exhausted to go photo it RN. I just moved about 750 records from the apt. and I had to carry them all down stairs.
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# ? Jul 14, 2022 02:32 |
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petit choux posted:Well that's good because somebody took the midranges and put in really lovely ones. I'm kinda thinking maybe I can combine some of these I've been finding into one decent pair. And I assume the fact nobody's responded about the Numark indicates its value to you, hell it was only like $8. I also got a black Fischer TT but I'm too exhausted to go photo it RN. I just moved about 750 records from the apt. and I had to carry them all down stairs. Have a look here: https://www.humanspeakers.com There's all kinds of history, diy speaker plans and other interesting stuff there as well as parts and services for sale
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# ? Jul 14, 2022 02:56 |
Also got a pair of Yamaha NS-A635A speakers for 15. I thought they might go with this Yamaha subwoofer I've been using the past year. large hands posted:Have a look here: wow thanks. I think when the dust settles here I'm going to ask this thread if the 4 speaker sets I've acquired in the past few days could be assembled into something really good.
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# ? Jul 14, 2022 03:09 |
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Sheep posted:Did you get this from the Vintage Audio Cabinets seller in Orid, Serbia on Etsy? I have 2238 that needs a wooden home and this looks right up my alley if so. Sorry missed this earlier, I grabbed it from a seller called Marantzwoodcase https://www.etsy.com/shop/Marantzwoodcase He didn't have the model I needed in stock, but made one within a few days of my contacting him. Seems like he has plans for a lot of different Marantz models.
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# ? Jul 15, 2022 12:11 |
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petit choux posted:How about Epicure speakers? I got these speakers with a three-way switch on the back for the Tweeter level. Never seen anything like it I have a pair of M201s that I use on a daily basis. They're pretty darned good for home speakers from the time period (early-mid '70s), though they're definitely in the upper range of what I would consider reasonably sized. The level control for the tweeters was a feature that several speakers from that time period had and frankly, they don't do that much anymore for a reason. Those pots/switches tend to wear out, get crackly, and generally just add more disruption to what can already be a fragile signal chain. The best thing I ever did to my M201s was rip out the old crossovers/level controls and replace them with the simplified version from https://www.humanspeakers.com.
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# ? Jul 15, 2022 13:39 |
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petit choux posted:Also got a pair of Yamaha NS-A635A speakers for 15. I thought they might go with this Yamaha subwoofer I've been using the past year. Those Yamaha speakers aren't terrible, especially for the price, but if you have better options I don't really think they're worth hanging onto. Please do post what else you found.
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# ? Jul 15, 2022 13:44 |
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strtj posted:I have a pair of M201s that I use on a daily basis. They're pretty darned good for home speakers from the time period (early-mid '70s), though they're definitely in the upper range of what I would consider reasonably sized. The ones in my NS1000's are gigantic. I'm considering bypassing them though as even though they're good for what they are they aren't exactly the precision instrument they were envisioned to be.
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# ? Jul 15, 2022 14:23 |
strtj posted:Those Yamaha speakers aren't terrible, especially for the price, but if you have better options I don't really think they're worth hanging onto. Please do post what else you found. Here's pics of the Epicure speakers w/o the grilles. I'm guessing those midranges are replacements. They don't look so good and it looks like somebody got their pilot holes a little bit off. There are a couple spots somebody clearly smeared or dripped a little latex paint on them, looks repairable. That's the white smear there, I think. But those speakers don't look so great. Am I mistaken? ED: still seems odd to have such a large cab and have all that dead space up top but maybe that's advantageous. ED2: aaaaaanndd Verizon has cut off my data because I haven't signed up for 5g yet. I think maybe Verizon has just lost a customer. The reception around here is really terrible anyway. Can't upload the latest pics. Cheers, all. petit choux fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Jul 15, 2022 |
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# ? Jul 15, 2022 20:16 |
strtj posted:Those Yamaha speakers aren't terrible, especially for the price, but if you have better options I don't really think they're worth hanging onto. Please do post what else you found. Probably my little tiny JBLs are the best option for this room even now. Imma start getting the stereo out this weekend, I'd like advice regarding the system and maybe the acoustics of this room, too. Here, this is what I store my vinyl in, I'm thinking of making more since I've bought so many more records. I'm kinda proud of this design, requires nothing but cheap 3/8" plywood and screws, and tools incl a circular saw and a decent electric drill. I've found them to be very solid. And nylon straps for handles, I cut up a luggage strap. ED: These are made using sheathing, which is the lowest-grade, cheapest plywood available. I might recommend using just a notch higher grade material, though this has worked perfectly for me. I think I found a couple holes inside the wood and I had to scrap a couple pieces as a result. And these probably use more screws than necessary. petit choux fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Jul 15, 2022 |
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# ? Jul 15, 2022 20:53 |
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petit choux posted:
That seems to be a thing with 1970s EPIs, check out the m400(not my photo), the top half of the cabinet is empty. I think in a later revision they moved the drivers (8 per speaker) up closer to the top.
