I had a long-ish “production” post all ready to go.  Detailing building these DML speakers I’ve been entranced with the last week(s),,,,,

And then I plugged the bloody things in,,,,

SANDBAGGED!!!

I tried a different material according to one of the several Utoobers advice (Acoustic Ceiling tiles are the schiznizzle,,,,  NOT!!!)

Maybe I picked the wrong type of material; and I’m willing to take that nod in my direction as there were like 6 different materials all under the ‘A,C,T,’ moniker,,,,   I went with the pressed paper fill types as those were what “I” consider acoustic ceiling tiles,,,,

No Love.   Had to crank the amp to FULL ON WIDE THE F! OPEN, and was only getting maybe 85dB out the boards.   And mid-range was  missing in action,,,,   NO VOCALS, No Rippin’ Guitar tones,,,    But the high end would rip your damned head off.

SO,,,,, That post was axed,,,    I’ll repeat the efforts with “known good” materials later this week after I get a chance to get BACK to the source of such things.  It ain’t ‘local’, so I have to spend over an hour in transit,,,,   That doesn’t happen during the week unless its DIRE,,,,  this ain’t.   

‘Sides,,,, The new drivers won’t be in until tuesday/wednesday, and nothing is moving much at all until they get here, or more exactly, when ALL of the materials are in hand and ready to slap together.    And thats whats gonna delay that post.  No Pics, no post,,,,  Not this time’round.

Long FULL day at the J.O.B.      Been a minute too long since we had full days IMO, and I think in no small way, Son of Bossman feels a touch guilty about our shortened weeks of late.   No good reason: not a one of us wants to be out playing in the mud and muck when the temps are in the teens with subzero windchill.  And punching holes in mamaearth is truly messy when she is wearing that white blanket she prefers this time of year.  (the only time its messier is when the ground is saturated: geysers of muck splashing back on you in retaliation for the abuse you are trying to inflict.)

No, my job is NOT ROCKET SURGERY by any means.   (well, not the field side of things,,, MY actual job is more complicated and technical with powered gates and welding and what not.)   Believe me, there are days where I could sleep walk my way through the job if it weren’t for the fact that more than half our crew are one braincell above brainDEAD,,,,,   They MUST have a guiding hand and teacher on board or NOTHING gets done (and to make matters worse, I’ll have to show them again tomorrow what I showed them today since they will not remember a damned thing,,,,,Totally not kidding about the one braincell above braindead aspect,,,)(Hell, Burnout is a damned genius in comparison to most of the crew,,,,He at least, I can tell the job details and let him loose,,,,)

AH, but its Muhnday for another 6 hours or so, and No one died or was maimed beyond reason today (so far, fingers crossed).   I say it was a good day,,,,,

AND, IN THE REAL WORLD,,,,

Kash was cleared as the Head of the FBI, and is also pulling double duty as the acting Director of the ATF right now.   Probably a ploy by Trumped to force the candidate he REALLY wants through a totally panicked Senate right now.   Panicked because the lids are loose on the garbage pails and the trash is gonna get pulled into the light.   If only 50% of them thar Poly-tickians are dirty, I would be impressed,,,,  I think its much closer to 95%,,,,   Haven’t heard whats going on at Fort Knox yet, maybe someone can send me a linky in comments on some juicy tib-bits about that mess (and you know it will be,,,,)

Now, Acting Director of ATF is sort of a No Effort sort of thing.  Yeah, there were some dirty deals over time that Kash has a chance to clean up, but really, the LAWS were not (for the most part) written by ATF, but by CONgress: ATF is more the enforcement arm/Collections arm (seeing how they were originally a division of the revenue service,,,,)   Maybe he can get them to clear out some of the Bureaucratic bullshit they have played (‘what part makes a gun a FIREARM?’ sort of shit,,,,) but I do believe that this is one of Trumps chess moves to get what he wants at the end of the week,,,,

