Negatron II

NBPK402

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Here is a pic of the new AV Rack space frame. I contracted a wood worker yesterday to build the cabinet for me. The cabinet will b build from my old 1 1/2" thick shelves. All the old shelves will be joined together, sanded, and refinished with a cherry stain. He also will be making the shelves from plywood which also will be stained for me.
The carpenter was booked up, so the rack will not be ready until sometime in October...so we will be working on the amp build once I get the rest of my connectors.
received_1397224970429202.jpeg

When you look at the space frame you can see my adjustable shelf supports. The supports are made from 1/2" solid aluminum bar stock that has been tapped for threaded rod. The threaded rod was locktited, along with a nut.
 

NBPK402

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Here it is testing out config of rack. I also have some of the pieces of wood on top to show somewhat what the rack will look like when finished. The thick wood shelves are going to be cut, and joined together to cover the top and both sides. Amp case is just sitting there...I have a few parts I am still waiting for. Amp should be completed sometime this month, and the rack sometime next month.
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NBPK402

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Thanks, I am loving the way this one has come about. This is my 3rd DIY build rack (1 flexi, and 2 8020 racks in the last 4 or 5 years. I am still debating on wether to have some doors, or leave it open. Will be glad when it is done, so I can hookup my wife's turntable too, as it will be sitting on top along with 1 surround channel speaker.
 

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Looks great... leave it open!!
 

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Love the look of the rack, do you notice that the shelves the amps are on look a little stressed? I wonder if those supports need to be either braced or run all the way across?
 

NBPK402

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Love the look of the rack, do you notice that the shelves the amps are on look a little stressed? I wonder if those supports need to be either braced or run all the way across?
When I pull it down I will see if a washer will remedy the stress. I think on the Yamaha pro amps I will do each on its own shelf as they each are pretty heavy.

I could also just put the amps on the bottom shelf as there are no 1/2" supports on the bottom.
 

NBPK402

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I have a feeling a washer will take care of the problem as I just removed the weight and it still angles down. I am thinking it is the fact that the 1/4 20 threaded rod, and the rectangular nut in the t channel allow movement (tilting, not slippage). I noticed that even my Pioneer BR player shows strain, and that is very light. The rods are solid aluminum, and do not appear to be bending at all.
We will see what happens when I add washers between the nut, and the t channel.
If that doesn't resolve the issue... I will see if I can get some aluminum tubing that will slide over the rod, and connect both ends.
 

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Well I found a good deal on some rp150ms in cherry so I ordered 4 of them. These will be for 2 surrounds, and 2 Atmos channels for now, and when I get my k402s... I will have the 4 rp160ms for surounds, and the 4 rp150ms for Atmos. If I ever find 1 more in cherry I will have my VOG channel too.
At least now I will be able to listen in surround again till the bad boy fronts are made. I will have a complete Klipsch setup except for the subs. The RP150Ms will have 250wpc for power, and the RP160Ms will have as much as 400w (if they dip down to 4 ohms). The RP160Ms, are 4db more efficient so I think I can use either the Yamaha or B&O ASX125BTLSs for power.

Which do you think would need more power...The 150s, or the 160s. The speakers are rated for 300w, and 400w max power.
 

NBPK402

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Just checked with my carpenter, and the rack should be done, and delivered this coming week. It is looking pretty good already. He has it attached to the 8020 rack, and is now working on a wood trim for support, and the shelves. All of the wood is Mahogany with the top, and sides being 1 1/2" solid Mahogany wood. The shelves are made of 1/2" mahogony veneered mdf, with a boarder of a South African Hardwood on the fronts (maybe the sides too if he has enough). This trim wood is beautiful, and I brought it down to Mexico when we moved. I wish I had bought more as it could have been used to accent the 1 1/2" wood too.
I will post up pics as soon as I get the rack delivered, and the shelves installed.
 

chrapladm

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Sounds great. Look forward to the pics. PLUS it will give me some more ideas for my own build.
 

NBPK402

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Just got lucky, and found a pair of k402, minus the drivers, and stands! I have plenty ok EV dh1a drivers so they were not needed, nor was the stands as I am going to be having some cabinets made for them.
This means I should have my front 3 Synergy horns early next year!
 

NBPK402

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Today the carpenter delivered the rack! It turned out great as far as I am concerned... $100 labor for all the woodwork. I still need to install the turntable XBOX ONE, PS3, 2nd Yamaha Pro amp after the XLR jack arrives, and the 10 channel amp, once it is completed. I also need to buy some more XLR cables that are the correct length...right now I am running 75' cables to go about 6'. lol
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NBPK402

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I hooked up my old KLH sub (20year old $100... I know it is small, and cheap, but I thought it would at least take the load off from 80HZ down past 40HZ.) as a passive sub (old amp plate died) using my Yamaha MX4080 in bridged mono mode to the woofer (removed the amp plate), and ran YPAO. Now the strange thing is YPAO switched my speakers from small to large, and when I switched them back to small YPAO had also switched my crossover from 80hz to 40hz. I re-ran YPAO again, and it did the same.

