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Brandon Hartwick

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Hello everyone šŸ™‚

Last December I finally purchased my first house and have been very slowly getting things sorted out. I've finally set aside some time to get my whole audio system setup and dialed in, not just pushing out sound. Earlier this week I started playing vinyl every night just to get a feel for how everything sounds and WOW! Does this ever sound badšŸ¤£. It's SO bright, absolutely melt your face bright to the point most detail is just lost in distortion.

Some of you might have seen my previous thread "My apartment setup" and you'd know how much I loved the sound of that system in the relatively small but very well damped room. I had carpet everywhere and sound diffusion panels right behind the speakers, solid cement walls and floors with all equipment on spikes do isolate any vibration. My new house is very old and has these beautiful oak strip hardwood floors everywhere, the downside is they pickup all the vibrations from both the speakers and subwoofer. It was actually so bad the turntable would pick up the vibrations and play them back through the speakers creating a horrible boomerang like hum. For the moment I just stuck a towel under it, I know it's bad but it works for now.

So now it's time to create solutions to all these issues so my system isn't beat by a $200 sound bar. First off is isolation, I'm installing rubber isolators under the AV cabinet and getting the speaker base plates finished this weekend, they will have isolation feet as well. If necessary I'll build a platform for the turntable to sit on with its own vibration damping but we'll leave that for later.

The walls are all currently bare and will be a huge reflection source so the minimum I can do for now is getting the acoustic panels I already have hung. The hardwood floor around the listening area could do with a thick rug since it's likely a first reflection area. I do have measurement mic but it's currently packed away somewhere and I'll have to figure out how to use it again.

My kitchen opens up directly to the living room so a lot of listening is just done standing when I'm making dinner.
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This is the primary sitting area, I think a rug would do well here.
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Behind the speakers gives a better overview of the whole room. I'm thinking this archway over the couch is likely also contributing to some of my issues.
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Ceiling treatment is 100% on the table, I live alone and I do what I want!
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This 21" slot ported subwoofer might be contributing to some vibrations, just a hunch. It might not be the best solution for bass, but it sounds surprisingly clean.
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Setup is the same as before, until my Krell KRS2 arrives next week.

Schiit Freya +
Jeff Rowland Model 1 for the panels
Crown XLS for the woofers
Dayton 4X8 DSP for active crossover duty
Behringer EPX2800 for subs
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Speaker base plates getting ready for fresh paint, these are 3/8" steel plate.
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AV stand and speaker bases all painted up, the finish matches a car I used to own that I painted years ago. I did the base plates to match

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Just received my Krell KRS 2 preamplifier šŸ˜. This thing is an absolute work of art both inside and out, the 2 chassis and power brick weigh about 50lb all together. Unfortunately the phono ground got busted in shipping so I need to repair that before really trying it out.
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AV stand and speaker bases all painted up, the finish matches a car I used to own that I painted years ago. I did the base plates to match

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Just received my Krell KRS 2 preamplifier šŸ˜. This thing is an absolute work of art both inside and out, the 2 chassis and power brick weigh about 50lb all together. Unfortunately the phono ground got busted in shipping so I need to repair that before really trying it out.
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Brandon that stand looks fabulous! And yes Krell equipment is a work of art under the hood I agree. Hereā€™s a look under the hood of my KSA 100 MK II all recapped and brought to factory specs in late 2022
 

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Thank you! I'm extremely happy with how everything turned out, so much so I'm debating on painting the black MDF portion of my speakers to match. Unfortunately the beechwood top I had made was NOT anywhere near as dry as what it was supposed to be and has since started cracking and warping. I need to locate someone with a 15"+ wide wood planner to fix it. Tonight I'm going to build a cedar top with wood from the hardware store so I can at least setup my equipment while I find someone to fix the existing top.

That dual mono Krell amp looks fantastic, at one time I was looking at some of their smaller mono blocks, they were a beautiful brushed silver with gold nameplates but I have since forgotten the model. I never use the full power my small JR amp makes anyway so it's more than enough.
 
So I got the cabinet top finished this afternoon and got my system all back together finally. This is the first time hearing it with my new Krell preamplifier and with the speakers properly isolated from the floor. I gotta say this all made a really big difference, just getting the speakers on bases with the rubber feet has made a very noticeable difference in the sound. I have midrange closer to how it should sound and picked up some punch. The Krell KRS2 has loads of gain while still remaining transparent.
 

