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Cal Blacksmith

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Everything posted by Cal Blacksmith

  1. Those darn home designers place windows in the worst places don't they? You would think that the thought of giant speakers and huge TVs never entered their thinking when they put pen to paper! Very nice OH, BTW, I have one of those heaters under my desk at work (aircraft hanger) they work nice for places like that as they do not need to warm the air but rather beam the heat right to you.
  2. In the end though, the important thing is that they made it home safe and sound! My trip as I said was short, mine stood upright in the center of the bed, and as I have a pipe rack on the bed of the truck for long items, it comes in very handy for tying in tall things so I placed them face to face with a large towel between them and tied at the top to the over head rack then slowly drove the Long LONG trip of about 20 minutes home
  3. Lots of room there for sure I tended to fill mine up, this is a 15 minute overview of my shop, feel free to quit anytime you want. It started out as a quick once over of the shop for a woodworking board but it very quickly morphed to over an hour, just talking and giving a video tour. Youtube broke it into 4 segments and that turned out for the better, it was way too long and some say that the first 15 minutes is too long too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k9owLgKHSU
  4. Wouldn't that be the THOUSANDAIRE club? Just a hundred times over?
  5. Some nice looking and very "manly" spaces there! No plants on the speakers please! Sawdust is OK and adds that extra detail that most ladies just will not stand for. The space need not be anything in particular or decorated in any special way, just be some place where you can go, put away social rules and just be yourself and relax. I do have a shop to go to, no AC but then there is 3X the cubic feet of space than there is in the house so it could get a bit expensive to cool it. It gets cool enough in the winter so I do have a few propane heaters to warm things up. it is a 30' x 75' x 20' high steel building, 2,250 square feet x 20 feet high This space is just for me. The wife has the rest of the house but this one room is mine. You can not have speakers that are TOO big, I think Minermark proves that point! GEES dude! Way to morph the garage CEAA hey at least you have carpet too bad about the need for the wife's car to sleep there between projects but it is looking very nice at the moment and I am sure the music in there is several notches above the average "garage stereo" LOL! Matt, I love that space, what is the picture of the animal with the cans? That is great Wu, sweet! Some very "tune worthy" gear there. I have nothing against older gear. Look at my pics on the left, the SILVER gear is a tape deck and a Yamaha tuner from 1977, still working great. The TV room is using my older AVR, it must be 10 years if it is a day. Then in the shop I have a Onkyo receiver from the '70s that cranks out the tunes hours on end when I am out there. Dtel, is there a rule that you can't get ready for when the day happens? Better prepared than sorry!
  6. Very very nice My drive to pick up my Khorns was not quite as long as yours, uh, about 14 miles from my door to the storage unit that the seller had them in. My pick up story is not near as interesting as yours but I know you are enjoying the sound every bit as much! Enjoy!!!
  7. Bummer! Our walls are textured so just painting them was not an option, we went with a Dalite screen that has a angled, mat black frame, we have been VERY happy with it.
  8. What an AWESOME setup! I thought I loved the door until I saw the rest of it, the whole package is outstanding, I can't wait to see the finished setup
  9. A while ago there was a thread on PC vs gaming systems for audio and it evolved into the normal discussion on which is better. I tried to avoid pushing one direction to little affect. This is my Man Cave. It is a 11.5 x 11.5 x 8 room. It is my 2 ch setup and I added a 40" 3D TV and gaming systems to it. The audio starts at the left with TT, CD, Tuner, Tape deck, Tube Preamp and power supply filter. It then goes to the main tube amp under the TV and to the Khorns. The audio flow for the game systems is HDMI to the switcher as the TV only has 3 HDMI inputs and I have 4 devices. Then to the TV via HDMI where it is converted to Tosslink then around to the audio cabinet and converted from Tosslink to Analog, into the Preamp and so on. LPs are the entire sections under the shelves and the open shelf too. This setup shows that a PC need not be chained to a desk and tiny speakers but can just as easily installed into a HT system as any stand alone game system. I use a wireless keyboard and mouse along with a Xbox to PC game pad. While some may argue that a 40" TV is small, it is only 6 feet from my eyes to the screen so it does not feel small. The room is setup for 1 person at a time so it is a solo Man Cave! It can get warm in the room even though we have central air conditioning so there is a fan mounted just above me. The audio system is easily able to overpower any unwelcome noise from the fan. So here you have it, my gaming PC which is easily 3 times the size of BOTH my PS3 and Xbox 360 together, not on a desk but nicely mated into a HT setup. Lets see yours !
