AV Adviser

Let it rock

Snow speakers

Cleveland - Yesterday I was talking about speakers and how some enthusiasts will even attempt to build their own.  Sometimes to the extreme or pure challenge of it.

I just came across this story on the 2007 Michigan Tech Winter Carnival, where some students assembled a speaker system built with snow.  There's not much to add.  20,000 Watt Speakers Made from Ice and Snow.

So many good sounding speakers

Cleveland - Speakers are the ultimate in start-up entrepreneurism in the consumer electronics business.  It doesn't take clean labs and sophisticated assembly lines to make a speaker.  Hobbyists make their own in basements and garages.  Not so much anymore these days, though, since there are so many excellent speaker manufacturers. 

For example here's a story from Lifehacker touting a group of superior speakers, Five Best Living Room Speaker Sets.  They're hardly the best.  There's better speakers in these brands lines.  They are all good speakers for the price which, mind you, isn't inexpensive.  Good sound doesn't come cheap. 

Still, there are so many other small company brands that make speakers that sound just as well.  Off the top of my head there's Triad, Totem, and Definitive Technology.  The list is long. 

What I like about the Lifehacker story is that there is a place in your living room for good sounding speakers that, yes, will be seen.  These are for critical listening.  Rather than music in the background all the time, there's certain occasions where you want to really appreciate the music.  These are the speakers made for that. 

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal @gmail.com

John Hannibal

Here's a misleading story on home theater

I just read a story from the Charlotte Observer on home theater, New home theaters: hardware, Internet collide.  It covers the typical information that's in most of these articles. 

The spin this time is on the convergence of AV and the internet.  Duh.  I do hope you've noticed this direction for the past few years. 

What struck me was the misleading photo accompanying the story.  Take a look at the snazzy home theater in the picture.  It's actually a shot of a set up done by a Cleveland company.  It looks nice, right?

Now read about what the speakers will cost for the home theater described in the story.  The writer says a six speaker array will cost you between $500 to $1000.  Ha.  If we're talking a decent home theater in a box, sure.  But in wall or on wall speakers of any quality will cost far more than that.  And if that's all they spent on speakers in the home theater shown in the photo someone doesn't know what they're doing. 

Would you only spend $1,000 for all the speakers in this home theater?

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

Unusual looking speakers

Used speakers are tricky to price

There's not much to a speaker.  I should say that compared  to an av receiver there's not much that goes into a speaker.  You have the drivers, tweeters and woofers, a cabinet, circuit boards, some insulation, a grill.  That's simplified and hardly scientific but I'm trying to get a point across. 

Your speakers usually last much longer than other audio components.  There's just not much that can go wrong with them.  That is unless you overdrive them and blow out the drivers themselves.  You can tell if a driver is blown by just listening to it.  Or, if it's a woofer, carefully push the cone in with your hand.  Do you feel or hear a grinding or crunching.  If so the speaker is blown.  You'll need to replace it. 

In fact, it's quite easy to replace parts of a speaker that goes bad.  The most common ailment is that the "surround" which attaches the speaker cone to the basket becomes deteriorated.  Here's a diagram.

You'll first notice a bad surround as the speaker will begin to buzz or make a fart sound when there's low bass tones.  On inspecting it you might find that there's actual holes where the surround has decayed.  Simply touching the surround with your finger may cause it to disintegrate as you touch it. 

I've got a pair of McIntosh XR6s that had bad surrounds in the largest of the woofers.  Here's a couple of pictures. 

In the old days surrounds were made of cloth, and though the sound may not have been as good they didn't go bad. 

I removed the woofers from the cabinet and took them in for replacement of the surrounds.  It's much better than trying to transport huge speaker cabinets. 

There's a few places in Cleveland that repair drivers.  I took mine to Audio Craft.  Another downtown shop is Empirical Sound.  I believe that Elctra-Sound on Brookpark Rd. also offers this service.  It's best to call a store first to see if there's a surround available for that sized driver. You could do it yourself but it's a bit difficult and the glue used is somewhat toxic meaning a ventilating mask is needed. 

Once the surrounds are repaired the woofer is as good as new and that's where pricing on used speakers becomes tricky.  If you go by Bluebook, yes, just like cars AV gear has a Bluebook, the price on used speakers aren't reflective of any sort of repair work you may have had done.  Speakers can last a long time as long as you take care of the cabinet and don't crank them too loudly.  It's just that in the used market you won't be able to sell them for too much.  On the other hand, you can find some great deals on used speakers. 

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

 

Watch where you put your speakers or what you put on them

I was just looking at a review from CNET's Christopher MacManus on a home theater system he saw at the Consumer Electronics Show, Hands-on with Unity home theater.  He gives a favorable recommendation but it got me thinking about speaker placement. 

MacManus was turned off by the design of the set up where the subwoofer sits vertically in the center and a speaker bar rests horizontally across the top of it creating a T shape where the speaker bar also acts as a place to put the flat panel TV.  His concern is that there's no place for a lower shelf to house a game console and the like.  My worry is vibration from the speakers and subwoofer that are in direct contact with the TV. 

