Peter and Ken were here for over 4 hours andI really enjoyed thier company, was great meeting them, and they tweaked a few things. I will let them post thier opinions of the system, but it is ready for anyone that is interested in an audition. Took a few pictures of them and they are below. I want to thank them again for thier time and knowledge, it is greatly appreciated and hope they take my offer of returning again with wives and family for a BBQ.
Peter [left] & Ken comtemplating how to get all of the Halos into Peters Car
Looking Innocent
The Escape
Progress Of The CD Cabinet
re: the CD cabinet...
Holy ^%$^%... you don't do anything half way, do you. Does it come with an elevator or just one of those rolling ladders ?
Very cool. Wow, that is a ton of equipment.
Man, you'll need a set up like this to get at all your CD's.
Wine Fairy
Where do I begin, and how can I do it without resorting to colorful expletives? Screw it.
Holy f***ing s***!
After a small amount of tweaking, most of which was with the EP600, I can honestly say that the system Dennis has assembled is the best I've ever heard in a home, possibly even better than any system I've heard anywhere, including demo rooms at high-end shops. (It's been a while since I heard those Revel Salons....) I have to admit I was a bit worried that the room would be too reverberant, given that it is tiled in marble and is flanked by a kitchen to the left and a glass patio behind. Despite the size of the space and the hardness of its surfaces, I noticed no echo or undue brightness that you'd expect from 14 (14!!) titanium tweeters firing all around you.
One negative impression Ken and I both did share when we first arrived was that the sub was obviously not dialed in properly. As we all know at this point, Dennis had other priorities (i.e. the gorgeous CD shelf, and various areas of flooring throughout the house). After listening to a few tracks on the untweaked system, Ken and I explored the C2 processor's menus and got it dialied in to where we thought it sounded best. To those interested, we set the front 3 M80s to large, the surrounds (2 QS8s and 2 M80s) to small, and set the EP600 to fill in at 60Hz and below. By default, the C2 doesn't divert bass to the sub if your mains are set to large, so we needed to enable "enhanced bass" mode. Believe me, even though the M80s produce great bass, the absence of the EP600 was immediately apparent. I also poked around on the EP600's rear panel and noticed that its boost setting was at full. After consulting the manual, we determined the recommended setting for the room size was flat. We corrected the setting and immediately noticed the resonse became much smoother. All boom literally disappeared. The EP600 is the best sub I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. Period. End of story, and it's not even being driven by a Halo.
With the system calibrated and level-matched, we threw disc after disc after disc into the Denon 2900 and were continually impressed. We discovered halfway through our listening session that the Denon hadn't been calibrated for multichannel discs yet, so we put the SPL meter to use and remedied that quickly. With SACDs, the QS8s were able to throw a wide image to either side of us and well behind us, even though they are positioned just a hair forward of the listening couch. In DTS:Neo6 mode, we noted that the front imaging remained true to the Stereo source, but just gave it an extra oomph of ambiance that we very much preferred over plain stereo. We also founf that Neo6 was clearly better than DPLIIx on most material. DPLIIx would push imaging out toward the peripheries and seemed to veil the midrange a bit.
The discs we threw in ran the gamut of genres from bluegrass to metal, classical to classic rock, and more. Everything we put in seemed to give us a new revelation. "Wow! I've never heard
that before!" was a common utterance. Notice how I have exclamation points in that comment. Very rarely did the SPLs in the room dip below 80. The more we listened, the louder we could take it. Ken held up the meter at one point and it was reading around 100db. And the speakers and amps were ao nonchalant about it. If they could talk, they'd complain about their ununsed potential and beg for more.
(Perhaps that's what Jimmy was alluding to when he thought it was a waste of money?) But you WANT unused potential. You want power in reserve. You want to KNOW that your system is capable of more than you'd ever ask of it. I'd better shut up before I talk myself into upgrading my perfectly functional Onkyo....
Last but not least, the host review. Dennis is a kind a gracious host who needed no calibrating whatsoever.
