We're almost ready to take a break for lunch and I have to say everything so far has sounded great. Perfect number of people in attendance and number of projects. Everyone has been extremely respectful and had their conversations outside the listening room. Much appreciated.
@Kornbread said:
Ron's first post:
1) blue/green plaid and grey/white plaid? Tom - 4rthtry
2) Mrs. JR
3) Mr. JR
4) "I'm not trying ... "?
5) ? Scott
6) Ani?
7) ? BK ( Bryan )
8) ? hifiside
Bryan's next post:
1) math ain't right? Ron
2) flag? Craig S
3) crumbs in the beard?
...
Hollander with the mini links? yeah
I have a Denon like that....
What is that Stromberg thingy?
I see Robert "Brian" Clark made it!
Scooter needs to spill about his lil mtm towers...
Tom, I bet you had enough sensitivity to flatten your 5002 out! How'd they sound?
Tom, I bet you had enough sensitivity to flatten your 5002 out! How'd they sound?
Yeah, I sure did have to pad them down quite a bit. They were easier to tame than the woofers - and that flippin' veneer! I'm a little biased, but I think they are the best sounding speakers I've ever built. I would gladly use those Airbornes again. I hope Mark from Meniscus felt that I did them justice.
A big thank you to the JR couple and Bryan who made this happen. There were lot's of great speakers and listening experiences, reconnects with the DIY community, and bargain drivers for the collection. Special thanks to Ani for his cast off macro lens.
I've updated my collection of demo music on Google drive if anyone is interested.
Just finished putting everything away. Had a great time. The ears were out of practice and my concentration waned Saturday afternoon. Lots of good stuff and ideas for next time. Thanks to JR and Bryan for organizing.
I had a fantastic time this weekend. It's always so much fun to catch up with all my brother speaker designers. Huge thanks to JR and Bryan for hosting this event. There were so many great sounding projects. Actually everything sounded good, not a single dud. That said my favorite pair of speakers this weekend were Nick's (ugly_woofer) Mnemosyne monkey coffins. They sounded awesome in every way. They looked sort of ok too (just kidding Nick, they looked awesome). They have inspired my next project... Take care everyone, look forward to the next MAC event.
I would echo everything Craig wrote! The pace was a little more relaxed this year due to the smaller turnout and some stayed up late (3am?) just hanging out and catching up. It was also great to see Curt Campbell receive the lifetime achievement award from Mark on Saturday. I'll have my room booked as soon as the date is announced for next year!
I really enjoyed catching up with everyone - it's been far too long. Curt and Jim have been attending (and contributing to) DIY Iowa since I started attending 17 years ago. They have always been gracious and supportive to all of us newbies when we were trying to figure out the basics. Bryan and JR are a big reason this event still happens and continues to be great as it has evolved.
It is a great community to be a part of and this weekend made me realize how much I have missed it since the start of the pandemic. Thanks to everyone - you are all a part of what makes it special.
Oh yes, there were speakers too...
I agree with Craig's comments about the Mnemosyne's. They were loud, clear, and effortless. Really, I didn't hear anything that I wanted to stop listening to (except maybe Harvey the Wonder Hamster).
I do have to apologize for the Manganese - maybe the most beat-up project ever to turn up at a DIY event. I had to get them somewhere for an audition before they completely fell apart.
Keep an open mind, but don't let your brain fall out.
To echo sentiments above, the event went pretty well - no fire trucks, no power outages. To the best of my knowledge, nobody had a vehicle fire driving to or from the event.
I want to offer special thanks to Brian Krier - I am still overwhelmed with the gift. Thanks for the late night conversations we shared with Scott Friday night, as well.
Re-connecting with everyone was a blast. It was pretty incredible to learn that most of us really didn't go gangbusters on building speakers during our hiatus from public life. I mean, I might have done so last summer if the old knee was up to it then - I did kind of go a little bonkers earlier this year, though.