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# ? Jul 15, 2022 22:16 |
I could perhaps see an argument about having some kind of reverberation effect inside such an enclosure, maybe even some voodoo inside the box. You know, another thread I read is the Trump thread and I've discovered most lately that a couple of goons over there are DJs who have built their own enclosures and stuff and I asked to see their setups and I was very impressed with the photos of their speakers, and they had some pics as they were building them, too. It was really cool. I think one of them, Virgil Vox, called his sub enclosures his "scoops." They reminded me of cowrie shells in their design. But he's made me realize there are probably some really good speaker enclosure designs out there, not just for large setups like his. Are there any that are widely used, popular DIY speaker-wise?
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 02:21 |
Here is a dumb question I wanted to ask here. Do you cats and kitties use speakers A and B simultaneously (4 speakers, not counting a sub), or do you just use 2 speakers? Is it common practice to use 4 speakers, again not counting a sub, or what is the conventional use for A and B speakers then?
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 02:34 |
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petit choux posted:Here is a dumb question I wanted to ask here. Do you cats and kitties use speakers A and B simultaneously (4 speakers, not counting a sub), or do you just use 2 speakers? Is it common practice to use 4 speakers, again not counting a sub, or what is the conventional use for A and B speakers then? I have one room where I use A and B in the same room because I didn’t wire the speakers in series. I might fix that one day. It works fine though. Otherwise I only run 2 speakers.
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 02:37 |
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petit choux posted:I could perhaps see an argument about having some kind of reverberation effect inside such an enclosure, maybe even some voodoo inside the box. that’s like asking if there are any popular widely-used plans out there for different kinds of boats, or kit homes, etc. The answer is “yes” and “there’s tons, in different levels of DIY vs kit-ness and so forth”. This should be the right thread for that kind of chat, but you might be better off getting the attention of the right ppl in one of the more Q+A focused threads, since those get the most traction these days anyway
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 03:01 |
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large hands posted:That seems to be a thing with 1970s EPIs, check out the m400(not my photo), the top half of the cabinet is empty. The early EPIs were all designed around "modules" placed inside different cabinets. A module was essentially just a woofer+tweeter pair, the same in the wildly popular M100 as it was in wacky things like the M202 (https://www.humanspeakers.com/e/epi202.htm). There were all sorts of different cabinet designs, presumably to get all sorts of different "sounds" and, of course, varying bass response. The M201s that I have are arguably even stranger: two "modules", one front-facing and one on the top angled slightly downward. The web page does a decent job of explaining it although the pictures could be better: https://www.humanspeakers.com/e/epi201.htm. They're great for an entertainment system in a large-ish room where I'm less concerned about absolute accuracy in a specific sweet spot and much more concerned about reasonable accuracy in a variety of locations, plus the claim of 30Hz bass is not at all an exaggeration. I have no need for a sub with that system. EPI also did a funny Bose 901 ripoff, the M601 https://www.humanspeakers.com/e/epi601.htm. I think they were just willing to experiment with a wide variety of cabinet designs to see what the market wanted. To perhaps no one's surprise, what the market wanted was a reasonably priced and reasonably sized speaker with excellent performance, the M100 (https://www.humanspeakers.com/e/epi100.htm). I had a pair of these in high school and they were definitely the equal of the Dynaco A25, Small Advent, etc.
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 11:51 |
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BigFactory posted:I have one room where I use A and B in the same room because I didn’t wire the speakers in series. I might fix that one day. It works fine though. Otherwise I only run 2 speakers. Are you running four identical speakers? Otherwise I wouldn't ever wire them in series, I'd stick to using separate output channels. Even then I wouldn't consider it unless I was running two 8 ohm pairs; anything else would confuse almost any standard amp/receiver.
