Cafad Posted October 29, 2012 Posted October 29, 2012 I wasn't too sure I'd ever get around to doing this, putting up a few pics of my current listening room slash ex-home theatre, but now that I have some time on my hands I took a few pics that appear to be less blurry than usual so I figure I might as well put them up on show. It is not so much pictures of a system, more pictures of all sorts of gear in the same room that I watch TV and listen to music in. This is the inside of my cold room of audio, as seen from my listening position. The Halcro takes pride of place but it isn't in use ATM. The Exposure 2010S is sitting on top of a Krell KAV300i, next to those are a Burson PRE-160, a Consonance cd120 on top of it and a NuForce DDA-100 on top of it. Next to those sits my cd filing system (otherwise known as the floor), where I keep my favourites for handy access. The Osborn Eclipses with little JMax bookshelfs on top (I use the JMaxs to run in my integrated amps on), one LG 56 inch DLP rear projection TV (yes these things do still exist) minus my listening doona and a few Halcro components underneath (an EC800 disc player and a Halcro SSP100 for those who may wish to know) and consonance power boards. Behind the DM38 there sits my blue ray player, 2 integrated amps (it was a spare shelf and they had to go somewhere) and my 3 channel power amp for the centre and rears. The accoustic foam is stuck to the wall with magnetic strips so it is all adjustable and there are a few old posters on display. One of the reasons I've taken a long while to do this is that the HT room is where I keep my inner 17 year old, I found all my old posters a few years ago and decided to use them instead of chucking them out. You can also see the cold room fans, they probably do still work but it has been so long since they have been used I think even the on/off switch would need to be oiled prior to use. My interconnect storage zone. And moving further back The Stig and two healthy young lasses watch over my spare speaker wire and digital interconnect storage zone while Bridgette keeps an eye on the power and video cable hanging area. Also my off duty listening doona. This one did not turn out too well. My spare gear piles. From top to bottom on the left, bag of cables, wrapped up NAD 3120, Exposure 1010, Myryad MXI 2080, Dussun V6i and two little Perreaux SM60 monoblocks. On the right we have the Sonneteer Campion, burson PI-160 and a Halcro DM8. You can just make out a few items on the 'spare' shelves to the right as well. And to the left of the listening position Jessica takes care of all of my power requirements and air conditioning needs. And there is the listening position and surrounds. It is a bit strange to see the chair empty, it usually contains myself or one of two cats (who rather generously sacrifice a great deal of their free time to keep the place rodent and lizard free). You can see the insides of the shed through the door there. And that is the room that the members of my family refer to as "The Den". The coldroom construction has a few things going for it, one it is cool in summer and warm in winter but it reacts quickly to any changes from within (being an insulator room it contains heat rather well, hence the absolute NEED for air con). It does cut out alot of noise from outside but nowhere near as much as most people seem to think, it does sit at an ambient sound level below the reading on my cheapo SPL meter though, provided the air con is off. Also, since all of my gear is surrounded by a double layered faraday cage I just don't seem to get any background noise of note, mind you, I almost always hear a pop through the amp when turning the flouro light on and off. If anyone else out there is considering converting a cold room into a HT room I can recommend it, it works really well. Cheers!! 8
Telecine Posted October 29, 2012 Posted October 29, 2012 You certainly have a Aladdin's cave full of gear there Cafad, thanks for sharing.
Luc Posted October 29, 2012 Posted October 29, 2012 Did you have shares in Halcro mate? :lol: You need to adjust that focus on the camera GR8 cave! The Halcros look like Star Wars TIE Fighters
Cafad Posted October 29, 2012 Author Posted October 29, 2012 Naah, I'd rather have 2 Jessicas and a Bridget than one Chuck!
joz Posted October 29, 2012 Posted October 29, 2012 Naah, I'd rather have 2 Jessicas and a Bridget than one Chuck! Me too actually
Juicester Posted October 29, 2012 Posted October 29, 2012 maybe another benefit, if it floods, your cold room will probably just float along like an esky! certainly got a lot crammed in there mate - you've got it bad!
Cafad Posted October 29, 2012 Author Posted October 29, 2012 maybe another benefit, if it floods, your cold room will probably just float along like an esky! certainly got a lot crammed in there mate - you've got it bad! Oh yeah! Was there ever any doubt?
Addicted to music Posted October 29, 2012 Posted October 29, 2012 Great room Cafad, I love the jessica Alba's Dark Angel pic, hope you get employment very soooon!
Cafad Posted October 29, 2012 Author Posted October 29, 2012 That Halcro amp! Would love one. I'd like to hear those 845s too. Tell you what, how about we meet up half way (say Cloncurry?) for a beer one weekend and swap amps for a fortnight or so?
