The present & the future...

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08-02-2011, 16:03
Reid Malenfant

Quote:

Originally Posted by MartinT

Good luck with that, Mark. It's usually fun once you get it back together again.

I do need it :eek: Yes it'll be great - when it gets back together :doh:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reid Malenfant

Cheers Martin, i'll probably need it ;)

Well i'm in the middle of my worst nightmare :eek:

This would actually be funny if it wasn't so serious :eyebrows: I need to plug all the mains cables into one of the PF40s before i carry on stuffing bits in the rack, the only problem is i don't know precisely where everything is going quite yet so i have no idea how long to make each mains lead & what socket to plug it into. That all depends on whether the equipment uses an SMPS or linear power supply :rolleyes:

Looks like a load of measuring of equipment & rack & shelves/paving slabs is in order & some close as possible guestimation :D

Now you might understand why i said i don't change things around that often :exactly:

I reckon i'll get the thing sorted by the end of the week, maybe....

E2A:- After a load of thought & lots of measurement i think i can finally move forward :) Looks like i'm actually not going to have room for one bit of kit though :rolleyes: The sacrificial cow will be the CD recorder... I'll only ever need it to record from an analogue source & i won't be doing that too often, so i'll connect a set of RCAs to the record out of the MP1 & feed them out of the rack & insulate them ready for use. Handily the Belkin PF40 has a socket on the front panel behind a cover so when i need to record anything i can plumb into that supply :)

Looks like it's all systems go, i have all the measurements i need to cut the mains cable, where everything will fit & what socket each bit of kit will need to connect to. May be operational in 4 or 5 days now as there is still a ton of work to do, but at least i know what the hell i'm doing now :cool:
09-02-2011, 07:09
MartinT

You need one of these:
http://www.brother.co.uk/g3.cfm/s_pa...ct/PT1290DTZU1

There's nothing like properly labelling your cables so that you know what the hell you did six months from now.
09-02-2011, 07:16
Ali Tait

You might want to short out that unused pair of i/c's Mark. You may get hum otherwise.
09-02-2011, 13:30
Reid Malenfant

Quote:

Originally Posted by MartinT

You need one of these:
http://www.brother.co.uk/g3.cfm/s_pa...ct/PT1290DTZU1

There's nothing like properly labelling your cables so that you know what the hell you did six months from now.

I'd tend to agree with that Martin, what i have got is a load of stickers that were supplied with the PF40s with different labels on them. I guess i could use those :) Good thinking that man, though in certain respects it makes little difference due to the nature of my rack. You see the problem is if i want to extract something or get to the back of a piece of equipment i literally have to remove everything above it to do so :doh: Now while this appears to be a bad idea it actually prevents me from box swapping very often :D Not only that it forces me to be much more careful about cable routing as i have to install every cable when each bit of kit goes in & route them in the correct general direction to where ever they are going.

It's a pita but it keeps the grey cells occupied :eyebrows:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ali Tait

You might want to short out that unused pair of i/c's Mark. You may get hum otherwise.

Possibly a good point Ali, i think i have a way round this without shorting them out, i'll just screen them with a modified dual phono back to back connector :)

Mean while it's back to making loads of MG DSP 2.5 mains cables :doh:
11-02-2011, 16:19
Reid Malenfant

1 Attachment(s)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reid Malenfant

Mean while it's back to making loads of MG DSP 2.5 mains cables :doh:

Having finally finished making all these cables up i have even more respect for Mark Grant & his cables & pricing ;) In all honesty the only part of putting these cables together that might possibly be mechanised is removal of the outer clear insulated jacket & possibly the insulation on the three mains conductors themselves :scratch:

The whole of the rest of the operation could only be done by hand imo. From seperating the screen to finding the drain wire, cutting back the foil screen & then the thin plastic insulator as well as actually fitting the mutiple heatshrink sleeving & finally the plugs themselves must all be done by hand :eek:

To get anywhere at a reasonable speed required me to set up a mini production line where i did a task or two to each cable & once all where done i moved onto the next work to be done & repeated this on all cables once again :eyebrows:

Thankfully that is over & done with, if you happen to read this Mr Grant i think your mains cables are very reasonably priced :cool:

Next up is cut a load of Phono plugs off of 3 sets of component video cables & fit XLR connectors, once that's done i can actually get everything into the rack & set up Attachment 3722

Back with pictures in the not too distant future :)
11-02-2011, 16:44
Alex_UK

Can't fault your dedication to the cause, Mark. You mad fool! :eyebrows:

I'm sure it will all be worth it in the end, I'm obviously not afflicted enough yet, I couldn't even begin to comprehend getting into what you are doing, so :respect:

Good luck with the rest of it - and don't forget I will know where you live in less than a month, so I will be expecting an invite back again to hear your creation! :)
11-02-2011, 18:12
Reid Malenfant

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex_UK

Good luck with the rest of it - and don't forget I will know where you live in less than a month, so I will be expecting an invite back again to hear your creation! :)

Cheers Alex, you are more than welcome to stop by either on the way to Scalford or on the way back fella. I was going to suggest such a diversion anyway as it kind of woudn't really make sense being here & not coming in for a listen :D

I look forward to it, now just to get it all back together & working :cool:
11-02-2011, 18:39
Alex_UK

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reid Malenfant

Cheers Alex, you are more than welcome to stop by either on the way to Scalford or on the way back fella. I was going to suggest such a diversion anyway as it kind of woudn't really make sense being here & not coming in for a listen :D

I look forward to it, now just to get it all back together & working :cool:

I'll be picking you up too early for a listening sesh, so let's see how pissed you get on Marco's Amex card first - I might leave you there to share his room if it looks like you'll pebble-dash my upholstery on the way home! :lol:
11-02-2011, 18:42
Reid Malenfant

:D I don't get sick on beer Alex, i drink every evening remember :eyebrows:

Good idea, on the way back would be better :)
12-02-2011, 16:11
Reid Malenfant

Finally some pictures :eyebrows: As i have completed altering the component video cables i guess i can actually start getting more stuff into the rack at long last :) Shouldn't be long now, though i'm not without music so no rush & i'd prefer to get it right first time :eyebrows:

First up here is the rack devoid of life :D That is except for a P600 Pwer Plant holding it to the floor, all 110lbs of it :eek:
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/Image1-1.jpg

For those that might be interested i took a picture of one of the pillars. This one is the central rear pillar, as you can possibly see it's a sandwich of MDF glued & screwed together. The whole reason for this is simply so i can position the shelves anywhere i want & then lock them in place. Each shelf has 4 bolts & most importantly square nuts that slot into the rectangular slot at the top of the pillar. Once the nuts are inside that slot they move up & down freely, the outer slotted section is too narrow to allow the nut to escape so they lock in place once the bolt is tightened :)
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/Image2-1.jpg

A couple of ventilation fans that were used when the Harman Kardon AVR5500 was in use. The air is blown along from the centre to the outside & than directed back towards the centre nearer the outer edge of the rack & exits via a load of round holes on the front & rear of the rack. This helped reduce fan noise to non existant levels ;)
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/Image3-1.jpg

Here we have some of the shelves. To get them all exactly the same size i made a jig to assemble them, i also had to make sure that the rack was built to very close tolerances. Plenty of open space for ventilation of equipment.. I placed 4 x 1/2" thick felt pads near the corners of each shelf & then a concrete slab on those, works a treat..
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/Image4-1.jpg

Here you can see the all important square nuts that drop into the slots on the pillars :eyebrows:
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/Image5-1.jpg

This is where i'm at right now :rolleyes:
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/Image6-1.jpg

Here is a rather big pile of cable, i'll actually be using more than this :doh:
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/Image7-1.jpg

The now modified component video cables fitted with XLR connectors on one end. These will connect from the two Behringer 4 way mono crossovers to the power amps on the other side of the room. I used 3 x 10M sets to make an 8 way set of cables & as i stripped one cable off i realised i had the perfect cable to connect from the ARC MP1 to the centre channel power amp :lol:
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/Image8-1.jpg

Some homemade Mark Grant DSP 2.5 cables..
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/Image9-1.jpg

More Mark Grant, this time his G1000HD BNC to BNC for the word clock connection between dCS Purcell & Delius :)
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Image10-1.jpg

Two sets of balanced Atlas Navigator cables, so glad i got two pairs as i'd be stuffed if i hadn't. These will connect from the dCS kit to the ARC MP1 & from the MP1 to the Behringer crossovers.. Not sure about the purple colour :scratch:
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Image11-1.jpg

Finally a cable i got from USA, this will connect the phono stage (when i have built it) to the MP1. I used this when running the dCS stuff a while ago, nice neutral sounding cable :)
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Image12-1.jpg

I guess i'll be back with more pics once installation is complete, ATB :cool:

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