The SWAMP! - Volume One

**drf** · **12-09-07, 02:24 AM**

Do you guy's in America get tired of haveing to consider dedicated power lines or heavyduty power strips when using high wattage gear? I remember a thread from last year where there was concern about cheap power strips (multi boards) being grossely inadequate for multiple amplifiers. And now this post about dedicatd 20 amp lines for the amps.

EDIT:

After talking about dedicated power lines for amps, heres one that won't need special power requirements:
My latest 20 watt/channel gain clone in reused case:
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and here it is in my rack:
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**atledreier** · **12-09-07, 02:40 AM**

Flip pic, flip pic, flip pic!

**drf** · **12-09-07, 04:35 AM**

Although the stuff in the rack looks wonky it really isn't. I measured it over and over and it is staright, it looks kinda straight in reality yet shockingly wonky in the pic

. Maybe I should give up on DIY audio and start building TARDIS's.

I took a step back and took this pic:
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**Chrisbee** · **12-09-07, 05:41 AM**

Car audio bass? Pardon?

More seriously: Doesn't loud bass become a drug where one needs an ever larger dose just to enjoy it? I remember when 107-8dB(C) RS SPL uncorrected from my SVS cylinder seemed amazing. My IB offers much of the same with extra reality and a greater sense of unlimited headroom.

After standing near car audio subwoofer demonstrations I can't say I like the effect of so many dBs at all. I felt the same about Wilson Watts/Puppies being demonstrated in a hotel room at the same AV show. The physical discomfort completely spoils the pleasure for me. If I just want to wreck what's left of my hearing I'll take the muffler off my car.

I am not being a misery about this. Each to their own poison. I just feel that pushing output levels ever higher is rather missing the point. The sounds on the LFE channel are meant to represent a form of reality. Not duplicate it exactly. We wear ear defenders to protect our hearing from awful reality. Should we now start using ear plugs at home in our AV rooms?

It is the huge contrast between quiet and loud which makes something exciting. A whole evening of metal rock music is just tedious. There is no variation below the endless roar and the almost inaudible screaming of the hoarse lead singer.

Action movies are getting a bit like that. The endless violent action and the tedious cacophony from the speakers and subwoofer is becoming more like a shoot-em-up computer game. There is no subtlety or surprise.

LOTR shows how it should be done. Quiet scenes are followed by loud shocks and then we are lulled by quiet conversation into a false sense of security before being shocked again. There is no room for vital humour when all is deafening madness from beginning to end. The sense of anticipation is completely lost. A violent fairground ride which lasted for an hour and a half would be completely pointless.

**Chrisbee** · **12-09-07, 05:47 AM**

drf: You have barrel distortion on your camera.

Just like in this picture of my IB manifold which is perfectly straight in reality.

**drf** · **12-10-07, 01:25 AM**

Quote:

Chrisbee wrote:

drf: You have barrel distortion on your camera.

No TARDIS for me then

**Fincave** · **12-11-07, 01:31 AM**

Morning all. How is everyone doing, what is everyone doing apart from taking 'wonky' photos? Am pretty happy that Christmas only comes around once a year, stupidly busy at work and still trying to find time to organise and plan my Christmas. Do not like going shopping at this time of year, too many people in one place!

**atledreier** · **12-11-07, 04:13 AM**

I'm eagerly waiting for my new center speaker, still....

It's my wife's birthday today, I got her tickets for a Bon Jovi concert this summer, all included.

**Sonnie** · **12-11-07, 10:36 AM**

Good Morning....

Those are some awfully crooked cabinets and boxes you guys built.

We shopped at a Bass Pro Shop this past weekend for the first time and that place is amazing. Expensive for the most part, but still amazing. Surprisingly it didn't seem all that crowded. We were with a large group of folks (about 20) and we all went to a place called The Fantail to eat. One of our favorites for all you can eat seafood. Then we went to the zoo to see the x-mas lights and were really disappointed. We took the zoo train ride and there was nothing special. All the lights were the same, just designed mostly like animals and rather boring. Driving through the neighborhood is more exciting.

