S.E.O.S.R. MEGA BUILD - Page 7

Lots of action today, thank you gentlemen!!

I think the suggestion that Mark makes, which is the same as the original plan Matt and I intended, is likely what I will do as far as number of surrounds is concerned... Two sets of sides and a pair of rears, for a total of 6. I will try to get a rough diagram up tomorrow as well. As others have said, I am hiring folks to help..Dennis Erskine for one, and Mark to calibrate and setup with me if time allows him. I could, in all probability, build three moe sentinels to use as surrounds and be totally happy, but then I'm nuts so you know that isn't going to happen.

The cost of surrounds doesn't bother me at this point, its more making sure I get the layout of them right and covering the room optimally. The only thing I am thinking about in my head right now from a savings standpoint would be to unload the 4594 in the surrounds and go with the 4550. In all likelyhood, I could do taht with the seos24/TD15M combo adn cross to 800hz or so and never know the difference but have saved $2500. I agree with Tux's assesment of the potential of the sos24, coverage is maximized. If we go at this thing and end up in a mess with surrounds, I can certainly experiment with other solutions and I'm sure there would be no shortage of folks on avs who would like a grat deal on some SEOS24/TD15M cabinets

I have admittedly not talked to Dennis in weeks and have to finalize my agreement with him. Construction at my house is just so slow. One day it looks like four weeks from complet eand the next day 8 weeks. The "bunker" will be poured soon, so I am waiting on that to give Dennis the exact dimensions down to the fraction, so layout treatment, etc are all optimized.

Erich, great news on the 24's , can't wait to see how they measure!

Coctostan, Mark, I tend to agre with you guys and woill likely stay with the larger format surrounds, just trying to get as much help as possible to ensure it goes as good as it could.

Matt, you've come to know me too well:D

HFguy, check out the BMS group buy thrad in this sectin, all the info is there for the buy. I can email you the list and info if you pm meyour email address

I am happy to do multiple rows now that I know we can implement them correctly. I know Erich is right about the size, I would be happy to use a 10" woofer and a coax in the surrounds, I just can't find a waveguide that seems to work well enough at a low crossover point and is smaller than the seos24. In the end, the room will be large enough that the size of the columns to hold the seos24 equipped surorunds shouldn't be totally out of wack. I think that the fact that the whole room will be basically black and we can use treatments, as instructed by Dennis of course, in between them and it should fit the room well. The columns will end up being about 12"deep and 25" wide, which seems big, but we'll see. I may mock one up to see how it looks. I am also hoping that in Dennis' design, I can recess them a few inches into the outside walls. In short Mike, I agree 100%, spending way too much not to go all out on the surrounds too:D

It's gonna be about 21w X 35L. Ceiling will be about 11ft at the lowest level and somewhere around a foot less for each of the additional two levels...I'm workimg with the builder now, before they pour the room and seeing if maybe we could eek out another foot or two in width. I have the excavator on site still, so it's just going to depend on the extra concrete cost at this point. I sent Mr. Erskine a note today letting him know where we were at and hopefully we will talk in the next couple of days to finalize the measurements.

I am going to talk with Dennis today, we emailed back and forth yesterday, but weren't able to talk. I will attach my primative scaled drawing today, but I think his plans will be much more of what you're referring to.


Makes perfect sense, that explaination makes it much easier to understand for me. Thanks for taking the time Mike. Hopefully the extra headroom we have will allow for ideal placement, if not, we will have to just get as close as possible.

I agree, I'm gald I have the opportunity to work with him!

Thanks very much for sharing your expriences Chris. I think that Dennis is going to give me a very good idea of what should be done and how, but am crtian that they surrounds will still need some tweaking to get perfect, or as close as possible. I think the general consencous is similar to your experience.

Let me just say, Dennis Erskine is the man! I just alked with him for over an hour about the plan and some of the details involved. We are going to firm up our agreement here in the next day or so, so I hope ot have more details to share soon! He has reassued me about the surrounds and the ability to tune the whole thing in a way that will make it all work out.

I am also looking into some other amps now...anyone have any experience with QSC's DCA amps?? They can be used directly with the dsp922 to delay, align, do the active xovers, etc..so they are apealing in that sense, but a bit more moolah...

I'm not married to the QSC stuff, just a suggestion Dennis had made today. There are plenty of eq/amp options out there for less. I did like the way the Dennis said that I can put a rack mount pc, dsp and the sac amps in the rack, access the parameters and have them continuously change active crossovers/ alignments etc all remotely
Edited by ChopShop1 - 2/21/13 at 5:38pm

LTD, I am thinking and thinking over your talk about the surrounds. I have two thoughts on this...

1. I know they use less extreme surrounds in commercial theaters much bigger. I could save $2500 or so by switching to the 4550 or even more by staying with the 360s for surrounds.

2. Most commercial theaters don't have anywhere near the quality that many of us on AVS seek in our audio adventures. I know that the SEOS24/4594 TD15M combo has output abilities way past my needs, but it will also offer sq advantages over many of the alternatives. This is the thing I can't get past. I can't help but wonder about those minute little differences that may be present with different options. There isn't much point in downgrading the woofers, as there is no really $$ savings to be had. I wonder what the performance would be like if I stuffed a 4550 in the seos waveguides and mated those to the TDs' with a cross around 800hz or so. It's hard to say without trying them I guess.

I'm gonna run through this with Dennis as well. I see your point completely, I just wonder if based on placement and room size, the horns could be made optimal. I looked into building something with ten inch woofers and Scan rev ring radiators for my living room...wondering if those work out well as surrounds too if the mega surrounds don't. I expressed all the ideas in my phone conversation with Dennis today and he didn't try to deter me from the mega surrounds, so that was promising.

Just to be sure I'm understanding correctly..it seems you are saying that although it would seem like maybe one of the 4550s or similar in the surrounds may not match as well with the mains as some think?? If from those relatively lower frequencies and up is of the most important for matching, it would seem to me that your thoughts on using the same 4594 in the surrounds as the mains, in the same horn, are similar to mine....it's worth the extra cost.

Thanks for the thoughts on the surround placement too. Cool idea, and it would also help in making the columns a bit nicer looking too.

No real news to share yet ladies and gents... Once the couple of seos24s that are coming early show up, we will have some measurements to share though. I am planning to order a couple of 18sound horns this week to try compared to the seos24 for the surrounds. If I can implement them well, they will certainly give the surrounds more flexability, placement wise. Any educated opinion on the XT vs the XR?? I like the XT personally, 60x50, useable down to 500hz, successfully implemented in existing desings. What thoughts do you guys have?

Actually, now that I really look at it...the 18sound horns are a few inches deeper than the SEOS24, so all I would accomplish is columns that are narrower, but stick out into the room more...eh
Edited by ChopShop1 - 2/26/13 at 12:51pm