What would Logan buy: Over the ear headphones

For some reason in my circle of friends and family I have a reputation for researching things extensively. When I buy things, I like to make informed purchases, and know that I'm purchasing something that is best suited to my needs. Because of that, afterwards I generally have a working knowledge of the subject.

I recently had two good friends ask me at out of the blue about which headphones I use, and which ones they should consider because they were "in the market" for new ones. When I responded with some basic questions and followed by a few recommendations one of them laughed and told me that I should do this "professionally".

This prompted me to write these "What would Logan Buy" posts. I thought that as long as I had spent so much time learning about something, I might as well put that information somewhere for others to use so they can make use of it. So here we are. It might be a minor thing in the grand scheme of things, but here are two pairs of headphones that I feel offer amazing value.

Creative Aurvana Live (CAL)

If you decided to start googling what real "audiophiles" think about most of Creatives headphone products, I don't think most people would give this pair of cans (over the ear headphones) a second thought, thinking they'd be garbage like many of rest of headphones that Creative makes. They'd be wrong.

The CAL is actually a Denon headphone that was discontinued (as a Denon), that Creative purchased the rights to continue to manufacture making this CAL a cheap rebadged Denon . If you've never heard of Denon, then I'll just say that they are a highly respected audio company. And like many Denon products they have something of a "warm" and "smooth" sound.

These are closed headphones with a relatively flat response curve. They are known (like many closed headphones) to have a slight emphasis in the bass frequencies. However, they are very clear, and not muddy at all. And like most closed headphones, they isolate you from the sound of your surroundings well. This isolation works both ways. You can't hear people around you (good for using them in a loud environment), and people (or microphones for you recorders out there) can't hear you. And for a closed headphone, they have a good soundstage

These are the first headphones I purchased, and are the ones I use at home. They're very comfortable, have a low clamping force,  are lightweight, and have more than enough clarity for the MP3's and other compressed audio I listen to off of the internet. Plus when I record audio, the microphone doesn't pick up what is playing. I can also wear them for a few hours at a time comfortably. Overall, I'm completely satisfied with the CAL's

Most of the time their street price hovers around $60-75.

Superlux 668b/Samson SR850

Superlux is a kind of obscure brand, that you won't find in your local Best Buy. This is because Superlux was more or less a driver manufacturer for other headphone companies. A few years ago they started selling their own headphones using some of the same drivers they used in other brands headphones. These headphones took the audiophile community "by storm" becoming among the most frequently recommended budget headphones. They are known for a "brighter" or "crisper" sound.

The Superlux 668b and Samson SR850 are actually the same headphone (cans and drivers), but the Samson has a different headband and a non-detachable cable. It is also usually about $15 more expensive than the Superlux. These are both semi-open headphones, so you hear more of your surroundings than you will with a closed can like the CAL. However, this semi-open nature of the can also gives these headphones a very wide soundstage. The "soundstage" is what audio nerds use to describe how well audio equipment gives the illusion of space. So if you close your eyes and listen to something, can you picture where the sounds are coming from? Are the sounds all coming from the same space, or different places? A large soundstage gives great immersion, and can really surprise you at times.

These are also known for having a very very flat response curve. This means that there is not really a frequency range where the headphones make any frequency noticeably louder or softer than the other frequencies. This is a good thing because it means that it very accurately represents how the original audio that you are listening to was recorded. It might however not be what you are used to because its a common trend right now for headphones to have extremely to moderately inflated bass. So if you're expecting a "Beats by Dre" type of experience these headphones might not be for you.

One of my friends with an ear for music got these recently, and loves them. He said that these are a "game changer" for how he thinks about headphone audio. In fact, he says that he immediately started paying for higher bitrate music, and is re-recording all of his CD's into lossless formats because the headphones are actually accurate enough for him to hear the compression artifacts found in lower bitrate MP3 audio. He also now defines music in terms of if he can hear the squeak of the bass drums pedal, or the guitarists fingers moving on the strings.

Another friends previous "best" headphones he had ever heard were the famous Koss Porta Pros. He now owns the 668b's and says there is no comparison

Oh, and the price? These two hover between $36-58.

What would I buy now?

I currently own one of them, and a variation of the other (superlux 681 Evo, bought when the 668b's were twice their current price). So in that sense my money is already "where my mouth is" and feel that neither of these are bad choices.

The main deciding factors for me would be price, and the "features". If you need your headphones to block out more sound because of the environment then the CAL makes the most sense in my mind. The Superlux does have the edge in soundstage and clarity though. Also, the removable headphone cable is a small feature, but I love it. It makes it easier to transport the headphones, and provides the advantage of not pulling the cable out of the headphone if you trip on the cable.

All things considered though if I were to do it over again I would start with the cheaper Superluxes. They provide a remarkably low price of entry into the world of "high quality" sound. Once you have those, you can assess your needs and find out if you were a hidden audiophile this whole time and want to invest more into audio equipment or headphones.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to tell me what you think about this post and/or the headphones in the comments :).

What would Logan buy: Kitchen knives

When people find out I know anything about knives, one thing I commonly hear is "All of mine are total junk" usually followed by something like "I'd get something different if I knew what to get". This post is to help people with questions like that. Where the topic is something they're mildly interested in, but want a simple recommendation instead of a long lecture about the reasons why.

Oh, and a quick note about kitchen knives. PLEASE do not keep them in a drawer, or put them through the dishwasher. A drawer is a bad storage place for knives because 1) the knives knock against each other dulling themselves, and 2) its not really safe to reach into a drawer of unsheathed knives (particularly if they are sharp like they are supposed to be). And the dishwasher can do all sorts of things to knives. The water and heated drying can warp the handles (particularly wooden handles), get water into places it shouldn't be at cause rust, and even dull them.

