Journeyman's Pro Audio Briefing

On my way to Namm today

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:03:00 +0000

This morning. It's a crazy place. I've been going to tradeshows of one kind or another most of my life, and it's the craziest one ever. Not just the attendees, the booth vendors as well. I actually find it hard to do business there, although I have kind of figured it out.

Nice to be in LA again for a bit. Except when I left Kansas it was 60 degrees. When I got to LA it was 60 degrees. WTF.

Oh yeah: LOL

New Year, new obsession

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:37:00 +0000

For some reason the last month or so I'm obsessing with new gear, in particular a CNC rig. I just missed one on craigslist by about 5 minutes last week, 2nd caller. A 4x4 fully operational machine for $700. About a 6k machine, barely used, sat idle for 8 yrs.

The one that really turns my crank is this one from Legacy CNC. Do I need all it does, no, is it a tad smaller than I need, yes, but it's just so effing cool! Do I have 18k to spend, that would be a hell no.

I do have some exciting news. SpeakerHardware is on Amazon. We're still working it out exactly, getting custom pics up, but the basics of hardware are there. Amazon called me out of the blue about 3 months ago asking if I was interested in listing my stuff on their site. A lot of what I sell is too complex for them, but according to what I found out they just don't call anybody on the web. So we'll give it a go. I'd much rather people go to my site to order (doh), but anything to expand market presence is important.

I just have a nagging feeling that the market is catching up with me. I can't put my finger on it. Business is growing still, but I think I need to step up my game. A CNC would be one way to do that.

SO

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:06:00 +0000

I didn't win the video contest. Cest la vie. The winners were all bricks and mortar stores. Worth a shot, fun to do, and it's still getting views.

My lovely wife had some truly badass speakerhardware t shirts made for me for christmas. I'll be sporting those at NAMM. If any of you are going, or are in the LA area the 17th through the 22nd, drop me a line. Plus I intend on posting updates here from NAMM. Eminence is doing big things this year. I had not planned on going until I talked to them. I want to be damn sure I'm first in line for bunch of the new stuff, especially the defend speaker system. I think it's a game changer.

New Video

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:00:00 +0000

So Amex and Google have this contest for small businesses to create videos about themselves. Amex does lots of stuff for small biz like this. We created one. My daughter did virtually all of it. Shot on a Ipad. If I get selected I get the front page of youtube for day. Whoohooo! It was fun no matter what.

Refiguring, again.

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:52:00 +0000

Every so often I just have to kind of shut down SpeakerHardware and redo it. Thanks to you, it has grown beyond any expectations. I create new systems, new methods of taking care of orders, and in about 6 months or a year I've outgrown them. It's that time again, this time my blueprint lasted about a year.

I'm finally in a position to invest some more in the business, no longer running on a shoestring. Lots of work is going to be outsourced to Sam, who we've finally pretty much equipped with a shop to handle just about anything I can do in mine. He's also gotten better at a lot of stuff than I am. (It's that whole Tom Sawyer thing ;-) ). Drop shipping directly from him, all I do is send him the info. It should speed things up considerably, my turnaround times had become unacceptably long.

And maybe, just maybe, I will find some time to do development work some of which has been on the back burner for 3 or 4 years.

It's been a wild ride, and just keeps bucking higher. Thank you.

Saws

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 13:54:00 +0000

Table saws. The single most dangerous tool in the shop. I got whacked a couple of yrs ago, pretty minor as table saw injuries go. No surgery, no loss of limbs, although I have an odd nail on one finger now.

About a month ago my son got it. Surgery on the finger, he'll have complete movement in a few months. Stupid lucky, just as I was.
So, I ordered a pair of Sawstop saws. Been waiting for a dealer to have an order so I could save the freight. I hesitated when they called, it's almost $4k worth of saws. But then I remembered my son running down the street (the shop is 3 blocks from the house) holding his finger.

He was doing something he shouldn't have been, as I was when I cut mine. These Grrippers should be on every table saw users must have list. They would have saved his finger, and mine too. I did not have them when I cut mine. Use them every time, every cut, without fail.