I personally would like to see suppressors removed from the destructive device list and made cheap and in blister packs right next to the trigger assemblies and magazine/ammo aisle.    THAT is something that could be done by an actiing Director since the details of whats on the Destructive device list were up to the agency.    (any one that believes a ‘silencer’ mutes a gun has a lot to learn about what they really do.   Yes, they CAN, but it requires serious work to make ALL OF THE PARTS work together enough to SILENCE a weapon to a dead ‘whumpf’ (the sound of smacking a pillow,,,,).  That requires the efforts of a good armorer who knows spring weights, reload parameters, likely machining skills to cut threads where there may be none, but needed, and then work up all of that to ‘reliable’.   A good example of failure to take that road: think poor shooter in NY that had to hand cycle his POSpistola in a street hit.    

But its been a long day, Dio is a little whooped (backs been acting up.     Grew up singing Metallica; these days, I’m screaming Sciatica!)

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I love the fact that there is a wrecking ball bouncing around DC right now, but I get a wee bit frustrated with other aspects of things.   That we are seeing the corruption being uncovered in real time is cool as F!

I want more.

I want to see the Epstein lists!

I want full disclosure on JFK (coming, maybe, maybe not, if you can read redacted,,,,,,)

I want to see arrests,,,,   There are people that have made bank over the decades on corruption and I want to see feet held to fires, hot rods applied to backsides, racks and other torture impliments applied to bodies,

to get the truth.   

I want to know just how LITTLE our elected actually did, despite thier posturing as THE POWER,,,,  We are pretty certain at this point that since around the JFK times, that INTEL has been running the show, and in increasing joblots as the years went by.   Many of us are seeing the little tidbits of truth coming out and seeing all those ‘kray-kray konspiracies’ becoming not so kray kray, but FACT!  Frellin Factual evidence that we were Frackin’ RIGHT.   Like the whole “Obama’s Birth certificate was faked”,,,,   

THEY KNEW IT and went with it anyway.  Who the freck signed off on that shit and why are they not hanging from a lamppost?     Why, now knowing that he was NOT eligible for the seat, are we not seeing ALL OF HIS APPOINTMENTS being escorted out of buildings?   

Its little shit like that, that is driving me a little krazy with all the fun and games we have going on.   How much of INTEL is still running the show behind Trumped?    Are we seeing the highlights of an internal civil war reaching its apex?  I think yes, and what we are being shown is STILL Kabuki theater for the masses, and NOTHING MUCH IS GOING TO CHANGE.   We may get some reduction in the size of Government, but the power players are still going to be operating behind the curtains, in deep offices secured from radio detection/bugging.   Things are still looking like Icing on the cake where the cake is the real show, but you aren’t permitted to see that,,,,,,

Dunno,,,, Prove me wrong Trumped, Elon, RFKjr, Gabbard, Patel, etc etc   PROVE ME WRONG, GUT THIS BEAST, PAY THE DEBTS WITH THE RECOVERED FRAUD, CLEAR THE BOARDS OF OVER-REACH AND BRING LIFE BACK TO THIS COUNTRY.

And most definitely INVESTIGATE THE F! OUT OF THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN CAREER POLITICOS    Leave nothing unturned, find out how they made all that money (Follow the money!!!) on quarter million dollar salaries (and Seriously, WHY are we paying them that sort of money?    I think they should be paid the average income of the country, or their state, not some 6 figure WTF! salary.   They want more, make their state a better place where people  earn more, bringing that average up.   OTHERWISE, no raise, period, end of discussion.   And NO, there should be a proviso that they can’t write their own raises,,,,   I sure don’t get to write my own raises; I’m pretty sure that most people don’t get to write their own raises EXCEPT by doing better than they have in the past and thats no gaurantee,,,,   MERIT BASED should apply to Federal Gov just as much as Private sector.