He made us feel welcome and immediately at ease in his home. He must also be very trusting because he gave us complete control of his system for the entire time we were there -- even after his bad luck with a former visitor. I am also convinced that had we stayed any longer he would have invited us to crash for the night. As good guests, we would naturally have refused politely (after thinking on it a bit
). We departed with earfuls of fantastic sound and bellies full of food -- yeah, he fed us too.
Friends, this man spent his money well.
Great review, Peter. I'd be scared to listen to a set up like that. To be truthful, the potential damage to my wallet is the frightening part. Wow, to play around with so much good stuff--you guys are lucky. Dennis sounds like a great guy and a gracious host. Makes me wish I lived closer to Oakland! Nothing a short (9 hour) drive can't fix. . .
Dennis, your set-up looks spectacular, and I bet it sounds just as good. Congratulations!
Capacity will be 840 discs, as soon as I finish this, I will be making a companion DVD cabinet, not as wide, but they will be attached together in a " L"' patttern, and will live in the only vacant corner of the HT area. Hope to have both finished up this week, will se how many interruptions I have. LOL
Well we do have a guest room, and a nine hour drive is short to the dives I made regularly from coast to coast. LOL So if you have a reason to be in the area, please let us know, been many years since being in you neighborhood.
I have had a few comments about allowing people to play with the system. All creidt for doing this with ease goes to Axiom/Parasound. The M80s are tested for 100 hrs at 1,000 watts, and only rated at 400 watts, the Halos are capable of more than the 400 watt rating, but no where near enoguh to damage the 80s. In the past weeks, I have put the Halos through some very strong testing to see what they can take, they have run at what most consider high volumes for a continous 36 hours. So other than the EP600 making the house complain a bit, there is not much chance of damage being done to the Axioms/Halos by playing with the settings or volume control.
Now that Peter and Ken have done their tweaking, I have made a list of settings, so if a roomie or a visitor tweaks to his preference, its easy to reset. Also I have 5 preset speaker tweaks, which when I have time, can be set for differance media, or listening preferences.
After having the guys here tonight, at least now I can safley take a request for an audition and not need to worry, I still have many projests to work on before I will have time to read manuals, do some setups, program the MX-700 and a few other things. Really need to order the hardware and start work the jukebox, as I don't want to be changing discs all day long.
Peter, thanks so much for the kind words, it was more than my pleasure to have you and Ken here, and please, feel free to visit anytime, especially if you have any CD/DVD that you want to play on the system. When you return, at least the new cabinets will be in place, and not just have piles of CDs, all the DVDs are in another room in a few piles. LOL Was in a hurry to get the mega changers shipped out, so just dumped stuff where ever it found a home.
Well its late, going to crash for a few, and then back to work, take care, and thanks again.
I LOVED the thumbs down photo! LOL! I haven't laughed as much at any pic since Peter photoshopped Ray and I into Grumpy Old Men.
Dennis, I'd say that would qualify as complete vindication. Great review Peter! Of course all of us here on the forum are aware of your mercenary bent, and I strongly suspect that Dennis paid you off.
(for any newbie that might be reading this, few things could be less likely. Peter, as much as anyone I know on the forum, would tactfully call a spade a spade).
We can only speculate what motivated Jimmy, but it's beginning to appear as though he had a basic case of audio envy. I know I do!
Dennis, one question. How DO you intend to reach the CDs on the top shelves of that rack? if you have any problems with the MX-700, just call on Ray.
Well you notice we haven't seen a pic of Dennis yet.It seems everything is his house is of a grand scale.I'm begining to think he is about 7 foot tall and can't stand anything being small.Maybe he will just reach up and grab any cd he wants
Peter,that was a great review.It was such a good thing for you and Ken to give a helping hand tp a fellow Axiomite.
Dennis,
All was great to hear and see!
Good on the guys to help with the sub settings, I know that is one area where I could use some help...
And your woodworking skills look amazing! That CD shelf is beautiful. And I cannot wait to see the finished cabinet, make sure you post shots of that when it is done.
Oh yeah, you built houses. I almost forgot.
I'm getting ready to try and build a new shelf system for my stuff as I cannot seem to find anything out there that I like. But I know it will not come out anything like what you have built. Wow!
Anyway, congrats on the great system, and the beautiful pieces to put them in / on.
Now we all have three guys to be jealous of.
You, and Ken and Peter for getting to hear it all!
Tom
PS: have you gotten any notes back from the guys at Axion about how all of this has been coming together? I'm surprised they all haven't made a road trip down there to hear it!
>>PS: have you gotten any notes back from the guys at Axion about how all of this has been coming together? I'm surprised they all haven't made a road trip down there to hear it!
I think they're waiting for Ian to add the extra M80s and that second EP600 to his home system... "Gentlemen, we can not allow a speaker gap".
Think I have mentioned in a few posts that Alan has a friend in the bay area that he hopes to visit soon. He has seen Parasound products, but has of yet auditioned any. Alan has been a great of great assistance in the amp issues, and I have offerd to have him visit when he is in the SF area. Hopefully it will be soon and his schedule will permit the time for it.
Have not actually talked to Ian as of yet, ratehr imagine he is a busy person. But from what I have been told, like I, Ian likes his music rather on the loud side, so I think he would enjoy the sound of this system.
Actually a second EP600 is still on the list of additions, just that the Halo system killed the budget for a time, not sure when I will be able to have it arrve. Mayb e a x-mas present from some nice person that feels sorry for a lonely subwoofer in need of a brother. I think two of them side by side would look very impressive, and match the pairs of rear M80s and QS8s one sees when entering the family room.
Jack, still working on that issue. LOL Either I will make a matching step stool/ladder, or purchase something unique to fit the area, right now, the budget can hanldle a 5 gal a plastic bucket from Home Deptot.
tharkun- glad they could 'tweak' it out a bit, and get your system sounding great. kinda surprised those two jokers managed to get anything done.
peter/ken- thats cool y'all went over and helped out. i would love to see and hear that system myself. would definitely be a new experince for me.
bigjohn
I'll post my impressions in a little while. To sum up... Yeah, this was the best setup I've ever heard. Wow. Thank you, Dennis!
Hi Peter, Dennis, Ken,
Excellent account of getting Dennis's system tweaked and very sharp of you to spot the "Full" setting on the back of the EP600. Thanks for the great write-up. I'll make sure everyone at Axiom sees your summary.
We've been busy at Axiom, otherwise I might have zipped out to Oakland to check out the system. Ian was up at the National Research Council in Ottawa with some colleagues, an EP500, EP600 and some M80ti's, doing tests. Tom, our in-house electronics engineer, who designed the digital amplifiers and DSP algorithms for the subs, sits on the board of the Consumer Electronics Association (formerly the EIA) so he had to go off to Washington, D.C. for meetings after a few days with Ian at the NRC.
I'm stuck here cranking out the next Axiom AudioFile newsletter among other things. . .
Also liked the photos. Great work!
Regards,
Peter, you remain surprisingly tall.
Ken - and I say this with great respect and in friendship - eat. Really. You know, yummy fats, meat, carbs, whatever. You need a retreat with bigjohn.
Very enjoyable thread. Thanks so much for sharing.
In reply to:
Peter, you remain surprisingly tall
i wasnt sure if he was tall, or if ken was short?
In reply to:
You need a retreat with bigjohn
i dont normally leave much for others.... hope he has quick hands!!
bigjohn
Great write up Peter. BTW, where's the pic of the sub?
Good lord, you're contemplating a 2nd EP600?
Twin EP600s were in the origianl concept, just that the funds were re-directed to solve the amp issue. The pic below is from a previous post, was going to take a pic of Peter & Ken by the sub, but forgot about it. I'll take some more detailed pics of it later today, if I don't space it out.
Its been moved more to the left and not in the corner now, this is where the new storage cabinets will live, DVDs on the left, CDSs on the right.
