Crazy projects..or..I am 'effing nuts..

[movenon]

Very nice!  I enjoy all the Arts and Craft / Bungalows in PDX. Lots of real nice homes there to restore. Only if I had the time and money......
George

[Firehawk068]

I am in AWE!
Meticulous design, with flawless execution................
The only thing I can say is WOW!
I am so jealous...............
We got to have a Northwest rally, centered around your house of course 

[andyoutandabout]

Top DIY skills Garth. You've taken that room about as far as it could go.
With your electronic trickery I'm expecting all your Fj gauges to sweep smoothly across their dials giving hair splitting accuracy.
I don't advise watching naughty films in such a facility - you'll have your eye out.
Andy

[baldy3853]

Mr Bean an absolute gem 

[Flynt]

Sorry guys, but I've got to call this room for next year's Renegade Rally!   

Confused...   

thought this was at Andy's place.  Oh well, I'd still like to stay there sometime or at least see this awesome room.

Frank

[pdxfj]

Thanks for the kind words everyone.  I debated on posting this as I didn't want to look like a show off.

The mistake I mentioned was when I cut the hole in the back wall for the projector.  I measured numerous times to ensure the hole was the right size.  Made sure to account for sheet rock and such.  I completely finished it and was ready to paint but something just didn't feel right.  My wood working guy stopped by to get some measurements and drawings and said the hole didn't look right either.  I took the projector out of the box and held it up.  Crap! It doesn't fit.. WTF??  Somehow the hole was 2-1/2 inches too narrow. 

Anyone else run into this type of wall construction before?



What you're looking at is how all the walls and ceilings are finished in my house.  Since it was built in 1946, the wood necessary for lath and plaster was a war commodity.  So they came up with an early version of sheet rock.  It's actually Plaster Board that is 2 feet wide by 6 feet long.  Since they didn't have tape and mud like today they did a 1/2"-3/4" thick "skim" coat of plaster over the plaster board.  Needless to say it makes working on things a bit more interesting...

You gents are not the first to mention viewing a porn movie.  Given the size and clarity of the picture it just doesn't seem like a good idea.. tooooo much detail...   

[Pat Conlon]

Yea, that was called "button board" (if that is what you have) It's a gypsum board with holes (buttons) so the wet plaster can mushroom through forming a mechanical attachment (when dry) to the board.
Does that sound like what you have? Be careful with that dry plaster dust, there's a high probability that it's full of asbestos.

I wonder if the Claritycap mod will help me with my Paradigm Reference Studio 10's, a small 2 way bookshelf speaker.

[FeralRdr]

Looks good Garth, but...!  Where's the Kegerator at? 

[The General]

Pat:  I started with the Oppo 83 and it is a fine player but the Mediatek chip-set is a bit outdated and it wouldn't play some BD's so I snagged the 93. I considered the 103 but the Cinavia copy protection turned me off.  I am thinking of sending my 83 to Oppo for the SE upgrade.  New power supply, DAC board and analog output stages.  Make it into a higher end 2ch player.

As far as the XO upgrades, I came across the idea on the Polk message boards.  The practice involves removing the stock crossovers, and swapping out the cheap and crappy electrolytic caps and sand cast resistors for much higher quality film caps and wire wound resistors.  The RTi-A series of speakers are a bit bright to begin with since they are designed for Home Theater.  My Sony amp is a little on the bright side as well, so the combination of those were not working in my favor.  While the speakers sounded "good" with HT, I hated their sound with 2ch music.

The cost to do the front three speakers averaged out to a little over $100 each for parts.  Mind you the new film caps are massive compared to the electrolytic ones they replaced.  In the center channel speaker there is an 82uf cap and the film replacement is half the size of a beer can.  The transformation of the speakers sound was immediately noticed.  The highs were tamed and smoothed out.  Mids were much more room penetrating and vocals were much clearer along with the bass tightening up.  As the caps and resistors broke in, things just sounded better and better.  While I was in there I also replaced all the internal wiring with a high strand count, braided, pure copper 16awg speaker cable.  In addition to applying a damping material to the speaker baskets to eliminate "ringing" and re-enforcing all the internal bracing and corners with more glue to stiffen things up and reduce cabinet flexing.