To everyone who inquired after the health of my knee - thank you, your kindness means everything. I am still periodically experiencing episodes of intense pain and swelling and I was just coming off of one of those episodes on this trip. Normally I love to pitch in and help do some of the heavy lifting.
Some thoughts and observations....
The lack of door-prizes was a small concern of mine, but my experience at the Grand Rapids event did not suffer one iota - neither did Iowa. In fact, in some ways I think the events are richer as a result. Not sure what direction we are headed for future events, but in all honesty I personally own enough stuff already so I am not at all going to miss that aspect. YMMV and I respect that, of course.
The venue itself was still excellent. Large enough for 30+ to listen reasonably comfortable, small enough to pressurize easily and too small to support the spontaneous huddles in the back. It is adjacent to a beautiful hotel commons area with plenty of comfortable seating - it was nice seeing people head that way when they needed a break or wanted to talk. Sound quality wise it is above average.
It might be my age, I don't know - but I notice that fatigue sets in on my ears by 2 or 3 in the afternoon. There are a lot of reasons for listening fatigue to set in; we did eliminate one of those factors this year by virtue of maintaining a pretty low listening level. Repetitive music, not enough quiet time between sets, music that falls outside of our normal listening experience, etc all contribute to that. Mrs. JR and I had a discussion on our leisurely drive home about how to mitigate the general restlessness so many of us were exhibiting starting early Saturday afternoon. In addition to eavesdropping I make a lot of mental notes on peoples behavior, and over the years have noticed some pretty obvious signs that we are burning ourselves out a little earlier than we might think. I am definitely open to suggestion on how we can help mitigate listening fatigue.
When the missus and I were checking in, the manager suggested the seafood shack next door for dinner - I told him we had plans to NOT eat there. I got a chuckle out of it.
Thanks to everyone who took home my stash of goodies on the table. It wasn't easy letting that stuff go. I have a few dollars in my pocket, though, and thanks to Ron and Robert I now have a pair of plate amps and a pair of 3" Precision Ports to go with those new-fangled GRS 12 inch "high excursion" subwoofers. My basement needs a little oomph - so the proceeds from the stuff I sold will probably go towards some materials to build the cabinets. So thank you guys for the good deals.
A huge thank you to each one of you for the smiles, the engagement with each other, the support, and the camaraderie. When I attended my first DIY event at the Harris Center in 2010, it was largely a matter of curiosity. This was officially my 10th IowaDIY and my 9th as part of MAC. You guys are the ones that makes the effort worth it. Period.
Bryan - thank you for your boundless energy. I'm glad we proceeded with it this year.
Jason - missed ya, buddy. I have not had to load a CD in I don't know how long, missed your fancy front end.
Mrs. JR - thank you for putting up with this crowd. I know you don't read this forum, but it needs to be said. You are pretty awesome.
I make no apologies for Harvey the Wonder Hamster. He doesn't bite, and he doesn't squeal.
I don't know that I had listening fatigue but I definitely had fatigue after lunch. I didn't sleep very well Friday night and after the pizza I was ready for a nap.
I thought the listening level was perfect. Every year the tinnitus gets a little worse and loud music makes the old ears ring quickly these days. I was really worried it would be a problem but I sailed through the day.
The house track get a little old after a while but I'm not sure I'd want to do away with it. Perhaps we could make it a little shorter and give a little more time to individual demos. But I'd be fine leaving it as is too.
Many thanks to Bryan, JR, and Mrs. JR for hosting another great event. All the time, effort,
and cash that goes into organizing and then actually pulling off one of these events is very
much appreciated. You guys are awesome. Also thanks to John H. for all the caps, boxes,
and power supply stuff. I will be putting all these parts to good use in upcoming projects. Also thanks to JR for the Peerless and Dayton tweeters. You will see (and hear) these again
next year in new cabinets.
