not to brag, but look at what I got as a wedding gift!.. i mean we

[shateredsoul1979]

A good friend gave me and my wife these speakers for our wedding gift. Here's his description of the speakers, not sure what it all means as I'm not an audiophile, but I'm just excited it's not a toaster or towels  

A number of choices were made in deciding to build this particular speaker. First, the designer, Paul Carmody, is very well regarded in high end diy speaker circles; this speaker has an excellent sound reputation with good bass extension (F3 = 34hz), and has been constructed / vetted by many people. Also, the designer named it "the Amiga" after a video game, and I thought shateredsoul might appreciate that.

We spiced up the cabinets that we built, so I'll brag for a bit. They measure about 34 inches tall, 8 inches wide, and 14 inches deep. They are covered in flame maple, with solid wood baffles (where the speaker drivers are on the front) of figured eucalyptus blue gum, and a hand rubbed oil finish. They sit on heavy black plithes with nickel spikes that are adjustable to level the speaker and couple the speaker directly to the floor, improving the sound imaging and bass quality. They do not have grill fabric over the raw drivers; grills adversely affect sound reproduction. Plus, we think they are quite beautiful naked, but grills could be constructed or added later if needed.

[Grimoz]

Very Awesome, I think is worth bragging about!!!!! Oh and congrats on the wedding.......I think!!!!! 

[lilshawn]

wow... those look great.   are they ported on the back/bottom or a sealed enclosure???

congrats on the wedding!

BTW your "F3" is what the speaker and the box is "tuned" to. IE: when playing a particular frequency it has a natural resonance... the combination of the speaker and the box together. the speaker will have a natural resonant frequency (FS) but when paired with the enclosure, it will change. (back pressure waves, bass ports etc.) often audio enthusiasts will build a box to complement the natural frequency to attain boost in that frequency. in your case 34 cycles per second. or 34hz. if you where to play a 34hz tone through your speakers and measured it with a decibel meter you would find it would likely be loudest at 34hz.

now here is the interesting bit:

you have (what looks to be) a 6 1/2 inch driver with a 34hz F3. often this is only attainable with larger speakers (8/10/12 inch woofers). someone really knows their math.  

[shateredsoul1979]

Not sure if it's ported or sealed on the back/bottom. He sent me an e-mail with the pics and info since they're still not fully finished yet. Now I just need to start saving for a receiver. It's funny because we had a hunch that he'd make something for us, he's been doing woodwork since he was a kid. The wifey thought it was going to be a table or something so she was really excited. Then I find this out! I'm super excited, her not as much. Just need to save for a receiver now... and a bigger tv (it's his tv in the pic).

wow... those look great.   are they ported on the back/bottom or a sealed enclosure???

congrats on the wedding!

BTW your "F3" is what the speaker and the box is "tuned" to. IE: when playing a particular frequency it has a natural resonance... the combination of the speaker and the box together. the speaker will have a natural resonant frequency (FS) but when paired with the enclosure, it will change. (back pressure waves, bass ports etc.) often audio enthusiasts will build a box to complement the natural frequency to attain boost in that frequency. in your case 34 cycles per second. or 34hz. if you where to play a 34hz tone through your speakers and measured it with a decibel meter you would find it would likely be loudest at 34hz.

now here is the interesting bit:

you have (what looks to be) a 6 1/2 inch driver with a 34hz F3. often this is only attainable with larger speakers (8/10/12 inch woofers). someone really knows their math.  

[boardjunkie]

Nice. I would power them with something older that is made to good quality standards. Silver Pioneer, Marantz, something like that. Have it gone over and recapped. Once they're brought back up to proper operation, that old stuff really performs. Anything new is junk for the most part.

[drventure]

The wifey thought it was going to be a table or something so she was really excited. Then I find this out! I'm super excited, her not as much.

You could always put em up against one wall with a slab of glass over them and call it a side table 

Seriously though, your friend does some nice work. And congrats on the wedding!

[Vigo]

Congrats! I'm sure anybody who tries to leave their beer on top of one of your speakers is a candidate to have their head chopped off.

[brad808]

wow... those look great.   are they ported on the back/bottom or a sealed enclosure???

congrats on the wedding!

