scratch built Roisin Dearg (a Scratch Built "Modular" Case)

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I caught a break yesterday; the speaker cables came in! They came from Monoprice.com. Monoprice is weird when it comes to shipping. Sometimes, they ship by dogsled in summer and canoe in winter, other times they use rocket delivery, no matter what they charge for delivery (free on up). It's unpredictable. This time, they used a carrier called GSO. They are fast but their tracking is horrible. They tell you when the packageis supposd to be delivered, when it is picked up, and when it is delivered. They don't tell you where the package originated nor where it is located during transit (which is mitigated somewhat by their rapid delivery).

 

I didn't get around to testing the speakers until late last night (I had more errands to waddle and went out last night with a friend who was temporarily baseball widowed for some Thai and craic). After I got home last night, I temporarily connected the speakers to the earphone port of my little el cheapo 15" Lenovo notebook and, without doing any fiddling around with the settings, I was immediately impressed with the sound! I spent a couple of hours trying out different ripped CDs and you tube videos to give them as good of a workout as possible with the less than stellar sound card in my notebook and was happy with the results. As long as the sound source wasn't boomy, the bass was clear and sharp without any boominess. I found Youtube videos with Avi Kaplan and Tim Faust that weren't badly engineered and they were amazing clear, considering the source. I played a ripped CD with Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King, which started out with pizzicato double basses, the lowest instrument in most orchestras. They were clear, considering the sound source. The lower notes of the bassoons were nice and sharp. I played a couplee of works that had heavy tympani and they had a nicely resonant sound and were not just thudding away.

 

Some of the reviews I saw for these speakers said they had a hiss when there was no sound being played. Either I didn't hear it because I can't hear anything above 8k Hz (it happens to all of us when we get old) or I got lucky on the cables or it was the cables I used. I saw a review on the Monoprice speakers I orignally considered that said the reviewer had problems with some noise when where there was no other sound coming from those speakers when using RCA cables but fixed it by using xlr to RCA cables, then a dual RCA to 3.5mm adapter. That was the combination I used.

 

In case you haven't figured it out by now, I like these speakers. I was surprised that the bass response from the 5" speakers was noticeably better than the 8" sub in my old SP2500s (may they R.I.P.).

 

I didn't get much sleep last night. We had a couple of power outages and the silence was deafening. Later today or tomorrow, I'm going to route the speaker cables and the power cables on the "bridge" (that will be a chore with all the stuff hanging on it in the way), then mount the speakers either later today or sometime tomorrow or Monday. Right now, I'm just too pooped.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I managed to get the cables routed and have come to the conclusion that I HATE CABLES! I had the "Divil's" own time getting them routed, even after removing the bulletin board and moving furniture around (replacing the damaged floor tiles sure made moving the furniture around a lot easier). I pray to God I don't ever, EVER have to pull any of them out again! At least they aren't on the floor.

 

These are the power cables: the two cables that came with the speakers (keep in mind these speakers are self powered and amplified), a splitter, and extension.

 

 

These are shots of the power cables. I was able to hide them for much of their runs in the extrusion's tee-slots.

 

 

 

 

After wrestling with the power cables, I attacked the speaker cables. To be able to reach the long runs, I had to dig out two 5' sections of my fiberglass fish rods (similar to the fish tape used to fish wiring through walls, etc. but stiffer; gotta love tools) to shove the cables from one side of the bridge to the other (otherwise, routing them would hav been much like pushing a rope). Again, I was able to hide much of the runs in the extrusions' tee-slots.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the power and speaker cable for the right speaker.

 

 

I taped the ends of the two speaker cables down to the ends that plug into the RCA to 3.5mm adapter.

 

 

 

I tagged both cables on both ends to make sure I didn't mix them up. Eventually, I will bundle the two cables with the HDMI cables going to the computer but, for now, I'm keeping them separate for testing purposes.

 

In addition to the clamps, I used strips of 1" wide, low profile, industrial strength Velcro to secure the speakers to the mounts. After cutting the strips to length, I put the hook and loop sections together and stuck them to the bottoms of the speakers.

 

 

I removed the remaining release strips from the mated Velcro strips and tipped the speakers into place on the speaker mounts' platforms, then tightened thee side clamps. Plugging the cables into the right speaker wasn't too bad but the getting them plugged into the left speaker was a nightmare because of tight clearances and lousy visibility.

 

To aim the speakers as close to the sweet spot as practical, I taped some cut down 3" x 5" cards with index lines on them to sides of the speakers at the back (sorry for the lousy photos). I have no idea why the right speaker is tilted to the left slightly. It appears to be due to speaker mount warping. I wasn't able to straighten it so I'll have to live with it. It's barely noticeable when I look at the speaker head on but the tilts of the speaker and the TV makes it look far worse. Weird.

