Another Statements HT (Monitors, Statements II, Statements II Center)

[wkhanna]

just to put a fly in the ointment, Dan (PewterTA) & i found discernible sound quality improvement when we replaced spade terminals with silver soldered junctions on B&W bookshelves (et.al.) in combination with upgraded Belden wire.

[Steve Manning]

just to put a fly in the ointment, Dan (PewterTA) & i found discernible sound quality improvement when we replaced spade terminals with silver soldered junctions on B&W bookshelves (et.al.) in combination with upgraded Belden wire.

Just for fun I must ask ..... was it from the solder or the wire, or both?

[wkhanna]

we broke the first first rule of scientific testing & changed both at the same time, iirc.
my personal experience is that the effects are additive, but due to lack of recall, I can not even give anecdotal evidence of comparative efficacy.

you can find our report here:

https://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php?29953-B-amp-W-604s3-Speaker-Rewire-Well-worth-it!&highlight=belden+wire

[Steve Manning]

we broke the first first rule of scientific testing & changed both at the same time, iirc.

For shame Bill ..... sorry I had to give you hard time. Thanks for the link on the test, I'll give it a peruse.

[Pknaz]

How much of what we hear is determined by what we think we hear?

https://youtu.be/FcI8z-HoKPY

[wkhanna]

For shame Bill ..... sorry I had to give you hard time....

no worries, i receive as well as i give

the link, i believe, will provide some insight into the differences we encountered.

[Steve Manning]

no worries, i receive as well as i give

the link, i believe, will provide some insight into the differences we encountered.

As well you should ..... the thread was interesting. I have seen Tony Gee and Troels do wiring and crossover upgrades on B&W as well as other brand speakers making major differences in performance.

[wkhanna]

changing parts &/or material (aka an input) of any system will nearly always change its output.

the question is, "is it change for the better?"

[Renron]

Bill,
Another fly here, Silver plated high strand count on the mids and tweeter sounds better to my ears than plain copper. No science just placebo, maybe.
Different gauge wires for different frequencies. Of course you can go all out with a cryo crystalline aligned wire too. Supra wires are a great choice IMO.
Ron
What the heck do I know??? nothin'

[Pknaz]

let's not digress into a wire discussion, again

[Pknaz]

1st coat, that's all

[Pknaz]

I've finished the Center and all four subs, two of which have been setup under the Monitors temporarily.

This is me, trying to be as efficient as possible with my coats. I was pretty much able to apply 10 separate coats this way. By the time I finished putting a coat on the fifth enclosure, the first was ready for a second coat. I waited about 5-6 hours, rotated the cabinets and did it over again. The center channel was then lightly sanded with 320 grit to smooth out the surface, the texture is almost a cross between a nice leather and vinyl.


Here is a shot of two subs and the center in my listening room. They sound pretty terrible for now, they're currently running with the old Paradigm sub Dirac settings. I'm pretty confident that once I get my Dirac laptop working again, they'll be singing beautiful songs.

[wkhanna]

let's not digress into a wire discussion, again

(i &) we certainly do not want to derail the thread.
further discussion on the wire topic can be held elsewhere.


your progress is impressive.
the completed system will be even more so.:T

[jwanck11]

check to make sure that your freshly painted speakers aren't sticking to what they are sitting on / what is sitting on them. Duratex takes a week to cure and a bond between non-cured duratex and what it is joined to will form.

[Pknaz]

check to make sure that your freshly painted speakers aren't sticking to what they are sitting on / what is sitting on them. Duratex takes a week to cure and a bond between non-cured duratex and what it is joined to will form.

Yup, I coated some test pieces a few weeks ago to practice getting the texture I wanted and to verify how long it would take to cure in my environment. The subs and center bottoms and back sides were coated about 4-5 days ago and are pretty well cured. The face and sides aren't quite as long, but nothing is touching those surfaces.

[Pknaz]

I wanted to attach the bases with lag bolts, so here I am measuring my pilot hole locations.


The mistake I made the first time around was not having the bases centered correctly, so my first set of holes into the towers (The bases were fine) were off by an 1/8 of an inch. Yes, you can definitely hear that 1/8 of an inch difference (Sarcasm) :rofl:
I filled the hole with a piece of HDF and glue and that worked out well.


Ready to be bolted together....well....not quite...still have a bit more work to do before that happens.

[Pknaz]

I finished putting four coats of Duratex on the tours this weekend, the bases were already coated pretty well, but I put an extra coat on the sides to clean them up a bit. I also put two coats on the back (Just to "black" it out) and a coat around the bottom so that the tan color didn't stick out when viewing the towers when seated.

I took a page from Jim's book and bought a few moving blankets, wrapped up the towers and used a hand truck to carry them into the bonus room. There I started the assembly of the drivers, bases and port. To do this, I laid the tower on its back.
This is the extent for which my wonderful wife was willing to assist, she held the crimp connectors while I soldered the joins!


I put a round of gasket foam on the port...drilled four more screw holes (I didn't think four was enough) and patched up an error in the foam tape...I can't hear the gaps...can you? LOL
I used a bit of blue painters tape around the different sections of the port and flare pieces to make tight fittings. There is no tape on the inside of the port so no worries on turbulance, though, with a down facing port I'm doubtful anyone would have heard that.


