Is your sound system destoying your house or contents?

[Groomlakearea51]

uh, Marshall- that is soooo SICK!

Pray tell, what on Earth is all that STUFF?

Profile has the current equipment list minus a couple of items (subwoofers)

That's the "critical listening room" (you can get in serious critical condition after awhile....)[6]

Consider it as an experimental "horizontal array". Klipschorns on the outer corners, second pair of Klipschorns on false inner corners (the outer walls of the 50" wide component rack cabinet), and LaScalas as the center channel area. The Heresy's on the Klipschorn pairs are "aimed" to compensate for standing waves, nulls, lobes, etc. Idea is to produce a "wall of sound", but at low to moderate volumes. I know that from the acoustic posts that I'm not supposed to do that.... but, it works well and since my ears (and brain) seem to like it, why not.

Each pair of speakers is driven independently by it's own amp (A, B, or C). The exception are the Heresy's which are speaker system "b" on amps A & B (the Klipschorn's).The amps are Sansui AU-919's. 115 WPC/RMS, but they are very, very "clean", and distortion is very, very low (0.008 both THD and IMD). No bass, mid, or treble is used; all tone controls are off/defeated. Not necessary. Flat is the audio version of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get...). I'm the original owner of these amps, and they are serviced, tuned, oil and wipers changed regularly (Warren Bendler and/or Tim Schwartz at Bristol Electronics).

The beauty of the system is that I can listen to one, two, or all three, or any combination. If I'm working in the room (doubles as the home office), I can simply listen to CNN on the LaScalas or a pair of Heresy's. If I get the urge, oh well, it can become the "Wall of Voodoo".... I can also customize the room acoustics for particular program source, as an example, by picking one pair of Klipschorns and one pair of Heresy's, etc. For movies, the inner pair of Klipschorns, with the outer Heresy's and the subwoofer system gives a nice "surround" effect. The subwoofer is a 10" Dayton Ref, amped separately with a BASH unit; it's inputs are also controlled by the AX-7's master volume system using RCA patch cords (got some very good quality 30' ones). I tried several different ideas, but finally built a 2' sealed enclosure with the speaker "firing" through a slot (tapped?) similar to the K-horn driver. In front of that is the "split", it runs back to the headboard, curves and ends with the openings at the foot, firing to the sides. Total length of the "horns" is about 14'.

The system is, in subtsance, a single tier "cascade" that feeds the amps by an identical 250 mV signal from an active AX-7 mixer; All audio input sources (DTV, CD, casette, turntable, DVD, tuner, etc.) go through an Esoteric Sound Super Connector; I simply pick which source I want to listen to and turn the switch. It's entirely passive, thus no signal degradation. The ESSC send this signal to the AX-7. It's active, and once I've set the volume levels I want on the amp(s), it allows master volume control for each, some, or all amps that are turned on. I can "tune" the system to match different types of music, etc.

The turntable is a Technics 1200 MK-II (or a Thorens TD 125 when it's working...) with a Shure M-97XE, goes through the TASCAM CC-222 MKII which has a built in RIAA phono preamp which allows direct recording from an LP to either the CD, or the cassette function. Slowly but surely all 2400 albums are being transferred.... Tuner is a TASCAM 690, heavy duty, simple and works very well. DVD is a TASCAM DV-D6500; very simple, very heavy duty, and works well.

All equipment is protected and isolated from the "wall socket" by those massive Minuteman Pro's up on the rack system. They feed via the battery system to the Fuhrman M-8D "rack rider" protectors; if the voltage is below 120 (which seems to be a problem in rural Florida...), we don't turn stuff on...

Living room's getting almost as bad.... Cornwalls, 2 pairs of Heresy's, and a folded horn subwoofer/ coffee table under construction..... Two pairs of experimental Heresy-I's under construction (K-24's, Selenium D-250X's, CT-125's; they will use a type E with a mid-high crossover point at 4500 that will be done by Bob Crites).

We are getting ready to build a "stereo/ library room", so eventually, the "Xtreme Heresys" and the inner "flanker" K'horns will move to their new room, and another pair of K'horns (almost finished complete restoration) will go into my son's bedroom. My daughter is adamant about an I-Groove, so no "Heritage pearls" will be cast in that direction (boyfriends, style and figuring out a way for me to get her a car take priority)

House is pretty well Klipsched out.....