Previous sub position
Notice the arm of a couch toward the bottom of the right-hand side of the picture. That's where the prime listening couch is located, and where Ken and I sat the whole time we were there (in between trips to the CD tray, anyway). The sub is only 6 feet away from the middle of the couch, but darned if we could tell where the bass was coming from. Unless you stand right in front of the thing -- and therefore feel your clothing flapping in the prodigious amounts of air moving in and out of the port -- it blends in so well to the texture of the music, it's sonically invisible despite its ominous presence.
Bravo Axiom. I bow to your engineering prowess.
I just remembered something about calibrating the sub. We discovered that the one of the best ways to dial in a sub to the right level is to use a recording that features a cello. Ken brought Bela Fleck's
Perpetual Motion, which features a number of excellent cello tracks. One toward the end of the CD is particularly good because the cello does a virtual sweep of frequencies from high to low quite often.
Too high a setting on the sub will bloat the cello's resonances and muddy up its low end. Too low a setting will leave it sounding thin. Of course, it helps to know what a live cello sounds like, but the effect of too much or too little sub in the mix should be apparent to most people with working ears.
Great write-ups Dennis and Peter. I have to admit I am a bit envious of Peter and Ken. I have always enjoyed calibrating a system, sitting there afterward basking in audio bliss, and this is one of those systems that you can bask in for hours. Kudos to you guys, and Dennis...AWESOME THEATER MAN! I hope I get a chance to see it this summer.
Also, now that it is all dialed in, don't let ANYONE mess with your sh*t.
Hey, we're didn't say it's as dialed in as it's ever going to get. But it is to the point where you have to ask the question, "Could it possibly get any better than this?"
Its to the point where any one with a critical ear that wants to audition Axioms should at least admit it sounds good, even if they do not care for the Axiom line of products.
But then that could be asking a lot. LOL
OK, let's get this started...
Dennis likes it LOUD. I don't know if everyone realizes that or not, but that's what makes the Halos necessary. That, the rather large room (which doesn't look as big as it is, sort of like his TV in the pictures), and the M80s. At low(er) volumes, like around my maximum volume (!) the system sounded remarkably similar to my M50s. However, once we started getting the volume up around -12 on the C2 and 92 dB or so (which took awhile for us) they really started to shine. Those things (m80s, QS8s, EP600, and Halos) just kept going. It was like being at a concert or in an IMAX theatre. Every time I thought something was going to get harsh or overdriven, the power was there and the speakers put out. Even the QS8s! Take that, you QS12 nuts!
The EP600 is a truly amazing sub. It was a hell of a lot of fun to watch it go. On the second to last recording we put in (darned if I remember what it was), it had AT LEAST an inch of travel going on. Yet the notes were still discreet, and it was not boomy in the slightest.
I hesitate to say this (sorry Saturn and mwc), but the M80s with the EP600 driven by the Halos were the best I have ever heard (with the only slightly possible exception of the Revel Ultimas). Better than the Magnepans. Better than Paradigm Studio 100s. Better than Hales. Better than B&W.
As for the alleged brightness... yes. It was bright. But that's what well recorded stuff IS when it's played at high volumes through accurate speakers. Early on, we thought that DPLIIx-Music was better than DTS:Neo6 Music because it chopped off the treble. Later on, we realized that we were losing accuracy and enjoyment because of it. The only difference between DTS Neo 6 and Stereo (other than the obvious) was the broadening and surrounding nature of the sound stage. Other than that, the voicing sounded the same.
The soundstage of my M50s is to my ear just as good as the M80s at the volumes I listen at. This was a bit of a relief; and impresses the fact that placement is really, really important.
Thank you again to Dennis for giving us free rein on his babies and for his hospitality. It was a blast. Literally...
wow.......just wow. Dennis, i think you just became my prophet for upgrade-itis! great write-up you guys! makes us all wish we were there! (at least i know i speak for myself!)
Wow! It sounds like this system sounds as pretty as it looks. I love the look of those Halos. Especially in comparison to the my ugly Outlaw gear. If only I had an extra $10K burning a hole in my pocket...