The proper way to store a sharp knife is to keep it in a block, or on a magnetic strip. Each of these keeps the blade away from anything hard that could dull it, and keeps everyone involved fingers and toes where they are.

Buying a set actually usually just gets you a large block of knives most of which you don't actually use. Because of that, I actually just recommend buying a few knives you know you'll use. You can buy a block separately, or even build one like I did HERE.

Well, here is what I recommend. There are VERY expensive kitchen knives out there, but most people they won't really appreciate them (or take care of them). Thankfully, these knives are not expensive. These knives though are good "enough" and have great value.

Chefs knife

You'll want a "main" kitchen knife. Usually this is somewhere between 7 and 10 inches long, has a tall face (blade is "tall" when viewed from the side) and a good belly (unsurprisingly the "curved" portion of the blade). You'll use this one for slicing tomatoes, potatoes and most other kitchen tasks.

My wife and I have two Chefs style knives. An 8in French (traditional) chefs knife, and a 7in Santoku (Japanese chefs/cleaver hybrid). Of these two knives, I personally find myself reaching for the santoku more often. It is thinner, and the handle is more comfortable in the pinch grip that my wife and I tend to use. You might have a different preference though.

Here is the first knife I bought. Bought it after lots of research for a "budget" kitchen knife led me here. The knife is made by Victorinox (the company is better known for its "Swiss Army" knives) and has a great handle texture. Its never slippery even when wet, and isn't ever going to warp, crack, etc.

Victorinox Fibrox 8-Inch Chef's Knife

Here is the Santoku with the slightly different handle.

Victorinox Swiss Army 7-Inch Fibrox Granton Edge Santoku Knife

Paring knife

This is a small knife that while not as frequently used, it is very useful when you must use it.

I actually haven't purchased a specific paring knife. I have a half decent pampered chefs knife that was gifted to my wife and I for our wedding, and that sees most of the paring knife use. That said, unless we're taking the top off of a strawberry our paring knives don't see much use.

Since I've had good results with the other Victorinox Fibrox knives, even though I don't have any personal experience with their paring knife I feel good recommending it.

Bread knife

If you eat unsliced bread frequently then a real and bread knife is super useful. If you don't, then your chefs knife will work for the few times you actually need to slice bread. These are usually 10-12in long, and commonly have a serrated or waved edge.

With just those three types of knives you'll be set for most of what happens in the kitchen. Keep them sharp, and I doubt you'll have any complaints about them.

Here is the bread knife I have. Once again, for the record, these knives have gone up quite a bit since I purchased them. Still though, they're a decent deal.

Victorinox Swiss Army 10-1/4-Inch Fibrox Wavy Bread Knife

What would I buy now?

I would be recommending the Victorinox knives right now if the prices had remained where they were two years ago. I purchased each of the Victorinox knives I have now for roughly ~$23. If you've been checking the links in this post, you'll notice most of them going for roughly double that now.

In light of the price hikes on victorinox knives I don't think I would actually buy them right now. I know I mentioned that knife sets should generally be avoided, but there is one that I'll say is worth it. The Ethan Becker Signature series knives are totally worth the (low) price of ~$57. This set though is a far cry from the usual Wal-Mart set that contains a cheapo chef knife, 3 utilities you'll never use, and 8 really dull steak knives. In fact, when they were released they were selling for $150. So buy them while you can at that low price.

This knife set was designed by Ethan Becker. Most of you will have no idea who that is, but trust me, its a good thing (Ethan Becker is Co-Author to the world famous "Joy of Cooking", and a renowned knife designer and maker of more than 25 years. He also happens to make my favorite camping knives, but that's for another post). Also, these knives are manufactured by ESEE. Again, I don't expect people to know most knife manufacturers by name. But they are known for two things. World class knives, and an unlimited lifetime warranty that TRANSFERS between owners. So no matter what, if there is a problem you get a new knife free of charge.

ESEE Knives B1109 Ethan Becker Cooking Knives Signature Set

I recommended that my mom get this set, and now I can actually recommend them on the quality of the knife because I have actually handled them. I have more knifes than most folks, and I can say that this knife set by FAR is the sharpest I've used (out of the box).

The only "reservations" I have about these knives are that the sizes are a bit off from what most would say is "standard" (largest is 7 inches). Also, the handles have some orange on them. That may be a deal breaker to some if it doesn't fit into the motif of your kitchen.

So if you've been hankering to try some better kitchen knives, I'd spend the ~$60 on the set of 4 of Ethans ESEE made knives. And maybe throw in a paring knife and a bread knife if you feel the need.

As you know this is the first of my posts like this, so let me know what you think of it in the comments :).

That's it.

Logans Leisure #3: Bamboo Skewer knife block

Ok, so I've mentioned that I have wanted to get better at woodworking. As a result of this, I decided to go ahead and do something I've been wanting to do for a while. I made my wife a custom knife block for Christmas.

Once again, while no expert, I'll walk you through what I did, and will give you the plans that I came up with, as well as anything that I would change about the project.

The first thing about this project that makes it stand out is the type of knife block is. I designed and built a bamboo skewer knife block. Why bamboo skewers you say?

1. If you've looked at some of my other posts, you'll notice that I'm a bit of a knife guy. On occasion the knives in the block change, and sometimes the knives don't fit in the old slots of normal blocks. This causes problems.
2. Second (and more importantly) the other thing about normal knife blocks is that they are difficult to clean inside the long slots. With a skewer design you can clean it easily by either swapping out the skewers or washing them. Score.
3. It looks unique and awesome.

The design

A knife bock like this is simple. There are no fancy cuts to make. Instead of having specific slots in the block for the knife to fit in, you simply make a open area for the skewers. The other nice thing about designing a knife block is that it is non structural in design, meaning, it doesn't have to support any critical amounts of weight. Therefore you don't have to be a structural engineer to build one, and you can use just about anything design you can come up with.

