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New Guy getting Rocketman speakers.

Welcome. Remember the only person who has to like your system is you. There will always be someone with more and someone with less; money, education, common sense, etc. Serenity comes not from what you have but knowing what you can live without.

While the destination may be audio nirvana, don't forget to enjoy the ride.

Ok, I'll stop with the proverbs now. Enjoy your system.
 
mkanter said:
I'm hoping to get them the week after thanksgiving, I just have to find someone that get bring them from Austin Texas to New Berlin Wisconsin for a reasonable price. If anyone has any reliable shippers they can recommend I would really appreciate it.

I'm using 6 channels of amplification to drive them.
Tweeters will use an Emotiva A100, 50 watts per channel stereo amp
Mids will use 2 Emotiva XPA-100 Mono amps, 250 watts per amp. (Probably more than i need?)
Woofers will use my Emotiva XPA-2 stereo amp, 250 watts per channel.

Today Mr. Flint was adjusting the crossovers and doing all the other magical stuff he does to them. I can't wait to get them!
Click to expand...

I think you should use the Mono Amps to drive the woofers. They probably have a larger/better power supply than the stereo amp. Just sayin'.
 
I am so excited to see these speakers going to a music lover!

In addition to tuning the crossovers to suit @mkantor based on our conversations, I've been working hard building shipping containers and packaging to ensure they arrive safely. This is a much more difficult project than I anticipated, but it is worth the effort.
 
Good grief! The struggles of trying to troubleshoot issues with audio gear over the phone can take a toll on a person!

Over several weeks our new friend @mkanter and I worked on shipping these out and he made some requests I was more than happy to oblige, including applying a fresh coat of black paint to the rears and bottoms of the lower bass speaker enclosures, and ensuring the packaging was more than sufficient.

Bass_A_20191120_124414.jpg
The rear before re-painting.



Bass_B_20191125_131735.jpg
The rear and bottom after re-painting


ShippingBox_Bass_20191125_190748.jpg
Packaging for one bottom bass enclosure

ShippingBox_Upper_B_20191129_115956.jpg
One side of the packaging for the upper cabinet and all the accessories and electronics. Both upper enclosures were in this box facing away from each other​
 
Also, since @mkanter has a cat, I decided it would be a good idea to "stuff" the large 4" ports on the bass enclosures with black straws in order to keep any tiny paws from digging around inside the enclosures. The straws also reduce turbulence, slightly increase the efficiency of the resonance, and reduce "chuffing" at higher SPLs. With a speaker tuned this low, the difference is typically not audible, so I rarely use straws for any enclosure port tuned below 40Hz. In this case it was all about keeping the cat out of the cabinet.

PortStraws_SMALL_20191120_102544.jpg
Tons of black straws cut to the right length to stuff into ports


PortStraws_SMALL_20191120_130155.jpg
The straws after inserting in port​

I spent a few hours while watching a good TV show cutting the straws to length - yes, it took over 2 hours all told to cut all those straws. Then I crammed as many as I could into the port, using a round wood disc left over from cutting out holes for speakers, to get them in. To guarantee they were secure and wouldn't just slide out with one good shock, I crammed as many in as was possible. They are held by friction.
 
I also removed the Sorbothane feet from the upper enclosures because they had compressed quite a bit and no longer had a clear hemisphere shape. Instead they were flat and more closely resembled little black donuts under the module. Those were 50A durometer (hardness) and since I could tell that was too soft, I ordered a pack of 80A durometer Sorbothane hemispheres for @mkanter to install once the speakers arrived. The harder Sorbothane is still plenty effective and reducing vibrations which keeps spurious distortions in the midrange low.

Once all packed up in three boxes and each was weighed, @mkanter found a shipper to come pick them up as they were passing through town from Houston one their circuitous journey to Wisconsin. I don't know what service he used to find the driver, but the gentleman was friendly and seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. I felt confident the speakers would arrive as planned, though I wasn't sure how long it would take. I am guessing it took about a week to get there.

I had written a setup guide to follow to assemble the system, since there are so many parts, including two crossover units (dual mono, mind you), and he had his own power amps which needed to be integrated into the speaker system. mkanter put everything together hoping to quickly enjoy his new speakers. And that's where all the best laid plans all went to hell.
 
What he was hearing from his new speakers was NOT what he expected. When he called to try to figure out the problem, his description to me was "like a 4 inch speaker with completely messed up midrange and tinny, mechanical noise that sounded terrible."

Well, I didn't know what he meant, I had been playing these very speakers in my front room for over a year and they sounded amazing! Maybe I tuned the crossover wrong? Maybe things weren't hooked up properly? Who knows?

He said the tweeters weren't making a sound. That the levels were way too low.

So, I asked him to turn off the amps to the woofer and midrange to see if the tweeter was making sound. Well, over the phone I could hear sound. When he turned on the midrange amps, I could hear a clear difference in the sound which was aligned with a midrange being turned on. Then he turned on the woofer amps, and again, it seemed over the phone to sound like woofers had been added to the sound. I was struggling to understand what he was hearing, but clearly he was unhappy.

So, one long call turned into multiple calls and I was trying every troubleshooting tip I could think of. I had him reverse the phase of the tweeter wires. It sounded different, but not better. I had him get a battery and ensure the woofers were wired correctly (if one was out of phase the two would fight each other and make the bass sound terrible in the room), and that wasn't the problem. I was sad for mkanter as he deserved better and I really wanted him to be happy with his purchase.

So, I hatched a plan.

During the build-up to shipping these, mkanter installed REW on his PC and had mentioned making some measurements to me. On our next call (today) I was going to ask him to setup a mic and measure the speakers and send me the data so I could get a better idea of what he was hearing. I knew this was going to be a time consuming exercise for both of us, and likely fraught with mistakes and confusion over instructions, but it was all I could think of. I thought that if I could see data on what he was hearing, maybe I could diagnose the problem and offer solutions.

It took him longer to get back to me than I had expected, but when he texted to arrange a call, I was worried it would be an angry "who the hell sell crap for this much money" sort of thing.

When we got on the phone, he wasn't angry, but he told me a very interesting story. He used the IT logic and considered an option I had not thought about. While he had turned off the surround processor and amps many times since this whole experience started, he had not turned off and then turned on the digital crossovers. So he tried that...
 
... and can you guess what happened?

The skies cleared!

Bright light filled the room!

A choir of angels could be heard in the distance!!!

This was it! He was hearing music in a way he had never heard it in his home!!!!

Everything suddenly worked as he had been promised and as others had led him to expect. The details were deeper than he was expecting. The highs were airy and clear; lows were solid, rich, and punchy; midrange was clear, clean, and revealing!!!!

Low and behold, @mkanter had joined the community of high end audio enthusiasts with sound that almost immediately altered how he listened to music. He told me that he was hearing the recording, the music, the artists, and sound - not just a pair of speakers. He was in the music. Good recordings sounded amazing and bad recordings sounded, well, bad - as they should.

I'll leave it to mkanter to speak for himself going forward.


But, this just goes to show you... as I learned when I earned my CCIE, ping early and ping often. And, as "The IT Crowd" made famous on TV, "have you tried turning it off and on again?" is the right approach to our computer based problems.

 
Now.... I have absolutely no idea why the MiniDSP digital crossovers had not booted up properly the first time. They were very cold when they arrived, but he allowed them a few hours to warm up before plugging them in. I had used those crossovers in my home for over a year and they never exhibited any issue when plugged in, restarted, turned of, reset, or whatever. It would have never occurred to me that a power reset of the DSP crossovers would solve the problem - well, maybe if I heard the speakers and it sounded like digital noise in some way (the way mkanter discussed what he was hearing now sounds like he was hearing digital issues).

But, I don't expect him to have any other issues and am excited to know he is enjoying music on these speakers now.
 
Well...
@mkanter?
What do you think?

I have only been able to hear Flints' 1st model that he sold to Paul... Those were damn good! I'm sure Flint made some upgrades. What are your thoughts?
 
I haven’t had a lot of time to do any serious listening but my initial impression after the dspmini issue was corrected was very positive. I’ll post a more thorough review as soon as I can.
 
Working through some issues with Flint, he's been amazingly helpful throughout this whole process. i'll report more soon.
 
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