I almost bought the Sawstop saws after I cut mine. That's when I found the Grrippers. I didn't have the money then, really don't now. But we do this for a living. I need that backup it provides. Doesn't mean you get careless, just means you have an extra measure of safety. All it takes is a momentary lapse, and you can be disfigured for life. I'll just make this quick cut, and that's when it gets you.

What I spent on his finger would buy both saws.

Put us out of business.

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:10:00 +0000

I went to the Wichita Grand Opera Gala this weekend. My daughter had told us to expect amazing singing. The three featured artists are three of the top voices in the world for opera. Unfreaking believeable. And I'm not an opera fan. Although that is changing.

We'd have no business nor fun if singers were all this talented and trained. Alan Held is a Wagnerian baritone. In front of a 50 piece orchestra, a 30 voice choir, all blowing for all they were worth, he sat in the pocket on top of all of it. No reinforcement.

Sam Ramey is a legend in the opera world. Has to be near 70, been singing since the early 60's. Doesn't need subwoofers, shakes the seats without it. And Joyce DiDonato is the go-to soprano for the Met, enough said there.

It was truly amazing, the orchestra was phenomenal, just a truly enjoyable evening. If you haven't been to an unamplified symphony, concert, or performance of some kind you need to go. It's refreshing and grounds you in what we try to accomplish for mere mortal singers and performers.

fEARful and BFM Designs.

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 12:39:00 +0000

So as noted is my last blog, I have a new designer on line. Greenboy has taken bass guitar cabs to a new level with his direct radiator designs. High fidelity, almost a home audio aesthetic in approach. Attention to the minor details that make the difference between good and great performance. Shrugging off the traditional bass cab designs that dominate the guitar world. Much like Bill has done with the BFM horn loaded designs with PA boxes and his own bass cabs.

They've both taken full advantage of the changes in driver technology over the last few years. Major improvements that allow smaller, lighter, more efficient cabs. On the PA side, you see this kind of technology in the high end pro audio boxes. On the guitar/bass side, not so much. Especially guitar players. The only reason a 4x12 exists in it's format is because Leo Fender and/or Jim Marshall figured out the smallest box they could cram 4 drivers into. Fundamentally for sound it's all wrong. BTW, if you're a guitar player, take a look at Brian Gray's new amplifier line. No compromise, no shortcuts.

I've been spending lots of time thinking and working on various stuff with all the cabs. Subtle changes that can make differences in the sound, discussing them with the designers (who know a helluva lot more than I). These guys are pushing the envelope of what's available to the average punter. And have taken a lot of flak for it, especially Bill.

Two very differing approaches to sound, both based on fundamentals, updated to reflect what's out there now. I'm proud to represent both, and assist in getting these out to the world. And it is the world, the only continent I haven't shipped to is Antarctica. And that's just a matter of time ;-)

whoa

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 13:22:00 +0000

I knew it had been a while. But I didn't realize it had been DECEMBER since I wrote on the blog. It could be because I'm buried with biz, and that's true, but it's really just forgetfulness and sloth.

Since my last update many new things have happened. Took on a new cab designer, greenboy of fEARful fame at talkbass. Excellent bass cabs, with more good things to come. It's been a long haul getting them on the site, but at least the 15/6 flatpacks are on there, and all the basic kits for 15/6 and 12/6 designs.

Doing a flat pack is hard. Trying to anticipate problems for the customer in assembly require a lot of trial and error. When I build a cab, if a panel is slightly off or whatever, the table saw, belt sander, router, jointed, whatever is needed is right there. I can't assume that with a customer building a cab. Fine tune, tweak, cut, assemble, disassemble and try again several times. The fEARful flat packs are the best I've done. They literally go together like RTA furniture. Snap with biscuits. I'd love to get BFM cabs to that point, but with the many angles and odd structure of Bill's cabs it's just not possible. That's just the nature of horns, even the simple ones are much more complex than a straight ahead box.

So stay tuned. Big plans are going to happen with Speakerhardware this year. And I promise not to let this languish this way again.

