3rd Annual 4th of July

Yes, friends, it's that time of the summer again. The time when our neighbors lay siege to our eardrums. The time when go, bocce and croquet threaten to tear apart our friendships. The time when we pillage the butcher shops for the perfect steak to grill under the disapproving eyes of the vegetarians among us. That's right....

It's Independence Day Party Time!

Thorne House

Wednesday July 4

6:00 pm - midnight

You should bring:
Yourself
Your favorite picnic foods
Your favorite summer beverages
Your favorite lawn games
Well-socialized dogs/children/friends/life-partners

We will provide:
paper plates
napkins
plasticware
grilling infrastructure
some lawn chairs

The party will relocate to Powderhorn Park at dusk to see the fireworks. Come have fun with us!

See the speakers I built?

So I've been building these speakers. Actually built them several months ago, but only recently did I get them painted up with the finishing touches and whatnot. So here you go have a look at them! They could have turned out better, but for a first project I'm pretty pleased.


I built them from a design I found online here. They are called "Needles" by the designer, a german whose online name is "Cyburgs". The driver is the Tang Band W3-871S. There is only one driver per speaker. Though the single driver is only 3 inches in diameter the whole thing manages to produce entirely respectable bass down to around 50 hz. They play loud enough to hear in other parts of the house, or to make conversation difficult in the same room, but they're limited for absolute loudness compared to most speakers. Only when I am in full headbanging fury do I wish they had a bit more volume.

The actual design calls for a notch filter to kill a driver resonance, but someone posted in the discussion thread an alternate method. Since my primary source for music for these guys is my computer, I use a convolution to accomplish the filter's job before the signal even makes it to the analog world. I would have been able to save about $30 on the build if I had skipped buying the filter parts, but the convolution filter wasn't posted until after I had put it together. I may be one of the first people to have actually run the convolution, as the guy who made the file was still waiting on parts to arrive for his build at the time.

Also, I modified the drivers in some simple ways to make 'em cooler. I used 2-part epoxy putty around the speaker basket / magnet junction for reinforcement. I used rope-caulk on the basket to damp resonance. I hot-glued felt to the inside of the stamped-steel basket to prevent high frequency reflections from the basket itself. Also, I shorted the negative terminal to to the basket and magnet assembly, though I've since heard that for bridged amplfiers (like my t-amp) the negative terminal is not ground like this mod wants, so this mod may not be helping out.

That brings me to the sound of 'em. They sound good! The old Dahlquist speakers I had been using have more authority in the bass, but overall I think I like the Needles better. A friend used to accuse the Dahlquists of not sounding very 'lively'. I was never quite sure what quality she was refering to, but the Needles portray vocals much better, leading to a better image of singers actually being present. Female vocalists in particular sound much more coherent through the Needles than they ever did with the Dahlquists. The fact that the Needles run with a single driver results in a very coherent sound. A number of different bass sounds come through in a very coherent way, without their high frequency partials being split off, pushed through some crossover phase angle, and then played by a different tweeter.

An excellent deal for the about $100 to make 'em.

My Car goes to Club Med

Mel had a picture of my car up a little bit ago, so I thought I'd tell y'all about it since I just got the call from Morrie's Nissan.

1) I got a recall notice. I like recalls, 'cause that means they're going to fix something for free! Wheee I like free. The issue was some engine behavior could trick the temp sensor into reporting an engine fault and the engine computer would shut the car off. So the recall involves reprogramming the computer. Cool enough.

While they had the car I asked them to check on some stuff:

b) A metal screech 'hoot' type noise when starting to move. It happens in forward and reverse. It happens only when disengaging the clutch - rolling around in neutral does not elicit the noise. Once moving it doesn't happen between gears. It is over with by the time the clutch is completely out. It seems more likely to happen if the wheels are turned. It seems more likely to happen if the car is trying to get up a hill.

Have you guessed what it is? No, guess! Seriously! Okay... Mmm hmmm, yeah that could be... Sounds reasonable... Well the Techs at Morries figure it's the flywheel - something about springs by it. Interestingly, I've been wishing I had a lightened flywheel to take some stress off my synchros. Think I should call 'em back and tell them to put in a racing flywheel when they pull it Monday? I'm thinking purely of mechanical longevity, here. BONUS POINTS - Is this covered by either the warantee or the extended warantee? A. YES IT IS! @$&! YEAH! They're gonna have to pull the whole transmission under warantee hahahahahahahah!

iii) Sometimes the car takes an obnoxiously long time to get itself started. Scenes like this can be so irritating:
Adam: Hey, check my rad new car!
Friend: Sweet!
Adam: Wanna go for a ride innit?
Friend: Totally!
*both get in car*
*key in ignition*
*twist*
*rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-brrooommbababa!*
Friend: So, uh, about that startup...
Adam: Shut up I don't want to hear a word about it everything is perfect you got me?
Friend: ... Sweet, a sunroof!

The tech on the phone told me this seems to be the fuel rail pressure regulator. Is this part covered under the warantee? IT SURE IS! *fist pumping and air guitar solo* HELL YES FIX IT YOU AUTOMOTIVE TECHNICIAN MADMEN! FIX IT FOR THE LOVE OF WHOLE, UNHINDERED MECHANICAL BEAUTY AND FOR NO OTHER REASON, BECAUSE I SURE DON'T HAVE TO PAY! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

So I got the call today because I dropped the car off yesterday. Since they've got my car (which in the most formal occations may be referred to as "The Dream of Flying" as a concession to those who name their cars), I've got a loaner. It's a Hyundai Sonata. It looks like either a 2006 or 2007. It's badging says it's got a V6. It's an automatic, with the + and - shiftgates. It's pretty nice to be in, but it's pretty clearly balanced for comfort rather than sport. I've gotten used to the nice booty-hugging security of my SE-R's sport seating. The big flat slab of a driver's seat in the Sonata elicited a "Crap, if I don't get my seatbelt on I'm gonna fall right off of this highchair in the first turn I take!" But you know, that's much less of an issue if you're driving the Sonata the way it likes to be driven. The lack of sportiness shouldn't be confused with a lack of power, it is quite confident at highway speeds. The shift gates are a little confusing to me - instead of rowing through the gears with "fwd, back, fwd, back" motions, gear plus is always forward, gear minus is always back. It sounds simple, but my years of ingrained driving reflex don't like it. It also leaves a beat of time in between your signal and the corresponding action. I've only tried it a little bit. Anyway, I've got it 'till Monday at least.

In other news, since I haven't written anything on here in forever:
- I've got a new job. It's at Welsh commercial real estate, in the IT dept. It's totally sweet and it pays way better. I'm very happy with it.
- I've been building stereo stuff from info on the web. I've got a pair of speakers which have been making sound since maybe Feb. I'm hoping to get finished painting and finishing them maybe this weekend or next. Also there's a small amp I've modified. It's been a lot of fun and sounds quite good.
- We're going to hoodwink Sara Ochs while she is in town from S. Korea and keep her for our personal amusement and that of our friends this weekend. Shhh, don't tell!