  10. The pics could be much better. Deals can be found, I picked up my pair of Walnut CW2, in nice shape ... well a plant ring on one (gotta love ladies decorating on our speakers) for $500 a few years ago. For $700 on those, keep looking.
  11. I bought a pair of them for my son to use in the navy. They had the same rattle in the rear which resulted in a nice discount for me from the seller. I removed the drivers and insulation then I cut some 1x1 strips to frame in around the inside of the back and glued them in. I cut other strips of 1 x to use as wedges to keep the reinforcement in place while the glue dried. The result is that the rattle has been entirely removed and all it cost was a couple of bucks. Once the glue was dry, I removed the temp braces cut to act as clamps and put everything back where is belonged. All has been well for the last 3.5 years now. They got some pretty heavy workout when the son was in the navy and they are holding up just fine.
  12. Ah, yes it is an M80. Picked it up at a pawn shop for something like $150, the speaker terminals suffer from the all too common broken plastic mount issue but connected up and not moving it is fine LOL! I have tossed the idea around of sending it in for a "tune up" and an upgrade to the common issues but it is kind of expensive, the flip side is though that it is a pretty good amp. A few years ago I had a M60 but the magic smoke leaked out one day, I just turned it on and poof, the smoke came out! It would be a shame for that to happen with the M80
  13. Have a look at this: I must say that it is meaningless. No list of equipment used is provided. In addition though not connected through the higher end audio I have, I did notice that the volume changed between the clips and was louder on the Xbox clips. Perhaps it was my connection but that alone tricks the listener in the favor of the louder device. For some reason, and I see it all the time, people assume that the PC is on a desk with computer speakers, nothing could be further from the truth. It is just as easy to connect a PC to a high end AV setup as it is a console is, a HDMI out for V and the audio can be ported in any number of ways. I tried to keep personal opinion out of my comments. I play both console and PC in different rooms on different setups. I still stand by my comment that I have no intention of buying a next gen console. There is nothing wrong with them if that is what you favor but there are other options too. One day when that kid on Craigslist has to sell either his PX or Xbox next gen at a big loss, then I may consider it but as I do already have a gaming PC, it renders the discussion moot for me. This is an old battle rearing it's head. There is more strife than clarity when this topic comes up and it was not the question asked at the start of this thread in which the CODECS for AUDIO are mentioned, not game play. Dodge, Chevy, Ford. All sides have supporters and detractors and when personal preference is involved, trying to "convert" another party to your point of view is a hard thing to do with much more heat than light being generated.
  14. I understand. We have been married 32 years and it seems like only last week we got together. Cyndy has the Cyst issue that I posted about. She has had it the whole time we have been together but were unaware of it for the first 3 years. It has been a slow progression to get where we are today. Only when looking back at photos only 3 or 4 years ago does she seem like a different person from today. I can't imagine your trials getting used to life alone. Dogs are great. They are not a replacement (no one or nothing is) but they do offer love and companionship. Jake looks to be at home with you. I don't know if you speak dog, I have learned a LITTLE while our dogs learn a lot from us. Yawning and lip licking are calming signals. The say to the other dog, I am not a threat, I am friendly, relax. You will get the signal back if you look for it, they are always looking for signals from us so if you give one, it seems to help. At least with our dog it does. Toshi is a real people dog, he is nearly 30 inches tall and if given a chance, he will climb into the chair with you, just to get closer. Enjoy Jake!
  15. Sorry about the wife. Dogs, unconditional and unending love and attention.Little dogs go 16 or so years, we have Akitas and 12 to 14 is a very old dog. We just said good by to 2 life long (dogs life) friends last year, we now have a 1.5 yo rescue dog. He never will take the place of any prior dog but he is his own being and will also have a special place in our hearts. They always listen to you, seem attentive and are thankful to just be near you. We give them our spare food, our spare time and our spare attention and in exchange, they give us their everything, what a great deal.