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So I got the cabinet top finished this afternoon and got my system all back together finally. This is the first time hearing it with my new Krell preamplifier and with the speakers properly isolated from the floor. I gotta say this all made a really big difference, just getting the speakers on bases with the rubber feet has made a very noticeable difference in the sound. I have midrange closer to how it should sound and picked up some punch. The Krell KRS2 has loads of gain while still remaining transparent.
What kind of wood is that? It's beautiful.
 
Brandon, looking good, and good to see the progress.

But one thought I had seeing these latest pics is regarding the location of the ESL speakers, as the lack of symmetrical reflections is probably skewing the soundstage. One option might be to experiment with making them a monopole by blocking the rear wave using some foam absorbers to create a rear chamber. Anything that absorbs evenly from 250Hz on up should do.
It's easy enough to experiment in a non-destructive manner, and you might find the same improvement I found doing that to my center channel.
 
@JonFo you're definitely correct on the lack of symmetry but in the real world is doesn't really cause much issue. That speaker is also over 6ft from that back wall with the subwoofer and I really like looking through those transparent panels lol.

I'm going to be adding room treatment everywhere, the walls, the floor, ceiling. This house is all mine and I can do whatever I want. I currently have six 4' X 4' acoustic panels in the works to go on the ceiling so when I have more to show I'll add more content

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Little update, over the weekend I decided to give the speakers a new paint job to match my cabinet and bases. These turned out fantastic and I'm really thrilled with how well it ties everything together. The original black wasn't in the best shape being over 20 years old.

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After messing around with subwoofer placement my hooking up my Hertz 12" and moving it all around the room it turns out that the original location was the best. It also turns out that 12" subs sound rather than compared to my RCF 21" šŸ˜…. The RCF is out to get a proper box made.

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It's actually just red cedar from the hardware store, I took 2X4s and sliced 1/4" off each side to square them then clamped & glued them. I sanded from 60 grit to 220 then used Rubio Monocoat to finish it
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Wow that is one serious anti-warping system. Well done Brandon.
 
Nice job on the speakers for sure!!! They look great!! As for the subs, Brandon do you have room behind your listening seat for another sub??? When you use multiple subs one behind the listening position works real well. Iā€™ve used the Earl Geddes multiple sub method for years now I also have a pair of his speakers that are hand built by him. Here is a link on his multiple sub set up method. I used REW wizard to do the measurements on my three subs, and this methods WORKS believe me. I use it with all three of my speaker set ups without making any change except to match the volume on my single driver horn speaker 300B set up (no line stage preamp) with my Odysseys or the Geddes speakers they both are used thru the line stage preamp and the 3 subs parameters are set in the dcx-2496 that also controls the woofers on the Odysseys (actively crossed over) sorry for the long winded replyšŸ˜‚ and hereā€™s the link.
https://mehlau.net/audio/multisub_geddes/
 
@DanR unfortunately I don't have room behind unless I build it into the cabinets below the counter. Although I do have some room directly beside the couch or possibly inside the couch if I get creative.

I'm actually very surprised how well the RCF 21" woofer sounds all on its own, I get really clean bass that hits you right in your chest, it reminds me of my car audio days. I do still have 4 12" subwoofers left over from my apartment setup that I've been looking to put to use but I'm not sure what to do with them yet.

I'm working on drawing my whole floorplan in AutoCAD so once that's done I'll post it up and it'll give people a better idea of what space I have available.
 
@DanR unfortunately I don't have room behind unless I build it into the cabinets below the counter. Although I do have some room directly beside the couch or possibly inside the couch if I get creative.

I'm actually very surprised how well the RCF 21" woofer sounds all on its own, I get really clean bass that hits you right in your chest, it reminds me of my car audio days. I do still have 4 12" subwoofers left over from my apartment setup that I've been looking to put to use but I'm not sure what to do with them yet.

I'm working on drawing my whole floorplan in AutoCAD so once that's done I'll post it up and it'll give people a better idea of what space I have available.
Oh yeah I get it on how good the big subs sound. My main sub is an 18ā€ Maelstrom-X which they donā€™t make any more but man you are right it goes low and hits hard as well.
 
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