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Our new Home Theater build...Negatron 2


NBPK402

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I have been busy with some updates, and learned some things too.

 

First I decided to give a different DAC a try... I decided to try the Denafrips Pontus ii. I picked this model due to all the reviews I had read and I really like well built equipment with thick aluminum and well laid out internals (I know this is strange, but it is honest...looks make a difference too to me).  Well it was an eye, and ear opening experience that took over a month to finally settle down (I leave it on 24/7). The sound was/is dramatically different than the ESS chip in the Marantz. It is like listening to music live in my room and there is an actual presence around each item. The clarity is also better, and I hear items that were hidden by the ESS DAC. It is like the system had a coat of paint on it and it has now been stripped tonally, and very easy to distinguish different sounds in their proper place. The minute items were hidden in the soundstage before and now it is like a spotlight is on them, and they are crystal clear without the volume level being changed.

 

Next I decided to give a Lumin U1 Mini out...I like the way the Lumin changes the sound of the Roon Rock, but I am not that pleased with the Lumin interface, and I use the Lumin as a Roon endpoint.

 

Next I purchased a Denafrips Athena preamp and it basically makes everything about the Pontus ii and Lumin a little bit better.

 

Lastly I did something that I never expected to make any difference, but since my Cisco switch is EOL, I decided now was a good time to upgrade. I purchased a pair of Fiber convertor boxes and some fiber cable and inserted it between my switch and my Lumin. Well one thing I noticed and measured was a shorted pause between all tracks (I am talking going from 8-10 seconds to less than 2). Now from what Lumin told me fiber is not affected by EMI/EMF, and others have reported good results from using it with reduced noise and also shortening the gap between tracks. It def did this. Now I am thinking the reduced noise could very well have been hiding low level intro music and exit music, and now with a lower noise floor my gaps have reduced. I am now awaiting a new Switch with SFP ports (so I can reduce convertor modules since I would only need a convertor module on one end for those 4 ports). The expense of trying this was less than $100 on Amazon.

 

I had thought with technology the way it is today that the differences in Preamps and DACs would be very close sounding, but I have found they are not always so close sounding at all (in my setup).

Has anyone else tried a different DAC than their AVR, or AVP has?

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  • 4 months later...

Update: I have come up with a new design for a rack inside of a cabinet. The new design will keep all the equipment concealed, free of dust (I know it will not be 100% free of dust, but it will be considerably better than my current setup), and will provide cooling . The rack shelves are made of  1 1/4" wide steel plate that has been cut, welded, and painted with charcoal grey metallic automotive paint by a body shop. The rack shelves are completed and each of the metal rack shelves will be supported by 7 1 1/4"  Parota wood rods. each of the rods has a 1/4' 3" long piece of allthread, attached via threaded inserts on each end of the rods. 1st step for assembly will be to attach each of the 7 rods the topside of the bottom of the cabinet via 7 1/4" allthread and then 7 hockey pucks swill be attached to the bottom of the cabinet.  once this is done, I will lay 1 metal shelf on top of the 7 Parota rods, and then lay a 1" thick Parota wood shelf on top of the metal shelf. Next, I will screw the next 7 rods through the metal shelf to the 1st layer of 7 Parota wood rods... then I will keep doing this until all 4 shelves and the top and bottom Parota is completed. Then we will measure the distance from the top of the bottom piece of the cabinet to the bottom of the top piece of the cabinet (for the construction ofslatted panels).. The front and sides will be made of 1 Parota wood frame that has black grill cloth attached to it, and then 1x1 strips of Perota wood will be run vertically with each piece separated by approximately 1".  I have not decided if i want the rear to also have slats or just a frame with grill cloth, yet. The cabinet will be a bit over 6' wide x 4' high, by 28" deep. I will also be installing LED lighting facing downward from the top of the cabinet.

 

The end of the month we will be building a pair of Joseph Crowe subwoofers. The cabinets will be made of plywood and then wrapped with 1" Parota wood. Sometime next moth they subs should be ready for testing, and then the cabinets will be sent to my carpenter to mod with Parota wood.