Tharkun...has Outlaw responded to you regarding the 770 you sent back? I'm really curious if they found anything wrong with it. My guess is it was fine...just couldn't handle the load.
In reply to:
If only I had an extra $10K burning a hole in my pocket...
...I'd be right there to catch it when it fell through.
"Capacity will be 840 discs, as soon as I finish this"
Really? That's all?
I did a quick "well those saw horses look THIS wide" conversion, and I figured it at well over a thousand.
Looks WAY taller than mine, and that's what mine holds.
Oh Ch#*$t,
I'm in for it now, aren't I?
Shelves are 24 - 5/8" wide, holds 60 cds, and X 14 shelves. The overall height is 107.5 ", including the 3.5" kick toe base.
One reason for the extra height is each shelf is faced with a piece of 1 x 2 oak ( 3/4' x 1.5'), this conceals the dados for the shelves, so every shelf adds 3/4' to the height. I only allowed 5.25" inches for the cd, or else the darn thing would have been even taller. LOL
The height is not a big concern, more important, was that it need to fit in a specific area and hold as many CD/DVD/PS2/GC that it could, and fill a rather uselss corner. I will still need to build anotehr unit at some point, but that will go in the puter room, which is next to the family room, so it will work out eventually I think. LOL
That seems insane to me, with a quick "count and multiply" here I'm at about 250 CDs and I'm struggling to find other CDs when I feel like new tunes. Even with money and availability no object, I'm not sure I could top 500.
Bren R.
Well there are 3 people living here, so all do not belong to one person. Also one roomie gets about 20 per year as x-mas presents from realtives in the east, easy thing for them to shop for. lol
Dennis, you should know that the first thing out of Peter's mouth when he came home was along the lines of "Oh. My. GOD!"
Count me in on the next trip out there, Peter & Ken.
"That seems insane to me, with a quick "count and multiply" here I'm at about 250 CDs and I'm struggling to find other CDs when I feel like new tunes. Even with money and availability no object, I'm not sure I could top 500. "
Yeah, Me Too! ;-)
Actually I am starting to hit the wall as well.
But, I am somewhat of a binge buyer.
Got into Electric Miles, and had to have it all. Then all of the acoustic stuff with his two important bands. Same with Coltrane. Then it was on to Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. Geeezzz, that Jazz thing is really the bottomless money pit!
I'm kind of a complete-ist. All of the Los Lobos. All Dave Alvin, ect, ect...
And I go through fazes. Jazz, Latin, Dylan, John Lee Hooker, Live Zappa, whatever, and kind of go crazy for a while, devouring everything I can get my hands on.
And there are some guys that I just think deserve to be supported because of their commitment to their craft, and I want to do my little part to see that they get to continue to record. David Grisman, Dave Alvin, Rick Shea, Wilco, blah, blah. So I'll buy anything they put out.
I don't listen to a lot of it all of the time, but when I want to hear something, I can pull it out and listen.
Hey, it could be worse. Could be Slow Horses, Fast Women, & Cocaine!
Or Halos and M80s! ;-)
In reply to:
I hesitate to say this (sorry Saturn and mwc), but the M80s with the EP600 driven by the Halos were the best I have ever heard (with the only slightly possible exception of the Revel Ultimas). Better than the Magnepans. Better than Paradigm Studio 100s. Better than Hales. Better than B&W.
Hey, thats cool! I haven't heard the M80s but I've heard Brady's (bray) very impressive M60s and to me they sounded as good as any "box" speaker I've ever heard (also with the exception of the Revels and the 800 series B&Ws). Judging by what Brady's M60s sounded like, I can only imagine that five M80s must sound incredible. But you gotta' wonder what five 1.6QRs would sound like in the same setup in the same space.
I'll give you that. That's why I specified "system" and "that I have heard" Hey, you got it, I wanna hear it!
Frankly, I think the EP600 made a huge difference; it's really an incredible sub.
