# DIY 'upgrade' of Surround Sound



## GreenNeedle (10 Mar 2011)

Hello, maybe a little (or a huge amount   ) below most 'audiophile's in terms of tech specs but I was wondering if any guys here could give me some advice on the following:

I currently have a cheap DVD player plus the satelilite, Virgin box and PC plugged into the back of an old Aiwa NSX-D939.

Ok, so its really old.  I bought it in 1995 for £650 and it was the absolute bee's knees to me as it was my first pro logic system. (still is my first and only)  It replaced a 6 component massive Aiwa system with huge 2 way speakers back then and was an improvement at the time.

Still works pretty well although these days we only use it for the amp and Pro-logic capablilities really.

I quite like the sound it gives albeit we only have an 14ft x 14ft living room.

I am currently (on a very small budget of about zero) and thinking about selling the NSX minus speakers  (probs only a fiver or something on ebay and not the £200 someone thinks they can get on ebay at the moment. lol.)

We only use the amp and therefore I was wanting to replace it with something like a Denon AVR 1906 or 1907.  These seem to come up cheapish on ebay every now and again.  Another I have seen is the Denon ADV1000 which includes a DVD player.

Any opinions on these 3 options?  The DVD one worries me as we use a lot of DVD+R disks with home movies on them etc.  Also don't want any region problems because the wife sometmes gets DVDs in her own language from Portugal or Brazil.

Speakerwise I am wanting to keep the current aiwa speakers:
2 x SX-N939 - 60W - 6ohm - These are up near the ceiling in the front corners on top of furniture.
2 x SX-R210 - 40W - 16ohm - these are wall mounted high in the rear corners
1 x SX-Cc300 - 30W - 8ohm - this is wall mounted above the LCD (about 6ft up)
We don't really have it that loud.  Its a small room and we only turn the volume of the aiwa up to 1/5th of max at most which already shakes the walls.  Its quite a nice sound at the moment. lol.  The only downside being the problem I see asociated with Bose systems in that loud parts of movies are very loud and quiet ones not very loud.  Its a case sometimes of earthquakes followed by silence if you know what I mean.  Its fine for music though and I don't watch too much TV or Film so priority is on keeping a reasonable music setup going rather than making a home cinema experience.

The speakers are up high because of the 4 and 5 year olds who would yank them off the brackets given half the chance. lol.  I may look at chipping out a channel in the wall and concealing the speaker cables totally once I've finished the actual speaker project.

My first question here is would these Speakers be compatible with the Denon systems mentioned earlier?  Any different suggestions that come up cheap and are single small boxes?

The second thing is I want to 'rehouse' the speakers.  Black Ash and Black plastic isn't my cup of tea these days and I want to make new boxes and veneer them with natural coloured maple, lacquered over (including the front.) maybe even 1/2" radius rounding the edges. This will be for the surround and centre too.  Then finished with some silver (light grey in reality) cloth grilles held on by magnets.  the speaker side magnets will be set under the veneer.

Would it be best to just copy the internal dimensions of the current boxes or could I make some improvements by altering the shape/structure of the internals?  They have what is called a 'twin-duct' which to me looks like a crude attempt to make them look ported although in essence when you take the fascia off and the maindriver out this is just 2 small holes that are in the front of the box.  Not ports into the cabinet.  Just 2 x 1cm x 4cm holes flush both sides of the front fascia.

If I were to 'port' these properly would it improve anything and if so any suggestions on diameters and widths.

Also the mid and tweeter aren't open at the back.  they are connected together and screwed to the fascia from the inside then the actual front board where the main driver is screwed too has like a black plastic well sealing them off from the boxes airspace.  I can take some photos of this if it helps.

The mdf and veneer wouldn't be included in the budget as I have these already.

Thats it really for now.  I have no problem making boxes or veneering.  I am pretty used to veneering having done furniture for my house plus a couple of guitars.  The electric is a little different.  Its more a case of improving tha aesthetics rather than sound although I would like to at least maintain the current sound if it can't be improved upon without expenditure.

The budget I am setting for the Amp/AV is £40 however I know this may take a while to achieve on ebay. lol

Any thoughts?

Look forward to some positive replies here.  I expect there will be some negatives over the Aiwa speakers though. lol

EDIT:


Since I wrote this (yesterday 10th.  I decided to try out the CD player.  No sound, oh well I thought.  turned the telly on.no sound. lol  Must've nick nacked something inside the unit.  Will test the speakers later but in the mean time this means I am having to listen to TV/DVD through the TV speakers....Aaargh......That's like living in a personal hell after 20 years of not ever hearing a TV speaker.

So I've upped my AV busget to £100 inc shipping and the rescape will have to wait. lol.  The speakers will still remain however I may upgrade them some way down the road.

Any opinion on the AV/Amps I am currently looking at:
Denon AVR-2803
Yamaha HTR-5640
Yamaha RX-V350
Denon AVR-1906
Denon AVR-1907
Arcam AVR-250
Denon AVR-3801

This is by no means a definitive list.  It is purely from searching ebay and the sifting the good from the bad&Sony. lol

Regards
Andy


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## nry (4 Apr 2011)

May be hard to find, eBay had none, however I have the Yamaha RXV-359 amp (and speaker set, £200 all-in good few years ago now) and I can't say anything bad about it.

Full Dolby Digital/Pro Logic II compatibility, optical and analogue input, loads of other inputs for stereo input, it'll een switch up to 2 component inputs to a single component output.  There's also the next one up, the 459 but not sure on the main differences.

Whatever you choose, I'd ensure it has enough audio inputs to keep you going.  We've got ours with input from the Wii (RCA), Sky+HD (optical), Blu Ray (optical), TV (RCA) and a lead from our laptop (RCA) and it has plenty of connections left for any future stuff.


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## tonyg1 (18 Jun 2011)

i found this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/YAMAHA-DSP-E200-s ... 35b2392f7e

i think it could fit the bill.

i like my hifi's and prefer separates often from diferent brands in any one set up and yamaha are an excellent choice and i find this decoder is pretty cheap for the spec.


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## idris (19 Jun 2011)

I really wouldn't try to port your unported speakers. The box size will be designed to work with the drivers and porting them will change the way they work. If you do want to work out what port dimensions might be even remotely relevant you would need to know the frequency characertistics of the drivers and then get into some complicated maths.

I'd be wary of remaking the cabinets, but if you do, go for the exact same measurements. Even cheap speakers are precise sizes. 

If you can drop the speakers so that the tweeters are at ear height when you're sitting that will improve the definition with detail, especially in terms of placement within the sound field. 

(Sound is what info for a living, and what I studied at uni, but I'm afraid i can't give you any recommendations for equipment.)


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