Because I'm an amateur, with only three "real" tools I decided to make the design something easy to both cut, and build. I mean, this is really just my second or third project.

I came up with a design that requires only three pieces of raw materials:

1. One 1in x 6in x 72in piece of hardwood
2. one 5ft x 3/4in piece of EMT (aluminum electrical conduit)
3. One 5ft x 3/8in piece wooden dowel

If you have a biscuit cutter, and don't want the "aluminum accent pieces" you can skip the EMT and the wooden dowel. The same goes for if you don't mind exposed screws in your finished product and don't want the EMT.

Here is the cutsheet/assembly diagram that I made for the 1x6. You can see that the cuts are arranged to make them as easy as possible. You can also see roughly how you're supposed to put the thing together. And Sorry about the size, but I wanted this to be halfway readable.

The block will be assembled using wooden dowel construction to keep the edges free of any fasteners. If having screws on the edges doesn't bother you, then go ahead and use them.

The construction

Its amateur hour here in the construction portion, so keep any construction comments primarily "constructive" (< see what I did there :P).

First, I measured out and cut the main box pieces as well as I could with only a square and a jigsaw. I then cut the bottom for the box. With these pieces, I started assembly.

Wooden dowel construction is simple in concept, and if you have a drill press, it is pretty straightforward. If you don't have either of those pieces it gets harder, but it still is doable. The hard part is getting the holes lined up in the boards correctly, if you're off by any the joints will be visibly off. This happened below, and I had to redrill a whole new set of holes. So I'm clearly not perfect in my woodworking skills yet.

Before I got my "drill depth guide" set up, I accidentally drilled right through the board on the bottom, luckily that board was going to be covered up anyway.

 

The good news is because this is solid wood, if any of your wholes aren't lined up perfectly, you can just sand it down. Just take your time, and it will turn out fine.

To help line things up I made a crude jig (scrap piece of wood of the same thickness) to get the holes centered. I also made a VERY crude drill depth indicator (tape on the drill bit). The wood is 0.75in thick, so I decided to go a half inch deep on each side, and cut the dowel into one inch long pieces.

Pro-tip: drill a small pilot hole first, its much easier to get the hole centered with a tiny drill bit. Then move on to the 3/8in bit. Otherwise, your holes will not line up as well as you want.

And now the part most people want to see. Here are some photos of the construction.

I elected to design this with three brushed aluminum bars on one side instead of finishing the box off with mahogany. Because of that choice, I made things harder for myself (but it looks great, so I can't complain). The EMT pipe was cut to the right length, and then the dowels were used just like they were in other dowel joints, except in this case the dowel is long enough to pass through the EMT and into both sides.

Then I started construction on the "stand" portion of the project. The same process happened here as in other portions of the project. Cut the wood, drill the holes, etc, etc, etc.

 

Bam, here is the finished product.

Without the skewers.

 

With roughly ~625 4mm thick skewers

 

 

Conclusion

 

I am happy with the end product. It looks fantastic, gets lots of comments from house guests and is very functional. If I made another one would I change anything? yes, yes I would actually. First off, I would make it larger. The size I built looks great, but we have a hone, three full size knives (8in chef, 7in santoku, 10in bread), two paring knives, and a set of kitchen shears. Secondly, I think I'd make a separate spot for both the hone ("butchers steel"), the smaller knives, and the kitchen shears. The hone gets stuck in the skewers a bit, and takes up a lot of space. Same thing with the shears.

 

I think I would use 1x6 for the sides, and 1x8 for the front and back. This would just make it wider, but not make it take up much more space on the counter. I could add a section only for the small knives, but I'm not sure how I'd do that at this point.

 

Anyway, if you have any questions or feedback let me know.

 

Cheers!

Logans Lessons #5: WinISD Basics

In Logans Leisure #2: Building an end table subwoofer, I detail the process of how I built my first "DIY" subwoofer. Because I'd received lots of questions about it, I wanted to go into some depth about some of the process. However, I didn't want to clutter up the build post with this "technical" portion.

This is not meant to be an all inclusive guide, because frankly, I'm not an expert with WinISD, or with building subwoofers. However, when I was working on designing my subwoofer, this is the stuff that I was wanting to find online but took more than a few minutes to find. As it turns out, there are a few guides out there that exist. This is not meant as a replacement, but instead as a supplement.

Using WinISD

This is a BRIEF intro on how to use WinSD. I learned the basics by stumbling around on my own, and checking out threads on hometheatershack.com (the forums). So if you're keen to start your own project and have questions, then the best place to look would likely be there, as by most ways of measuring, I'm at most a novice at this type of work. However, finding all of this information was difficult for me, so I'm trying to present what was hard for me to really find.

Getting Started

The first thing you need to do after installing WinISD (I downloaded from HERE)is to make sure that it has the driver that you are wanting to use. If not, then you either need to create the WinISD driver file, or download one from the internet somewhere. If you check out hometheatershack and their driver file thread, you may find that someone already created one for you. That's where I got all of mine.

After you have the drivers that you're interested in, you now need to create a new project. The project should be the type that you are wanting to create (sealed, ported, etc). You'll also use the driver file that you just got.

After you create the project, you are first presented with the driver tab. However, since you already chose the driver, this tab doesn't really help you much.

Transfer function magnitude / "Box" tabs

The next tab is where I found myself doing most of my work. It is the "box" tab. This is where you specify the settings used on the enclosure. This is where you choose the tuning frequency, and the volume. Generally I adjusted the settings on this tab in conjunction with the "Transfer function magnitude" graph. This shows the frequency extension of the subwoofer, and even includes the -3db point for it which is quite useful.