Okay, I will admit I had condisedered the Magnepan MG 1.6, I have heard them and really like the esthetics of them. They were ruled out for two reasons. First because of the lay out of the room, the fronts would be a real problem, as I still have an issue with an M80 and a firplace.
Second was the Bengal cats, they have a lot of the 'wild' in them, and seek out and climp to the highest places they can find. Both have managed to climp up a 48" smooth surface only to sit and observe things, balanced on 1.5" wide surface, so they would be perched on top of the Magnepans all the time. All of that flat surfaces would just be a tagret for climbing.
Both have already taken over the top of the EP600, and do jump to the tops of the M80, but as of yet, have not managed to knock them over. Also have not managed to put a scratch on then yet, and are not attraced to the grills, so all is well so far.
In reply to:
not attraced to the grills, so all is well so far
a cat that is attracted to my M60 grills = a dead cat!
bigjohn
I have some terriers that can probably help with your cat problems
I've heard from other Maggie owners that cats and Maggies don't mix well.
In reply to:
a cat that is attracted to my M60 grills = a dead cat!
as well as one that would fist your port!
hehe, have watched them, and seem to be content two or so inches from the ports, lay there and enjoy the air and music, strange cats.
Thanks Adam, gald they enjoyed the vist, and if you want to come out and hear the system, ya don't have to wiat for them, I'm always around here doing something.
>>a cat that is attracted to my M60 grills = a dead cat!<<
After what i heard you do to ports your going to blame a cat for its fondness of grills.
Dennis, that's a pretty neat little system you have there. Probably could use a tad more power though, ya think?
That is awesome! I'd love to hear it one day...any thoughts about maybe a 'rolling audition' that will span from coast to coast? A couple of 18 wheelers, a roadie or two and make sure you have tour date set for south Florida, OK?
I have to tell you, I was showing these pics to my wife last evening and telling her about all of your stuff, *trying* to keep the drool off of the keyboard and after a couple of minutes looking at the pics she says to me 'Beautiful marble tile!'
Jeeeezus.
Say thanks to your wife, the marble will be nice once its all finished, still have about 500 sq feet to set, and then all the grouting, not looking forward to it. I may just pay a tile guy I know to do the grouting, does not take a master tile setter for it. LOL
Actually will be down to Diseny World next spring, have a membership in the vacation club, this year its DL out here for the 50th,. Its better when we goto WDW, as we have a choice of any of the condos, out here, just stay at the Grand Califonia in the parks.
But not hauling the Halos to FL, you will just have to take a vacation out west.
>>But not hauling the Halos to FL, you will just have to take a vacation out west
Or you could just agree on a time when you open your windows real wide in FL and Dennis turns the system up real loud in CA.
Good idea, how about 8am (EST)
In reply to:
In reply to:
I hesitate to say this (sorry Saturn and mwc), but the M80s with the EP600 driven by the Halos were the best I have ever heard (with the only slightly possible exception of the Revel Ultimas). Better than the Magnepans. Better than Paradigm Studio 100s. Better than Hales. Better than B&W.
Ken: The M80 with EP600 and Halos would kick most Magnepan models. With that combo the Magnepan by itself would never get down to those subterainian levels. Also the M80 might also outperform in localization and imaging of players on the stage. Magnepan is kinda surrounding sounding and pin pointing is in a general area...you know what I mean...as you have heard Maggies before. Also Maggies has a sweet spot of about 3-4 feet. Outside that space the soundstage breaks up a little. But within that sweet spot the midrange is to die for.
I wished I could have listened to that setup. It would have been awesome.
Holy %^#$... those cabinets are just for CDs and you're doing ANOTHER one for DVDs ? I figured you were finished -- one side for CDs and the other side for DVDs...
kinda OT but I'll ask...
How do you get your pics in line w/ the text like that? I can't seem to get the HTML text right to point to my picture's URL.
Well I finished the first CD and well thinking, decided to make room for future purchases, and not wanting to re-build, made storage for 1,230 CDs, and the DVD/PS2/GC storage will be for 280. Once the cabinets are full, no more buying discs.
