Putting together a budget (as in frugally cheap) 2 channel system, help!

[poppachubby]

Ya frenchy, I was referring to the underlay. I have some work of my own to do. I'll post the finished result but the colour and concept got glorious WAF reviews...

[Poultrygeist]

Two Insignia's from Bestbuy - $80

OR better yet

Two 8 inch Pioneer Full Range Speakers from Parts Express -$60 in DIY open baffles - simple plans at WildBurro Audio Labs made from a sheet of $25 plywood and cut free at HD

Dayton T-amp from PartsExpress - $39 or Lepai TA 2020 from ebay - $30

T-amp Preamp with phono stage ( ebay ) - $45

Playstation1 SCPH-1001 ebay - $25

Goodwill Thrift Store turntable - $20

The T-amp + Pioneer OB's are just stupid good!

[blackraven]

Hey thanks alot Raven, means alot! I still have about 12 extra panels that aren't in use. I will probably use 4 for the H/T room. I will check at my work how much it would be to ship you the balance using our corporate freight account.

Thanks Pops. I appreciate the offer.

[frenchmon]

I have carpet on the floor. The concern was the rear wall, behind where I am listening. There isn't much distance between my seating position and this rear wall - there just isn't much room. The concern is that this rear wall is conrete, hence some sort of foam panels, etc. on the wall. Putting a carpet on the wall seems somewhat challenging. Maybe there's a good way to do it?

You can rent a drill from home-depot if you don't have one, that has the ability to drill into concrete. Its call a drill-driver. It will easily drill into a concrete wall a hole that you then can put a screw in to hold up the carpet. You will need a bit made for concrete. You drill the hole, put in a plastic sleve that comes with the screws, then drill in the screw through one corners of the carpet to hold it up. Then do the other side. The holes can be drilled with ease in less than 10 minutes. I have carpet behind my speakers, and on the side walls, and on the floor in front of my speakers. Carpet works great.

frenchmon

[frenchmon]

Ya frenchy, I was referring to the underlay. I have some work of my own to do. I'll post the finished result but the colour and concept got glorious WAF reviews...

Looking good there Poppacubby!

frenchmon

[poppachubby]

You can rent a drill from home-depot if you don't have one, that has the ability to drill into concrete. Its call a drill-driver. It will easily drill into a concrete wall a hole that you then can put a screw in to hold up the carpet. You will need a bit made for concrete. You drill the hole, put in a plastic sleve that comes with the screws, then drill in the screw through one corners of the carpet to hold it up. Then do the other side. The holes can be drilled with ease in less than 10 minutes. I have carpet behind my speakers, and on the side walls, and on the floor in front of my speakers. Carpet works great.

frenchmon

I think carpet is a great idea fellas. This wall is probably the most signifcant in the room in terms of potential problems. IMO, every inch should be covered. This could be a costly proposal with carpet. Versus foam, I'm not sure which would be the best way to go.

IRG, see if you can find a tight fit that covers the wall when you are looking for carpet...

[poppachubby]

OK, I'm done. How'd you make out IRG? The wife digs it, maybe the first time ever!

[poppachubby]

My fronts are firing straight into these.

[poppachubby]

Behind the gear...

[IRG]

My fronts are firing straight into these.

Those look cool, fabric on frames? My dad is an artist, he probably has a lot of framing materials, I could do something like this fairly easily, make a real big one. Good idea...maybe even get the kids involved in some kind of an art project.

I'm waiting on the speaker stands at the moment. Did some listening though today, and early results are very good. Bass is much better than I expected with these little speakers.

I don't have the new cartridge on the table yet (hasn't arrived) but a question. I get a little bit of hum with the table on, don't notice it really when a record is playing, there's a ground wire from the table, where is that supposed to go to? I don't see anyting on the receiver for it to go to. Volume is significantly less on the table than the Yamaha cd player. Which sounds terrific btw, very very impressed with this thing, especially for $79, a helluva steal.

The Onkyo receiver is really nice too. It has a direct mode, which bypasses the tone controls, and a Pure Audio mode which bypasses everything (including video connections) and disengages all lights too. Can't tell yet if it makes much difference. But so far, it all sounds quite good. I'll be working more on the room acoustics in the weeks to come. I think I need to make a wall around the furnace/water heater next, and sound proof it as well.

[Mr Peabody]

If the receiver has a built in phono stage(preamp) then there should be a thumb screw some where near the phono input to connect that ground wire. If there's no place to connect it I suspect the input may say "phono" but the necessary extra preamp isn't there. The signal from a turntable is very low and needs additional step up to get to the level of a tape deck or CDP output. If you have to turn the receiver way up just to barely hear it then the preamp for phono is not there. Check your owner manual as well. If it says "phono" on the receiver input and no preamp built in I find this a very cheezy thing for Onkyo to do.

[02audionoob]

Sounds like you need a phono preamp...

http://www.needledoctor.com/Needle-D...3-Phono-Preamp

[IRG]

If the receiver has a built in phono stage(preamp) then there should be a thumb screw some where near the phono input to connect that ground wire. If there's no place to connect it I suspect the input may say "phono" but the necessary extra preamp isn't there. The signal from a turntable is very low and needs additional step up to get to the level of a tape deck or CDP output. If you have to turn the receiver way up just to barely hear it then the preamp for phono is not there. Check your owner manual as well. If it says "phono" on the receiver input and no preamp built in I find this a very cheezy thing for Onkyo to do.