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 11:54 |
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To touch on the "should I build my own enclosure" idea: if you're looking for a challenging DIY project for yourself, sure. If you have very specific needs for your space, sure. Otherwise it's pretty much not worth it - there's a lot of science that goes into speaker design, much more than just "let's figure out a reasonably sized box for this woofer," and anything even marginally mass-produced is going to be more economic than doing it yourself.
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 12:00 |
strtj posted:To touch on the "should I build my own enclosure" idea: if you're looking for a challenging DIY project for yourself, sure. If you have very specific needs for your space, sure. Otherwise it's pretty much not worth it - there's a lot of science that goes into speaker design, much more than just "let's figure out a reasonably sized box for this woofer," and anything even marginally mass-produced is going to be more economic than doing it yourself. Wow, some good answers here! Yeah, I'm not going to make DIY speakers at any time in the near future, I just think it would be fun and educational and I wanted to see if it was a common thing among 'audiophiles' or whatever. I think it would be a great thing for my understanding of sound reinforcement. I really really appreciate all your responses here.
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 12:56 |
strtj posted:Are you running four identical speakers? Otherwise I wouldn't ever wire them in series, I'd stick to using separate output channels. Even then I wouldn't consider it unless I was running two 8 ohm pairs; anything else would confuse almost any standard amp/receiver. But would you use four 8 ohm speakers at once, is something I'm wondering. And more specifically, in the same room or space? Is this a common practice? I mean you can just forego all that and get a more contemporary system. Just wondering what the conventions about using speakers A and B might be.
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 13:42 |
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strtj posted:Are you running four identical speakers? Otherwise I wouldn't ever wire them in series, I'd stick to using separate output channels. Even then I wouldn't consider it unless I was running two 8 ohm pairs; anything else would confuse almost any standard amp/receiver. Yeah they’re four outdoor in-ceiling speakers. I’m never going to have one pair on and the other off so it would have made sense to wire them in series but now they’re installed so the odds of me pulling them out to rewire is next to nothing.
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 13:49 |
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petit choux posted:But would you use four 8 ohm speakers at once, is something I'm wondering. And more specifically, in the same room or space? Is this a common practice? I mean you can just forego all that and get a more contemporary system. Just wondering what the conventions about using speakers A and B might be. That's actually a really good question, and mostly the answer is "that's why things are mixed specifically for surround." Four identical speakers placed evenly in a uniform cube will give you a pretty fair amount of coverage, in that you can walk around the room and have uniform sound in a way that two speakers couldn't give you. But as soon as you change anything about that - different speakers, different placement, different room shape, furniture, etc. - you'll have frequencies fighting with each other. Even matched surround sound sets will have these sorts of issues, which is why you generally find surround sound mixes for movies - where impact is king, not exact reproduction - and not your average band's album. As with all of these questions, it's not a matter of whether or not it can be done, it's a matter of whether or not it makes sense for the average person's time to be spent on it. Do you want surround sound? Cool, just get a surround receiver and hook up a few reasonably matched speakers to it. You can even turn on the "fake surround" presets to get a fun sense of room-filling audio for your favorite album. Do you want sound that is a super accurate reproduction of what the artist intended? That's a never-ending rabbit hole of chasing diminishing returns, and to a large extent is why the "make fun of audiophiles" thread exists.
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 14:48 |
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BigFactory posted:Yeah they’re four outdoor in-ceiling speakers. I’m never going to have one pair on and the other off so it would have made sense to wire them in series but now they’re installed so the odds of me pulling them out to rewire is next to nothing. Unless you're going to wire up something else on the second output channel, there is effectively no difference with most receivers. I really wouldn't worry about it.
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 14:52 |
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strtj posted:Unless you're going to wire up something else on the second output channel, there is effectively no difference with most receivers. I really wouldn't worry about it. Well, it would let me use a receiver that doesn’t have a/b zones if I wanted to swap out my not-that-amazing early 80s Nikko at some point, or have a pair of indoor speakers so the music would follow you from inside to outside. But in general I’m on the same page with you. I’m probably not changing anything at this point. Just remorse that it would have been simple when the ceiling was open and a pain in the rear end now.