Here is a picture of the stock center channel speaker crossover



So you've got your three electrolytic caps, two resistors (white rectangles at bottom) and one tiny film cap (dead center) that acts as the bypass cap.  I could have replaced the inductors as well, but the replacements were insanely huge.

In this picture you see the replacement caps, next to the ones they replaced.  All values are the same.  For the giant 82uf cap I had to attach it to the XO with a length of speaker cable and then glue it inside the speaker once I installed the XO.



I have also done the same upgrades to another pair older Polk speakers...

I`m really jealous. I sold my foosball setup today for $50. http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-foosball/k0
I know I`ll regret it just like when I sold my pin ball machine. (I had doubled the voltage on the rubber boppers....and I was King!)

Yeah tha Chernobyl copy protection turned me off too!...and and and I woulda taken tha 103 over a 93 anyday! ...but in Australia we use tha 104!
We don`t need a SE upgrade - we already there! Ditch tha DAC Board...we`ve been inta tri fins for years now. Some of us are into crossover stockings but never seen any of ya fancy electro knee cap types ..nor crutches for that matter!

pfft..you reckon that mediate chip set is outdated...So is ya 82uf Cap!... Mate we got`m so small over here, my audio engineer lady put one in me ear!...but it didn`t eliminate the ringing with me either...So wifey reckons I should double up...you know ..one of those high end 2 ch thingy`s you`re talking about...but mate they cost more than a $100 down here let me tell ya!... let`s see how it goes with your set up. I wouldn`t mind upgrading my pair of older folk speakers too.

[Pat Conlon]

Garth, I see you went with the PX line of caps...any reason you did not choose the MR line?

So many questions.....

[pdxfj]

Garth, I see you went with the PX line of caps...any reason you did not choose the MR line?

So many questions.....

It came down to cost.  I needed 22 caps and 10 resistors to upgrade everything.  The MR line would have broken the bank.  I used the 630v ESA line for the bypass caps in the high end of the crossover.  They are usually very small values. Say 0.33uf, 0.47, etc.  A .47 ESA is $8.65 where the MR is $38+.

SoniCaps are another option if you can get the right values.  They are an excellent sounding cap.  The larger values I needed are not available in SoniCaps, so on the advice of a fellow member on the Polk group who has upgraded hundreds of XO's for people I went with the PX and ESA caps.

Sonicraft: http://www.soniccraft.com/index.htm  for SoniCaps and Mills resistors.  If you choose Mills, only get the MRA-12's.

Madisound for Clarity Caps: http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/crossovers-and-parts/  they carry Mundorf resistors which are very good as well, but finding the right values can be tricky.  You sometimes have to stack several resistors to get the right values, which I didn't want to do.

Given stock components are usually around a 10% tolerance range, you can fudge numbers a little each way and likely be alright.

Heed this warning Pat.. You're sticking your toe into an endless rabbit hole..  Once you step in, there's no going back..      Your speakers would likely benefit from new caps and resistors.  Remember they usually use the cheapest parts to keep costs down and caps do dry out over time.  You should pull one of your XO's and figure out what you need.

[Pat Conlon]

Heed this warning Pat.. You're sticking your toe into an endless rabbit hole..  Once you step in, there's no going back..     

Gosh, that sounds awfully familiar .......where have I heard that warning before...?

Thanks Garth, you are a man of many talents.... Kudos!

[Steve_in_Florida]

"Moditis" knows no bounds!

[Firehawk068]

"Moditis" knows no bounds!

I know.........It's got hold of my Jeep too.......

J ust
E mpty
E very
P ocket