- External Audio Solutions -

[loony979]

***************External*****Audio**********Solutions*********************

..................This Thread is for those that do not have Headphones Or do not want them ..........................

.....................Tho would like something External / Even Help / & to Show of you're External Gear ..........

..........................................Serious External Audio Users.................................................................................

 

With Many Users these days opting for headphones there are a lot of answers out there

to help These people out .In this thread We Aim to help those in need of

Any External Audio needs .Who knows we may even learn a few things in the process (Even Me)

 

So lets get started Why would some 1 use External Audio ,rather than a pair of Headphones ?

 

1.  Summer time can give the user an uncomfortable Sweaty head of hair .

2. Cable leads/wires to the user can be annoying .

3. Static Noise can be an unavoidable issue for some (this can be created by many things)

4. Sound Delay (Sound not matching what is actually happening (This can occur in games/movies)

5. Environment to noisy to hear .

6. Many Other Reasons .

 

Why would some 1 want Headphones ?

 

1. Privacy (Not being a noisy user/keeping what you listen to - to you're self) .

2. External Audio can be loud (Parents are a known factor to tell a user to - Turn It Down) .

3. To be able to turn it up to a user's needs (being loud does not necessary mean Best Sound) .

4. To be able to do Team chat/Skype .

5. Options for - Built In Mic .

6. Many Other Reasons .

 

External Sound can vary in Shape/Design/Brands & Needs

 

From Dacs, Receivers, basic/pro desktop speakers, monitoring speakers ,even

the USB Solutions ,& Much more .

Also 5.1 - 6.1 - 7.1 - 7.2 - etc .

DTS - Dolby Digital Cinema Sound - Dolby Digital Live - etc .

 

Show of you're External Gear - Show us You're plans

 

Got an External Sound Set up ? Show us

Got any Plans you have in the works or for the future ? Show Us

Got a Massive Bass system ? Show us

Need Help with External Audio ? Ask us

 

If you have any suggestions Any thing i may of left out on this Topic/thread - Let Me Know .

Kind Regards loony979 :)

 

NOTE 1: Do Not Quote this thread - it looks unprofessional ...

NOTE 2: Please keep Images to appropriate sizes ...

NOTE 3: Be nice people may be upset - they need there Audio Working ...

 

If a Moderator thinks this topic is inappropriate He/She may Lock It ,no Pun will be taken .

[ShearMe]

 

 

I got these at an estate sale for $60 and think they're simply amazing for my little bedroom. Used to have huge full-sized speakers but I could never position them nicely in such a small space. Wish I had an apartment of my own so I could use them 24/7...

 

Hoping to see @mr moose's room in more detail ITT.

[mr moose]

Here's one I made earlier:

 

And heres the how it measures in the room before I treated it:

 

 

I'll post some more pics of my room soon.

[mr moose]

O.K: these were taken a few years ago now, some are grainy because old camera and some because of dust.

 

The external wall had to have windows as a legal requirement, I was pissed about this but they are now covered.

 

Looking back to the door, built in desks on eone side with over head cupboards and a rack in the middle for the gear.

 

 

looking at the screen wall mid construction.

 

 

Component and D-sub cabling for projector, It's just outside the rack and will have a cable hole so I can access it to plug in my pc or other gear on the fly without having to reach behind the stuff.

 

 

I also run my network from this room so here is the links to all the other rooms in the house (each bedroom has wired network)

 

 

top of the rack

 

rack, bench tops and over head cupboards mid construction:

 

 

 

Power and cables for projector:

 

 

how it looked 3 years ago (still building my speakers and planning the gear):

 

 

At the moment I am storing all my P.A gear and sorting my dvd collection so it is a complete wreck, however as soon as I have cleaned it up I will post more complete photos of it's current incarnation.

[mr moose]

Replacing surrounds on 12" Woofers:

 

Speakers are like people, at a certain age they start to get loose and flappy around the edges.  I know this, I am approaching a midlife crisis.  So to help with getting old I thought I would do to a speaker what can't be done to people,  That's right, I will replace the loose flappy outside bit and make them sexy and new looking again.

