Starting with the source. I'm using a player I have come to know pretty well. It is made by FUNAI for Magnavox and then under the FUNAI brand.

http://tuneland.techno-zone.net/t146-tuning-the-magnavox-dvd-player and http://tuneland.techno-zone.net/t168-magnavox-dvd-player

On TuneLand you can read the different listeners choosing this player as their reference. You'll even notice some of the members from this forum who have beat you to the punch and have replaced their players, but I'll let them share. Not saying other players are bad players, just that the FUNAI was prefered. Many will ask how can this be and we will break this down for you. Get use to me saying the word "over-built".

Amp

For my amp I'm choosing the Sherwood 4105. If you visit http://tuneland.techno-zone.net/f3-home-audio-systems you will find several who have replaced their previous amps with this one.

Speakers

I'm going to cheat on this one because I need to work on a full house of our 2015 models but I have a set of Dayton Audio b652 here (mod), and this will be a cheap speaker that tuned right will blow your mind.

Player $29.00
Amp $99.00
Speakers $35.00

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

Do you have a spare bedroom? If so you may have found the most important component of the entire system. On this project if you have a room that you can empty and use as your listening room you are ahead of anyone trying to convert a living room into a listening/living room. The listening room is the most important part of the audio chain and is where the sound wave is created. It's odd that people treat this as the last when it is in reality the first. It's also odd and even wierd that listeners have thought of the room as something to kill or get out of the way, when in fact the room is a necessary natural amplifier that needs to be about gain every bit as much as the electronic amplifier.

want to be a good acoustician? throw out every book on acoustics you have and start fresh

Number one and the most valued piece of advice I can give you in this hobby is to treat your room like it is the only room in the world like it, cause it is. My favorite room is of course the tunable room http://tuneland.techno-zone.net/t52-the-tunable-room but many of you have a room that is far better than you would think. There are a ton of houses that have upstairs bedrooms with wood floors and wood studs/drywall construction, ranging between 9' x 9' and 15' x 17'. If you happen to have one you have hit the goldmined. If so, do not let anyone tell you to double up on the drywall, big mistake. Don't let them tell you to carpet the floor, another no no. Also pay no attention to those saying you need size to get good low bass. A rectangular 2nd story room with an attic above is like someone handing you a $100,000.00 payday toward your sound. If you don't have this we can work around it, but for those who do you are golden in this particular project.

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

Hi Guys

I wanted to give some references for those who are following this thread. http://tuneland.techno-zone.net/t247-acoustical-basics-for-audiophiles .

Above is a simple plan to tuning your room. You can look around TuneLand and see others going from a stock high end system to the simple system using a balanced approach and going much further. In order to do this we must go from the thought that the equipment provides all, to the fact that the equipment is there to get the acoustical ball rolling. The more complicated the equipment part of the system the harder to get to the real sound of recordings.

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

Ok, got your simple system.

1) the room
2) the source
3) the speakers
4) the wire
5) the amp
6) the tuning tools

That's it. This is all you need to make the best sounding audio system you have ever owned or heard.

1) lets go into the room

I'm going to assume that this room is as described above, but if not you can come to TuneLand and we will show you how to deal with other types of rooms. I'm going to choose the 9x9x8 room to keep it simple. Wood floor, second story drywall and wood stud construction. I happen to have one of these rooms at my place so I will be able to reference the sound.

My room has a closet and obviously a door.

First thing to do is find the listening walls. This means the best wall to sit against and the oposite wall for shaping the soundstage.

I've started a thread http://tuneland.techno-zone.net/t262-the-tuning-project to show pics and drawings.

As you will read, I started the project with the room. This is the foundation to a great system. If the floor is right, in the right room you will be able to reproduce anything.

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

Hi listeners

I'm going to go slow with this because I'm doing the project in real time myself.

The source I am choosing is a Magnavox MDV2100 Player. The player is made by FUNAI, and has gone through a few generations. The current model FUNAI-100 has been changed and I personally prefer the older model in warmth which is a necessity for me. I am not a fan of the sound that has been called "digital" and drives turntable people mad and for good reason. A turntable setup right can produce warm and dynamic sound that is much like the older tape machines, but digital has had a hard time getting there. The good news for us who have gone from vinyl to CD is it is not the signal that is at fault of this sound and during this project the digital sound will be gone if you do things correctly.

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

Having only a player and a receiver can be a huge advantage over complicated systems. One of the reasons is you can use one two-gang outlet for your entire system. With this particular system there is very little pull on the fuse and those in the US might want to go with a 15amp fuse in your circuit panel and check to make sure your circuit hookups are well organized and that the loads are spread out evenly throughout your house. It's very important for sound that you have a well balanced panel with as close to the same pull for each circuit as you can get. If you have an electrician handy have him check your wires going in and out of the panel and separate the wires to equal distances and try to remove as much tension as possible where the wires are conected. If your building try to route your electric to your system with as short of a path as possible without conduits and elbows if your code permits. The more relaxed the path is the more open the sound will be. This goes for the outlet as well. If the cable inside the outlet box is all twisted and cramped this will cause you to loose flow.

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

With my simple low mass system I don't have my two components on an equipment rack, but instead on an equipment platform custom designed for the components. You can view it on my TuneLand forum. I also don't have my speaker stands on the floor, but on their own platforms. This is one of the biggest advantages this system has over a typical high end audio system. Very rarely will you have a floor that will work with speakers without having a layer of transfer between them and the floor, same with electronic components. Another advantage is my acoustical space is not chopped up by having a rack in the room. The system is one chair, one equipment platform and two speaker platforms. For this project I'm leaving out the floorstanding acoustical treatments till the very end.

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

Hi Readers

I'm moving some of my threads to TuneLand. I will be happy to bring them back to this forum when the time is right. I'm dealing with internet flamers here and it's been bugging me for a while, not my cup of tea, but I'm thrilled that you've been reading my threads here. you can click here to go to the thread http://tuneland.techno-zone.net/t262-the-tuning-project

I'm not going to delete my threads here, just continuing them there.

thank you

michael green
MGA/RoomTune
http://tuneland.techno-zone.net/