New Austin Thread (1 Viewer)

[Frederick_Falk]

Bummer! I take a comp day on Friday and look at what I missed!:frowning: Well, the wife had been gone all of last week and was scheduled to get home on Friday evening so I took a comp day to work around the house. I got my 135 gallan reef tank put back together on the new tile floor and moved most of the "critters" back into the tank. Then I spent Saturday with the wife running errands around Austin. Made her very happy, which is a good thing.
I wish I had known about the offer a little earlier Scott, as I would definately would have rearranged my schedule to fit it in. Oh well, maybe next time.
As to the Saturday get-to-gether. Yes I am planning on coming to both events. I do not have a projector, YET. But I am in the market for one (actually two - one for home and one for my church) and am really interested in what others have and why they purchased them.
I am looking forward to seeing you all again on the 11th. Thanks to Hank and Greg for hosting these two clinics.

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Doncha love it when a plan comes together? Here's what I see:
1. Meet at the Iguana Grill at 11:30 for lunch, friendly discussions, solving the world's problems, etc.
2. To my house for a 1:00 - 6:00 room treatment D-I-Y session. I'm corresponding with Jonathan, our subject expert. He would like to know if anyone has a specific room problem identified (e.g. a base peak at 50 Hz), and if so, please post it and he will come up with a specific design to address it and we could build it at my house. In addition, I've started to buy materials for basic, first reflection side wall panels. They'll be 2' x 4' x about 4" deep. **Please post here if you want a couple and bring about $20 each to help cover the cost. Screw up your courage and don't let the WAF keep you from doing this. I'll try to find off-white burlap (the outside covering) so they'll look okay against the typical wall. You could go crazy and draw/paint a design on them for grins (don't cover too much of the open weave fabric) or buy some other color burlap to address the WAF. C'mon, post already.
Also, we'll have at least two aftermarket power cords to compare. I'm really interested in this as I'm a skeptic in the area of the "sound" of a power cord, but I'm open to being educated.
3. Greg's house for a 6:00 - ? (tell us, Greg) front projector comparison session.
Colin: Can you start a thread with photos and description of our last meet now? Thanks

 

[Mark Hayenga]

Hey guys,
I'm back in computer land after a short break. I managed to get the Klez worm that has recently been making the rounds, but the story has a happy ending - it got me off my duff and I'm now running Redhat 7.2 . The 11th is smack dab in the middle of finals for me, but I'll probably show up for the projector shoot-out at Greg's despite my studies (for those who haven't been to his place, Greg has a GREAT home theater!).
Mark

 

[Scott Oliver]

Hank,

I got to compare the Tara Labs Prism AC cable last week vs. stock AC cable.

To me out of all the tweaks Brian and I installed I think the power cord for my Theta DAC was the most subtle. It was hard for me to pinpoint any changes, except an overall feel of more weight, more beef to the sound. Brian and I talked and he said he would never recommend AC cables to a client until everything else was taken care of first, including power line conditioning. If I had my system set up the way I want it, tweaks and all, then I would think an aftermarket cord would be worth the extra smidgen of performance. Now I am talking about $50 to a $200 AC cable, spending beyond that I couldn't justify the improvement vs cost. Although I have never heard the super lofty AC cables:b .

Sorry about the late notice Frederick, but I had no idea Brian would be leaving me with $11,000 in equipment for a week.

I ended up purchasing the Walker Audio Valid Points to put under my Theta DAC, I thought this isolation method benfitted the Theta quite a bit especially through the tuning points, which go on top. They dampen the chassis well, which is something the Theta benefited from.

 

[Frederick_Falk]

Well, at least you thought of me. I really wish I could have made it over. Must be nice to have friends that will loan you $11,000 worth of equipment to "try out" for a week!
Hey, Greg. Does you wants me ta bring mah Sony DVP-9000ES reference DVD player to da projector shoot-out, partner?

 

[Scott Oliver]

I wanted to post a link to review about the Walker Audio Valid Points, which I purchased.
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazin...alkervalid.htm
The damn things work I just wish they were not so expensive. It definately helps out my Theta Dac, a slight improvement when underneath the Bryston amp, and an added level of detail under my Meridian transport which I found to be too bright with my current stuff. Witht the Theta it tightens all of the images up, which gives better separation of sounds and better dynamics. Slightly improved soundstaging as well, which is probably a direct result of the improved separation.
The other stuff mentioned in the article is amazing as well. The VIVID polishing goo, I think this stuff primarily cleans a CD and leaves it with a higher reflectivity rate. In turn, I think this helps the CD laser read the disc. I only tried it on some of my older CD's, which I felt might be the dirtiest, but according to Brian and this article it works on new Cd's as well. After rediscovering this review after trying the stuff I am tempted to buy a bottle in the future. Anyhow, again the damn stuff worked. The CD I noticed the greatest improvement on out of the five I treated was Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger. Since getting into HI-FI I had always found this disc to be lifeless. Everything was just very recessed, which does not work well for a rock album. After treatment, wham everything jumped out at me the CD was just more vivid. Another disc I noticed a large improvement with was Tesla's Five Man Acoustical Jam. Treatment to this CD reduced the digititis that it had previously suffered from. The CD took on a smoother more analog like character. I was surprised to say the least by the effectiveness of this treatment.

 

[Greg Risley]

Hey Frederick

Please bring over the 9000. Bring some SACD's to if you don't mind. Ihave been wanting to hear how these would sound on my Acurus.

So far Nils is the only one to offer to bring over his projector. Come on guys let me know.

Greg

 

[Colin Dunn]

Greg - I can bring my projector to the meet. Let me know if you want me to show up with it...

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Reminder: please reread my last post. Does anyone have a specific room problem that Jonathan could design a fix for?
Also, not one person has responded that he wants to build any of the generic abosorber panels. Is the WAF-fear that rampant? Remember, they'll be very inexpensive. If no one wants to do this, I'll cancel this D-I-Y part of the day and maybe we could start the projector session a bit earlier (it won't hurt my feelings ). What do you want to do?

 

[Frederick_Falk]

Hank,

I am very interested in how these are built, BUT my new HT room has not been built yet and si I cannot tell you what problems will exist in it when it is completed. If no one else is interested in this part of the meet, then maybe the two of us could get together on another day and go over the D-I-Y stuff.

 

[Greg Risley]

Hank

Jonathan can design some for me. When he was over the other day he suggested some rear corner units. It would be neat to build them at your casa and then try them out later in mine during the shoot-out. I already have the fabric that I used on my false front wall so we could make them to match. Let me know. Shoot me some ideas.

Colin

Sure bring over your projector, that Sony of your is an excellent example of LCD tech. Not to mention yours looks way better than I have ever seen set-up in stores.

Greg

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Frederick: There are two parts to this room treatment subject: first is the generic absorber panels. Almost every room could benefit from these, as they are mainly for the side walls and absorb those "first reflections". They absorb a broad range of frequencies. You don't have to have a room already designed in order to do a couple of those.
The second part is to address a specific problem, like Greg mentions. Let's say you've done measurements and you have a large bass peak at 50 Hz. A bass trap would then be designed to act as a Helmholtz resonator at that frequency to greatly reduce it.
Greg: Jonathan is the design expert. If he knows your specific situation, he could bring a design along. I'll send him an e-mail asking for a materials list. Bring your cloth along and we'll throw it together - I mean carefully handcraft it

 

[Jonathan DA]

Greg,

Is an 18 inch equilateral triangle that is 4 feet tall ok? If that's too big we could go down to 16 inches wide and three feet tall, but I'd hestitate to go any smaller. Alternatively, we can build small fiberglas columns, about 12 inches diameter, if you don't like triangles.

Hank,

These triangular corner traps are also very easy to build, I'll send you a drawing once we have determined the size. Have you found a source for the type 703 yet? I'll sign up for two of the 2'x4' panels in off-white burlap.

 

[Jonathan DA]

BTW, if anyone is unsure if they need/want absorbers, here are a few easy tests to help decide.

1. Stand at the center of the back wall of your room, farthest from your speakers. Hold your hands slightly above your head and clap them together as hard as you can. If you hear an slight echo or ringing sound then you need a room treatment, either an absorber or a diffusor. If the sounds seems to come from the corners, you need corner absorbers, if the sound seems to come from the center of the wall, then you can use either an absorber or a diffusor depending on if want to shift the tonal from bright to neutral to dark.

2. Repeat the same test standing at the center of the wall directly behind the speakers.

3. Find the first reflection point on your side walls by sitting in your listening chair and having a partner with a mirror walk along the wall. When you see the speaker in the mirror tell them to stop. Now walk to the center of the room, in line with the first reflection point, and repeat the clapping experiment with your hands over your head. If you hear the slap echo or ringing then you need a panel absorber on the walls and maybe even one on the ceiling, or a diffusor on the ceiling, depending on how bad the echo is.

Hope this helps,

Jonathan

 

[Greg Risley]

Jonathan

The 16" by 3' long should be fine, but I don't think an equallateral triangle will fit very well into the corner. I just did a quick check and that would give me a triangle with 60 dgree angles, so that would leave a grap on either side or would flush up against only one wall. Wouldn't I want a isosceles right triangle, that would give me a 90 degree into the corner with equal lenght legs but the face would be longer with 45 degree angles at the ends. Just a quick calculation I figured if I used 2 12" long sides that flush up to the walls then my front area would be around 16.75". Yes I am a partial math dork. But I did have to look the name up.

Greg

 

[Scott Oliver]

Hank, please do the DIY treatment part still.
As I said before my room just doesn't really need them nor do I have a spot for them currently. But, I definatley want to observe and take notes for the day when I am ready to build some.
I'll take good DIY room treatments over spending hundreds and thousands for products like ASC, Argent, etc. any day.
:frowning: The bad part is that my schedule is not set for next Saturday yet, may have to go to San Antonio part of the day and miss some of the meet. Not happy!

 

[Jonathan DA]

Greg,

You're right! I got my terms mixed up. Damn, one mistake this year and it's only May. I'd better ration that second one I have allotted.

Jonathan

 

[Greg Risley]

A second mistake, who gets 2 screw ups in a year.

Sorry its my upbringing with an aircraft mechanic for a father. He always is quoting the carpenters rule of measure twice..blah blah blah.

Any ideas how I will be able to mount these? If you have any plans for me to look at email them on over or I can just wait till the meet. This ought to be fun.

Greg

 

[Scott Oliver]

Hank and Greg,

Since I am uncertain of when I will be able to make it to the meet right now, I would like to ask you guys to send me an email with directions to both your places, so that I can be a late arriver. Hopefully I will be able to hit Hank's house for the DIY part and the new speaker listening, but I am not sure right now.

Scott

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Jonathan: I haven't looked for 703 yet. I'll call Lowe's and Home Depot to check for it. I'll buy some 1 x 4's and some burlap too. Bring your design for Greg's corner unit triangles also. Will you or Greg bring additional material for them?

Scott: I just sent you a Mapquest.