Starting Point - Bob's new room and Alexia's new home

[RedSectorA]

My new vinyl cabinet is almost done! Just a few minor details and stain. (It will go in the alcove/niche on the right wall.)

The drawer faces will be covered with fabric, and the drawer box and face thickness, along with the fabric, were acounted for in the acoustic modeling of the room. I'll have another built for the rear of the room in the not too distant future.

Bob,

You're a cabinet maker? Would be something else other than bikes, wine and music that we share. If not whoever did this did very nice work. Cherry? Love the dovetails on the drawers, ooze quality.

 

[Bobvin]

Bob,

You're a cabinet maker? Would be something else other than bikes, wine and music that we share. If not whoever did this did very nice work. Cherry? Love the dovetails on the drawers, ooze quality.

Hi Dan, sorry to say those are not my cabinet making skills on display. Maybe in my retirement years. (Oh wait, I'm back in school now at 59 training to be a therapist - retirement? What's that?) Running my business, taking classes, trying to find time to train, hoping to squeeze in some listening time—cabinet making needs to be hired out. The young fellow I've hired for the work is indeed a craftsman. I borrowed the design elements from the cabinetry throughout our home. Yesterday was my first glimpse other than drawings, I was very pleased.

And yep, it is done in solid cherry.

 

[Bobvin]

Sons of bitches! The lighting store still has not delivered the LED trims for my recessed lights. Lets see, originally ordered in October. Finally took delivery of some trims in late November but returned them—I didn't care for how the 3000°K light looked when dimmed. (LEDs don't color shift when dimmed to a more orange color like incandescent or halogen.) I was to replace them with 2700°K trims, and the guy at the store ordered the wrong thing which had a long backorder. Finally early February parts arrived, but the wrong size! So, back those go and a month later I receive the wrong items again, this time the wrong style. Now I'm frustrated but still keeping my cool, told them do whatever is needed to get them by Friday. I called yesterday (Friday) and am advised they have to be "built". And another part that was supposed to have arrived last week didn't, then it was supposed to be here this week, but no, now not until next week.

I've been more than patient with the outfit, tolerating their screw-ups and their excuses. Today I called and told them to cancel the order and the guy had the nerve to get irate at ME. He said he can't cancel the order, the parts are on the way.

I calmly said to cancel the order and hung up. Then I called my credit card company to dispute. I don't think I've been unreasonable. After all, it has been 100 days since I returned the parts for exchange.

My wife, banker that she is, said the company was probably having credit issues with their vendor, so they were likely having trouble receiving goods. Might also explain why the guy got all pissed off at me for cancelling.

Amazon prime will get me one of the parts by Tuesday. The others I've had to go through another vendor. I am hoping for better results!

 

[a.wayne]

Bob,

Just now seeing your room pics, congrats , a really gorgeous looking space and layout , job well done . Now excuse me , I feel rather homeless about now ....

 

[socfan12]

Bob, sorry to hear about your troubles. Really frustrating. But your room is beautiful and it will be quite the haven when all is said and done! Good on ya, mate!

 

[Bobvin]

Hey Allan, thanks for the kinds words...

Here's a couple pics of the room with the curtains. With the extra layers of Lumitex in the stairway and hallway curtains, they just weren't behaving with the frequency of folds originally spec'd. (The front curtains have only 1 layer of the Lumitex, which while a little stiff is trying to fold as designed.) So I had them attach every other carrier which made the ripples much larger & deeper. Depending on what the acoustician measures once everything is setup, I may add another bolt-width of curtains to both sides of the stairway grouping. This would make the ripples a little closer together, creating a more dense barrier to sound entering the room from upstairs. There are a pair of Viking fridges just at the top of the stairs, and they're a bit noisy in a white noise kind of way.) How that might affect the whole room performance would have to be modeled.

The LED trims I am waiting on will highlight the curtains and back wall the same as those in the recessed niches.

 

[Paul]

OMG [emoji44]


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[socfan12]

That is stunning, Bob, love it! Esp the wine room a few pics up!:thumbsup:

 

[FDPDK]

That looks really great

 

[Kingsrule]

BTW, led bulbs do color shift when dimming.......