I'll check for the screw. It doesn't sound bad at all, and could be the crappy cartridge. The sound level isn't low, it just isn't as high output as CD. So I think the preamp is there, as to its quality I don't know. But I haven't spent too much time with it yet (dang kids don't leave me alone, lol).

[02audionoob]

It is very normal for a turntable cartridge and phono stage to have a noticeably lower output than a CD player. Could you remind us what cartridge you have?

[IRG]

Sounds like you need a phono preamp...

http://www.needledoctor.com/Needle-D...3-Phono-Preamp

I'l check this one out thanks. Price is certainly good. I'll wait and see once the cartridge is here. So far though, I really like this Yamaha player, even my regular cds sound very good. I need to buy some SACD's now.

[IRG]

It is very normal for a turntable cartridge and phono stage to have a noticeably lower output than a CD player. Could you remind us what cartridge you have?

The Audio Technica 311EP. Should be here soon.

[02audionoob]

The Audio Technica 311EP. Should be here soon.

I mean the one you're already listening to.

[02audionoob]

I'l check this one out thanks. Price is certainly good. I'll wait and see once the cartridge is here. So far though, I really like this Yamaha player, even my regular cds sound very good. I need to buy some SACD's now.

It sounds like you do NOT need a phono preamp, after all, since your receiver has a phono stage.

[Mr Peabody]

I had an Ortofon OM5e put on my Numark turntable Saturday. I hooked it up to my headphone amp last night to go through some vinyl and I was really impressed with this cartridge. It made the turntable more than listenable. I wouldn't have a problem sitting and listening to that system. It's interesting when listening to vinyl just how low the bass will go, even though it was headphones sometimes it felt like the bass traveled to the bottom of my feet. Is the 5e cheaper than the 10 & 20 you all were talking about?

[IRG]

I mean the one you're already listening to.

Oh, some piece of crap radio shack thing that came with it.

[IRG]

I had an Ortofon OM5e put on my Numark turntable Saturday. I hooked it up to my headphone amp last night to go through some vinyl and I was really impressed with this cartridge. It made the turntable more than listenable. I wouldn't have a problem sitting and listening to that system. It's interesting when listening to vinyl just how low the bass will go, even though it was headphones sometimes it felt like the bass traveled to the bottom of my feet. Is the 5e cheaper than the 10 & 20 you all were talking about?

The 10 is about $84 on needledoctor, the OM5e is about $55.

I got the AT 311EP from Garage A Records for $49.

[02audionoob]

I had an Ortofon OM5e put on my Numark turntable Saturday. I hooked it up to my headphone amp last night to go through some vinyl and I was really impressed with this cartridge. It made the turntable more than listenable. I wouldn't have a problem sitting and listening to that system. It's interesting when listening to vinyl just how low the bass will go, even though it was headphones sometimes it felt like the bass traveled to the bottom of my feet. Is the 5e cheaper than the 10 & 20 you all were talking about?

With the OM cartridges, the body is the same all the way up, but the stylus gets better and more expensive with the higher numbers. At Needle Doctor, the 5E stylus is $44, the 10 is $47, the 20 is $139, the 30 is $229 and the 40 is $299. The 20 is a nude elliptical, so it seems to me like a good balance between cost and performance for mid-level turntables. I think all but the OM-5E were replaced by the 2M series, if I remember correctly, but the styli are available and interchangeable.

[poppachubby]

You oughta hear the 10 Peabody...

[IRG]

So I got the AT cartridge last night, opened the box (not the container holding the cartridge itself) and discovered one of the four pins looks significantly bent. I could straighen it out I suppose, but I imagine this could easily break off. This happened to me with a tube I bought for my guitar amp, just touching one of the bent pins and it fell off.

I got it new from Garage A Records as recommended here. Not their fault, but if they had just eyeballed it, they would have seen this one was not acceptable to ship out. Now I remember all of the "fun" little nuances it takes to be a vinyl fan. Not.

[LeRoy]

Those look cool, fabric on frames? My dad is an artist, he probably has a lot of framing materials, I could do something like this fairly easily, make a real big one. Good idea...maybe even get the kids involved in some kind of an art project.

I'm waiting on the speaker stands at the moment. Did some listening though today, and early results are very good. Bass is much better than I expected with these little speakers.

I don't have the new cartridge on the table yet (hasn't arrived) but a question. I get a little bit of hum with the table on, don't notice it really when a record is playing, there's a ground wire from the table, where is that supposed to go to? I don't see anyting on the receiver for it to go to. Volume is significantly less on the table than the Yamaha cd player. Which sounds terrific btw, very very impressed with this thing, especially for $79, a helluva steal.

The Onkyo receiver is really nice too. It has a direct mode, which bypasses the tone controls, and a Pure Audio mode which bypasses everything (including video connections) and disengages all lights too. Can't tell yet if it makes much difference. But so far, it all sounds quite good. I'll be working more on the room acoustics in the weeks to come. I think I need to make a wall around the furnace/water heater next, and sound proof it as well.

Good to know about favorable first impressions with the new rig. From all indications...you will have an artful room to go with an artful system configuration. Enjoy the music and have a great day.

LeRoy