avguytx
10-16-2007, 12:03 PM
It turned out to be great weather for transporting those SDA 2.3's I bought for my buddies 40th B'day so that went off without a hitch. I got the grills and side panels recovered, redid the crossovers with Solen caps/Mills resistors, "fixed" the slight tears that 4 of the surrounds had, and installed new tweeters in them. I was going to try and redo/rebuild the tops and bottoms of the 2.3's but I just ran out of time. That can be a future project.
Needless to say, he was ecstatic to get them unloaded and into the living room. His wife was already forewarned as to their size but she had no problem with them at all being in the living room. She likes music almost as much as he does. She also finds him LP's and equipment when she's on her yard sale adventures on the weekends. (gotta love that) I also brought him a new Onkyo TX-SR703 receiver that replaced his 11 years old Pioneer Dolby Pro Logic receiver for the living room. He hadn't even been able to enjoy true 5.1 sound with their DVD's so far! I didn't "give" him that receiver...he bought that (I'm a rep...buddy deal). The old receiver ended up in one of his sons rooms. Yep, they like music, too.
I knew in advance, and warned him, that these speakers need and want a lot more than most any AV receiver is going to dish out to them. But, in 2-channel mode, they didn't sound half bad...just limited on their output being that it's "receiver" power plus all the new components that still need a little break in time. I told him if he wanted to pay the repair charge, he could have one of my Carver M-1.5t's to run them. The SDA's will play to a certain point in 2-channel mode but before it gets to the "0" reference level (usually around -12db on the Onkyo screen), the receiver will shut off. We set the receiver for 4-ohm but I guess it's still dipping a little below what it wants to see. Now, when it's running in 5.1 or 5-channel stereo, all is well. Of course, the high pass crossover is limiting the amount of excursion of the MW's which helps in them not dipping to a lower impedance. (I'm assuming)
We listened to some various music from Heart (his wife's fave), Allison Krauss, Dream Theater, Amos Lee, and a few others and they just sounded great in his living room. Amazingly better than they did in my office. The low end was there. Literally. When they get more power, they will be good to go. Also, after rewiring his HT system, we watched a movie and they got to hear, for the first time, 5.1 surround. He had heard mine when he came to visit but his wouldn't do it the same since it's not a 5.1 receiver. We watched the (animated) movie "Cars" which looked and sounded great. Their boys had seen it but they hadn't yet and neither had I. Man, what a good movie. They were blown away by what they had been missing in movies.
All in all, a great weekend. His surprise 40th birthday party Friday night was truly a surprise and we had a blast. Lots of people, beer, food and Karaoke. How can you go wrong with a bunch of drunk redneck Arkansans singing Karaoke? :D My 41st birthday (this past Sunday) wasn't nearly as exciting but I figure that was part of Friday night's fun. I had my "interesting" 40th blowout last year.
Ok, I'm done with the rambling. Back to your regularly scheduled programming...
Needless to say, he was ecstatic to get them unloaded and into the living room. His wife was already forewarned as to their size but she had no problem with them at all being in the living room. She likes music almost as much as he does. She also finds him LP's and equipment when she's on her yard sale adventures on the weekends. (gotta love that) I also brought him a new Onkyo TX-SR703 receiver that replaced his 11 years old Pioneer Dolby Pro Logic receiver for the living room. He hadn't even been able to enjoy true 5.1 sound with their DVD's so far! I didn't "give" him that receiver...he bought that (I'm a rep...buddy deal). The old receiver ended up in one of his sons rooms. Yep, they like music, too.
I knew in advance, and warned him, that these speakers need and want a lot more than most any AV receiver is going to dish out to them. But, in 2-channel mode, they didn't sound half bad...just limited on their output being that it's "receiver" power plus all the new components that still need a little break in time. I told him if he wanted to pay the repair charge, he could have one of my Carver M-1.5t's to run them. The SDA's will play to a certain point in 2-channel mode but before it gets to the "0" reference level (usually around -12db on the Onkyo screen), the receiver will shut off. We set the receiver for 4-ohm but I guess it's still dipping a little below what it wants to see. Now, when it's running in 5.1 or 5-channel stereo, all is well. Of course, the high pass crossover is limiting the amount of excursion of the MW's which helps in them not dipping to a lower impedance. (I'm assuming)
We listened to some various music from Heart (his wife's fave), Allison Krauss, Dream Theater, Amos Lee, and a few others and they just sounded great in his living room. Amazingly better than they did in my office. The low end was there. Literally. When they get more power, they will be good to go. Also, after rewiring his HT system, we watched a movie and they got to hear, for the first time, 5.1 surround. He had heard mine when he came to visit but his wouldn't do it the same since it's not a 5.1 receiver. We watched the (animated) movie "Cars" which looked and sounded great. Their boys had seen it but they hadn't yet and neither had I. Man, what a good movie. They were blown away by what they had been missing in movies.
All in all, a great weekend. His surprise 40th birthday party Friday night was truly a surprise and we had a blast. Lots of people, beer, food and Karaoke. How can you go wrong with a bunch of drunk redneck Arkansans singing Karaoke? :D My 41st birthday (this past Sunday) wasn't nearly as exciting but I figure that was part of Friday night's fun. I had my "interesting" 40th blowout last year.
Ok, I'm done with the rambling. Back to your regularly scheduled programming...