Vents and Air velocity 

The "vents" tab is where it shows you the size of the port that gave you the tuning frequency that you desired. The specifications of the port can be changed in this tab. One thing you need to know, is that the subwoofer volume does NOT include the volume of the port. So changing the port size affects how much volume you need to subtract from the subwoofer enclosure volume. This in turn changes the length of the port, which means that the volume being subtracted is changing. Its a vicious cycle.

When you are adjusting anything with vents, you should be looking at the air velocity graph. Because a ported subwoofer does in fact move air through the port, its important to keep the air speed below a certain level to prevent that port from acting like a whistle. In my research I heard recommendations saying to keep the air speeds below 24 m/s, and below 17 m/s to eliminate any port noise (known as "chuffing" in subwoofer-speak). Because I wasn't hurting for space, I tried to stay below 17 m/s just to be on the safe side.

Signal/Max SPL

The signal tab is where you get to specify the wattage of the amplifier. To really see the results from the changes to the wattage, you need to view them from one of the SPL graphs. This is the maximum SPL tab, and you can see that while the previous transfer function magnitude graph showed the frequency extension, the maximum SPL graph shows the actual volume.

You can see from the graph, that my sub has a slight 1db dip centered roughly around 36hz. Generally you want the graph perfectly flat, obviously this isn't the case here. From what I understand from my research is that this isn't super common. The reason that speakers are measured to their +- 3db point is that that is a halving of volume. So to have a 1db drop in output isn't a huge concern to me. I could have made the enclosure smaller, and tuned it higher and flattened out the graph, but I was trying to sneak out as much extension as I could.

Cone Excursion/Filters

And here we are at the last main topic. Now that you've done everything else in the design (enclosure size, tuning, air velocity, etc), there is one last main thing to check. Subwoofers rely on travel to move enough air to provide that "umph" in the low notes. Too much travel can damage a sub though, and each driver is different. The cone excursion graph is where you see the travel of the subwoofer in millimeters. The red line on top is the subwoofer drivers maximum extension.

If the excursion goes over that line on the left, that is because the subwoofer is trying too hard to reproduce the really low notes as the low notes require more travel for the same volume. So if you filter out those low notes, the driver won't be pushed to travel as far, thus keeping it from self destructing.

My design was over-excursing without any filters (bad). However the BASH 300w amplifier that I used has built in filters. It has a built in High Pass Filter, and a slight degree of bass boost  (1db). This is how I accounted for them in the project, as both affect it.

You can see that I'm nowhere close to maximum extension, even if my amplifier at full power. This means I shouldn't have to worry about damaging my driver.

There you have it, now you all know about as much as it I do. If you have questions, I'm more than willing to do what I can to help out. However the people over at hometheatershack.com have much more experience than I do on this, so if this didn't help you, perhaps you should start an account there and ask your question.

Cheers!

Logans Leisure #2: End Table Subwoofer

Logans Leisure #2: End Table Subwoofer

My blog is called "learnings, lessons and leisure". The learnings and lessons are similar, and while I will post things under each title, the differences are pretty minimal when it comes down to it. The leisure posts though, they're reserved for things that are about what I'm doing with my life. I have found that I need to constantly have a project, or something that I'm thinking about, working on, designing, fixing or I get antsy. And these projects that I find myself working on might be of interest to some people.

So, this is my second "leisure" post, but it is likely more "leisure" like than my first (a review of a broadcasting software). Hopefully some of you out there find this project as entertaining as I did :).

Why build a custom subwoofer?

Like I've mentioned before, one of my lifelong goals is to become a renaissance man. As part of that goal, I have been selecting a new area to develop my skills in each year or so. Its nothing completely structured, but its enough of a loose idea that it keeps things going. The best way to do this, is to try to tie those new skills into something that I already like. The project this time, was then mixing my interests in home theater, and my desire to get better at woodworking.

For this project, I designed and built a custom subwoofer. Some might (and have) asked "why build a subwoofer". There are many answers to that question. Simply because I can is one. Just like other things you do yourself, you can get much more value than if you buy "store bought".  Another reason is because I want to learn from the experience. But the primary reason for it was for functional reasons.

What do I mean when I say I built it for "functional" reasons? Speakers for all intents and purposes are simply air pumps. Just like other instruments that reproduce sound, larger is always better for low frequencies. So for a subwoofer, extra cabinet volume is always better. The problem with a really large subwoofer is simple. They are just large, and hard to fit anywhere without being overly intrusive. If I had a dedicated sound room, I might be able to get away with building some really crazy huge subwoofer. However, the current "home theater" is actually just the front room in our apartment. While my wife is amazing and puts up with me and all of my crazy hobbies and interests, I didn't want to even try to force a large black subwoofer into our front room décor. I didn't want to miss out on my chance for amazing bass in movies though.

The solution for me was to hide the subwoofer in plain site. Instead of making the subwoofer a featureless black box that sits in the corner, I decided to disguise it as an end table. So this post is of my design and construction of this end table subwoofer. I understand that it is still a very large subwoofer, and that it won't work for everyone, it DOES work quite well for me. It fits in the space between the two couches perfectly, and uses what would most likely be wasted space. If the design works for you, go for it, and build it. I'd love to see variations and adaptations by others. Although if you do use my design, just give me credit somewhere, and post links to your builds here.

Believe it or not, I didn't start out knowing much about subwoofers (other than that I liked them, and that you could have a ported, or sealed one). I had to do my homework to learn enough to build one. While I am still no "expert", I will try to explain some of what I learned as I went. So if you'd care to learn some REALLY dumbed down basics about subwoofers, then read through this next portion. If not, just go look at the pretty pictures at the end.

