Ron's Speaker, Turntable, Power and Room Treatment Upgrades

bonzo75

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Maybe builders and clients need to be matchmaked, like how our grandparents were introduced.

And did you get right swiped on tinder, or go to a bar and say "my place to listen to Zus? "
 
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Lagonda

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And did you get right swiped on tinder, or go to a bar and say "my place to listen to Zus? "
Ron is going to left swipe the both of you if you don't behave on his system thread ! ;)
 

Ron Resnick

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Ron, we really feel your pain, that's appalling. You must have the patience of a saint.
We winged it here at the chapel, spent £50-60k more than we should have done, and remaining major priorities are kinda taking forever. Strangely our remaining major works pending projected to cost...£50-60k Lol.
But at least we're in, and the building is a home.
Your story is a whole other level of stress, sorry.

Thank you, Marc! I am very glad you did not experience this level and duration of aggravation with your renovation project!
 

Ron Resnick

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Yes but Ron admitted he changes his mind A LOT and that delays things.

Mid-course change orders to make the house more custom, yes.
 

Ron Resnick

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Ron, I have tremendous empathy for you. Time will ultimately come when its all in the rear view mirror... I hope you’re young enough to enjoy it ;)

Still, if these are the worst troubles life throws your way, you are a blessed man.

Thank you, Bob.

Yes, I totally agree.:)
 

bonzo75

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Ron Resnick

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And just to add insult to injury, the long delay in being able to reoccupy the house as our primary residence has prevented us from refinancing our mortgage at a generational low interest rate.
 

cjfrbw

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On the bright side, by the time you are 100 years old, you will know everything about everything about doing home renovations right, just in time.........

Saw many large custom homes being constructed around our neighborhood, saw some abandoned for others to complete, and heard about several divorces. You must have nerves of steel.
 

andromedaaudio

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Definition of an audiophile
Not if you only like Sets and Horns .

But ... i found a small fault in your armor , haha
In the Rock n roll video thread today you stated that push pull might actually be better sometimes regarding rock n roll
Which you later deleted , but i saw it nontheless :p.

Ron i wish you all the best with the project.
 
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Ron Resnick

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Thank you!
 

jeff1225

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Ron, I have tremendous empathy for you. Time will ultimately come when its all in the rear view mirror... I hope you’re young enough to enjoy it ;)

Still, if these are the worst troubles life throws your way, you are a blessed man.
At this point Ron has to hope he's still alive to enjoy it.....:)
 

Al M.

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Not if you only like Sets and Horns .

But ... i found a small fault in your armor , haha
In the Rock n roll video thread today you stated that push pull might actually be better sometimes regarding rock n roll
Which you later deleted , but i saw it nontheless :p.

Yes, I can confirm, because I saw that too. Something with stop and start of sound of push pull vs flow and decay of SET.
 
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microstrip

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(...) I hired the wrong general contractor. Tinka advised me to replace him three years ago, but every step of the way I have thought we have "just a few more months to go." (...)
Ron,

Sorry to learn about your misventures. I have re-built two houses and built one from scratch. Fortunately the first one was just a renovation and I learned a lot building it - and the first thing was that if we become unhappy with any one working in the doing we should replace him immediately. Very seldom things will go better - they do not do better because they do not know how to do better, not to anger us!

After the first experience my strategy was always that it is cheaper and faster to demolish as much as possible and build from scratch - this way we have the nasty surprises on start.
 

spiritofmusic

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Thank you, Marc! I am very glad you did not experience this level and duration of aggravation with your renovation project!
Ron, when I think how badly we could have got this wrong, my blood runs cold. We kinda bought the chapel on a whim, took a builder on thru only one firm recommendation, gave him carte blanche.
This really could have been a one-way ticket to financial ruin.
Luckily we're now entrusting the remaining 20% of final major renovations to a totally driven, perfectionist builder, who is really coming good.
My advice to you. Avoid Sunk Cost Fallacy...listen to Tinka...make the right decisions, not avoiding decisions hoping things will eventually come right.
Your painful history means you've got to get it 100% right now, even if you have to bang a few heads together.
 