Also did not like the look of just the corner cabinet, the new plan wil make more sense when I have the pics of the next cabinet in place.
>>How do you get your pics in line w/ the text like that? I can't seem to get the HTML text right to point to my picture's URL.
First and foremost, your pictures need to be stored on a web server so that you can type in the URL of the picture itself (not a page with the picture on it) and see the picture in a browser. Just saying this "in case..."
To make the image appear in a post, just do the following (I have to spell it out bit by bit or the site will grab what I type and try to turn it into an image...) :
1. Open square bracket
2. The letters IMG
3. Close square bracket
4. The actual URL, ideally pasted from the browser address line where you confirmed the picture could be viewed (this solves a lot of problems)
5. Open square bracket
6. A slash "/"
7. The letters IMG
8. Close square bracket
That should work. Good luck !
Thanks John, saves me all the typing.
Cool, lemme try that...
. Didn't work.
tried
Try it with a known good image first. Paste the URL below into the IMG stuff and see if that works...
http://home.interlog.com/~johnb/ht/qs2.JPG
Hold on, maybe it's supposed to be lower case "img". I type it in so much I don't really know what I'm typing any more. I'll see if that works in your other thread...
EDIT -- doesn't look like the site you are using will allow itself to be used as an "image dispenser". Webshots is like that as well. I believe photobucket works OK if you don't go through the TinyURL interface.
Just to make sure the Axiom site is still working properly, here's a known good image :
... and here's the same thing using upper case IMG :
Problem is definitely related to the use of TinyURL.
And again... Yeah, it's tinypic. Photobucket it is...
Mmmm... cables...
i was also gonna comment that has got to be the cleanest, dustfree behind the entertainment center pic i have ever seen. if you were to look behind my cabinet, you are liable to find the 'dust bunny' of easter past. i swear i can hear the vacuum coughing everytime i try and clean back there.. which, by the way, aint very often!
bigjohn
Wait, you're supposed to clean behind the entertainment center?
You're kidding right? After I posted this, I noticed the drywall dust on the floor and had to sponge it up. Yes, I can be that anal, but that doesn't mean my house is spotless. My 2.5 year old sees to that.
You didn't see the dust elephants behind the av stand that I removed. It's clean here because I just set it up last week...
i at least try and give the wife the impression that i am trying to clean back there..
shannon has what i like to call 'house sweeps'. some people may call it 'spring cleaning', but that dont make sense when we do it in november. anyway, she gets all crazy, and wants to move all the furniture, and pretty much wipe everthing down from top to bottom. baseboards/trim/window seals/etc.. everything gets cleaned.. and the entertainment center is my department, so i give it the best effort i can. in fact, the next cleaning should be rolling around here in the next 4-5 weeks, so be watching for the big dust bowl moving north from texas!
bigjohn
Yeah, Jen and I trade off being pissed off about the state of our house. I think it's getting better lately (or we have more energy or something), but 3 weekends ago we finally started cleaning out the Back Bedroom of Doom! Now I just need to finish cataloging all the receipts so we can do taxes...
...and then you'll realize that the amount of CA sales tax you paid is either
less than the CA income taxes you paid -- you do have to choose whether to deduct your itemized sales tax OR your income tax when filling out the 1040 -- or less than the
predicted average sales taxes (pdf) paid by your income bracket. Then you'll kick yourself for keeping all those receipts so long. But at least you'll
know.
The DVD cabinet is in place now, along with the shelf between the cabinets, next project is to install the oak ply on the wall behind the sub, and to wrap and trim the opening to the puter room in oak. Hope to have the oak all finshed this week, and ready for the second 600.
insane man.. just insane..really nice!
i forgot you had ordered another 600.. you better double-stick tape EVERYTHING in that room.
bigjohn
Ya, lots of stuff going on that top shelf, was going to search on the forum for that earthquake stuff that was mentioned a few weeks ago.
Earthquake stuff.
I use funtak or some call it bluetak. Works well for me.
There are two products: Quake Secure and Quake Hold.