On the hunt

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 13:50:00 +0000

One of the things when I started SpeakerHardware was to give DIY prosound a place to find stuff. PartsExpress, MCM and a couple of others have a lot, but unless you kind of know what you're looking for, it's a shot in the dark. Hell, I still buy from them as suppliers now. I know how I had so many starts and stops looking for the "right screw", the "right corner" or any other piece of hardware for a cab. What I'm good at is finding stuff. I call, I email, I read promo stuff, trade journals, always looking for something that's cool, better or easier than whatever I'm currently using or selling. Which are the same thing. Nothing I sell in hardware has not been used by me personally in a build or at least used in a test bed in the shop.

So my purpose after finding it is to make available stuff I know that works. Or at least worked for me. It's got to look good, be durable and functional. I have probably a couple of dozen different cab corners, jack plates, handles, and just stuff sitting in a drawer that were rejected for one reason or another. Because all the BFM cabs are 1/2 ply, it makes the hardware tricky. Practically everything is geared around 3/4. The new Jiggs Subs are 3/4, which entailed a entirely new search for hardware. Some of it translates between the two lines, but some does not.

If you remember Heathkit, that's the goal. When you got a Heathkit, it was like Christmas. You opened the box to hundreds of small parts awaiting your inspection. Picking up the stuff, looking at it, figuring out what it was or where it went. That was a big part of the pleasure, the anticipation. Most of them were utterly mysterious, until you got into the build. The literally step by step instructions for every teeny part were amazing. I built my first amplifier in college from a Heathkit, and it's still in use as my test amp. I want anybody who buys a kit from me to have that experience. The BFM plans are very close to that good, as are mine for the Jiggs Subs.

A source of frustration for me has been the pursuit of electronics. I currently have 2 lines, Crown and Digmoda. Both of which I use and have used. They are excellent quality. But only the Digmoda gets closer to my idea of a true DIY solution for prosound. You install it in the cab, it's not just a plug and play product, and it's fairly unique. Unique is what I like. Don't get me wrong, the Crowns are fabulous amps, but it feels kind of me too. You can buy them a jillion places. What I want is that DIY feeling of something unique. I did that, with my own two hands. Nobody else has something just like it.

And I'm getting closer. After a couple of years of being on the hunt I think I've got a couple of solutions on the horizon for a built in amp that is affordable, reasonably powerful and well built. Maybe they're false leads again, but I don't think so. There won't be soldering them together like the old Heathkits, but they will require more than just cutting a hole in the box.

The two best parts of any project, the anticipation, and the conclusion. I did that. I built that. See what I did right here that makes it unique. Here's where I screwed up and fixed it. Here's what I'd do next time. Listen to how it sounds, feels, looks, whatever. I did that.

It doesn't get any better than that.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah, Sweet Solstice. Did I miss anybody?

Again!?!

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 13:07:00 +0000

So on black friday I went to Sears to get a big battery charger for the rental store. Helluva price, 40amp charge 200 amp start, we've needed one forever.

So I'm browsing around a bit. Damn them and their bargains. A dual base 1 3/4 hp router. There's only one left. I stare at it for a bit. I just bought a new Porter Cable router dammit. I grab the box, just to see the weight. Next thing I know it's on the floor, open and I'm fondling it. Nice. Good feel, great mount. Not usually a Craftsman fan, but this really has the look and feel. AND IT'S HALF PRICE.

It was as inevitable as the tides. I bought it. It's just sitting in the kitchen in it's VERY nice little black canvas bag, staring at me, begging me to make some sawdust. To the shop today. I really don't have a project right now that requires a router, but I'll make up something just so I can try it.

That's now 4 routers in the shop. If I'm judicious about what bits I install in them, I may not have to change bits for months! Just grab another router.

Tools and your $

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 12:38:00 +0000

I bought a new router Saturday. A Porter Cable 9690. Nice, kind of the industry standard router. No bells and whistles, just a good solid tool.

All it's for is to mount on my jasper jig. Pretty much permanently. I seem to cut lots of circles, especially now with the new 18 and 15 flat pack kits.