 

 

The patient:

 

 

A standard paper cone woofer with a perished surround.  Or should I say non existent surround.

 

First thing to do is remove whats left of the surround with a sharp knife:

 

After physical removing as much as you can it'll look like this:

 

 

Whats left can be removed with a chemical cleaner, for this I used acetone. But be careful not to get any on the cone:

 

 

Now the next bit some people say you don't need to do, and like antistatic straps, many people don't do this next bit and don't have any issues, however I feel if you are going to do a job you may as well do it thoroughly.

So what is the next step?  It is centering the VC so that when you glue the new surround on it will hold the cone in just the right place that the VC doesn't rub during excursion.

 

To do this I cut off the dust cover, and cut up some transparency sheets to create shims that can be slid into the air gap between the VC and the magnet,  this firms up the cone and hold everything in place while the glue sets:

 

 

Now we can attach the new surround, the glue is basicall a PVA, although I used one that was labelled specifically for speaker surrounds:

 

 

While the glue is drying I jumped on the lathe and turned up a mould to make a new dust cover:

 

The new dust cover is paper mache made with PVA glue.

 

 

And the finished product:

 

 

And it sounds awesome,  much cheaper than new speakers to boot.

[loony979]

Shearme : i use to also use a micro system for pc it worked rather well . I did put bigger speakers to the

micro system & got bigger bass out of it .

 

mr moose : Holy crap this is going to be a project i will keep an eye on nice work thus far

you are doing an out standing job on it  ... Keep up the great work

[mr moose]

Shearme : i use to also use a micro system for pc it worked rather well . I did put bigger speakers to the

micro system & got bigger bass out of it .

 

mr moose : Holy crap this is going to be a project i will keep an eye on nice work thus far

you are doing an out standing job on it  ... Keep up the great work

 

Cheers,  It is a lot further advanced than I have photos for, the problem is at the moment work is crucifying me so I have little time to clean and take photos, much less to actually enjoy the room. But for a basic run down here's what it is:

 

q6600 8g and gt620 HT pc

all my dvd's are currently being turned into ISO's and stored on 7TB of hdd.

The HTPC is also shared across my network so I can watch any movie or listen to any music from any device on my network.

The sound is delivered via optical to a pioneer receiver.

Sub is taken care of a by a 500W digital amp driving dual 12" woofer enclosure. (has no problems reaching reference volume)

The surrounds, mains and centre are home made, They are designed to work in this size room. The room mode is 100Hz so these are flat from 30Hz to 1.6KHz.  If you look at the graph of them in the untreated room you will see there are spikes in the response, these spikes correspond to 100Hz (room mode), the first spike is half that (50Hz) the second at 100Hz then every node of the 100Hz fundamental after that.  With the crossover set at 50Hz and the room dampened and treated for this mode I have managed to get a reasonable sound.

[ShearMe]

Shearme : i use to also use a micro system for pc it worked rather well . I did put bigger speakers to the

micro system & got bigger bass out of it

I get plenty of bass, probably due to the Bi-amped system. Kicks you in the chest if you turn it up enough, but the unit didn't come with the original remote so I can't EQ the bastard.

[mr moose]

Here's the state of play, I still need to copy all these to the HDD so I can store them away somewhere else. I also need some quality storage for my P.A gear, I'm getting tired of it clogging up my room.

 

[loony979]

Here's the state of play, I still need to copy all these to the HDD so I can store them away somewhere else. I also need some quality storage for my P.A gear, I'm getting tired of it clogging up my room

Just wondering if have an update on you're progress

[mr moose]

Just wondering if have an update on you're progress

 

I'm afraid not, I have been pricing new sound absorbing material, but the reality is that at the moment my life is just that busy this room has been put on the back burner.  I got as far as building a server and started to make ISO's of all my dvd's but I am only a quarter of the way through. 

 

I hope to do some serious work to the room before the end of this year, but I just can't promise anything.  Watch this thread, If I do I will take photos and stuff.  At the moment though because the ceiling is black, the curtains are black and the carpet is black photos are difficult.