And foam tape around the port hole between the tower and base

[Pknaz]

With the towers now assembled, it was time to cut the foam. I've read a few places around here that electric knives make short work of foam, they weren't kidding! Holy cow this thing cuts through foam like butter....$13 on Amazon well spent! :T


A bit of hot glue and 15 minutes later I have a set of foam tunnels.

[Pknaz]

I now have all four subs and the towers in the room. Pretty fantastic so far, but quite a bit more work to do....



Next up, REW & MiniDSP setup of the subs and Dirac Live room correction to blend everything together.

[JoeAngelicchio]

Geez at first I thought you had three hands!!! WOW!! Speakers look great!!!! What subs are those??

[wkhanna]

:T
great work
i am sure many of us envy that your wife was even involved in the build.:B

there used to be a tradition around here of posting the "Foot Shot" when a project was completed...

[jwanck11]

Looks fantastic, Congrats!!

[Pknaz]

:T
great work
i am sure many of us envy that your wife was even involved in the build.:B

there used to be a tradition around here of posting the "Foot Shot" when a project was completed...

What is a "Foot Shot"? happy to comply and join in on the tradition!

[Pknaz]

Geez at first I thought you had three hands!!! WOW!! Speakers look great!!!! What subs are those??

They are https://www.parts-express.com/dayton...ndle--300-7093
At the current price, I couldn't pass them up.
I'm also using https://www.parts-express.com/dayton...table--300-811 to drive them, with 6db of boost at 20hz with a Q of 1 which almost flattens out the sub.

[wkhanna]

HERE is a V good example

8)

[scottvalentin]

Feel free to wear both socks!

[wkhanna]

:roflmao:

[wkhanna]

My dear friend, Michael (Finleyville) decided to modify the tradition in his typical non-traditionalist fashion...





His build is HERE

[Renron]

The one sock on was a nod to Bob Ellis for completing his build first. We had a gentlemanly rival ongoing during our builds.
Congratulations on a fantastic setup.
Ron

[Pknaz]

For those wanting the "foot" shot, here ya go! :lol:


I've since finished the Monitor cabinets with the same round-over on the fronts and top of the cabinets and put 3-4 coats of Duratex on them. My method is a thick heavy first coat with two to three thin coats. After the first coat, I sand mostly smooth with 220grit using a semi random orbital. After the last coat, I do a very light orbital sanding with 320 grit. This leaves the texture almost consistent with a vinyl or leather feel. Smooth, satin finish.



I had a lot of problems with the towers and using duratex inside the driver cutouts, so I'm attempting something different. This actually worked out really well! :lol:

[Pknaz]

And my make shift rear speaker stands. They're not to Dolby spec, but I needed to get them a bit higher since my seating is high back and ear height on the rear channels just won't work.
This is temporary until I can get my subs perfectly situated in the room.

[JoeAngelicchio]

Great foot shot :T

[Jim Holtz]

They look great! I hope they meet your expectations!

Jim

[BobEllis]

It's supposed to be a SOCK shot.

[Pknaz]

It's supposed to be a SOCK shot.

What??? You don't want to see my feet/socks...

[Pknaz]

They look great! I hope they meet your expectations!

Jim

Very much so! I had the monitors integrated really well with my old subs, but haven't had a chance to integrate the towers with the new subs and new pre/pro just yet - the towers without subs sound amazing! Thank you very much for all of your help and continued contributions to the community!

I was looking at the new Micro Statements for side speakers, but their marginally less expensive than a set of Monitors and I'm not crunched on space requirements, so I may go with another set of Monitors for my side speakers!

[BobEllis]

What??? You don't want to see my feet/socks...

I understand completely, I had to buy new socks for my sock shot.

Nice looking speakers. Enjoy them.

[Jim Holtz]

Very much so! I had the monitors integrated really well with my old subs, but haven't had a chance to integrate the towers with the new subs and new pre/pro just yet - the towers without subs sound amazing! Thank you very much for all of your help and continued contributions to the community!

I was looking at the new Micro Statements for side speakers, but their marginally less expensive than a set of Monitors and I'm not crunched on space requirements, so I may go with another set of Monitors for my side speakers!

I think the Monitors are a very good choice for surround if you have the room for the larger cabinet. As you know, that's what I use in my system and I'm really happy with them.

Your feed back is what Curt and I enjoy most. Curt's development work is a true labor of love for him. Me, I just want to keep updating my system and I like to help people when I can.

Enjoy the new system! :T

Jim

[Renron]

What??? You don't want to see my feet/socks...

Good thing "smell O vision" never really took off. We all would be sorry.

PKnaz, bigger screen on order?
You've surely got the sound figured out.
Ron

[Pknaz]

PKnaz, bigger screen on order?
You've surely got the sound figured out.
Ron

YES!

The plan is to go projection after the holidays.

[TEK]

This is what you (I) need (want):

http://www.samsung.com/sa_en/consumer/tv-av/tv/uhd/UA110S9ARXUM

[Pknaz]

This is what you (I) need (want):
http://www.samsung.com/sa_en/consume...d/UA110S9ARXUM

IF you could still buy them and IF I was a billionaire, maybe....I was actually just looking at those the other day. I think my 106" screen and projector will get me 90-95% of the way there in picture quality for 5% of the cost