The first place I stopped was Harbor Freight. Now, one thing you have to understand, this is 60 miles from my hometown, biggest mall/shopping area within about 100 miles. I pay a price to get to tool shop. So Harbor Freight was AFTER my eyes were pretty much glazed like a piece of pottery at Old Navy and TJMaxx. I walk into Harbor Freight and start looking at their tools. My eyes feel alive again, after a few minutes btw. I tell myself this is a just a router for my Jasper Jig, I really don't need anything spectacular, a cheap one will do. I pick up their various models, feel them in my hand. Feel is very important, at least to me. If a tool doesn't just kind of fall into place, I don't want it. So none of them feel really good, but one is okay. It's $60. Stupid cheap. I look at it for a while. It's a plunge, 2hp, pretty much what I intended to buy. But it's Harbor Freight. Made for a bowl of rice by some poor bastard overseas. And there's a reason it's cheap, usually hidden inside. I put it back, wander the store for a bit, buy a couple of mixing boards for bondo and leave.

I just can't buy cheap tools. It's just not worth it. My time in the shop is too valuable to screw around with something that just isn't right, harder to use, you have to baby, worry about breaking, whatever. So I end up at the big box store debating between a Hitachi and the Porter. I buy the Porter. One, it's at least a US company even if it's still built overseas, 2, it feels right in my hand, and 3, Porter Cable's rep is impeccable for routers. I considered the Hitachi because they are coming on very strong in all the tool markets. Their nailers are very popular. I find it hard to get past the green/stripe anime look. It's a tool for god's sake, it's supposed to be black,chrome, steel, gray, not some comic book science fiction weapon.

So I spent $130 for a router for really a simple single purpose job. But I believe it will work, flawlessly, every time I pick it up, and is capable of doing more than 1 job if I need it. And it feels right. Oh yeah, I'm a dealer for Porter Cable, and bought it at the big box store for $20 less than dealer cost. Really pisses me off.

To translate this to the audio world I totally get it now, the guys who refuse to buy Behringer. It's the same deal, same feeling. It just doesn't feel right, or they need to believe they have bullet proof reliability. Not that Behringer doesn't have some stuff that is every bit the equal of some the high end. Namely the DEQ2496, the DCX2496, the ADA8000 and possibly a few others. But a lot of it's crap. Kind of like in Harbor Freight. There are probably some golden bargains in there for power tools. But for me, in the shop, it's just not worth it. I need it to work, and work now. I know tools, been using, selling and renting tools my entire life. And now I know what the Pros who make their living with audio tools are saying. Entirely valid for them.

Looking Ahead

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 23:17:00 +0000

So I sent in my reservations and bought my plane tickets to go to NAMM in January. It's becoming a nice winter ritual for me and the family. It falls within the break for college, and right about the time my wife's job is slow and she can get away. Dad keeps an eye on the house for us while we're gone. We take a few extra days and hang out with my fabulous cousin who lives in the LA area. Last year we spent 3 days at Rimrock and hope to do the same this year.

It's a really interesting thing to attend. I've attended trade shows most of my life, starting when I was kid with my dad. NAMM is certainly different. I have to admit the first year I was pretty shell shocked. Last year I did some business, this year it's get serious time. I think I have it figured out.

I'm looking forward to the time off. It's been a long, hard year. But this business is the most fun I've had in ages. Every time I hear from a happy camper about a kit or a speaker it just makes my day.

Talk about Neglected

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:06:00 +0000

Wow, I didn't realize it had been over a month since I added to the blog.

But the absence has not been in vain. The custom Eminence project is done. They will be up on the site next week. All I have left to do is tweak on the the instructions.
Here's a pic of the 4cuft with an Eminence Kilomax installed. I think it's a great looking cab.

If you want to know how it performs, go here, select whichever 18 or 15 suits your fancy and download the file. Scroll through the file to the 4cuft box, if available for the driver you select, and the specs are right there, courtesy of Jerry McNutt and Eminence. These cabs are exactly to the spec's listed. I have inserts to occupy additional space in the cab if the volume is 3.75cuft for example.

