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Other than the Computer I also have a WebTV. I started
(with a lot of help) a news group, known as " News:Alt.
Discuss.Technology.Home.Theater " . It sits behind the WebTV firewall. Only
WebTV users with the WebTV set top box can access this group. Below is a FAQ for
the group that I'm developing...
What got you into HT?
May 25th 1977. Star Wars. I saw it at the Zigfield in NYC.... 1 city square
block with a single panavision screen. JBL speakers and the Cerwin Vega
Sensurround speaker system and Dolby Stereo. It was LOUD! It was noisy. It had a
HUGE impact on me for the rest of my life! I think that is what started me
without even knowing it.
I then saw Empire and Jedi (pre-release day in the same
theater..... 1 of 2 that had what would be later called THX). The theater was
almost finished with the specs and treatments when I saw Jedi.... I remember the
sound was the BEST I've ever heard and the surround effects and the sub. really
stood out.
I think my goal is to build a set up that sounds like the theater I saw the Star
Wars trilogy in.... that must be what I'm looking for in surround quality.
My answer to a posted question....
Re: Speakers with small drivers, bass???
It is possible, with the right combinations of speaker (what it's made of, how
rigid it is, how good it can handle heat, and the length of the excursion),
tuning of the enclosure (does it match the driver's resonance?), port or passive
radiator (again tuning). Since computers have been designing most of the
loudspeakers as of late they (the speakers) have been sounding quite good.
Just look at what Bob Carver did with 2 X 8 inch drivers and an 11 inch cube in
the True Sub Mark II. That can pump out a good amount of bass at a
high SPL.
As far as air displacement that's still a basic law of physics, but there are
ways around it.
True a 12 inch driver can move more air than an 8 inch
one but if the 12 inch is placed in an inferior cabinet and underpowered the 8
inch is in a tuned cabinet and has alot of power available it might sound better
and appear to produce more low bass.
It's really all in the resonance of the driver, cabinet, and the amount of power
feed to it.
Push/Pull, transmission line, fourth order, and dampening factors can also
contribute to a small driver producing good bass.
Also, if the crossover point to the bass driver is set low the bass driver tends
to play even lower (higher SPL also) because it's called upon to produce less of
the frequencies.
2 to 3 6¼ inch drivers can compare to 1X12 inch in the the 2 to 3 6¼ inchers
will work with each other and augment the others, producing (if it was designed
right) more low bass.
True 2 to 3 drivers with a -3 db point of 40 Hz won't go any lower than that but
if the cabinet was designed well they should produce an half octave lower at the
the driver's free air frequency.
If the cabinet was tuned to say 30 Hz at the port and the speakers free air was
at say, 30 HZ you should get a hump at 30 Hz which would also have some sound
above that which would make up for the low end of the speakers themselves. This
was an example off the top of my head and I've not been studying acoustic theory
for a long time, hope it's still right.
If not, please tell me.... I need any excuse to get back into this.
:-)
Placement is important also but that's not really relevant here.
A question I posted and my answer
What was your first piece of AV gear that you bought or was given?
First AV piece I ever bought for myself was a CD player in 1986. I was in Jr.
High and working after school and weekends in a dive of a car wash place. One
week when I was off of school I worked 60 hours. I used the money to get a CD
player and a CD. I had a 2 channel receiver, dual well tape deck and
a set of Radio Shack speaker.... that CD player sounded clear! That was
impressive!
For HT I first, in 1991 got a LD player. My CD player died and I needed a new
one. Instead of getting a ne one I sought out and bought a Pioneer CLD-990 combi.
I'm still not sure why I got one.... I was just drawn to them.
Later, in '92 I got a Pioneer Dolby Surround Receiver. Still only had 2
speakers.
June of '92 I got a free issue of Stereo Review with a picture of a Pioneer
VSXD-901S on the cover and fell in love with it. I didn't know jack about what
the article said about it (a bunch of symbols, numbers and specks that I could
not make any sense out of). But I just loved it.
What was your earliest memory of being impressed with an
audio or video presentation?
Me?
My earliest memory of an AV related experience (just audio) was when my father
used to put me and my sister in the middle of his quad speaker set up on the
floor and "make us" listen to Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the
Moon" in 1973. I was 2½.
Floyd's "Wish you were here" in 1975. I was 4½ and I used to call
"Have a cigar" the gravy train song".
I don't really remember him playing "Animals" in 1977.
That was the "Disco era"..... I think I blocked that part out.
Disco... YUCK!
This went on until Pink Floyd's "The Wall" which we heard on December
6th 1979. Why do I remember the day? Because he had 2 turntables and "The
Wall Disc 1" was permanently on one of them for the remainder of their
life. I now have his copy of "The Wall" on record and will play it on
occcasion on one of his turntables I got when he died.
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