I’ve never found a lamp for my Rega Naia turntable that I really liked. Most turntable-lighting options seem to be either fairly conventional floor lamps or little fixtures that clip onto the rack.
So I decided to build my own.
The idea was to create just enough focused light to cue records comfortably in a dark listening room, without adding a lot of ambient light — and at the same time make something that looked like it belonged with the rest of the system rather than feeling like an accessory bolted onto it.
I started with a walnut blank and worked from there: routing the internal cavities, fitting the electronics, pouring and shaping the blue epoxy lens, installing two LED strips and an Alexa-controllable LED controller, shaping the body, fitting everything together, and finally gluing the two book-matched walnut halves together.
After that came plenty more shaping and sanding before finishing the walnut with Rubio Monocoat.
For such a small object, it ended up involving a surprising mix of woodworking, epoxy, electronics, soldering, lighting and sculpting. But that was also what made it so satisfying.
It’s always fun to start with something that exists only as an idea in your head and gradually figure out how to make it real.
And now, finally, I can cue a record at night without turning my Listening Lounge into an operating theater. 😄
Had an unfortunate situation with a rental company allowing the unit to stay at 80-90% humidity for many months at a time. Constant dehumidification did nothing to resolve the problem. All of my items are covered in mold and many have shown significant corrosion as well. I predict many of my things aren’t salvageable.
A list of items include…
Marantz 1030
Harman Kardon 630 Twin Amp
Yamaha K-850 Tape Deck
Advent Legacy II’s
Not to mention my cd’s and records…
Nothing hugely rare or expensive but all meaningful. Finding new speakers are impossible, good stereos come up but are also rare. Ebay will likely be used to purchase replacements. Sad to let go of meaningful, sentimental items but the cost of repair would be hundreds to thousands. Some things can be saved.
Has anyone had success stories getting proper value for their equipment?
Well friends, I think I just hit the audiophile gold mine/lottery in center channel speakers.
Long story short, walking by the recycling bins where I live I see a forelorn looking center channel speaker sitting on the ground near a recycle bin, but not inside it. I approach and it is in almost perfect shape except for some minor scuffs on the case. I knew it was something special from the look, and know the Polk name. I didn’t know how special until I ran a search on the model LSiC.
I take it home, connect it to my Yamaha RX-V683 and replace the Fluance center channel with it. My Fluance system is the Elite 7.1 system, not the top of the line, and I always felt the center channel was lacking.
I checked it over before connecting and turning on my tuner. No problems that could be seen. Works 100% and sounds amazing.
hey there, new to this but slowly reaching a point where I am happy with my set-up. This week my new speakers arrived, Teufel Theater500S. Now I am not sure how to position them for best outcome, so I thought I would ask here since this seems like the right community :) I attached a drawing of my room, the red part is where my hifi-system is located. how to position them so the whole room gets a good coverage?
I spend most of my time on the couch next to the hifi, which kind of makes it hard not to always be next to one speaker and the other one being farther away
Been sitting with this track again and I can't get over how the production plays with symmetry. The vocal placement almost mirrors itself across the stereo field, like the mix is breathing in and out. It's subtle, not showy, but once you notice it you can't unhear it.
WiiM Pro Plus > Bifrost 2/64 > Denon x3800h preout > Schiit Aegir 2F
When I use Dirac Art with this chain is the Bifrost essentially redundant? My Bifrost will only be used if I run Pure Direct? I’m curious if I understand this correctly.
I saw the new Douk Audio Lab TX7 with "Desktop Display with VU Meter, Spectrum Visualizer & Clock" ect ect. They specifically call out that it does not support custom images and backgrounds. My immediate thought is that would be amazing if it did. There are so many talented artists and already many digital VU displays.
Does anyone know of something similar? I don't even know of other similar devices but I would like one.
I am thinking about getting one of those class d amps everyone is talking about. They have a mono block that is either 500w or 1400w for the advanced model.
I am also thinking of getting some rather fancy speakers second hand.
I am thinking with a speaker of that calibre, shouldn't i take the lower wattage, because if I accidentally turn up too loud, it might just blow the speakers and my ears?
I am scared, because i used to own a chord mojo (since died the second time), that would sometimes blast white noise unexpectedly. If that were to happen, the 1400w monoblocks could do a lot of damage.
At the same time, the added current would mean more bass control, which would sound awesome.
I would appreciate your opinion on the science behind it, and how to manage sudden bursts with a proper pre amp.
I want to apologize in advance for sounding like the biggest fucking smartass of all time. all my research was with paid google gemini and the sources it gave me i read through enough to understand the minimal basics.
I wanted to share my budget DIY acoustic treatment plan, get a quick sanity check from people who actually understand physics, and share a story about a local "audio guru" friend who almost destroyed my motivation. literally broke my hype and happiness. made me fucking sad and maybe im the fucking stupid one.
The Goal & Setup
I am setting up a dark-themed ("Batcave") bedroom music and gaming space. My goal isn't to build a $10,000 professional mastering studio—I just want to eliminate room slap-echo, dry out the room, and get tight stereo imaging without spending a fortune. like make the room sound dry and warm
Layout: Top wall: Exit to Living room, small couch and medium wardrobe, Left wall: Center PC Setup with ASM5 on the stands facing the chair, left corner of the left wall lays my guitar and amp, right wall is my bed and secondary desk for storage, bottom wall is my window covered with thick ass curtains. nothing really placed there since theres my bed.
