Emil, you put your finger right on it: that's the fun! Not great sound, not fine components, but both of these _at bargain prices_!

I get a great thrill out of the lullaby system in my bedroom, and it cost me very little. The big main system is an investment, and I love it but if I had to sell all or part, I would not cry too hard. After all, I expect to get most of the money back anyway.

M_laken, your system looks well-chosen, that's a gorgeous rack, and the light in your pics is glorious. I believe I have the same listening chair. Makes me want to sit down, close my eyes, and press "play".

tobias November 06, 2004 21:43

Wonderful thing about a cheap and simple system is that it never disappoints.
In my personal experience, I've found that pleasure and the cost of my gear are inversely proportional.
Enjoy

emil November 06, 2004 19:09

I second SmellyFuzz comment about the Paradigm Signature.
Listen to the S4, or S8. The S8 is costly but I thing worth it. If you don't require alot of base the S4's will do. I owne a pair of S2's and I love them. With the right amps
WOW THE SOUND IS GREAT! I would put them up against monitors costing thousands more.

greg_lett November 05, 2004 21:04

Before you buy those Proacs, give the paradigm Signatures a listen.

smellyfuzz October 19, 2004 07:14

About walls behind heads--every time I've tried this the image and soundstage have suffered. As a general rule I think it is not a good idea to have your listening chair close to the back wall. Only exception I know had a large studio-type custom diffuser panel behind the listening chair ; even so the chair was two feet from the back wall.

tobias May 03, 2004 00:11

Stuart,
thanks for noticing....
I have some room issues and some speaker setup issues and I know my speakers are just kinda thrown in the room at this point....my concerns (and the reaason why i tried to show the room setup in the picture)

1.) the big ugly couch next to the right speaker...its gotta go in my opinion because it really constrict that corner behind the speaker...i could probably pull the speakers another foot away from each other if the couch wasn't right there

2.) the flimsy $10 target curtain behind the rack...my wife wants me to sew some roman blinds out of canvas for the front room (i enjoy DIY stuff, if you couldn't tell)...any suggestions for material or impacts on acoustics this might have?

3.) i don't have a wall behind the listeners head (it's about 4 feet behind the listener and there is no good way to use that space as it pulls the listener too far from the speakers, which are about 9' apart from each other) what kind of impact does this have (i think it would cause music to seem less defined/impactful in the lower frequencies, which i seem to experience currently)

4.) toe in on speakers when you don't have a wall directly behind the listeners head?....follow the setup instructions of paradigm (that is what i am currently doing, but they show a wall behind the listener in their diagram)

any ideas would be well recieved...thanks, Mark

m_laken April 21, 2004 22:24

Sorry i have been busy in a couple other forums and forgot to watch this one....I bought the plywood from a specialty lumber store here in fort collins (Sears-Trossel...excellent service)....local lumber stores are the only places to shop if you want to make something that looks fairly high quality with good wood

I bought one 4x8 sheet of 3/4" wide red oak laminate of medium grade quality (it costed $62 and produced two racks, the one above and the one in my tv room, which is 4 - 24"x16" shelves and a 30"x16" tv shelf) the rack above is a 45"x16" top shelf with 4 - 24"x16" middle shelves (there is a 3" overlap of the shelves, hence the 45" top shelf)

I had the lumber store cut the wood to my exact dimension for $20/hour labor charge for the smaller rack (not pictured)...i cut the remenants for the rack shown above after purcahsing a table saw for myself (only way to get a decent straightline cut)

The top is not attached but is supported by 6 bolts and washers and is half depth drilled. I used the green top threaded rod (from anywhere...not sure what the diameter is...lots of freedom here, use what ever you like) get matching bolts and wider flat washers (fender washers if possible)

I used high temperature flat black spray paint on all the steel hardware...3 or 4 coats...then threaded the bolts extremely care fully to the middle points on the stand (furthest from the ends) then respray painted because they will remove some paint while threading...then assmbled shelve and touched up stripped sections of threaded rod by spray painting onto a piece of cardboard and using a brush to touch up the rods....its a major pain but turned out well and was cheap....

glad to see people like the rack...it took quite a bit of effort, mark

m_laken April 21, 2004 22:10

Ive seen threaded rod in a few different colors in an industial tool and supply catalog at work,I think it was a granger catalog,,they also have it in lengths and diameters that they dont have at my local Home Depot,hope this helps,

raytheprinter April 20, 2004 01:16

Oh yeah, Great looking rack!

stuartbranson April 14, 2004 04:26

Just wondering if you've played around with the toe-in on your speakers. It seems a bit much and will collapse the soundstage if they are indeed toed-in too much. Might make the speakers seem less of a weak link.

IMO, Stuart

stuartbranson April 14, 2004 04:25

Yes indeed. A very nice rack! You need a tuner. There's an Arcam 8 for sale @ the moment on Audiogon. Would match well w/your other Arcam components.

kotta April 13, 2004 22:13

that rack is great!

i've been pondering building something similar and need large pieces of wood for shelves. where did you get the laminated plywood? what diameter threaded rod rod did you use? it looks black. did you paint it or is it black oxide coated? if so, where did you get that?

how did you fasten the top shelf to the rods? did you drill half way through the wood? can the rod can slip in and out, or is the wood threaded?

nice job!

ketchup April 13, 2004 21:13