Hikin', Tyin', and NEIPAs On Leap Day 29Feb20

Kala & I got out on the Academy on the awesome Leap Day weekend. We definitely needed the micro-spikes however as the morning chill thankfully hadn't melted the ice. Later in the day the talk of fly tying with mates finally inspired me some to get to the bench. I mostly tied the Bronx midge (Manhattan variant) in purple but other midges are getting loaded for the pre-BWO onslaught. Accompanying our hike and spa and my tying were some NEIPA trials of limited release. The GD Hazy is always good when released but the experiments from Melvin and 4 Noses were even better, Mind Bloom and Revised Copy respectively are worthy of tastes - if you can find them.

Nearly Yeap Lear 28Feb20

Discussing with some (okay - just my subconscious), I conclude Stella is a breakthrough artist... she shreds, she writes, she wails, she's Aus. Check the unadulterated on Tiny Desk...

 So there's that - along with her vibrato.

Nest Theater Part Two - Extending Mains & Tuning 26Feb20

The Nest theater is first and foremost a critical listening system... I'm focused on building a great 2.1 system that may or may not get augmented with a center channel with the addition of a "TV." I am not interested in surround and Dolby and all that... just the best tunes I can manage. Improving on the DRC BLHs was fun.

 

I added a HSU ULS 15 Mk II to cover the ultra low end. This is a sealed 15" sub with an integrated 2000 watt BASH amp and flexible crossover settings. I prefer sealed subs as they typically deliver tighter bass responses and the 15 Mk II is musical, not just a LFE delivery system. The sub is a boon in delivering deeper stuff than even the horns could. Listening and measuring suggested tweaking to attenuate some out of line booms created in my non-ideal subwoofer placement and integration with the horns. More on that later in equalization. See for now the great low end added.

I "stole" the very fine Russian Viawave SRT-7 supertweeters from the Blodgett theater. They help the high end of the DRC BLHs but frankly not nearly as significantly as they did when bolstering the Paradigm Research system in COS. The Fostex driver in my horns already delivered great high end to 21KHz. Still, improvement is noted especially in fast acting instruments like high frequency percussion. The SRT-7s are also very efficient and in integrating them with the BLHs I really didn't even need the variable attenuator, but it's there. I built a new supertweeter "cabinet" from the same material as the BLHs - those holders are actually further finished in showing the flat black stain I'll use throughout the system.

After integrating and adjusting the sub and supertweeter in the audio path, I went on to measure the full system and add EQ filters to JRiver. I got rid of some low end booms as well as a mid-freq shout I was experiencing. Recognize the scale of the graph makes the adjustments seem extreme but we're dealing with just a couple of dB at most here and there. All up the new system, equalized properly for the room and my speaker placement, is awesome.

So I'm pretty happy thus far...

Trees & Steeps With Sheldon And Gumbo With Kala 23Feb20-25Feb20

The Sunday storm left roads asunder with travel just from Silverthorne to the Frisco exit on I70 littered with stoppages and cars & trucks sliding off the roadway. The Crusher handled it well but I didn't want the 90 min drive over Vail Pass to get to Vail and then back so we flipped and hit our local Keystone spots. Dave Sheldon and I hit soft bumps and nice tree runs all day before we bailed as more crowds appeared and Dave headed down mountain. Always a blast.

Monday brought squalls and white-outs so Kala and I hunkered down and watched this season's Homeland to get up to date... Carrie Madison & Saul are awesome again and the material is incredibly timely. On Fat Tuesday though we had a plan despite the temps in the teen... we headed to the gumbo cook-off at Keystone. Fortunately organizers moved the event inside which was good for temperatures but made it a little packed. Nonetheless we had great food and good time listening to Chris Daniels & The Kings. We both liked and voted for an awesome seafood gumbo with crab, oysters, shrimp and okra topped with a fried oyster by Keystone Conference Center. Happy Madi Gras!

Nest Theater Part One - DIY High Efficiency Speakers - The DRC BLHs 24Feb20

In a remote and esoteric corner of the audiophile realm lies a particularly rare combination of pursuits - high efficiency full range speakers AND do it yourself. I embarked on designing and building my own horn speakers a month or so ago and now have completed all but the staining and finishing (which I'll need to defer till the weather is warmer)! The speakers sound incredible and can be driven loudly with only a few watts. Bass output is amazing given just a single smallish driver - the power of horn physics. These things, while not too large, are beasts and weigh in near 100# each. This is the first stage of a new theater and listening room for the Nest. The new speakers are being driven so far by a NAD D3045 for testing but will eventually get their own amp and DAC of suitable unadulterated designs.

The design is a back-loaded horn, BLH, and depends on 20 feet of wrapped sound channel within the cabinet to produce the bass frequencies from the back of a full range driver. The Japanese make great transducers and I chose the Fostex 168E∑, an efficient, ~95dB/Wm, full range, 51Hz-21KHz, 2.5#, 6.5" driver. I perused as many cabinet designs as I could find appropriate for this driver and then created a variant of Nagoaka's D37. I refined the horn mouth with an exponential curve and adjusted several internal braces and dampening aspects. I used 9 ply 15mm Russian Baltic birch plywood throughout for the cabinet - the pair required four 5' X 5' sheets. I prepared cut plans for the sheets and had CO Lumber acquire the material and make most of the initial cuts. From a pile of parts I measured, verified, marked and organized the project; I'm building new matching audio shelving too.

The moment of truth comes quickly as one begins to "add value" to each piece with drilling, gluing and clamping. The first effort was to create a mounting for the driver - if I screwed up early here I would just need to cut a new panel with a driver hole. It went fine and the new WEN drill press made nice vertical holes. I used #10-32 screw-in nuts which will accept my #10-32 black machine screws and allow me to install and remove the driver easily. Fortunately the dry fit of the driver was successful.

My basic assembly technique was to use gobs of Titebond III (strong, long working time, water cleanup) spread on with a foam brush as appropriate. Then I'd clamp, measure, and reclamp or screw if needed. I did this for days. The first assemblies were a set of 3 stacked sticks cut into triangular sticks I'd use inside the cabinet for support. Then I built the lower horn mouths.

With my chops whetted I realized I'd need more glue ultimately and bought 2 more pints! The next steps were to methodically glue, align and clamp the outer and sound channel boards & assemblies to one side panel. First though I did a dry fit of all the parts to be attached to the side panel.

After completing the entire internal sound channel on each speaker I added the bottom and braces from internal horn parts to the back panel. I also filled the chamber below the driver with sand. I want the cabinet to be very solid and inert as to producing sound - I just want it to reflect sound, not vibrate and lose efficiency. I also obviously added the binding posts/jacks before buttoning up the second side.

I carefully joined and screwed the second side to each speaker and played the functional (but not finished) pieces for enjoyment and test. Test successful. I actually built two different lower horn mouth designs and can trial and measure each - kind of like tube swapping but actual horn physics altering. I like the expo horn most so far.

As mentioned, these are beasts... I completely covered the side panels each with additional outer panels (lots of glue) and clamped them. I beveled the outer panels for a more finished look ultimately - I'll carry this 45° bevel throughout the pieces in the Nest theater. I also added some base plates and sound isolating feet... again employing the screw-in nut scheme. I reinstalled the Fostex drivers.

The DRC BLHs are ready for listening, finishing and measuring. One can't buy speakers like these unless they were commissioned custom... and then the price would be exorbitant. I know they may have extended range issues at the highest and lowest ends of musical frequencies but wow most of my range of hearing is covered ever so sweetly.