You guys here have some pretty serious hardware
I bring to you a system that I believe will hold it's own and even surprass many of your systems. I'm not here trying to out-do anyone but i did this project for less then 125 bucks.
Auditions welcome. bring your fav CD
I have had many a system and this one although I can't say it's accurate I can however say the sound is nothing short of breathtaking. and I have heard no better example of a speaker completely dissapearing.
This I attribute in part to great room acoustics and painstaking positioning.
Here's how it works fellas
The velodyne F1200 is fed through the pre outs and low passed at 65 hz back into the amp. (Pioneer VSX 4400 reciever circa 1988)
65hz and above are fed into the bose acoustimass woofer (can't call it a sub now can we). Since the bose is in no way capable of producing anything below 45 hz it doesn't have to strain to put out what it isn't capable of. Poof no more boom.
Fine tuned courtesy of a rolled up pair of socks.
I believe the bose chokes at 200hz (bose never posts specs) which disables the main weakness in these bookshelves. Putting a 5" woofer in that small a box is ludacris so in goes the port and up goes the boom.
The bookshelves: Optimus Pro LX511 (RCA nameplates) (radio shack cat #:40-5007s) are running from 200hz up to 25khz (those linaeum tweets are nothing short of breathtaking.) If you havent read the physics behind these, please do. the design just plain makes sense and the sound proves it. A sense of airyness I've never before experienced.
Surrounds are handled by cambridge soundworks computer speakers. IMHO surrounds for audio should only be used to expand or pull into the room the source material and draw absolutely no attention to themselves whatsoever.
With that in mind, a pair of moms old rotary phone speakers would probably suffice.
I am running the KLH ASW10-120B woofer out one of one the tape outs (low level) and I use it when i feel like shaking things up a bit. (so as not to overdrive the velo.) Since the KLH has no capabilities of producing anything less then about 35hz. setting the low pass at 40hz enables it to produce very little sound, just warmth and nothing else. I can crank this thing without any noticible boom.
Correct me if I'm wrong but is it even getting anything below 65hz. I would love some comments on that probably cuz im to lazy to do go behind this with all those nutcrackers; and that my friends is a whole nother story !
Now the really neat part of this whole system is the price:
Velodyne F1200: $85 bucks (craigslist) He wanted 150, he went down to 100 with just a phone call, when I got to his house I hooked up his surround had the guts to offer $85 SOLD !
Optimus Pro LX511 and KLH woofer: 50 bucks (craigslist)
He wanted to sell his whole mid-fi system for 200 bucks I offered him 40 for the bookshelves (i have been following these on ebay for about 5 months and they have quite the cult following. Search "linaeum" or "optimus pro" on ebay. "LX-8's" are the ones to look for. Mine are "LX-5's"
Im selling the KLH this weekend for 50 so the speakers were free.
The Pioneer VSX 4400 was mine from it's birth but one can purchase an equal or better unit on craigs for 35. so that is how I came up with that number besides who doesn't have an old surround unit laying around somewhere
cambridge surrounds: 1 dollar at a flea market.
Total cost of system 121 bucks !
I believe the system sounds as good as it does due to painstaking woofer positioning and active crossover settings. but the sweat-sock still remains the best a-b switch ever invented. u want a mellow 60-120 push then just remove the hanes
Overall the sound although deriving itself from the multi-stage sub system; which literally matches the resonant frequency of the room which seems to convulse at 70 hz. the effect allows some serious visceral bottom end with nothing more then an idol from the F1200. There are those with velodyne's and those that wish they had them. this will forever change your view
I have never hit the oracle before in sub placement until now.
The seamless 2 stage blending with the bookshelves is nearly spot on loosing itself only in the the lower registers most notibly of male voices. (sometimes u need to pull the sock) the shape of my room folks is a wet dream. I'd say easily 30 foot vaulted ceiling.
This mid-fi system to me rivals some very heavy hardware (in sound only) I've had the pleasure of auditioning. Its unfatiguing transparancy blends almost seamlessly with it's hauntingly quiet authority.
For whatever reason you continued to read this, I hope it was at least entertaining for you.
Turn it down and go to bed.
Velo-guy