I was thinking about when I was in sound, and we did Presidential Gigs.   I was involved in several campaign rallies during the Shrub Run of 2004.   Have pictures and accolades from WHCA for the wall.     The company I worked for would bid for a ‘show’.  Had to, rules based it at three minimal bids, and of course the lowest bidder was the ‘winner’.   What was rarely mentioned during bidding was that ‘Things WILL change” and so would the billing.   Budget considerations were ballparked.   See, we would start setup, as bid, than that guys boss would show up and say “nope, I don’t like it, change this, this, and that,,,,,”   Bossman would be setup at a table with computer and accounting calculator and start running the new bill.   Than that guys boss would walk in, and put everything back,,,,,

Then Secret Service would walk in and new things would be added/subtracted/changed,,,,,

And then WHCA would come in and say something like “Lighting needs to add 30000 lumins in this corner,,,,,”

And bossman would keep that tickertape rolling.

Our payment was usually on order of X3 the original bid, and they would pay it and pay it happily.  (we made bank on PRez gigs, didn’t matter what the original bid was, we were making mad money,,,,,)

THAT is how the FedGov works.   See, IT AIN’T THEIR MONEY, THEY COULDN’T GIVE A SHIT LESS HOW ITS SPENT,

and there are politicos that caught on to that and figured out how they could graft some of that ‘income’ to their pet projects and personal bank accounts.   

We’ve KNOWN IT FOR YEARS

WHY PUT UP WITH THAT SHIT?   Theft is theft is THEFT, and ‘acceptable’ shouldn’t be a word associated with it.    Yet we have, for decades on decades, maybe even over the course of more than a Century.

Musk and Trump are going to Fort Knox, on the other side of this state I reside in, to look at the gold Reserves (you know, the gold stolen from the American people when FDR made possession of gold illegal,,,,   Oh, You weren’t taught that in school?   look it up, I ain’t lyin.)  What will they find?    I would say, they already have a pretty decent clue as to what they will find, and I would bet an audit would find SERIOUS descrepencies between whats on hand and what SHOULD BE on hand.   And thats assuming the vaults aren’t completely empty,,,,, (seeing how there is little hype coming from this event, I would say there is something there, but I highly doubt is whats supposed to be there.  Don’t want the American people realizing they’ve been ROBBED of REAL MONEY,,, not just that fake and gay fiat bullshit we call money these days.

I made mention over at Frans place (in comments,,,,,,,,,, different subject matter, but the sentiment applies)    Interesting times: we are THERE.

Our future is wide open right now.   We can keep pushing those like Musk and Trump to keep cleaning house, and giving Reps and Senators hell to get back in line, but really, at the individual level, we are little fish in a big river with LOTS of current and eddies, and the best we can do is ‘LET GO AND FLOW’.    If we fight the current, it beats the crap out of us.   Better to go with the flow and dodge the rocks as we are headed at them. (learn a kayaker trick, see rock, ignore rock, paddle elsewhere; otherwise, you WILL be hugging that rock,,,,,Law of attraction writ large.)  Its a connundrum,,, How to be involved but at the same time apart from,,,,    Musk is involved in DoGE big time, literally living in DC, sleeping in the offices, while ripping through all of the bullshit, and yet, he is still a driving force in SpaceX and NueraLink and Tesla.   He is involved and yet apart from,,,, (does the man sleep?   We wonders, yes we do.)   I know Trump has held minimal sleep hours for decades,,,,  He works contiously while awake, involved and yet apart from what he is doing.   I find that difficult,,,,,,

anywhows,,,, thats my post tonight,,,, Maybe it makes sense, maybe not,,, but

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really hatin’ winter this year.   I unnerstand, KOLD, but that no helpa my finances dangit!

Nuff bitchin’ about things out of my control though.  I have control over my finances, as in, DON’T BE SPENDIN’ SHIT YA AIN’T GOT,,,,  

but boredom kicks in pretty frequently at times like these,,,,

SoundPhuns,,,, ya, ya, I know,,, GROANS,,, more of this shit?!?!?  Yah, Get over it.