Designing a custom subwoofer

First, you need to decide what type of subwoofer you want to build. If you are building a home theater (primarily movies) subwoofer, a ported subwoofer is generally a good choice. This is because ported subwoofers keep a relatively flat response curve over their frequency range, and then drop off sharply at the end. The main potential downside to ported subwoofers is port noise (the subwoofer is literally ported and tuned like an organ, and so it has air coming in and out of the enclosure). Sealed subwoofers are just that, sealed, as in no openings at all. These of course do not have port noise, and are there frequently smaller. Their frequency response curves however are very different (think more like a bell shaped curve).

Generally you get more extension out of a ported subwoofer (plays lower notes), as well as more SPL (sound pressure level... aka, volume). Since extension is what I was after, this is what I designed.

The main components

There are really just three main components to a subwoofer. The driver (the actual subwoofer "speaker"), the amplifier, and the enclosure (the "box"). When designing a sub, you need to account for each component and how they interact. That's what makes designing the subwoofer take so long, as each variable affects the others.

Usually, you start with some sort of design constraint, and work from there. Maybe its either the box has to be a certain size, or has to fit within a certain budget. Whatever it is, its the easiest to start with the constraint, and work backwards from there.

My constraint was size. The whole point of this project was to allow me to build my woodworking skills, and have an impressive subwoofer that is hidden in plain sight. Because I knew the size between the couches, and the desired height, it was pretty easy to determine what the final overall
dimensions would be.

The space between the couches is 37x37in, and 29in tall. I didn't want to completely fill the area between the couches (which would make it look enormous), and I DID want it to fit through doors,
I ended up going with 32x36in and 27in tall. Because my design required some extra space to make it look normal (end tables usually have roughly an inch of overhang from the top to the sides).
Then my design and materials required further shrinking the actual subwoofer enclosure.

I used a free program called "winISD" to design my subwoofer. WinISD does all the scary math, and other than being a bit complex at first, it is relatively easy to use. While there are other programs out there, this is the one I used exclusively to design my subwoofer. I have written a quick guide on how to use WinISD that you can read HERE if you're interested in the specifics of both how to use the software, and the physical attributes that it is modeling.

When you look at subwoofer specifications (and actually, speaker specs in general), you'll see something called the -3db limit. That is the point when the flat graph, starts dipping from the flat part by 3db. The reason this is important, is this is the frequency that for all intents and purposes is the "end" of its frequency response range. Sure a speaker might technically produce sound at frequencies far below the -3db point, but it will be so much quieter than the frequencies above there that you might not even be able to tell that it is playing. So for a subwoofer, you want this -3db point to be as low as possible within your constraints.

Oh, also. It might be easy to look at a speaker and be like "oh hey, I just read on the internet that the -3db limit for these speakers is 80hz. That subwoofer only plays to 20hz, this speaker here plays from 80hz to 25000hz, so I won't notice those few measly little 60hz at the bottom, and I'll do just fine without a subwoofer".

The reality of the situation is that when you halve a frequency (in hz), you just dropped an octave from the previous frequency. That means that a 20hz subwoofer would gain you exactly two octaves of range below that of the speakers mentioned above (that bottomed out at 80hz). Most TV's, soundbars, and satellite speakers have small drivers in them (2-3 inches or less is pretty common). Their -3db points are frequently in the 110-150hz range. So that means that you're missing out on 3 octaves (140 > 70 > 35 > 17.25). If that doesn't sound like a lot, go find the nearest piano, and then pick a note, and then go 36 keys to the left (including the "black" keys). That is almost half of the keyboard. And to me, its kind of a big deal to be missing all of that extra sound. If it isn't to you, then that's fine, its just once you've heard it, its hard to go back :P.

Choosing the driver

Its best to start out selecting a few drivers to consider, as each driver has different specifications, and behave differently in different enclosures.

For what its worth, I chose the Stereo Integrity D2 15in Subwoofer. They recently lowered their already competitive prices (sadly, the week after I ordered, but such is life), and offer some great value in the subwoofer market. I seriously considered a few drivers from Dayton Audio (the parts-express house brand). But I ended up choosing the Stereo Integrity because it had more travel, worked with my enclosure size, and with the default settings of my amp.

Here is the Stereo Integrity driver next to one of my laptops. You can see that a 15in sub driver is no small object. This one happens to weigh 35lbs or so.

 

 

Choosing the amplifier

 

 

I chose to go the easy route on the amplifier on the sub. I went with what is called a "plate" amplifier for the sub. This means that the amplifier is "contained" in the subwoofer, and is not a separate unit like you might find being used for other speakers (the receiver most people have in their home theater also functions as an amplifier for the speakers).

 

Most subwoofers that you buy commercially are powered subwoofers (which usually means that they have a plate amp). I decided to go with the same method.

 

I purchased the BASH 300w plate amplifier.

 

Additionally, the BASH had some built in features that ended up being useful with my design. The most important being the High Pass filter that it came with. A high pass filter lets frequencies higher than the filter  "pass through" to the driver that is being powered.

 

"Why would you want that" you say, "isn't low frequency what you're building this subwoofer for?" That's a valid question actually. But it does have a simple answer. If you send full, unfiltered audio to the subwoofer, it will try to play ALL of it, including the frequencies that it cannot play. In trying to play those "too low" frequencies, the subwoofer driver could damage itself. So to prevent the subwoofer from "blowing out" while watching something amazing, I found an amplifier with a built in HPF.

 

Designing the subwoofer enclosure

For a relatively novice woodworker, the hardest part of the project, was taking those specifications that I created in WinISD, and turning them into an actual design that could be built.

The hardest part isn't knowing what dimensions that you want, but how to determine in what order things are assembled to get those dimensions. I found it quite handy to draw things out, just to
make sure that I wasn't making any mistakes in my design.

The next thing that took a bit of time, was the fact that while on paper you can design just about anything that you want, putting it together is different. Think about where you are going to be
having any exposed fasteners. Of course exposed fasteners are not a bad thing, but depending on your final design, it will affect how you construct things. I chose to cover the corners with molding, and fasten the molding to the box by screwing from the inside. This left the finished product with no visible fasteners.

