Tuning a low budget-ish apartment home theater

CherylJosie

Member
Apr 18, 2015
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Hello all you beautiful people.:)

I am about to embark on room tuning.

So far everything I have done is by ear. I am happy with the improvement of careful placement and DIY absorbers but have not gotten to that 'Aha' moment yet.

I have gotten a recommendation to buy the UMIK-1 and use REW.

If anyone has anything to add to that, please let me know because I am planning on ordering next week.

Budget is king here. Funds limited. I need to get a good price on everything I put into this system or the fun stops way too soon.

Although I usually buy/recycle used junk at steep discount and perhaps repair it, for a measurement instrument I would only buy new or at least buy from a known source of verified spec performance.

I plan to use my Emu 1212m sound card (24 bit). Currently the OS is booting Ubuntu. I have Windows on a laptop but that has the usual crummy laptop sound card.

Thanks so much for your suggestions. The Internet is a wonderful way to share.:)
 
First, the system:

PIC_0519.JPG

Up top we have an acoustically transparent screen and behind that a Samsung LCD.

The height channel speakers are Sapphire model SB 5.25" aluminum woofer and 1" polycell/hicell plastic dome tweeter. I have never opened one but I assume they are unbraced.

(Cary Christie, co-founder of Infinity, personally designed the Sapphire line and they were sold nationally via Tweeter Etc. plus a couple of other similar chain stores in market areas with no Tweeter Etc. penetration. All models are rear ported. I paid approximately $100 per speaker on the used market. New, they averaged in price between $200 and $900 each approximately depending on model ~10 years ago).

I dropped the left one and crushed the grill.:( Superglue, match sticks and photocopier paper make good bandages (many of my grills are already repaired in this fashion) but this particular one is in a million pieces. I leave its reconstruction for a later date.

PIC_0548.JPG

The center speaker is the Sapphire model SC WTW 5.25" aluminum woofer and 1" plastic dome tweeter. It sounds terrible inside a shelving unit so I put the TV on top of it. Sandwiching it and putting weight on it seems to have maybe helped some uncontrolled panel resonances (it is unbraced). The towels on top and underneath are to protect its finish.

The left and right speakers are Sapphire model ST2 MTM 5.25" aluminum midrange and 1" plastic dome tweeter with 10" plastic side firing woofer. They sound really nice to me. There is a small unobtrusive brace in the main enclosure where the MTM subenclosure ends.

The subwoofers are SVS PB10NSD/ISD (one of each). I really like their performance. I paid $270 each on Craigslist for these. Just as I was about to buy a new PB1000 (the updated digital model) I found both of these used ones advertised by two individual sellers. Dumb luck I guess. My neighbor also has a PB10NSD that I located on Craigslist for $290, that has no scratches in the finish anywhere. It looks brand new.

These SVS subwoofers are a great deal used IMO.

The radio on top of the right subwoofer is a Sony XDR-SH3D digital AM/FM table radio. The display is going dim, there is no backup battery, and the treble is a little rolled off but the reception is phenomenal and all the good music seems to be on the subchannels that my analog tuner in the Onkyo just cannot get. It retails used on Ebay for approximately twice its original retail price!

There is a Channel Master 4228 (old style) 8-bay antenna on a tripod/railroad tie mount sitting on my 3rd floor balcony and aimed at the Sutro tower in San Francisco. I am receiving on a line parallel to the building and on the north side too so that complicates things for me, but is works passably well (better at night).

PIC_0514.JPG

The wide channel speakers are hanging in basketball nets from nylon cord that is attached to standard heavy-duty shelving brackets with diagonal brace. Two brackets are linked by a square aluminum tube and the brackets are screwed into the header plate at the top of the wall. This one on the left has no side wall near it so I have two brackets screwed to each other and resting on top of the built-in bookshelf with shims and c clamp to hold it steady.

Between the height and wide speakers and the retractable screen and the projector and oh yes the rear absorber, there are a total of 20 screws holding all the various brackets to the headers. This allows for simple horizontal positioning and the physical alignment of everything was a snap.

The absorbers you see up front are 3 layers of 1" polyfill comforter spaced a few inches from the front wall and flanking them on either side is a string of 5 pillows in shams that are pinned together. The comforters are hung from a cable and the pillows are hung from a steel rod inside a thin curtain rod (for appearance). I separated the spring clampy things from the loops and used them on the comforter, then I pinned the loops to the pillow shams.

These absorbers go on and off the wall without any tools, making adjustments and dusting/washing a snap. I am really happy with the way they came out. I hope to finish the seams with thread eventually to eliminate the waviness in the pillow strings (the safety pins concentrate the gravity tug).

There is another string of pillows in the rear corner of the room but I seem to be unable to upload any more pics.

OK I seem to be having a space quota issue here so I will get back with more pics once I figure out that detail.
 
The best advice I can give you is this : get the low bass right.. it is what will ruin the sound the most if it is not tight and articulate..boomy bass masks everything
You can use many different devices to do it electronically...and use bass traps (which are not that useful below 100hz )
Then do your 1st refection points , with diffusion or a diffusion/absorption material.
 

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