Seeing how I had to order new drivers ((spending shit ya ain’t got!,,,,   Hypocrit!!  LOL  Foam board is cheap, and the drivers really aren’t pricey.  )) and not being happy with the original mounting tapes.   I decided to prepare new panels for a more permanent installation here at the stead.    What I am going to do is use new foam boards.   I was very happy with the tonal quality I was getting from them.   Where I wasn’t happy was how easily the tape tore them apart.   The tape was more than sufficient, the foam was what gave up.    SO,,,, Prepare a place where the load is spread out over a greater portion of foam.   I have a two part heavy coat varnish that I use when skinning kayaks.  The stuff is tough as nails and lays on in a 1/64″ thick coating in one pass.   I figure, rough the surface where I intend to mount the drivers (more surface area to mechanically bond to) in an area roughly 4 times the size of the driver.   Not enough to change the character of the entire board, but to give the mount something much more substantial to grab onto.  

I know the varnish is tough enough to not tear apart under load (and I may even add some 1oz fiberglass cloth to the mix) and I am hoping that covering more area will prevent the foam from separating from itself.  (the original holes were exact shape and size of the driver tape mount.)   (and while I was writing this out, found out Dayton Audio has come up with a solution for a permanent mounting system that allows you to swap out the drivers and not in a destructive way.     Not going down that road this time, but if I ever do an installation for others, yeah,,, totally going that way.) (no affiliation with those links,,, Just a source.)

Another option I considered was using a peice of lexan to permanently mount the driver to, that could be mechanically attached to the boards.    Now that I know what I know, I may even do that just for experimental purposes.  At least with the one remaining original driver I have left.

This weekend is Brudda-B’s birthday celebration weekend.   I was hoping to have this set up completed to show him.  He likes sound/music as much as me.    Seeing/hearing the results in a Utoob vid doesn’t do these things justice; its must hear in person sort of experiance.  (and what sold me on them was this video: his reaction at 7:40ish was what told me “you need to play with this”. That and his selection of test music.   Only audiophiles would choose something that complicated.)

AS FOR MY INSTALL: I’m gonna run with two main boards using the Golden Ratio as dimensions.   That ratio is 1.683;1   I set up the GoBoard using that and while not happy with the sound, it wasn’t the ratio; it was the material.   Driver placement is a little different as well.   running 2/7thsx3/7ths placement.   Why sevenths?   8 notes per ovtave (12 actual if you count semi-tones) I figure the circle of fifths would make tonal differences and using the sevenths places me right in those fifths (I know, I know, the math doesn’t add up, but trust me, in music, things add up funny,,,,)  Will it work?  I dunno; this is a learning path I am on.   But I can’t see it being a bad thing either way.

Subsonics: Bass Thumper  Mounted to floor.

Not making a home theater system, just sound and quality sound at that.     I miss having music on demand in my house (my little system has started doing some   funky electronic suicide things,,,  It’s old, over 20 years, and no support from the original manufacturer.)   Time to upgrade anyway,,,,,   Advantage to building my own.   I can choose amps that run on 12vdc and wire straight to my power system without need of a power inverter.    (unlike my current system that is dying.)

I’ll post up about the real world later,,, right now, not much interest and not liking some of what I have been seeing.   Too many grifters still in power (looking at you Screw-em-more and Peelouzy and McTurtle,,,,)

but thats niether here nor there,,,, things to do, people to whomp on, and materials needed played with.

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Probably losing some of my readership here, but hey, I like what I like.

More phun with sound.   Learning curve three today.   Don’t use the GoBoard.  TOO Stiff.   Hella high end frequencies but caused the vocal tracks to sound ‘out of phase’; like they were being produced several feet BEHIND the actual source….  VERY disorienting to say the least.   Not optimal at all.     Could be a desireable trait in certain applications so I take note of it.    Upside to it.  Classical guitar and piano were very nearly perfect.   If the low end had gone down a bit further, these would have been perfect for those instruments.  