After you know what the thing is going to look like, you have to turn it into something you can build. This means making a cutlist, and a cut sheet. These are mine. Keep in mind that I have terribad handwriting.

And when looking at the cutlists, you'll notice that there are more pieces than you need for the subwoofer. This is because I decided to build an end table that matches the sub at the same time. These will turn into "bookends" for the couch, so I thought it would be better if they matched.

These are the pieces that were to be cut from Cherry.

 

And here are the two sheets of walnut. I apologize if its a bit hard to read, but I wasn't about to make this all digital. Instead, you get it how I did it :).

Feel free to use the cutsheets if you'd like. I don't claim that they are free of errors, although I did try to correct the problems that I made.

Building the subwoofer

The first part is simple in concept, but has a big impact on the rest of the project. That is of course cutting out the wood. This is best done on a large table saw with a sharp blade. Take your time in cutting, making sure that you keep all your fingers. I scored in this department, as I had a friend with access to a cabinet making shop and lots more experience than I have with cutting large sheets of wood.

After you cut the pieces, mark the pieces of wood according to the naming convention that you've chosen. And do yourself a favor, and remember to mark the pieces of wood on the correct side. Depending on how you want to finish your sub, you will either want to do the finishing before or after the construction. Because my subwoofer is designed as an end table, and has two colors on it, I had to stain the pieces that were different colors separately before it was assembled.

I used a relatively unique method for making the wood black. Its called ebonizing. It is a process that uses the tannins present in the wood, and the some iron that has been dissolved to create a chemical reaction that turns the wood black. The process works better with woods that are high in tannins naturally. This is why I am using Walnut.

The process actually works very quickly. This photo shows some of the pieces I was working on in the various stages of reacting to the "stain". Believe it or not, the pieces were done in order, from bottom right to top left. The pieces all react differently, but somehow all end up roughly the same.

And some more comparisons. The unstained wood is the natural walnut, and the ebonized walnut is on either side. You can see that the dried ebonized wood is a bit more charcoal grey looking than it is black. However, unlike painting the wood, there is BEAUTIFUL grain there.

Its actually extremely hard to get a good photo of the ebonized wood after the polyurethane. Here are some attempts though. This first one is a bit oversaturated.

 

This one is a bit washed out on the other hand.

 

The Cherry was stained a 50/50 combination of red mahogany and red oak. It was super simple. Wipe on, wipe off, easy peasy. It was stained to match the front channel speakers. Here you can see the molding, legs, and top.

This shot is from after the staining, but before the polyurethane. You can see the tops of both the sub, and the end table, as well as all of the legs and the molding pieces.

The construction

 

I just followed my designs to a "T". There were a few places where my designs were off, and things needed to be improvised in order to salvage the operation. My father was there helping me assemble things and is an experienced woodworker. He mentioned that the difference between good woodworkers and novice woodworkers is often simply how well they hide mistakes. Luckily, most of my mistakes were non-visible, and only required a small amount of scrap wood to fix.

I used wood glue, and screws to build my project. The screws were mainly there for securing the wood while the glue dries, but they do add a non-zero amount of strength as well. I used 1 1/4in coarse drywall screws for securing most pieces together, with 2in coarse drywall screws for the sections where I screwed into the endgrain of another piece. These endgrain sections were predrilled to ensure the wood didn't split.

Photos of the construction process

The main box constructed, with the cutout for the amp done, and the port halfway constructed.

A terrible photo of the half way point in the project. Sadly, its the only photo of it in progress from the outside. You can see the molding done on the ends, and the top and legs were on. As a side note, you can see that the subwoofer is placed up off the ground. This is because my subwoofer is a down firing sub with bottom facing ports. The sub needs to be up off the ground to let the driver breath. Also, no tables I've ever seen have rested on the ground. Keeping the sub off the ground is a win win win in this situation.

Here is something that I have been frequently asked about. The interior bracing, and the port. You can see the port here runs along the side of the enclosure, and that it was longer than the height of the sub, and so it just turned and went around the top.

You also see the interior bracing in this shot. The general rule of thumb is that you want to have no more than a foot of space on the interior of the box that is not braced. I have a few spaces that are longer than that, but not by much. There are two braces in each direction. The top of the subwoofer is also double thick, as are each of the edges of the enclosure which helps reduce resonance. The braces here are glued, and screwed into the inside, and where possible, they are also screwed and glued to each other.

The other thing this shows is the fact that I basically constructed the whole subwoofer upside down. This is how all the screws are hidden, as everything is attached from the inside. After this point, all I had to do was attach the bottom, install the amp, and flip it over.

Like this for instance.

Finished product and Testing

So how does the subwoofer do when I compare it to what I thought it would be like?

I was looking for three main things with this project.

1. Disguising a high performance subwoofer to blend into the surroundings.
2. Developing my skills with project design and woodworking
3. Getting more performance per $$ than I could with anything premade

How did I do based on those criteria?

Can it hide in plane site? Here is what it looks like in place in the corner.

A close up of the end table.

A shot of the whole room to wrap it all up.

Check, we've got the first point covered.

Did I learn a lot about woodworking and have the chance to practice some skills? Yes, for sure. So another success. TWO FOR TWO!

And finally about value. How does my sub compare to things you can find "in the wild" from normal subwoofer manufacturers?

The closest subwoofer that I could find in terms of output and extension, is the HSU Research VTF-15H. It reaches to 16hz, and its max output is about 120db. My sub hits 16hz, and is flat at about 116db for most of its range. The HSU retails for $880-999. The components for mine cost $690 (and I got a "free" end table that matches).

