muel

Excellent work, Chris! I decided to finish backing up the rest of my SACD's and have good success using a Sony BDP-BX510 to grab both the stereo and multi channel files from SACD's. I also have a working process to pull the DTS and PCM audio (or sometimes AC3 is all you get) from my concert DVD's which a lot of the time sound better than the CD editions. There is something very satisfying about that process! I'd be glad to help anybody who wants to try... just send me a PM. I'd do them for you for that matter if you needed.

I think the single coat of walnut and the rest clear sounds like a great plan! Nice work! For birch that can appear splotchy I'd consider applying sanding sealer prior.

All favorites! There was also the generic store version of hamburger helper... I use half the meat called for or I'd add a bunch of spaghetti noodles and extra water to make it go farther. In fact, that's what I cooked just a couple of nights ago and it was good for 2 meals for 6 of us. We lived it up with ACTUAL hamburger helper and Oldtimer's hotsauce.

Yeah, those WTF files are hard to deal with! Foobar2000 with the SACD plugin is exactly how I played my DSF files for years. I'm using ROON which isn't as perfect as I'd like but it is way beyond anything else I've used. If you don't have a player that can play DSD, Roon will convert to PCM. Roon will also combine multichannel files to 2 channels if you need. Playing DSD files takes more processing power... If your server (wherever it is getting decoded) isn't up to the task you might actually hear a degradation in sound quality. Just my experience... there are a lot of variables. The DSD vs FLAC versions I have are not an apples to apples comparison.

These kind of lists always leave me wondering, "Who's left?!"

It's been a while since we've seen any "smurf" blue speakers. ...just kidding! Please don't! on the other hand... Through the years, we have seen interesting examples of formica or shag carpet covered speakers... urp!

Looks nice! Instead of screws I just laid a sheet of this on the slant risers: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GJWL9PT Non slip liner did the trick but it seems the price now is higher than what I paid.

Are the knobs missing or did you remove them?

Here's what I did: Don't forget diffusion!

I don't care about over producing at all... I'm just offsetting my electric bill by around 18,000 KWh per year I hope. We currently use anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 + Yeah, it's a lot! All electric with multiple heat pumps and kids with lots of clothes to wash. Maybe it is more economical to heat with tube amps? I already got an estimate of removal of equipment for roofing replacement when that time comes... that will run about $2,500 which is a little less than a year of solar production.

We have LED lights almost everywhere now. My first try with those was a total waste as they quickly failed. My more recent buys have been more reliable. I have one fixture and 2 flood lights still with incandescent bulbs. The incandescents are all over 22 years old now and counting. My cost for the panels now is less than half what it was 5 or so years ago when I looked. Maybe it was longer... I have little sense of time anymore it seems. A conservative estimate of the production per year and I should be able to pay for them in about 6.5 years but with a 25 year warranty (assuming the company we choose sticks around) I should be OK. Things happen so it could turn out to be a worse deal... roof leak and have to remove panels or company goes bust right before all the microinverters start to fail. If the electric company never raises their rates (yeah right!) it could take almost 8 years for pay back. It would be interesting to see if I have it better or worse than their predictions (which is really close to the NREL estimation) Hmmm

Yeah, I'd still be on the grid... just producing enough to have no bill once or twice a year and lower bills the rest of the year. I'm not planning on any batteries at this time. I know I have noise now... just wondering how much worse it would be. Still no subs at my house... seems like it takes forever for me to make progress on "elective" projects.

So, I'm considering solar panels (photovoltaic with microinverters) at my house. Anybody have experience with any negative effects on their sound system? Interference or noise? Seems I recall @Edgar mentioning something about this a year or so ago. Any problem that a power filter or nice sinewave producing power supply (or PS Audio's power plants) would correct? The return on investment is looking really good to me and I have to do something about those growing electric bills which are averaging almost a 4 1/2% increase every year for the last 9 years I've been tracking.

Don't give up!

I was concerned with that too... my configuration was similar to Marvel's. I placed a couple of layers of felt on the top in front of the tweeter. I tried thicker egg crate foam but didn't like the result (don't remember why). The way I play with audio setup is like playing darts blindfolded... I throw the dart in the general direction and hope for the best. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised and other times it's like I've impaled a cat.

Yes, don't ask for trouble! Have your vintage SS equipment rebuilt by @paul79 of Many Moons Audio He will do it right and stand behind his work. It will also likely sound better than new as well. Other favorite vintage receivers would be Marantz 2330, Yamaha CR-2040 or CR2020. I really like the 2040 but the sx-1250 wins.

The Pioneer SX1250 is one of the best sounding receivers there is... there you are... search over. Worrying about how many watts you need or don't need is not necessary.

I've heard this multiple times about the mid horn not being included but my III upgrade kit came with the driver mounted to the horn. It was all complete... just needed the old HII boxes. It was a little over 500 including shipping for the parts for both speakers.

Klipschorns for sure... but I'd also have to add a new house to the list as well because I don't have appropriate corners anywhere. My wife and I looked at a nice and big place not long ago. It was tempting as it checked a lot of boxes but it didn't have the corners where I'd want. I didn't mention that to my wife but when she hesitated I was quick to say forget it.

I'm always surprised when I look in the mirror... who's THAT!? I used to blame the light in the bathroom for the white showing up in my hair. The phone contact pictures of my kids are also 5 to 10 years old. I never did quite look like my avatar. Embrace the change and enjoy!

Years ago, I took a decibel meter into the kids room to see exactly how loud I could get in the cave without being able to hear anything in the bedrooms. With all the doors closed the tipping point was around 74-75 db which I felt was pretty decent considering how close we were. I could push it to 80+ but then I was taking a chance on them waking up. That was when I had Cornwalls but I might compare now that I have La Scalas. Placement in the room makes a difference to the neighbors but there is only one best location in my room and I'm not going to make placement decisions based on how it sounds outside the room. 😜

Oh here we go! Cotton? Nylon? Polypropylene? Jute? Wait, I've got it... hemp surely sounds best.

I've used a lot of RTV sealant for some NEMA enclosure situations. This was to seal circuit boards from exposure to dust and water. I've been curious about the long term effect of RTV on the boards but they have usually been damaged within a couple of years by other causes before I could see any harm from the sealants. Thoughts on RTV? I've been using Dow Corning 732 since this was a gasket type use but 738 might be more appropriate. https://www.modusadvanced.com/hubfs/Brochures-Guides/Dow-Corning-Silicone-Sealants.pdf

That looks WAAAYYY more fun than a minivan!

It's a good idea! At least I'd get to feel a little better about it