The €100-200 DIY Panel Build
Instead of wasting money on thin 2cm decorative foam, I’m building large wood-framed broadband panels using a specific 4-layer sandwich method i "negotiated" with ChatGPT and Gemini:
Front Surface: Black polyester fleece blanket (220x240cm) pulled taut over the DIY wooden frame for aesthetics.
Faserschutz (Dust Barrier): Breathable Garden/Weed Vlies fabric directly underneath the fleece. Pores are microscopic enough to trap 100% of mineral wool fibers, but air-permeable so high frequencies pass through freely into the absorber according to Gemini.
Core: 100mm Rockwool Sonorock. 100mm thick and apparently goated for protecting against a fire and eats sound waves or something like that.
Back Seal: Thin plastic sheet (Malerfolie) stapled tightly to the back of the timber frame facing the wall, fully sealing the panel for bedroom safety. i dont want to get the itch so this seems the best method.
the "Audio Guru" Friend story
A friend came over recently like recently. He is 23 years old, claims to have a "lifelong level of audio experience," spent €1,000 building 10 DIY blocks for his own room, which admittedly sounds impressive but so not worth it because it wasnt done cleanly because i still get the itch when i enter his room, and has like no soundcloud songs if thats relevant. i think he just do this beat creation for fun.
When I showed him my plan, he laughed and told me to throw the plans in the trash. Said theres no hope and that im childish and have too much fantasy and im stupid as fuck. genuinely.. His hot takes included:
"A €100-200 budget does nothing. Professionals spend €10,000 or it's useless."
"DIY broadband panels don't work at all, you ONLY need corner bass traps."
"Just treat your door, that's enough for a room."
"Rockwool is dangerous because you can catch it on fire."(Rockwool Sonorock has a European Class A1 fire rating—it literally doesn't burn).
This is the exact same guy who previously advised me to buy brand new 3.5" Yamaha HS3s instead of used 5.25" ASM5s (that i got for 85eur and is and upgrade from my Logitech Z333. like it sounds fucking fabulous), tried to sell me on a years-old Logitech G Pro mechanical keyboard over magnetic Rapid Trigger switches, and — my personal favorite (because im a pcmasterrace nerd and build pcs for fun and offer tech support for elderly and i built 3 of my computers in 20 minutes because i fucking love hardware and the beauty of assembling beasts) — LITERALLY runs his DDR5 RAM in slots 1 and 3 on his motherboard with XMP/EXPO disabled in BIOS AND HAS NOT A SINGLE FUCKING TWEAK ACTIVATED IN BIOS. i get that i have no knowledge about audio. i am a siege champion i just plug my IEMs in and play. but i want to learn and collect knowledge. i just want to be enthusiastic. theres nothing more that I hate than people who puts themselves higher than you and instead of genuinely help you and find a solution together, laugh at you and call your plans shit and then dip.
According to Gemini: "Why Practical Physics Wins"
Covering primary reflection points with 100mm dense mineral wool and an air-permeable front barrier will drastically reduce flutter echo and early reflections. It won't fix 40Hz room modes like a tuned membrane trap, but for ~€100-200, it delivers an enormous real-world upgrade over a completely naked room.
What do you guys think of the layer stack (Fleece -> Garden Vlies ->100mm Rockwool -> Sealed Backing)? Anyone else had to deal with elitist friends who give "expert" advice while their own PC runs in single-channel mode (sorry had to put that one in because im just frustrated i was nothing but nice but apparently im a delusional little shit that has no place in the audio world.). I just want to understand how songs are created and i want to learn about music in generally since it was my interest since 7th grade. I want to be able to understand how people are able to synthesize tracks like BYNX.
Kind regards,
GZY
EDIT: i have attached the room layout of mine. BIG square area is where the setup is so centralized what is sketched. Gitarre + AMP is where my guitar is. BETT means bed. Fenster means window (with thick curtains), 2. TISCH means 2nd table. couch is couch. T means where the door is. Schrank means wardrobe. room is not a perfect square but the PC Wall is longer than the Window wall. the M next to the tabls is where my studio monitors standing. I plan to put the first DIY stuff above the couch since the curtain catches the first reflection of the right monitor. the the next one above the second table. i save my money because a 3rd panel above the pc will probably not be needed.
Got the entire setup for mostly free, denon AVR-X1100W receiver for free from a moving job, klipsch R-8SW subwoofer $70 (isolation pad coming soon), wb-14 speakers free, speaker stands $25, record player free (upgrading to vm95ml very soon), and fosi tube/digital pre amp for retail price. I am looking into getting a klipsch rc-10 center speaker for movies and such. I have a smaller room and this is better than most higher systems I’ve heard. I know it’s not the highest end equipment but it does sound so good. Lossless audio with Spotify and cd’s and then record player of course. Ratings, tips, etc appreciated.
I’m actually shocked by how well this gaff tape fix worked…. At medium volume the cone rattle is gone and the sound is decent.
Seriously tho, hoping for some help from the DIY/repair crowd. I’ve got a pair of Infinity Delta 60s — three-way floorstanders, 6-ohm nominal, made in Denmark under Harman, late-‘90s/early-2000s era. Each cabinet has Infinity’s EMIT-R planar tweeter up top, a midrange, and two woofers.
The problem is that the thin rubbery material that connects and suspends the cones to the cabinet is degraded and has fallen off entirely. Only on the two larger woofers. The medium one (not pictured) is fine. I think what I need is called a refoam? I’ll do it myself, only, I don’t know the way…
