Post by garym on Aug 16, 2016 19:22:00 GMT -5
I have a screened back porch where I spend a lot of time in the evenings in the spring and summer. Always wanted an audio system out there, but since the back yard and porch are open to the world I worried about thieves, especially after some free-lance socialists helped themselves to an 8" Celestron telescope I kept there a few years ago. I installed an alarm system and video cams after that (and have had no thefts since), but still wanted a system that would be small and inconspicuous, yet sound decent.
Here is my solution.
Back porch with system hidden:
Notice the little porthole in the blue panel on the back window seat? That's to allow the receiver to see the remote control's IR signals. It's the front 1.5" of a dollar store flashlight.
Removing the cushion and raising the lid on the south window seat reveals the subwoofer and a pair of high-pass filters. Pull out the false panel to expose the subwoofer grill, close the lid and replace the cushion.
I was a bit limited in the choice of subs, since it had to fit in that space. I chose Dayton's 80W 8-incher. It wouldn't suffice for movie LFEs, but handles music just fine. Since the amp I'm using (a high-current, 100 wpc Sony STR-GX67ES I've had since '91) has no subwoofer pre-out I had to connect the sub via the high-level inputs on the subwoofer. Those connections are pass-through, with no high-pass filters. So I added 100 Hz filters to the outputs back the main speakers --- $17 apiece at Parts Express. They are visible in the pic.
Removing the cushion on the west window seat reveals the speaker terminal cups.
Raising the lid reveals the Sony, its remote control, a Grace Digital network receiver (which pulls files from the music server upstairs) and the stored main speakers. Lift out the speakers, plug 'em in, close the lid and replace the cushion, and the system is ready to play --- just need a controller for the Grace Digital. For that I bought a $50 7" Android tablet off Amazon and installed the UPnPlay UPnP controller software (there are many freeware Android controllers out there; I like this one best of those I've tried).
The main speakers are Zaph Audio's "bargain minis." I built them a few years ago, mainly because I had materials left over from another speaker build and I was curious as to how they would sound (John Krutke --- Zaph --- praised them highly). Also, the drivers were cheap --- the MCM 55-1853 3.5" woofers are $11 each, and the Dayton tweeters $14.
www.zaphaudio.com/ZBM4.html
John originally designed the minis to use the Aura NT-1 tweeter, but those went out of production several years ago. I posted questions on several audio forums asking for suggestions for good replacements. To my surprise, John himself responded to one of them, and suggested the Dayton ND20FB. He'd modeled the mini with that tweeter in software (he uses Soundeasy, I believe) and modified the crossover accordingly. He cautioned, "I haven't actually built and tested the minis with that tweeter and crossover, so no guarantees."
Here is my FR/THD test result of the modified minis using REW:
If anyone needs a pair of small speakers, consider these. As long as you don't overdrive them and keep low frequencies away from them you'll be astounded at how good they sound.
PS: My router can reliably deliver up to 96/24 audio files without dropouts --- provided you send them as FLACs and let the renderer decode them, rather than having foobar (or whatever server software you're using) decode them to WAV first. That reduces the bit rate about 40%.
Here is my solution.
Back porch with system hidden:
Notice the little porthole in the blue panel on the back window seat? That's to allow the receiver to see the remote control's IR signals. It's the front 1.5" of a dollar store flashlight.
Removing the cushion and raising the lid on the south window seat reveals the subwoofer and a pair of high-pass filters. Pull out the false panel to expose the subwoofer grill, close the lid and replace the cushion.
I was a bit limited in the choice of subs, since it had to fit in that space. I chose Dayton's 80W 8-incher. It wouldn't suffice for movie LFEs, but handles music just fine. Since the amp I'm using (a high-current, 100 wpc Sony STR-GX67ES I've had since '91) has no subwoofer pre-out I had to connect the sub via the high-level inputs on the subwoofer. Those connections are pass-through, with no high-pass filters. So I added 100 Hz filters to the outputs back the main speakers --- $17 apiece at Parts Express. They are visible in the pic.
Removing the cushion on the west window seat reveals the speaker terminal cups.
Raising the lid reveals the Sony, its remote control, a Grace Digital network receiver (which pulls files from the music server upstairs) and the stored main speakers. Lift out the speakers, plug 'em in, close the lid and replace the cushion, and the system is ready to play --- just need a controller for the Grace Digital. For that I bought a $50 7" Android tablet off Amazon and installed the UPnPlay UPnP controller software (there are many freeware Android controllers out there; I like this one best of those I've tried).
The main speakers are Zaph Audio's "bargain minis." I built them a few years ago, mainly because I had materials left over from another speaker build and I was curious as to how they would sound (John Krutke --- Zaph --- praised them highly). Also, the drivers were cheap --- the MCM 55-1853 3.5" woofers are $11 each, and the Dayton tweeters $14.
www.zaphaudio.com/ZBM4.html
John originally designed the minis to use the Aura NT-1 tweeter, but those went out of production several years ago. I posted questions on several audio forums asking for suggestions for good replacements. To my surprise, John himself responded to one of them, and suggested the Dayton ND20FB. He'd modeled the mini with that tweeter in software (he uses Soundeasy, I believe) and modified the crossover accordingly. He cautioned, "I haven't actually built and tested the minis with that tweeter and crossover, so no guarantees."
Here is my FR/THD test result of the modified minis using REW:
If anyone needs a pair of small speakers, consider these. As long as you don't overdrive them and keep low frequencies away from them you'll be astounded at how good they sound.
PS: My router can reliably deliver up to 96/24 audio files without dropouts --- provided you send them as FLACs and let the renderer decode them, rather than having foobar (or whatever server software you're using) decode them to WAV first. That reduces the bit rate about 40%.