Both were designed to prevent items from falling off shelves and other flat surfaces during earthquakes.
I currently use Quake Secure on a shelf in close proximity to my SVS 20-39 PC+ on which my wife has a collection of angels. I have all four attached to the shelf and the shelf to the wall with Quake Secure and I can literally rattle the door adjacent to the shelf with the sub but neither the shelf nor its contents move...
I believe you will find the product more than sufficient for the double bass attack you have planned.
My .02 with the product. YMMV.
Live from Austin, Texas.
WhatFurrer
Tharkun
1) Wow. VERY nice cabinet.
2) You need an iPod so you don't need to store all those CDs...
3) It's WAY obvious that there's no kids around 'cause that thing just screams out playground ladder. I can't fathom which would be louder at my house: the fall against the marble, the eventual screams of pain, or the waterfall sounds of CD cases being pulled from shelves.
Ah, thanks, saves me searching posts, those are the two I was thinking of, need to order a good supply, lots of stuff in the house that needs to be secured before adding the second sub.
Also, no kids in the house, but have the Bengals, which are into climbing everything they can find. LOL
Yeah, I use bluetak on my M22 stands. As well as anything on a shelf.
In reply to:
Ah, thanks, saves me searching posts, those are the two I was thinking of, need to order a good supply, lots of stuff in the house that needs to be secured before adding the second sub.
A couple of packages should suffice to start with...I have one package and still have about a third of it unused...and all kinds of items secured with it...
Not to mention that the shipping address for the Quake Secure is (if memory serves me right) somewhere near San Francisco so getting more should be a non-issue for you.
I tried the blue tak and although it worked okay for a while, it eventually lost its "stickiness" and worked itself loose...Never had that issue with the Quake Secure.
Again, YMMV.
Live from Austin, Texas.
WhatFurrer
Holy crap, Dennis! I gotta admit that from earlier descriptions, I couldn't visualize what you were intending to do. Even after you posted the pics of the CD units in place, though impressed by your [envy]carpentry skills[/envy], I wasn't all that impressed by the look, and couldn't figure out where the hell you were gonna put the DVD rack. But seeing, in that photo, how the DVD rack so nicely balances the CD racks, and imagining the how the oak ply on the wall, and oak trim around the window to the puter room will tie everything together, I am FLOORED by how good it's all going to look. I profoundly HATE this man!
In order to reach the top shelves, what you need to add now is one of those library ladders that, at the top of the ladder, runs along a track on the top of the cabinet, and has wheels on the bottom so you can slide it to whichever cabinet you need. Nah! For the few times you'd need to get to the top shelves, that might just be overkill.
Thank you for the compliments Jack, after long hours on this project, its starting to take shape. But as usual, this project has the normal domino effect. The opening to the puter room has been a long 'what to do' thing. So the dual subs started the whole thought process of making them the main focal point when entering the area through an arched opening from the front door.
So the next plan is to start a renovation on the puter room, the modular desk system has worked, but is not the most space efficent system. With the oak cases and subs driecting the eyes to that area, going back to a plan of a year or so ago, and install a T & G pine ceiling (stained to mach the oak work) in the puter room, then build new desks in a U shape, with book cases/storage on the 3 walls from desk top to ceiling. This should only take a few months, but will have music for motivation. LOL
Any suggestions/comments are welcome.
Psssst..... Hey.... Guys!??!
Wanna see me get Dennis to upgrade again? Watch this!
"Hey Dennis!
I bet 'ya it would look excellent if all your Axioms had an oak finish!"
Look-
He's dialing Axiom NOW!
LOL Oak was a contender, but no regrets. Eventually when the theater recliners/platform go in, they will be in a similar colored leather as the Axioms, and with so much light colored wood in the rooms and the solarium, wanted a statement contrast, and my interior designer agreed with once again, so I won out.
There are days that I still wonder if the oak Axioms would have went just as well, will never know cause I'm not upgrading for it.
In spare time, have managed to start the HT page if any one is interested.
AWESOME!