There are 4 sizes of cabs. 3 cubic ft, 4 cubic ft, 5 cubic ft, 7 cubic ft, and 9 cubic ft. The 7 can be a dual driver cab for 15's, the 9 a dual driver for either 15's or 18's. Prices will be pretty much dependent on what driver is picked out. As pictured with the Kilomax is pretty much top of the line.

I have developed much deeper appreciation for Bill during this project. I didn't even design the cab from scratch, I just set physical parameters to Eminence designs. And it wasn't easy, thinking about ergonomics, ease of construction, physical strength, parts availability, and numerous other things. Then writing the plans, and trying to anticipate problems and make them clear. Hell, these are just plain boxes. I can't imagine how much time Bill spends writing the plans for his much more complex cabs. Not to mention the amazing woodworker he must be.

So will I be switching? Not a chance. You'll pry my T39's out of my cold dead fingers before I run 18's. But different strokes for different folks. These are easy, fast, and probably perform as well or better than most of the commercial stuff out there.

So I haven't been slacking. I even got some paint on the second story of the house. That's the project from hell if there ever was one.

Getting back to it

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 11:54:00 +0000

I actually did some speaker work yesterday evening. Unfrickinbelieveable. I sprayed the 18" cabs from my last post with some Duratex. Woohoo. I should finish that project up Sunday, install drivers and port tubes, make some noise. I need to test to see if additional bracing is required. Performance is pretty much a known, they're the volume/port size as specified by Jerry McNutt of Eminence in the design files on the Eminence site. I'm pretty excited for this project. They're easy, fast, and versatile. Between the 5 sizes of cabs I can accommodate every 18 eminence makes, and practically every 15. Probably about any 18 or 15 out there, but I ain't going there. Not answering will this driver work questions. I sell Eminence. If somebody wants to put another driver in the cab, it's their baby.

On non audio related notes, one of my non speaker weekends was well spent. My wife and I went to a non smoking seminar by Allen Carr. It works. It works well. It does make quitting significantly easier. Do you still want to smoke? A bit, but nothing and I mean NOTHING like doing it without. You get very powerful tools to kill the urge. I have not had that white knuckle need a smoke AT ALL. If you've ever smoked and tried to quit, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I've been smoking since high school, you don't want to know how long and stupid that is. You still have to want to quit. If you're not ready to quit, don't bother. And screw the patches, gum, and drugs. They never came close to working for me. Why replace one drug with another, or with another version of the same drug.

Today is day seven. It's still a fragile thing. But it is a diminishing need, that is easily dismissed, very fleeting, and becoming very seldom. It's becoming a forgotten, rarely remembered thing. I know if I were to start again now, it would be a conscious decision, (a stupid one), a fully aware choice of the decision I'm making. And that makes it easy not to start again.

Back in the saddle

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:14:00 +0000

I have time to post, unbelievable.

I've had a project on the burner for quite a while. BFM cabs are astounding performers, requiring time and skill to execute well. There's some folks out there who just will not or cannot do horn loaded cabs. For whatever reason, I'm not getting into that debate. So after some discussions with Eminence, they gave me approval to design cabinets based on Jerry McNutt's design parameters posted on the Eminence website.

I started with the 18's. Everybody seems to love 18" subwoofers. My personal preference is 15"s, but hey, the market is never wrong, right? I screwed around with sizes for a very long time, looking for ergonomics and consistency across the cabs. I engaged my brother who's also a woodworker and he did the same. Between the two of us we came up with some basic design criteria, then he built the first prototype. From that one I built 5 different cab sizes that will accommodate every 18" woofer Eminence builds. I spent 5 days living with my Dad, and it just so happens the shop is at his house. Cut some wood, check on Dad, cut some more wood, check on Dad. But it was really enjoyable to just get buried in the process, and hang around with Dad.

Interchangeable ports for differing tube lengths, internal baffles to change volume as needed, commonality across the designs to make production easier. Here's a couple of horrible cell phone pics showing the 4, 5, 7, and 9 cu ft boxes.

Testing begins in earnest pretty soon. Although it's probably unnecessary, Jerry is the chief speaker designer for Eminence, he knows what the hell he's doing. An added bonus is all of these also work for the 15's.

