Hi Guys (and @Amber Technology)

 

I started off meeting @Marc in the original Car Audio Australia days: meeting in car parks, comparing the latest car subwoofers and speakers.

 

Over the years I've gone from being a bass-head with a focus on LOUD to becoming an audiophile wanting to pursue reference level audio.

I spent years as a competitor in all levels of sound quality competition and have learned the skills to be able to design, build and tune competitive, magazine featured car audio show cars.  

 

Up until about 3 years ago I've not cared for home hifi, enduring the woeful sounds of my share-house's Sony Muteki home theatre in a box.

 

Eventually, I bought my first entry level amplifier and started from there: a Cambridge Azur 551R, bought from a good friend of mine.  I had a spare pair of Dyn Audio Esotec 242 2 way component speakers and together with a pair of MD140 midrange drivers and some customised 3 way passive crossovers, set out to build a fantastic pair of bookshelf speakers.  I designed, built and painted a pair of ported enclosures,  These enclosures are made with 36mm MDF on sides, top and bottom with 50mm baffle and 72mm rear panels, braced and lined with sound diffraction foam panels weighing in at almost 40kg each.  Each of these enclosures were laminated and then high gloss white painted in two-pack.

I bought a matching Cambridge Azur 640BDBluray player and this was my system for the next 2.5 years until I started on the build of my dream home.

 

While I didn't have the ability to completely ground up design a house to suit cinema/listening, I did modify an existing plan to make work for my intended purpose.  I have an empty bricked cavity adjacent to the cinema so I modified the framework to accommodate  a future subwoofer to be flush mounted into the wall.  I added sound batts throughout the room and two layers of sound check plaster on all surfaces.  I pre-ran large gauge speaker cabling to accommodate a 7.1 speaker configuration and ran HDMI, cat6e etc cables.

 

In the meanwhile I collected some more equipment I wanted for my final "achievable" dream system.

Cambridge Azur 840A Integrated Amplifier

Cambridge Azur 840C CD Player/DAC

Cambridge Azur 640T DAB AM FM Tuner

Sony CDP-CX355 300 Disc CD Player

Sony TC-WE661 Double Cassette Deck

Yamaha WXC-50 Streamer

Dynaudio Excite X14 speakers (Rear)

Dynaudio Excite X22 speaker (Centre)

Dynaudio MW182 Woofers (Front subwoofers)

Crown XLS1502 Sub amp x1

Eclipse Titanium Pro 18" 3000w RMS subwoofer (TC Sounds)

 

Unfortunately the 840A came to me dead on arrival so it was sent to a friend who not only repaired it, he did every upgrade he could.

 

As the house was nearing completion, my father and I set about building a pair of subwoofer enclosures for the Dynaudio MW182 front subwoofers.  These would act as stands for my existing bookshelf speakers albeit with a dense foam isolating pad between.  The are designed and styled identical with the same overkill construction.  I decided to do a full colour change to satin black to match the new furniture I was designing and building for the dark grey/black room.

 

I designed an built a tv unit featuring 8x 4RU locations to give ample room and cooling for all of the equipment with a little room to add on later. 

 

I also built the largest enclosure I could that would accommodate the system subwoofer flush mounted in the wall.  this was using multiple layers of 25mm MDF, braced and fiberglassed internally and externally, then lined with sound absorbing foam.  It may not be the perfect dimensions but I didn't anticipate such a monster sized cinema subwoofer.

 

With help from Elias (a member here) , I installed, wired and gave the system a quick tune which is where it sits as current.

 

I can't wait to do a proper calibration and get a second Crown Sub amp (im borrowing an old PA amp for the 18" woofer at the moment)

 

Pics: enjoy

Edited October 28, 20214 yr by broadz

Absolutely sensations result @broadz - you should be proud. Great story too.

I see you are as still as dedicated to whatever you do, as much as you were in the car audio days. Well done.

Thanks Marc for your kind words, 

 

Ever since "that one time" when i thought i could simply "buy" results I've pushed and pushed to learn the skills to listen to advice and do things almost entirely myself.  I've learned so much going down this path and its such a rewarding feeling.  (I'm sure you know the event i'm talking about)

 

Given a larger budget, I'd probably do things a little different with better equipment but overall I'm over the moon with the results for so (relative) little spent and a large portion bought used from these very forums.