 

 

To see if they were aimed correctly left to right, I laid down on my bed where my head normally goes and looked at each speaker to see if there was the same amount of space to the first visible index line, then adjusted the speaker until the spaces were even and tightened the mounting nut. Crude but quick and effective.

 

Here are the final shots.

 

 

 

 

I temporarily hooked up the speakers to my notebook and fooled around with some of the speaker settings to get them balanced (the differences in spacing and angles of the reflective surfaces behind the ports on the back of the speakers apparently affected the sound somewhat). I was able to get them balanced reasonably well. I'm looking forward to being able to use these with the new computer although I may try to set up the Dragonfly USB DAC on the notebook to see how the speakers would sound when using it.

 

Now, I just need to get some help next week lugging the computer case to the bedroom so I can start finishing it (including working on more misbegotten cables).

[mAs81]

It's looking great ! I bet you can't wait to fire up that hexa-monitor setup!!

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks! You're darned right I can't wait to fire up the "hexa-monitor" setup (nice term, btw) and not just because of the monitors.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I'm paying for yesterday today. I have this tiny spot on my right arm just below the elbow; it's the only spot on my body that doesn't hurt. I also had a rough night, dreaming about cables and speakers. Yeesh! So my top priority today (and, maybe, tomorrow) is to do as little as possible (getting old sucks!).

 

Earlier today, I plugged in my new DragonFly DAC into the notebook, plugged the speakers into the DAC, fiddled with some Win 7 audio settings, and was blown away by the improvement! Since the notebook will stay set up on my desk until I can get the new computer up and running, I'm leaving the speakers hooked up to the notebook. I was getting so sick and tired of the tiny, tinny portable computer speakers I was using. They are fine for when I travel but just don't cut it for long term use. Despite feeling like I was run over twice by a speeding bus driven by Sandra Bullock, I'm a happy camper.

 

I did run into a small snag with the DragonFly. Per the directions (yes, I actually read those), I tried to go to their website to download their Desktop Device Manager Application and couldn't make sense of what I was supposed to download. I sent an email to AudioQuest to see if they can help me.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I'm baaaaaaack (kinda sorta; the past few months have been pretty rough).

 

A while back, I reported on the performance of the JBL 5" Studio Monitors I got. I'm still happy with them but the very lowest notes either just weren't coming through or were a bit muddy, even when I jacked the bottom frequencies in my player's EQ. Great as these speakers are, they really need a good sub. The problem was, the sub that goes with these is huge in all the wrong dimensions. It will fit inside the knee hole of my desk but that wouldn't leave much room for my feet. I racked my brain on how to deal with it until I noticed in the manual that came with the speakers that a sub should be placed on the floor between the center line between the satellites and the left satellite. That would have to place it to the left of my desk where my printer resides on top four plastic stacking drawers.

 

The sub would be a tad too far left to be ideal but it beat the big fat holy hairy heck out of homesteading my kneehole so I decided to pull the trigger on the sub. That thing is seriously heavy (and I'm seriously old) so I had a wee bit of "fun" getting it into the house and unpacked. I temporarily moved the printer out of the way and moved the drawers out permanently (I still have to figure out where to put them permanently). Here is the sub, a JBL LSR310S 10" downfiring driver, in its new home.

 

 

I had originally planned on placing the printer back on top of the sub but that printer is almost as heavy as the sub and the feet on the sub are set in a ways from the edge. Since the sub case is just MDF, I had some concerns for whether it could handle the weight so I have decided to build a housing to go over and around the sub to support the printer. I made a Home Depot waddle yesterday (at my age and weight, I don't run, I waddle like a duck), bought a quarter sheet of 3/4" plywood, and let them cut out the sides of the housing for me (that vertical saw they have is far more accurate than I am. I'll use the piece of plywood the printer used to set on for the top. I have a large scrap of plywood to use for the back. I spent part of today laying out the additional cuts I need to make tomorrow or Wednesday. I'll show the housing later when I get it made.

 

Once the spreaker was in place the next thing to do was to was to reroute the cables from the satellites to the sub and run new cables from the sub to the computer. This quote tells how I set up the cables from the satellites:

 

On 8/25/2018 at 1:16 PM, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Some of the reviews I saw for these speakers said they had a hiss when there was no sound being played. Either I didn't hear it because I can't hear anything above 8k Hz (it happens to all of us when we get old) or I got lucky on the cables or it was the cables I used. I saw a review on the Monoprice speakers I orignally considered that said the reviewer had problems with some noise when where there was no other sound coming from those speakers when using RCA cables but fixed it by using xlr to RCA cables, then a dual RCA to 3.5mm adapter. That was the combination I used.