However, if you were to build this yourself, you could VERY easily save 100-200 dollars. The subwoofer driver has been reduced in price by $50. Also, I happened to build my subwoofer out of possibly the most expensive plywood available. I had it custom ordered from a cabinet shop for me, and each sheet of ply cost ~$100. If you were to do this project out of normal old 3/4in oak, you would have saved ~$120-150. So the value is definitely there.

Conclusion

So far, I've been extremely pleased with the sub. It plays cleanly, and quite deep and loud (when needed). Its perfectly unobtrusive, and hides quite well in plane sight.

I know I overbuilt the subwoofer (particularly for this 900 sq/ft apt), but I didn't want to build a subwoofer that would need to be replaced as soon as it was put into a larger room in a future home. The subwoofer is capable of completely drowning out the rest of my theater system, however, when it is adjusted correctly, it blends in quite seamlessly. I run it at approximately 1.5/8 power in my setup (the amp goes "up" to 8, not 10 for some reason). I've demoed a few clips at up to 1/2 power, and at that amount of power, the lamp on the sub actually jumped far enough for me to see under it, so it does have enough output to spare to allow it to grow.

At certain frequencies there is a small amount of localization, but that is due more to the placement in the room than the subwoofer.

All said, I would say that the project wasn't actually very difficult. All it took was some time spent researching, and then designing something that worked. I'd highly suggest to anyone reading here to give it a good hard consideration if you are anywhere even remotely interested.

Plus, the look on peoples faces when you tell them that that "table" is the subwoofer that just surprised them is quite priceless :).

Logans Lessions #4: Setting up a mumble server

Logans Lessions #4: Setting up a mumble server

So, one of my previous posts is about setting up a Ventrillo server. Ventrillo is a easy to set up, free to use (for up to 8 people) voice chat server to use however you see fit. I used Ventrillo for a while, and was pretty happy with it. I'll say that I was happy with it the way that people were happy with life before they invented Air Conditioning (for me, having lived 7 years in Arizona, AC is a BIG part of life).

So this brings me to the point of this post. What changed my feelings for ventrillo? Its simple, another product that does basically the same thing, but in my opinion, better. What was that quote about building a better mousetrap?

Reasons I switched from Ventrillo to Mumble.

1. Lower latency. In "normal speak" this means that the delay between when you speak, and your friend hears you is lower. Meaning, its more like "normal" conversation, as your friend hears your joke almost as you say it instead of 1.4 seconds later (akward delayed reaction laughing == the worst).
2. Supports more chatters. Now, most people will never need more than 8 for free. But mumble lets you do as many as you please, its limited only by your bandwidth.
3. Automatic volume leveling of the chatters. So, no matter who is on the chat, they all sound the same volume to you. Great for if you have someone in your family/team/secret guild that talks loudly, because they won't overpower everyone else (PS, this sadly does not work at family gatherings... )
4. Additional features that sound cool, but I might not use. Mostly correct positioning of audio while in specific games. So while I game, I don't know if I game enough to appreciate this feature. Although the ability to hear if your friend is on the left or right... is actually quite awesome (technically speaking, that's quite impressive).

Bottom line

The main benefit for me was the reduced latency. For those that don't know, I do some amateur StarCraft 2 commentating (wow, that sounds really, really nerdy). I commentate games for a small league, and occasionally I have a co-commentator that I use these programs to talk with. When commentating with someone that you can't physically see, latency is a huge part of making the performance feel natural.

With Ventrillo, my co-commentator and I were able to work with the roughly 1 - 1.5 second latency. At times though, we would talk over each other (remember we had 1 second to start talking before the other heard). This lead to more stops and starts of conversation as we would both start talking, then hear the fact a second or so later, then start talking again as the silence in-between was also delayed. So we worked within this limitation, but it was a noticeable hindrance.

With Mumble, I've noticed a large decrease in the number of times my co-commentator and I talk over each other. So for that reason alone, its worth the switch. While I haven't actually measured the latency with mumble, I would put it at around half a second with my very unscientific normal usage of the software. While there is obviously room for improvement, that is two to three times faster than ventrillo in my testing, and makes for much more natural conversation.

So, I'll walk you through the setup of mumble, (and its server that you run called "murmer"). Luckily, the setup is almost exactly the same as the setup for Ventrillo, just with different ports being used. Also, mumbles documentation is pretty good as well, so this is meant more just for demonstration purposes of an actual running instance, rather than re-creating the documentation that is already in effect.

Installing and configuring the server

Download the mumble install file from HERE. In this file, you will have the option to install either client only, or client and server. So if you're the one hosting it for your friends on your machine, then of course you do client and server. If you're connecting to a friend, just do client only.

Install the things. I'm not going to sit here and do screenshots of where you should click "next". Its pretty straight forward though.

After things install, you need to configure an ini file for what you want your server to do (aka, server password, number of supported users, etc). It is located in the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Mumble, and the file is called murmur.ini.

Unlike Ventrillos ini file, this one is a bit more... involved. Its very well laid out at least, but if you're not used to reading ini files, it might take you a few minutes to find what needs to be adjusted.

Protip: Most INI files have lots of settings in them that you might not need. When getting things set up, ignore most things that are currently commented out. In this case, that means the ones with the "#" in front of the line. I am using an editor called Notepad++ to make it easier to read by color coding what is commented out (ignored code), and what is "real".

Once you do that, you need to (as the server) set up your network to allow traffic to the box you're using as the server (I recommend setting a static IP for whatever machine you choose, as this will save you pain in the future if your DHCP addresses change [which they will]).

What I mean by this is that you need to set up port forwarding on your edge device (usually your wireless router/firewall). This is usually a pretty simple process, although because of the wide number of devices on the market that all have slightly different interfaces, I wont even try to do a step by step walk through for this part.

Just know that you need to set up port forwarding to allow the TCP and UDP ports (64738) to the same port on your server.

Here is what mine looks like though.

