Finished a new rack and some other stuff for my speaker rig (pics inside).
Jun 1, 2005 at 12:26 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 17

tennisets

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Like the title says. I just finished building a new rack for my components, and a couple of platforms to go under my speaker stands.

The whole picture:
imgp08425zb.jpg


Speaker platforms. The boxes are MDF and are filled with silica sand. They each weigh about fourty pounds. The paint is a gloss enamel. That mess on the floor is stuff for the amplifier (see further down this post).
imgp08433qb.jpg


Closeup of the rack. See sig for the components. The shelves are MDF, painted with the same gloss enamel that's on the boxes.
imgp08443gg.jpg


I repositioned my speakers after I got the new stuff installed (for various reasons, they were a bit off from where they should have been), and they have never sounded this good. Also, note the open window. I love that window, and it's open (with a screen over it) as much of the time as possible. It's really great listening to music with the fresh air, and it's a great backdrop for my rig and whatever performance happens to be in my room at the moment.

Also, a sneak preview of my "work in progress," a 2A3 amplifier:
imgp08371df.jpg


I don't currently have a picture with the tubes in, and the base is back downstairs in the "work room" (it was only clamped together in that pic, I haven't glued it yet). The only thing I messed up was the hole for the 5AR4 (the middle one with nothing in it). I made it too big, so the socket can just go in and come out from the top instead of being held in. Hopefully I can use some of the extra tabs on the socket (octal socket and only 5 pins) to hold it steady. Oh well. Wiring starts tomorrow. Perhaps I'll update every so often with my progress. It should be finished by the end of the weekend.

Also, a couple pics of my system several months ago for posterity, and for a comparison.
47fb0afb.jpg

426b8b8f.jpg


This was a rather pointless post, but I'm bored and feel like showing off the new additions to my system.
 
Jun 1, 2005 at 1:01 AM Post #3 of 17
What did you use to make the middle of the stands...the circular parts holding the speakers. They look very nice, and if you didn't say you made them I'd think they were purchased assembled. Very nice!
 
Jun 1, 2005 at 1:46 AM Post #5 of 17
That's a damn good job. I guess you listen mainly in the chair?
 
Jun 1, 2005 at 3:22 AM Post #6 of 17
Quote:

Originally Posted by Thaddy
What did you use to make the middle of the stands...the circular parts holding the speakers. They look very nice, and if you didn't say you made them I'd think they were purchased assembled. Very nice!


Sorry, I should of clarified this in my original post: I only made the boxes underneath the stands, Not the stands themselves. The stands are Atlantis Pro Speaker Stands, see them here (I didn't order from Galen Carol though, I bought locally). I'll try to take a better picture of the boxes and stands tomorrow, it's kind of hard to see in the one I took.

Jefemeister, the reason the rack looks like a Salamander Archetype is because it's the same design. It's called the Flexy Rack, see it on TNT Audio here. Except that mine has four legs instead of three, and I didn't use damping paint or rubber washers. My rack actually does absolutely nothing for vibration, and I don't have spikes so it's not coupled to the floor. I tried putting silicone rubber sealant on each washer, but it came off when I tightened down the nuts. So basically, vibration on any one shelf reaches every other shelf. It's not an ideal situation, but there's not really anything I can do about it, at least not right now.
 
Jun 1, 2005 at 3:24 AM Post #7 of 17
Quote:

Originally Posted by number1sixerfan
That's a damn good job. I guess you listen mainly in the chair?


Thanks, and yes, I listen in a chair, but not the brown one you see in one of the pictures. I didn't have anywhere to put that chair except in the middle of the room, so I got rid of it. Now I just roll my desk chair into my listening spot. I'll take a picture of the other end of my room tomorrow also.
 
Jun 1, 2005 at 9:31 PM Post #10 of 17
that looks very nice and professional. i might take some time and make some stands and racks myself to get all the speakers and stuff off my desk.
 
Jun 3, 2005 at 10:48 PM Post #11 of 17
Excellent work and upgrade.
Be careful about leaving that TT by the window, though...it might disappear like Aunt Bee's apple pie
icon10.gif
 
Jun 3, 2005 at 11:48 PM Post #12 of 17
Quote:

Originally Posted by immtbiker
Excellent work and upgrade.
Be careful about leaving that TT by the window, though...it might disappear like Aunt Bee's apple pie
icon10.gif



Theft? I don't think so
tongue.gif
. 1) I'm on the second floor, 2) the window is largely obscured by trees, 3) It's in the back of the house, 4) I live in an extremely quite residential neighborhood, I think I've heard of two thefts here ever (and it's a big neighborhood). I know you're reply was partly in jest, but I don't have to worry about theft.

It seems people are rather worried about my gear. You're worried about someone stealing it, and jefemeister is worried about it getting rained on. But guess what: I'm not worried
tongue.gif
.
 
Jun 4, 2005 at 12:07 AM Post #13 of 17
Don't Worry guys I'll teach him a lesson.

puts on his ski mask and heads for tennitus' gear.

Just kidding.
icon10.gif
 
Jun 4, 2005 at 5:34 AM Post #14 of 17
Quote:

Originally Posted by tennisets
Theft? I don't think so
tongue.gif
. 1) I'm on the second floor, 2) the window is largely obscured by trees, 3) It's in the back of the house, 4) I live in an extremely quite residential neighborhood, I think I've heard of two thefts here ever (and it's a big neighborhood). I know you're reply was partly in jest, but I don't have to worry about theft.



Oh yeah? Well what about Spiderman
eek.gif


And my reply was totally in jest. Aunt Bee's (Mayberry RFD) apple pies were mighty tempting though.
 
Jun 4, 2005 at 7:45 AM Post #15 of 17
Well done!
The boxes look awesome, as do the shelves.

The one thing that you could still do is build some kind of isolation for the turntable. If you have any sand left over, you might put the turntable on a box filled with sand on top of a motorcycle inner-tube. If you get the inflation of the tube right (so that when you bump the box+turntable, the whole assembly swings once and no more), it is extremely good at vibration isolation.

I successfully made many holograms on a scaled-up version, and in holography the parts cannot move more than a distance considerably less than one ten-thousanth of the width of a human hair -- over a period of ten or thirty seconds!

To be honest, it would be interesting to test the various "audiophile" isolation solutions with a Michelson interferometer. Such a setup would require nothing but two mirrors, a 50/50 beamsplitter (http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l2046d.html ), and a $10 HeNe laser off eBay -- and it would be an effective judge of stability both in the short and long terms.

How to do it? http://www.3dimagery.com/michelsn.html
 

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