Jones99 Posted October 30, 2012 Posted October 30, 2012 Nice collection of gear. ......plenty of options. For 2 channel what is your prefferred setup? Can I ask what dimensions the room are ???
pete_mac Posted October 30, 2012 Posted October 30, 2012 You need more amps mate! What do you think of the JMAX speakers? I scored a pair a while back quite cheaply and was initially quite disappointed, but a few crossover tweaks helped. The black version that you have may be superior to the timber-look veneer version that I have. I noted that the seller has been quoting owners as saying that they are better than LS3/5As and whatnot, but my experience doesn't correlate.
Cafad Posted October 30, 2012 Author Posted October 30, 2012 5.5m by 3.5m with a height of about 2.3m. Hmmm, prefered set up... that really depends on how I feel at the time. I have (several times now!) walked in and decided on a change of amp, and then spent the next half hour trying to decide which one I wanted to change to. I'm a big fan of the Exposure and Myryad integrateds. You need more amps mate! I know, I know, the tide is slowly going out on both of my spare gear piles. I blame the economy! Those JMAX speakers were bought from ebay for a fellow at work (who then changed his mind) for the $99 I paid for them I think they are very good, I think RRP was $200 to $300 so I would call them fair value for money at that price, but not outstanding. I thought the build quality was a bit ho-hum, but I do like them more since I have run in 3 amps on them, they loosened up fairly well. 1
pete_mac Posted October 30, 2012 Posted October 30, 2012 Those JMAX speakers were bought from ebay for a fellow at work (who then changed his mind) for the $99 I paid for them I think they are very good, I think RRP was $200 to $300 so I would call them fair value for money at that price, but not outstanding. I thought the build quality was a bit ho-hum, but I do like them more since I have run in 3 amps on them, they loosened up fairly well. Cool. I think my timber-look versions were around $50 so I can't complain. Agreed re: build quality - mine are a bit untidy. I've only listened to them for about 5 hours so I might give them a good cranking and see if they come good. I think these will make a very good first pair of speakers for my son.
joz Posted October 30, 2012 Posted October 30, 2012 Nice collection of gear Yep lots of goodies in there..
Cafad Posted December 7, 2012 Author Posted December 7, 2012 One of the things I discussed with Mike Lenehan the other day was the possibility of grounding my listening room (since it has 2 layers of steel sheeting surrounding it and he was talking about faraday cages at the time). He advised me to give it a try, so, what the hell, I'm going to. If it works as advertised then my mobile phone shouldn't be able to work from inside the room, which just sounds like a bonus to me!
BATMAQN Posted December 7, 2012 Posted December 7, 2012 I wasn't too sure I'd ever get around to doing this, putting up a few pics of my current listening room slash ex-home theatre, but now that I have some time on my hands I took a few pics that appear to be less blurry than usual so I figure I might as well put them up on show. It is not so much pictures of a system, more pictures of all sorts of gear in the same room that I watch TV and listen to music in. This is the inside of my cold room of audio, as seen from my listening position. The Halcro takes pride of place but it isn't in use ATM. The Exposure 2010S is sitting on top of a Krell KAV300i, next to those are a Burson PRE-160, a Consonance cd120 on top of it and a NuForce DDA-100 on top of it. Next to those sits my cd filing system (otherwise known as the floor), where I keep my favourites for handy access. The Osborn Eclipses with little JMax bookshelfs on top (I use the JMaxs to run in my integrated amps on), one LG 56 inch DLP rear projection TV (yes these things do still exist) minus my listening doona and a few Halcro components underneath (an EC800 disc player and a Halcro SSP100 for those who may wish to know) and consonance power boards. Behind the DM38 there sits my blue ray player, 2 integrated amps (it was a spare shelf and they had to go somewhere) and my 3 channel power amp for the centre and rears. The accoustic foam is stuck to the wall with magnetic strips so it is all adjustable and there are a few old posters on display. One of the reasons I've taken a long while to do this is that the HT room is where I keep my inner 17 year old, I found all my old posters a few years ago and decided to use them instead of chucking them out. You can also see the cold room fans, they probably do still work but it has been so long since they have been used I think even the on/off switch would need to be oiled prior to use. My interconnect storage zone. And moving further back The Stig and two healthy young lasses watch over my spare speaker wire and digital interconnect storage zone while Bridgette keeps an eye on the power and video cable hanging area. Also my off duty listening doona. This one did not turn out too well. My spare gear piles. From top to bottom on the left, bag of cables, wrapped up NAD 3120, Exposure 1010, Myryad MXI 2080, Dussun V6i and two little Perreaux SM60 monoblocks. On the right we have the Sonneteer Campion, burson PI-160 and a Halcro DM8. You can just make out a few items on the 'spare' shelves to the right as well. And to the left of the listening position Jessica takes care of all of my power requirements and air conditioning needs. And there is the listening position and surrounds. It is a bit strange to see the chair empty, it usually contains myself or one of two cats (who rather generously sacrifice a great deal of their free time to keep the place rodent and lizard free). You can see the insides of the shed through the door there. And that is the room that the members of my family refer to as "The Den". The coldroom construction has a few things going for it, one it is cool in summer and warm in winter but it reacts quickly to any changes from within (being an insulator room it contains heat rather well, hence the absolute NEED for air con). It does cut out alot of noise from outside but nowhere near as much as most people seem to think, it does sit at an ambient sound level below the reading on my cheapo SPL meter though, provided the air con is off. Also, since all of my gear is surrounded by a double layered faraday cage I just don't seem to get any background noise of note, mind you, I almost always hear a pop through the amp when turning the flouro light on and off. If anyone else out there is considering converting a cold room into a HT room I can recommend it, it works really well. Cheers!! This is a man cave yeah!!