Why does it insist on switching my RP160Ms, and RP150Ms to full range, and switch the crossovers to 40HZ.
The only thing I can think of is the speakers have more output at 40hz, than the little KLH does...does this make sense?
 

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I have had that happen with Audyssey in my Denon's with various speakers in the past, so it's not unheard of, although I can't say how frequently it happens otherwise. Seems like I remember a few others that have had the issue.

With Audyssey however, I don't think it matters with the xover if the mains are set to Large... as the xover only engages when there is a subwoofer recognized and the mains are set to Small. That 40Hz xover may be for the other speakers in the system.
 

NBPK402

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I have had that happen with Audyssey in my Denon's with various speakers in the past, so it's not unheard of, although I can't say how frequently it happens otherwise. Seems like I remember a few others that have had the issue.

With Audyssey however, I don't think it matters with the xover if the mains are set to Large... as the xover only engages when there is a subwoofer recognized and the mains are set to Small. That 40Hz xover may be for the other speakers in the system.
The strange thing is currently my RP160Ms are my largest speakers, and they are bookshelves...in a few months they will be replaced with the k402 Synergy which should go to 40hz (I hope).
 

JStewart

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YPAO would always set my mains to large in my current room. I have a strong mode at 45hz though and always suspected it as the cause. Have you checked with REW to see if there’s any strong output at a low frequency? Or maybe try moving the mic to somewhere else just to see what happens.
Like Sonnie I would just manually set the speakers to small afterward and the XO to 80. Seemed to work fine.
 

NBPK402

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YPAO would always set my mains to large in my current room. I have a strong mode at 45hz though and always suspected it as the cause. Have you checked with REW to see if there’s any strong output at a low frequency? Or maybe try moving the mic to somewhere else just to see what happens.
Like Sonnie I would just manually set the speakers to small afterward and the XO to 80. Seemed to work fine.
Thanks, now that I think about it...in my old HT! My JBL Surrounds would come up as full range, and my JBL 2360s with bass bins would sometimes come up with the crossovers set at 100hz, when the bass bins easily went down to below 40hz.
 

NBPK402

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I just ordered a new phone preamp for the rack... I will be receiving a Musical Fidelity MX-VYNL Phonostage. Picked it up from Upscale Audio for $749 shipped ($999 msrp). This should be a nice upgrade from the ART phono preamp we currently have. The new preamp also has balanced input, and balanced output in addition to RCAs.

Meanwhile I have been plugging along at trying to get my CQC Home Automation setup running. I hace been using Photoshop CS3, and I am not familiar with it so so am awaiting CS6. I am using a Samsung Windows 7 tablet, which has an excellent screen. I will post up some rudimentary pics of my screens later.
 
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NBPK402

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Yesterday I decided to run my new Monoprice 12 gauge 4 conductor wire...man that was hard! I almost fall off the ladder trying to install 2 of the runs in 1 channel! After working on running over 200' of wire for my front 3 channels, I then reran my old Monoprice 12 gauge 2 conductor wire for the 2 surround channels. All the wire I have left now will only be good for short runs. This means I will need to buy more 2 conductor wire for the front 3 height channels, right side surround, and the right rear surround. At least the rest of the wire will only be 2 conductor, and each run will be 15-20' shorter due to not having to go down to the ground like the fronts, and surrounds did.
What made this so hard is the black Monoprice wire is...very heavy, not flexible at all, and very hard to remove the black sheathing as it is like pvc tubing instead of pvc sheathing.

At least now we have no speaker or XLR wires running on the floor , under the couch, or under the carpet runners. I only have 1 power cable running under the couch so we can run my tablet (which is my home automation tablet), and for charging our phones. My calves, and back are pretty sore today from everything yesterday, and my knee is better from my almost falling from the 10' ladder. Would have been very painful if I had fell on the marble floors.

Attached is one poor pic from my tablet showing my AVP screenshot with only a few basic things on it. On the left hand side are all y sources, and on the right are my buttons to turn on whatever group of amp channels I want. For now I am displaying the individual channel status as leds on the bottom right.The setup is just a beginning of what I used to have 10 years ago with my display graphics. I hope to get everything working over the next year.
20191116_191427.jpg
 

NBPK402

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I decided this weekend tossed how Linux has developed since the 1990s when I used it last. I tried Linux Mint, and it was nice, but then I tried Linux Manjaro, and I really like it. I also decided to give jRiver another try (I have always liked it, but I have never been able to get it to be stable after a few weeks...sometimes days on Windows 7), so this time I am trying it on Linux. I upgraded from MC 24 Windows to MC26 Master so I can try it in windows, and Linux. For some reason it appears to actualy sound better on Linux. I do not know why, but it does to me,and so far both are running stable.
 
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