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RogerD

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The listening room renovation is part of overall house repairs, and both continue to proceed, albeit slowly and haltingly.

Putting carpet in the rear 2/3 of the listening room is now on hold pending the initiation, permit approval and build-out of a small extension to the length of Tinka's home theater in an adjacent room but with common carpet.

As an example of why this project seemingly never ends, or actually will never end, conduit tubes in the wall between the listening room and this adjacent room (round openings on each side of the wall fitted with plastic tubes) which I will use to allow interconnects to pass between the two rooms were dry-walled over a few weeks ago. I hired the wrong general contractor. Tinka advised me to replace him three years ago, but every step of the way I have thought we have "just a few more months to go."

Also, a City of Los Angeles building inspector who has visited the house several times decided a few months ago that we must build a small concrete landing pad on an inaccessible and unused and unusable side of the exterior deck. This week, out of the blue, he now decided to require a whole exterior staircase that ascends from the small pad to the street above, even though one would be prevented from walking upright on such a staircase by a cantilevered bathroom which blocks the way. He is demanding an egress to the street above which would require interruption of an existing low wall and installation of an unattractive gate.

The competence of, and the meticulousness of compliance with the current building code of, this particular inspector are nice were it not for the incredibly frustrating irony that the whole reason the house needed structural, waterproofing and interior and exterior repairs in the first place is because the City of Los Angeles building inspector assigned to the original construction of the house in 2004 was either incompetent or literally criminally bribed. Among other construction defects we found raw, exposed duplex electrical outlets not in boxes under wall-to-wall carpet; underground piles of sharp Rebar pushed against the waterproofing layer of the retaining wall which punctured such waterproofing layer; a plywood roof with no waterproofing layer underneath it; a rear deck with uncompacted soil (which allowed the deck literally to crack and collapse); most windows were trapezoids and leaking; and an under concrete slab drainage system the permit for which was signed off by the inspector as being built but which never actually was built. Among the contractors and attorneys who examined the situation the consensus conclusion was criminal bribery.

The house is being repaired/renovated in almost every way, and will be a much tighter and more secure and better built structure than it ever would have been, even if it had been built right in the first place. We have not changed the floor plan or built additional rooms or significantly increased the square footage of the house, but at least we will have essentially a new house. For just us three animals the house was big enough to begin with.

But, as you might imagine, it is quite frustrating literally to pay twice for the same house. I must be the only person who bought a house in Los Angeles in 2006 and who is under water on it today.

In retrospect, the repair/renovation project made no economic sense. But we love the location, the street, the property and the view -- and the renovated house. So as long as we live there essentially forever, it is okay.

I selected for speakers Gryphon Pendragons several years ago. These speakers have continued to be stored with infinite patience by Jason Lord of The Source AV in Torrance, California.
Ron,I haven't visited this thread in a long time. You have the patience of Job. I imagine your home must have a stellar location. I hope things continue to improve (seems it has to)....can't wait to see your system setup and making music. Good luck...
 

Ron Resnick

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Thank you, Francisco, Marc and Roger!

It has taken too long, it has cost too much, and I have performed way too much of the supervisory and quality control work myself. But after hassles at most steps on most components of the project, we think we have results we are very happy with.
 
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Woofer and Tweet

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I believe we all feel Ron's pain. There have been a couple homes on my street, that started a year and a half ago, with still no end in sight. It always takes longer, costs more . . . Thing is, in a few years, you'll look back and not really remember the chaos; kind of like child-birth, from what I've been told. Plus, you'll have something that's truly wonderful. construction.jpg
 

Ron Resnick

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Thank you very much, Jim!
 
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Ron Resnick

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Yesterday I sold on eBay my last SACD player, a Sony SCD-C2000ES.

So just to be able to hear music someday to begin to set up the stereo I will need a CD player of some sort. o_O
 

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