AG Pool Audio System.

[sailork]

Good lord this thread is amusing. I was just sitting out by my pool with the Old Man and he was blustering on about "Altec Lansing Voice of the Theatre" speakers. I figured he was mistaken about the sound quality since I've never heard them. We'd just gotten back from working on the boat. It couldn't have been much more apropos.

Carl, you won't need that 200 watts to drown out the Hip Hopster when we dig your new in ground 9.5 meter poolside horns. I'd suggest 6 of the biggest EV drivers you can afford. Drive it with a "Zen" Class A amplifier.

Boats, Hi Fi, Swimming Pools.... Is the next thread Bikes? Cars? Sun Ra?

Maybe we'll descend into a rapturous geekdom of computer controlled bleach infusers... Anybody got a PDP-12 that times his pump? Maybe an old Origin that calculates the rate that his bleach burns off based on diurnal time, a thermometer and a sun brightness sensor?

Of course, maybe I just need to get out more.

[gonefishin]

I used to run one of my hybrid horn/dynamic systems on 8 Watts...but have also run it on 1.5 Watt amps as well. Currently, I've got the speakers in a tri-amp set-up, but for reasons other than maximum spl. (I've also got a 20Hz hornsub, but I haven't got the room to set it up in the basement. When the time comes...I'm going to have to go with a line array of infinite baffle woofers.

Altec certainly made some nice stuff, back in the day. They did have a certain "Altec sound" to them...but they also had attributes that very few speakers today could equal. The few times I could get my hands on some old Altecs, Jbl's, EV's, TAD's, I feel honored. But of course...the person getting rid of them just want them large things out of the house!

Watts are certainly relative to the situation...especially when most modern drivers aren't able to produce clean undistorted sound at higher volume. (read with warning that care should always be used when at higher volumes) It's amazing how quiet high volumes can be when you have low distortion drivers that are capable of playing at high spl. *5db may be unbearable on one speaker system while another system may not be producing excessive distortion until over 100db.

Because I've got ALOT of landscaping yet to do...I haven't even begun to look into music options for outside. But I'm thinking a system based either on a wireless music server (like a squeezebox) or ipod may serve me the best. But who knows??? that will be some time away

dan

[CarlD]

Good lord this thread is amusing. I was just sitting out by my pool with the Old Man and he was blustering on about "Altec Lansing Voice of the Theatre" speakers. I figured he was mistaken about the sound quality since I've never heard them. We'd just gotten back from working on the boat. It couldn't have been much more apropos.

Carl, you won't need that 200 watts to drown out the Hip Hopster when we dig your new in ground 9.5 meter poolside horns. I'd suggest 6 of the biggest EV drivers you can afford. Drive it with a "Zen" Class A amplifier.

Boats, Hi Fi, Swimming Pools.... Is the next thread Bikes? Cars? Sun Ra?

Maybe we'll descend into a rapturous geekdom of computer controlled bleach infusers... Anybody got a PDP-12 that times his pump? Maybe an old Origin that calculates the rate that his bleach burns off based on diurnal time, a thermometer and a sun brightness sensor?

Of course, maybe I just need to get out more.

That's what off-topic is for! We've had threads on bleach infusers on the old board.

The VOTs were BIG--not for home use unless you were a maniac--they are for theaters. They were also extremely heavy and not enough "ooo" in Boo-coo bucks to buy them!

[CarlD]

Dan,
You know more about speakers by a long shot than me! I'm not into designing and building them.

I've listened to the modern pipe-stem speakers--tall and thin and I really don't like them. I find them metallic and distorted--just listen to a classical piano sonata or orchestral piece on them and it's just awful. There's a real metallic edge of high frequencies that's terribly over-stated. I've heard very few where the piano sounds like some one is sitting there, playing a piano, which, of course, is the object of the exercise.

Equalization and phasing tricks and a good sub-woofer can do a lot, but you simply cannot get honest base and mid-range clarity to my ear that larger drivers give with 4" drivers.

Plus I REALLY hate the satellite/sub-woofer paradigm that Bose pioneered. It may be convenient, and it may work OK for Home Theater, but for music it just plain stinks. And for classical music, that's being kind--it's attrocious.

My favorite is good full range front speakers, big enough for the room, a good sub-woofer to compensate and fill in gaps, and well-engineer CDs--or really good LPs.

I don't think you should notice the sub-woofer, unless you turn it off. If you hear it (by which I mean are aware of it), I think it's set wrong. You should forget it's there and just hear clear, clean sound.

I mean, it's really all about good sound isn't it? Going deaf isn't the object.

[drumr]

Carl,
I agree with you about satellite/sub setup, even though I do have the Yamaha/Infinity satellite setup on my home theater, I rarely listen to music exclusively, unless watching a concert on rave hd tv or on hdnet tv. My Yamaha reciever came with a microphone that you put in the middle of the room and it more or less sets itself up. When I did this it set the speakers like you describe with very little bass/subwoofer. I guess sound is subjective, and I am no audiophile by any means, and half deaf from 20 years in an aluminum extrusion factory (my line has a loud saw in it) I kinda run my subwoofer a little "hotter" than the yamaha had it set....OK,OK, I like BASS!! So I do let it thump.
I play drums at my church and we have 15" Mackie powered sub sitting about 2 feet away from me, and our sound guy is not afraid to use it, along with our bass guitar player on the other side of me with a 15" Peavey black widow so I guess I am just used to alot of bass.

[gonefishin]

Carl...I'm still surprised to see others here interested in audio! next you guys and gals will tell me your also cooking fanatics or addicted to fantasy football and nascar and fishing

g'day all>>>

dan

[CarlD]

next you guys and gals will tell me your also cooking fanatics or addicted to fantasy football and nascar and fishing

g'day all>>>

dan

None of the above!

I can cook and can cook well, but I do not like doing it--it is a chore, and nothing more.

Fantasy football? No way! I believe in TRUE suffering--NJ Jets season tickets!

NASCAR? go round and round turning left.

Fishing? Rather watch paint dry...or even NASCAR.

What's wrong with talking about stuff other than pools in the Off Topic forum? What should we talk about? Boxer glue? Speedo trunks? Which brand of swim goggle is best?

[sailork]

gonefishin, I just spent 9 hours bobbing around Galveston and Trinity Bays getting burned to a crisp, mostly sitting and pulling on lines and not catching a single thing. Tell me again how yacht racing is different from fishing? I'm just this side of sunstroke. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

I must now go dump bleach in the pool and hope that my sun burned skin doesn't slough off.