 

[Bobvin]

BTW, led bulbs do color shift when dimming.......

Certainly not in a similar way to a filiment incandescent, halogen, or xenon bulb, which shifts dramatically warmer and 'orange-er' as they dim. The same way a wood fire shifts as the flames dim.

There are some LED bulbs now which are beginning to incorporate color shifting technology, and many that are made up using multiple elements which can be controlled to create different color effects.

If you can point to real world products, like recessed ceiling lights, that dim and color shift like incandescent, without costing north of $400-700+ per fixture, that would be valuable information. Else your comment is just a contrarian out-of-the-blue statement of no value.

... making an LED source dim with a similar color shift to a halogen source, maintaining color quality along the way, has presented significant technical challenges to designers of LED emitters and fixtures.

...when an LED dims as less current is passed through it, the color temperature shift is very small because thermal radiation represents a negligible portion of the total light emitted. In fact, the hue change as an LED dims is hardly discernible to the human eye.

from LED Magazine

 

[Bobvin]

Finally getting the room together. I placed the speakers in similar position to what they were before the remodel... a little further apart, similarly tucked in the corner. My Wilson dealer will be down in a couple weeks to do final setup/voicing. I spent a couple hours listening last night and I have to say the room sounds fantastic. I'll leave it to the Wilson rep to get the voicing just right, while I got the imaging dialed in the coherence top to bottom isn't quite right. Still, what I was hearing has me very excited for whats to come.

As a reminder of where it all started, here's a couple before and after pics.

When we moved in, it was all "Man Cave" setup. Projection screen, fridge, microwave, dishwasher, wetbar.

I installed some nice wool carpet, cut like a giant area rug, and assembled the rig. Speakers were fairly deep in the corners, but sounded very good. Several buddies claimed it was the best they'd heard the Alexias.

The early morning sun was shining in the room so I had to pump up the lights in order to get a photo. Record storage cabinet is to be delivered this week, then the boxes will get off the floor over on the right side of the room.

And the rear of the room. (Wine cellar on the other side of the curtains!)

We started October 13th. Originally hoped to be done by Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then it was just a matter of it'll be done when its done. Projects can be that way!

 

[Kuoppis]

Phantastic transformation, congrats! Looks like you're going to have a lots of listening fun in the future.

Did the wine stash come with the new room [emoji3]?


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[Elberoth]

Wow, what an transformation ! Beautiful room.

 

[Bobvin]

Adam, thanks for the kind words. I've looked at your room with envy many times. You Europeans have a taste for the contemporary, we're (my wife & I) a little less modern.

 

[joeinid]

Bob,

You've done a superb job. The transformation is beautiful.

 

[Bobvin]

My room is open at the rear, with one side opening to a hallway where the wine cellar is, and beyond that 3 bedrooms. Opposite that are the stairs leading into the room from the upper floor. The curtains have custom acoustic lining. But, if you're in the hallway with the glass of the wine cellar to your side and clap you hands, the decay and ring is substantial. Further down, the hallway angles off to the bedrooms.

With the curtains open a loud hand-clap can be heard ringing down the hallway. There was some left over hard fiberglass insulation from the remodel, so I placed a couple sheets in the hallway. One opposite the wine cellar, one on the angled wall just beyond... with the panels resting against the wall a hand clap is muffled and there is no long decay.

I also had a fair amount of fabric left over. So I went online to FabricWall and ordered some track. On the angled wall I used 2" track, and opposite the wine cellar I am going to use 1/2". Fairly easy to work with—just install the track, secure the fiberglass panel, then stretch the fabric over the whole frame and tuck the fabric into the groove in the track. For those wishing to add a little absorption to their room, this is an easy elegant solution. In my case I just wanted to reduce some of that energy leaving the room so that it didn't come back.

 

[the professor]

Looks Awesome!

 

[Ritmo]

Fantastic looking room Bob!

 

[socfan12]

Beautiful room, Bob! What a great space to relax, drink wine and listen to some music. Great job man!:Bow::Bow::Bow: