For lack of a better title, tonight I have a great story to tell you and it has a really strong lesson we should all take to heart regarding sound quality and equipment.

I've been working since June of last year on my Zen Wood Shop and have just about completed the interior which I have been working on all through the Holidays. During the work on the interior walls which has been taking many weeks, I have been enjoying my 1970's wooden AM/FM stereo radio setting above the door.  It is a single-ended 1.4 watt solid state amplifier with zero feedback and a crossover less full range paper-cone 4 x 6 speaker.

The Radio has always been impressive sounding, and I have no doubt I am handicapping it by not having a good antenna for it. The wood shop is a steel-skinned building so short of mounting an antenna on the roof, reception is less than perfect.  Nevertheless this radio still sounds amazing.  The frequency balance is literally perfect, and it has great weight and tone. The speed is also amazing, and over the past month I have been musing at how good the drum kit sounds on virtually all the 70's rock music that the particular station I listen to plays.  

As I work my way around the room, the sound continues to get better. I have 2-1/2 of the four walls done so far. The walls have diffusion and absorption in them disguised as built-in shelves which wrap the entire space... so with that back story, you can understand my mind shifting to getting a real stereo in there even though frankly I am so impressed with the sound of the radio in this space that I could easily just live with that.

So yesterday I decided to drag a pair of my of my Sansui speakers from Japan out to the shop, put each one on my shoulder and climb up to the top of an 8 foot step ladder and then slump them onto the beams nine feet above the floor.  It was a serious balancing act... twice.  These speakers weigh around 65 pounds ea.  They feature 16 inch woofers in large walnut acoustic suspension enclosures.  Something just told me they would sound incredible out there.

My plan was to take the EICO out there and because it is a receiver with an AM/FM tuner, I can replace my favorite radio by having the EICO drive the large Sansui speakers.  Seems reasonable right?  If you are not familiar with the EICO, you really need to stop here, and read my recent post about it.  You can read it here:  https://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl?num=1546487554

So now that you know how good the EICO sounds, paired with these speakers in the wood shop it should be just killer! I did listen to the FM section on the EICO while it was here in the listening room using my finger as the FM antenna and it sounded pretty damn good, certainly usable I thought.

I took the EICO out in the shop and hooked it up with a pair of ZSTYX speaker cable, connected the antenna from my favorite radio to it, and turned it on! The anticipation was to say the least tantalizing!

Right away it was obvious the tuner wasn't working well in the metal building with this antenna.  So I get it, the reception sucks, but at the same time, the sound coming out of the speakers is simply horrifying! It's SOOOOO bad! So lean, so broken, the radio simply kicks its ass. The radio has twice the hit, three times the bass, and even images better despite having the speakers in it only 24 inches apart instead of 10 feet!

Suddenly a strange reality set in, as I hooked this 70's gear up and tried to find a decent sounding station. I desperately fiddled that dial for a good hour or more pacing around the room trying to figure out why and or how it is even possible that the sound could be this bad!!!!  It was BAD.

Had I purchased all this stuff from a garage sale and brought it home and hooked it up in my garage and it sounded like this I would realize it is junk and through it away. Keep in mind that in the listening room, the pots and switches were smooth and scratch-free and the sound was liquid, dense, rich and glorious! Now in the shop, trying the use the tuner in this EICO receiver, the balance control didn't work well, and was scratchy, everything seemed like it was something you pulled from the garbage and was excited to see it worked, but then immediately bummed because it sounded so bad it was unusable.

After hanging the antenna outside the building, and finding the best sounding station I could, I listened to it for 26 minutes before I couldn't do it anymore. I connected the antenna back to my favorite radio and turned it on and presto, there was the glorious sound I loved.

I went back to the drawing board wondering if one of the speakers were partially blown or if the receiver had taken a crap since the night before when I was compelled to write that post about how great it sounded!

As darkness fell (about 5 PM) I looked at the speakers and the receiver stuck up there and thought to myself... what a waste. What a distraction! I didn't build this damn shop to have more audio related troubleshooting stresses or distractions. In fact the reason for the shop is to escape DECWARE for a bit and have a more balanced life. Hell, I think I'll have the boys take the speakers down on Monday, I liked the simplicity of the simple radio above the door and enjoying music without thinking about equipment.

While I knew I would have to bring a real source out there and see what was really going on sonically with the amp and speakers and room, I seriously almost decided not to even bother.

I was so mortified by the sound that came out of the speakers I was offended. I was mad at the speakers and mad at the tuner, still holding out that this incredible sounding EICO was still actually fine, unless I somehow partially toasted it?  See, that's the problem with solid state.  Still, I ran undersized fuses on each rail for the outputs so there is really no way it could get hurt.

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So fast forward to tonight. I decided after dinner to take a ZCD240 out there with a good pair of cables and see what was really going on. Is it possible all my calculations for the acoustics were that far off, or that the speakers that sounded fine before I took them out there somehow took a shit?  We're going to find out.

I hooked up the source to the amp and to the internet so I could access... well... everything. I was apprehensive because before with the tuner, besides sounding like worse than crap, the sound was coming out of the boxes and unless you stood exactly between them with literally less than 2 inches of movement, the image would launch to the left or right speaker.  God, what if that happens again?  

I wonder if the internet will work out here... so many things to go wrong,..

I connected everything and the ZCD240 auto started, connected itself to the internet, immediately started streaming Linn Radio at 320bps and I almost fell off the ladder!  Yes, to adjust the stereo, setting on top of the left speaker 11 feet over the floor, you have to stand on the top of the step ladder. I'll probably get a ticket in mail for going past the recommended step sticker on the ladder.. Why, you ask?  Because the worse sound I actually ever heard in my life exploded into some of the very best sound I've ever heard in my life. The gap between the two was so great it disoriented me, and still has me tripping really hard!e

The sound and the imaging and the way it interacts with the space, the room is now incredible and in less than 30 minutes, I heard and experienced things that I have never gotten to happen in the listening room, that's for sure!  Simply amazing how different rooms sound so different.  In the wood shop, unlike the listening room which is concrete, I built a fully suspended 16x24 foot floor with no posts or blocking under it, so it's like a large ultra stiff drum head.  Feeling the music come up through the floor is intoxicating.  The bass in so good and so deep.  The speakers are connected to the main beams which transfer the energy into the structure letting you feel the sound a micro-second before you hear it, because sound travels through solids faster than it travels through air.

I had to rip myself away because the sound was too good... like quicksand. Get out while you can.

Literally at 2:00 P.M. today I was ready to trash the whole thing, and had accepted that for whatever reason the speakers I thought worked perfectly and sounded great are junk, and the receiver is worthless as a radio.  I was right about the receivers tuner, but OMG was I ever wrong about the speakers, the room, and the potential of the sound out there. It is at least 5 times better than I imagined it could be or thought it ever would be. I think the Audio Gods are out there chillin right now!

So the moral of the story, is that a dream stereo sonically exceeding your most generous exceptions can sound like something you pulled out of a dumpster that doesn't even work right.  DON'T PANIC!  In my younger years the speakers would have found themselves on the burn pile. I got pissed off at a Wicked One subwoofer once because it didn't sound right so I took it out in the yard and set it on fire.

I'm not suggesting any of you are that un-hinged, but I know all of us have heard horrifying sound come of things that we expected to be WAY better. How many times did we just say screw it and start over with something else or just by a boat? Don't go buy a boat!  

It will be fun to see the faces of those who heard a stereo out in the wood shop at Decfest when it was under construction with one wall open to the outdoors! No one who heard that will believe in their wildest dreams the sound they hear in there now.  When I lock it up for the night, I realized that anyone with a back yard of any size, could build this building for 20 grand with the stereo in it. Yet there are MORONS spending 20 grand on power cords in makeshift listening rooms in their homes! It's a really sobering perspective.

Boy, it's such a thrill to hear great sound in my new shop!  I set the stage from the beginning with the design so it could happen but certainly didn't expect anything wonderful actually would happen, in fact my goal was damage control with the hopeful end result of having something listenable.

In the ZCD240 was left what has become my favorite CD of all time, given to me during the DECFEST by Randy of Caintuck Audio... a compilation of his favorite songs. On it was I think track 3, the hippo track that set a new record for bass in the listening room and it was simply incredible out there in the shop. Then the last track which is Borris Blank, there is a part where a bass note is dropped that went through my chest and then made the whole floor shudder which in turn got me off so hard I had to walk around in circles for about 5 minutes just to process it!  Thanks Randy : )





Steve

Steve,
Great story man!  Your journeys - pains, frustrations, humor, excitements, and gratifications included - ring all too familiar with many of us here on the forum.  I really appreciate your candidness - it is both entertaining and motivating.  This is a complex hobby if done right and there are so many things that can go wrong, many of which are obscure and unintuitive making it that much more difficult to solve. But do be honest,  I think the challenge is what keeps us all in the game.  

Anyway, your woodshed project is very interesting and I hope to pay it a visit in the near future.

Wonderful story! I love this sort of thing.

Here is some interesting bass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o81A31hlgEA
Bulgarian male choir with musical low notes.

Brian

I will post the construction pictures that I currently have of the wood shop here and then we'll add to those later in the coming summer : )

I will say that it passed the ultimate winter freeze test when last week we had -21 degrees F temps for two days.  I was able to get it up to 60 degrees with the help of the sun coming through the 4 x 8 foot window on the south side.  Heat source is a small 240V 15 amp electric heater and supplemental small propane heater...  you gotta love that!  

Also, my hats off to the horses which I watch all day out the shop window.  I built the shop 18 inches from the horse fence and the large pasture behind our house so I watch the horses constantly as I am out there.... I feed them apples through the window and at other times have Zen meditations on how a life form can stand in one spot for over an hour and stare at a pile of its own shit without moving or getting board...  But hey, those bad-ass apple-eating friends of mine stood out there in the negative 21 degree temp (not including wind shill -50F) and didn't even show any signs of distress.    I was distressed watching them trying to wrap my head around how good fir must actually work..

I'm sure your shop got even colder than that up in Minnesota where you're located!  Of course just days before this when it was only around 3 degrees, my well broke.  I'll be glad for spring.  The only good thing about -21 is that when you fall on the ice you bones are cushioned by the three p airs of pants you're wearing!

Steve

LR

You can see most of the shop in the back ground of the pictures posted in "Corner Horn Build (#2)" thread in Decware Corner Horn  speaker forum.

Its 16x24 with a 20x24 double garage attached for an overall 36x24 building that I built around 1985.  There's a pit in the garage portion for getting under cars to work on them, as wall as moveable plastic curtains that can form a 6 x 20 spray paint booth.


Dan