They'll be available in 2 ways. Plans with measured drawings and all the parts, and as flat pack precut kits. I literally can assemble one from the flat pack in 5 minutes with a brad nailer. I bet with a screw gun it wouldn't take more than 15 minutes. Custom bent grilles will be available. Dado's and rabbet construction make assembly like a tinkertoy. I spent a lot of time thinking about the avg guy with a minimal amount of tools assembling these. There will be a video for construction posted up before too long.

After perusing the sub world out there, most of the under $500 stuff is particle board, mdf, or some similar crap wood. With who knows what kind of driver. These are auraco, my first time with it and I like it very much. It will be a quality sub that anybody can build, and pick their price point by choosing whatever driver suits their fancy.

Will it be equal of a titan or a tuba? Probably not, but it will be a good box that should compete with any direct radiator out there.

To Whom It May Concern

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:45:00 +0000

You got me twice before I saw the pattern. At least I limited the loss to a couple of hundred bucks. You won't get me again, so stop sending orders. There's nothing worse than a thief, and considering some of the people I called to confirm the orders, you are scraping shit from a thief's combinet.

1 lady was obviously elderly and in ill health, the other was a card for the man's deceased wife. The cc companies won't do squat, tried that, but I have every piece of data you've sent me, isp's, the works. So quit trying. Ain't happening anymore. My orders all pass by my eyes before they're processed. Fuck with me some more at your peril. I have friends and relatives that are white hat hackers in the corporate world that will track you down in no time.

Clones

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:24:00 +0000

Been a while since I posted a new blog. This one isn't audio related per se. Waaaay too much stuff going on right now. Business has exploded, work on my house has exploded, one crisis after another, doesn't leave much time for musings on audio. There are at least 3 audio projects I need to finish very badly. I need a clone. Maybe 2 or 3.

The biggest crisis has been that two weeks ago my father broke his hip. He's 88, tough as old shoe leather. Plays golf every day, still works in the shop, pretty much does what he pleases. We've been pretty busy with that.

All of my mechanical skills, all of my curiosity about how things work, how to fix things, the drive to be an entrepreneur is all owed to him So it's payback time. It might be a while again before I get back to the real purpose of this blog. Right now life intrudes.

The new Crown Amplifiers

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:47:00 +0000

So I got the new drivecore XLS amps in. They are pretty sweet. 8-10 lbs for serious power. Cheap per watt, and the drivecore technology is amazing. Voltage tolerant, they don't care if your 110 is nasty, or swings from 90-125. I don't think Crown is putting enough emphasis on that aspect of these amps. There's a proprietary chip built by TI that monitors all aspects of the amplifier. Impedance, output, supply voltage, temperature, everything. They are bulletproof, literally. I got sold on them at NAMM, where an old school salesman who believed only in big iron was totally sold on them. Because of the drivecore chip. It is a revolution in amplifier control, and overcomes all the objections to switch mode amplifiers, because it responds and corrects any changing conditions. None of the other new amps on the market have anything like it.

They did, however, make 1 mistake. You can only run a high pass or a low pass on a channel. Not both. Which for direct radiator boxes is no big deal. For horn loaded subs, it's problematic. You need both. So my suggestion is still to run outboard crossovers. Use the internal limiters, (which are very very good) and all the other powerful dsp available. You can set the crossovers in the amp to steepen the slope for extra protection. For tops you don't need any outboard processing. I think the best setup for the bucks would be an xTI for subs, XLS for tops. Then all you'd need are the amps and their built in dsp.

I think it was a conscious decision on Crown's part, otherwise XLS would have killed the xTI line.

DIY in general

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:33:00 +0000

If there's one thing I've noticed that real DIY'ers will tackle about anything. It's not so much the end result I think that gets our juices running, it's the process, the work it self, the planning, overcoming obstacles, just getting it done. We like making ourselves into quivering wrecks over some project that is just kicking our ass. Whether it's speaker building, fixing a car (I don't do cars anymore, at all), working on a house, building a pc, it doesn't matter what the project, we just like the work.

