The present & the future...

[Techno Commander]

Looking good.

[Alex_UK]

Getting there fella! Spaghetti for tea?

[MartinT]

Blue your favourite colour then, Mark?

[Alex_UK]

I must admit it reminded me of this...

[Reid Malenfant]

Getting there fella! Spaghetti for tea?

Jeez, yeah i'm getting there but managed to conveniently forget a couple of cables already Luckily it wasn't too difficult to fit them thankfully

Blue your favourite colour then, Mark?

How can i explain There are four walls in this room & the opposite ones are the same colour. I have two blue walls & two white walls, i guess both would have been too overpowering on there own. I simply made the rack & painted it the same colour as the wall Blue & silver (think equipment) go together as does blue & black, so at the end of the day it looks ok

I must admit it reminded me of this...

It's not a glowing blue Alex as you'll see shortly, however the lighting in here is pretty well subdued so it might well appear a tad brighter under normal lighting conditions (which will never happen)...

Good vid btw, that yellow was awesome/awful

The rack is half filled & the easy stuff (i think) is left to stuff in there Setting up the crossovers etc will be the PITA but i have multimeters & a couple of oscilloscopes to do the job as well as a function generator... I guess it'll all be rocking by mid week

[Reid Malenfant]

Ok here is where i'm at right now... I have three units to stuff into the rack, the blu ray player, the SVHS video recorder & the phono stage when i get it built

Everything appears to be working 100% on balanced mains thankfully, i have been testing stuff as it has been installed just in case In some instances it looks like spaghetti junction in there but if you could see the huge pile of cables that came out of the rack you'd soon appreciate how much simpler this install has been, i kid you not

I can't install the video yet as i need to have access to the pre amps input so i can set the crossovers up with a function generator, multimeter & oscilloscope. I'm hoping i get this done tomorrow, but it must be done correctly. That means plumbing in the KSA250 & HCA1206 to the output cables from the crossovers & taking voltage readings on the output of the power amps, because the gain of the two amps is going to differ

I also don't want to install the blu ray player yet as i'm listening to music on it as i type, once all is good to go i think i'm in for a bit of a shock

Anyway, here are the latest pics... There won't be many more for a while once everything is done..

Here is Spaghetti Junction, also know as the back of the Audio Research MP1 pre amplifier


Lots of pretty lights - it must be christmas, all appears to be working... Picture is blurred due to low light & no flash.. Some strange geezer reflected in the pic


Ah, that's better


Here are the 9 cables feeding audio to the front channels, well they will be soon enough. 4 way left & right & a single centre channel.. The thick blue cable top right is Mark Grant G1080 HDMI cable to the philips TV & the silver cable is to connect the USB/SPDIF convertor on my lappy to the input of the dCS Purcell Grey stuff is 2.5mm twin & earth power to the rack itself..



That's it for now, i'll be back soon i hope with good news

[MartinT]

Nice custom rack, Mark. That looks like a lot of work and your gear looks very happy in there.

I still think you need a reduction formula: do you really need it all?

[Reid Malenfant]

Nice custom rack, Mark. That looks like a lot of work and your gear looks very happy in there.

I still think you need a reduction formula: do you really need it all?

Cheers Martin, yes it was quite a bit of work but entirely worthwhile It prevents a lot of dust getting to the equipment, though it'll nearly stop it altogether when i install speaker cloth type material over the grille at the front bottom of the rack & stuff all cable holes with foam. It obviously prevents a great deal of vibration getting to the equipment as well

As for losing stuff i might be able to but only one thing really... If the blu ray player sounds as good as the Denon DVD player spinning 5.1 channel DTS encoded music & if it can play MP3 CDs as well etc, i guess i could lose the Denon...

That's about it though

Now don't you go mentioning universal players

[Welder]

Looking good Mark. Rather you than me with all those cables!
You must be getting a lovely sound out of that lot

[MartinT]

Now don't you go mentioning universal players

LOL - the trouble is, with each emerging new standard it becomes more difficult to achieve a truly universal player. I have an SACD/DVD-A/DVD-V player with no video circuits, and a Blu-ray player with no SACD playback capability. Guess I'll stick with two