| Re: 4 Pi Home Theater Build [message #69853 is a reply to message #69837] |
Sat, 22 October 2011 10:40   |
NWCgrad
Messages: 143
Registered: March 2010
Location: Frederick, United States ...
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| Psychoacoustic wrote on Wed, 19 October 2011 01:06 | You'll love your set up even more for all that effort that's gone into it. Great to see a happy outcome. Yep, they get really loud, really fast so any amp can drive them adequately with ease.
Congrats on your build.
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Thank you. The speakers sound amazing! They sound like my Magnepan MMG's on acoustic jazz (Al Di Meolia, Acoustic Alchemy, and Pat Methaney), but when switch to heavy music - such as Iron Maiden or Beethoven - they no longer sound so polite. So far, they are very neutral to portraying the music on the disc. The SACD of Jimmy D Lane (APO records) is unbelievably realistic.
Here are pictures of the completed flanking subs, I think they turned out pretty well for less than $150/ea - Thanks Wayne!!!!
I have moved the subs to the final flanking position per the guidance of Wayne.
VIRIBUS MARI VICTORIA
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| Re: 4 Pi Home Theater Build [message #70203 is a reply to message #69854] |
Thu, 17 November 2011 20:16 |
NWCgrad
Messages: 143
Registered: March 2010
Location: Frederick, United States ...
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| Wayne Parham wrote on Sat, 22 October 2011 13:31 |
Wow, those look great!
Did the flanking subs measure/sound better set inside the mains rather than outside them? Sometimes they do work better inside, but not usually when they're that close together. I find in general, they work better placed inside when the right/left spread is wide and outside when the right/left spread is narrow.
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Wayne, I was running the flanking subs on the outside of the left/right speakers as shown in the first picture. Basic room calibration was performed using Audyssey MultEQ in my receiver. I have ordered measurement capacity (Dayton Audio EMM-6 Electret Measurement Microphone, Nady SMPS-1X Phantom Power Supply, cables and microphone stand) so I can measure the in-room response using REW (http://www.hometheatershack.com/roomeq/).
I have moved the flanking subs to the inside as pictured, but spread the left/right further apart. I like this sound better as the soundfield is wider and the bass response did not audibly change significantly.
I have noticed is that while good recordings sound great (SACD's, most classical and jazz recordings) many of my rock CDs sound like crap - lots of weird buzzes and distortion. I have to assume they are on the recording since I do not get the buzzes and distortion on SACDs and BluRay recordings of rock concerts. These very revealing speakers have altered the CDs I listen to. It goes beyond age of recording (Pink Floyd "Meddle" CD sounds really good whereas newer rock records sound like crap damn the "loudness wars" that have led to over-compressed recordings) or the dynamics of the music (full-scale classical is more demanding on speakers than Black Sabbath due to increased dynamic range).
VIRIBUS MARI VICTORIA
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| Re: 4 Pi Home Theater Build [message #70204 is a reply to message #70203] |
Thu, 17 November 2011 21:52 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18789
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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I definitely know what you mean about noticing lesser quality recordings through these speakers. I have always winced when I listened to some albums, and tended to play them less because of their quality.
Most of the music I listen to was recorded, mixed and pressed well, like Yes, for example. But even they suffered from one poor quality pressing (the first one). Same for Genesis - the earliest albums have noticeable hiss and lack dynamic range. A tough pill to swallow because those early albums needed the dynamic range the most - they have long quiet passages. King Crimson does too, In the Court of the Crimson King, for example. At least you can get that one in a half speed master pressing, which helps. Moody Blues too, their early albums also hissed and lacked range, but again, you can get them in half speed master pressings that are a lot better.
It's really a drag to have music that you love, but that you don't want to play because the pressing isn't that great. With any luck, your favorites are available in a re-release that is better quality.
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| Re: 4 Pi Home Theater Build [message #70209 is a reply to message #70204] |
Fri, 18 November 2011 07:03 |
NWCgrad
Messages: 143
Registered: March 2010
Location: Frederick, United States ...
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Master |
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Just received my 5.1 surround SACD of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here (Acoustic Sounds). WOW! On well recorded discs these speakers (and flanking subs) are fantastic. Currently listening to Diana Krall on SACD and it sounds great (it was to bass heavy on my Paradigms, but on the 4 Pi's in my new room it is pretty evenly balanced). The new reissues of Nat King Cole are also impeccable. On the other end, the new Avenged Sevenfold CD is down right crappy! The CD sounded great in my car - which should have been a clue it wouldn't sound good on real speakers.
I am hoping that the reissue of Pink Floyd'd The Wall (due out in Jan) will have surround sound on Blu Ray. The standard CD version of The Wall is is a text book example of digital done poorly back in the early days of transitioning music to CD.
I really wish I would have brought my turntable and albums with me. CDs as a whole are not as good. Unfortunately all my classic music (CCR, Yes, Jethro Tull, etc) or on vinyl.
I am very pleased with the 4 Pi's...I am set (at least until the upgrade bug for the 7 Pi cornerhorns when I retire from the Navy in about 6 years).
Thanks Wayne for all your support during my 2+ years of thinking about/building these speakers.
VIRIBUS MARI VICTORIA
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| Re: 4 Pi Home Theater Build [message #70214 is a reply to message #70213] |
Fri, 18 November 2011 20:49 |
NWCgrad
Messages: 143
Registered: March 2010
Location: Frederick, United States ...
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Master |
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I bought my clamps from Harbor Freight. The 36" bar clamps (blue) worked well, they are not as good as Bessey clamps but the cost differential is about 3:1. The smaller clamps also worked well (Harbor Freight). The hand-ratchet clamps they sell are complete crap, for that style I will stick with Irwin.
If I had an active woodshop I would probably buy Bessey clamps - the one that I have is clearly better made than the the harbor Freight clamps. But for building a few speakers from time-to-time the Harbor Freight clamps work fine, for the price they are hard to beat.
VIRIBUS MARI VICTORIA
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| Re: 4 Pi Home Theater Build [message #70224 is a reply to message #70212] |
Sun, 20 November 2011 18:19 |
NWCgrad
Messages: 143
Registered: March 2010
Location: Frederick, United States ...
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Master |
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| tom-m wrote on Fri, 18 November 2011 14:47 | For music in a high quality format, I may try a few downloads from hdtracks.com. I have started to keep and play music from a hard drive. hdtracks has stuff mostly in 24/96. I get the FLAC format. I have not tried much, but may try Hotel California. Of course they don't have everything. And it can be expensive.
Tom
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I have looked into HDtracks and will be buying some of their HD offerings soon. I need to re-do my digital libarary, I ripped all me CDs as bit-perfect WAV files unaware that this file format doesn't store the metadata (album and song titles, etc). Am in the process of converting to AIFF so the metadata is kept with the music files. Digital music is nice, but kind of a PTA.
I have 2 terrbyte USB harddrives (I keep two copies in case of drive failure). With WAV if I try to re-load iTunes from the back-up drive I lose all track information. I read this would bnot be the case with AIFF, I guess we will see.
VIRIBUS MARI VICTORIA
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