I don't care what the spin is, there's no way vibration is good for your video and audio components.  The idea of my TV sitting on top of a platform that constantly vibrates is just not happening.  Those vibrations can, in time, loosen soldering joints, circuit boards and all sorts of internal components.  That may easily send your TV to an early grave. 

The speaker bar contains the tweeters which, granted, don't create too much in the way of vibration, but the bar sits directly on top of the subwoofer.  A subwoofer vibrates like crazy.  I've seen systems set up where, due to lack of shelf space, audio or video components are set right on top of the subwoofer which usually resides next to or behind the TV.  That is just bad design.

Another thing to be wary of when dealing with subwoofers and large floor standing speakers is what you may place on top of them, even momentarily.  Speakers use magnets.  The bigger the speaker the bigger the magnet.  Most of the time the speaker housing is sufficient to keep that magnetic field from escaping the enclosure.  I'd still be very cautious about laying a watch or your iPhone on top if it. 

I have a mobile DJ business and sometimes the photographer will put his camera right on top of my speaker.  First of all I don't want anything on those speakers because eventually vibrations are going to knock whatever rests there to the floor.  Secondly, there's a chance that the magnet in the speaker is going to do damage to their camera. Remember, speakers aren't tables.  

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

Wireless Speakers Still Need Power

A couple of years ago a company called Summit invented wireless speakers for an AV receiver.  Actually wireless technology has been around for years but this was quite an innovation. 

In the past wireless speakers worked via 900 megahertz, the same frequency used on cordless phones.  It was far from perfect.  The signal wasn't clean with some hiss usually detected and you had to have an antenna set up at the source location. 

Then came wireless rear speakers for surround systems.  These usually worked via line of sight which was problematic since most home theater rooms have furniture that might prevent that. 

So Summit invented a technology where the transmitters were built into the AV receiver, sending out separate signals to each of the speakers.  They sold this technology to manufacturers like Aprion who's product using the technology has been showing up on best products of 2011 lists. 

The problem is that each of those speakers that you no longer need to run speaker wire to are powered speakers.  That means you have to plug each speaker into the wall.  In newer homes where building codes call for installing many more AC outlets than in the past it's not that difficult to find an outlet near each speaker placement.  That's not the case in an older home where, if you're lucky, there's one AC outlet per wall. 

If you wanted to mount these wireless speakers on a wall then you'd have to go through the same hassle with flat panel TV mounting, having an electrician install an AC outlet at each speaker location.  And you'd better make sure those wall outlets are recessed so you can mount the speaker while hiding the unsightly outlet. 

A customer asked me earlier this week if there will ever be truly wireless speakers.  Of course, there's wi-fi and the brilliant devices like Sonos but as far as simply wireless speakers, I don't see it happening. 

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

Speaker Sales On The Rise And Continued Growth Expected

I tend to take public relation press releases with a large grain of salt.  I was a communications major.  I know that a press release is created to hype.  But in a fairly stagnant industry like consumer electronics it's refreshing to see projections of good things ahead. So I'll share this press release from PR Web, Global Loudspeakers Market to Reach US$4.5 Billion by 2017, According to New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

The report suggests that we'll see growth in the speaker market because of the popularity of home theater with even more people investing in one as at-home entertainment (cocooning) continues.  It's true that a one time investment in a quality home theater set up can save money in the long run if you and the family spend more time at home as a result. 

I do hope the report is correct.  It would mean that people haven't forgotten what good sound can mean to a listening experience. 

I just counted the individual speakers that are hooked up in my home.  It comes to a total of 20 speakers.  Now if everyone can work toward a goal of 20 per household we can beat these projections. 

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal

MonoPrice Speaker Prices Have Me Stunned

I was only recently made aware of the speaker line up from MonoPrice and their insanely low prices.  I mean these prices are so low as to have my head reeling.  But are they any good?

If you're comparing them head to head with quality speakers then the answer is no.  Would these be the speakers you'd use in your home theater?  That would be a no as well, unless they're for a dorm room or something like that. 

I like to think of them as akin to Ikea.  Ikea furniture looks nice, and as long as you're setting it up once and not moving them they'll last for awhile.  In the end they are throw away items.  A good pair of speakers is not a throw away item.  Speakers can be repaired and the cabinetry is made to last.  Not so with MonoPrice's very low end speaker line.  They aren't built to last.

It's funny though.  Try and find a review of MonoPrice speakers.  Actually Steve Guttenberg just wrote about them for CNET, Before you buy a home theater sound bar, read this.  But reviews of their product are hard to find.  So the question is why? 

I think there's a couple of reasons.  One is that most reviewers imagine themselves too far above such entry level product.  It's a bit of conceit.  The other is that their publications take in ad revenue from speaker companies with prices much higher than MonoPrice speakers.  They don't want to upset these folks by drawing attention to MonoPrice. 

The bottom line is that MonoPrice speakers can fill a niche for someone with very little money, but if you're looking for a good sounding, long lasting system I'd steer clear. 

If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com

John Hannibal