We live about 45 minutes from Christmas City, USA... (they are actually incorporated) and there is where you can really see some light and get into the x-mas mood. They offer 2 miles of lights with scenes around a lake, 14 buildings featuring a real Santa Claus, retail merchandise and crafts, fine restaurant, pizza parlor, ice cream shop, live entertainment, puppeteer and magic shows, singing, square dancing and clogging, kiddie rides, trains, and more. We plan on going there probably this weekend.

**atledreier** · **12-11-07, 03:54 PM**

[RANT]
My center speaker was supposed to arrive today, but it didn't!

So I guess it'll be at least a few more days of

until

. If not, there'll be

[/RANT]

**Sonnie** · **12-11-07, 10:09 PM**

I got me a new toy in today... can you guess what it is?

**Fincave** · **12-12-07, 01:36 AM**

Morning!

At a first glance I would have guessed cell phone, bit of a closer look reveals it to be a remote. Looks nice, how big is it as the buttons look a bit small especially the ones for powering on and off. It does not appear to be a Harmony remote but has the same buttons 'Activities' and 'Devices'. You know we will want a full review.

**drf** · **12-12-07, 03:18 AM**

Its the centre console out of one of them new fangled mercedes

I love christmas, time to spend more time with the family, and my annual 4 week break from work

**JCD** · **12-12-07, 09:16 PM**

So how come you decided on this particular toy vs. the other similar toys?

JCD

**yourgrandma** · **12-12-07, 11:09 PM**

Is that Monster's remote? I think thats it, anyway. I looked briefely at the monster one, but when the harmony went on sale, that sealed the deal.

**Sonnie** · **12-13-07, 12:17 AM**

This is a Universal Remote ... MX-810. It's one of their newest models that has the Lithium-ion rechargeable battery and USB interface for easy computer programmability. The software for programming is pretty neat as well. Very simple to use as well.

I chose this one over a few others mainly because of the design and programmability along with the fact I'm a dealer and can get it at dealer cost.

**Sonnie** · **12-13-07, 02:58 AM**

Here's my review of the MX-810

**atledreier** · **12-13-07, 05:52 AM**

That looks awesome. I've been looking for something to replace my ageing Pronto (Marantz RC-5000i) I'm gonna look at this some more!

One question. How 'fast' is it? The Pronto display can take as much as a second to fully display a new page in the display. It reacts pretty fast to hard buttons, but the display is slooow. Makes the remote unusable for me and the missus especially.

**Sonnie** · **12-13-07, 11:23 AM**

I didn't notice any delays, but I'll pay more attention to that and let you know.

**atledreier** · **12-13-07, 06:34 PM**

Sweet!

**Sonnie** · **12-14-07, 01:54 AM**

I just notice you said "as much as a second". I press the button and it changes the display. I don't have anything to time less than a second, but whatever it is, it's plenty quick enough for me.

**atledreier** · **12-14-07, 04:18 AM**

Yeah, the Pronto will take as much as a second to fully refresh the new page, and be ready to accept keypresses. The Denon remote that comes with the AVR43xx series is the same way. I press a key to get a new page, I expect the new page to appear virtually instantly, not fade out, refresh and fade back in (Denon) or slowly clear and redraw (Pronto). It's bloody annoying when you know what you wanna do, but have to wait that one second. Sounds like a minor deal, but it gets old real fast.

**Chrisbee** · **12-14-07, 05:14 AM**

Delays when changing satellite TV channels are very irritating because they can never be reliably predicted. I prefer large dollops of instant gratification.

I'm listening to Stokowski's Mussorgsky on CD. (very loudly).

Chandos Chan 9445
BBC Philharmonic

Night on a bare mountain.
Boris Gudunov
Pictures at an exhibition.

Tremendous dynamic range!
Quite thunderous at times.

I love the pictures Moussorgsky paints. Dark, restless and moody.

**Sonnie** · **12-14-07, 03:20 PM**

I agree on the satellite channels... we use to have that problem with one of the receivers we had in the past. I hated the slow channel surfing... having to wait a few seconds for the channel to show up.

**Sonnie** · **12-14-07, 11:14 PM**

What's happening on a Friday night/Saturday morning?

I think I'm about to go watch a movie in the HT room. Yep... think I will.

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