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WARNING - WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ IS AS MUCH A CREATIVE OUTLET AS THE ACTUAL PROJECT IT DESCRIBES. ENJOY
Patient HTGuide readers, what began as an experimental re-build of speakers I first constructed 20 years ago grew into a year-long design and thought experiment. It is now complete. The time I was able to spend while wood working, putting together the fragments and years of work I have devoted to computing technology and the digital home, has grown into a vision. With design inspired by early 1900's and technology which will be from the cutting edge, my goal will now be to integrate a computing experience into a single solution, in a single location, to stretch that experience around the home, sharing and chronicling the story of how it can and ultimately will be done. Not using the artifacts and redundancies of the The Gordian Knot, but using one Digital Nexus. More photos will follow in the coming weeks of Console 2.0, with some of the cool technology some of my friends , partners and collaborators have sent to help build The Digital Nexus.
"The ultimate dilemma for entertainment will be the decision whether or not to directly implant the entertainment into the neuro-biological path. The step preceding will bring entertainment directly to the sensory interface, on the eyes, in the ears, and on our skin. The experience will be multi-layered. I will be able to modify my experiences by transposing synthetic images and sounds on top of real ones. I will be able to modify the world I see much like wearing rose-colored glasses. To counter-balance our desire to live in a modified dream-world, society will impose habits and rules which prevent over-indulgence. Until then, I suggest you enjoy your relatively benign speakers, home theaters and personal media players. They are only a whisper of what is to come."
- Inez Drew
Months ago, I began the construction of a project I had imagined and evolved over time. Like many of you, I enjoy the fact that this is a creative outlet I control, where no one tells me how to do it, or why I should do it. This project is interesting, to me at least, because I wanted to solve several problems at once.
In another life I collected vintage high-end 70’s analogue audio and video gear and placed it neatly in every room of my home. For the love of tactile controls, the aesthetic of metal and wood, simple connectivity, and high-function design. In yet another life, I have a wall upon which to stack the most modern audio components each a mastery of digital and audio technology, each crafted with the material precision of a jet engine. In a future life, I am a citizen in the future world of Inez, my technology so small it is nearly out of site and so powerful it transforms my most mundane daily sensory experiences.
Console 2.0 began with my desire to fuse the modern aesthetic forms of the 60’s and 70’s with the digital age. And my components were simply a mess. And my wife was starting to complain. Too much technology, and none of it effing worked, she complained.
So I designed a Console to house a small number of components integrating an entire home theater into one structure unifying high fidelity speakers, an AV receiver, a home theater PC, and a screen. And the entity needed to be movable – no home theater “installation” - this monolith needed to be on wheels. Console 2.0, as I have dubbed it, reached an important milestone last night - it's not really done, but its done enough and the subsequent work will be enjoyable and only take a couple weeks [EDIT: :rf] more. The console made good use of 2 bowed black walnut boards which form the curved top and bottom face frame of the cabinet.
The speakers themselves are a complete re-build of speakers I began 18 years ago in my senior year of high school. The 12DB/octave crossover was improved over time and I re-built them two weeks and completed wire up and assembly last night. A morrel MDT-37 replaced the original HF units several years ago and the unit is ~93db/SPL.
I sawed off the old front face of the MF/HF boxes, sanded down the white ash boxes - and I am about to make nicely curved black walnut faces from wood reclaimed from a 100 year old bed, coordinated with the lines of the curved lines of the main unit of the console. The unit is coincidentally reminiscent of the "Archimedes" from The Watchmen.
The PC integration portion of the project is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about and look forward to discussion.
In the meantime, here are some work in progress photos, with photos in the next day or so in its current state. Materials are black walnut for the face frame, maple plywood for the top, and white lacquered MDF for the panels. Base is oak plywood. There was no master plan, was able to solve problems as I went along, but I had the corner pieces, the bowed boards, and mounted the original speakers to the oak plywood base which together anchored the design. Let me know what you think!
Patient HTGuide readers, what began as an experimental re-build of speakers I first constructed 20 years ago grew into a year-long design and thought experiment. It is now complete. The time I was able to spend while wood working, putting together the fragments and years of work I have devoted to computing technology and the digital home, has grown into a vision. With design inspired by early 1900's and technology which will be from the cutting edge, my goal will now be to integrate a computing experience into a single solution, in a single location, to stretch that experience around the home, sharing and chronicling the story of how it can and ultimately will be done. Not using the artifacts and redundancies of the The Gordian Knot, but using one Digital Nexus. More photos will follow in the coming weeks of Console 2.0, with some of the cool technology some of my friends , partners and collaborators have sent to help build The Digital Nexus.
"The ultimate dilemma for entertainment will be the decision whether or not to directly implant the entertainment into the neuro-biological path. The step preceding will bring entertainment directly to the sensory interface, on the eyes, in the ears, and on our skin. The experience will be multi-layered. I will be able to modify my experiences by transposing synthetic images and sounds on top of real ones. I will be able to modify the world I see much like wearing rose-colored glasses. To counter-balance our desire to live in a modified dream-world, society will impose habits and rules which prevent over-indulgence. Until then, I suggest you enjoy your relatively benign speakers, home theaters and personal media players. They are only a whisper of what is to come."
- Inez Drew
Months ago, I began the construction of a project I had imagined and evolved over time. Like many of you, I enjoy the fact that this is a creative outlet I control, where no one tells me how to do it, or why I should do it. This project is interesting, to me at least, because I wanted to solve several problems at once.
In another life I collected vintage high-end 70’s analogue audio and video gear and placed it neatly in every room of my home. For the love of tactile controls, the aesthetic of metal and wood, simple connectivity, and high-function design. In yet another life, I have a wall upon which to stack the most modern audio components each a mastery of digital and audio technology, each crafted with the material precision of a jet engine. In a future life, I am a citizen in the future world of Inez, my technology so small it is nearly out of site and so powerful it transforms my most mundane daily sensory experiences.
Console 2.0 began with my desire to fuse the modern aesthetic forms of the 60’s and 70’s with the digital age. And my components were simply a mess. And my wife was starting to complain. Too much technology, and none of it effing worked, she complained.
So I designed a Console to house a small number of components integrating an entire home theater into one structure unifying high fidelity speakers, an AV receiver, a home theater PC, and a screen. And the entity needed to be movable – no home theater “installation” - this monolith needed to be on wheels. Console 2.0, as I have dubbed it, reached an important milestone last night - it's not really done, but its done enough and the subsequent work will be enjoyable and only take a couple weeks [EDIT: :rf] more. The console made good use of 2 bowed black walnut boards which form the curved top and bottom face frame of the cabinet.
The speakers themselves are a complete re-build of speakers I began 18 years ago in my senior year of high school. The 12DB/octave crossover was improved over time and I re-built them two weeks and completed wire up and assembly last night. A morrel MDT-37 replaced the original HF units several years ago and the unit is ~93db/SPL.
I sawed off the old front face of the MF/HF boxes, sanded down the white ash boxes - and I am about to make nicely curved black walnut faces from wood reclaimed from a 100 year old bed, coordinated with the lines of the curved lines of the main unit of the console. The unit is coincidentally reminiscent of the "Archimedes" from The Watchmen.
The PC integration portion of the project is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about and look forward to discussion.
In the meantime, here are some work in progress photos, with photos in the next day or so in its current state. Materials are black walnut for the face frame, maple plywood for the top, and white lacquered MDF for the panels. Base is oak plywood. There was no master plan, was able to solve problems as I went along, but I had the corner pieces, the bowed boards, and mounted the original speakers to the oak plywood base which together anchored the design. Let me know what you think!
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