Great set of pics from Ron, Bryan & JR. All those cameras were really clicking away in high
gear this year. You guys are much better than me at close up portrait photograhy. And we
haven't even seen the pics (or vids) from Marvin or Tom yet!
It was fun listening to all the tube and solid state amps. I could not hear a difference
when the impedance comp circuit board was switched in and out with any of the amps. But I
could hear a clear difference in sound quality between the various amplifiers. Very
interesting.
@Wolf said:
I have a Denon like that....
What is that Stromberg thingy?
I see Robert "Brian" Clark made it!
Scooter needs to spill about his lil mtm towers...
Tom, I bet you had enough sensitivity to flatten your 5002 out! How'd they sound?
The Stromberg thingy was mine. This is a Stromberg-Carlson ASR-433 integrated tube amplifier from the late 50's or early 60's. It was pulled out of a console in the 80's, sat on a shelf for 40 years, and this last year I completely re-built it with new parts and a nice walnut cabinet.
OK, I'll go first. But realize that I am biased because I built one of the amps and, also, I tend to like the sound of tubes compared to solid state. This is just my personal preference. On the negative side, both Ani's Sansui receiver (solid state, 8wpc) and my Stromberg amp (12wpc) started to clip on one of the bass heavy tracks. I did not hear clipping on Craig's KT88 SET amp, but that may have been due to the volume setting used. We did not set levels between amps. The biggest difference I heard was between the Sansui and Stromberg. The Sansui sounded somewhat dull and flat. The Stromberg's highs had more air and high frequency "crispyness", and you could listen into the soundstage a little deeper. Having said that, the conference room's HVAC noise was competing with low level detail and I was having a hard time, I really had to concentrate to hear the differences. A number of listeners commented that the Sansui receiver probably needs to be re-capped, which may have accounted for some of the the differences I heard.
Comments
I'll be there! Just finished loading up. I still need to stop by work and pick up my tripod and then I'm hitting the road.
As Willie said , “On the road again”
See you guys in a few hours!
Thanks, see you soon, around 5:30 or so....
Jealous ...
Friday night pictures with the early crowd.
Ron
Thanks for the pics Ron.
We're almost ready to take a break for lunch and I have to say everything so far has sounded great. Perfect number of people in attendance and number of projects. Everyone has been extremely respectful and had their conversations outside the listening room. Much appreciated.
Ron's first post:
1) blue/green plaid and grey/white plaid?
2) Mrs. JR
3) Mr. JR
4) "I'm not trying ... "?
5) ?
6) Ani?
7) ?
8) ?
Bryan's next post:
1) math ain't right?
2) flag?
3) crumbs in the beard?
...
Hollander with the mini links?
Hey - I ain’t got no crumbs in my scraggly Covid beard!
I have a Denon like that....
What is that Stromberg thingy?
I see Robert "Brian" Clark made it!
Scooter needs to spill about his lil mtm towers...
Tom, I bet you had enough sensitivity to flatten your 5002 out! How'd they sound?
InDIYana Event Website
1) Tom Scofield in green/blue, Bill S in grey/white
4) Nick (ugly_woofer)
5) Scott Sehlin
6) Ani
7) Bryan K
8) Brad A
1) Ron E
2) Me, Craig S (PWRRYD)
3) Tom S
John Hollander with his minis
Yeah, I sure did have to pad them down quite a bit. They were easier to tame than the woofers - and that flippin' veneer! I'm a little biased, but I think they are the best sounding speakers I've ever built. I would gladly use those Airbornes again. I hope Mark from Meniscus felt that I did them justice.
Its definitely one of the cleanest tweeters I've ever used.
InDIYana Event Website
A big thank you to the JR couple and Bryan who made this happen. There were lot's of great speakers and listening experiences, reconnects with the DIY community, and bargain drivers for the collection. Special thanks to Ani for his cast off macro lens.
I've updated my collection of demo music on Google drive if anyone is interested.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1J5RB1JCTzgV63AFT6MWtif6WhMOClly2?usp=sharing
Ron
Edit: fixed link
Mrs. JR and I are home safe. I'm tired, I'll make a little more detailed post later today.
