MIKE'S AUDIO/VIDEO PAGE This section of my site will concentrate my a/v systems, custom electronics, and speakerbuilding interests.

My Home Theater System

The Gear

Processing and amplification includes: Fosgate Audionics Model Four Surround Processor dbx 120x 2-way Active Crossover Rotel RB-956AX 6-channel amp (driving front, rear, center speakers, and one sub) Toshiba SC-335 2-channel amp (driving two subs built into front speakers) The Sources Include: Pioneer DV-563 DVD Player RCA Hi-Fi VCR WebTV Plus Internet Browser Additional Acessories: Adcom ACE-515 Line Conditioner Monster Cable Interlink 300 interconnects Monster Cable XP, Original Monster Cable 12ga speaker cable, and generic 14ga flat wire from Radio Shack Sylvania 25" TV w/ RF modulator input (Hey, don't knock it. I only paid $45 for it at a thrift shop. Will be upgraded, eventually...)

The Front R&L Speakers

The front speakers are custom built bi-amplified towers loosely based on NHT VT-1.2's. Using a side firing, ported 8" woofer (Targa/Urban Audio), dual 4" mid/bass drivers (built by Rockford Fosgate, but marketed under the Hafler logo), and a Linaeum designed monopole mylar film tweeter (scavenged from a pair of Optimus LX-4's).

The M-T-M Array

Using second order high pass and low pass filters between the mid and tweeters (crossover topology copied from the center channel). The sub to mid transition is handled by the dbx 120x active crossover (the Toshiba driving the subs, and two channels of the Rotel driving the mids and tweeter). The bass is solid, and good down to about 38hz. The midrange is natural, but the highs seem a little bright (more so than the center channel, anyway). My suspicion is the mids may be low-passed at too high a frequency, owing to the difference between it's drivers and the ones in the center channel (The mids are in wired in series for an 8 ohm load. While the center channel claims a "nominal" 8 ohm impedance, the mid/bass drivers are actually wired in parallel which would assume a 4 ohm load. The drivers BTW, have "8 ohms" stamped on their back, if that's to be believed.).

The Center Channel

The center channel is a hyper-modified Optimus PRO CS-3. The original dome tweeter was replaced with a Linaeum monopole, and surrounded by a layer of felt (to limit difraction). The electrolytic capacitor in the tweeter circuit was replaced with mylar, and the internal wiring was replaced (16ga stranded to the woofers, 18ga solid to the tweeter). Finally, the input was modified for bi-amp or bi-wirability, and the entire inside of the cabinet was lined with Dynamat. The presentation is natural, and well matched to the right and left speakers. Sometimes, the blend is so smooth, I can't tell whether the center is on or off! (And, yes, those are lightsabers sitting around the speaker)

The Surrounds

The surrounds are built into the LX-4 cabinets the tweeters for the front speakers came from. I used a generic 4" autosound mid/bass (poly cone, rubber surround, decently sized magnet) and the Linaeum dipole tweeter from Radio Shack (#40-1389, they're discontinued and, unfortunately, completely unavailable).

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