Happy Holidays 2007! and the new Speakers
If you're not offended....Merry Christmas!
Amazingly, it only took 2 takes to get this photo. Etouffee and Brown Dog are just so easy going!
Now onto the materialistic post. This is the big ticket item we got for ourselves this year:
New Speakers and Sub Woofer
T and I got this for ourselves because the old speakers which we inhereted from my dad died about 4 months back. Let me tell you, I about to shrivel up and die without my music. We found a pair at Fry's on sale and for holiday promo, it came with a sub-woofer. JBro, who came down for the holidays, came over and helped optimize the output (The way I had things initially set up caused the sweet spot to somehow converge near the refrigerator...not bad, for me at least, but certainly not idea for everyone else).
We discovered something amusing though. Being somewhat hasty, T and I just rant into Fry's and purchased the best thing we could afford that sounded good (in the store) without giving much though to the fact that our house is only 2000 sq feet...that is to say we bought speakers which a weee bit too powerful. Sure, across a massive electronics warehouse this is fine, but you lug those puppies into the home and we suddenly have club Chang-Fricke' going here. The columns themselves are about my height. What's even funnier though is that if you even turn up the sub-woofer a notch, the floor shakes so much it causes the CD player to skip.
Anyhow, we're fiddling with it still. For classical music it's just okay. Not enough mid range. Josh Groban and Joshua Bell sound somewhat decent although perhaps several hundred feet away up on stage. Trent sounds like he breathing down your neck while The Kings of Convenience and Abra Moore are serenading you on the couch. Benny Bennassi is rumbling inside of you. Hands down the set up is best for dance and techno music at the moment.
My brother and I spent many hours swapping out CDs and listening to much late last night. It was a lovely bonding session. I have a feeling T's ears were driving him mad but hey...they're new stereo speakers!
Amazingly, it only took 2 takes to get this photo. Etouffee and Brown Dog are just so easy going!
Now onto the materialistic post. This is the big ticket item we got for ourselves this year:
New Speakers and Sub Woofer
T and I got this for ourselves because the old speakers which we inhereted from my dad died about 4 months back. Let me tell you, I about to shrivel up and die without my music. We found a pair at Fry's on sale and for holiday promo, it came with a sub-woofer. JBro, who came down for the holidays, came over and helped optimize the output (The way I had things initially set up caused the sweet spot to somehow converge near the refrigerator...not bad, for me at least, but certainly not idea for everyone else).
We discovered something amusing though. Being somewhat hasty, T and I just rant into Fry's and purchased the best thing we could afford that sounded good (in the store) without giving much though to the fact that our house is only 2000 sq feet...that is to say we bought speakers which a weee bit too powerful. Sure, across a massive electronics warehouse this is fine, but you lug those puppies into the home and we suddenly have club Chang-Fricke' going here. The columns themselves are about my height. What's even funnier though is that if you even turn up the sub-woofer a notch, the floor shakes so much it causes the CD player to skip.
Anyhow, we're fiddling with it still. For classical music it's just okay. Not enough mid range. Josh Groban and Joshua Bell sound somewhat decent although perhaps several hundred feet away up on stage. Trent sounds like he breathing down your neck while The Kings of Convenience and Abra Moore are serenading you on the couch. Benny Bennassi is rumbling inside of you. Hands down the set up is best for dance and techno music at the moment.
My brother and I spent many hours swapping out CDs and listening to much late last night. It was a lovely bonding session. I have a feeling T's ears were driving him mad but hey...they're new stereo speakers!
posted by cchang at 9:23 AM
8 Comments:
happy kwanza
Hee hee. Hey, thanks for coming over, BTW. I have you had a blast. I'll have pics up soon.
sweet picture. hope you guys had a good one. :)
Oh, I wish I could hear the new speakers. Just out of audiophilic curiosity. :)
Hey Sarah. Did you get much of break?
TVK, I think given your expertise in the area, my speakers would be incredibly sub par and I'd be a little embarrassed to show them off to you! They're made by PolkAudio. Is that a decent brand? I noticed that they really don't work all that well for classical music, but it does showcase NIN well. :)
cchang, I haven't heard Polk Audio speakers in a long time. I don't know what innovations they've made lately. I think you're right that they are not made to appeal to the pickiest audiophiles. But the speakers that really do justice to classical music and jazz mostly don't play very loud -- unless we're talking about obscenely expensive ones. It's always a compromise, based on what goals are most important. I don't know how your room is arranged, but if you can get the speakers away from the walls, that will let the midrange come more to the fore, which would probably be better for classical. I have bought speakers, modified speakers, and even built speakers. Almost always I placed them in the middle of the room, away from the walls, for the clearest sound and less boomy bass. Something like diagram A at this page:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/manufacture/0602/cardas.html
Oh wow...
I was considering merely replacing the deteriorated speaker cones from the old set when it died. Is it possible to restore speakers that way? I saw that they sold the cones on eBay and was curious if it really was that easy.
Replacing cones? Generally, the speaker cone, the rubber surround, the drive coil, the basket (frame) and magnet are pretty much an integrated unit, called a driver, that is glued or bolted into the cabinet. So I assume that's what you're talking about. If you already know the make and model, and stock is still available, yes, it probably wouldn't be too hard to replace them. Sometimes the wires just clip on inside, or at most there would be two solder joints on each driver. Make sure not to wire it in out of phase compared to the original, i.e. same wire must go to same terminal as on original driver.
Good luck! My next project is a headphone amp. :)
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