Fact, NOT FLAT.   actually rather long sine wave shaped with a trough between 60hz and 200hz with a gradual climb up through the freqs until 1200hz where things ramped up FAST.   I was able to hear 7000hz where normal hearing for me rolls off closer to 3000hz.   VERY BRIGHT reproduction.  Cymbals CUT through the mixes.   So, as a high end ‘horn’, this board would do very nicely.   When/If I decide to make an array, I will likely put one of these at the highpoint of the line as a horn driver for the bright stuff: tuning my array with materials, not crossovers.

And I destroyed one of my drivers when removing them.     New glue (superglue gel) was more than I expected.   SO, I ordered new.   Oh, and that ‘strange noize’ I was getting from one of my drivers: completely gone using the heavier stiffer GOBoard.  My assessment of ‘GO large’ applied and eliminated that noise.   Also, I had to drive harder for similar volumes.    Kind of an expensive ‘mistake’ with a 3’x5′ sheet going for $25.   I still have the boards, they are intact, and I will find a use for them, so money not thrown away.   The stuff is hardcore and can be used for many things and is waterproof to boot. (its used as shower liner, like you would use drywall in other rooms, in many modern bathrooms.)

Hopefully, we have had enough with the winter snap this week and I can go back to paying work.  LOL    Not that I can’t make the information I picked up work for me.   I can see someone wanting me to design a system for their home theater or something.   And these DML’s are perfect for such.   One can even paint them so they appear as hanging art while still functioning as PA.   Add in  ‘thumpers’ into the floor joists and you get the low-end resonance of subwoofers without needing big honkin’ box speakers to clutter a room.  Surround system set up would be just as clutter free with the smaller satellites being wall art nearer the viewing area.  

And do away with big ugly and heavy flat screens by using a projector system on the wall.   They make ‘silver screen’ paint for that very application.  The entire wall could be the ‘system’ and not look like anything when not in use.  Kinda kool me thinks.  Amplifiers for the sound could be kept under/in a coffee table set up where the players/computers were kept while the projector could be mounted from the ceiling and ‘hidden’.     I’m thinkin’ here,,,   Would be kind of pricey to build, but, people that want that sort of thing tend to pay top dollar for way less.   I may have to consider this as my ‘out’ for employment and going solo.

IN THE REAL WORLD:  Kash made the cut.    All of Trumps ‘controversial’ picks are on line now.    

But, Like I mentioned in yesterdays late post, we have a lot further to go yet.  TL posts his take on it and, He’s Right,,,, the GOP is still a stumbling block that needs corrected.   Without them making corrections to the waste and fraud we are seeing uncovered, its ‘business as usual’ in the swamp: nothing will change, and come 2027, all of the original kooks and krooks will be back in play, and the government will grow back all the lost appendages it is suffering currently.   The cure is there, right now, all we have is a diagnosis, and that needs cooperation from the current Reps and Senators.   Get on the hook with your reps and start making noize or nothing will change (and they know it and are hoping we get lax for just seeing the damage.)

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Lots of words flyin’ around the sphere about “tax refund” for the American people, considering all the waste that is being exposed by DoGE.   

Me, personally, I don’t want it.    Take that ‘money’, since its all accounting entries anyway, and PAY DOWN THE DEBT.  

But, to do that, you have to get CONgress involved, as they are the keepers of the pursestrings.    Thats the sticking point here.  All of this money was appropriated by the very people in power and now, we see just how corrupt the whole system is

and we want them to fix it,,,

Thats a problem.   I am sure that I am not the only one to see where this falls flat on its face in stoopidity,,,,  The issues of the system are the system itself, and they have been building for decades.   Things we have all long suspected are being shown to the light, but that doesn’t actually fix anything.