Setting up the client

Go ahead and start up murmur (double click, select and press enter, whatever).

Once you get that set up, go to canyouseeme and then check that it can see your server on the correct port. Now go to whatsmyip and learn what your public IP is.

Once that works, simply fire up mumble, add the new server. The name you put in is just your label for the server and not its official name. Add the correct IP address (and if you're doing it inside your network, use the internal IP), and then connect. If you put a password on the server, it should now ask you for the username and password that you would like to connect with. Once you do that, you're in!

It should look something like this.

The Wrapup

I've been using mumble now for a few months, and I've been quite happy with it. I've had as many as 4 chatters on simultaneously without any problems. I've appreciated the ability to change the amount of bandwidth being used by each person (in each direction none the less), its ease of use. It is currently my favorite voice chat client and server combo.

Just know that as long as your server is running (or the murmer/ventrillo service is running), that the chat server is live, even if you're not connected to it. I usually leave it turned off when I'm not using it, but you can use it however you'd like.

So there you have it. You now have two very reliable voice chat server options that are completely free at your disposal. You can use them however you'd like. From virtual meetings, to gaming, and to commentating, it should have you covered.

Cheers!

Logans Lessons #3: Setting up Ventrillo server

Setting up Ventrillo server

The Scenario

You get an awesome new multiplayer game to play with your friends who live somewhere that is not in your house/apt/abode. You discover that you love the game, and that while playing, its useful to be talking together, either for the purpose of the game, or just for fun. Luckily the game of course has chat support built in (text chat). Of course, text chat is awesome, but it takes quite a bit of time away from the game, which slows things down, and with enough people, it gets confusing. So, what do you do?

You could call on a cell phone... but that's lame and is way too old fashioned to be useful while playing a game, especially if its with more than one other person. Next up comes the idea to Skype. Now, skype works, but its a bit resource heavy, and has limitations on the number of people that you call at the same time. You could use a google hangout, but that would require everyone to be on google plus... Which not everyone is on, and not everyone wants to be (yours truly included). So what are you to do?

After looking around a bit, and googling all sorts of irrelevant things in your search for what you were actually MEANING to search for, you learn that there is a free program called Ventrillo. It allows you to host your own server (more of a service actually), that supports up to 8 people with simultaneous voice chat. It is completely free, and has been around for a while. However, for some people, it can be a bit intimidating to setup.

This is where I come in. Since I'm a self admitted nerd, I usually just jump right in. This time, I decided to document the process, and help anyone out there out with getting a server of their own setup. I know there are lots of tutorials on this, but for some reason most of the ones I found on this were videos. And while videos are good, sometimes I don't feel like watching one just to figure out one little thing, when I could have just as easily skimmed a document to the part where I was confused. So here is my primarily text based one tutorial.

Installing and configuring the server

So, first steps first. Download ventrillo server. You can find it HERE. Install it, and then edit the config file. The config file is located in the program folder, which should be under c:\Program Files (X86)\VentSrv. The file is called ventrilo_srv.ini. The main thing that you want to do here, is to change the password. Here is what mine looks like, and you can see how simple this file is. I like that.

After you get it installed, and the ini file changed, then you can start the service. To do that, you literally just run (double click, etc) ventrillo_srv.exe. It fires right up, and should be listening for people trying to talk to you.

Installing/configuring the client

After you start the service, you need to install the client (assuming of course you want to be able to talk and hear people, if not... then I guess you're mostly done?). Here, if you are setting it up on your own network, you can use the internal network IP of the machine hosting the service. If the machine that is running it is the same machine that you're going to be playing on, then you can just type in "localhost", or 127.0.0.1, or the internal IP address (all will work).

Here is a screenshot of what mine looks like.

If you have it running on a machine inside your network, but not the machine that you're using, then use the internal IP address (if you don't know that, open the command line, and type "ipconfig", and it will tell you what the IP address is for that machine). For your friends outside your network, go to whatsmyip to figure out what you're external IP address is, and then tell them to use that IP in their clients.

Configuring YOUR network

The last remaining thing to do, is to set up your router/firewall to allow the ventrillo service to communicate with the outside world. To do this, you need to set up something called port forwarding on your router. This is likely the part that confuses people the most, because it sounds really scary and technical. However, without this step, no one will be able to talk to you, and you'll be sad.

In reality, it is pretty simple to do once you know what needs to happen. You simply find out where to adjust port forwarding in your router (usually somewhere under advanced). You can see what mine looks like here, and what the "rule" looks like when in place. Just remember that setting up your own, may be different, but that unless you have the worlds lamest router, you should have the setting in there somewhere.

The menu option for"Port Forwarding/Port Triggering as the last menu option visible in the screenshot on the left. You may have to lookup what your router calls it.

(and here is a shoutout to anyone out there that noticed from that screenshot that I'm running a class B network here at casa de logan :).

Once you find it, you put in the internal IP address of the machine running the ventrillo service, and then the port that will be forwarded to it (3784 is the default, but feel free to change it. Just know that if you change it, you'll have to tell your friends what the new port is). You may also have to specify that the ports are for TCP and UDP. Once your router accepts that, then you're good to go, and everyone should be able to connect.

The wrapup

So far my usage experience of ventrillo has been very good. The only problem that I've had so far is that one of my friends couldn't speak for a while. It turns out, the problem was that when we disabled ppt (push to talk. When you disable it, it turns into basically a phone call where it continuously transmits ), his microphone was so quiet that ventrillo wasn't registering that he was speaking. Once we lowered the sensitivity requirement for ventrillo, it worked just fine. Other settings that I've tweaked on mine. I removed the voice things toast notifications (the beep before and after you talk setting... no idea why you would want those).

In an upcoming post, I'll go through the installation and configuration of one of the main competitors to Ventrillo. The one that I actually switched to FROM Ventrillo...