So at my place, cabs and audio have taken a back seat for a while. Unless somebody orders some boxes ;-) Here's the current project, and it's a doozy. We're 2 weeks in just scraping and prepping the porch.
House Paint Album

But I'm an anal bastard when it comes to paint. If you do it right, it will last 10 or 15 years. Do it fast and cheap, you're lucky to get 5. But isn't that true about everything. Doing anything right is hard, slow and wears you out. Quick and dirty never gets it right.

It takes a deadline

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 01:49:00 +0000

I just got done with a pair of t39's. Including the new self powered amp. I finished impedance testing and setting the dsp about an hour before the show I wanted to use them for. They'd been under construction off and on for a couple of months, I dithered around on them. Only when the time was getting close I knew I needed them did I bear down, every evening after work, every day off, just about every spare minute to get them done. There was quite a bit of custom work to do on them, so they took a while. Plus I experimented with a few new techniques on these for proof of concept.

Why does it always take a deadline? I just don't get it done unless I have one, either manufactured or real.

Oh yeah, 4 DR250's, 4 t39's, completely self powered system. 2 DDC520's running the whole show. Sweet. Pics before long on Bill's forum and my site.

Better than I ever could have said

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Sat, 15 May 2010 12:56:00 +0000

what really defines good bass in sound_reinforcement/

Self powered vs Standalone

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Sat, 01 May 2010 14:01:00 +0000

I'm going to the dark side. At the last gig I ran, I evaluated a built in amp, installed in a titan 39. I've had it about a year, puchased just for evaluation. I always seemed reluctant to finish setting it up and actually run it. The versatility and confidence factor of an amp rack was just too comforting. If one dies, you can always rejigger your setup and still run.

But, no 70lb rack to carry. No big mess of cables running around. 1 power cord running 1 amp instead of 3 amps and a crossover. No potential wiring breaks in the mess inside the amp box. 3 cables daisy chaining the cabs. (It was in mono). Setup/teardown was stupid fast. I did not realize how much time I spent double checking the amp rack, making sure nothing got changed in hauling, stringing wire from it to speakers, not trusting anybody else to get it right. Did I say no 70lb amp box to carry already?

I am using the Digmoda DDC520. 500w lf, 250w hf, into 4 ohms, although the dsp doesn't care which side you use for which, the only difference is the power. The dsp capabilities of this thing are astounding. 16 selectable channels, including parametrics, allpass, low pass, high pass, limiting, compression, treble shelf and bass shelf. I preset the lp/hp accordingly, then used paratmetrics to flatten the response of my DR250's and t39's. Took a couple of hours, I could do it now much faster. Hell, you can do it on the fly with the cab running, which is my next step to tweak for quality.

So I setup in about 1/2 the time and fired it up for the first time. Outside show, no need to eq for room troubles. I never touched the dsp in my DEQ2496, it was unnecessary. Channel strips were all I needed. No dickin' around getting stuff right, no wondering if I'd selected right presets, it was fabulous. The sound? Well, I'm not big on sound differences between amps. If they're quality amps, the differences are so marginal that nobody can tell. We used to switch amps around when I sold high end home audio years ago, and maybe after a few hours you could hear it. Maybe. But blind switching back and forth a couple of times even after a few hours of listening to 1 particular amp rendered that difference inaudible. So they sound good, as they should.

It's not cheap. It weighs about 10 lbs. It installs in a titan easily. Perfect cab for the geometry of the amp. The dsp is not user configurable, it's designed for OEM's (that would be me ;-) ) to preset their cabs for optimum performance. Just like the big boys do with their high end self powered stuff. They're working on an end user interface now. The current model is just too complex to be run on the fly at a show. Here's the pertinent data on the amp I'm running.

I'm going to start selling these. They're custom building a stereo model for me, 1000w lf, 500w per side stereo HF. I'll also have a 1000w subwoofer model. Because of the efficiency of Bill's cabs, a single amp will run an entire show. With titans and tubas, with their slightly higher impedance you can run 4 cabs. Power will not increase over 4 ohms, but the amp is stable with loads as low as 2.5 ohms. Digmoda recommends keeping a 4 ohm load however, so users will have to pay attention. I'll set the limiters accordingly. It will come preconfigured for particular configurations of Bill's cabs. Because it is a higher end product, I'll start with DR's, also because they're my favorite.