My proposal.     Declare a “Reboot”, all sitting CONgress critters and supposed Representatives, have 6 months to campaign for their seats.    If they can hold them in a re-election bid as a reboot of the  system, then they do so.    We need to restart the system with fresh meat that isn’t beholden to a system that encourages corruption.   We need to get back to the days when our Representatives and Senators were paid PER DIEM, not salaries, with lifetime benefits and retirement packages.   They were only paid for the days they spent in DC doing A JOB, not building career and stealing wealth.    There are states that are still running with that setup, where the state reps don’t reside at the capitol, but remain home until there is a Session in place.    They live among those that elected them, not 1000’s of miles away in an echo chamber of corruption.

but to return the original subject: Revenues, misplaced line items of financial resources, Untraceble book-keeping entries to nowhere,,,,   Obviously these things need corrected, but I don’t want a refund.  That money is gone in my eyes.   A simple refund seems more like a bribe to shut my mouth, than a return.    More like an “oh, we’re sorry we got caught, here, have some cash,,,,”   You really want to help the people on the street out?   Abolish the IRS tax codes, hell, eliminate the entire agency with exception of a few hundred accountants to track what is incoming.   Make the Tax code a flat rate, say 4% (an arbitrary number pulled out my butt.) across the board.   Make it an honorary system, paid once a year, JUST BEFORE ELECTION DAY, not mid-point between dates.     THEN: the next years Federal Budget is established by that years tax receipts.   If you can’t make that work, figure out what needs cut back,,,,    DO THAT, and watch your revenue stream GROW because people will be more inclined to grow themselves and their incomes.

This is where we need to be looking: OPTIONS, discussing them in open forums, directing attention to them in the represenatives we currently have.   I was watching a debate recently where Haulley(Sp?) was calling for ALL representatives to Divest themselves while in office.   I listened to counter arguments by Rand Paul and both have good points, but the damage is already done: THE PEOPLE don’t trust our representatives to ‘do the right thing’, and with good reason.  The evidence grows on a daily basis why we shouldn’t.    The frame work is solid, we just need to strip things back down to barebones and BE PROACTIVE IN KEEPING IT THERE.     We have no excuses now, with the internets and social media giving us real time input and discussion.    Yes, those things can be co-opted and manipulated, but with enough people onboard, that gets MUCH harder to do.

((( side note,,, the SSN’s with people aged 100+ up to 369yo,,,,    I saw where some guy on youtube was saying some 300yo person was upset that he was losing his SSI thanks to Trumped,,,, The ‘influencer’ even talked about how some people have been collecting SSI since the CIVIL WAR!!!!    Where do these people come from?????     ZERO credibility and yet, they have followings!!!      When I see shit like that, is when I just want to fold up this blog, throw my hands in the air in disgust, then just start randomly shooting at “Stooopid!”,,,,   ONE more reason, like we needed another, to abolish the Department of Edoookation,,,)))

I’m gonna shut my trap now,,,, my little sidetrip there just showed me (as if I needed it) just where the problem is,,, its not JUST in the halls of CONgress, its the IdJITS that actually think there are people nearly 400 years old that have been collecting SSI since this countries inception,,,,    The same people that actually think SOCIALISM is a functional mode of governing,,,,  HOW does one combat that shit?  Education is a start but the returns on that are decades out and we have to tear it all down to rebuild it within a FINITE framework (and that will be difficult because there are current teachers that believe the same crap,,,,)

We still have so much more to ‘fix’,,,    and things are barely scratching the surface right now.  It feels so overwhelming,,,,   At least we know now, where a lot of the problems are, and MAYBE those in CONgress can get their clues from the public and get to straightening things out BEFORE we go full bankrupt and irrelevant on the world stage.

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Curve one: the 3M self adhesive kinda-sus,,,,  Probably works great on pre-treated plastic surfaces, but ripped gaping holes in the polystyrene foam board.    Alternatives have proven worse, as they also ‘eat’ the PolyS,,,    

Curve two: Go big!!!    Current boards were cut 1’X2′ with the driver mounted off centers at 2 and 3/5ths of the board.    These proved TOO SMALL as the drivers are quite capable of driving bigger: Hence why they tore themselves loose.    If you decided that such a size is more your liking, I suggest going with a smaller driver; say 15w or so, not the 40w I linked.  