Just finished putting everything away. Had a great time. The ears were out of practice and my concentration waned Saturday afternoon. Lots of good stuff and ideas for next time. Thanks to JR and Bryan for organizing.
I had a fantastic time this weekend. It's always so much fun to catch up with all my brother speaker designers. Huge thanks to JR and Bryan for hosting this event. There were so many great sounding projects. Actually everything sounded good, not a single dud. That said my favorite pair of speakers this weekend were Nick's (ugly_woofer) Mnemosyne monkey coffins. They sounded awesome in every way. They looked sort of ok too (just kidding Nick, they looked awesome). They have inspired my next project... Take care everyone, look forward to the next MAC event.
I would echo everything Craig wrote! The pace was a little more relaxed this year due to the smaller turnout and some stayed up late (3am?) just hanging out and catching up. It was also great to see Curt Campbell receive the lifetime achievement award from Mark on Saturday. I'll have my room booked as soon as the date is announced for next year!
I really enjoyed the event and visiting with everyone again! Thanks again to Bryan and the Richards's!
I really enjoyed catching up with everyone - it's been far too long. Curt and Jim have been attending (and contributing to) DIY Iowa since I started attending 17 years ago. They have always been gracious and supportive to all of us newbies when we were trying to figure out the basics. Bryan and JR are a big reason this event still happens and continues to be great as it has evolved.
It is a great community to be a part of and this weekend made me realize how much I have missed it since the start of the pandemic. Thanks to everyone - you are all a part of what makes it special.
Oh yes, there were speakers too...
I agree with Craig's comments about the Mnemosyne's. They were loud, clear, and effortless. Really, I didn't hear anything that I wanted to stop listening to (except maybe Harvey the Wonder Hamster).
I do have to apologize for the Manganese - maybe the most beat-up project ever to turn up at a DIY event. I had to get them somewhere for an audition before they completely fell apart.
Sehlin Sound Solutions
To echo sentiments above, the event went pretty well - no fire trucks, no power outages. To the best of my knowledge, nobody had a vehicle fire driving to or from the event.
I want to offer special thanks to Brian Krier - I am still overwhelmed with the gift. Thanks for the late night conversations we shared with Scott Friday night, as well.
Re-connecting with everyone was a blast. It was pretty incredible to learn that most of us really didn't go gangbusters on building speakers during our hiatus from public life. I mean, I might have done so last summer if the old knee was up to it then - I did kind of go a little bonkers earlier this year, though.
To everyone who inquired after the health of my knee - thank you, your kindness means everything. I am still periodically experiencing episodes of intense pain and swelling and I was just coming off of one of those episodes on this trip. Normally I love to pitch in and help do some of the heavy lifting.
Some thoughts and observations....
The lack of door-prizes was a small concern of mine, but my experience at the Grand Rapids event did not suffer one iota - neither did Iowa. In fact, in some ways I think the events are richer as a result. Not sure what direction we are headed for future events, but in all honesty I personally own enough stuff already so I am not at all going to miss that aspect. YMMV and I respect that, of course.
The venue itself was still excellent. Large enough for 30+ to listen reasonably comfortable, small enough to pressurize easily and too small to support the spontaneous huddles in the back. It is adjacent to a beautiful hotel commons area with plenty of comfortable seating - it was nice seeing people head that way when they needed a break or wanted to talk. Sound quality wise it is above average.
It might be my age, I don't know - but I notice that fatigue sets in on my ears by 2 or 3 in the afternoon. There are a lot of reasons for listening fatigue to set in; we did eliminate one of those factors this year by virtue of maintaining a pretty low listening level. Repetitive music, not enough quiet time between sets, music that falls outside of our normal listening experience, etc all contribute to that. Mrs. JR and I had a discussion on our leisurely drive home about how to mitigate the general restlessness so many of us were exhibiting starting early Saturday afternoon. In addition to eavesdropping I make a lot of mental notes on peoples behavior, and over the years have noticed some pretty obvious signs that we are burning ourselves out a little earlier than we might think. I am definitely open to suggestion on how we can help mitigate listening fatigue.
