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Post by c64 on Sept 2, 2015 18:26:02 GMT
Since my landline is now officially turned bad enough, my provider had offered me vDSL for free to avoid tearing open the sidewalks. So now I get 28 times faster DSL for free but loose the analogue phone line feature. I could plug in my old phone into the new router but I can also use a real IP phone. Since I actually like my old phone but it is "half-broken" anyway, I had decided to build my own IP phone out of it. Naturally, just buying an IP phone is not only quicker, it is also a lot cheaper. So it must be something special. From experience I know that just hanging up encourages scammers and telemarketers. So my new phone has an extended hold feature. YOu can select how much you hate the caller on a scale from 0 to 10. And it accepts an 11, too! It is a combination of many different ideas from the internet and what I made up myself. It includes the Telecrapper2000 capability: www.guzer.com/animations/telecrapper.phpThe Telecrapper2000 waits until the caller stops talking and then plays a sound file as a response. It works with scripts. In my case, the script depends on the "hate" setting. It also has a ridiculous hotline robot which is based on and uses clips from a recent radio comic series about a hotline from hell and it included the hades hotline from "Zork, the great grand inquisitor": This is bases on the Eliza program and scans for buzzwords to know what to play next and it can be controlled by DTMF (tones). Of course it has Eliza capability as well. Especially if the system detects swearing, it acts like a psychotherapy doctor like the good, old Eliza based "Dr. SBaitsio" which came with a soundblaster 16 SB card many decades ago. And of course it has hold-music, a collection of the worst I could find and make up. It contains classics like "Duelling Banjos" performed on bagpipes and many more. I have even made a 1 hour remix of "a song for violin, banjo and telephone" performed by JBO in the early 1990s (hear attachment). Attachment Deleted |
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Post by GTCGreg on Sept 2, 2015 18:42:08 GMT
Well at least you're keeping yourself entertained.
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Post by c64 on Sept 2, 2015 19:03:41 GMT
Well at least you're keeping yourself entertained. Why would I need to call my own number? You know what? I forgot to add a feature to keep listening in or to record it...  |
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Post by GTCGreg on Sept 2, 2015 19:16:36 GMT
Well at least you're keeping yourself entertained. Why would I need to call my own number? You know what? I forgot to add a feature to keep listening in or to record it... The entertaining part for you is building it, not calling your own number. But, yes, you may want a listen-in option. I haven't built a "Just for Fun" project in far too long. All my project these days are for "How can I use this to pay the bills." Maybe I need to do one just for the fun of it. |
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Post by the light works on Sept 3, 2015 3:08:03 GMT
Why would I need to call my own number? You know what? I forgot to add a feature to keep listening in or to record it... The entertaining part for you is building it, not calling your own number. But, yes, you may want a listen-in option. I haven't built a "Just for Fun" project in far too long. All my project these days are for "How can I use this to pay the bills." Maybe I need to do one just for the fun of it. It's supposed to be "how can I have fun paying the bills" |
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Post by the light works on Sept 3, 2015 3:12:52 GMT
I think my last just-for-fun was my Jacob's Ladder. everything else I've built in the last dozen years or so has served a purpose.
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Post by c64 on Sept 3, 2015 12:09:02 GMT
I think my last just-for-fun was my Jacob's Ladder. everything else I've built in the last dozen years or so has served a purpose. A telephone has a purpose. I just had DIY one instead of just buying one. |
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Post by alabastersandman on Sept 14, 2015 7:38:38 GMT
I built a set of speakers, something I have always been interested in but not always very good at. For example, when I was seven years old I bought my first radio, before plugging it in my dad and I installed an 1/8th jack for an external speaker. The "not so good at it" part was that for the next three years my external speakers were nothing more than a speaker hanging on a nail at first, the two speakers hanging on a nail, etc... My finally asked my dad to help me build a cabinet to put them in. Shortly after that I started making my own. My crossovers consisted of a combination of full range speakers and a tweeter, using the capacitor that came with it to cut out the lows.
After a variety of cobbled systems, some of which I thought sounded pretty good, good enough to show the flaws in the rest of my system, I bought the "How To Build Speaker Systems" book at Radio Shack. Then I bought the "Advanced How to..." from Radio Shack. I made my first actual crossovers which worked but I haven't a clue on which perimeters but it was progress.