 

Then the long awaited MEH wood horns will be started. The first 1 or 2 will be made of MDF stacked layers, and if they come out as expected, I will try 2 or 3 of them out of stacked Parota wood. The MDF versions will be painted to match the charcoal grey shelves. The last part of the the horns will be to try them cabinet less, and if i like them that way they will be complete...if not I will make cabinets out of MDF for the 2 MDF horns and paint them to match the MDF MEH. Then I will  look at how the Parota horns look with a mdf cabinet. If the contrast looks nice I will most likely stop there.

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  • 2 months later...

The new rack is almost done and will have conventional door frames made out of Mesquite wood with Grill cloth in the center of the the door frames. I also have 2 F20 subs that are almost complete...they are made of 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood with a 1/2" Mesquite hardwood skin. The subs should be completed this week or next...with the rack being completed a week or two later.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 months later...
1 hour ago, Delicious2 said:

Nice job with MEHs.  They look similar to the modifications I did of Chris A’s design.  How do they sound and measure cabinet-less?

When I made my first pair...I made them cabinetless and liked the sound, but I had lost the bass impact, so we added cabinets. I decided this time I would use a 15" horn (lilmikes f20), for the bass (I was getting 20-20,000 with the MEHs in cabinets, but on some music it was obviously being pushed to hard). I figured this way I would get the advantages of a OB in the mids and the impact of a horn. I also decided to remove the MDF panels and go with 1" Mesquite to help stiffen the horn. The Mesquite is screwed on and glued to the horn. They are Heavy....I am guessing around  150lbs each. I just got them up yesterday and today I am going to use REW to autotune them from the MLP as a 3 way.right now I am noticing increased clarity in the mids and highs over the EV DH1As.

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"The Mesquite is screwed on and glued to the horn"

 

The stiffening pieces at right-angles to the woofer mounting plates are what you're referring to I'll bet.  Curious to see how they're screwed to the horn.  I glued mine only.  Are your woofer mounting plates also screwed and glued to the horn and the other pieces or removable?

Got any construction photos with the woofers not mounted?  I'm very curious to see if or how you did any "frustrumizing" to smooth the transition into the horn.

Frustrumizing.jpg

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The Mesquite was first mounted with screws from the inside of the horn like Danley does...once that was done we removed the Mesquite and then glued them in place and tightened down the screws.  All 4 sides of the horn mesquite are glued and screwed to the horn. We did this as it is permanent. I have another pair I debating on adding the Mesquite to, but i have also thought about selling them and the Mesquite makes these very heavy. If I keep them I will use them for my surrounds.

 

I do not get the bass spl out of the Celestions without a cabinet, but also am not getting I the spl out of the compression driver either.  I went cabinetless because I have the bass horn for 20hz performance. I was getting 20hz with the cabinet too, but I felt I a was driving it to hard, as sometimes the woofer complained. I still hit 90db on peaks when listening to my music @13' away with a passive Denafrips Athena stereo preamp. The volume works basically like a faucet...you do not get to full power until it is wide open. Wide open on the preamp is 60 and I hit 90s @10 on the volume control. Currently I am only using the Celestion woofers for the 200 to 500hz. The compression driver goes up to 20khz, and the bass horn goes down to 20hz.

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Hmm,  I wonder why you're not getting SPL out of the compression driver?  That shouldn't matter whether it's in a cab or not.  After all it has no back-wave.  Interesting that you were getting 20Hz in cab.  Mine drops off a cliff at 50Hz but is otherwise dialed in thanks to Chris A.  I have a Danley DTS-10 for the lower frequencies.image.thumb.png.a95e5cee7d679e77892343723b5a8727.png

 

image.thumb.png.c45d91805de3475dc1c131794847c507.png

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think it was a gain setting, problem with the mics not set properly. I used the Celestion settings Chris posted and matched the levels...which now included me having to lower the AXI2050 an additional 10db to match the OB MEHs.20231114_171214(1).thumb.jpg.27392e7ef4af1c3ad5cc9b4cf3876e36.jpg

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The speaker grill were some black mesh grills I picked up off of Amazon. The current stands are for temp use and most likely I wil design a new style from the current ones and have them made out of Mesquite hardwood.

https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Speaker-Stereo-Fabric-Dustproof/dp/B07W3J5WX7/ref=sr_1_8?crid=1UGYLQ4J7TPT&keywords=Black+speaker+grill+material&qid=1701968324&sprefix=black+speaker+grill+material%2Caps%2C349&sr=8-8

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