OT: Surround Sound?

[tony sayer]

Yes fine they'll be for TV sound. You might be well advised to have a look around for some second-hand hi-fi grade speakers. A couple of Tannoy's would be fine. I picked up a pair of QUAD 11's for 150 a while ago and there're excellent for that sort of application..

Or if you've got time spare you can make up some half decent DIY ones they used to have kits of them around you can make some very good units that way which will blow away the computer active speakers and or sound bars.

I think you'll be quite surprised how much better good sound reproduction can make most TV viewing a better experience....

[Huge]

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Anyone with sense would identify any TW&E before making a new connection to it. And at least it's the right way round - speaker volts ain't usually going to kill you.

[Steve Firth]

Street and bought a kit to make some loudspeakers from domestic sewer pipe from them. Sounded excellent.

My wife made me go to the builders' merchant and buy new pipe. For some reason she wasn't keen on my recycling the ones we dug out of the ground.

[Huge]

I remember those. I was always a bit dubious about how well they would work..

Oh, well.

BTW, my current speakers (a design from HFN&RR from the 70s entitled "A No-Compromise loudspeaker for the home constructor") were built from bits bought from Wilmslow.

BTW2, I believe the firm has changed hands several times since then.

But if you'd dug them out of the ground, they'd have matched the coffee table made from railway sleepers.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

At one time, it was the holy grail to have the speaker enclosure as rigid as possible. Brick built and sand filled ones all figured somewhere. So a cheap ready made solution wasn't a bad idea.

However, in the late '60s BBC, research suggested you could use controlled flexing of a carefully designed cabinet as part of the 'voicing'. The result of that became the Spendor BC1.

[Huge]

My home-brew ones are internally braced and lined with concrete ...

The look on the face of the removals man when he attempted to pick one up was quite amusing.

Hmmm, I should think that was very much an empirical process, the requisite finite element analysis software not being available for a couple of decades.

Although these have a good reputation, AFAIK.

I'd like some new (better) speakers, but I fear my hearing is no longer up to it.

[Dave Liquorice]

For the human voice yes, not so good for music.

[tony sayer]

In article , Dave Liquorice scribeth thus

And why not?...

[whisky-dave]

People with sense would avoid many of teh things that H&S state. Think alone the lines of teh lines on ladders.... The contains nuts on packets of peanuts etc... It's not for me but future wire cutters.

Well no unless I cut through mains cable that I thought was audio cable, that was my point.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Really? You learn something every day. ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If you go around cutting through the 'wrong' cable, does it matter?

[whisky-dave]

Depends whether or not you survive doesn't it. if soemone says the mains cable in the loft is used for audio and it's your job to clear it personally I'd check every cable, but if you relay that info to an apprentice and they get electrocuted who's to blame. But then again I spent quite a while tracing back some old mains cable to find it was used as bell wire. I know someone that wss told to remove all the old 4 core & screen wire, and he eneded up cutting through the ehternet cable, it's a pain when two cables or more look the same and arn;t labeled.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I would, since I'd not cut into any cable I wasn't sure was safe.

Anyone who takes a householder's word about what a such and such cable does will soon learn or die. ;-)

Having several mains TW&E close together without knowing exactly what they actually do is commonplace in any house. So a few more - for speakers - won't make any difference. But no harm in marking it as such.

[Steve Firth]

I have Tannoy monitors at the moment. I'm planning to change them for (passive) dual concentrics sometime soon. I thought my ears weren't up to it but I took August's advice and bought some Etymotics earphones. Astonishing difference to sound quality - the only problem us they show up bad recordings. For example I have an extended edition Who's Next. This has the original tracks then the same tracks recorded at a new performance in a modern studio. The difference between the recordings is barn door wide. Can't hear much of a difference on my old Beyer cans. Slight difference with newer AKG headphones.

[Dave Liquorice]

Lack of balls and level mainly. Compared against the LS3/7 or LS5/8. The speech studios had BC1's but anything that did music had LS3/7 or LS5/8's.

There might have been something "odd" about the top end or was that just delicate tweeters that didn't like tape spooling against the heads?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The requirements for a pro monitor are vastly different to a domestic one.

BC1s (apart from perhaps the earliest ones) are perfectly capable of delivering as much level as most would need in a domestic setting.

The HF1300 was used in lots of speakers - including earlier BBC 5 series monitors. Like the 5/1 which used two, and the 5/5 which used one. But you're right - spooling tape against the heads wrecked many a speaker. As does plugging/unplugging mics etc when faded up or a multitude of other things that simply don't happen in a normal home. ;-)

[Huge]

Yes, but I'm a Napalm Death fan .... :o)

[John Williamson]

So as long as it reproduces constant amplitude square waves well, it'll be okay. ;-)

[tony sayer]

Well for monitoring in recording studios where everyone's getting a bit deaf perhaps .. but in a domestic setting perficke;)..

I don't think any speakers like being overdriven by tape spooling;!.. Not thats much of a problem anymore!..