Other than that, still quite in love with the sounds these things are capable of making.   VERY Flat response for what they are, especially considering COST.    As a near feild they are spectactular, as room filling, they are quite adequate.   I could see making an array system from this set up with ground mounted subs and being able to use in a public system: say a moderate sized bar.    Or even as an onstage monitor system as sidefills. (less foot print since they could be mounted almost directly to a wall.)   The downside to them as an array is their projection of 165degrees; thats rather broad spread for an array, and whats off axis is quite tinny.  It could cause feedback issues.    More experimentation needed, and it won’t be anytime soon. 

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IN THE REAL WORLD,,,,,,     Weather being what it is in Kentuck, we had flooding over the weekend with mid SIxties temps, and here it is four days later and we have about an inch of snow on the ground with sub freezing temps   It’t three in the afternoon and I am looking at outside temps in the mid-twenties.     KOLD!!!!

Youngest sis sent me a text asking if everything was OK on our end.  I know why.  Media driving up the flooding we recently had.   Honestly, yes, there were a few flood related deaths this year (last I heard was 9, probably higher now) but in this area, thats on the low side for this time of year.   Yeah, its sad that people died, but its not for lack of education: people KNOW that you don’t try to drive through rushing waters, and yet they still do it.    I’ve had to trek through some standing water a time or three myself , but I will NOT attempt it if I see current.  OR if I believe the water will go over an axle.   If I think its getting too deep, I back out and find an alternate route.  

Fact: February is our usual flash flood season.   More than a few Febz where I was off for a week or more because my shop was under FEET of water.  Any hype selling this as ‘Unusual’ is just that HYPE and fear mongering.     I read one comment where someone said that Trump doesn’t give a rats ass about Kentuck, but thats not true, its just this is NORMAL and his advisors KNOW IT.  We have a ton of hills that are capable of catching a lot of water and shedding it just as fast: that water has to go somewhere and the river basins can only handle so much before they start flowing over the banks.   NORMAL,,,,

Those that push the luck are the ones that might become the statistics that are used as fear mongering hype.

life goes on.

Anywhooz,,,,   I’m home today for a ‘snow day’.  Not complainin’: didn’t want to be out in that shit playin’round.    Its KOLD out there, and the fact that I have all three of the kittehs hiding in the house away from that cold,,,, Yeah, they know better.  Cold SUCKS.

Come On SUMMER!!!!

I did see sprouts of Easter lillies while taking the dumbdawg out for his bathroom break.   SO Spring is ready to spring out in all directions,,, This may be the last blast of winter (with some minor spots where its chilled,,,,).  Even Voo didn’t want to be out there any longer than needs dictated.   As soon as he did his squat, he was moving FAST back towards the house: ’nuff of this shit!’

just a few weeks longer,,,

Thats about all I have today, y’all take care out there, stay warm.

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Burnout and I went in today and began the clean-up phase of the shop and Son of Bossmans basement.    Wasn’t near as bad as a couple years back, when we had to use shovels to clean out the muck.   Today was hoses and brooms.    Left the floor fans runnin’ to try and dry stuff out a bit between now and tomorrow when HOPEFULLY the rest of the crew shows up and they can help put the polish on things and get the business back up runnin’

Still lots of water that needs to go downstream yet.   it is receding, but these hills are still shedding copious amounts of water so the drop is slow.  Just runnin’ around, fingers crossed, that we don’t get any more monsoon type days between now and then.  It sure wouldn’t take much to bring the tables back up.

Now, for the educational side of things; My drivers and amplifier came in today.    I set the whole shebang up in a temporary fashion to play with it.   Mostly because I had no clue what to expect.    I set up the initial amp setup using my two sony studio monitors: I know those drivers and I wanted to see what the amp was capable of with known good sound outputs.   Not bad, could use the subwoofer IMO, but that dinky amplifier drove them just fine without distortion, even into the upper limits.

Now, its time for the DML’s.    I had a couple of peices 3/4″ insulation board, nothing I want to use as they are scrap, but they were big enough for my curious side.   Hung them from the bookshelf with care and slapped the ‘exciters’ (what Dayton calls these drivers) on and ran my wires to the amp.    hooked everything up and re-established bluetooth connection to the amp with the phone,,,,,

HOLEY FRACKIN’ SHIRT PILES OF DOG!!!!!