When the missus and I were checking in, the manager suggested the seafood shack next door for dinner - I told him we had plans to NOT eat there. I got a chuckle out of it.
Thanks to everyone who took home my stash of goodies on the table. It wasn't easy letting that stuff go. I have a few dollars in my pocket, though, and thanks to Ron and Robert I now have a pair of plate amps and a pair of 3" Precision Ports to go with those new-fangled GRS 12 inch "high excursion" subwoofers. My basement needs a little oomph - so the proceeds from the stuff I sold will probably go towards some materials to build the cabinets. So thank you guys for the good deals.
A huge thank you to each one of you for the smiles, the engagement with each other, the support, and the camaraderie. When I attended my first DIY event at the Harris Center in 2010, it was largely a matter of curiosity. This was officially my 10th IowaDIY and my 9th as part of MAC. You guys are the ones that makes the effort worth it. Period.
Bryan - thank you for your boundless energy. I'm glad we proceeded with it this year.
Jason - missed ya, buddy. I have not had to load a CD in I don't know how long, missed your fancy front end.
Mrs. JR - thank you for putting up with this crowd. I know you don't read this forum, but it needs to be said. You are pretty awesome.
I make no apologies for Harvey the Wonder Hamster. He doesn't bite, and he doesn't squeal.
I don't know that I had listening fatigue but I definitely had fatigue after lunch. I didn't sleep very well Friday night and after the pizza I was ready for a nap.
I thought the listening level was perfect. Every year the tinnitus gets a little worse and loud music makes the old ears ring quickly these days. I was really worried it would be a problem but I sailed through the day.
The house track get a little old after a while but I'm not sure I'd want to do away with it. Perhaps we could make it a little shorter and give a little more time to individual demos. But I'd be fine leaving it as is too.
Ron
and cash that goes into organizing and then actually pulling off one of these events is very
much appreciated. You guys are awesome. Also thanks to John H. for all the caps, boxes,
and power supply stuff. I will be putting all these parts to good use in upcoming projects. Also thanks to JR for the Peerless and Dayton tweeters. You will see (and hear) these again
next year in new cabinets.
gear this year. You guys are much better than me at close up portrait photograhy. And we
haven't even seen the pics (or vids) from Marvin or Tom yet!
when the impedance comp circuit board was switched in and out with any of the amps. But I
could hear a clear difference in sound quality between the various amplifiers. Very
interesting.
Bill
The Stromberg thingy was mine. This is a Stromberg-Carlson ASR-433 integrated tube amplifier from the late 50's or early 60's. It was pulled out of a console in the 80's, sat on a shelf for 40 years, and this last year I completely re-built it with new parts and a nice walnut cabinet.
Bill (or anyone that attended), could you elaborate on what you heard between the different amps?
OK, I'll go first. But realize that I am biased because I built one of the amps and, also, I tend to like the sound of tubes compared to solid state. This is just my personal preference. On the negative side, both Ani's Sansui receiver (solid state, 8wpc) and my Stromberg amp (12wpc) started to clip on one of the bass heavy tracks. I did not hear clipping on Craig's KT88 SET amp, but that may have been due to the volume setting used. We did not set levels between amps. The biggest difference I heard was between the Sansui and Stromberg. The Sansui sounded somewhat dull and flat. The Stromberg's highs had more air and high frequency "crispyness", and you could listen into the soundstage a little deeper. Having said that, the conference room's HVAC noise was competing with low level detail and I was having a hard time, I really had to concentrate to hear the differences. A number of listeners commented that the Sansui receiver probably needs to be re-capped, which may have accounted for some of the the differences I heard.