Hiatus

I currently am undergoing an audio Hiatus because of 2 major things going on right now.

1) It's 14er season, so we are hiking almost every weekend! You have to make hay while the sun shines. Next year, the season will be scaled back a lot.

2) I am finishing my basement! I am making a theater room / music room, which will be 12' x 18'. It's going to have a lot of soundproofing features built into it, a built-in 9' x 40" bookshelf (5 shelves), and a built-in ventilated equipment cabinet for the AVR / DVD / BD / SAT. This project is going to take a lot of time and money. 3) I am also doing some landscaping this year. That being said, I still need to finish my Mandolin speakers, which I have now disassembled to protect the fragile woofers and tweeters from damage and UV rays- they are safely in their boxes for now. The mandolins need 2 things. 1- bases on the bottom and 2- cosmetic finishing. They basically need to be sanded smooth, filled in with bondo, fully sealed, and then painted.

Current systems

Currently this is what I am using.

Upstairs: (living room)
Marantz SR5005 AV Receiver
Panasonic BDT-110 Blu-ray Disc Player
Pioneer Elite DV-45a SACD/DVD-A Player
Paradigm Monitor 9 v3 Speakers (2.5 way floorstanding)
Paradigm CC-290 v5 Center Speaker (3-way)
DIY Subwoofer- Dayton Audio RSS460HO-4 18" subwoofer in 2.8 cubic foot sealed enclosure

Downstairs: (man cave)
*UPDATE* The man cave system has been disassembled, for now. HTPC; Intel i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, 1TB Hard Drive, etc
HRT Music Streamer 2 external Asychronus USB DAC
Emotiva Mini-X a100 amplifier (50WPC @ 8 ohms, 80 WPC @ 4 ohms)
DIY Mandolin Speakers (SB Acoustics components, DIY crossover)
DIY Dayton Audio RSS315HF-4 12" Sealed Subwoofer

The Downstairs system to me is really great. The quality and clarity of the midrange and treble is superb. I need to get the basement finished to fully appreciate this system, as the open design doesn't reinforce the bass well. But overall it's a pleasure to listen to music on this system.

What is this blog about?

What is Sound Enthusiam?

This is a blog to document my ventures into Home Audio and Home Theater. It will probably delve into DIY stuff quite a bit, as I can be both frugal and somewhat handy. DIY allows me somewhat of a creative outlet as well.

I hope to document speaker builds, sub builds, home theater setups, and possibly a "theater room" we are hoping to build.

Current builds in Progress:

Dayton RSS460HO-4 18" Sealed Subwoofer build, approx 4 cubic feet.
Status: Almost ready for paint

Mandolin curved cabinet floorstanding:
SB29RDC 1 1/8" Ring Radiator Tweeter
SB17RNCX 6" Paper/Reed Cone woofer
Crossover design by Jeff Bagby:
Status: Fully assembled but needs a lot of finishing work and stands.