My apartment setup

[Brandon Hartwick]

BTW nice tube monoblocks Brandon, those should be mighty fine driving the panels. Are they Class A or AB?

Best, RJ

Thanks, they really make the panels come to life compared to my much smaller Schiit Aegir. I'm running them in Ultralinear AB mode for about 120W each.

 

[Robert D]

They were like this when I bought them, I thought it looked funny though and figured they weren't sitting correctly. I moved them to the right height when I washed the panels.

Gravity will slowly pull them down again. Contact ML service for some "Stat Stops". Ron can help you. They even sent me mine free.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

Over the weekend I tried to fix my leaking woofer cabinets using gasket tape on the back panel and woofer hole. I also siliconed the power connector and front baffle holes.

After getting everything back together they still leak a bit. I'm going to try T nuts to bolt the woofer down since I can't screw it down as hard as I'd like. I'm pretty sure that's where it's leaking from.

 

[SomeGeoffGuy]

Did those capacitors make your Aerius sound better? Which ones did you replace? Also, have you ever tried putting some kind of sound absorbers on the wall behind the panels? I have Aerius in an area of my basement where they have to be close to the wall, and found putting some foam behind them made them sound clearer with even better imaging - guessing that they were getting some reflection right back to the panel.

Great setup!

-Geoff

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

Yeah the Clarity caps did make a difference but not as much as I was expecting. I replaced all the caps in the ESL panel section of the crossover, I've left the woofer alone for now.

I actually have 4 large GIK acoustic diffuser panels on the way that will mount on the wall behind the speaker. They're actually supposed to be delivered today but I'm not sure I actually believe that.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

My steel order at work finally arrived with my custom tube preamp chassis

These are chassis I'm building to replace the ones that came with my Dynaco power amps. These still need test fitting before I go further.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

I'm building a pre-amp to eventually replace my Schiit Freya +

So here we have a knockoff Conrad Johnson board from eBay, I'll eventually fill it with better parts. The 2 blue PCBs are an enormous PH16 tube phono stage kit that has the tube sockets soldered on the wrong side because sometimes you should ignore the instructions. Finally the volume is controlled by a stepped attenuator.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

I got a new amp and it's fantastic, this is a Jeff Rowland Model 1. Great sounding piece that comes with handles on the back so you can break down doors

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

So after waiting 4 months my order from GIK Acoustics FINALLY came in and I gotta say I'm pretty underwhelmed at the quality of these things. Not a single one of them has the face screwed on straight, 2 arrived with dented corners, the fiberglass batting inside bulges out the back so they don't sit flat against the wall, the screws aren't all in the same place. For $800 Canadian I honestly expected better quality for something so simple, I won't be a return customer.

I have them mounted on steel stands as my wall is cement and these panels have no backing so I can't use 2 sided tape.

 

[Robert D]

They look nice enough. How do they work for the sound?

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

They look nice enough. How do they work for the sound?

They do look nice, especially in photos. They seem to make a noticeable difference but I still need to do a sweep with room EQ wizard to really see what's going on.

 

[MisterB]

So after waiting 4 months my order from GIK Acoustics FINALLY came in and I gotta say I'm pretty underwhelmed at the quality of these things. Not a single one of them has the face screwed on straight, 2 arrived with dented corners, the fiberglass batting inside bulges out the back so they don't sit flat against the wall, the screws aren't all in the same place. For $800 Canadian I honestly expected better quality for something so simple, I won't be a return customer.

They do look very nice. I like your choice of scatter pattern. I went with gatsby arches and kind of wish I had gone with something different. Your quality control experience was very similar to mine. I had to request that they resend new scatter plates because every panel on the 4 corner bass traps I ordered had some kind of damage. If you haven't already, you should contact them and do the same. They should make it right.

 

[LJSki]

Exact experience with the GIK. I contacted them and they shipped new faces for all of mine quickly. ...has made me re-consider ordering again.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

I live in Canada so I'll be surprised if they send new ones free of charge. They're not terribly dented so I'll probably just leave them.

I'm more just salty because these cost me a good chunk of change for what I got in return.

 

[hillbilly]

I had the same issue with some of my GIK panels also. It appears the screws on the faceplates were over tightened.
GIK sent me new faceplates right away at no charge.
I built a couple of shadow boxes with the old faceplates and installed LED lights which are able to change colors and intensity.
They don't affect the sound, but add ambiance to my wood stove

 

[Robert D]

I had the same issue with some of my GIK panels also. It appears the screws on the faceplates were over tightened.
GIK sent me new faceplates right away at no charge.
I built a couple of shadow boxes with the old faceplates and installed LED lights which are able to change colors and intensity.
They don't affect the sound, but add ambiance to my wood stove

Awesome! Looks really nice.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

Well last night apparently one of my cats decided to use one of my woofers as a scratching post (I didn't have the mesh grills on) so that's kinda disappointing. They usually don't even go near the speakers so it's frustrating, I'll know better next time.

On the bright side I have never been happy with the bass performance from these speakers so it gives me an opportunity to do what I've always wanted. Go active XO with upgraded woofers.

Currently inquiring about a few different Crown Class D amps with a bunch of DSP and crossover capability. I'll likely be making a decision in a few days.

 

[Brad225]

So sorry to hear of the cat action. Is it shredded or can you hot melt glue the holes to seal them?

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

So sorry to hear of the cat action. Is it shredded or can you hot melt glue the holes to seal them?

The woofer is probably salvageable but it looks like hell, I'll see the marks everytime I look at it.

I started a thread on DIY Audio asking about replacement woofers. The guys over there are pretty good at this kind of thing so hopefully I can come up with a solution.

 

[Robert D]

The woofer is probably salvageable but it looks like hell, I'll see the marks everytime I look at it.

I started a thread on DIY Audio asking about replacement woofers. The guys over there are pretty good at this kind of thing so hopefully I can come up with a solution.

How will you stop your cat from doing it again? Can you keep him out of that room?