Oh MY DAWG are these things LOUD!!!!!   

The levels I had coming out of my sony’s was where I started.   Not even 40% amp load and these things were LOUD CLEAR and THUMPY!!!!    HoleySHeeeettttttsssssss!!!!!!

A solid subwoofer on the ground would be PERFECT (needs crossover and seperate amp for that, future project) BUT, I am telllin’ ya as they stand right now (hang actually) THEY NEED NOTHING but fine tuned.  Properly sized boards, properly hung and this set up is fillin’ the void of silence.   FILLING that void.   Simple 40w driver and what I was hearing reminded me of a 400w mid driver with a 1″ horn driver

I’m inclined right now, to install this thing at the shop so I have tunes for work.    I haven’t had a system at work in a couple of years and sorta miss it. and the sounds I was hearing today, they will fill the gap and cover the noises of shop perfectly.  

And I think I am going to do just that.   Spend a little more for a better amp with crossed over points built in so I can have that subwoofer/satellite set up, here at home.  

Anywhoooossss,,,, I am going to include some links for anyone that wants to play with these things.   If you love sound (I DO!) this is a stoopid cheap way of getting something really cool to play with.

Dayton Audio Surface exciter 32mm 40w@4ohm

Sunbuck 300w mini stereo amplifier with BT

Total expense for me was $70 and that included tax (and shipping was free for the amount of purchase)

The board can be pretty much anything,, but every one I have read or watched suggested steering clear of metal plate.   The suggested BEST material was Acoustic ceiling tiles, but I have seen balsa wood, bamboo tiles, glass, drywall and 1/4 laminates.     

Oh, And DO NOT mount the exciter dead center,,,, you want it off center, like 2/5ths x3/5ths.    And DO figure some solid ways of attaching your hanging system.   These points will be rattled around like you have no idea.    I’m considering running some bungee cord through them for mounting.   Sort of a pain to run a long hole that far through the foam, but I think the bungee will allow better response. (and I am fully accepting of being proven wrong,,, this is a learning curve thing.)

I’m tellin’ ya: if you are a Sound snob, these are gonna surprise you! 

Live

LEARN

Laugh

LOVE

LOAD

Update: no measured outputs, no analyzer, just rough descriptions from old sound dude.   Test songs: Shakira Me Enamoré, (pop beats) Rush Vital Signs(classic prog rock with killer drum and bass tracks) Billy Joel Vienna, Mozart Sonata 11, and the Real MacKenzies The Tempest (for those awesome bagpipes!!!!)

Response is all the way down in the basement around 100hZ and as far up as 7khZ (and seeing Kat response, way higher!!!)  VERY flat!!!!   Holding the panel,  Neil Pearts kick drum rattled my paw!!!!  I would say the actual response is lower,  but wont reliably ‘sound’ below that 100hZ

Near feild (@1m) levels at 50% are about 105dB(totally rough guess) and clear as a bell.

WOW!!!  I see some serious system building in my future.

(( I had forgotten, I have a tone generator app in my phone (tested a few systems in my time, even some since leaving that world.),,,,    I set everything back up, and did a freq sweep from 20-18K.   I could hear some low around 40hz, but picked up a resonate rattle right at 50 from one of the plates.   Could be a fault of the driver, could be a fault of the boards construction, could be install error, could be a bad signal in the amp.  its only on the one side.  I didn’t swap things around to see if it followed or stayed on channel, but I don’t see me driving into the 40hz range.   Usual for me is that Lo-D when I am getting into some grungy metal stuff.    Those are the days where I WILL have a subwoofer and the range will be limited to 90hz up with the sub pulling all the power for the low end. 

as for the top end stuff, I was able to track it (with my handicapped ears, no aids) up to 8500hz.    Further up around the 11K range, every single Kat in the house decided that outside was easier on the ears, so I know these units were outputting the bright stuff just fine.

I’m in love with sound again  LOL.

))