BTW your "F3" is what the speaker and the box is "tuned" to. IE: when playing a particular frequency it has a natural resonance... the combination of the speaker and the box together. the speaker will have a natural resonant frequency (FS) but when paired with the enclosure, it will change. (back pressure waves, bass ports etc.) often audio enthusiasts will build a box to complement the natural frequency to attain boost in that frequency. in your case 34 cycles per second. or 34hz. if you where to play a 34hz tone through your speakers and measured it with a decibel meter you would find it would likely be loudest at 34hz.

now here is the interesting bit:

you have (what looks to be) a 6 1/2 inch driver with a 34hz F3. often this is only attainable with larger speakers (8/10/12 inch woofers). someone really knows their math.  

If you play a 34hz tone through and measure its frequency response you should only get sound at 34hz. If you send white noise through the speaker and measure it you will likely find it's higher at 34hz.

[shateredsoul1979]

Nice. I would power them with something older that is made to good quality standards. Silver Pioneer, Marantz, something like that. Have it gone over and recapped. Once they're brought back up to proper operation, that old stuff really performs. Anything new is junk for the most part.

Thanks everyone, oh and for the one congrats on the wedding and speakers.

As far as the receiver, what does it mean to recap it? Is that to make sure the receiver is still shielded and works well? As I said before, I know nothing about receivers. I went to fry's a while ago with another friend who was looking for a receiver with HD sound or something like that, can you recommend a receiver (old or new) that works well with current gen stuff? I know the ps2 used to have some special output for a certain type of audio cable (can't remember the name) but is there a certain type of connection I should be looking for in an audio receiver?. 

[HaRuMaN]

TOSLINK cable? 

Go for a good receiver... I have an Onkyo with 7.1 sound, and love it...  The one I have upscales and sends everything through one HDMI cable, which means only 1 cable running to the TV. 

[shateredsoul1979]

TOSLINK cable? 

Go for a good receiver... I have an Onkyo with 7.1 sound, and love it...  The one I have upscales and sends everything through one HDMI cable, which means only 1 cable running to the TV. 

Yeah he recommended I get a 2 to 3 year old Onkyo receiver. What model do you have? I'd like to look it up

[HaRuMaN]

I got the ONKYO TX-SR608 (new) on sale at Newegg for $380.

[shateredsoul1979]

looks like i'll have to wait for something like that, the tx-sr706 sells for around that price, man.. so many rgb plugs, does it do a pretty good job of upscaling older consoles? Have you tried it?

http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-TX-SR706-Channel-Theater-Receiver/dp/B001AMSOYG

[HaRuMaN]

I have not tried it.  All my older consoles are hooked to my CRT TV.  Only the the Wii, PS3 and 360 are hooked to the main LCD TV.

[Unstupid]

Denon FTW!   

[HanoiBoi]

I've got 2 Onkyo receivers that I picked up about 2-3 years ago;

Onkyo TSXR806 (Silver)  http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=TX-SR806&class=Receiver&p=i

Onkyo TSXR706 (Black)  http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=TX-SR706&class=Receiver&p=i

I purchased one as refurbished directly through Onkyo at shoponkyo.com and the other as 'open box' or 'scratch and dent' through Crutchfield.  Both appeared brand new to me and both sound great.

If you aren't opposed to refurbished, you can save a few bucks.

Oh...I had a PS2 hooked up to the 806, but I don't recall any special cabling for the audio. 

I've got the 806 in my theater area and the 706 is hooked up for the bar TV and touchscreen jukebox, all going to ceiling speakers.  With the Zone 2 feature, I can send music to some speakers and send the TV audio to other speakers (via a speaker selector).


UPDATE: Edited post to add details.

[RayB]

Meh. Too big considering what kind of great audio you can get out of small speakers today. And second, those exposed speaker cones are going to be full of dust within months.

[shateredsoul1979]

decided to get a Onkyo TX SR600, I don't need the video upscaling.

.. just waiting for the right auction so I can get it for $100, completed auctions range from 60 to 100, buy it now ppl are asking 150 to 200 =/

If anyone knows someone selling one please let me know 

@ RayB, yeah.. but it's a gift and hand made, which is what really matters to me. I'll deal with the dust, no biggie.

[HaRuMaN]

Just turn the speakers up, I'm sure they'll blow out any dust.... lol

[lilshawn]

Just turn the speakers up, I'm sure they'll blow out any dust.... lol

LOL!!