Is it better than the Crown's I'm also carrying? Probably not in terms of quality. But the dsp capabilities are superior. The Crown has the advantage of user configuration. The new XLS models are comparable in weight, but with lesser dsp capability.

So different strokes and all that. Standalone, Crown. System Architect is very good, though not as powerful as the Digmoda. User configurable. Digmoda, powerful dsp, ease of use, installed in the cab, be like the big boys.

Me, I'm going built in. I'm old, one less thing to carry, several less things to check.

How to do a full gainer

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 12:13:00 +0000

Time for a real audio post. It's been mostly diy up til now.

Gain structure. It's really important. A post over on djforums got me started on this. One of the posters disagreed with the method, different strokes and all that. I know it works, and works fabulously well. The two most definitive places to find the info from the real pros are at http://www.rane.com/note135.html, and http://www.vizear.com/downloads.htm. Both these places sell a nice little doodad to perform the test. The clipcop is much more sophisticated. The technique is based on information from Syn Aud Con; who provide training and seminars for audio professionals. The vizear link is the actual articles from Live Sound International.

You don't really need their doodads, but they do make it easier. All you really have to have is a piezo and a rms voltmeter. The basic idea is to find where every piece of equipment in your gear clips. Then you set all of it so it clips at the same time. If you see a red light on your board, you know the entire chain is clipping. It takes quite a while to set up. I think I spent an afternoon, with a 12 channel board, outboard dsp, compressors, crossover and the amps.

But when it was done, indisputably the system sounded better. Plus I was much more confident in it. I set the main board so when the level led's bumped yellow, there was still about 5db left in the system. That way if it wasn't me at the board, all I had to tell them was you NEVER let the red light up. And if they did, (which is just about inevitable), there was enough head room available to handle it, both in the electronics and the speakers.

The other big plus is when you're done, you'll know your system's capabilities inside and out. I never ran limiters, it instilled that much confidence to me in the system.

Oh, and everything at the rane link is worth reading. I mean everything.

GAS

noreply@blogger.com (Leland/SpeakerHardware) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:55:00 +0000

Been too long since I wrote something. Busy, busy, busy. And that's a good thing.

Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Most commonly suffered by guitar players. But there's a whole 'nother class that makes their sickness look like a cold. Tool guys. I've had both varieties of the madness, and let me tell you, it's far worse for tools than any other form.

Do you drool every time you see a Rockler catalog? Have you spent a couple of hours over the sweat stained, sawdust covered Grizzly catalog? Does a new clamp make your heart race? You have GAS. It's highly infectious. It's not airborne, it's eyeborne. Somebody shows a pic of their new tool, and it's like "DAMN I NEED THAT!"

Let me stoke the fire a bit. Here's my latest new tool. I haven't tried it yet, but my mouth is salivating at the thought.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBgFTAn5f9w

I rip lots of plywood. It replaces my perfectly functional plywood saw guides. Which are perfectly functional. But who cares? It's COOL, it's NEW, and it's a TOOL.

Here's another one. I think it's a must have. I've owned two now for a couple of years. After a slight altercation with my table saw and the tip of a finger, (I still have it, but the nail is kinda odd), I found these.

http://www.speakerhardware.com/micro_jig_grr_ripper-tlGR200b.php

Yes, I sell them, as of a couple of months ago. Shameless promotion. But it is the single best investment in safety I've ever made. I make no saw cuts without them. Looks complex, it's not. Setup is very fast, and about 3/4 of the time there's no setup, just use it like a push stick.

The biggest threat from GAS is that the scale keeps increasing. About 6 months ago I bought a Jet Super Saw, sliding table, Xacta fence, the works. You'd think that would hold me for a while.
Nah. I keep finding myself perusing CNC rig sites. Now we're talking! Real big tool stuff. Tim Taylor category if you remember "Tool Time"

There you go. I'm glad to have passed the infection on through it's transmission process, eyeballs. If you've got a cool tool, post it. I really need some small dosages. It helps keep the really big descents in to madness/debt at bay.