stereo

The Path To Whole House Audio: Part 4 – Subwoofers & Halloween

Behringer B2092A subwooferA few weeks after the Behringer monitors had arrived I learned of the mating subwoofer, Behringer’s B2092A. This was also a comparable bargain, so I bought two. Yes, stereo subwoofers. Such decadence.

The B2092A is beautiful in a way that many people will not appreciate. It’s a device built to a task with little concern for superficial things like aesthetics. It’s a 4th order double-tuned bandpass enclosure housing two long throw 8” drivers, their amplifier and crossover electronics. The built-in amp provides 360 watts rms below 80Hz with a range of adjustments to compensate for level and placement in the room.

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The Path To Whole House Audio: Part 3 – The Logic Behind Powered Monitors

Speakers + Amps = Powered Monitors

Powered monitors make sense for a lot of reasons. Except for very small models they are generally bi-amped, with an active line level crossover filter dividing the high & low frequencies before the amplifier stage. Then a separate amplifier is provided for each driver. In the case of Behringer’s B2031A, there is 150 watts for the woofer and 75 watts for the tweeter.

This approach allows the designer to tailor each amplifier design to suit the specific driver in question. Amplifier/driver interaction is one of the more complicated things in audio reproduction and optimization here can bring big performance improvements. With the amps right in the cabinets there’s effectively no speaker leads to further complicate the amp/driver relationship.

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The Path To Whole House Audio: Parts 1 & 2

Part 1 – Death By Canine Misadventure

Perhaps I should title this series as “A Geeky, Mildly Unorthodox Approach To Whole House Audio.” I’m not kidding. That bit about the dog really happened…more or less.

This is Shadow our five-year-old purebred Labrador Retriever. He is responsible for very little around la maison du Espinosa-Graves, being the lesser quadruped of the group. Yet in January of 2006 he brought about the expiry of my older, much loved Carver stereo system. This set in motion a series of events that has me rethinking my understanding of whole house audio, home theater, networking and media.

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Rave: Slim Devices Squeezebox Audio Player

Every now and then  something takes me back to a time and place where I haven’t been in a long, long time. It’s usually enjoyable, but often a bit of a ride. Bear with me as I lay out how and why this little device has found a favored place in my home.

In high school I had been a disk jockey, both at school dances and on a local community cable access channel. Musical reproduction (a.k.a “stereo stuff”) had been very important to me at that age even though I didn’t have the funds to pursue the interest in any depth.

I went on to study music, and eventually recording and live sound reinforcement. I have engineered studio sessions and live performances. However, as I wound my way through my twenties home audio was not a subject of much interest. My career path drifted from the purely musical to into broadcast video production.

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