Finally, the last set I have finished is something I am quite happy with. This started out when I stopped with a friend, to one of his friends house and saw some Cherry cabinets in his garage. He said he made them in school (like 15 years ago) and never did anything with them since. I bought them for $30. I did a bit a research and chose a set of eminence 12" Woofers, a set of 3" cone Mids. and a set of EMIT's (electro-magnetic induction tweeter (essentially a ribbon tweeter) because I like how smooth they are. I went to a local shop that did custom work and explained to them the crossover that I wanted and had them build it for me, as they could wind the coils in shop. The crossover points were a rather typical 500Hz and 5000Hz, at a less typical 12 decibel's per octave. I inquired about 18 decibel's per octave but the price for such a beast was way out there, like more than quadrupled. But hey, 12 Db's per octave is pretty good separation between the lows, mids and highs. If your not sure what that means, for example, it is how sharply the crossover cuts off the frequencies between the different speakers. The higher the Db's per octave, the less the crossover will be feeding mid-range frequencies to the tweeter, and so on. The system good for a solid 500 watts. So anyway, to make a long story only a little bit longer, and not a lot longer, what this set of speakers cost me was almost $900. I could have bought a set of equivalent or better Paradigms for $700 but that wasn't the point. The Midrange had an open back and the original builder of the cabinets had the 12" hole and a 4" hole cutout. I didn't want a 4" Midrange so I re-sized the hole and made a mini cabinet in one step. Hand is there just for scale? It's not there for the fingernails!
Attachment DeletedAttachment DeletedAttachment Deleted |
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Post by alabastersandman on Sept 14, 2015 8:48:58 GMT
Until now I didn't have a photo of these finished. Looks like they need another tongue oiling. I had a couple leaks in the cabinets so I took them apart a half decade ago and silicone'd the snot out into it. They are pretty good, they work rather well with Jazz-Funk Fusion, which is fine by me. There's another project I've been tinkering with to the right. I already have too much into these and I haven't actually made anything yet, just toying around with placement mostly. I'm not sure I like the "Barrel" of base. Base is fairly tight but just doesn't have that wood cabinet richness and the golden rule of ratios. At the very least I would like to get a crossover actually made for the speakers. The possibility of Bi-Amping it comes to mind as the Woofer is a complete power hog and the Mid/High are rather the opposite. Attachment DeletedAttachment Deleted |
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Post by c64 on Sept 14, 2015 12:32:12 GMT
This looks like a lot of work. I know how hard it is to build speakers which sound just right.
Living in a 110 years old house with tenants, I never had the need to build powerful speakers. I own electrostatic headphones with a HV tube amp instead.
The best speakers I have ever built were a poor mechanical design but there was a microphone comparing what the speakers should emit (signal from source) and what they really do emit (mic) and then generates a corrective signal mixing into the amp to turn the junk of wood I made pretty linear.
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Post by GTCGreg on Sept 14, 2015 13:51:11 GMT
General rule of thumb regarding speakers, the bigger the better and good looks have nothing to do with good sound.
I've spent many years in search of the perfect speaker system. Some factory made, some Home Built and some a little of both. Then I was fortunate enough to acquire of pair of Urei 813 studio monitors. My perfect speaker quest was over. If you're interested in seeing what they look like, just google them.
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Post by c64 on Sept 14, 2015 18:48:11 GMT
General rule of thumb regarding speakers, the bigger the better and good looks have nothing to do with good sound. I've spent many years in search of the perfect speaker system. Some factory made, some Home Built and some a little of both. Then I was fortunate enough to acquire of pair of Urei 813 studio monitors. My perfect speaker quest was over. If you're interested in seeing what they look like, just google them. If i remember correctly, they were designed in the early or mid 1970s. They are very high quality but that's it. They are still very expensive even in bad condition and actually gaining collectors value. There are many more recent studio speakers which are far superior since made with more modern acoustic science knowledge, CAD and more modern materials. But this isn't the point. If you listen to state of the art ultra linear radio station speakers ($20,000 a piece) connected to a proper amp, you will hate them since they are linear and this makes them sound very dull. The Urei 813 are different. Reasonable linear but they have well sounding character and this makes them perfect for your living room. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Sept 14, 2015 19:22:44 GMT
Right, those are the speakers. There were actually three versions of the 813. The first two versions used the famous Altech 605 coaxial speaker developed in the 50s. In the late 80s, JBL bought Urei and built a third generation 813 using a JBL knockoff of the Altech 605. They also redesigned the crossover. The third-generation 813's were never very well received by the audio community.
The set I have are the second-generation that have the 605 mid/high speaker and a 15 inch eminence woofer. They are only rated at 75 W RMS each but with them being as efficient is they are that it's really all you need. I'm driving them with a 700 W QSC amp, but never really even crack the throttle for fear of doing some serious structural damage to the house.
The only negative thing about them is their size. They are very big and very heavy. You have to have a special place for them.