  16. Been there and have the Tshirt. I have even gone as far as when listening to an LP, falling asleep in the first track then waking up to the click, click, click, click at the end of the LP, get up and put another album on then do it over again, and again and again:P
  17. Not a Pioneer owner but I do run external amps on my HT. The AVR is a 7.1 rated 110/7ch driven. Ya right. There was a big improvement when I added a Forte power amp to drive the mains. Then I added a Yamaha power amp (forgot which one but it is something like 250 wpc class a/ab) to drive my sides. This leaves the AVR to run center and backs. The headroom in the power supplies of all the amps makes the whole setup better. Cornwall2, Academy, H2 and KG 2 for backs. though I am thinking about taking them out of the mix (not much goes back there anyway) to use the Quartets as presence above the Cornwalls.
  18. UH, Audio, photography, metalworking, blacksmithing, woodworking, cooking (only commercial appliances will do) coffee and espresso (ditto the commercial stuff), BBQ competition, aviation and the list goes on. My parents say I take up the most expensive hobby I can find, buy all the stuff then move on to something else. Sorry to say, it is more true than not! I do practice the "core" hobbies more than the others. This place puts out a trash can fire with gasoline when it comes to speakers. I started with a question of Fort'e 1s and now added to them are quartets, cornwall 2s, Khorns, Heresy 1 and 2, quintets some odds and ends and more of other gear. RUN AWAY while you can but I suspect it is too late LOL!
  19. The front row seating distance can be an issue, my setup is adjusted for the second row to look great, the front row is a little close and it is only about 4 feet closer. I am sure new projection equipment is going to be better but we get the screen door problem in the front row but not in the back. LCD 720 just to give a reference point. It was pretty darn good when it was bought but the market has moved on from then. My screen is 120 16x9. At first I thought the letterboxing may be an issue but a long time ago we stopped thinking about it. The HT gets about 75/25 movies to TV, sports mostly, football to be specific. The sound image is also balanced around "my" seat in the second row. I am on a 12" riser which puts head level just at the lower 1/3 of the screen. We would have gone bigger but this setup pretty much maxed out our space when you add in speakers (now we have Cornwalls, used to be Quartets) Our viewing distance to the rear row is about 12 feet and it is comfortable. The front row is a little close for my comfort at 8 feet. It is very tempting to go as big as possible but really do pay attention to the charts for viewing distance VS screen size. From our setup anyway, they prove to be accurate.
  20. Don't think of it as un used channels, think of it as more power in the power supply for the channels you DO use
  21. There was a nice looking Grundeig (however you spell it) at the Salvation Army store the other day, the rug rats had not even had a chance to deface it yet either, near perfect wood and a 6 (I think) band radio too.
  22. Less efficient... You can't go wrong new, you can have your choice the exact look you want, you get the latest improvements, you support the company that makes the great speakers you love and you get that new speaker smell.
  23. Don't remember that developer but clearly I am not "into" it as much as you are! Bethesda though, I agree they are an exception to maintaining a solid product, I have the Fallout series on both PC and PS3, both are buggy and hang constantly. Skyrim has been said to have the same issues. IDK what their issue is but it seems they could put out a patch to fix the issues. After the 3rd or 4th hang in half an hour, I shut the game off. Sometimes it goes hours without problems but other times it is so frustrating I just walk away.
  24. You have to admit, not many people can say they have a PC setup quite like that. Ya, it is the exception and not the rule for sure As to releases that is why I have 5 systems (the dups are cuz I am lazy and do not want to switch the consoles between rooms. They are connected to my sat internet so I can copy saves between them easily) While I love to play games, I get up at 3 am for work, and don't get back until after 4:30pm (on a good day) then take care of the dog, the wife, cook dinner and do a little work in the shop, shower, to bed and start all over again in the morning. If I game more than 4 hours in a week, it would be a big deal.. game wise. There have been all weekend long sessions true enough but very VERY few of them, There is just too much to do in my life to devote more than I do to games. I suppose I am happy with the 30 to 40 games I have between all platforms. There should not be a big need to play the my stuff is better than your stuff game, if someone enjoys what they have .. great. All I said was, there is nothing in the next gen systems that is getting my money. Well until I find some cash strapped kid on Craigs list who needs to sell his system for gas money at a huge loss anyway, that is how I picked up my dup systems at about a C note each... long before next gen was a major topic!
  25. Please do not take anything I say as a put down of consoles, as I said, I have 2 PS3s and 2 Xbox 360s in addition to my PC but there is nothing to draw me into the PS4 or Xbox 1. OH, BTW, no desk in the "room" the PC sits on one of the Khorns (the right one) and my Lazy boy recliner is in the sweet spot. Aside from shelves equipment racks, speakers and the TV, it is the ONLY furniture in the room
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