Very nice...love the build pics!

Wow this is really coming along. Nice!

Man, you've been busy, looks great. thanks for online shopping, it's not like you can run down to the store and buy what you need. Enjoy seeing your work!

Amazing build.

Really enjoying the progression in this thread. Good work!

Thank you all very much!

The bench is now mostly done, just needs one or two more polyurethane coats, but I threw everything together for a quick pic.
I ended up recessing the legs 3/4" from the front.





So far I've done one quick listening session with the Jamos hooked up and I was devastated actually. They're a 'little' dull compared to the NHTs, I actually can't bear them anymore. I think instead of building stands for them, I'll reluctantly sell them now... If I ever need bookshelf speakers again I'll hunt down a pair of SuperOnes or similar.
Also, my car's tweeters (SB Acoustics SB29) now sound a tad less bright than I'd like after getting used to the NHTs.
I've nicknamed the NHTs 'Ruination Towers'.
 
Next project will be room treatments (and cable management). I want to build one of those wooden skyline diffusers to go on the wall between the speakers / above the stereo, plus several other pieces throughout the room.
The Yamaha preamp will be fixed by forum member Avionic around February, I'm stoked I got on his waiting list.
 
After 10 years of faithful service, the Jamos were donated to my dad's shop where they will serve as low-volume background speakers, hopefully for many years to come.

Random craigslist find:
ElectroVoice Sentry 100a vintage nearfield studio monitors made in USA.
They're in surprisingly good shape, it's hard to find really clean nearfield monitors. It's even more impressive because these are from the early 90's I believe. The grills (not pictured) are flawless, the veneer hardly has any blemishes and they recently got new woofer foams. All in all a rare find.



Reading up on them a little before I went to pick them up, they are supposed to be very bright and revealing, even for monitors. That's right up my alley and I've enjoyed owning quite a few studio monitors over the years.
Compared to home stereo speakers, studio monitors usually sound flat / boring.
These are no exception, they're very flat. The midrange is overbearing and unpleasant, something that can't really be 'fixed' with only a 2 band EQ.
While I do enjoy how revealing they are, I had to boost the highs and lows a little to balance out the harsh mids.
After about an hour or two of going through my various reference CDs, my ears are slowly getting used to the sound.
I can't listen to them very loud and I had to move much closer to the speakers which was to be expected from nearfield monitors.
Some female vocals sound harsh on these while the same songs sound incredible on the NHTs.
The monitors are very unforgiving with subpar recordings, even more so than the NHTs.
I've tried them with and without the grills, but I need to track down some replacement tweeter foam lenses before I can pass a final verdict, some people say it's night and day.
Also, I know I've got them too far off the wall than what they're designed for, which probably explains why I needed to boost the bass a little.
Right off the bat I noticed that they do not have that 'big speaker / dynamic sound' like floor standers. But that's not what they're designed for.
I'd say the NHTs are actually more revealing than these. Overall they can't touch the NHTs.

Once I hear them with the correct tweeter foams that are currently missing I'll decide if I'll keep these monitors.
If I do keep them, I'll build some stands for them.
 
HF/MF reflections can certainly make a speaker more bright, so if your into the EVs buying some correct tweeter foam will definitely increase the fidelity. I used these for my NHT 3.3s and various other projects where I needed to kill reflections on the speaker itself. It's even more important for near field listening.

http://www.parts-express.com/sonic-barrier-1-2-acoustic-sound-damping-foam-with-psa-18-x-24--260-520

you cut the foam to shape with a razor, and apply by peeling the sticky stick, easy and cheap enough.

If you decouple the speakers from the surface of the chair you will increase clarity of the bass response

good luck, IME though a speaker that needs EQ off the bat is troublesome if one is seeking out neutrality and crispness (2 attributes I hold very high for a hifi system)

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HF/MF reflections can certainly make a speaker more bright, so if your into the EVs buying some correct tweeter foam will definitely increase the fidelity. I used these for my NHT 3.3s and various other projects where I needed to kill reflections on the speaker itself. It's even more important for near field listening.

http://www.parts-express.com/sonic-barrier-1-2-acoustic-sound-damping-foam-with-psa-18-x-24--260-520

you cut the foam to shape with a razor, and apply by peeling the sticky stick, easy and cheap enough.

If you decouple the speakers from the surface of the chair you will increase clarity of the bass response

good luck, IME though a speaker that needs EQ off the bat is troublesome if one is seeking out neutrality and crispness (2 attributes I hold very high for a hifi system)

Thank you nyhifihead for the tips!
I'm going to order that foam and experiment with it, gotta love parts-express...
Looks like the original EV tweeter foam lenses are 2 part: inner fine and outer coarse; the different densities absorb different frequencies. The only aftermarket replacements I've found are both coarse and thus not correct, so I think I'll do a combo with the parts-express (finer) stuff and give it a whirl.
For reference, here's how the EV left the factory (grills not shown):



I agree with your EQ statement as well, even though in this case all I'd do is cut the midrange a tad, not boost anything. I still don't wanna run an EQ as extra component and both my preamps only have 2 band EQs. I'll restore the EVs and sell them.
Next projects are room acoustics and DIY 15" sub build!
 
Got the 'replacement' foam pieces from Speaker Exchange, though their physical dimensions, shape and the density of at least the inner piece differ from the originals. Not correct or even cheap, but it's the only thing available.

Now that they're as good as they're gonna be I gave the EVs another chance. I moved the NHTs off to the side to be able to position the EVs properly, really close to the wall. Still using dem make shift chairs for stands, but it works well.

First cd: Metallica, Black album, beginning to end.
Wow! They're better than before. The bass is now very good, totally different than before. It's actually dynamic and impressive.
They're only about 6" closer to the wall than before, as close as the chairs allow, but that made all the difference.
The overall sound is still flat of course, but the mids and highs are less harsh but still full of detail.
I'd still like to turn down the mids a tick, but since that's not possible on my equipment I boosted the bass +1 (out of a possible 5) and treble +1.5
This is really the only way to listen to these for me and it made it very enjoyable.

Next cd was a sound demo mix cd with a few well recorded songs from different genres, same cd I played before on these speakers.
Some female vocals, some country and some Stevie Ray Vaughn. Everything sounded very well this time around.
Final cd for this session was Best of Paolo Conte, one of my favorite jazz artists. The cd is very well recorded and sounds absolutely amazing on these monitors. Just perfect, really. These speakers SHINE with well recorded jazz. :)
Very happy with these guys now overall. They're quite the midbass monsters, maybe even more so than the NHTs though the NHTs dig deeper.

This is how I started out:



Then I tried some make shift sound treatment on the wall between the speakers. Just a (really ugly) blanket hung over a rod suspended on the chairs. The blanket really helped the sound, it drastically reduced listening fatigue by calming down the mids and making everything sound sharper and less muddled together.
I also placed some rugs on the floor right in front of the speakers (at the first reflection points) which helped as well.
Both of these changes together allowed me to listen to the music louder and for longer on these monitors. Great success.



Now I just gotta build some DIY sound treatment panels that don't look bad and treat the room.
Thanks for looking and Happy New Year to everyone!

 
I finally got started on some acoustical panels. I'm doing a combination of broadband absorbing panels at first reflection points on the sides, clouds on the ceiling, and wooden skyline diffusers on the back wall. Later on I will build floor to ceiling corner bass traps in all four corners.
First project was the skyline diffusers: I had lots of old scrap wood ready to be reclaimed, but it was all 4x4s so I decided to make my skyline out of 4x4s.
I found a basic recipe online and modified it to suit the 4x4s. Basically, I looked at their ratio of pieces and how many of each.
I had a scrap piece of 3/4" plywood I wanted to use as backing plate, so I started by cutting all the pieces of 4x4, then laid them out into a random arrangement that looked good to me, then belt sanded all 6 sides of each of the 60 or so pieces of really old 4x4, then glued them down to the plywood.

Laid out on the floor:


Belt sander (I set it up outside and wore a dust mask):


All glued down:


Before the gluing I fitted the plywood sheet to the wall, predrilled the mounting holes and made sure they're going into a stud. Three of the 4x4 pieces will be covering the mounting screws, so those three pieces were not glued down. Instead, they'll be wedged in place to allow future mounting screw access.
Hope this all makes sense.

I may or may not polyurethane over everything still. Gonna see how it looks mounted first.
Glue is still drying, I'll post pics of the diffusers mounted later.
 
Mounted the first panel on the wall as a test fit:





It looks kinda grungy since the wood is so old and dark. I didn't sand it enough to make it as bright as I could have, plus it's treated lumber so it has that green sheen. Also, the back wall doesn't have any lights shining on it, so it's naturally darker.
I'm going to have to paint the whole thing white for it not to look bad I think.
 
And after the second coat dried, the piece is in its new place on the wall.
The hook right above it used to hold something purely decorative that had to make way for audio bliss.

 
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Well the long anticipated addition to my listening room is finally here: a sofa.
Until now I was just using a chair, because I couldn't decide on a sofa. I had a new one picked out with fabric upholstery, but despite overwhelming positive reviews and and a great rating, there were a handful of 1 star reviews that said the stitching came undone. That just didn't sit well with me, it screams low quality. Also, most people leave positive reviews before they've spent some time with an item, before it had a chance to fail prematurely.

Anyway, I scoured craigslist and ended up with a (flawless) used leather sofa for 1/10th its new price. Literally.
I wouldn't have chosen this color (dark cherry) when buying new, because the accent wall in this room is already bright red, but I'll figure something out.





Please excuse the poor picture quality, I really need to get a tripod...
 
Also, I'm about to pull the trigger on a second power amp to bi-amp the 'Ruination Towers'.
Reason being is the current power amp goes into clipping quite easily at reference level, and there are many reports of people bi-amping these NHTs with great success, apparently it makes a big difference.

Once the second amp arrives, I will have to rearrange a bit. I can't stack amps AND keep them under the bench, as you can see:



So I might make a second amp base and place one amp next to each speaker. I usually like the way that looks.
Whatever I end up doing, I'll post pics here to hear your comments!
Thanks for looking.
 
Rearranging stuff around the room to more appropriately set up the stereo.
I've been reading up on Room Setup and ideal listening position and stuff, there's some good info out there:
http://arqen.com/acoustics-101/room...m_campaign=RoomTreatment-followup&omhide=true

Previously, my speakers weren't centered between the side walls (stereo imaging suffers) and my listening position was half way between the front and back walls (which is a no no due to bass nulls). So I knew I had to make some drastic changes...

My room is 16 feet wide by 18 feet long. The speakers are set up along the short wall.
The speakers are now centered between the side walls. My listening position is moved forward to 40% of room length.
This gets me out of the very middle of the room where the bass is the weakest.
It also buys me 10 feet from the listening position to the back wall, which is the minimum distance required for effective sound diffusion on the back wall.

Now to the down sides. The speakers are now only the minimum required 8" from the front wall (they're rear ported) as opposed to the 24" they were before.
My listening position is now only 6.5' away from the tweeters as opposed to 9' before.
The NHT manual for the SuperTwos recommends the listening position to be 1.5x the distance between the two speakers.
To stick as close to this as possible, I had to move the speakers WAY closer together than they were before, because I'm also much closer.
They're now only 4.5' apart and toed in to slightly behind my head as a base line.
I've got lots of listening to do now to figure out how all these changes affected the sound. It's supposed to be much closer to ideal than before, but I feel like I'd like to be further away from the speakers.
We'll see.



Note the giant space to the left of the left tower that's just BEGGING to be filled with a juicy sub...
 
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coming along nicely. your speakers are pretty aggressively toed in for that distance.

I would try doing perpendicular to the front wall aka straight out, your soundstage may expand and may offer a more cohesive sound
 
coming along nicely. your speakers are pretty aggressively toed in for that distance.

I would try doing perpendicular to the front wall aka straight out, your soundstage may expand and may offer a more cohesive sound

Thank you, I'll try that.
I will play around with it over the next few weeks for sure, so far I've had very little seat time since moving the speakers.
 
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