valvelover Posted December 7, 2012 Posted December 7, 2012 I see a poster of the original Buffy the Vampire slayer on the wall ;-) Good taste (although I prefer SMG anyway). Good bat-man-cave. Dave
Cafad Posted January 17, 2013 Author Posted January 17, 2013 Just uploading some pics, can't seem to do it in messenger.
Cafad Posted June 30, 2013 Author Posted June 30, 2013 My bat cave is about to get a complete rebuild. The 5m long by 2.75m wide by 2.1m high room is going to change into a 5.5m wide by 8m long by the same 2.1m high. Much more room for stuff (read stuff as, amps, speakers and things to hold amps and speakers). Since I have had issues in the past with storage of the amps I have managed to accumulate and not managed to move on I'm planning a massive amp rack along one wall. I pondered on the possibility that a rack along only one wall may not be enough, however it is a very long wall and I plan on building a very strong multi-storey rack. The main building will be put up with cold room panels under a shed roof that already exists (it needs a few new sheets of iron to keep the water off but that will be taken care of in due course too). The interior will be finished off by a family friend who is a carpenter and my uncle (a retired sparky) and I will do the wiring ourselves. I plan to utilize the 3 phase wire runs for the two compressors (each motor was >3KW) and drop them back to one phase so I will be able to go massively overboard (one run for sources and one run for amplification!) on the power supply lines. I don't really feel that this will be necessary as such, I'm quite happy with the power supply I have at the moment which is just tapped into the shed via a splitter box, but because I can I just won't be able to live with myself if I don't. Technically this will be a 1 bedroom flat, with a bedroom large enough that it can be split into 2 if that is required at some point down the line, but the actual bedroom and shower and dunny and such is pretty much a side issue. As far as I am concerned I'm getting a new HT/Listening room with a bit of other stuff added on. As a complete side issue I rediscovered something I bought back in 2006 today (it was hidden deep down in the back of the big cold room in the area that will become a bedroom over the next fortnight) and that has me thinking. I never even unwrapped the Sony Cathode Ray Projector when I received it simply because it was too big to fit in my cold room set up of the time and so it was stuck in storage, still cocooned in bubble wrap, until this morning. If it is still functional then I'm just have to going to learn how to HT with one and add a motorized screen to my new ceiling. Watch this space for construction photos. 4
Cafad Posted July 7, 2013 Author Posted July 7, 2013 Well the old room has been cleaned out and the rest of the shed is full of cr@p that was stored in the larger of the two cold rooms, floors have been pressure cleaned, shed walls have been pulled down and the two >3KW compressor motors have been removed and junked. Not bad for two days of work (although there were 5 of us for the first day, only two for the second). Apparently it will only take another two days to get all the wall panels up and the ceiling on, then the 3 cold room builders are done and it is up to us to finish things. I can see the final stage taking months, the old man and I will take a while to remove and replace half the roof iron, then design a new guttering set up that will actually work (the bigger of the old cold rooms turns into a puddle in the wet season), and then some fresh concreting of a new poop deck out the back. In the end though, it will all be worth it. I hope! Just one more removal run and the old listening/HT room will be empty. The construction/destruction guys got a bit ahead of themselves and pulled out the fans before I managed to empty the place out. The old room from the outside with the channeling of the new walls laid down on the slab. The hole that the air con was pulled out of will become part of a new door, saving the need for a patch-up job. And the angle looking into the big old cold room, which will turn into a bedroom and ensuite as the job goes on. 1
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