[nomad02rider]

I had the pleasure of listening to this system, and it is awesome! Marshall takes his music listening very seriously. I wish I could accomadate Khorns in my house but just can't do it, they sounded sooo good. But thanks to Marshall my addiction has started. I forsee some Belles down the road, or some Cornscalas. Still enjoying my Cornwalls for now.

[JJkizak]

This does redefine dedication.

JJK

[jt1stcav]

I'm surprised Marshall's house is still standing![]

[Groomlakearea51]

I'm surprised Marshall's house is still standing![]

What house; destroyed that last month during the depth charge attack in the U-571 movie; kids and wife are in the pup-tents and me and my stuff's in a Hurricane Wilma FEMA trailer!!! Let them eat cake!!![6]

Just kidding...[]

[jt1stcav]

LOL...With the Cornwalls I'd rattle the windows from time to time, but that's about it.

I'm surprised your "wall of voodoo" hasn't cracked your walls, or worse yet shift the earth beneath your house and cause a sinkhole to swallow it up! Man, that would suck.[]

Bet that megasystem does sound great, though...

[tommyboy]

We have now "reinforced" all of our wall decorations with double sided tape. Not only does this prevent stuff from falling, but it killed all the vibrating also. No problems since!

[tommyboy]

We have now "reinforced" all of our wall decorations with double sided tape. Not only does this prevent stuff from falling, but it killed all the vibrating also. No problems since!

[Klipsched with Yamahas]

Every once in a while, it's time for the "Wall of Voodoo".... After about an hour, several things happen: WAF results in a slap across the back of my head; dogs, cats, horses and the neighbor's dogs run for cover; but every once in a while, the soul demands such spl's. Does one good, and if but for a few minutes..., "The memories of an old man are deeds of a man in his prime" - Pink Floyd

So that's where they got the idea for "Back to the Future".......great googa mooga!

In the voice of Jimmy Durante...WOW, What a system!!

[Ceptorman]

I don't know who bumped this old thread, but I'll reply. I did knock a metal star of Texas off the wall last week. It didn't do any damage, but it is the first time something moved that much. I was listening to Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine!

[Fjd]

I can't believe my eyes.    Am I seeing things, or is this a picture of the famous Groomlakearea 51 "Wall of Voodoo" before he went with McIntosh amps? Classic!     When he converted to McIntosh, I bought one of his big Sansui integrated amps when he was a regular on the forum for occasional use but probably more for nostalgic purposes. 

 

 

Every once in a while, it's time for the "Wall of Voodoo".... After about an hour, several things happen: WAF results in a slap across the back of my head; dogs, cats, horses and the neighbor's dogs run for cover; but every once in a while, the soul demands such spl's. Does one good, and if but for a few minutes..., "The memories of an old man are deeds of a man in his prime" - Pink Floyd

 

 

 

Edited April 7, 2015 by Fjd

[CECAA850]

I thought the wall of voodoo was a wall of Heresys.

[Fjd]

I thought the wall of voodoo was a wall of Heresys.

 

 

I think the picture above is when he was using the system as his "Wall of Boudoir" in the master bedroom.  It was sometime after that he had the "man cave" finished and moved everything. 

 

So many speakers that he even had this "wall of corns" in the living room.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2015 by Fjd

[CECAA850]

I miss Marshalls posts and perspective.

[pite]

hmmm... I'm mostly at -55dB... sometimes at -40dB... Let's see how long !!!

[Schu]

Ive seen small cracks in the drywall in some areas... mainly due to LF effects, sw115 is to blame.

[NBPK402]

When we had the Triax sub... It separated our hardwood flooring from the wall for about a 2' long.

[parlophone1]

Not listening to the high levels any more.

For a short period of time I helped a man who was in charge of sound equiping/mixing in audio sessions for some bands arround town. On many occasions these were big disco clubs. Sometimes I had to watch for those big speaker boxes not to flip onto audience, because those places were crowded with poeple. That means I was practicly with my ears into the speakres, which probably caused hear damage on one of my ears.

[cradeldorf]

The corner of my listening room.

[The History Kid]

I think my peaks on really loud days go to 94 dB. When I was younger I'm sure I flirted with 100-105 at times, but things sound so much better to me at levels just lower than that anymore.

I will say, I did accidentally break a glass of tea when I got my RSW-10, not understanding where the volume was set at right away. That's about the extent of damage.