The input to the sub is either TRS or XLR. I wanted to use the original cables from the satellite since replacing them would be a bi....a real stinker. So, I ordered some female RCA to female XLR adapters and just pulled the existing cables from one side of the desk to the other side and connected them to the sub via the adapters. I ran new male XLR to male RCA cables from the sub to the computer side of the desk.

 

Before I could run any cables, I had to deal with a wee bit of a problem. Below, I had described how I used gaffers tape to bundle the free end of the original cables:

On 8/25/2018 at 10:10 PM, Lady Fitzgerald said:

I taped the ends of the two speaker cables down to the ends that plug into the RCA to 3.5mm adapter.

 

 

 

Normally, gaffer's tape does not leave a sticky residue. Until this, I had never had it happen. On these cables, however, the adhesive turned gooey and even seeped through the cloth backing. I checked all my other cables and other places where I used gaffer's tape and none of that turned gooey. Weird!. My guess is plasticizers in the cable jacket partially dissolved the adhesive.  Anyway, before moving that cable, I needed to remove the tape and the remaining ooey gooey and rebundle the cable, using Velcro strips. I got the ooey gooey off with 99% alcohol and elbow grease. 

 

I originally used the tape because I was afraid Velcro would slip. After cleaning the cables, I found if I used the harder side of the Velcro against the cable and wrapped it tight, it wouldn't slip. I also bundled the new cables. I spent three hours cleaning and bundling.

 

This is what the cable jungle going in and out of the sub looks like from above:

 

 

It looks a bit nasty there but they are out of sight and do not lay on the floor. Those silver colored doohickies on the outside cables are the aforementioned adapters. You can see the Velcro bundling the cable on the left side of the photo. I'll eventually bundle all the sub cables together to clean it up aa bit.

 

After I had all the audio cables run and rerun (a bit of a chore but infinitely easier than dealing with the cable jungle that used to own the floor), it dawned on me I hadn't plugged in and routed the power cable. When I plugged it in and started routing it toward the power strip, I found out the stupid power cable was a couple of feet too short (mutter, mutter, mumble mumble). I dug through my extension and power cord collection and the only thing close to being usable was the end of the power cord I had cut off. Unfortunately, my search did not turn up a connector to replace the nonexistent female end of the cord (more muttering and mumbling). At that point, my tired hurt too much to go any further and there were some good movies coming on TV for a change so I chilled for the rest of the day.

 

I hit Home Depot today and got the AWOL connector, installed it on the cable I dug out, plugged in the cable, and routed it to the power strip. I had to fiddle with the settings a bit but the sub is definitely an improvement. I'll still have to do some more fiddling but It's already worth all the effort and expense to get the sub.

 

I had to work on another home inprovement project today so that's all I got done. I added an outlet in my hallway and I have to peel back the siding outside tomorrow so I can steal some power for the new outlet from an existing outside outlet I put in 20 some odd years ago (that is going to be "fun"), then I can start working on the housing for the printer to live on.

[TVwazhere]

Monoprice Audio Cables; the Achilles Heel of gaffers tape!  

[Lady Fitzgerald]

1 hour ago, TVwazhere said:

Monoprice Audio Cables; the Achilles Heel of gaffers tape!  

Yeah, that is really odd since Monoprice makes otherwise good cables. They are one of the first places I hit for pretty much any kind of audio/video cable and other related goodies.

 

Now, if I could only find a hardware or software solution for Audio Dynamic Range Compression (I need to reduce Dynamic Range like my old speakers were able to).

[TVwazhere]

9 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Yeah, that is really odd since Monoprice makes otherwise good cables. They are one of the first places I hit for pretty much any kind of audio/video cable and other related goodies.

I dont go anywhere else for cables. Price cant be beat and quality is as good if not better than most other cheap cables on the market. Though their shipping can sometimes makes them less cost effective than amazon (since free shipping, prime or not beats $5 for a cable <$1)

[Lady Fitzgerald]

8 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

I dont go anywhere else for cables. Price cant be beat and quality is as good if not better than most other cheap cables on the market. Though their shipping can sometimes makes them less cost effective than amazon (since free shipping, prime or not beats $5 for a cable <$1)

I go elsewhere only when I can't find what I want elsewhere. For example, the two female RCA to one 3.5" adapter in the photos came from Monoprice but the female XLR to female RCA adapters had to come from some little vendor on eBay since Moniprice didn't have them (  ).

 

I would much rather pay for the shipping from elsewhere than get "free" shipping from Amazon. Except for e-books, I've been boycotting Amazon for a few years now because of all the trouble I've had with them, including shipping the wrong items (often repeatedly), poorly packaging shipments (frequently resulting in broken merchandise), and their incompetent delivery service. eBay has gone seriously downhill but I still get better results from them than I was from Amazon.