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Post by the light works on Sept 15, 2015 2:35:48 GMT
Right, those are the speakers. There were actually three versions of the 813. The first two versions used the famous Altech 605 coaxial speaker developed in the 50s. In the late 80s, JBL bought Urei and built a third generation 813 using a JBL knockoff of the Altech 605. They also redesigned the crossover. The third-generation 813's were never very well received by the audio community. The set I have are the second-generation that have the 605 mid/high speaker and a 15 inch eminence woofer. They are only rated at 75 W RMS each but with them being as efficient is they are that it's really all you need. I'm driving them with a 700 W QSC amp, but never really even crack the throttle for fear of doing some serious structural damage to the house. The only negative thing about them is their size. They are very big and very heavy. You have to have a special place for them. my brother has a set of Altec Voice of the Theater speakers. when he was in college, he had them face to face under his bed - which was on a 6 foot riser. he used them for high school dances his senior year, and to drive our parents up the wall during summers. when I was younger, singler, and richer, I put a $2000.00 stereo into my Jeep. thus I could annoy the kids in the "thump" cars three different ways. I could drown out their stereos, drown out their exhaust, or walk away from them. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Sept 15, 2015 2:51:39 GMT
My jeep also has a fairly impressive sound system. It has the stock jeep "sound bar" overhead, but the speakers in it were replaced with Jensen duplex two-ways. Then there is the "sound cannon" subwoofer that takes up the entire cargo compartment behind the backseat. What little cargo space there is. Fortunately, the sub woofer just unplugs and can be easily removed if you need the space. It's all controlled by an alpine radio/CD/Bluetooth receiver. It sounds pretty good, at least for a jeep. I'd like to take credit for installing it, but the previous owner put it in.
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Post by the light works on Sept 15, 2015 3:38:16 GMT
My jeep also has a fairly impressive sound system. It has the stock jeep "sound bar" overhead, but the speakers in it were replaced with Jensen duplex two-ways. Then there is the "sound cannon" subwoofer that takes up the entire cargo compartment behind the backseat. What little cargo space there is. Fortunately, the sub woofer just unplugs and can be easily removed if you need the space. It's all controlled by an alpine radio/CD/Bluetooth receiver. It sounds pretty good, at least for a jeep. I'd like to take credit for installing it, but the previous owner put it in. Mine has more cargo space. it has a 2X12" sub in the cargo comprtment, then a pair of 6" coaxial on the rear wheelwells, and a pair of 4" two-ways tucked in under the front seats. powered by two 100W power amps, fed from a CD changer head unit - and at present blown out because I was in a rush hooking up jumper cables and crossed them. |
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Post by c64 on Sept 15, 2015 10:50:31 GMT
Right, those are the speakers. There were actually three versions of the 813. The first two versions used the famous Altech 605 coaxial speaker developed in the 50s. In the late 80s, JBL bought Urei and built a third generation 813 using a JBL knockoff of the Altech 605. They also redesigned the crossover. The third-generation 813's were never very well received by the audio community. The set I have are the second-generation that have the 605 mid/high speaker and a 15 inch eminence woofer. They are only rated at 75 W RMS each but with them being as efficient is they are that it's really all you need. I'm driving them with a 700 W QSC amp, but never really even crack the throttle for fear of doing some serious structural damage to the house. The only negative thing about them is their size. They are very big and very heavy. You have to have a special place for them. my brother has a set of Altec Voice of the Theater speakers. when he was in college, he had them face to face under his bed - which was on a 6 foot riser. he used them for high school dances his senior year, and to drive our parents up the wall during summers. when I was younger, singler, and richer, I put a $2000.00 stereo into my Jeep. thus I could annoy the kids in the "thump" cars three different ways. I could drown out their stereos, drown out their exhaust, or walk away from them. I once had helped a friend building a car to annoy the kids in his neighbourhood. He used to be a "mobile DJ" and had kept parts of his equipment. So we took a VW bus and installed his gear. The bus was loaded with industrial power inverters, speakers and amps. To have this kind of power, we had bolted 4 "Metropa" railcar generators to the engine. Those came from a restaurant railcar, each one designed to power two fridges and electric stoves while recharging the batteries. We also had installed a ~2ft thick soundproofing wall between the cabin and the rear to prevent knocking out the windshield. I don't know how much "sound power" it had but with the (111kW diesel) engine and generators running full throttle, the vast batteries were drained in a few minutes. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Sept 15, 2015 12:45:50 GMT
I believe the total audio system power in my jeep is 240 Watts. I'm not out to annoy or impress anyone outside the vehicle. I just need enough power to overcome the road noise caused by the all terrain tires when driving at highway speed.
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Post by the light works on Sept 15, 2015 14:22:20 GMT
I believe the total audio system power in my jeep is 240 Watts. I'm not out to annoy or impress anyone outside the vehicle. I just need enough power to overcome the road noise caused by the all terrain tires when driving at highway speed. I got rid of the mud terrain tires. too loud, and worthless on any low traction surface I'm likely to drive on. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Sept 15, 2015 14:26:24 GMT
I believe the total audio system power in my jeep is 240 Watts. I'm not out to annoy or impress anyone outside the vehicle. I just need enough power to overcome the road noise caused by the all terrain tires when driving at highway speed. I got rid of the mud terrain tires. too loud, and worthless on any low traction surface I'm likely to drive on. I have to agree. I will not buy another set when it's time to replace them. |
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