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 14:59 |
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Alright, I'm on a roll here, let's brain dump. Your average top 40 pop album is mixed to sound as good as possible in as many spaces as possible. This includes places as wildly incongruous as a dance club, your car, and even (until recently) a mono system like a lovely clock radio. It should still sound decent on your $5k home system, and in most cases it does. Albums with a lesser budget were generally mixed to sound good in the space they were mixed/mastered in, which sometimes matches up with the sort of setup you might find at home and sometimes matches up to nothing that any sane person would have anywhere. There are albums that I maintain never went anywhere solely because the final mix was so lovely. I always refrain from ranting on and on about how awful the Yamaha NS-10s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_NS-10) were, but you can read the article for yourself, and if you're really that interested in finding out what a wanker Bob Clearmountain was you can buy a pair for yourself. The final point is this: start with something halfway decent and then figure out what works for you in your space. If you're going to spend real money, insist on a home demo. If you're really into one particular sound you can spend mega bucks to reproduce the sound of one studio in your space, but the idea that you can get one final super-expensive system to put all to shame is absolutely ridiculous. Even if you got something that measured ruler-flat in your very specific listening position, I'd bet hard money that the stuff 99% of people listen to wouldn't sound better, and might even sound worse.
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 15:22 |
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strtj posted:Alright, I'm on a roll here, let's brain dump. a $400k McLaren and a $90k 911 and a $30k Miata and a $10k Civic and a $500 clapped-out Corolla are all fun to drive around a racetrack. Any investment in audio/video equipment beyond the basics, or spent chasing down increasingly diminishing returns, is almost always better spent on media Any investment in recording or musical equipment/environment beyond the basics, or spent chasing down increasingly esoteric standards for quality, is almost always better spent on music lessons
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 18:32 |
strtj posted:That's actually a really good question, and mostly the answer is "that's why things are mixed specifically for surround." Four identical speakers placed evenly in a uniform cube will give you a pretty fair amount of coverage, in that you can walk around the room and have uniform sound in a way that two speakers couldn't give you. But as soon as you change anything about that - different speakers, different placement, different room shape, furniture, etc. - you'll have frequencies fighting with each other. Even matched surround sound sets will have these sorts of issues, which is why you generally find surround sound mixes for movies - where impact is king, not exact reproduction - and not your average band's album. And this is a really good answer and impetus for my question in this regard is mostly about just what people expect me to do with speakers A and B in the first place, as I've seldom used both and seldom seen them used. It sounds to me like the convention is really more for two different rooms or zones. I think when I was younger I assumed having two stereo speaker sets was p much the meaning of the word quadrophonic, anything with 4 speakers really, but real quad was more of a forerunner to the Dolby stuff we have now. Anybody have an old quadrophonic system that has the joystick for the balance control? Are those any good?
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# ? Jul 16, 2022 22:18 |
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Okay, I have no idea if this goes here. It's vintage but not vinyl. I have that covered. This is about what my vinyl collection has led me to. Laserdisc. I have recently come into possession of a large number of laserdiscs and a couple of players. I would like to hook it up to my main TV and surround sound system. The receiver is a Sony STR-ZA810ES. I inherited it when my father passed a few years ago. It's modern and great. I have it hooked up to a 5.1 surround sound system. The laserdisc player is a Pioneer CLD-V2600. It seems to be working fine hooked up to an older TV. The TV I normally use is an LG...something. It's modern, 70" ish and 4k. The problem is that my receiver won't convert the composite video signal to HDMI. The audio works, but for video I'd need a single composite video out from the receiver to the TV... which only has HDMI and coax inputs. No composite anything. I'm also hoping it doesn't look like poo poo on such a big TV. What are my options (other than just buying blu-ray or streaming things like everybody else)?
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# ? Jul 17, 2022 02:02 |
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A composite to HDMI converter should work https://www.amazon.com/s?k=composite+to+hdmi+converter. I've got a stack of old laserdiscs but haven't had a working player in probably 20 years. I do have a working RCA Selectavision player hooked up to my garage tv with several boxes full of CEDs though.
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# ? Jul 17, 2022 02:13 |
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Enos Cabell posted:A composite to HDMI converter should work https://www.amazon.com/s?k=composite+to+hdmi+converter. Just ordered one. In the meantime I'm playing around with an old video-to-coax adapter that I think I last used with an NES. It isn't working, though.
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# ? Jul 17, 2022 02:20 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 05:42 |
Enos Cabell posted:A composite to HDMI converter should work https://www.amazon.com/s?k=composite+to+hdmi+converter. CEDs? Wha?
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# ? Jul 17, 2022 02:21 |